Operation Dublin

So Long, Farewell!

2011-12-22T16:59:00.004Z

On 8th October 2011 we boarded a plane headed back to the States for good. We had spent 5 years on the Emerald Isle. Well, actually, 4 years 9 months and 16 days which is also 1727 total days. That was a lot of days to be away from out families and miss out on birthdays, funerals, holidays and other celebrations.

We saw most of Europe. It is easier to count the countries we did not make it to. At the time of our departure I was 32 years old and had been to 32 countries. In the year 2011 I went to 12 different countries in 12 months. It was a busy final year in Europe.

Of course I had to keep traveling once I got home, but that is for some other place and time to tell those stories. So this wraps up our Operation Dublin.....thanks to all that have read this over the years! Raibh maith agat as léamh! Slán!

(The purple countries are the places Ben and I went together and Red are the ones that Mariah went to on her own)

As inspired by Dr. Seuss

2011-12-22T16:59:00.001Z

One door, two door, red door, blue door.
Black door, blue door, old door, new door.
Big door, dinky door, purple door, pinky door.
Dirty door, clean door, yellow door, green door.
Fancy door, Orange door, black door, strange door.
Brown door, faulti door, white door, multi door.
Say! What a lot of doors there are.

The history behind the brightly painted colourful doors is that after the death of Queen Victoria, England ordered the citizens of Ireland (which was still under British rule at the time) to paint all of their doors black in mourning of the queen. The Irish rebelled and painted their doors bright colors, and the tradition has stuck.

But I like this story even better: Women were tired of their husbands going in the wrong doors when they were drunk, going up the wrong stairs, into the wrong bedroom and sleeping with the wrong woman so they painted the doors different colours to help them distinguish between them.

It may seem like I may be a little obsessed with doors, but they are all different, and each on has great personal touches. Even the door hardware is beautiful and interesting. They have knockers, clangers, pullers, glangers, huge doorknobs, and my favorite of all; Lion Headed Door Knocker!

Final Goodbyes

2011-12-22T16:55:00.000Z

With our last week coming to a close it was time for final goodbyes. Along with some of those goodbyes were great gifts, like Dublin jumpers, friendship shamrocks and announcements of pregnancies. Three of them! We treated Sean and Celia to our favourite Korean dinner place where they told us they were expecting their own little bundle of joy! We were so excited for them! So come April 2012 their little one should make its first appearance to the world. Vinny drove me home one last time and let me know that him and his wife were expecting in March.

I also got to have a great dinner of fried chicken with Catherine and Edell at one of our favourite pop-up restaurants Cracked Bird. Yummy. It was great to get together one last time. Ruth was not able to make it since she got a job in Bristol and had started that day. Which was fantastic news!

Although it sucked working on 4 days a week from a pay standpoint, I loved working a 4 day week. One thing I will miss terribly was my nearly weekly coffee get togethers with Paul either in City Centre or out at the sea. I took it for granted that I could talk a stroll next to the sea anytime I wanted. I will also miss my chats with Paul.

With our time off, I also made Ben do all the touristy things I had left to do. We did the creepy wax museum. Good for a bit of history, but all wax museums creep me out. I keep expecting them to move and walk towards me. We also managed to do the Viking Boat tour in the pouring rain. We even wore the viking hats! We ‘ROAR’ed at the poor passerbyers, scaring a few Italian women. I felt bad about that one. The best part was when our DUKS went into the water in the Grand Canal Basin to see all the buildings there from a different point of view.

Ben has his own leaving party and lunch with his co-workers from his office. We got to pop in one last time so I could say goodbye to his team. His office was always cooler looking than mine!

I had one last meal with my Polish girls where I showed off my extensive vocabulary of a whole 8 Polish words. The word for yummy of course was the most relevant since Ania made another awesome meal! We shared a few bottles of wine with Daria, Ania and myself and had great chats late into the night.

I also hit up Cathy’s daughter’s, Lily Rose, first birthday. She is only a few weeks younger than Abe so it was great to see her and all her little one year old friends to try and gauge the size and development of the nephew I had yet to meet. I was the only one there not pregnant, with my child, or pregnant with my children. It was unlike any party I had ever been to, I was just glad there was some wine there since there was a lot of little babies!

Our final dinner was with Tori and Andrew along with his brother and a surprise visit with Tori’s friend Sue. It was a nice Cuban dinner. I know that is was not a forever goodbye since hoepfully we will see them down in LA.

I will miss my girls! I will miss my buddies! I will miss Ireland! Don’t worry, I did not see it all while I was there, so I will be back to see more. And to see some of those babies due in 2012! It may take me a while, but I will make it back.

OMP last hurrah!

2011-11-22T19:47:00.002Z

The day after we moved into Sean’s was my final OMP Leaving Do,

and sadly it was for me and for Niall. But I know I can see Niall again since he has a brother who lives in Portland and hopefully will come and visit! It was probably our most subdued event at Hogans but it was great to get the old gang back together. It was a great turn out and was happy and sad to say a final goodbye to my co-workers.

Hottest Day of the Year

2011-11-22T19:29:00.001Z

After putting in our notice to move back home, we decided to give them a couple months head’s up and end on the September paydays. Ben had a whole week off before me to clean and get things ready to move, and I only had the one day to help pack before moving. And wouldn’t you know it, the two hottest days, ALL YEAR, happened to be the two days we were moving. Mid 70’s may not seem that hot, but they are! Especially when there is no cross ventilation and we had to scrub every surface in our small 300 square foot apartment. We managed to fit all of our things to take on the place with us into 2 large suitcases, 2 medium suitcases and 2 duffel bags, plus our carryons.

Tullia took a few little bags of stuff as well as my pirate chest, Edell took a full car load of items since she was doing a kitchen extension and a few miscellaneous spices and whatnots for Sean and Celia. The cost of shipping was ridiculous so we had to fit it all into the maximum suitcases. Sean picked us after work and after a full car load to his house, we dropped off the big screen TV to Andrew and Tori as a parting Moore gift and that was the last of our stuff. Sort of strange to think our lives fit into just a few suitcases. And after all the moving with the hottest days of the year, we were in desperate need of showers to not offend our new housemates. Sean was nice enough to let us finish out our last week in Ireland at his place!

Strange Anomaly #75

2011-11-22T19:27:00.001Z

Hurricane Katia hit Ireland and England this year. I know, hurricanes, sounds like something that should only be in the Caribbean, but apparently ever 25-50 years or so a hurricane can loop back up and hit Ireland. The winds were crazy that morning. Why I even bothered to brush my hair, I will never know. The wind was so strong that I had to stand and lean into it to keep from blowing me over. ME! And I am not so tiny. Kids flew past my on their bikes being pushed from behind. Hurricanes, in Ireland, I never would have guessed it.

Portugal One Last Time

2011-10-31T23:28:00.001Z

For our last European trip, for a very long time, we had to visit Bruno and Marta one last time. They were spending their holidays down in the Algarve in Albufeira. Bruno’s family condo is near the Club Med da Balaia, so the beach was full of tourists, but with it being so late in the season, the beach was not as crowded. Bruno and Marta were shades of brown that I only achieved when I lifeguarded every day in the sun. Our lily white skin stood out in the crowd, that was for sure. We knew before heading over that it was going to rain, and boy did it! We played Catan (the board game), enjoyed some chats, went for walks between the showers and ate ourselves silly. I love seafood and we super-indulged with prawns, clams, crabs, “sea dinosaurs” which is the translation but we would call them Goose barnacles and fish. The best was the little snails cooked in a little garlic, oregano and olive oil. Yummy stuff! Of course ice cream was a must because even though it was raining it was at least warm. On our last day in the Algarve we got up early and lo and behold there was sun. We slathered ourselves in sunblock and headed down to the beach. As I have said before, they were brown, we were ghost white. After a few hours of laying in the sun, splashing in the Mediterranean, walking up the beach, we decided to move to the swimming pool since there would be less wind. That was when I noticed how red I was getting. Even though I had reapplied, I had originally missed a few places. My stomach, the tops of my feet and my knees were burnt to a crisp. Ben also burned in spots where we missed the cream. We headed back to Lisbon as the sun was setting to see their new apartment.

Any trip to Lisbon is not complete without a few pastéis de Belém. Luckily their new apartment is in Belém. After dinner we took a stroll down to get a few cakes before his family arrived to say hello to us. Their apartment is newly constructed in an old building not far from the President’s residence. They are placed very central! The following morning we went out for breakfast at Pastelaria Restelo which is known for its sweet and savoury croissants with ham and cheese covered in powdered sugar. Sounds strange but it worked! After filling ourselves we headed to the Large Jesus, like the Holy Redeemer in San Paolo, Brazil. We went up to the top of the base, to his feet which overlooked all of Lisbon. We even got to drive over the San Francisco Bay bridge twin. While on that side of the river we picked up more seafood for a final lunch feast with Bruno’s cousin, Daniel, whom we have meet on several occasions. Bruno made sure to teach me how he makes all his creations, so I can recreate them again! It was sad to leave our friends in Lisbon, but hope to see them in Portland next year!

Strange Anomaly #74

2011-10-31T23:27:00.001Z

I know that everyone must relieve themselves, and all over the world people will do it in the street, but then men here seem to do it more than anywhere else. The stench of urine in the mornings is not cool, on a daily basis in city centre. The worst recently was we were getting out cash at the bank machine and some guy pulling out his cash decided to pee right there. He was well dressed, on a very busy road, and had a queue of people behind him waiting to pull out cash too. Karen nearly stepped in it. We were in shock! Another time I have even seen four lads lined up together doing it in front of our neighbour’s door late at night. Wrong! If women have to hold it, why can’t the men. They seem to manage to do it in other cities?!

Happy Arthur’s Day

2011-09-22T20:00:00.001+01:00

Catherine and I each year celebrate Arthur’s Day with at pint at 17:59 (or as close as we can get) since Guinness was founded 1759. This year we had to celebrate a bit early and went to a secret little pub, Fallons, for some of the best Guinness in all of Dublin. The pub is one of the last that clean their own draught pipes and since so many customers order Guinness only, it tastes the purest and best. Catherine’s sister owns a pub, hence that little gem of knowledge. It was great to have one last Dublin celebration of Arthur’s Day!

My Fancy Architecture Project

2011-09-22T19:53:00.004+01:00

The Celtic Tiger ran away a long time ago, which is why as an architect, most of the projects I have worked on over the last 5 years have been put on hold, completely disregarded, or have been tied up in planning appeals for years. The one beast of a project I have been working on, which has been highly controversial, finally made it through planning after countless redesigns, changes, additions, alterations and clarifications. The links below best explain the history, with the RTE (the national news station) showing it on the 6 O’clock news! Ben may have had his project show up in fancy magazines, but mine was on the news! Not sure if or when it will be built, I am not going to speculate there, but there is satisfaction in knowing that I made something through planning and it has potential of being built!

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0916/dunnes.html

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0917/1224304267437.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0916/dunne-business.html

http://www.newstalk.ie/2011/news/permission-granted-for-re-development-of-ballsbridge-site-in-dublin/

Strange Anomaly #73

2011-09-22T19:53:00.001+01:00

One early Saturday morning, Ben and I trekked across town to go to our old breakfast place, Hobarts, in Ranelagh, because it has an amasing full Irish breakfast. As we were walking, we dodged the many 'sidewalk pizzas' left by the throngs of drunk people who wandered the streets the night before and got sick. As we walked, a young family walked towards us, and the smallest of the group, who was maybe three years old, slipped in one of the sidewalk pizzas, getting vomit all over herself. I would not have wanted to be her mother as we all stared in horror at the small child. Just one of the strange dangers of Dublin.

As a side note:
I do not do these strange anomalies to point out bad things about Ireland. I do love Ireland, they are just things that seem strange coming from an American.

Last Country Pub

2011-09-22T19:46:00.002+01:00

There are several pubs within Dublin County (that are on the outskirts of Dublin City) that I had already been to, except for one. The Blue Light. One of the women I work with, Sylvia, I have been teaching her all about Mexican food. Yummy things like enchiladas, burritos, empanadas, and more. For my parting gift she decided to take me on a trip outside of the city since she drives and knows I love experiences. Plus I would have no room in my suitcase to bring anything home with me. We had our fingers crossed for sunny weather even though it had rained all week, and sure enough, the clouds parted and we were able to have a nice pint out on the terrace overlooking Dublin and the Irish Sea. The pub is great with cozy fireplaces, live traditional music being played, good beer and great craic. The pub is a great old man pub, but there were still was a good mix of younger folk, families and the locals. It was too warm to snuggle in front of a fireplace, but I wish that I could have been able to make the trek up there in the snow since it would have been perfect. It is a bit hidden, so no tourist, and I was glad that I was able to squeeze it in. Since Sylvia was driving she was unable to drink, so after enjoying the view as the sun was setting, we headed back into town, ditched the car, and continued our tradition of eating a wide range of Mexican food, good beer and unforgettable chats!

Dia duit, álainn Connemara

2011-08-31T12:49:00.007+01:00

When my parents had come for a visit several years ago, they had said how beautiful Connemara was and how they liked Kylemore Abbey. As we wind down living here, I have to see the last little bits of the Emerald Isle, and that was one area I had yet to see. Catherine had wanted a sleepover at her house, so I decided to combine the two, overnight roadtrip! Catherine's American cousins were visiting their mother in Galway so we stopped for tea. It was great meeting her extended family and of course eating some yummy biscuits and chocolate cake. First stop after Galway was Oughterard to see Lough Corrib, the biggest lake in the Republic. A few girls were swimming in it, and they were quite brave. It may have been sunny, with a few rain showers, but certainly not warm enough to go for a swim. We decided to take the scenic route through the Connemara National Park on our way to Letterfrack. The landscape was dotted with small lakes and rivers. The rolling mountains were beautiful and craggy, where I had her pull over from time to time so I could grab a photo. We passed through Kylemore Abbey for a few quick shots, but as they were closing for the day, we kept on going to our hostel. We took a quick nap, before heading out to scope out the town for a place to eat. We decided on a seafood place, as we were by the sea. I forget portions in the country are much larger, so we made the mistake of getting a stater, a main, and of course sharing a dessert. We stopped in the one pub on the way back for a night cap, before heading to bed. Early the next morning, it was eat a quick breakfast and off to Kylemore. Since we beat all the tourbuses for the day, we got to see the Victorian Gardens all on our own, wandering through the multi-acre garden. As we walked back to the Abbey, that was when the tourists arrived. There is not much to see in the main Abbey, except for part off the ground floor, but it was breathtaking. The view of the Abbey, or once castle, over the lake is stunning. Great photos! We walked down to the tiny gothic church the man had build for his deceased wife. I could see how the King of England had thought of buying the place. We were fortunate enough to get out of there before it was too crowded and the rain started. We drove until Clifden so we could stop for a tea and pick up a postcard/stamp to send her parents. The sun was finally shining, so as we passed through the heart of Connemara, we had great views. I had packed lunches and when our tummies started to rumble, we turned up a small side road, hoping it would lead us to the sea, so we could eat our lunch. The sun was shining, as we could overlook the Aran Islands as we ate our peanut butter & jelly sandwiches with apples. How much more American lunch can you get? Catherine enjoyed it, as did I. After a few photos we were back on the road through Spiddal where all the Gaeltach kids were studying, and finally through Galway to head back to Dublin. Although there are SuperMacs in Dublin, we had to stop once more in Roscommon before getting home after a great road trip.

