Slieve League, a different league than previously thought!

I spoke briefly about visiting the highest sea cliffs in Europe the other day. I have since discovered that they are the 6th highest cliffs in Europe, the second highest in Ireland, oops. Apologies, now I have a few more sea cliffs to find out about and visit! Here is a link so that you can read more about them if you like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slieve_League

We parked at the bottom car park and walked the 1.7 km's to the viewing area and then climbed further up and looked down at the sea and marvelled at the beauty around us. They were not quite as high as I had imagined but as Malcolm pointed out, we were not really at the highest point where we stood. We were amazed to see sheep wondering around on the cliffs below us, I did not realise that they were agile enough to cope with that sort of terrain. Some pictures...they say a picture speaks a thousand words, sadly we are not the best photographers but anyway...

Keep your sting to yourself

On Thursday we went to Strandhill and ate lunch at the Strandhill Bar and grill while waiting for Murray and Georgina to arrive from Dublin. I took the opportunity to use the Internet while we waited and managed to produce a cringe worthy post using the crappy keyboard they provided, oh well!
I had read about the Carrowmore Tombs and had decided that it was definitely worth a visit, to see tombs from 4000 B.C. is rather mind boggling to say the least. It cost all of €7 and some change for all 6 of us to enter and we were lucky enough to arrive shortly before a guided tour was due to begin. We enjoyed the tour immensely, definitely worth it, we were going to do the self guided tour on offer and we all agreed that the guided tour was a better option. The scenery is breathtaking, the area is absolutely surrounded by mountains which were visible to us as the day was not dark and gloomy and the sky was not being weighed down by clouds.
Of course now I want to go and check out Newgrange too and luckily it is only about an hour from Dublin so that is on the ever expanding must see list now too.

About 5 minutes into the tour I had another Ireland first and was viciously attacked by a wild life creature of epic proportions....yes Igot stung by a wasp, which looked like a bee (is that a yellow jacket?) on the inside of my arm, the most tender spot of course, but as I am a tough African used to dealing with far more ferocious creatures I valiantly fought through the pain and after being offered medical help by the well meaning tour guide (rather embarrassing having all eyes turned on me as I reassured her that I was fine) I stoically carried on with the tour. In all seriousness though....the sting is NOT the problem, it hurts like mad for a minute but it is the itch that lasts for days that is driving me crazy!
Check out this link for more information on Carrowmore:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrowmore

Sligo

Sligo was fantastic, I love mountains AND I love the sea and Sligo has both which makes it a very special place to be. I booked a house in Templeboy, sleeps 10 people and each bedroom had an en suite bathroom which was a HUGE plus. I was surprised to discover upon arrival that we were residing on a dairy farm for the week, some of my senses went to work immediately...the smell of dung, the sight of dung, the gentle sound of lowing cattle, not to mention more flies than we have had the pleasure to associate with so far in our year in Ireland!

The kids were absolutely thrilled, and went off exploring within minutes of our wheels stopping on the tarmac outside the house. They discovered young calves who were being hand fed, 60 something cows for milking and a grey mare/pony, perfection. We got to marvel at an amazing sunset and a superb view which we drank in for as long as possible...thank goodness because by the next day it was obliterated by rain and clouds, and the next and even the one AFTER that!

