Michael Wurl is my buddy. He and his parents, Gary and Jennifer Wurl, are member of Lifepath and very involved in the life of the church. He's now about 23 or 24 and I guess I've known him about 11 years.
Michael has always been a bit of a character. He recently graduated from chef school and he must be pretty good at it. He has just gotten a job to be an executive chef in Nigeria at a five star hotel. He'll be leaving in January and gone for the next year. I'll miss getting together with him and playing video games.
But if you ask Michael what he really wants to do, he'll tell you he wants to be a pirate. He just called me from Ireland where he has been doing a cooking internship. He announced that he had made the national television news and the national paper.
You can read the story on the Irish Times website found here. But I'll go ahead an post the text:
Student's sea paddle prompts rescue operation
An American student sparked a full-scale rescue today after paddling a mile-and-half out to sea in a tiny boat to photograph a lighthouse.
The man in his 20s, who is taking classes at the famous Ballymaloe Cookery School in Co Cork, set off in rough conditions from nearby Ballyandreen, using a stick as an oar.
The RNLI lifeboat crew at Ballycotton said the Texan would have lost his life in the choppy waters if he hadn’t been spotted by a local fisherman.
“A major tragedy was definitely on the cards,” said eagle-eyed Redmond Lane Walsh who saw the 10-foot punt, a half mile off Ballycotton Island, in the Atlantic.
“If he hadn’t been rescued when he was, there would definitely have been a bad outcome. No-one knew where this guy was and they wouldn’t have known if he was missing.”
Lane Walsh, a fisherman and RNLI volunteer, noticed the boat as he walked along the Ballycotton pier and quickly alerted his RNLI crewmates.
They launched the Austin Lidbury lifeboat, which took just 15 minutes to reach the frightened sailor, who was being pulled further out to the ocean.
“When we got to him he had no oars, no flares, no mobile phone, lifejacket or safety equipment and nothing to bale out the water,” said Mr Lane Walsh.
“The wind was picking up and the waves were building so the boat would have floundered. There was no way in which he could alert anyone to let them know he was in trouble.”
Apart from some seasickness and shock, the hapless visitor was uninjured and made his way back to his hotel.
“People need to use their heads and not treat the sea lightly,” warned Blathnaid Lane Walsh, RNLI spokeswoman, who is also Redmond’s wife.
She said the rescue highlights the invaluable work done by the Ballycotton RNLI as it celebrates its 150th anniversary this year.
PA © 2008 irishtimes.com
Michael, I love you but you need to stick to cooking. No more adventures on the high seas!
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2 comments:
It appears that the position in Nigeria is nothing more than a money laundering scam, referred to as a "419", the first trigger was that they needed money to get some paperwork going; the next step would be to obtain bank information which would result in draining the account. In addition, we have not been able to obtain any information regarding the hotel, which we found very strange. So needless to say this position is no longer in the cards, Mike decided it was way too risky for even him to consider!
Mike does have 12 interviews set up when he gets back to Houston. He gets home on Mon. Dec.15 and we are definately looking forward to having him home for Christmas.
He continues to apply for chef positions around the globe. I have no doubt that he will eventually work somewhere either on a private yacht or tropical location.
He's a character all right...but his heart is as big as his curiosity. Not to mention, he is an incredible chef and I am not saying that just cause I'm the mom. The kid really can cook!
Well, I'm glad he's going to be in town for a while. Get him to make us a parfait.
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