Strange Anomaly #72

2011-08-31T12:45:00.002+01:00

Because space is so tight for houses and gardens, it was great to see a full-sized bouncy castle taking up an entire front garden. It was hard for me not to want to jump over the little fence and have a go at jumping on it. Someday I will fulfill my dream of all of us married ones dressing up in our wedding dresses and bouncing in a bouncy castle to be grown up princesses!

Donegal and my last Irish Counties

2011-08-31T12:31:00.013+01:00

It was my goal when I moved here to get to know the country I was living in, so I made a point to make it to all 32 Counties. I only have three left and this grip marked the last of them: Donegal, Cavan and Fermanagh.

Ben had a recommendation to stop at the Ulster American Folk Park just outside Omagh. It was a recreation or preservation of homes found through out Ulster starting with a 1600's single room farmhouse up until the late 1700's. There were chickens and geese running around. I really wanted to play with the chicks, but as Ben predicted, they ran from me. We walked down a recreation of a typical street frontage found in the late 1700's before boarding a boat showing the conditions of what it was like for a family to immigrate to America on. Four adults had to fit into a bunk (either on the top or bottom) that was the size of a double bed, for about 2 months. Amazing what people had to endure. When we disembarked, it was into a typical American street found in the same time period. From there it was homes found on the East Coast of the States up through the late 1800's. There were log cabins, and modest clapboard homes. Throughout the park, there were people dressed up in period costumes discussing what life was like. It was very informative, and I love hands on, visual learning.

From there we stopped in Letterkenny for a bite to eat before reaching our final destination, Dunfanaghy. The co-worker that had recommended the folk park, was orginally from one village over from where we were staying, so John headed over to show us around. We drove around the cliffs to get a view of the peninsulas and islands. We had a bite to eat before heading to the pub since there was a festival going on. As we left to drive John to Carrigart it started to rain. I am so thankful Ben grew up in the country as he can manage to drive curvy dark country roads with ease, even in the rain. This city girl had to ask him to slow down for my sanity.

In the morning, the breakfast at the little B&B was huge and delicious, to get our day going. It was a bit drizzly as we headed to Magheraroarty to catch the ferry to Tory Island. We watched the ferry come in and were some of the first on. I was super excited as I had been wanting to go to Tory for years! The boat ride started out smooth, but as we passed the last island, the waters turned choppy. I was glad that I had taken some anti-nausea as it was not so smooth with swells a few meters high. It was sunny on the island, with clouds all around. As we disembarked I was anxious to see the King of Tory Island, the last King of Ireland, but he was no where to be found. I was a bit disappointed, but I was not going to let that rain on my parade. We headed off to the western tip of the island first toward the lighthouse. The sun was not really out, but it was not really cloudy, we were just happy that it was not raining. With half the loop done, we headed to the eastern village. The landscape was rugged, and became hillier as we headed east. Up past sheep running around, dodging sheep poo, we climbed the highest cliff to gaze out over the Atlantic. I had to tie my jumper around my head as the wind was blowing from every direction. We stopped for a bit of lunch, ham & cheese toasties with a cuppa tea. I got to speak a bit of Irish as most people on the island would speak Irish as their first language. I was excited! With the sun dipping behind some dark and ominous clouds, it was time to catch our boat back to the mainland. If we thought it was bad coming out, it was way worse on our way back. We both fought off getting sick. It was a miserable 50 minutes. When we docked, we saw the king driving up to the pier, but I was not about to go talk to him, I wanted dry, solid land. We had to sit in the car awhile before Ben felt well enough to begin driving down the coast to Ardara. We passed through many little towns, where there was no English to be found, it was great! We followed the signs to our hotel, which was out of town, nestled among the trees, in a very quiet and remote area. We opted to eat dinner at the hotel as it was a three course meal. It was a splurge, but well worth it. After an amazing meal, the sun was still up so we figured we would watch a movie after I check my email in the lobby. About 10 minutes later when I got to the room, Ben was nearly asleep, and for the first time in weeks, he got a quiet nights rest in a large comfortable bed, sleeping well over 10 hours. He never does that.

For our final leg of our tour, we took the scenic route. I knew it would be longer, but little did I know, it would take hours longer. We headed out along the coast, stopping to take photos on the way to Gelncolumbkille. The steep cliff roads had sheep blocking our way, not that much in a hurry to get out of the road. These were also my first sheep I had seen with wagging tails! The cliff roads were only one car wide, and there were several places I held my breath as we neared the edge. There were beautiful views, I was just glad Ben got out to take photos and not me. At the end of our detour was a hike to see the tallest sea cliffs in Europe, Slieve League Cliffs. We parked the car at the base of the hill where there was a gate. We figured at the top of the hill would be the sea. No. We had to walk about 45 minutes to the top car park area. All we would have had to do was open the gate. Ben's head had gotten quite burned the day before, so he took my jumper and tied it like a turban to keep the sun off him. We started hiking to the top of the cliffs, when Ben stopped to take a photo and my fear of heights kicked it. The rule is, keep walking, don't stop, I can follow you all the way to the top. Once I am at the top, I can make it down just fine and feel ok about it. It is just making it there. He did not understand the rules, even after all this time. After my mini melt down where I was happy to sit on a rock, just off of the trail, away from the edge, Ben had to go to the top alone as I gazed out over the sea and cliffs. We of course had to treat ourselves to ice cream after that, I mean the sun was out! We made our way down and headed finally to Donegal town for lunch. We stretched our legs for a bit before getting back in and heading to Enniskillen, for Lake Erme. There was a few ruins there we stopped at, and that was when we saw the black clouds. As we drove into Cavan, the heavens opened up and lashed rain. I did not mind returning home to rain, as it had been nice for most of our trip!

Berlin as seen from a Segway

2011-08-23T21:38:00.008+01:00

By the time we got to the hotel in Berlin, it was quite late so we went for a traditional German dinner. I was in heaven! We took a stroll out to where we were going to meet our tour group the next morning so we could time how long it would take us to walk there. Their parks are pitch black at night, and felt a bit dodgy, so we headed back to the hotel and hoped for the best in the morning. We had a Segway tour. Those cool two wheeled things. It was perfect for my sprained ankle and for Ben's interest in technology. By the time we got to the hotel in Berlin, it was quite late so we went for a traditional German dinner. I was in heaven! We took a stroll out to where we were going to meet our tour group the next morning so we could time how long it would take us to walk there. Their parks are pitch black at night, and felt a bit dodgy, so we headed back to the hotel and hoped for the best in the morning. We had a Segway tour. Those cool two wheeled things. It was perfect for my sprained ankle and for Ben's interest in technology. We had an English tour guide, guide us through the city. We covered early Berlin history up through the end of the GDR. We had ten stops along the way learning interesting tidbits over the four hours. We had a great time riding the Segways in the street, passing cyclists. Top speed was 30 kmh. Ben was the one encouraging me to go faster.

We explored a few other things on our own once the tour was over, the large aquarium in the Radisson hotel and toured through the GDR museum. It was a great hands on, touch things, interact with exhibits type museum. I know a lot about Germany history, but East Germany was one of those things I knew very little about. At the time, I was bored when my father made me watch live video of the wall falling, but now I am glad I have that memory and can now fully appreciate what those people went though and what the wall falling truly meant.

The following day we went out to a Stasi prison, way out of town, that was guided by prisoners who had spent time in there. It was depressing the conditions that the inmates had to endure, both Russian’s, after WWII, and East Germans who were suspected of bad things. I was heart wrenching and instead of doing something more upbeat, we went back to the holocaust memorial and toured through the museum there. As I was quietly sobbing after reading diary entries, and being overwhelmed by so many emotions, Ben reminded me that it was our actual anniversary. I love history, but I wish I had picked happier touring things to do that day. As we walked home that night after another fantastic dinner, did I mention I love German food, we noticed many scantily clad women who seemed to be soliciting men. When we got back to the hotel I had to look up prostitution and sure enough, it is legal in Germany. They were the hottest hookers I had ever seen, even put most strippers in Portland to shame. They were good about not approaching men who were with women, so one look at Ben and they quickly looked away since I was with him. I was the one who could not tear my eyes away.

The best day was the third zoo in a third country within a month. The Berlin zoo has been remodeled so recently due to wars so it is very modern. They was no point in having a map as the paths serpentined around but we still managed to see everything. It was a beautiful day, as we were tired of having rain. The monkeys were going bananas it was great. A spider monkey even fell in love with Ben and made faces with him. She followed him around as he walked through the monkey enclosure. With Ben's camera in great working order, he was having a great time capturing them as they frolicked around their cages. We even managed to be at the big cat enclosure as they were being fed. The lions and tigers were growling so much, roaring like crazy. You could hear them all across the park. I could feel their roars in my chest as we were only a meter away from them. As always I made Ben take photos by the rhinos as they both have great grumpy faces. I saw my first panda, but he was sleeping, and I caught sight of a foot and his bum. As the day grew to a close we took a snooze on a bench in the sun to really enjoy our holiday. We spent the entire day at the zoo much to my pleasure, and left as they were closing. We were tuckered out after so much walking.

The next morning I stuck Ben on a train to the airport, as I got on my own 8-hour train ride down to Sarrland to visit my bestest Germany buddy Katrin. I was to stay with her over the next 5 days to see her new place, visit her new office, and of course meet the new man in her life. I had met a few of her friends before, so it was great to catch up with them, and head out for a night on the town! It was a relaxing week as I wrote, read, slept at Katrin’s while she worked. The weather was not all the cooperative: rain profusely in the morning but then sunny just about the time Kat got off work. One night, we had a great walk from Saarbrücken, Germany over into France. So funny to think the boarder is about a 20 minute walk. It was a great relaxing visit spending time with my buddy and seeing how fantastic she is doing since I have missed so much since she moved back home.

Strange Anomaly #71

2011-08-23T21:29:00.000+01:00

Car reg, or license plate, starts with the year of the car, than what county it is registered in, and then what number it was when it was registered. There for 02 D 666 would be a 2002 from Dublin and was the 666th car registered that year. So while walking home I saw a 2008 Bentley cab driving down the road looking for a customer. Either it was someone who got bitten as the Celtic Tiger retreated, or some one out for a laugh.

J’taime Paris

2011-08-23T20:59:00.007+01:00

With long work hours, Ben was happy to get away, even though he is not the biggest fan of traveling. For our five year anniversary we headed off to Paris for 5 days. We had been before, but this time we got to see what we wanted to, and go at our own pace. We stayed on the Rue Clar as we had done before, so we knew where we were staying. After dropping off our luggage, and stripping off some of our layers, we went for a wander to the Eiffel Tower right around the corner from us to grab some lunch. Just up the street was one building that was a must see for me, Jean Nouvel's Musée du quai Branly as I have always wanted to see its Green living wall that is quite impressive even after being constructed a few years ago. With the sunshine out, we booked a trip down the River Seine on one of the many boats, to see everything in one go. We ended our first night with an amazing meal including escargot and creme brule. Yummy!

This was our day to see all the little bits and pieces. I was smart enough to book the Eiffel Tower in advance, so when it was our time, we walked right up, got through security, and was in an elevator heading up to the top. It heads up the wide base first, where you can take photos, and then up a smaller elevator all the way to the top. It was brilliant seeing over the whole city. It may not have been the nicest weather, but it was not raining, and was not that cloudy. We went to both decks to get photos. We spend more time going down, than we did going up. As we headed down, we could have stopped by the resturant on a mid-rise level, but I did not want to spend a fortune on food that was not going to be that great. We had enjoyed our view, but it was onto our next stop. We passed Notre Dame and went on to Centre Georges-Pompidou by Renzo Piano. It was something I had always wanted to see. Next on our architectural tour was another Nouvel building, L'Institut du Monde Arabe. The louvers on the windows I had studied in school and wanted to see them in action. I was on my must see list. After seeing some post modernism, it was onto The Panthéon Church which is the tomb of France's most famed. It was like every other NeoClassical building, so it was not as impressive, but still interesting. As with the previous night, we had even more delicious food. I knew there was no point in watching my figure on this trip.

With the weather not that cooperative, we spent the dreariest day in the Musée du Louvre. We got up early and wandered past the old smaller palaces and up the river. It was great to see the grounds nearly empty, even if it was not sunny. We had a plan of attack though, start up on the top most floor and work our way down, since we had the least interest of the stuff in the basement, Middle Ages. There were just so many paintings. We did cast our eyes over every piece, but towards the end we were nearly walking at top speed, quickly passing by masterpieces. We were able to complete the whole museum in a day, but I would not recommend it if you really want to see everything. It was great to recognize paintings I had studied over the years, and got to be Ben's personal art guide. As we went down in floors, it got more and more crowded. As we neared the Mona Lisa, we were overwhelmed by Tour Groups. When we finally got to the painting, it was 15 people deep. We waited to get to the front, be after waiting, waiting and waiting, we realized that the people were not even leaving. We gave up and moved on since there were hundreds of other things to see. Even across from the Mona Lisa was a painting that I had just worked my 4000 piece puzzle of Paolo Veronese's 'The Wedding at Cana' that was ignored, even though the painting was enormous, 20'x30'! People were just in there for the sake of being in there, they did not even know what things were, like the Venus de Milo, or one of the many other da Vinci's, or Michelangelo's statue. As we neared the end, I was reading the map, and fell down the last few steps spraining my ankle. Of course I laughed which is how I react to pain. It is always hard for Ben to take me seriously when I do that, but I can't help it. I walked it off the best I could but I knew in the morning my ankle would not be so happy.

The next morning, my ankle was very swollen, but Ben got me a brace and drugs, so that we could continue our tour. For our last full day we headed out to to see the Sacré-Cœur Basilica and Salvador Dalí's old studio. We hiked up from the Subway to the summit of the butte Montmartre. I was slow and steady, but I was not going to let my leg stop me! When the rain came we did a tour of the Sacré-Cœur Basilica catacombs as I did not want to hike up to the top of the basilica. As the rain abated, we headed to the Dalí studio where many other Surrealist artists had their studios. Dalí is my favorite artist so it was great to see where he got some of his idea, inspiration and how his work was created. When the kids started to outnumber us, we fled for lunch and to check out where Moulin Rouge is. We did not want to spend a fortune to see the show, but we wandered about, realizing that it was in the heart of the porn district. Quite interesting. We headed back into town to meet up with Ben's friend, Nabil, for dinner. It was great catching up with an old friend, who had just moved to Paris.

Our last morning we had to see one more museum, Musee d'Orsay which is housed in an old rail station. It contains the largest Impressionist exhibit where Manet was the featured artist. The sculptures were fabulous as well. There were several Van Gogh's to see and other painters of that era. Even Whistler's Mother. We had enough time to collect our things, have some lunch in the park adjacent to the Les Invalides and catch the bus to the airport. Next stop, Berlin!