If it CAN go wrong it WILL

When it rains it pours. Yep that was how our Saturday went. I should have had an inkling of the way our day would be when I looked at my watch through sleepy eyes and it said 08h00. Malcolm had set his phone alarm to go off at 07h00...forgetting that it was still on DUBLIN time. It was a genuine mistake and so I brushed past the faux pas and I moved our ETD to 09h00 and set about getting ready to go, breakfast then dishes, final packing of the toiletry bag...last minute housekeeping and at 09h00 we were all in the car. Brilliant.
Malcolm dropped us and all the luggage off at the train station and set off for the airport 1.7 km's away to drop off the hire car. I went ahead and used the ticket machine, handy because it has a lovely little British flag which when pressed magically turns French into a more understandable language. I soon realised that our late departure had some bad consequences, we had missed the 09h48 rain and would have to catch the 12h14, nothing a cappuccino sitting in the sun wouldn't cure right? I also discovered that the tickets would be €250.00 OUCH. I decided to venture into the ticket line, perhaps I would get lucky and "Parlez-vous Englais" would be greeted with a smiling "Oui" and I would discover that there was a family discount. Mmmm €250.00 and a confused looking lady later I walked out tickets in hand.
Sitting in the sun drinking very average cappuccinos added to the bitter taste in our mouths so we wondered back into the station and settled down for a long wait. At 12h00 we headed for platform 2 and came up with a cunning plan to send Jess in first to try and nab 4 seats...until I looked at our tickets and found something rather disturbing...carriage number 19 and seat numbers.... 21, 22, 64 and 86 mmmmm. We gave the kids the seats together and Malcolm and I took the other 2. Sinister music followed and an announcement which we did not understand, went and had a look at the board..our train was delayed by 40 minutes. Now even lunch in Paris was looking unlikely, never mind a walk down Champs Elysees (spelling?) A little later...delay was at 50 minutes, I went back into the station and bought lunch from a place called "Paul".
Finally our train arrived, full to capacity so seat options were as stated on the ticket and no more. I sat in a section for 4, a bunch of tanned teenagers travelling to Paris together took up both sets of 4 bar my seat... realised when I saw them all that I had not got a tan at all...and there I was thinking I had done rather well on my lounger.
Finally arrived in Paris and we were very relieved when we discovered a French woman who could speak English at the customer service desk. Travelling Ryanair has its downside, far flung airports being the major one and so we got directions to BVA airport, about an hour outside Paris. So it was that we got to experience the Paris Metro and got to admire the Eiffel tower as we headed for a station near the bus depot where we could climb aboard a luxury coach to the airport. Paris is beautiful, and I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for any specials because I HAVE to go back and spend some time there....once I have had a few French lessons that is!
After an hour on the bus we finally arrived at the airport with about 3 hours to spare and once all the luggage had been weighed and re-arranged according to Ryanairs exacting standards we collapsed at Chez Tony and gulped down G&T's and shared a pizza.
Our plane was delayed. Surprise surprise, but the warm fuzzy feeling from the G&T prevented me from getting too upset and I sat reading my book and people watching which is always fun.
Finally boarded and all was going so well, we were heading down the runway and EVERYTHING...when the pilot announced that we had a piece of luggage on board that did not belong to a passenger from our flight and so we had to turn around and go back so that they could remove the sneaky bag. Oh well...G&T still coursing through my veins...settled down to read A Thousand Splendid Suns and kept going as we winged our way back to Dublin and finally touched down at around 22h00.

Sunday

We awoke to a spectacular day in Pitou Charente and headed for the kettle and coffee and then out to the porch and the chairs to soak up the early morning sun and watch the river lazily flowing by...ahhh peace.
After a breakfast of smoked salmon and baguettes - yes odd I know but I had been hankering after salmon...(need the oils to keep the brain functioning) we all climbed aboard the little green boat and went for a ride with Jess at the helm, okay then - the OARS. She used to do rowing in S.A. and has certainly not lost her touch, her confidence and handling of the boat is impressive. Of course I could not resist having a go myself and I was not too bad although my facial expressions apparently made for a good laugh and the kids spent most of my rowing time in stitches. Kirstin was delighted at getting a few candid pictures but I got to them and managed to oblierate them - thank goodness.

Enjoying being rowed around...

