Halloween

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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'!

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

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.