Roller Disco

2011-07-29T10:23:00.000+01:00

Edell had a great idea that I was all for getting on board: a bit of late night roller-skating disco! It has been easily 20 years since I had gone skating. As Edell, Tullia and I stood up on our skates, the first few meters were a bit shakey and slow, but it all came flooding back to us. I may not be able to do all the tricks I once was able to do, but it still was fun, and great exercise! I even beat out a bunch of small children to win a free VIP pass back. The music was 80s theme, so when Edell's friend, Siobhán along with her sister Dierdre joined us, they were dressed in great 80's fashion. I was sad to not be able to dress up, as I love to do it, but I lived through the 80's the first time, and am not that excited to embrace those styles again. I need to go back since the craic was great! Now I look forward to someday skating at Oaks Park since it's four times the size as the one here. With a small rink though, I got really good at turning!

2011-07-28T11:27:00.009+01:00

It was here for two days, and then has disappeared again. I did have to work for one of those days, but Ben had it off so he got to sit in the sun and read. The second day we went to the zoo. This would be my second zoo within two weeks in two different countries. I love the zoo!

Ben got a bit overwhelmed with so many children running about, but with all of the animals out soaking up the summer sun, he got some great photos of orangutans swinging, tigers pacing, rhinos being rhinos and a baby giraffe.

I was excited to pet my first cow and pig, and love on some goats and sheep. Ben took a pass as he had enough of them growing up. I was just as excited with the sheep and pygmy goats as I was the sleepy Red Panda and other frisky monkeys. Ben may not be a big fan of children running around being noisy loud kids but he did promise me that someday he would love his own children even if they are as active as all those primates and big cat.

Strange Anomaly #70

2011-07-28T11:26:00.001+01:00

It is great living in Europe hearing so many languages, so it is not really that surprising that they end up dubbing English over other languages and vice-versa for commercials. The one that was strange was they dubbed English/Irish/Scottish accents over an American accent laden deodorant commercial. But I thought it was all the same language.....

Hanging with Non-architects, woohoo!

2011-07-28T11:25:00.000+01:00

Tori and Andrew are our closest friends here in the Emerald Isle, but they are even busier with work and family than we are, which I guess makes us treasure the time we get with them even more. So when we got an invite to see what Tori does for her job, we totally jumped at the chance. We took the LUAS line out as far as it would go, to see areas of Dublin that we had never seen before. The project was done by a group of children who made a stop motion movie together and we got to see the screening. We sort of felt like we were invading as most of the people there all knew each other, but we really enjoyed the video, as looked like the kids had a great time making it with good results. We totally crashed the after part with the artists and volunteers with the project, but it was great to have some chats with non-architect folks over yummy nachos and some wine!

London not Hungover!

2011-07-26T19:27:00.011+01:00

I must be getting old, I finally boarded a plane to London not deathly hungover! It was a weekend of firsts for me. I touched down between holidays for only a few days to make Ben some more food and was off to London. Rachel, who we crashed with when the ash cloud gave us a bit of trouble, said to come back anytime, so I did. I kept myself busy on the Thursday walking through Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, was diverted through St James’s park due to a parade, up past Westminster and Big Ben, stopping in Jubilee Gardens for a snack and then ducking into a café for some lunch as it poured buckets of rain. Once it stopped I figured museums would be my best bet for keeping dry and being entertained. All museums are free so I wandered through a Watercolour and Print Museum before heading to Tate Modern. I had always wanted to go to the Tate where there is a wonderful collection of surrealists, postmodernist, contemporary artists and of course Dalí. It was great doing it on my own. I could sit when I wanted to, go as fast or as slow as I wanted to and see what I wanted to see. With a break again in the rain I made it across the millennium bridge, past Saint Pauls and was at the top of The Mall when the sky opened up and started pouring. I kept myself busy in a bookstore flipping through “1000 Buildings to see Before you Die” and figured out I had seen 110 so far. Not bad. When it was about time to meet Rachel at Victoria Station after she got off work, I had to make a mad dash past Buckingham Palace while getting drenched. Luckily that night it was a quiet dinner out and to bed after a few bottles of wine to warm me back up.

The next morning I trekked through the Natural History Museum. I was pressed for time since I had to meet Niamh for lunch, so I flew through, at least seeing all of the exhibits. I love Natural History museums and this was the best one. I would love to see it again someday. The animatronic T Rex that growled, roared and sniffed at you was scary and cool all at the same time. I love dinos! After my lunch I walked up to Harrods, so see the infamous shopping centre. It is pretty cool, but I could never afford to shop there for real. I think I had more fun walking through the children’s section than seeing all the fabulous designer stuff I will never buy. As I walked out, the sun peeked out so I took a stroll through Hyde Park, seeing the Diana Memorial and up past Kensington Palace. I am all about walking, but I knew that I was not going to make it in time to meet with Rachel to see Wicked so I finally figured out how to take the Underground all on my own. It was easy and soon became a master traveller of the tube. I meet Rachel for Wicked which I had been wanting to see for years, so I got to see a show in the West End. It was very good, and after the show, we picked up some wine and headed to her house for our girlie chats since it was officially the weekend!

Saturday we walked through Wimbledon where she lives as I wanted to see where the play tennis. It is a great little village, that is known for its horse trails as well. When we walked up to the crosswalk, there was an extra high button that someone on horseback would be able to hit and cross with the little horse signal. I got a kick out of that. We were to meet up with some of her friends for a dinner and in true Irish style (even though we were in England, they were all Irish) we ended up at the birthday boys house for a sing song. In front of my own friends I have always refused to sing since I know for a fact I have a terrible singing voice. I have made fun of it recorded when I did not know it was my own, so I know it is bad. But when Rachel snuck out for a sneaky cigarette, it was my time to sing. I not only sung an Irish traditional song in English, “Spanish Lady”, I even sung an Irish song in Irish, “Beidh Aonach Amárach”. Yep, busted out my Irish! http://www.irishpage.com/songs/aonach.htm Karen would have been so proud. The guitarist for the evening was from Co. Clare so he was well impressed that an American could sing a Culchie Irish song. As the sun began to rise, we decided it was time to head home since in the morning we were bound for the zoo.

With working part time, I catch shows during the day. One of them is a children’s show about the zoo in Scotland and in London. I feel like I know all the keepers and the animals, so I had to see them for myself. It was a good sized zoo in Regents Park that is small, but considering it is nearly in City Centre, I was well impressed. The sun finally decided to shine on the day we needed it. All the animals were out and about which was great to see. The Penguin exhibit was the newest addition as the old penguin exhibit was designed by a famous architect, but it was cramped for the animals and was giving them knee problems walking up the steep ramps. One of the other cool exhibits was these little monkeys were playing in the bushes and you could be right next to them. Although there were keepers there, if we wanted to reach out and touch them we could. I love monkeys! I should just say I love all animals, I cannot think of one I don't really like, except for maybe spiders. After hours of walking we were starving, so we meet up with her boyfriend for some Mexican food, that they promised me was good. And it was, even the Margaritas were excellent! I have been missing Mexican food big time. We wandered Camden Town that has a real student/young person feel to it, as we hit up different pubs with live music, finally settling in a strange American pub for shots to end the night, as well as my trip with. Although I was not hungover getting on a plane to London, I was coming home…

O’Bama in his Homeland

2011-07-26T19:20:00.003+01:00

As I landed at the airport from Croatia, what did I see, but Air Force One! I thought I was going to miss out on seeing my President, but I had made it just in time. As I boarded the bus to head home I got a text off Catherine who was on her way into town. I watched Obama on the telly drink his pint of Guinness with Michelle and his long lost cousins until Catherine arrived. I knew Tori and Andrew had been queuing for hours and was just happy enough to stand on the footpath and hope to hear him, when Catherine found an opening in the gate and talked the Gardi into letting us sneak in. My American accent in Europe for once worked for my advantage! This was just after I got a call from Tori saying she had been turned away. We waited about a half hour before getting through security, and we were in. The clouds parted and just before Obama made it onto the stage the two of us managed to push through the crowd enough to be at the bottom of the huge screen they had streaming the video live. I was technically unable to see the man in the flesh with my own eyeballs since they had the podium tucked into a recessed courtyard in the adjacent building, but when the sound of the video went out, I could hear him! It was a great speech and very uplifting. The teenage dominated crowd were even quiet and respectful to him speaking. I knew that this would be my only opportunity to see my president and I was glad that I did!

Strange Anomaly #69

2011-07-26T19:19:00.000+01:00

When we go to the movies, which we do quite often, when the sex scenes come on, the audience giggles. Giggles. It is like they had never seen sex on the big screen before.

Balkan Tour: Bosnia

2011-07-26T19:08:00.007+01:00

Our tour bus collected a few American tourists and we were off to Bosnia. Snaking our way through the mountains, past refuge homes that were haphazardly built, but are now permanent homes and down past the Neretva River. The Bosnian architecture is very Ottoman influenced with many mosques and a singular cathedral , St Mary’s, dotting the Mostar cityscape.

As we wandered through the old town streets, past the Kriva cuprija, a stone one-arch bridge, the sky grew more and more ominous, with the sunshine completely disappearing. As our group knew each other quite well, the very grumpy old ladies Americans kept shushing us, which made us giggle all the more. The “Old Bridge” of Stari Most had to be rebuilt after the Bosnian-Croat war, exactly as it had been. It had been an engineering feat of its day. It was a stone arched bridge that sat high over the river. A man came out and was going to dive off of it, which is quite a popular thing for the locals to do. I don’t think you could have paid me enough to want to jump off that. Maybe 15 years ago, but not now.

Many of the buildings were still bullet riddled, and partially demolished from the war. You could still see the scars, but the streets were teeming with life. One of the recently remodelled buildings we went into was of a typical upper class Muslim family, Bišćevića ćošak. It was interesting to see how the house was once like a few hundred years ago, and how they conducted businesses in the Turkish/Muslim way of life. The decendents of the original family live in a building in the lower parts of the house still. In the main courtyard there were many turtles walking around which we did not think were real at first. Just as we concluded our tour, the thunder and lightning came with a vengeance, and it absolutely lashed from the heavens. Most of our group managed to duck into a small restaurant with the owner being the cook and the waiter. He served us all the same thing, but with 45 minutes until the bus was leaving he fed the 20 of us a scrumptious meal of kebabs, salad, potatoes and freshly squeezed juice. He was so happy with us group of girls and praised him for such a great meal, he gave us a free dessert that was just divine. We stole a peek into the cathedral just as they were starting mass, and it was back onto the bus where we had a final night at our hotel. The food there was bland and sort of awful, but the craic was great, and with the wine flowing, we laughed all the way to bed.

Picture Albums Updated

2011-07-05T22:12:00.000+01:00

I finally uploaded Iceland, Paris, and Berlin photos (among others). You can check them out here.

The 4th, Irish Style

2011-07-04T20:11:00.002+01:00

Today is the 4th of July, and it was a crackin' day! Perfect weather for a BBQ, and that is just what we did. My office threw together a BBQ, used the 4th of July as an excuse, but we had us some ribs, chicken wings, salads, my homemade apple cake and chocolate fudgy cake. We started the day early with mimosas, moved onto the various beers and then ended the day with a few more beers. It felt like being at home, except for the lack of fireworks.....wish they were not illegal here or else I would have been setting some off!

Balkan Tour: Herzegovina

2011-06-07T23:39:00.005+01:00

We were all up early and on the bus to head to Međugorje, a very religious town, unbeknownst to me, which came as quite a shock as I was not expecting this. They coined it the Vegas of the Holy world due to the gold and popularity of the continued apparitions of Mary, the crying statue and the two mountains to climb during ones pilgrimage. The only thing in the brochure that hinted towards this being very religious was it stated ‘Sunday mass is optional’. I was going to give the nightly masses a miss since they were not in English, and well, I am not religious. I cannot even follow a mass in English, let alone in any of the other languages they were doing it in. After our plain feast of fish (since it was a Friday) our table made sure to finish off not only our wine, but the wine at the next table, as well as the wine of the table next to us. We could not let it go to waste! Since we were to be locked in each night at midnight, we went for a quick stroll past the hundreds of little religious shops selling statues, pictures, jewellery, crosses, you name it, they had it with some religious theme. I am not exaggerating when I say I saw millions of Mary statues.

The next morning was Apparition Hill, where we climbed a steep hill to where Mary had first appeared to 6 children nearly 30 years ago. There were 5 stops up the hill, where at each station we did a decat of the rosary. For those that do not know, since I did not know, it is one Our Father, ten Hail Marys and a Glory Be. I was able to blend with the group and able to hide that I had no idea what was going on. I had no idea what to say or do since it was said in Croatian or Gaelic just to make it more difficult. We had to do all the hiking in silence, which was OK, as I needed the exercise as well after eating so much good food in Croatia. At the top was a statue of Mary, where she had first appeared, where we were to pray and stuff. I sat in the shade and took in the countryside view. I only moved out of the much needed shade when a little snake slithered past me. I am not afraid of snakes, but I am of those that are poisonous, and these ones were. We took a leisurely climb back down where we boarded the bus for a lunch of a roasted piglet and lamb on a spit. After filling our bellies it was off to Kravice Falls. They may not have been Niagra Falls, but in the semi circle of rock there were dozens for small waterfalls cascading down into a large pool before heading off as a river. It was absolutely breathtaking and the mist was a warm welcome after the sun that decided to pierce through the clouds.

The following day was a very early climb, with only five of us, up Mount Križevac. This was MUCH larger than the other hill. Hill vs Mountain. This mountain had 14 stations of the cross, but by the end of it we had done 17. There were only 5 of us willing to do the hike, so come station number 6 when it was my turn to do a decet of the rosary, my secret was out, and my heathen ways were known. Out of respect, I participated by reading them from a little book Jožo our guide had given me to lead the group. I was slow on my first one, but by the last one I lead, I was super fast. The cross at the top contained a piece of what is alleged to be Jesus’ crucifixion cross, so there were many people up there praying at it. I was amazed by the view. Since the mountain is a big overgrown, I could not see the views until the top. They were spectacular of the entire valley. We took a long winding, not so steep path back where we enjoyed a few beers, before heading to mass. This was the one time I was going to go since the young girl did not want to go alone, and thankfully it was in English. There was even an Irish film crew there filming it for the 30th anniversary show that will be June 24th. Who knows, I may even end up on the telly.

Balkan Tour: Montenegro

2011-06-07T23:24:00.006+01:00

One of our day tours from our hotel was down into Montenegro. They were smoking everywhere, and I had become so accustomed to having smoke free pubs/restaurants that it was quite a shock to have someone chain smoke right next to me, luckily I was outside. It was warm, even though there was no sun to be found. We snaked past the inlets and bays from the sea where pirates once stalked. That is one of the reasons why so many of the old towns were walled and heavily fortified. The water was so blue and sparkled in the sunlight that broke through the clouds. We weaved through the Sveti Đorđe and Gospa od Škrpijela islets off the coast of Perast, stopping to take photos along the way.