At about noon we got back to the cottage and I prepared bruschetta with a twist for lunch. i ahd no basil, olive oil or garlic so I used a jar of pesto with the tomaoes and onions and it actually turned out pretty well.
After lunch Malcolm and I donned our walking shoes and headed off to explore the village of Chenon and beyond. Chenon is literally a few homes, not sure if it even qualifies as a village because there is not one single shop there. The walk was lovely though and we vowed to have many more during our week long stay.
When we got back to the house the kids were playing badminton and they managed to cajole us into joining them for a game, the joys of older kids!!!
When in France do as the Italians do....pasta on the menu for dinner! I made spaghetti bolognaise as it is so easy and always provides left overs for another day. The kids went for another boat ride, took the fishing rods and tried to catch some fish, it was absolutley awesome to see them making the best of their surroundings, besides meal times I do not think they se a foot in the house!

Bon Jour

We landed at the single strip airport in Poitiers at 16h30 on Saturday afternoon. The airport is tiny, literally opens and closes according to the flight schedules!
We had hired a car and to Kirstin's delight it was a Toyota Verso WITH the extra seats in the back. We got Molly out and plugged in our destination "Chenon" and discovered that before we even began to tackle driving on the wrong side of the road we had to figure out how to start the car without a key, finally figured out that you have to push the clutch in and then push the button that says 'start engine'.
Anyhoooo...off we went and Malcolm soon disregarded Molly's gentle direction to turning in 100m and turned in 10m and she started recalculating...but then I saw what looked like a mall and we needed groceries so we carried on ignoring Molly and made our way over to see if it had a grocery store. The first good sign was an advert for specials on the door to the mall, and then the beautiful sight of a family unpacking groceries into the boot of the car! Yay! Food. The grocery store - Auchan was enormous, I think I would have preferred a small store, less confusion! We managed to fill a trolley with what we felt would be needed for a week and only after paying considered the fact that we had no space in the boot...oops. Somehow we managed to get everything into the car and this time followed Molly's instruction and found our way to the cottage. We arrived at 20h30 and the evening was so marvelous we decided to light a fire and have a bbq. I got to work on salads, the kids headed straight for the boat and before long we were all sitting at the long dining room table enjoying our first meal in France.

Mad Rush

Saturday morning arrived far too quickly for our liking, we had really been enjoying Rob and Kirsty's company. The kids are little and so cute, and best of all not my responsibility so they can be enjoyed to the fullest!!!
We had a plan for getting to Stanstead which involved catching a 10h40 train in order to get to the airport on time for our flight to Poitiers. We bolted into the station to buy tickets with about 5 minutes to spare and of course there was a QUEUE. I stood patiently (NOT) and waited my turn, one eye on the railway line watching for the train. My turn just could not come quickly enough and when it finally did I breathed a sigh of relief and ordered the tickets...he made some kind of mistake and had to void all the tickets and reprint them again, by now I was in low grade panic as the train was arriving and finally £80 please. (to get to the airport...so much for cheap Ryanair tickets.) I only had £60 on me so I produced my laser card which was not accepted as payment. Thank goodness Rob walked in just then and like a knight in shining armour produced a £20 note and I grabbed the tickets gave hugs and kisses to Rob and Kyle and we all made it onto the train by the skin of our teeth.
When we got to Clapham Junction we disembarked for our next set of tricks, we thought we had to catch a train to Tottenham Hale, but it turned out that it was actually a subway ride so down into the underbelly of London we went, dragging all our luggage along with us. At Tottenham Hale it was back up to the light and onto a train headed for Stanstead.

