Up to Achill - Heanys to Ireland

Heanys do Achill

Service with a smile... we were there to greet the Heanys as they walked through the doors of Cork airport. It had been a long time, so we had a sign with us in case we didn't recognise each other.

It wasn't long before we had them warm, in our flat with tea in their hands, showing them our glorious apoartment. And it wasn't long before I had all my Christmasses at once, as out came a host of prezzies for me - birthday or otherwsie!
I scored in a big way. There was an SA Sports Illustrated, a (SA) Sunday Times, nestle hot choc - the best hot choc in the world, some fancy shmancy aftershave, an uber-cool Liverpool mug, an uber-cool Liverpool uno game and a few sweets and chocs. Woohoo. You're welcome back any time guys.

That reminds me - when it was my birthday, I was greeted with about 40 new messages - mostly from facebook telling me so-and-so had wriitten me a bday msg on my wall. I thought I'd take a screenshot cos it amused me so.

Back to the present - Mom and Big Dave


Emma had only been away for about a month, so it wasn't long before things were back to normal...




However Cath and I had decided to take them off to Achill Ireland in the north west of the Republic with a climb up a mountain the following morning.

After quite a drive we arrived on the Ireland and showed them around a bit. The weather was playing '4 seasons in one day' again, but we got in a few good views before being swept off our feet by the wind and sleet.



Achill is a Gaeltacht area - an area where Irish / Gaelic is widely spoken, so a few of their signs were a bit tough to fathom. Still we found our way.

We then drove up to a viewpoint where Cath did her sexy look - or should that be 'sexy look' for me again (see Emma's last trip here) and the youngsters had a quick look out over the Atlantic before darting back into the warmth of the car where we blasted the air con onto lava temp to defrost our hands and faces. The car said it was 4 degrees but with the gale force wind whipping us too, it must have been a tad colder.

AAAAAAHHHH! Aren't they a cute lot!

We had booked a room in a hostel for the five of us, so we drove there to drop off our stuff and find a bite to eat. We were then directed to a pub a mile or so down the road.



At this pub, Mommy H got her first view of what the Irish girls tend to wear on a night out, irrespective of the temperature. She needed to sit down. It was about 4 degrees outside and there was a group of girls dressed as if it was beach weather. One girl in particular was showing more skin than the rest put together - but only cos she was about three times as fat as the others. COVER THYSELF WOMAN! WE DON'T NEED TO SEE THAT! I suppose you have to hand it to her - clearly she was on the pull and she was going to get some!

Unfazed by what was normal pub behaviour, we pulled out the cards once we'd finished our meal (which was great) and began a few rounds of poor man's bridge - which Cath's mom normally kichs ass at. I Can't remember who won, all I know is that I still suck as much as I ever did! Bloody Heany card sharks!

There was also a bit of music from some geezer in the corner but it wasn't good enough to keep us there past midnight so we headed back to the hostel...

... where we were woken up at abot 4am by a group of lads returning from their night out.

Ah but we didn't need our sleep - it wasn't as if we were climbing amountain or anything the next morning!

And so with the weather still in two (or three) minds we wen't for a morning drive around the island, not sure whether we were actually going to climb or not. There were a few more pleasant sights.

And when we came across a beach, some genius decided it would be a good idea to run to the water and touch it - this, once again, being in the pouring rain / sleet with a howling gale to boot. Mom and I decided to film the experience for them. Hey, it was hard, but somone had to.

And you can check out the film if I can ever upload it here.

Easter - and a visit from the Easter bunny

EMMA the EASTER bunny

Once again, we heard Emma was to be alone over Easter - and we were to be alone over Easter - and yet, we're so close to each other - why not fly the little Easter bunny over to us! (As Cath would say - "It makes logical sense".

So after talking to her and deciding this on Holy Thursday, she arrived on Good Friday and left on easter Sunday - short and sweet - although still with plenty of time to pig-out on as much chocolate as her little body could handle!