Our first city stop was in Kodor. It was a much bigger walled city, with a wall that serpentined up the mountain. Their religious background is a bit different in that the communists wanted atheists so a lot of their churches wend into disuse and they practiced in secret. Many of the churches were Orthodox so it was strange to see no pews, organs (musical instruments), no statues and only iconography 2D images. The city is part of the UNESCO world heritage so we had another tour guide. Montenegrins are very tall, and our female tour guide, towered over me. It was so great to see so many tall people again as I can feel like a giant in Ireland at times. We went through the Cathedral of Saint Tryphon, as it contained relics (mummified body parts) that were of someone once important. This started tourism hundreds of years ago, as people would travel far and wide to see religious relics. Strangely enough they use the Euro but are not a part of the EU, so that worked for me since I had a few quid still on me. I had to pay to use the toilets and the WC woman spoke German to me, so it is good to know I look my roots. The WC woman proceeded to speak in 5 other languages to other customers, so she just spoke what she thought was the most appropriate. As I said before, I love blending into Europe.

The second city we stopped at Budva, where Ben had even done some design work, so it was great to see his sight. The streets of this smaller walled town was reminiscent of Greece with a look of Venice. The sun came out during a lunch stop for some pizza where I made my first friend on the trip, Collette and her mum, Mary. We swung in our bench and watched all the cats run about. There were everything. The beach just through the wall was beautiful sand, with many enjoying the fleeting sunshine. The city was packed with quaint churches, small shops and great eateries. Russians flocked to this area for their holidays since they use the Cyrillic alphabet as well as the Roman one, and are also Orthodox. The land around the area was quite cheap which is why Ben had looked at putting a hotel there in his office.

With the sun setting we took off down the coast again, but instead of driving hours around, we drove right onto a ferry with another buss and about 8 other cars, and sailed across the Boka-Kotor Bay in about ten minutes. We got hassled a bit at the boarder trying to get back into Croatia, but that just meant more stamps for me, in my nearly full passport!

Balkan Tour: Croatia

2011-06-07T23:06:00.006+01:00

Dubrovnik was the first stop in my multi-country tour. It was a bit rainy, but I did not let that stop me from exploring the winding streets and steep steps of the city. I took this trip alone, since Ben could not get the time off. I wanted to prove to myself that I could enjoy a holiday on my own. The town was nearly impossible to get lost in as the walled city took about 5 minutes to walk from one end to the other, and there were only two entrances. Well, a third if you count the harbour. The city was crawling with Texan cruise ship people, and as with most of my holidays, I avoid the Americans and try to blend in. The tour group I was with consisted of about 26, most of whom were well over the age of my parents. Our tour guide, Bozo (and no I am not kidding), lead us through the steps, working off our huge breakfast. Fresh fish is one of their more popular lunch items, so after trying to get myself lost in the maze of streets, I stopped for a lunch to people watch. Ben would have had a field day taking photos as I am sure I failed to capture the beauty as he does since I sort of run by and take photos, barely slowing down. I did not let the rain stop me in exploring, but it did stop my pitiful attempt to sit by the pool and get some sun. The thunder and lighting frightened me off to my nice, warm hotel room.

The following day, I branched out from the group and took a boat ride to see some of the Elaphiti islands. While on the boat the two girls next to me pulled out their Ireland water bottle, and next thing I knew I had two new friends for the day, sisters Jackie and Catherine. The first stop was Koločep a very small island which was beautiful with palm trees, on lazy pub and a tiny market. A distant hotel and a few housed dotted the hills around the small bay. We only stopped long enough for a drink and a bit of rest in the shade since there was not a whole lot to do.

The longest leg of the boat tour was to Sipan, a larger island that was dotted with ruins. There were two pubs as well as a larger harbour area. We went for a meandering walk up a path to get a bit of sunshine, and take in the laidback island life. We stopped for a cold drink and to use the loo, but with no electricity, it made for quite an interesting experience when I walked in on a man using the ladies room, and trying to use a toilet and sink in absolute pitch black. When we returned to the boat, we had fresh fish that was grilled right off the back of the boat with as much wine as we could drink, and did we take advantage of that.

The last island was Lopud was not necessarily the biggest, but it was the best, with the beaches nestled off the bay of Šunj. The boardwalk was right up against the sea, that lapped against the rock just a few feet below. We walked the entire boardwalk stopping at all the little shops, ending at the end of the pier. The sun was out in full force and I was ready for it. It was even warm enough to dip our feet into the water and sit with the water lapping over our legs as we sunned ourselves again a wall. Upon realizing that we were turning various shades of red, we decided to grab a cold drink at one of the many restaurants. Our table was right at the edge of the boardwalk, with the sea only a few feet below us, which was quite relaxing to listen to the sea as we enjoyed our drinks. After a few hours, we boarded the boat to head back to town, with all of us having a bit of a snooze on the boat before heading back to the hotel.

Strange Anomaly #68

2011-06-06T22:50:00.000+01:00

Even though we may be living through some pretty tough recessionary times, I have to commend the Irish as how generous they are. I have always donated to good causes, and still slip in a few coins here and there into boxes or when teens are asking to help out their schools, but right now I am the ‘good cause’ and have not been donating as much myself. I am whole heartedly impressed with their generosity as a country!

Dublin Hurling Finals

2011-06-06T22:47:00.002+01:00

Got to love free tickets. Especially when it was for Dublin versus Kilkenny in Dublin’s first finals match in 62 years. First up though was the Gaelic Football Minor Finals which was Ben’s first football match. He liked it as it was fast paced and high enough scoring. It was not like almost getting excited like in football for a near goal. I explained what few rules I knew from my last Gaelic Football Kerry Final and we cheered on the underdogs.

Next up was the Hurling finals. We of course were cheering for Dublin, especially since they were not supposed to win. It was harder to follow as the ball (the slitter) as it is so small, and was smacked around with the hurl (thick field hockey looking stick) faster than our eyes could follow. The players absolutely walloped on each other, smacking each other in the head, which I was glad that they were wearing helmets that apparently that was only a new addition to the pitch, as well as body checking each other and almost rugby like tackles. Kilkenny were down some of their best players, and were not exactly playing that clean, but Dublin did manage to win for the first time since 1929! I mean that is 82 years! We saw history in the making!

Green lands in Iceland: Day 4 & 5

2011-05-10T19:46:00.010+01:00

Although the tour company we used had good tours, I wanted something special for us, even though it was a long 14 hours on a bus. Upon leaving town, we passed by some charming villages and farms that were effected by Eyjafjallajökull where last year’s eruptions took place. All the lands looked scorched as a thick layer of black ash ash had covered nearly everything in its wake. Our first stop was a farm that we got out to take pictures from I even recognized from the news since it was so dramatic how close the farms cling to these active volcanoes. The surrounding little waterfalls of the glacial melt from Eyjafjallajökull where cascading down from the high cliffs, but due to the high wind, they stream changed mid fall and was lost in the breeze as a spray of water.

A few minutes down the road we stopped at the Skógafoss waterfall which still had thick black sand choking the steam of water coming down off the high cliffs. Ben was able to walk right up to it and the mist encircled him. I wish I had had the camera since the white mist enveloped him, and a few minutes later he reappeared. Just as we were getting back on the bus the sun made a 30 second debut just to snap that one sunny photo.

Just before we reach the lagoon we pass Iceland’s biggest volcano, Öræfajökull glacier which has the highest peak of the island, Hvannadalshnjúkur (2110 m). The mist rolled off of it in such a haunting way with the weather changing constantly from rain, to hail, to cloudy, to a little tiny bit of sunshine and then back to rain. It took us nearly an hour to cross the moss clad Eldhraun lava field past Kirkjubæjarklaustur. The green moss had nearly obscured the sharp jagged edges of the black lava rock. It was nearly a metre thick in some places.

We crossed a mile long bridge that only had a trickle of water below it, since the glaciers move around so much, they can never truly predict where the water will runoff at. We pasted wreckage of a bridge that had once been there, but taken out in the ’96 eruption. It was a metal mangled mess. Their bridges are all very temporary looking since they are destroyed so often. The big stop for the day was at Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon, nearly on the other side of the country, that started to form in the early nineteen twenties and is getting bigger every year. Huge blocks of ice that had broken off Europe’s biggest glacier, Vatnajökull, would float out into the lagoon and then out to the ocean only a kilometer away. It was stunning to see the sun come out just as we arrived and shone brightly on the icebergs. Since it was unbelievably windy, most of the icebergs had already floated out, but there were a fair few. The wind was so gusty that Ben and I could lean into it at nearly a 45 degree angle and it would hold us up. I jumped into the wind and it blew me a few extra feet which was a bit unnerving, so I did not do that again. For anyone that has not seen a glacier or an iceberg floating past you, it is something that you have to add to your ‘Do before I Die’ list.

As we boarded the bus the sun disappeared, and started to rain, so once again, the sun may have been absent most of our trip, but it came out when we most needed it. With the tourist season not quite kicked off, and it being Easter Sunday, we were able to make a very cool unscheduled stop at Svínafellsjökul glacial snout where we climbed up the mountain side to get a better look. We may not have been able to walk on the glacier, but to be within a few metres was pretty cool.

Along the road back, we stopped in the coastal hamlet of Vík in Mýrdalur valley which is the southernmost village in Iceland with beautiful black sanded beaches. This was the first time either of us had been on black sand. We had a quick meal of their yummy Icelandic meat soup again so we could have time to wander the beaches. It is said to be bad luck to take anything from the island, so I made sure to not collect any rocks or shells. The waves coming in off the ocean were huge, and we really had to keep our eye on the waves coming in. The waves were thunderous as they crashed against Reynisdrangar, the basalt sea stacks at the base of the mountain Reynisfjall. The small church on the hill was the highest building in town, where the reckon when the next volcano goes, and the glaciers melt causing a large flood, everyone would be safe at the church, so they have eruption drills for the whole town to run up there.

As we headed back to Reykjavík we stopped in the centre of the lava field and built our cairn for good luck. I always like a bit of extra good luck. As the sun was setting we had one last stop at Skaftafell National Park. At the Seljalandsfoss waterfall, we could have walked behind it, but even with Ben covered head to toe in Gortex (a walking advertisement for Columbia) he decided not to get that wet since he was drenched just standing close to it. Plus it was getting dark, and it was a very narrow path, and I used my little bit of common sense and figured he should not walk on the wet, mossy path. With the sun setting so late and rising so early, our long tour was nearly all in daylight!

On our last and final day, we had another lazy morning, packed up, enjoyed our large breakkie and headed to the Blue Lagoon on the coach. It is a man-made oasis in the lava field that is the leftover water from their steam turbines. The salt would corrode the pipes if they were to store it for heat like they do with other magma heated water. An employee of the steam plant one day decided to bathe in the warm water that bubbled up into the lava fields, and eventually realized it was good for his psoriasis. Thus, the Blue Lagoon was born. The salt has coated the rock with a thick white crust, so most of it is quite smooth, but there were a few rough patches our feeties would find. The mineral-rich water and silica mud mask left my skin feeling like a million bucks. With the constant new streams of water coming in, you had to move around to find the warm patches, and I found some hot ones. I love it when the water is nearly warm enough to scald my skin off. After a few hours of soaking in the water, it was time to finally head to the airport where we were bumped up to first class. May not have gotten the first class treatment, but the roomyness and comfort were a once in a lifetime experience as well!

My Little Pony in Iceland: Day 3

2011-05-09T18:23:00.006+01:00

This was our one lazy sort of day. So after stuffing ourselves at breakfast we took a walk down into the old town to go to Reykjavík 871±2 , an exhibition of an archaeological excavation of a Viking age longhouse, from about 930 AD. After our strange run in with Swedish Museums, we wanting GOOD viking information, or at least, logical and unstrange information. We also ventured over to the harbour to get a few pics and then popped inot the strangest flea market, ever. Words cannot truely paint a picture of how weird this place was. You just have to see it for yourself. We had been told that the national food, and their best food, was the hotdog. We stopped at mall hotdog stand, Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, in central Reykjavík to fule up for our horse ride!

Ben grew up on a farm, therefore he does not like anything farm-like. I grew up in the city, therefore, the farm fascinates me. It was very important to me to see and ride Icelandic Horses (my horse bit me when I called it a pony). The barn supplied all our riding gear which was very waterproof and wind proof, and we needed it. The weather was still not very nice. What makes these horses so special is that on top of being able to survive in this harsh climate, they can do 5 gaits. The fourth gait is a four-beat lateral ambling gait known as the tölt. We were able to sit it, even Ben was able to do it with no experience. The Pace is the fifth gait, which is for racing and is very hard for a person to sit on top of a horse while they do it, so needless to say, we did not do that gait. Our ride started into beautiful Heidmork with its numerous caves and canyons. The moss on the lava fields was breathtaking. It even started snowing a bit, which made the moon like landscape even more unique and interesting. My horse really wanted to go, so I was at the very head of the queue and we rode fast. It was great to get my confidence back on, and after fighting for dominance, my horse conceded and the second half of the ride was very enjoyable. No more of the horse trying to brush me off into their scraggly “trees” and no more biting. I even caught Ben smiling a few times, so I know it was not all painful for him.

After being dropped back off at our hotel, we took a hike up the mountain near us to go up to Perlan or The Pearl, a glass dome resting over five hot water tanks. We were hoping to get a wax figure museum tour of the Nordic Saga, but like everything else in the town, due to Easter, it was closed as well. It had great vistas over the city and it was actually clear enough to get views of their tabletop type mountains and sprawling cityscape. This is where we encountered our friendly bunny and the sunken troll living areas. You would have to see it to believe it.

Strange Anomaly #67

2011-05-09T18:18:00.000+01:00

Waffles do not exist in Ireland. No where. That is just a travesty! Travesty I tell you! Find me waffles, good waffles, and I will be a happy camper! Anyone up for the challege of finding me a place?

Iceland Excursion: Day 1 and 2

2011-05-09T18:03:00.007+01:00

Our trip started out good getting the emergency row for the extra leg room even though it was a short flight and since it was the first day of summer we got some free icecream onboard. The coaches were at the airport, waiting for us in the blistering wind and lashing rain, ready to take us into Reykjavik. Our hotel was just on the edge of town by the domestic airport. We first wandering into the newer part of time to see Hallgrímskirkja, the largest church in Iceland, which is shaped like a rocket ship. The inside was very stark, yet well done. There were a group of children inside singing ‘Day-O’, the Jamaican song, which was just strange, yet beautiful. We wandered down into the old town were we found some fantastic Belgian type waffles. I love waffles. With a bit of warmth in our bellies since it was no where near warm, we walked down to their main pond in city centre, Tjörnin.

Right on the pond was a well-designed building which was their city hall, Ráðhús Reykjavíkur. It had a living wall along the water, which is great to see growies on a building. City hall was right next to A lþingishúsið, the Icelandic parliament which was not such a fantastic building, but was important to them historically since their parliament is the longest running in the world. As we pottered back to the hotel we caught sight of their ample wildlife in the city, Bunnies and Geese. Their sidewalks were paved with Geese poo galore. I had a great little book that could lead me to all the free things to do since with the Easter Holdiay weekend, nothing was open. I my little book, I did find a local’s favourite restaurant where we had an amazing meal of yummy wild bird, otherwise known as Puffin, and their Minke whale. I feel ethically ok with it since they have been sustainable hunting these animals for a thousand years, use everything from the animal and do not overhunt since they have done extensive studies on their population and they are not near extinction like most other whales. Ben had been so exhausted from working crazy long hours, we were in bed and asleep long before the sun went down, even with sunset at nearly 11:00.