London

Wow! It is SO busy here. Yesterday the girls and I only got into London at 13h00 and we zipped around, checked out the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square (climbed the lions!) AND Harrods. I am not sure how we managed but I think it had something to do with my excellent map skills and my ability to figure out the underground at impressive speed! Hee Hee. On my quest to find maps and information at the tourist centre I almost broke my neck, too busy reading a map while trying to descend a flight of stairs...misjudged it, thought I was at the bottom and there were still 4 to go, luckily landed on my feet dignity intact...it did of course provide welcome entertainment to the kids because they just saw me flying through the air and thought that I had been trying to race them, as they had opted for the lift while I feel that while my legs still work I ought to use them!
Sadly we had no camera for the day as it was in Malcolm's luggage so the memories will just have to remain in our minds for years to come....or we can do it all again...
Malcolm was supposed to be with us but the radar at Dublin airport was down so his flight was cancelled and he had to go home and organise another flight for Thursday. It was so frustrating and such a waste of time, he finally arrived in London at 18h00 on Thursday evening.
We took Rob and Kirsty out for dinner and the kids stayed home, ate pizza and watched TV which was just what the doc ordered for them.
Today we found ourselves back on a train heading for London, this time with Rob and Malcolm for company. Rob had managed to organise tickets to go and see South Africa playing at Lords and Malcolm was enormously chuffed as he has wanted to go to Lords for many years.
The kids and I were heading off to The London Dungeon - a history tour with a bit of a twist. The queue was LONG - we waited 2 hours!

Waiting in line...

Of course had we known it would be so slow...and that the queue continues once inside, we may have opted for something else but after an hour we were all loathe to abort. At 14h30 we finally began the tour with rumbling tummies because of course by now we had also missed lunch. We finally stumbled out of the Dungeon at 16h00 ravenous and headed back to Waterloo train station, buying food en route to enjoy on the long train ride back to Surrey. Would I recommend it? Difficult question, we stood for 2 hours, got rained on to add insult to injury and the tour is fun but tiring when you have already been standing for so long...I guess the best advice would be...buy tickets before you go, then it may be well worth it. There is a drop ride at the end - the kids FORCED me to buy the picture because they thought it was so funny, our faces are all absolutely terrified! MAYBE when I get home I will scan it and share it with you all...if you ask me nicely...

Tomorrow it is back on trains and planes and off to rural France for a week of R&R so this reallyIS my last blog post for a while...keep well and come on...play in my comment box...I dare you!

Whistle stop tour of our last days

I have not even gone through Sunday, Monday or Tuesday yet....a whirlwind tour then? After all it is 00:18 and I am due to wake up at 05:00 to catch a plane to London, so be VERY impressed that you are even been given this much!!!!
Sunday was Marianne's birthday.....we had breakfast at the hotel, went to Masstrecht -too tired to remember the spelling -SORRY!!!!! It is a very old Roman city in the south of the Netherlands and because I am exhausted you will need to Google for more information! We did wonder around, enjoyed lunch there and then made our way back to Kerkrade because we were having dinner at a Greek restaurant for Marianne's birthday....a GREEK restaurant with pizza and pasta on the menu...??? NOT that I am complaining because Jess was very happy to order a pizza! I was craving vegetables by this stage of being on holiday and ordered a VERY traditional Greek meal.....Baked vegetables in roomsous (cream sauce) - a mix of broccoli, cauliflower, peppers and spinach....YUM. Traditional....NO.
On Monday we went to Snoworld to have a look at options and discovered that we could have a 4 hour snow pass for €23....we wanted a lesson but the instructors were fully booked and as Marianne is a good skier we opted for a lesson from her!
Well....I really do not want to bad mouth myself BUT....I moaned like a baby about the ski boots. I have never been more uncomfortable in my life! I did ski, I DID fall and I DID have fun...but I still need a little convincing that a ski holiday is a good idea....I mean I wear CROC's!!!! Comfort people....
Anyway, the skiing was great, I stayed on the baby slope but felt like an expert when I managed to do a few turns and even got Eric and Lara down the baby slope on my own! This morning I felt vindicated when I discovered a beautiful blue bruise on my right shin from the ski boots...see...not moaning for NOTHING......The kids had an absolute ball and I think we will be saving for a ski holiday...aching feet or not!
Today we had to make our way to Eindhoven for our flight home, we had a lot of rain....Holland was sad to see us go!!! Kirstin was sad to leave, she was trying to convince us that pig latin helped her get to grips with Dutch..mmmmmm.

