Get on your boots...

And walk down to Croke park for the final night of the U2 concert! We are lucky enough to have FOUR tickets for Monday night in our little paws. Getting the tickets was....interesting. See we really, really wanted to go, so we logged on to Ticket Master using all three computers, feeling very very clever...until we discovered that when Ticket Masters website sees multiple log ons from the same IP address you can't get tickets! Needless to say we had a highly annoyed Mr Rule and a very sheepish Mrs Rule...it had been my idea to attack from three fronts after all. So...we missed out.

Of course when Bono heard what had happened, and that the RULES had missed out on tickets he said that he simply could not perform in Dublin without us being able to experience the magic and so it transpired that a third date was added to the Dublin tour. Now this is all top secret, Dubliners think that it is because he likes playing to his home crowd. In reality he had to sell another 59996 or so tickets or it would not have been financially viable for the band...

So yes, tomorrow night we are taking two very lucky teenage girls and four very, very expensive tickets (that is ANOTHER ticket master disaster involving panic and the option - Best seats available, and had NOTHING to do with me this time) to the 360 degree tour with The Script opening...who just so happens to be a band we really enjoy too. Lucky, lucky US.

Don't tell Jess...

Jess churned out yet another masterpiece, this time for Carla, who is doing her babies room in a Winnie the Pooh theme, she has been on summer holidays and was in the mood for a bit of culture, Joe (Carla's husband) reckons she should go into business! Of course I agree, in fact I have a poet and an artist so I should set up shop with both of them - Jess can illustrate Kirstin's poems....oh and I will just bake the cupcakes for the tea room...

Fairy cake magic

This morning I got up and started baking for my friends baby shower. When sleepy head Jess came downstairs at 10h30 she was very disappointed to discover that I had already baked and decorated a dozen cupcakes and made a milk tart.

So of course I had to make another batch, this time substituting half the milk for orange flower water to try something different. Luckily Kirstin wanted to prepare the batter so besides my little tweak she actually did all the work!

I had made cream cheese frosting for the first batch so this time I made vienna cream frosting, again using the orange flower water instead of milk. We used the food colouring very carefully as we wanted pale pastel colours and the results were not half bad. I demonstrated the icing technique using the yellow on four cupcakes clamouring for some decoration and accessories and then the girls each got to dress up four cupcakes too. I think the results were fabulous...and not only did they look good dressed up in such finery, they tasted fantastic too!

Get a Hair cut and get a Real job!

Yesterday D at work turned around to another D and told her "to get a haircut and get a real job". We all laughed at his comment and then he told us it was the name of a song...so here it is, I think it is funny, not sure this is his best effort, maybe it is, I had no idea who he was and I had not heard the song but I read the lyrics at work yesterday and decided it could be a fun Friday song, Happy weekend everyone!!!!!

ONCE - Falling Slowly

The girls and I have just finished watching an indie movie called "Once" and this is the feature song, in fact the song won an Oscar although not without some controversy. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

"The song was nominated at the 50th Grammy Awards for Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media; it lost to "Love You I Do" from Dreamgirls.[4]
The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song on 24 February 2008, ahead of the choral gospel song "Raise It Up" from August Rush and three songs from the modern Disney musical Enchanted.[3] The song's win marked the fourth year in a row that the Oscar winner had not been nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. For some time, the song's eligibility for an Oscar was in dispute, because it had been performed and recorded prior to the release of Once[3] The Academy ruled that because the song had been composed for the movie, and the prior public exposure during the long period that the movie took to produce had been minimal, it remained eligible.[2] The Academy had ruled likewise on a similar controversy involving 2004 Best Original Song nominee "In the Deep".

I loved the song when I first heard it, and although the movie was a low budget one, the girls and I thoroughly enjoyed the 'humanness' (is that a word?) of it and the fact that it is all set in Dublin and we have walked so many of the streets that appear in the film. Enjoy!



