So much going on right now and this blanket is starting to grow in size and  i joke you not….thanks to the 3rd year students from Finn Valley College and transition year students from Deele College,The Royal….. Prior and Scoil Mhuire  from Co Donegal  as you have all done an amazing job….I’ve just got the photos printed this morning and my goodness this blanket  is starting to grow  that soon we may need scaffolding around it to take photos the next time….I just heard from Nicole and she tells me that the schools have raised a lot of money  to date and the money they have raised will go towards a charity of their choice…they decide and hand the final amount of monies they collect over to the charity themselves….its one less job for me thank goodness ….I believe it is going towards the  project involving the mental health week….Yipee. !

I’ve just heard from Roisin from Scoil Mhuire in Ballybofey and she tells me the same…that the students have raised much needed monies and this will go towards a local charity in Buncrana and that is music to my ears…its a great achievement to date from all of you….thank you so very much…

I Have just finished a meeting with Amelda Kirk from Drumragh Intergrated College in Omagh Co Tyrone last friday morning and she is wonderful…Their school is the latest school now on board  the Project and they are doing the word ”World”…I hope they can help some worthwhile  cause locally and i can’t wait to see the end result…thanks to you all  and to the principal Nigel Fritts.

I’m bound for New Zealand sometime in January  and i didn’t plan to cycle this country but like everything plans can change..I will spend up to three months helping the homeless and hopefully inviting some schools to participate in the project as they will  design and create a piece of Blanket with  a word on it….this piece will  eventually be  added to the other pieces around the World and hopefully make its way  to the London Olympics in 2012.

Then the big trip starts as i am bound for South America starting in Argentina -Chile-Paraguay-Bolivia-Brazil-Peru-Equador-Columbia-Venezuela-Panama-Costa Rica-Nicaryua-Honduras-Guatemala-Mexico-U.S.A. and  Canada.

I’ve got a month  now to try and raise enough money in Donegal to get me  and my bike to New Zealand..I’m also asking my aunt Joye to help me  write a letter to  New Zealand airlines asking them would they consider sponsoring or partly sponsoring my flight and i would be more than happy to wear one of their tee-shirts in a country of their choice…fingers crossed….anything can happen as i always say…Just trust paul mack that everything will be just fine.

keep you all updated soon…

Sorry guys for not updating the recent photos of everyone as i am looking for somebody to service the website from here on in as cave creative cannot service the site anymore…..I apologise for this and will do my best to find somebody to take over the job…thanks for the five schools in Donegal for the amazing pieces you all done and so much money you managed to collect for your local charity….I’m completely gobsmacked at the artwork and the speed you completed the project..it measures 46 ft x 9 ft and thank you once again…..also to the sixty police officers that got involved and signed it and all the media and school teachers and principals and off course Nicola and Ann marie for helping out so much….what can i honestly say guys….I have the photos here and if anybody out there knows of anyone that knows anything about websites and how to service them please write me an email and let me know….I can only wait in hope as i’ve got over three hundred photos to be downloaded under the Ireland section and i need some slight changes to the home page so fingers crossed…somebody out there must know somebody that doesn’t cost a zillion dollars to do a few hours work.

Live life to the full.

for it is but a passing moment.

Don’t dwell on making fortunes.

For you may miss the journey.

There are many peaks to be climbed…you may not reach any..then again you may reach some.

There are many creatures to be found…yet you can probably name but a few.

There are so many people to meet and not one is exactly like you.

There are so many things to do..and yet time is a valuable thing.

Enjoy life for it is a precious gift.

Help as many as you can and you will be happy.

Respect as many as you meet and let them talk.

Listen to all and judge not one.

Use you’re words wisely and kindly….then wait for the miracles !

If you’re reading this….it’s a miracle.

Enjoy life and its spendour delights…and remember my friend

It is only but a passing moment.

Enjoy

Paul Mack

written in newsletter no 2, 2007′

Thanks to Brian..Kevin and Jim at Inishowen community radio for the interview this morning in County Donegal..and thank you to Martin Gill for putting me up last night and for organising Scoil Mhuire and introducing me to Liam the principle…also for his time and for introducing me to the garda station in Buncrana to whom i believe could be as many as fifty police signing it for the suicide awareness in Donegal.