Illegal aliens

Saturday then....drove from the north of the Netherlands down to the south to Marianne's home town Kerkrade. Convoy did not last but we had given Molly to Mariannes folks, luckily she speaks Dutch...Jess went in their car with Eric and it was agreed that we would meet for lunch. We should have known from past experience that this would not happen. When we called and asked Jess where they were she told us the road she was on...Marianne was confused so we consulted the map and discovered that they were in Germany....sans passports...OOPS. Jess was not as surprising in her reaction this time, she was livid. They ended up arriving an hour and a half after us after truning poor Molly off and getting lost. My daughter was NOT impressed. The good news is that while she was tearing her hair out we were enjoying a traditional lunch, I got to try krokets, something a friend had suggested I taste (nice but rich, not sure I would eat it again) and Marianne ordered Frikkadel Special which I tasted too. Kirstin also decided to try a traditional meal and had pasteijie (spelling?) with chicken and mushrooms covered in cheese sauce. She absolutely loved every mouthful. She tried the frikkadel and kroket too, adventurous palette, made me so proud!!!
On Saturday evening we went to marianne's sister for her birthday and I got to try the apple pie thaat the region is famous for. I also tasted a cake made with rice pudding type filling, will have to find out what it was called and a yoghurt apple cake - all of it was good.
We went back to the hotel put the kids to bed, left Jess and Kirstin in charge for a couple of hours and headed off to see the night life of Kerkrade. Mmmmmmmm, sadly there was none, we had a drink in a very quiet pub, but Marianne knew the owner so it was worth it for her to have a chat and after that we headed towards the market square...it was actually eerily quiet, nobody walking the streets and a handful of people in the pubs, at least we did not have to wait too long for our drinks!!! We managed to stay out until midnight so that we could see Marianne's birthday in and then headed back to the hotel, I think we would have had a better party with more people if we had just stayed in our hotel room with the kids!!!

Land of Cheese

We were greeted by a heatwave - 31 C so it really was warm! The girls and I had a good snigger at one of our bus companions from Ireland - he was complaining about roasting, shame he has probably never experienced temps above 22 C... Arrived at the train station, impressed myself ordering tickets and then discovered that I had no clue which platform to go to! I had to go all the way to information, stand in a long queue which turned out to be a life saver! The reason I could not find our train on the list in the station was because I had to change trains! Information staff were very friendly and helpful and printed out a schedule for me which told me whre to change, which platform to go to and what time the train would arrive -Dutch efficiency at work! From then on things went very smoothly until we arrived at Enschede and did not know which way to go to meet Marianne in the town square. I confidently told the kids that my Afrikaans would help get us through the little predicament only to discover that it really was not much use! I understand Dutch better than they understand my afrikaans!!! I decided to follow my nose for a while and then saw an approachable looking couple and asked for directions. Luckily we were heading in the right direction and found the pizza place, Pinochio's which Marianne had told us about. Gratefully sat down and ordered a late dinner, the kids had pizza and I had a vegetarian pasta. The pizzas were delicious...probably something to do with the Dutch cheese! Marianne joined us after her dinner and we had a glass of wine before heading off to Vasse, exhausted by now -it was almost 23h00 and it had been a very long day.
Wednesday was a stunning day! A little bit too stunning, I sat in the sun and got a little bit sunburnt, had a swim and lay in the sun a little bit more, followed of course by another swim because it was 34 C....The kids were all happy to see each other and my only frustration was the fact that I could barely communicate with Marianne's folks as they speak in a dialect. I did go to the supermarket and bought supplies for lunch and dinner which I prepared for everyone - after all I was planning on desserting them all on Thursday to go off on my own little adventure.