And I have to share another one with you...I had not heard it until I saw the movie, but WOW, the kids and I just looked at each other and got covered in goose bumps, her voice is so full of emotion. If you would like to know more about the movie here is a link to Wikipedia, copy and paste it (don't you just love it?) -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_(film)

Fostering

When I was introduced to Tippin I had to lie on the lounge floor to get a look at the black and white mother of two hiding under my sofa. The sight of anyone at the glass doors to the lounge sent her into a small hissing fit or a mad dash for the security beneath the furniture. A week later this blog post is being interrupted by her stretching out across the computer desk talking to me begging for a scratch. She has certainly made herself at home and we can here her all day talking and meowing all over the house.
Her two little boys Davey and Oliver have three very capable mothers, two of whom have realised that raising kittens is very hard work. Unfortunately there are downsides to kitten fostering.
The biggest hurdle? The litter box. The cats are not allowed outside so when we got the cats we also got litter trays and cat grit. WELL. It stinks, unbelievably and to make matters worse we cannot leave windows open for fear of escape. Of course I have to open them a crack and we remove what we can and flush but I have never seen anyone empty the room as quickly as Tippin can after a visit to the red tray in the corner! And yes we do change the litter...frequently.
We also spend a lot of time sweeping or vacuuming up litter as she is a very enthusiastic digger - I guess even she knows that she needs to bury that awful smell as quickly as possible!
Kittens are very busy little things and I have even had to remove them from the dining room table! At least puppies cannot claw their way up to places animals are not meant to be. Of course when I walk into the lounge and see one curled up on top of the Sky box (it is warm) and the other sleeping under the coffee table it is kinda nice! But they certainly are a handful and a good lesson for the kids. Yikes, Tippin is back on the desk demanding attention...as nice as this is I think I will risk being called heartless and admit that 7 weeks of cats will be long enough, and yes for the kids too!

Jason Marz - I'm Yours

At last a Friday song again, and this happens to be one of those cheerful ditty's. Whenever it comes on the radio Jess enthusiastically twists the volume button and we all enjoy.

Wednesday was market day in Port Pollensa and I wanted to have a look and see what they had, so even though we woke up to magnificent blue skies and decided that the beach was the place to be, we set off for the market first. I loved it, so many stalls selling so many things, clothes, jewellery, nuts and dried fruit, fresh fruit and vegetables, barrels of olives and more. Jess and I both found lovely pieces of jewellery and then I chose some olives and we got some fresh fruit and vegetables for the apartment. By 11h30 we were done and on our way to join Don and Maura who had gone straight to the beach earlier in the morning, it was Maura’s last day with us and they had more records to smash with the bat and ball, they got to an absurd 4 digit number – apparently it was a very good bat and ball set!
We spent the entire day at the beach, finally leaving at 17h30, Maura had to get ready to leave and Malcolm made a salad for us all to snack on because we were planning on going for dinner when he and Don got back from the airport at around 21h00. Jess had choice of restaurant and she had chosen Dakota – American style, looked a lot like the Spur steak houses to me! She had also specifically booked a table on the ‘island’ right next to the water, which was a fabulous location but the wind was a bit chilly and considering the kids and I had waited an hour for the table there was no way that we were settling for a more sheltered spot! Of course we were waiting for Malcolm and Don too, so we had no choice BUT to wait…but still! We did not really mind waiting anyway, people watching was fascinating and it was great to sit and chat in such a relaxed way. Passing the time!
Thursday was same again, except the kids bought blow up tubes from a shop and spent a lot of time bobbing in the sea. Don and Malcolm played bat and ball and I soaked up sun and read my book. We all went for an early dinner to Simbad – Kristin’s choice, when she had spotted macaroni cheese on their menu her decision was made. Malcolm and I had the paella which was much too salty, and for me to say that is BAD!!! Kirstin had an amazing macaroni cheese; we all declared it the dish of the night. After dinner Malcolm made yet another trip to the airport to drop Don off, shame he had been having so much fun he did not want to leave! The girls and I strolled into town and got ice cream cones and slowly made our way back to the apartment.

Memorable OJ...