The next morning we headed out on our bus to the national park Þingvellir to view the Hellisheidi plateau which is one of the most historic site on the island. We stopped right at the Lake Þingvallavtn, the largest lake which is known for the scuba diving. The canyon that runs through the park is where the continental drift between the Eurasian and American tectonic plates are pulling away from each other about 10cm a year. It is the only place in the world where you can view this since the others are under water or heavily vegetated over. The waterfall there is normally very small, but with all of their rain is was a gushing torrent of water, where in historical times they drowned the adulteress women. The old clans used to meet at this area where the first parliament or Alþingi was established in 930 and remained there until 1789 when it moved to Reykjavik

Next stop was the geothermally active valley of Haukadalur, which contains the geysers Geysir and Strokkur. The work geyser comes from the geyser Geysir. Even though this one is still bubbling, it is dormant so we got to see Strokkur erupt every 7 minutes, and it even had another eruption just seconds after the first one, although it was much smaller. The smaller pools around there were nowhere near as stinky as the Yellowstone ones with the sulphur. One lady was even stupid enough to put her finger into one of the boiling pools. Some people have no common sense.

We left there to head to the Hvítá river which the Gullfoss waterfall is located, which is one of the most impressive waterfalls in Europe. We had our yummy meat soup that was much more appetizing than it sounds, before bearing the rain that pelted us as we walked up to the waterfall. The mist was hauntingly beautiful and also froze along the walls of the canyon. The roar of the waterwall was amazing. We were able to walk right out to it and get some great views down the canyon, although we got quiet wet.

Next stop was the Skálholt Cathedral (Skálholtdómkirkja). It was a very modest church, located on ancient catholic ruins. The stained glass and Jesus paiting were very modern.

The last stop of the day was an a lake within a crater, Kerið. It is nowhere near as impressive as Crater Lake in Oregon, but it was still beautiful none the less. Bjork even held a concert in the crater with everyone on little rafts. Now that would have been a great concert since the acoustics were great.

Strange Anomaly #66

2011-05-09T17:59:00.001+01:00

The Big English wedding. Kate and Prince William got married and as the rest of the world got excited (my mother taped it since the wedding was going on while she slept); here they all denied wanting to watch it, and yet, they all did! And they got giddy when they had their romantic balcony kiss, twice! They were all in denial in being interested in anything going on across the Irish Sea, but deep down I knew the girls were. We enjoyed watching it a work, and had our own cake, and ate it too, while watching the wedding!

March’s 5-day weekend

2011-04-30T23:33:00.002+01:00

I know it is a bit late, but March was Edell’s Birthday month, so I have to start out with that. Her friends are so nice and welcoming of Catherine and I, the only other person I really knew besides Edell, and her party was in a great location. She does have a great group of friends that it was good to catch up with them since I only really see them once a year. The music got a bit loud around midnight, when I sensed I was too sober to keep up with the screaming over the music. I was just happy that I did not pass out at her thirty-wONEderful birthday like I did at her thirtieth.

With where St Patricks Day fell this year, I got to have a 5 day weekend. It had been a while since Ben had a day off so we slept in and managed to leave the house just in time to catch a bit of the St Patrick’s day parade that was a bit goth themed. It was so crowded due to the sunshine making an appearance so we headed for burgers and green beer. I know, so cliche, but I had to do it!

My last work buddy Paul, has a fabulous wife Meg, that invited me out for girls night at their place so Ben could get some much needed time alone at the house without me underfoot. They have a great group of friend that were good to chat with, and if I had not forgotten my keys at home, I would have stayed longer to enjoy the champagne drinking and little nibbles she whipped up, but I did not want Ben waiting up all night for me knowing he had to get up early and go back to work on the Saturday.

It has started warming up, since spring is in full swing so Ben and I trekked out to see the King Tut exhibit at the RDS on the other side of town. We stopped for our favourite breakkie in our old neighbourhood, Ranelagh, at Hobart’s on the way there. With the proper fuel in our bellies we could continue on in our trek and make it through the huge exhibit. It was all replicas, really well done, but nothing was real. Even the death mask of Tut was a fake. It was good to see the tomb recreated exactly how it looked when they opened it, even though it cost an arm and a leg to get in.

And on a completely non-Irish note, we did get a new tenant for our fabulously remodeled condo, as completed by my father and his buddy, Bud!

Fire! Fire!

2011-04-30T23:31:00.001+01:00

Seemed like a totally normal Friday at work: quiet and uneventful. But this Friday proved to be quite different. Paul is on his sabbatical, and with my boss away at meetings, it was only Vinny and I in our little room. As I have stated before, fireworks are illegal here, but we thought we heard a bunch of fireworks. I stuck my head out the window to see if I could see anything, but I didn’t. I could smell fire though and just figured it was teens up to no good.

A few seconds later my co-worker said that neighbor’s house was on fire. The popping noise was the slate tiles flying off the roof and breaking sue to the heat. They still are not sure what started the fire but it destroyed 7 out of the 8 houses in the terrace, so they are tearing down the whole thing. It was scary to watch, and as some of you know, I watch my neighbor’s house burn down as a kid, and know how devastating it can be. The fire brigade worked hard to stop the fire from spreading to the adjacent buildings, but the wind was determined to spread it further. Luckily no one was hurt, and it did not spread too much, but still terrible.

Strange Anomaly #65

2011-04-30T23:30:00.001+01:00

Apparently it is OK to drive in reverse up a wrong way as I learned this afternoon when I was nearly taken out by a large vehicle. And when I got a bit angry and shouted, “You are going the wrong way on a one way, I have the right of way here!” She got angry as well and shouted back, “But I’m reversing up the one way?” As if it made it alright that she had nearly taken me out. So when I gave out about this at work, they were like, yeah, it’s acceptable to reverse the wrong way, but WTF?

Boom Busy

2011-04-10T13:58:00.003+01:00

It was like a boom weekend all over again! Like in the good olde days of 2007, we started the Friday with a bit of coffee and cake for Tom’s last day. That night was sadly his leaving do, but it was good to see the group together as it has been a while since we had all had a reason to get together. Tutti and I had a great walk back home as it has been months since I had seen her.

The next morning, as I was recovering from my whiskey drinking, I got a call from Edell to meet up for coffee and some chats. It was great to see her as she had been so busy with work our little nightly tea break had become further and further apart. A bit of girl time is always good, too! That night Ben and I meet up with Tori and Andrew for a few cheeky pints and to generally catch up on things. We have been all running in different directions and had been a while since all of us had time off at the same time, so it was a much needed session.

Then finally on the Sunday I headed out to Greystones to Catherine’s for a very civilized Sunday Brunch. I made American style French Toast, that they ended up loving, as we eat ourselves into a food coma practically. Catherine had great crepes and Ruth was in charge of the meat. I even had my heart-shaped egg maker that was super cute. I headed back on the train and had to stop myself from dozing off, luckily the small child next to me kept me entertained but did eventually bully me off the train when I accidentally told him I was to get off the stop before I was supposed to and he stated that i needed to get out. As with any Sunday night, it was full of conversations with our loved ones due to the time difference. I exhaust myself now that I can have the freedom of Skype on an iPad and pace to my hearts content. It has been years since I have been able to pace and talk on the phone with the reception to my mobile phone limited to a small corner of our window sill.

I felt good to do nothing on my day off on Monday, to well, catch up on my sleep and relax!

Two Surprise Visits

2011-04-10T13:54:00.001+01:00

The first surprise was when we arrived back from Portugal I got a text from Karen who said she was on the train back up to Dublin and if we would meet up with her before she flew back out in the morning. She surprised her parents with a visit over Christmas so it was great to see her before she headed back to Vancouver. It was good to see all the girls together again!

We were not expect any house visitors this year, so it was a second great surprise a few days later that Bruno and his friend Jaime came for an extended weekend visit. Jaime had never been to Dublin, so we enjoyed the many pubs the city as to offer. After fighting off colds, we were not up to staying out until 3 or 4 in the morning, Bruno more than knows his way around the city, so we gave them the house key and let them explore the city. We took a walk down to see the new docklands, as it had changed immensely since he had left. While checking out the new theater by Liebskind, I was nearly egged by a bunch of skanger children. If Jaime had not told me to watch out, and if I did not have lightening fast reflexes, I would have taken one to the face. I so wanted to run down those little 10 year old punks and teach them a lesson, but they are like a little pack of wolves. Alone they may not be that strong, but as a pack they are fierce. I kept my cool and kept walking since they were not worth it. We hopped on the LUAS instead and headed to the other side of town to see the Criminal Courts since Bruno worked on that as well. Bruno’s little bank building was halfway built, so we hope to have him visit in May when that is completed!

Strange Anomaly #64

2011-04-10T13:52:00.003+01:00

Voting here is unlike anything I have seen before. It does work great for a small country. A person lives within a certain constituency. When it comes time to vote, there is a percentage of the people within the constituency that a candidate would have to get in votes in order to win. A voter goes in and marks the candidates with a number 1, number 2 and so on, for what ranking they want to give each candidate. If there is not a clear winner they keep ruling out the lowest ranking candidate and somehow take the second choice numbers from each individual voter and start adding that so that they kept removing the lowest until their is a clear winner. Confused? I am, but I know I did not explain it the best, but really, it makes sense if you get a good Irish person to explain it.

So at the end of the long weekend there was a new Dáil (house of representatives if you like) and a new Taoiseach (prime minister would be the best example in English) for a complete change in party from the long standing Fianna Fáil to Fine Gael. I asked if there were any left wing type parties (since there are like 6 or maybe 7) and they are not any. Sinn Féin may have been radical during their day (they were the birth of the IRA a long long time ago) but they are pretty right wing now. But when it comes to ‘voting’ in the new Taoiseach, it is not like the states where you vote on the person, instead, when you voted in your candidate for your constituency, it takes into account their party, and whatever party holds the majority in the Dáil, their party leader becomes the country’s new leader. So you vote for the group, not the person. And contrary to what the New York times stated, our new Taoiseach is not a Ms. Edna Kenny it is a Mr. Enda Kenny, who, by the way, looks like the dad from Alias, Victor Garber. RTE did make that mistake, so I am not alone in thinking that.

Our Portuguese New Year

2011-03-23T00:09:00.004Z

We were able to move around our flights for free, and were even able to spend more time in Lisbon for the New Year celebrations. We flew in on the 27th instead, which was nice that the snow finally started to disappear. I don’t do snow. I visit it, but then I leave. I have come to terms with the fact that I would not enjoy living around snow for months on end. With that said, we left the snow behind and were greeted with sunshine. Well, maybe not sunshine, but sun breaks and partially cloudy with minor sprinkles. Rain I can handle!

We exchanged our gifts anyway with Bruno and his family and ate ourselves silly in the process. There are so many yummy, yet fattening Portuguese desserts that neither one of us could live without trying, and of course, sampling again for good measure. Bruno is an excellent cook and with the sea so close, there was seafood at every meal. Now, I love prawns, but after eating them for 4 days straight, for lunch, snack, dinner and yes, even another snack, I was nearly sick of them.

We had a day of touring around Lisbon, since most of our other visits were spent on the beaches. We wandered around the old world fair exhibitions still standing, meandered through the shopping areas, gandered at Callatrava’s work, and even got to see one of Bruno’s designs: a small pedestrian bridge between buildings. We even stumbled across some ice skating, but it was on plastic, so we were not quite sure what to make of that. As the climbed the hills over Lisbon to the old castle ruins, it was great to hear all the sounds and songs of Christmas.

For New Years Eve, we had a feast with some of our old Portuguese friends and some new ones. Rita and Xu brought their new baby, Francesca, and when she started screaming like a dying cat, they knew it was time to head out. Ben noted that I may be good with small children, but I certainly do not look like a natural with small babies. They are so tiny, they sort of freak me out.

We popped the champagne at midnight, which neither of us partook in. Ben does not drink and I do not drink anything with pain in the name. Learned that one the hard way......but I did learn that lesson. We played a great charades type game that was made even more hilarious given the fact that the cards were in Portuguese, so we had to translate, and they had the difficult task of explaining their characters in English, so it was a translating game for both of us. My team crushed them the first round, but Ben’s team finished strong in the second round. I think my team just got too drunk, or else we would have won both. The night came to a close at 5:30 when our eyes could no longer stay open.

Our last day there, we got to have our favourite cakes in Belem, see the potential home that Bruno and Marta are trying to purchase and walk along a very foggy waterfront. The San Francisco bridge tippy-tops and Jesus were the only things sticking out of the clouds. It was a great visit with our two Christmas Travel Buddies, and it really lifted our spirits to get 2011 kick off right!

Family-less Chrimbo

2011-03-23T00:06:00.002Z

Only mere hours before we were booked to leave on our flight to Lisbon for a Portuguese Christmas, it was tragically canceled. No yummy goodies for us, but at least we were not stuck in Prague like my friend Edell who nearly missed Christmas altogether. So Christmas Eve morning I went out in the cold, wind and snow to buy one of the last chickens available, scrapped together enough stuff to make stuffing and dug out an extra can of pumpkin to make a pie. Not traditionally Christmas, but it is holiday enough to suffice for us. It was our first white Christmas and since we had heat and food, we tucked in to watch movies, work another 4000 piece puzzle and made the best of it with our lone Christmas decoration that I had made myself. Ben even let me sing Christmas songs, since I do like to sing them all year!

Strange Anomaly #63

2011-03-22T23:53:00.000Z

When we were walking through a park a dusk the park watchman walked around ringing a bell to warn everyone to get out so he could lock it up. Since they know how to properly do wrought iron fencing here, once you are in, you are in. When you are locked out, there is no real way to get in. Being an expert fence jumper, I know my limits and although I have tried, the sharp spikes sort of put me off wanting to really get in. Their manicured parks are safe from teenagers up to no good. ie: Me at age 16!

Movember

2011-03-17T19:48:00.002Z

During the month of November men grow mustaches for the month of November to bring awareness to Men's Health. We were supposed to collect money for charity, but all our friends are architects, so we knew there was no point in asking for donations. For the whole month I got Ben to grow this and had to crab a picture moments before it was shaved off December 1st. He was hoping to hold out until Christmas to show Bruno, but he did not want it in all our photos since he thought it was a bit porn starish.

Month of Snow

2011-03-17T19:44:00.004Z

As stated in previous post it started snowing on Thanksgiving (the same night our heat broke). For the next 4 weeks it did not go anywhere (and we still did not have heat)! One day, in the middle of this freak cold snap, it snowed nearly 10cm (6 inches) in an afternoon. Did not help in making my already hour walk to work any shorter.

Thankfully I never fell on the ice, although I did 'ice skate' a few times. I take a shortcut though St Patrick's Cathedral gardens every morning, and as I was taking a nice picture of the cathedral, I noticed something in the background. It was a large snow cock. It was no wonder that the next several days the left the garden locked up, and the snow sculpture was smashed. I had previously liked snow, but after being around for a few weeks, I was so over it. No more for me!

