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Greetings from Ireland! Clare Island, to be exact. 
Day 1/2
Left steamy Toronto on Air India for London. Fun flight. The potable water system was broken on the plane. UK immigration was no problem, unlike some other Canadian artists' experiences... actually, Allison Crowe's experience, thoroughly documented on her website, comprehensive advice from Tina at T&S immigration and Todd at Vortex Jazz saved us from a similar fate...
http://www.allisoncrowe.com/press/09060201.html
Spent the day in London fighting jetlag and trying to locate a pub.
 mrrrh...glrrbh
Day 3
Concert at the Nehru Centre. 
Lovely venue, and a healthy audience...CD sales were brisk. We will have to rely on download cards for the latter part of the trip. 
Rented gear from the Drum Shack...appreciate Long and McQuade Canadian people....it's not so easy to rent gear elsewhere. ZeeTV http://www.zeetv.com/ filmed the show for broadcast across Europe. Thanks to Paul for the publicity work. Thanks to Tobias, Ulli and Julie for all their help organizing this tour!
Day 4
Travel from London to Westport, Ireland.
This was fun. Because we have much luggage, taking the superbudget airlines (RyanAir etc) is not an option (ticket price: free; luggage price: 5 Euros per kilo...uhh...ouch) 
So, we took the sail-rail route. It started at 5:30 am with a taxi ride from our hotel to the train station, where we listened to Errol Garner, and the cabbie memorably said "without music, there is no life". Train from Euston Station, London to Chester (2 hours), leaving us 14 minutes to catch the next train from Chester to Holyhead (2 hours). Short hike to Irish Ferries, and a 2 hour crossing (a slightly rough crossing, I might add, but on a large boat) to Dublin (boat video). Cat, who looked like Santa, drove us to Heuston Station, where we left our luggage, then headed to Ryan's pub for the inaugural first pint of Guinness.
We then boarded a train for Westport (3.5 hours) and were 'entertained' by a rather inebriated gentleman whom we dubbed Seamus O'Cider, after the cans of peach cider he was drinking. It was an unfortunate stereotype.
Day 5
We took another ferry, smaller this time, across the water from Westport to Clare Island. This was a rougher ride.... 
Video! (we're gonna need a bigger boat) We were greeted by Christophe, who gave us a ride to Domenic's place, the house we stayed at 2 nights ago, and then to their house (which also doubles as a Yoga retreat). We ate an awesome meal, completely grown in Ciara and Christophe's garden, then got ready for our evening show.  Ciara and Cristophe's house
You know it's a multicultural experience when the yoga instructors are originally from Toledo and Paris, the organic gardeners are German, the cook is Japanese, the clients of the yoga retreat come from all over the world, and they're in Ireland listening to a Canadian band playing Indo-jazz fusion!
Day 6 Workshop at Clare Island Community Library.
This was a children's workshop, although a number of adults attended.  Suba and Maude (our hosts' daughter) 
We moved into our own cottage and caught up on internet.  our cottage In the evening, we attended the biggest event of the year on Clare Island: Big Fat Mamma's Extravaganzia! Local bands (and one from Cork) performing for an exuberant, youthful crowd at the Bayview Hotel (which, ironically, isn't a hotel at all).
Day 7 We have a performance at said hotel this afternoon. B.F.M.E! has attracted lots of people from the mainland, so we're promised a large (if slightly hungover) audience.
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