Tuesday was another cloudy beginning. We decided to take a drive to a town called Deiá because I had discovered it in my book, "1000 places to see before you die" (or die trying) and a friend of Maura's had also recommended it. We had hired a Peugeot 206 so fitting the six of us would be challenging, but it was a mere 40 km's away so we knew it would be a short drive with a big pay off, if reading the description in my book was anything to go by!

We headed off in a cheerful fashion but arrived in Deiá weary, hot, nauseous and bothered. Our journey was through the mountains, absolutely spectacular but as the roads were narrow and unbelievably serpentine so it had taken us over two hours!

"The road is long, with many a windy turns..............."

We did stop at a viewing spot and drank in the view, sadly the pictures do not do it justice. There was a little shop carved into the wall of the mountain and a Spanish lady stood and pressed oranges, selling the freshly squeezed juice to tired and thirsty travelers. Kirstin and I sat on the wall and sipped our juice - and proclaimed it the most memorable orange juice we have (and possible would ever) ever drunk. Slightly refreshed we continued on our journey - still believing that our destination was JUST around the corner. Little did we know that our stop was around the half way mark!

We walked around the little village and finally settled on a spot for a snack and a drink and referred to the map to find a route home that did not involve more mountains. We discovered that we could head back towards Palma and then take the motorway back to Port Pollensa, a long way around in mileage but we KNEW that there was NO way we could face those winding roads twice in one day! Our decision made we all squashed and folded our way back into the car and headed home, arriving back in Port Pollensa a mere one hour later!

Plotting our next move on the map!

By the time we got back it was about 17h00 but the sun was shining and it was so hot that we all headed down to the beach for a swim. Don and Maura also had their faithful bat and ball and attempted to break their record of 260 without missing...it was fascinating watching them, they find their rhythm and then it is back and forth for AGES..

Dinner was the usual long slow walk and Don made the decision and we had dinner at a place called Totts, offering a 3 course meal including a glass of wine, beer, soda or sangria for €15 per person.

Beach holiday beginnings

Sunday morning we woke to a familiar sight...clouds. I didn't care, it was warm and dry and we were on holiday! The coffee I had bought the night before was revolting; I do not think that the lime scale in the kettle helped so the kids and I wondered down to find a spot for breaky. Malcolm headed off to the airport to collect Donovan and Maura and the girls and I sat in the heat and soaked up the peace of the island. The spot we chose for our breakfast was across the road from the beach so the view was amazing. The girls ordered fresh orange and that is exactly what they got - the Spanish know how to serve up fresh juice.

After breakfast all the shops were begging for little miss shopaholics attention (that would be Jess by the way) and so we wondered around poking our noses into interesting spots and before we knew it Malcolm was back from the airport with two hungry bodies, so it was back to a restaurant to feed the travelers. We ended up at a place called Simbad and the owner was so friendly and the cafe' con leche (coffee with milk) was a huge improvement on the poison back at the apartment so we elected it the coffee spot for the week.

By the end of breakfast the clouds had dissipated and we went back to the apartment and changed into beach gear and headed down to the sand, warm sea and sun. Kirstin did not like swimming in the sea, she hated not knowing what was below, but when the whole gang headed out to the buoy she swallowed her fear and went along with everyone. I watched them from the shore, after lying in the sun the warm sea felt cold and I was rather hesitant getting in and before I knew it their heads were bobbing very far away; by the time I swam out to join them they were turning back! We all floated around in the gentle swell enjoying the experience of the extra buoyancy because of the salty water. Our surroundings were breathtaking, the beach was perfect and we knew that this would be a fabulous beach holiday.

Later in the evening we headed toward the port for dinner, there were so many restaurants to choose from and Maura suggested that every night a different person could pick a place, we all thought it was a great idea and gave her first choice and so it was that we all found ourselves eating pizzas and salads at a corner Italian place that boasted the best pizzas in Pollensa. I find the bases of the pizzas strange, it is more like a pastry then a dough, very thin crust and very little tomato base. It was a delicious pizza, just not what I am accustomed too. After dinner we strolled around for a while and got ice cream cones for everyone and then headed back to the apartment. Our first full day on holiday had been fabulous!