It is hard to believe that we just had one of the nicest summers where we could actually sun ourselves and get a tan.....

Strange Anomaly #62

2011-03-17T19:42:00.001Z

There is an Asian market I love to go to for foods and sometimes they have American treats. Sort of strange why they would have it, but I don’t complain. It is my go to place for Root Beer, but the last time I went to pick some up they had Mountain Dew. Now I have never been a big fan of it, but have missed it now that I cannot have it. I looked right on one side, but on the other side it was written in Arabic. It was not bad tasting, but was nothing like what I was expecting. Needless to say I will not be picking up any more of it and will hold out for the Root Beer!

Turkey Day!

2011-02-04T12:58:00.003Z

Thanksgiving this year was a scaled down affair. We just had our closest mates over which made it much more intimate and was a lot less work for me making so many random dishes. With less people, meant more pie for Ben and myself!! Everything went well, and about midnight it started snowing! I have never had a white Thanksgiving, so that was a special treat. Not so special for those that had to crawl home in a taxi that ended up costing them an arm and a leg, but it was pretty.

Strange Anomaly #61

2011-02-04T12:57:00.000Z

I have realised that chivalry is not dead in Ireland. How many guys hold open doors, so make a point of letting me through, or getting into an elevator first and will squish out of the way so that I can get back out of the elevator first. Even when I try to open doors for them, as I am a woman all for equal opportunity, they take it from me and make me go through, they actually insist. I know the feminist in me says I am no weakling, I am your equal, I can get it myself, but there is also the girly side of me that likes it!

A Wedding to Remember

2011-01-28T23:15:00.002Z

We had the honour of creating the wedding video for a couple that we were set up with, via a college mate, that have become our closest friends here. The had a beautiful wedding in the historic City Hall building right under the dome. I always love seeing people’s families and seeing themselves in their parents, brothers/sisters, etc. It was a beautiful ceremony and just as Tori walked up the aisle, the viking boat tours drove by and they gave her an extra loud viking ‘ARGGGG!’ as they passed by. There is the extra part of the ceremony that I was not used to, where they go up to the little table in the front, sit down, and the wedding party signs the legal marriage documents in front of everyone. I was just glad that Ben recorded it since I was too involved watching them, then if I had to think about recording it.

After the ceremony we met up later for ‘afters’ at a nice restaurant. I love this concept of ‘afters’. Invite who you want to the wedding, and then all the extended cousins, friends, co-workers come for the end to party at the reception. I wish the Americans had this concept, especially since I have such a large extended family. Like Portland, Dublin is a big large town, so of course we ran into some obscure friends that we did not even know knew our friends. It is a small world. It was a great night, but as the music cranked louder and louder to where Ben could not be heard over the music, we decided it was time to call it a night.

Strange Anomaly #60

2011-01-28T23:11:00.001Z

There is a Compulsory 2 day marriage course before getting married, if you do it in the church. They go over all sorts of things like sex, living together, compromise, how many children you want, life goals. I would think that if a couple had not talked about those things before the class, only weeks or months before getting married, wow, they could be in for a lot of surprises. Could be good for some people, but I am glad that I figured those things out and did not need a course to talk about them before getting married.

Rugby

2010-12-27T20:43:00.001Z

Ben scored some free Ireland rugby tickets against Argentina! We got to go to the new Lansdowne Road Stadium that had been under construction nearly the entire time we lived here. It has been unusally cold here, and it freakishly snowed in November several inches, so when put on all the layers we had and slipped and slided our way through the 40 minute walk to the stadium. We got there just at kick-off and had FRONT ROW tickets nearly at the half line. We were 10 feet (3 meters) from them. It was great. I could hear the grunts commign from the scrum and some of the harder tackles. It was not one of the better games, as I think Argentina did not know how to play in the snow, and we crushed them 29-9! It was a great game in the snow and was a nice romantic walk. Seeing the new stadium was something I really wanted to do, but it was even better that it was free!

Wild West of Mayo

2010-12-27T20:39:00.002Z

With Ben in the States, I decided to do something he would not want to do. Head out West to Mayo and ride horses on the beach. I was so glad that I still knew how to ride. After a one hour ride in the ring to prove that I knew what I was doing, Attila and I took Pipper out for a two hour trek at low tide on Bertra Beach in Clew Bay at the foot of Croagh Patrick.

It was a bit drizzly out, but no wind. It was so exhilarating to ride like the wind on the beach. I was alone with the trainer so he could correct me as I went, making it a much smoother ride. It was great! The horse was also huge, 17hh. When I stood flat footed, I could not see over his back. I had a great time, and then treated myself to a seaweed bath and massage in the hotel’s spa since the stiffness of my unused muscles was setting in. The hotel had several fireplaces that I could curl up in front of, do a bit a writing/reading, drink a pint and have a nice hot meal. It was a good treat to myself while Ben was away!

Strange Anomaly #59

2010-12-27T20:36:00.001Z

Death notices in the newspaper tell where they lived and they do a body removal which is another part of the funeral process either from the home after a wake when they would be in the dining room or from the funeral parlor to the church. My mate even went out and dug his grandfather's grave the night before with his dad and uncles.

Lately I have been also designing a crematorium, using my thesis research, and it has been quite interesting to relearn some the cultural differences in death and the death ritual in societies. Should prove to be quite interesting, but just glad to be using something I actually enjoyed learning about!

Architecture Open house

2010-12-27T20:25:00.002Z

Another year had gone by, so it was time to do the Dublin Architecture tour. We saw a few home with my co-worker Paul and his fantastic wife Meg, who puts up with three babbling architects. First off was a typical Dublin ‘villa’ with front steps leading to a piano nobile over a low garden level. The architect was a bit bumbling but was quite interesting to go over the intensive renovation. Next up was a contemporary terrace of ‘double return’ mews housing is at the interface of artisan terraced housing. It was very stark materials, very cold, but true to the materials nature. It was interesting but not quite a place I would want to live. The floor boards were so spaced apart that anyone in heals walking around would be walking through an obstacle course, not to mention the gigantic particles of food that could fall through the huge cracks.

Day two we started with the new Trinity College Long Room Hub Humanities research building. Perching on the end of the Arts Block, it closes Fellows Square and frames the view from Front Square over the roof of the 1937 Reading Room. The new building is seen as a powerhouse of ideas; the honeycomb granite surface is broken and imprecise; large rooflights form canons of light and create dramatic tall spaces for work and research. It was a pretty awesome building that was detailed superbly. Very clean and well through out. This lead up to the awesome crown jewel of the tour. Nun’s Lane is a contemporary residence and workplace on a garden-estate in Killester. The dual function of home and office is expressed in two distinct cubes. Inside, the house reveals great innovation in layout of spaces, changing levels and material choices. It is the type of house that Ben and I would someday like to design for ourselves. It was breathtaking. Very modern, but still functional and not too cold. It still felt like a home. It was a good way to end the two day tour, with something that took our breaths away....

Halloween

2010-11-29T13:12:00.002Z

Jen, who just moved to Switzerland, came back for a short weekend visit. We met up on Halloween for a dinner. Now, I love to dress up for Halloween but the crowd she hangs with are so not the type. We were going to a very civilized dinner so I decided that since I tarted myself up the best I could I would secretly be going as an off-duty super model (did I mention I LOVE to dress-up?) and even one of the drunks I passed during the evening guessed my costume. (OK, I had to drop that in there for my ego, a compliment is still a compliment). We had a fabulous dinner where I tried to follow their speedy Italian. Even though my Italian consists of hello/goodbye, thank you, little mouse, and princess; I was able to follow along for the most part. Crazy, I know!

Jen's boyfriend Neil knows the owner of one of the nightclubs Krystal, and got us in for free to the VIP area. Our group of 10 were about the only ones not in costume. I was proud of Dublin since I had never seen so many people dressed up before. Very proud. But I had forgotten that it is a night for women to dress like street walkers. Even I was surprised at how many times I glimpsed neither regions I just should not see. One of the costumes consisted of a full body see-through nylon that only had small crystals over the groin and nipples. Wow. The best costumes of the night had to go to the group of Princess Leia's each dressed as a different Leia from Star Wars. Slave Leia, white dress with the hair buns, bounty hunter, it was great! My days of dressing up as Slave Leia may be over, but I am glad that there are other options too.

Ben's away and the girls will play

2010-11-29T12:40:00.007Z

Katrin came over from Germany to visit while Ben was away. We had a packed schedule for the four days she was here. Straight off the plane it was off to Dun Loughaire to walk by the sea, have some Guinness and eat some seafood chowder. We went into the new office so she could see it, but sadly on a Friday no one is around. Marcella stuck around for a bit of dinner, and soakage, before heading out with the old OMP gang for a night of pints at Hogans. It was like old times. The good old times!

Saturday was up early to see the new baby of Brian and Cathy's who is only a few weeks younger than Abe. It is good to see a baby about his size so I can judge how big he is since Ben was actually at home being able to play with Abe. We enjoyed our tea in the sunlight spilling into her penthouse apartment while the baby slept soundly. It was nice to catch up with Cathy and some other work friends while there. After an afternoon of civilized tea, we took a walk with another couple along the Grand Canal Docks. We managed to give ourselves a self guided tour through the new Opera/Theater building. We got kicked out, but luckily we were done exploring. Our architect excuse did not work this time. Usually it does work and we get a bit of leeway for taking a peek at buildings. After a few drinks watching the rain come down on the canal and a beautiful sunset, we were back to my house for a few drinks before heading out for some dancing. Jazzanova (from Germany infact) pioneers of brilliant happy dance music are playing in the twisted pepper. I do love to dance, but I have never been a big one for house music and after 6 hours of dancing to it, by the end I was just bored. It was good to get the dancing out of my system.

Sunday it was our sleep in day before heading over to get some playtime with some of our friends little girls. Freya is about 5 and we had an amazing time building Legos and drawing. Apparently my sheep are terrible, but I can do a decent horse and have a fabulous Stegosaurus. I was amazed with how many dinosaurs she knew, and even more amazed that I knew how to draw them. Michelangelo has nothing to worry about, but it was fun to remind myself that I do know how to draw. Their younger daugher Mathilda has the cubbiest cheeks and is such a good little baby. When took the girls to the park and we played for hours on the equipment so Katrin could talk with Eoin and Christina since she was so close with them. As the sun set, we went to one of my favorite pubs, The Library Bar, where I kept Freya entertained with drawing the universe as she sipped her hot cchocolate. Children at that age are just little sponges, soaking up information. We went over the entire universe, she could name all the planets, and by the end we could draw the all. Rings, big red spot and moons. I was impressed. When they had to put the little ones to bed, I made a quiet dinner at home since we had to rise early and take Kat back to the airport. It was a quick trip, but one that was much needed sinced I was getting a bit lonely without Ben around for so long.

Strange Anomaly #58

2010-11-29T12:40:00.002Z

When dancing in a club here, I do not need to initiate the dancing girl circle like we do in the States so we can watch out for our girlfriends to see who is trying to dancing with them and give them the nod or violent shake of our heads in approval. It was so nice to dance all night long and not have someone come up from behind and grind on me. I like that the Irish men were not overly aggressive and we could all have a good time.

31 in with a bang, out with a sigh

2010-10-29T13:46:00.000+01:00

Ben flew to the States on my 32nd birthday. I mean what is 32? Definetly no where near your twenties, not quite mid thirties, still a ways away from 40, sort of a nothing birthday. At my age my mom had a 7 and 5 year old, and Grandma K was a first time grandmother and last time being a new mother. I cannot imagine having a grandchild right now! Times certainly have changed. Instead of being alone, Tori rescued me from myself and we had a wonderful night of bloody Marys, take away Indian food and a crap movie. It was a good birthday!

Nuns on a daily basis

2010-10-29T13:42:00.001+01:00

On my way into work everyday, I pass a group of nuns who live in the area. They do still wear their habits, but they are short and grey. Not sure what the difference is, but it is just an odd thing to see everyday, a pack of nuns.

Polish Yum Yums

2010-09-26T16:37:00.001+01:00

My friend Ania is the first name in my phone, so when I forget to unlock it and just threw it into my handbag, it is amazing the random stuff I can send her. With her daughter in Poland for the summer, I have been helping to keep her busy, so she invited me over to dinner to teach me about Polish food. She made us some handmade pierogi and żurek. It was a great night to explore different foods and just catching up over wine.

When my other Polish friend Daria came back from Egypt after working on the National Polish Archeological dig, we had another little lunch where Daria made some pureed beet sauce poured over some dumplings and roasted duck with apples called kaczka z jabłkami accompanied with some gravy over pyzy (a potato dumpling). The names totally escape me on some of the other things that she made but it was delicious none the less.

Next time I just need Ania or Daria to take me to the market and translate all the food names that look so interesting!

Strange Anomaly #57.1 and 57.2

2010-09-26T16:36:00.000+01:00

This is a two for one deal:

First we have had a pretty amazing summer. That in itself is an anomaly since these last few years have been some of the worst on record for a while.

Second there have been icecream trucks. Ok, that may not be strange, but I had never seen them before and I have seen a few now. Little vans driving around blaring music, and what is so anomalous about his is the fact that they were blaring Yankee Doodle Dandy. I heard/saw this two diffrent times with two different vehicles. It may not be the norm, but it was strange none the less. I was great seeing all the kids pour out of their houses and chase after it!

World Cup 2010

2010-08-26T21:57:00.001+01:00

I have been an avid soccer player most of my life and although I would get up early in America to watch past World Cup tournaments, it is great living in Europe and getting the full force of the excitement! Ireland was not included in this due to a handball by France, so there was not as much excitement in this country, but still exciting none the less. At work we even hooked up our telly to catch a few matches during the day.

More countries to check 'The List'!

2010-08-26T21:44:00.010+01:00

Luxembourg, France, Belgium and Germany in just 4 days! Katrin lives right on the boarder of those three countries in Germany so with them being so close, I could not resist. I was not going to let the eruption of Eyjafjöll volcano in Iceland ruin my trip! With all the ash in the air so many flights had to be canceled and I originally had to miss out on going for Dominic's birthday. But once the two of them split up, I still was going to go to support my friend! On the night before the big trip the ash did spoil it and had to be canceled, luckily the two other lads that were going to accompany me got to also get a refund. Fast forward two months later, and I finally got to go back again! Third trip is the charm!

Upon leaving a cold and rainy Ireland, I landed in a warm and sunny Germany! Since it is quite a drive from Saarlouis to the airport, we stopped on the side of the road, took out a blanket and sat next to some old ruins and had a mini picnic. After we had our snack, it was off to a Lake to enjoy a mid day cold beer and listen to someone playing their huge Swiss horn. We had a dinner with her sister and boyfriend who have amazing English. It was a good evening trying all different types of wines, whiskeys, appretieves and beers of course all whilst sitting on their back porch over looking their garden. By nightfall, we finally made it to her father's house to relax and play with his dog Spider, the frisbee catching superstar!

