S202412 Ep10: Paul O'Mahony in kitchen with "CHILE, SPAIN, SWEDEN, IRELAND & HYDE'S". #DecPodPoMo Day 10/31

From Cork With Love - by Paul O'Mahony @omaniblog

This was recorded on 10th December 2024. Paul with Gustavo & Corrine in kitchen

Paul:

Oh my goodness, what a treat. I'm sitting in my kitchen drinking coffee with this amazing couple. By the way, they're not a couple but an amazing two people who come to carry a sofa out of my house before my wife comes back here. what is this man Gustavo, born in Chile - I have no idea how long he lived there - took himself off to Sweden to study industrial design. Can you believe he comes to Ireland in the middle of his studies, and what does he do? He goes and works in Ballymaloe, the very famous slow food destination in Ireland, the most famous in terms of Irish quality food. What does he do there? Instead of becoming a behind the scenes Chilean and Swedish chef, he becomes a nanny. (I'm about to introduce you to him in a second.) Next he takes himself off to muck out horses in Hyde's Equestrian in Cork. I have the owner of Hyde's Equestrian here with him, but first of all Gustavo welcome to Ireland.

Gustavo:
Thank you
P: You know you have to talk because people want to listen to you, and they're used to me. Tell me how do you feel about drinking coffee in my house?
G: It's all an adventure. Getting to know different spectacular kinds of people. I feel great in Ireland. I feel it's like home in a lot of senses of the life like the weather, the houses, the smells. Yeah in my home it rains all the time. I'm from the mountains, so it's really windy and cold, there is snow too, and you have rain.
Paul: You've completely confounded my image of Chile, the seaside South America.
Gustovo: They believe it's really hot weather there. Every place it's not like that. You have imagine we have a whole different kind of weather in Chile. Because it's so long, we have desert, we have Mediterranean weather, extreme weather, cold weather in the South, and in the mountains you have really tough weather too.
P: How long would it take me to drive from the extreme north of Chile to the extreme south, driving eight hours a day or anyway you want to measure it?
G: Maybe three days or two days.
P: Could I sleep on the way?
G: Of course, but if you want to stop and really get to know Chile, maybe four or five days.
P: We've just met for the first time, if you knew me better, you'd realise that it would take me a month to get from the top of Chile to the bottom because I am a person who loves to stop.
Why industrial design?
G: Because first I love architecture but wasn't good enough for the maths. so I started with that sign Yeah hard to study Sheila and I was good at, and was the first in my class the first two years. I won a scholarship, and came to Europe, to Spain, to study at University of Girona.
P: That's where one of the most famous restaurants in the world was.
I want to ask why Ireland?
G: I don't know, it was a hunch.
P: Like an angel came in the night and said "Go forward to Ireland"?
G: Something like that.
P: I write poetry, and haven't used the word "hunch". I haven't even used hunchback. I wonder what's the connection between a hunch and a hunchback. Something to research - thank you so much.
How long are you staying in Ireland ?
G: Until December 22, so three weeks.
P: How did you ever come Hyde's, how did you manage that ?
Corrine:

Gustavo was on residency in Sweden. To comply with Visa requirements he had to leave Sweden and go somewhere else for three months or 90 days or whatever the Visa is. I have loads and loads and loads of cousins. One of my cousins is married to Ted who's Swedish. Gustavo knows Ted and knows his parents. They decided Gustavo would go to Ballymaloe to work for another cousin of mine Roche is married to Ted this Swedish and that he'd work for her brother Darren in Ballymaloe helping out with the kids. A few things just changed there and last week Darren rang me when I was rushing out the door. He started to tell me about Gustavo and I said "Send him up and I'll sort him out". We were up to our eyeballs with horses that needed to be looked after. Gustavo had no experience at all with horses - never even touched a horse. He rolled up his sleeves and dived in. I told him to spend the first day watching and learning because we hardly had time to train him. I said just watch watch watch watch and be very conscious of your safety. Now that the weather is a little bit better - he's absolutely fine and delighted to have him to help us out in the yard.

P: I wanna thank you and I'll tell you why. Both my wife & daughter come home in a better mood after being up in Hyde's.
C: That's fabulous, I'm delighted to hear that.
P: My wife has very very very busy job and there's a great contrast in her mood between coming home from work without going to Hyde's and coming home from work after Hyde's. It's a joy to me.
LOUD CAT SCREECH ...
P: Thank you both ever so much and it's a delight to drink coffee with you both there we are bye-bye".
(Transcription by Voice Record Pro - edited)