While Stocks Last

When we were on the road, 10 years ago, I wrote almost every day. As a consequence, most times I sat down in front of the laptop, the sentences flowed naturally and easily. So please bear with me...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2017/12/ten-years-gone.html

This is the first in a series of who knows how many (probably one) that highlights everyday objects that one might find here in Italy but not where I come from (or vice versa). There are two ki...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2010/05/foreign-objects-part-i-bidet.html

It's been so long since I've blogged here that it's pointless picking up from where I left off. It's been more than eight months since our move to Cagliari, so I'm going to jump straight in and t...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2010/04/where-was-i.html

No less than 6 weeks have passed since we rolled off the ferry in Porto Torres and officially began to call Sardinia 'home'. The last 2 of those weeks I've spent back in Cork for work. My complet...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2009/08/badly-behaved-children.html

We have just spent our 5th night on the road: one night on the ferry to France, one night in Brittany with our friends the Crowleys (who we believe might still be our friends after our departure ...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2009/07/qf.html

It's our last evening in Ireland. Yesterday, the cut-rate courier arrived at our address to relieve us of 8 boxes of our worldly goods. He arrived late - hours late - emitting, as one English p...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2009/07/casting-off.html

Over the last few weeks, I've been asked 'Are you packing?' more often than a buyer at a drug deal. The answer until now has always been 'no' (leading naturally to a quick frisk, just to make sur...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2009/07/cardboard-boxes-and-metal-hearts.html

I'll regret this. Probably not as much as you, but I will regret this. I'm going to open this blog up again. It has been more than eight months since we got back from our around the world trip. ...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2009/03/life-part-ii-back-on-bus.html

The first political idea I ever remember absorbing, when I was very young, was that history moves in cycles. The idea came straight from my mother, and because it became so deeply ingrained, I've...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/09/in-defense-of-optimism.html

Today I was trading notes with a friend who spent some time in New Zealand. Before ever we left, he and I had talked a little about his time there, spent exclusively on the South Island. Interest...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/09/half-world-away.html

I'm a man of my word - a few too many words if truth be told. Back in Chile I promised the kids that on our return to Cork I would invest in a game of table soccer (or taca-taca as the Chileans h...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/09/family-recreation.html

I've started translating Letizia's Italian blog into English. She started out trying to maintain two blogs, one in each language, but this didn't survive the demands of packing and travel. If you...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/another-point-of-view.html

I posted a couple of months back about another family, based in the US, that planned to sell up and travel the world for a year. Well, the Cooney family have taken off, just 5 days after the Lawl...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/cooneys-world-adventure.html

If you ask Nina what were her favourite places we visited, she would answer Sydney and Cusco. Nina and I are very alike. It's been two weeks since we left Cusco, and I haven't yet blogged on the...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/navel-gazing.html

Now that we're back, and we know how much we actually spent (as opposed to what we had budgeted for) I can publish the finances for the trip. I've taken out some details - in particular the home ...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-much-did-it-cost.html

A 4-minute tour of the world, to the music of New Zealand band Shihad (the song is called Vampires and it was playing a lot when we were there). It might take a while to load - best to let it loa...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/8-months-in-4-minutes.html

I spent the first 24 hours back in Cork debating with myself whether I was dreaming I was home, or whether the last 8 months had all been a dream. Five days later, I have not yet come to any firm...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/was-it-worth-it.html

Tonight is the last night. I can scarcely believe it. I know that I have said in previous posts that I was ready to come home, but it seems we have barely arrived in Buenos Aires and now it is al...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/last-tango-in-buenos-aires.html

Remember the Black Babies? If you are of a certain age (and perhaps Irish) then you will remember being told as a child that the Black Babies were starving in Biafra and you should be ashamed of ...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/cusco-and-bambini-di-peru.html

It's a well-known tip: when you want to see if the turbulence you've just hit really was something to worry about, you look into the face of the air staff. If they look unhappy, then you should b...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/suspending-judgement-in-lima.html

Since arriving in South America, every time the girls have been tempted to buy something, we've told them to keep their powder dry until Cusco. We've picked up small things here and there on the ...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/pisac-ruins-budget.html

Livia, my mother-in-law, thanks to her good works and excellent connections in Cusco, was given free bed and breakfast with the Carmalite nuns on Plazoleta San Blas, less than 5 minutes walk f...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/heidi-carmelites-and-potion-of.html

I was named after my uncle the priest. At the time, Father Brendan was blazing an ecclesiastical trail in the US, hotly tipped (at least within our family) to be the first Irish pope. The reasoni...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/driving-parish-priests-car.html

It has finally begun. One of the reasons we went to China first, rather than last, was to avoid the Olympic Crush. Now that the games have commenced, I feel a little nostalgic for Beijing. If you...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/back-in-prc.html

I can say three things in Spanish: I would like to rent a car. Completely useless as I have no plans to hire one in South America. May I pay with a credit card? Completely pointless as almost no...

http://whilestockslast.blogspot.com/2008/08/ojo-la-mierda.html