Thanks to Nicole sihera and Mary-Anne at finn Valley College in Ballybofey for organising three schools to date and hopefully we can get the pieces together for the 10th October for the Mental health awareness week…I’m also very greatful to all the businesses that have supported the cause in and around Donegal lately…hopefully  we can come together and try and reduce the number of young people committing suicide throughout Donegal.

Once again thank you

Paul Mack

I’ve decided to write about yesterday to give some of you an idea of what i am doing with myself on a day to day basis…its not always like this as we all know but i will give you a detailed account of my movements yesterday.

I’m woken by a thud and think its someone moving a keg downstairs….maybe it is and maybe it isn’t…I check the time and its 7.12 am….I remember Terry the owner telling me that i was the only one staying at The Village Court in Kilmacrennan Co Donegal…I get up and pull back the curtains and its raining slightly so i climb back into bed and snuggle up.

At 9.00 i awake and climb out of bed and would love a coffee as i always do but thats not going to happen as there is no coffee machine in the room and i’m the only person in the building…I jump into a shower and can’t seem to control the hot water button so i run the bath and wash myself quickly and then dress and start packing.

its near 10.00 am and i carry my stuff down to the reception area to where my bike is…fifteen minutes later i’m packed with my wet gear on and my wellie boots and i push the bike out the door to the rain…I’m bound for Letterkenny but i decide i better at least get one or two sponsors representing the wee town…I’ve got Terry Ryan and he gave me a bed and maybe i can find another one to make a donation.

I head up fifty yards to the Tasty Tucker and order a coffee…its a mobile food trailer that seems to be doing great business on the busy N 56….I had chicken and chips the night before and they threw in three bangers for when i only ordered one…I pay a euro for the coffee and light up a cafe creme cigar in the rain…I ask the name of the two girls working there if they are the owner and they aren’t…they say the owner Christine is on her way so i keep smoking and drinking my coffee in the rain…

I explain to the girls what i’m trying to do and they ask me to step in out of the rain but i decline as i want to smoke my wee cigar…Christine arrives within minutes and sponsors me fifty euro and signs the blanket..I take her photo along with Sheila and then i suggest to her why she doesn’t put a sing up saying she does fresh fish cooked daily from Killybegs…

I find out that a local man aged 78 yrs old committed suicide only a forthnight ago and this is all familar to me as i hear stories everyday of this….except i never heard of a person so old before…I’m baffled….as i’m about to say good-bye fifteen minutes later Christine father arrives in a pick-up and we get chatting about how bad the weather is and how its affecting his farming…this story is also a familar one to my ears..

Its 11.00 am and i’m off down the road and decide to stop in Millbridge to put my plastic bags around everything as it is now pouring rain… I hit the road and the rain is hitting my face hard so i keep my glasses on along with my helmet and my orange vest as i can be seen in the rain better with that…

Five kms outside the wee town i start a climb which lasts for about two kms….traffic is busy and i need a wee rest and notice a nursery alongside the road and decide to stop in looking for sponsorship but mostly to catch my breath….I introduce myself and he tells me his name is Paddy and has been there for 43 yrs…Ummh i think to myself….in walk two customers but they aren’t two customers but Paddy’s two sons…they must think i’m stark raving mad push peddling a bike loaded to the hilt in the rain and unstrapping my stuff so i can access my briefcase to try and get sponsorship….I’m dripping wet and twenty minutes later after the blanket is signed and the photo taken along with forty euro sponsorship i’m loading my stuff again and i start climbing the remainder of the hill…

The ride today is only a 10 km ride and the last two kms is lovely as i free wheel into Letterkenny…Now i’ve got to find a place to put my bike for the night as i have to take a bus to Donegal town…I remember meeting Dermot O’Donoghue the infamous photographer on the main street of Letterkenny town down in Tralee three weeks earlier with his lovely wife sitting outside having a pint and smoking a big cigar…he is one of my sponsors and a great guy and very good looking as is his wife Rosemary.

Anyway Dermot is glad to see me and he tells me he had a big night after i met him in Tralee…how does that not surprise me..?…..anyway he lets me put my bike which is soaking wet especially my gloves and sleeping bag etc into a small shed out the back…#

As i’m changing into a pair of jeans and am half naked from the waist down exposing my white bum a bloody van reverses up the laneway with me holding a sock up against my willie…”Just changing i say and thank goodness its a bloke”

I thank Dermot and hand him back the keys to the shed and am off with my briefcase to catch a bus to Donegal town…a sign says on the window at Bus Eireann that At lunch…back at 2.35 pm…as i stand there and listen to many grumpy people complaining about the service i decide to take a break and pop over to have some lunch as i have an hour to kill before my bus to Donegal town..