But first things first...

Good Friday saw us go and greet Linda and Liam's new house. They've been working on it for about as long as we've known them - since pretty-much our first few days in Ireland (05) - building the house from scratch. Finally it is up and running with a few small things to be ironed out here and there. They invited us over as a sort of house initiation and got us well fed. The place is pretty stunning, with a stunning view over the farm fields.

It was then off to church and while we were killing time waiting for Mass, I snapped this quick one of my model-babe!

Cath ran off to pick up Emz at the airport while I headed to work and the next day we went shopping for as much chocolate as we could fill a trolley with. There were about 20 items on our shopping list - but none without the word chocolate in them. Chocolate milk, chocolate ice cream, chocolate-covered raisins, chocolate , chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate

Then after Mass it was...

Pig-out time!

BED-BUDDY TIME!!!!

The next morning, after forcing Emma out of bed, it was time for an Easter egg hunt....

Now the third of these hunt photies catch me in my monster slippers... which are the coolest slippers in the world. But while we're on the subject of slippers... check out these two pairs that I bought for Cath. Cows and pigs!

As if we hadn't eaten enough, the next morning was pancake time! What better way to use up any leftover chocolate, ice cream and sweeties.



And so with that, it was tata to Emma for another month... sigh! What will we do with the Emma room?

St paddy's Day weekend - Part 2 - the parade

Through the friend of a friend (it's not what you know...) we managed to wangle a viewing position of the parade in the top floor of Trinity College, looking out over the road on which the parade passes.

Three years agao cath n I were standing on the wall of the bridge, swaying in the wind with a 7-metre fall into the shallow Liffey river behind us. And we froze our bits off!

This year, we were warm and happy and offered sweets and sipping wine! Life is good.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves....

Took these to show how many people were standing on the side of the road watching...



I can't remember what the theme was this year, but the focus is always on big and bright...

Looking down the road as the parade had passed us... still tons of people...

This was from inside Trinity university looking in... normally this would be awash with people so it was worth a quick snap...

Paddy's Day weekend - part 1

Weekend? But St Paddy's Day is a day isn't it? Nope, it's a weekend here. And having now been able to compare the Cork parade versus the Dublin one, we thought we'd head to Dublin (and our friends) and watch the real deal! So we caught an early bus and got there pretty early on Saturday morning with the first port of call... Courtney, a spot of irish dancing and a massive brunch. Courtney is quite into her Irish dancing... she even has the dress and the wig for it, so she teaches a calss of it to her students... who were pretty good. After their group thing, a few of the better ones gave us a bit of a show with some quick-feet moves.

Courts takin a quick shoe change...

Here's Courts in mid-spring, feet going 100 mph and hair standing horizontal!

It's ages since this actually happened now - I've taken ages to write to my blog - so I have kinda forgotten what we actually did, but if I remember correctly, we wandered around a bit, caught up with Michele after a tour of Courtney's work, watched a bit of a movie and went out to a house party until about 4am. Then we headed back to Michele's where he gave us his bed and he headed to ... the lounge floor. OH, we felt so bad! But not that bad that I wouldn't publish these photies that I got up early the next morning to take!

And here's Cath n I in his bed... mmm, cozy!

The next day, Sunday, we caught up with Courts again and wandered around the fair that had positioned itself outside her window. She lives opposite a massive green and so every event that Dublin stages, she gets the mobile radio wagon parking outside her window, broadcasting to the nation!

We dressed up a bit... can you tell?

There was also the opportunity for a few scenic pics on our walk to church. But then Cath, Courts, another friend and I hedaed off to 'The poet and the Piper' - Seamus Heany (a nobel laureate) and a Piper dude - who's name escapes me playing the Ilan pipes - at the National Concert Hall. We then caught up with the church crowd afterwards until the pub / bar kicked us out - and got some kip before the parade (see part 2).