The next morning we rose early, since it was getting hotter and hotter, and drove with her sister to Strasbourg, France. It is a great little city, with the river intertwining through the city creating all sorts of canals, similar to Brugge or Venice. I even got to try out what little bit of French I have retained to order some fantastic wine. We strolled through the city just soaking up the sunshine. That night was Saarlouis's summer festival, similar to the Rose Festival for those that live around Portland. We met up with some of her friends and just strolled through the throngs of people going from stage to stage listening to various music, sampling all the beer. The three of us girls, Kat, myself and her sister, Hannah, had a great time singing on our way back to the house.

Since it was a late evening, we had a bit of a sleep in before driving into the main county capitol of Saarbrücken so Kat could perform in a flash mob. Since I knew what was going to happen I positioned myself next to a main open plaza. Suddenly music came from no where and some dancers appeared out of the crowd of unsuspecting shoppers and started dancing. The song changed and suddenly 50 people joined them from the crowd, Kat included, to do what looks like an impromptu dance routine. When the music ended, they just walked off like nothing happened. It was great to watch! With the temperature rising even higher, we decided that a milkshake was just what we needed.

I met a few more of her new friends, and I realized she has a good group of people around her back home. We strolled down the river and laid out in the sun next to the beer garden, enjoying some sausages and beer. My kind of lazy weekend. That night was the closing of the week long festival, so again we took the 10 minute stroll from her dad's house into the city centre to enjoy the fire work show and concerts.

A week before I arrived, Katrin had lost her job, and although she had done a few interviews, her last one was up in her old university town, so we took a road trip up to Aachen to stay the night and go to her interview. We took the long way around just so we could detour into Luxembourg City, where we had a wonderful breakfast, and into Belgium, seeing where my friend Jen is from, Liege. We arrived in Aachen just in time for a pretty spectacular thunder storm. No lightening, but pure rumbling in your gut thunder. Her interview went well and we had much to discuss while wandering around her old college town, taking in the sights. It was a great last night in Germany!

I was so happy to get and see her hometown, college area, and meet her entire family. Although I have been to Germany many times now, it was great spending it in a more remote part of the country and seeing it through the eyes of the locals. Next time maybe I can bring Ben on a not so stressful trip!

Strange Anomaly #56

2010-08-26T21:44:00.001+01:00

I find myself trying to still be the good little hippy that I am by recycling and buying items that are good for the environment and what not. But I got confused when shopping for clothes washing soap and the blue one was 'Non-Bio' and the green one was 'Bio'. I of course buy the 'Bio' but finally got a reason for what it means and had to share in my discovery:

"Biological washing powder contains enzymes which break down stains etc in the wash .Non Bio doesn't contain the enzymes.
In terms of the environmental impact, neither system is perfect.
Whilst the enzymes contained in a biological wash powder may take longer to disperse in the environment, the temperatures for washing can be lower than for a non-biological powder. The non-bio powder could take a higher temperature to do the same wash, which uses more electricity and water and this also has an environmental impact.
Unless you have really filthy wash I would avoid biological powder."

Plus the non-bio leaves your clothes softer and they all use it for washing their baby clothes. Maybe we should make the switch especially since I think after air drying my trousers could almost stand up on their own.

Super Shoes!

2010-07-12T23:09:00.002+01:00

I have recently jumped aboard the Sketcher's Shape-up bandwagon! Since I walk a hour (each way) to work, I realized that I do a lot of walking. And since I go through shoes like most people go through bars of soap, I decided it was time to invest in a proper pair of shoes. One the the girls here at work has a pair and is in amazing shape with a tight perky backside (nevermind the fact that I am over a decade older then her) but I was convinced that if I get these shoes, then my dariair will look just like hers! I wore them all over Scandinavia and whenever I am not a work, I have them on. They definitely have gotten better looking since the first MBT's came out, and do work different muscles brilliantly, but they still are not that cute looking. They do their job and I am well on my way to toning up to get back my early twenties shape! So far so good!

Scandinaivia: Part Deux

2010-07-12T22:52:00.009+01:00

It is that time of year again for me to go on our big holiday of the summer! With our time in Europe drawing to a close, I checked the 'Must See' list and Scandinavia was still not crossed off. I found a great travel agency that booked all of our hotels and transportation between the three remaining capitols: Helsinki, Finland; Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway. Ben's hopes were not set that high as he knew nothing of these places and I knew I could blow his socks off!

First stop on the tour was Helsinki. One of the main sights on this stop was to see Alver Aalto's work. He did a great library down in Mount Angel and we wanted to see more of his work in his home country. It was a bit overcast and misty, but was comfortable enough for being so far up north. Our hotel was central enough that we could get to everything we wanted to see. First day was all city centre stuff, Presidential palace, Rock Church, most of Aalto's more functional work, the seaportside market, the large bustling market hall and taking a walking tour around the scenic residential quarter. We walked through botanical gardens and lounged on the steps of city hall. We had worked up quite an appetite so we had a big dinner of various fish and reindeer. No Dasher this year for Santa, because we ate him! The next day we took a tour boat out to the zoo early in the day. There are so many little islands that constantly have little boats going out to them. The zoo was great, but I love zoos! The animals were all up and about since it was a bit rainy and not that cold. The lion was pacing right in front of the thick glass, nothing like looking a full grown male lion in the eye with only 2 inches of glass between us! Exciting stuff! I got to see a few different wild cats that I had never seen before and a European Lynx chowing down on a full rabbit, ethically euthanized of course. I had never had seen that before, glad they did not throw him a slab of beef, since rabbit is what he really would eat, guts, fur, eyeballs and all. We took a walk around one of the many lakes since Finland is know as the land of a thousand lakes and I believe it. We caught the last few of the Aalto buildings before the sun disappeared around 10 at night.

The last day in Finland we did a quick walk around the central park and a few of the museums before we boarded our cruise ship! We left Helsinki just before dinner time, so on board we had a great seafood dinner, walked around the large cruise ship, watched an acrobatic performance, listened to one of the worst Drag performances ever and take some great pics of the islands. We watched a movie on the laptop and tucked into our respective bunks for a bit of shut eye. By the time we got up the next morning, we had time for a quick shower, another fabulous breakfast and we were off the boat by 9am to have a whole extra day in Stockholm then previously thought! And the other great thing was, our old friend the sun was there to greet us! A quick note of all our hotels, they were amazing. Comfortable, clean, free Wifi, free buffet breakfast that was fabulous and were always centrally located right next to the ports/train stations for easy getting around.

The first day we set out in Stockholm to see the old city centre, with the winding medieval streets and Royal Palace. We had lunch sitting outside in the sun, took a nap on the seaport side on a bench, wandered over to the Nobel Peace prize place and of course dinner at Hard Rock Cafe to get that ever collectible shotglass. I even dragged Ben over to a chocolatier that claimed to have the world's best hot chocolate. It was pretty good and we even picked up some chocolate to snack on for the rest of the trip. Stockholm was beautiful, the women were stunning, the men were attractive, it was one of the cleanest cities I have ever been in and of course the fact that it was sunny and hot helped immensely! We strolled through one of the many large parks that sits on its own little island, since Stockholm is made up of many different islands. We went up a telecommunications tower to look out over the city at the 30th storey. Ben was surprised since when you walk in, it does not look very welcoming and looks a bit utilitarian. It was one of my many tricks up my sleeve! The other surprise, was the Absolut Ice Bar, where the entire bar, seats, tables, walls, and even your glasses are made of ice. We had to wear thick jackets and gloves they provided and of course got a free drink. It was a bit kitsch, but still interesting!

We also went to several museums over the few days, and we have collectively decided that the museums of Sweden are WEIRD! No real way to describe how surreal they are, and just all out strange unless you see them yourselves. We were a bit disappointed in the viking museum and even more so in the Norse museum since it wall all about how Swedish interiors. Our last day in the city was during a bank holiday so mostly everything was closed. We strolled around the city and just had a great time visiting the Östermalmshallen Food Court where it is a huge market for food, the Kungsträdgården was in full bloom with Cherry Blossoms to get some great photos, and got to see a fancy changing of the guard at the castle. We never did get to go into the Royal Palace, but once you have seen the British crown jewels, nothing else will really compare.

For the last leg of the trip, we took a 6 hour train ride to Oslo. The closer we got to Norway, the cloudier the weather, until finally it was lashing rain! LASHING! We stopped for one of the most expensive crappy meals we ever had, €45/$55 for a small nacho, a sandwich and two tap waters. Needless to say, Norway was just as expensive as we were warned. The next morning we ate as much as we could with breakfast and headed out umbrella in hand. We took a walk around the Royal Palace, up the main streets, through town into the Vigeland Sculpture Park. A Norwegian sculpture had over 200 pieces of his work there, and we walked all over the huge park getting up close and personal to it. We stopped for lunch on the waterfront, and that is when the torrential downpours began. We walked up through the Akershus Fortress and old Castle, taking refuge in some of the old outbuildings and finally crossing the drawbridge back into the modern parts of town. Since I was tired, my feet hurt, was all wet, we headed back to the hotel to wait it out. Luckily by dinner time, it had cleared up a bit and we got to walk all over the Opera house. This was a great architectural marvel. It was loosely based on an iceberg/glacier idea. The white marble snaked up the building that the pedestrians could walk all the up the side of it, up to the roof with the main performance area popping up as glass in the middle. We got to walk inside to see the ramps of the entrances spiral upwards similar to Guggenheim, but in wood, not plaster. I was glad Ben talked me into going to see this. We had a great dinner and tucked in for an early night since we had to catch the train at 5am to get home. Although I wish we had another day to properly see the fjords and other things outside of the city centre, with how much it cost, maybe it was not such a bad thing to give it a miss.

With being so far up north the summer nights are long. The sun comes up before 4am and sets well after 10pm. We got to the train station, after paying a small fortune, we caught the direct train out to the airport. We checked in, got through security, found our gate and just waited until we were ready to board. So far, so good. But within minutes of us getting ready to board, our flight was canceled due to the ash funny-business.

We got all our luggage, headed back out to the main airport area and began queueing to talk to an airport representative. We were told we had three options: 1) cancel the trip and get a full refund, no. 2) Wait a two more days and get on the next flight to Dublin and hope that the ash does not delay that one too, nope. 3) Get a flight somewhere else. So I asked if they flied to London, and yes, we could get one of the last flights heading into there in a few hours. So England bound we now were. I knew before hand, that if I could get to London, I could always get home on the ferry, so there was a Plan B if you will. We landed in London and found out our options there 1) take a £250 flight into Dublin per person ($700 total) or 2) take the train/ferry the next day for £32 each ($80 total). But the cheaper transportation option meant stay a night in London. Now, even though I had a Plan B, I still was not prepared with maps and hotels, so in desperation I rang my friends Irish mobile number that I had hoping that she still had it since she was now living in London. Not only did she have it on, she was home and she came to collect us and stay with her for the night. She did say the last time I saw her that if I was ever in London, I could come and stay, so I just took her up on it. Her boyfriend made us an amazing dinner, and three bottles of wine later, we were all caught up on our gossip, happenings in life and general complaints about our office. Early the next morning Ben and I took three different train rides through England and Wales over to catch the ferry, which took about 1 1/hours to take us into Dublin city. I had always wanted to take the ferry, but not necessarily under these circumstances. We made it home a day late, very stinky, but very happy. Scandinavia may be expensive, but well worth the trip. Next time Arctic Circle and try and find Santa!!

Strange Anomaly #55

2010-07-12T22:50:00.002+01:00

Now every town/county/country has its own planning requirements for architecture. But one strange one I came across recently in order to get planning permission was a Bat survey. Although they are not endangered here, I had to find a bat specialist, of which there are many, have him sonically try and find bats in the existing structures we want to have removed and survey the rest of the site to see if there were only ‘ a solitary bat such as an immature female, a male or a non-breeding female up to several hundred pregnant or lactating females’ and take into ‘consideration of the impact of demolition on the feeding and commuting behaviour of the surrounding bat fauna.’

(Un)Holy Thursday Mess

2010-06-12T13:11:00.001+01:00

It tragically has become the story of the month.... more redundancies. With more being laid off with each coming month, that means that there are more leaving do's. This time it was saying goodbye to Colin. The Thursday before Easter was the last work day so since this was also our last time working in Milltown before moving to Terenure, we headed to McSorley's for one last blow out. Past and present employees turned out in droves. NOt only to say goodbye to our comrades, but also to get in the last drinks before Good Friday. Good Friday and Christmas are the only illegal times for a pub to be open. So promptly at 11:30 on Holy Thursday the lights flashed for last call and by midnight, no more drinks. You would think that people would not be able to get drink for the next year as they cleared out the shelves at the market or off-license, but it only was for 24 hours. Edell and I took off at last call since it was getting quite messy with people picking each other up, swinging each other around and hugs and crying. None of the above for me thanks. I said my goodbyes and the two of us tottered off to get some greasy yummy chips for the walk back into town. Good end to a sad night, but I will see these people again, either in Oz or North America sooner rather than later!

Strange Anomaly #54

2010-06-12T13:09:00.001+01:00

The post man in the city centre does not have a funny little car he drives around, no he cycles all the post to everyone. Super sturdy bike like the old durable WWII looking things, and has a large basket in the front and two huge satchels hanging down on either side by the back wheel. Much more economical but I do feel sorry for them in all the rain and wind with no vehicle to try and get warm in.

The Chapel to Argus House

2010-06-01T07:58:00.006+01:00

After a three years in The Chapel at OMP we could not longer fill it and were rattling around in the place. In a strange deal, we are swapping buildings with another company, and moving out. It will still be an hour walk to work, but just not a nice of a walk. The Chapel was meant to hold 130 and by the time of the move we are now only 30 in Dublin. Change will be good, but sitting in front of the rose window for the last few years has been quite nice.

Now I sit in front of a broken, yet thankfully not drafty, fireplace. It is a cosy old house that was converted to offices. Just a bummer that we have no canteen, just an old picnic table sitting in the middle of the carpark. Plus our desks are half the size, so now I have stuff flowing over and piles and trying to eat around the piles is acrobatic work!

Strange Anomaly #53

2010-06-01T07:57:00.000+01:00

We have been reading out loud at work the daily trivia, and most of them I was slow on the draw for, or when it came to English History I was a bit fuzzy, but nailed the US ones. But one that stumped me (that I so would have gotten) asked how many stars are in 'The Plow'. Is it a TV show? Movie? Celebrity reality show that I had never heard of? None of the above actually. After the bewildered looks I got from them when I evidently a bit slow for not knowing what they were talking about, some laughter and a fair bit of gesturing, it was revealed that is was none other than the 'Big Dipper'. I so should have gotten that question! Yet another example of same thing, different name. A few others that fall into that category is board games: Sorry = Ludo, Clue = Cluedo and Drafts = Checkers.

M+J in Dublin

2010-06-01T07:52:00.005+01:00

Misti and Johnny came to visit! YAY! Even though I just saw them for their wedding, this was a second Honeymoon for them. Within minutes of landing, I had them fed, showered, quick cat nap, and out for a pint of the black stuff in Ireland's smallest pub! Ben had to work the first part of the week, so we got a tour of Ben's new office that had just been completed that I had not even gotten a chance to see. To save on money for us as well as them, we cooked at home and got to enjoy Johnny's AMAZING salsa and other culinary delights that his mother send us recipes to.