Ireland is an expensive country and a lunch is normally ten euro plus these days and i’m not surprised when she asks me for ten euro and ten cents….

I pay another fourteen euro to get to Donegal town and as i wait around smoking a cigar outside i meet several people to remind me over and over again how bad the weather is…when i eventually board the bus and sit behind a black man with a phone stuck to his ear the whole way down speaking in double dutch i wonder who he speaking to and where in the World…

The river takes my mind off the journey as we seem to be following it and its flowing fast with all the rain..one hour later i’m in Donegal town and the Black man has just got off his mobile phone….thank goodness i’m not paying for the bill…My first port of call is to use the internet and check my email…

Its 4.30 pm and then i decide to call over and see one of my team-leaders called Natasha Adams who runs the wee tanning shop….she is a real sweetie with her deep London accent…I see the gates closed and first impression is i think she is another casualty of the Irish downtown…I notice a sign saying she is on holidays and i take a deep sigh of relief…

I’ve an hour and a half to kill before going to see my aunt Joye at 6.00 pm so decide to go and have two pints of Arthur Guinness and smoke a few cafe creme cigars….its pouring rain and here i am sitting in the smoking area and beer garden out the back watching the rain teaming down and the river racing in almost overflow rage…its perfectly peaceful and i can’t help watching the wee red robin under the bush protecting himself from the rain….he’s looking at me and i’m looking at him….I often wonder what they are thinking of us humans..?

It’s 5.45 pm and i lick my lips and leave the pub and thank the barman…up the road i buy some more cigars and a soft drink and some sweeties as i know it could be a long night with my aunt Joye…She is in her mid seventies and is completely eccentric with her six house cats and as many wild cats outside…she is over intelligent and i mean that and has lived life to the full until she reached Ireland in the eighties and then her life seemed to deteriate to living in a house that one couldn’t describe as you nearly have to step over the cardboard boxes at the door covered in black plastic as they are suppose to be for the cats to sleep in…

Five mintues later i’m in a taxi for the 3 kms ride to my Aunt’s place and Brendan the taxi man assured me he will collect me in the morning so i can catch the 10.05 am bus to Ballybofey as i’m suppose to meet Nicole Sihera from the Finn Valley College and Maryann with the hope that i can secure their school to help out with the project.

At 6.01 i arrive at my aunts and joye tells me that im early and she is off to put her face on….fifteen minutes later she still hasn’t put her face on and i’ve been updated on the local and World news and i seem delighted…there is a pathway between junk and other things through two rooms that leads to the kitchen and the kitchen itself looks like is hasn’t been cleaned in ten years with chopping boards and cat food everywhere…she can’t open the freezer door as its jammed by the ice and their is a mountain of papers etc sitting in the middle of the floor resembling a tip…

In spite of these appalling conditions Joye is one of the most interesting people you can ever meet with her lifes experience and has had many people beat a pathway to her door but that has all changed nowadays as old age and bad health are all too evident…

I listen to her talk for almost four hours without taking a breath and we both have managed to watch Fair City to which im updated on the last six months whilst she sips her peace vodka and is feeling light headed…At 9.30 out comes a bowl of rice with meat balls and it tastes fabulous as always soaked up with a crusty brown roll…

The remote control is rarely out of her hand and i’m updated on shows i didn’t know existed until 11.00 pm

Its time for bed and i make my way to the best room in the house….the guest bedroom upstairs and as im about to fall asleep Joye walks in with some Vanity fair magazines for me to read…I show politeness and suddenly the phone rings downstairs and i’ve got to answer it as she is too slow to make it to the phone on time…

It’s midnight and the last i hear of Joye is calling the housecats by name and telling them to come inside as she has to dry them with the napkins she drys in front of the fire i managed to light earlier…

Joye is in bed when i rise at 7.00 am and the place is very peaceful as i let out the housecats…I have my coffee and some cigars and wait for Brendan the taxi man to come at 9.30 am…

As i leave i hear Joye mumble some words and she falls asleep again as i close the door behind me to greet another day in Paradise.