I did give them one day on their own, but they slept in until 2 in the afternoon and I think caught up on the last year of sleep with having a little one in the house.

Luckily Irish museums are free, so between the sunny, albeit cold weather, we were having, we brought along our sandwiches, I gave them a free tour of Dublin parks, art museums, Dublin Castle, Chester Beaty Library and past the great churches. We ended the night in Ireland's Oldest Pub (you will see the trend here).

I wanted them to meet my 'Irish Family' so on the Saturday night I invited all of my friends over, made a big pot of my Mexican surprise and had a few beers in the house. A great way for both of my family of friends to meet each other. We also hired a car so Misti could try out driving as well on the opposite side. We took them to our favourite haunts outside of the city centre: Glendalough, Newgrange, Monistaboice and of course Ireland's highest pub, Johnny Foxes. Since we had loads of drink left over from Christmas time from clients, some bottles of wine from Thanksgiving as well as Birthday bottles of Whiskey, we spent most of our evenings playing various different games at the house and drinking all our free stuff. We even invented a new game: Irish Barbarian Pirate Rummy (a take on Norwegian Rummy that they taught us). And of course lots of Farkle.

Of course, what would a trip in the Big Smoke be without going to see the Guinness Brewery, Jameson Store house (Johnny and I are big whiskey drinking fans), and a few pubs within city centre. They took a trip into Temple Bar and with two pints coming to the equivalent of $20, we were not going to be drinking in town. Which this has to be Ireland's most expensive pub.

The time was short but sweet, and I think we crammed in as much as we could without spending a fortune, it is always great going underbudget when you are on holiday. Just nice to see our friends that we have missed so much!

Strange Anomaly #52

2010-05-29T14:08:00.002+01:00

Firefighters not the studmuffins they are in America, or should I say the Fire Brigade. I know as for myself I desperately wanted to be a FireMAN when I grew up after watching my neighbours house burn down, and when I realized that I was 1) not going to become a man, much to Ben’s delight and 2) that although women can do the job, I just would not be bodybuilder enough material to do the job physically well. As I was told by a Northener, the firefighters as not as well respected due to that fact that when the ‘Troubles’ we going on up North, they did not want the firemen to put out their fires so bottles and rocks were thrown at them.

As with the imagery provided below one can also see the hotness factor. Maybe if the Irish ones spoke, it would give them a few additional hot points for the accents, but for the most part, I have never met an ugly American firefighter. And for the record, the Irish man was in a calendar as Mr. May of 2007. If this is the type that makes it into a calendar, Case. And. Point.

St Patrick's Jewelry

2010-05-02T01:43:00.002+01:00

Meg, Paul's wife, has been a great contributor to my creation of jewelry. The night before St. Patrick's Day she invited all of her co-workers over to her place for a little boozy fun before the jewelry shopping. I had all of it laid out, and after a few bottles of wine, some nibbles and chats later, they were ready to shop. Out of the 8 there, they all bought at least one thing, and one even bought stuff for her wedding. That is awesome! The extra cash definitely helps and it funds me doing even more pieces. So in true Irish fashion, my eyes were hanging out of my head the next day after drinking too much wine, so it is great that we get that as a national holiday! Just have to remember why I usually limit myself to one or two glasses of wine, not one or two bottles..... I always have learned the hard way!

Strange Anomaly #51

2010-05-02T01:41:00.000+01:00

Sirens have all different sounds. Some sound like US police and others sound like mainland Europe. When I asked about this, I was told people were less able to igonore them if they change around since people do not move out of the way in emergencies as quickly as they do in the States.

10,000 Miles in 5 Days

2010-04-01T08:31:00.006+01:00

I was super exited when Misti announced she was getting married and even happier when she asked me to be in it! But I live thousands of miles away and had no holiday time left to take. So luckily she just happened to plan it during one of our bank holidays and with how much overtime I work I was able to work the hours in the same week and did not have to take anytime off.

So Thursday morning I caught a plane and few all day to reach Portland just before midnight. Friday mom and I drove the 5+ hours to Shady Cove just in time to do hugs, wedding rehearsal, quick dinner and then into bed. Saturday was the wedding all day long which was amazing. No bridezilla moments. Karaoke to some country songs. Aiden got involved with the vows since he could not understand why everyone was staring at his parents and he was not the centre of attention. I was such a wonderful day to not only to see two people that belong together get married, but all of our friends that I have missed so much.

Sunday after a quick breakfast where nearly the entire wedding took over the restaurant, it was back up to Portland but with Mark and Whitney with us! They were heading back to Arizona but leaving out of Portland as well to see Mark's family. It was great being able to catch up over such a long drive. I had enough time in Portland to see my brother and his wife. Then Monday back on the plane and straight into work after landing. It was hard for me to believe how quick that trip was and that I was even in America!

Strange Anomaly #50

2010-04-01T08:30:00.000+01:00

Teachers go by first names. Started when most of the teachers were nun, Sister Mary, Sister Aofie but now the just call the teached who are not nuns by only their first name. No Ms. Arstad or Mrs. Gould, but plain Meg.

Warning: Do not stab freezer with knives

2010-03-20T20:03:00.001Z

Our freezer has never worked properly since the door never closed all the way so within a few weeks it would completely freeze over. One day when I was trying to fit my pie crusts into the freezer to make room I started chipping away at the ice. Well, it sort of slipped and punctured the side and freon started coming out. Needless to say, that fridge died. Our landlord was nice enough to buy us a new one and since it was so cold, I climbed inside the empty box. I loved playing in boxes as a child, and of course I still like to. I kept it in the house for about a week, but then since we live in a small place I could not stand it being in our space anymore so it was recycled. But I still love playing in oversized boxes!!

Strange Anomaly #49

2010-03-20T20:00:00.002Z

No Juvenile detention halls. Even though kids act up they just get a fine and the parents pay it, then they are right back out on the street selling the drugs to pay back their parents. After the rock hidden in the snow ball hit me, and watching many other teenage boys act up around the city, I can understand why they do whatever they want. There are not consequences.

Courts Tour

2010-03-20T19:33:00.006Z

Ben worked nearly three years on the new Criminal Courts building and it had its grand opening! A few weeks before final completion they had a friends and family tour. Since we do not have any family here, we picked the next best thing, friends that are family. Colin joined us as our family and we also figured since he was Irish he would have a bit of interest in the countries newest criminal court, purely as a curious bystander of course.

Pete, Ben's boss, was the head of our group. We got to go to all the places that the public would never be allowed to: The awesome views from the judges chambers, their private ensuites in their offices, walking within the double skin service area and even down into the holding cells. That was cool! The place that I was looking forward to seeing was the child witness room that Ben did most of the design for. Now since I can never be a child again, I will most likely never be an Irish child witness so this was my one chance to see it. Even though I think the room was awesome, there are so many other cooler things to photograph so I may never have another chance to see it.

For the grand public opening, Ben went but was not allowed to bring guests since the President was there to speak. He may not have met her, but I still think it is pretty cool that he got to see her in person!

When Misti and Johnny were here after being open for a month or so, we gave ourselves a self guided tour and got to snicker at the judged who still wear those silly looking white wigs that seem so outdated. It was great to see at least on of the projects that we have worked on get built!

Strange Anomaly #48

2010-03-20T19:32:00.000Z

Our washer eats our clothes. It turns our whites grey, our blacks grey and well our greys other colours. This happens why? Because the hot water tapped right into the washer and apparently this happens quite often construction cuts corners. Just another glorious little quirk of our place!

Portuguese New Year in Germany

2010-02-20T12:54:00.007Z

We had originally planned on spending Christmas in Lisbon with Bruno, but since he picked up a bit of work in Ulm, Germany; we went there instead! Our second year of a cold winter with Bruno and Marta. The only difference was this year, there were about 10 other unexpected people showing up including his family to the event. Not what we expected, but in true Bruno fashion everyone was included and we had a great time!

The Medieval Christmas Market in Neu Ulm with a great atmosphere which was very "medieval", very good mulled wine and amazing typical types of food (a sort of a Medieval fast food). It was great also seeing all the patrons dressed up in true Visagoth fashion! The city of Ulm is quite small and the real highlight is a building designed by a woman who worked for Richard Meier that was built right next to the old cathedral, it so does not fit in there. So needless to say, if that was the architectural highlight, there really was not that much to see in Ulm.

Just Ben and myself went into Augsburg to visit with his friend Oliver who lives there. He toured us around the town and we were able to get a traditional lunch made by his partner and meet his family. It was a nice quiet day.

We also made use of the Bavarian Ticket to head into Munich with the girls for the day while the boys worked. I got to play tour guide as I have been before and with my impecible timing, we were at the glockenspiel just as it struck noon so they could see the little dancers. Last time I was here it was sweltering hot so it was a vast difference.

We drove up to a small ski resort near the Austrian boarder and watched some Olympic Ski Jumping. No tricks, just flying really far off the jump. After about the third one we saw we were done being enthused and went to get some coffee. It was funny watching Duarte, Bruno's little brother, sled down ice on a garbage bag. None of us wanted to get involved, that just did not look that comfortable! Nothing like seeing grown men see snow for the first time and get all giddy! They were all excited about the snow ball fights.

We also headed over to Austria to see Lake Constance. It was beautiful but I could only imagine how great it would look during the height of summer. Pretty little towns along the lake, but sort of depressing to see in the winter. We all strolled down the lake side. And when I mean stroll, walk as slow as you can and then walk half as slow as that and you get the Portuguese saunter.

Our last day was spent going over to Neuschwanstein the castle that Walt Disney based his castle on. I had been there during the summer but I have to say the views are amazing in the snow! Since we were so late getting out of Ulm, we did not get a tour inside, but it was a nice day in the sun and snow for the hike up to the castle!

At the end of the trip we were so ready to leave the snow and when we got home to Ireland, there was even more snow here! But that is altogether another story....

Christmas with the McDonnell's

2010-02-20T12:46:00.003Z

Christmas morning was a quiet one this year, just the two of us doing a video chat with my parents, 6am our time and 10pm Christmas Eve. It was great watching them open their gifts since I had even forgotten what I even brought home for them when we came to visit for Tobias's wedding in July.

Since we have no family here in Ireland, it was great getting invited to spend Christmas day with my 'adopted' family here, the McDonnell's. I have met most of Sean's family before, so it was not super awkward when we showed up Christmas day. We were so excited to spend the day with family even if it was not our own. We sat down to the most amazing dinner, heaped up on our plates, and then they put down even more food on the table. Ham, turkey, 4 types of potatoes, cooked carrots, cawlifolower, brocoli (and yes I even at the brocoli after I rolled it around in mash potatoes and gravey so I would not feel the icky brustly things and then swallowed whole), stuffing, hot pinapple, brussle sprouts, indian parsnips and gravey. It was so good, and I knew that I had to eat everything on my plate. Once we ate, the kids got to open their Santy gifts. It was pure mayhem when all the gift opening started. Mama McDonnell even gave us gifts (I am glad that we brought her something). With the ice that has been forming, Sean's sister slipped and broke her leg, so it was an eventful day. Once the kids were squared away with their gifts and the boys, including Ben, disappeared upstairs to play with the new Xbox, we tucked into some dessert. There were three different desserts; triffle, Christmas Pudding and chocolate espresso mousse pots. So good but by then I was ready to explode. We had a good bit of banter with the wine flowing and around midnight Sean got us home. It was a good end to a great day!

Strange Anomaly #47

2010-02-20T12:45:00.001Z

Jails here the inmates can wear whatever clothes they want. Not like the required orange jumpsuits of maximum security prisons or the blue denim of the medium security prisons. Just strange to see prisoners wearing normal street clothes. Another random thing is, they put out hand sanitizer at the main common area of the local prison and they had to remove it since the inmates were drinking it to get intoxicated.

Thirty wONEderful!

2010-02-20T12:39:00.003Z

With being broke and most of my friends the same, I made up a huge pot of gumbo, they brought the drinks and we had all my friends over to celebrate me fully embracing my thirties. I did recieve some beautiful flowers from Lucy and with all the wine and whiskey I also got as gifts, the next day was a bit painful. It was aqQuiet event, but full of good craic!

Irish Country Womans Association Xmas Baazar

2010-02-20T12:36:00.000Z

My friend Catherine had getting me a corner of a table in the magic of the Tinahely Christmas Fair. Her mam's friend had a table for the Irish Country Woman's Association and was able to sell a few piece of my Jewelry for me. Which is great! The only snag is that southwest Wicklow and particularly the 3 villages of Tinahely, Shillelagh and Carnew (possibly Knockannana as well) are likely to be swamped with look-alike pieces of jewelery this time next year as I can just imagine all the old dears spending the next 12 months figuring out how I crocheted and knitted the pieces together!

Strange Anomaly #46

2010-02-20T12:35:00.001Z

It may not be an Irishism, but with so many other nationalities here, you do notice things from other cultures. There are several Italians here and with the emense cold that currently has Ireland in the grips of an Arctic blast, there has been a group taking the LUAS with me in the morning, and only Italian men can pull off using a headband and still make it look manly and sexy.

3 Years Ago.....

2010-01-12T21:03:00.001Z

As of this week, Ben has been in Ireland three full years! Wow, time has FLOWN by!

Burning Sausages at Work

2010-01-12T20:59:00.002Z

As I was saying it has been uncharacteristically cold here and have had snow and ice for nearly 10 days. On Friday the heat turned off about breaktime since I normally eat my afternoon snack sitting in the window sill with my legs hanging over the radiator. I just figured with the weekend ahead it was just turing off. When we came in Monday there has NO heat in the entire building so HR cooked up rashers, sausages, toast and we had a bit of breakie to try and warm us from the inside. Nothing like seeing your breath at your desk to make your Monday one to remember. Just nice to have a bit of a treat on the boss when there are unnatural working conditions.

Strange Anomaly #45

2010-01-12T20:59:00.001Z

I guess technically it is not strange, but like Portland the ENTIRE city shuts down with even a mild dusting of snow. The only difference is that since Europe is not slaves to their cars as Americans are, they still can walk to work. So even though it has been below 0 for the last week, snow and ice on the roads and footpaths, there still is a full house at work. We did get to get off early one day when it was snowing like crazy and we wanted to catch buses home!

Chrimbo Craft Fair

2009-12-27T15:59:00.002Z

Since I seem to be incapable of doing one thing at once, I always have to multitask. This last year I have been making a bunch of jewelery and learning how to juggle. Since my juggling skills are not going to get anywhere near making me any extra income, i have been focusing on my jewelery. I signed up for a craft fair in Greystones for Christmas. I did not get to see it before hand, but all I knew is it was going to be in a Christmas theme and be big. Louise, another co-worker, met me at work in the Sunday to collect the display and take it out to Greystones with me, which is about 30 minutes out of the city. The model barely fit, but we managed to get it in. Louise help me set it up since we could not fit Ben in the car, he had to take the train out to meet us.

I had a few girlfriends meet us out there and they were some of by best customers. I sold a few things, that did pay for the table and I even made a profit! One of my co-workers wives like it so much she wants to have a party at her house in February with her friends. I will keep you updated on how that goes, I am excited for that and getting ready!