ZWOLLE

Thursday morning was pleasant enough to start. There had been thunderstorms the previous evening but blue sky was visible which was great as I was going to have a day just for me in a town called Zwolle. I had tried to look up some information online and besides finding out that it was just over an hour away on the train and that it has a VERY old church I was not sure what to expect!
The train journey was pleasant and I cannot tell you how friendly the Dutch people are! At one stage I started wondering if I had missed Zwolle so I turned to a man sitting across the aisle from me and asked if he knew how long until Zwolle, he told me 2 stops and then proceeded to give me a little bit of a background and gave me directions on how to get into town, appologising because he was going to Zwolle for business so did not have the time to show me the way!!!
Zwolle was lovely, I wondered around, enjoyed a coffee at a nice little coffee shop and walked down cobbled streets and into an old church which was being refurbished. I enjoyed a walk along the canal with a couple of stops along the way to enjoy the peace and quiet and watch the boats. I absolutley loved my day away from everything, not having to worry about a thing for a few hours was awesome.
Of course all good things come to an end and it was a very sad little me back at the station waiting for my train to take me back to Enschede!
In Enschede I had a coffee and a muffin and walked around a bit before heading off to Marianne's office for the trip home.
I have so much more to tell...but think I will have to do it in instalments or this post is going to be too long....so next time I will tell you all about....trips gone bad, children in Germany without passports and more!!!

ONE SLEEP....

The bags are packed and weighed and all come in UNDER the weight limit which is marvelous - and that is THREE GIRLS!!!
We have even done the online check in so a lot less stress at the airport which is very necessary when travelling with children.
I had a pedicure today, ended up going for the pink AGAIN, I get such a summery feeling when I see that colour on my feet...next time I will do my best to break the mould and choose a different colour. Of course I had to pop in to a couple of friends, luckily Carla lives across the road from the salon which makes it very easy...and Rose lives nearby and took a stroll, well actually I think she ran...up to the coffee shop for half a cappuccino, sadly she could not finish it as she is so in demand she was meeting another friend for lunch...oh and then ANOTHER mate for coffee - go Rose(!!!) and thanks to all of you who called wishing me a good holiday...it is so great to know I will be missed!!!!!
Jess celebrates her 15th birthday tomorrow so we took her out for dinner to a place called Tribecca in Ranelagh - food was superb, I had a salad with avocado, artichoke hearts, feta cheese, peppers and mixed salad leaves - it was so good I did not even have to season it! Kirstin had a pile of nachos which looked worth salivating over, Jess had a burger, which she gave top marks for and Malcolm had a divine angel hair pasta with tomato, chili, garlic and bacon - successful meal out for all! The girls then attacked a chocolate brownie and a Hot Fudge sundae, they shared both desserts as neither could make up their mind. Now I am home enjoying a glass of wine and doing my second last post before I leave...I will have to do ONE more tomorrow! For now I am being pulled away to play a board game...so duty calls.

On Saturday we are finally going up to the Giant's Causeway and the ROPE bridge - can't wait. It will be great to be out and about and loads of fun as we are going with our friends, the more the merrier! I liked the legend of the Giant's Causeway and as I am too bone idle to rewrite it I have copied a bit of info for you all...

Stolen from Wikipedia...

Legend
Legend has it that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner. One version of the legend tells that Fionn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. In a variation, Fionn fled after seeing Benandonner's great bulk, and asked his wife to disguise him as the baby. In both versions, when Benandonner saw the size of the 'infant', he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Fionn.
Another variation is that Oonagh painted a rock shaped like a steak and gave it to Benandonner, whilst giving the baby (Fionn) a normal steak. When Benandonner saw that the baby was able to eat it so easily, he ran away, tearing up the causeway.
The "causeway" legend corresponds with geological history in as much as there are similar basalt formations (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at the site of Fingal's Cave on the isle of Staffa in Scotland.

Now of course I have to save the best for last because I am really looking forward to this part of our trip...apparently people have made it one way and then have had to be rescued from the island by boat as they are too scared for the return journey...I am sure there are not too many stories like that, hope I do not become one of those statistics!

Trains, planes, tubes but no automobiles

Hectic weekend, never to be repeated in that fashion. We left home at 05h30 on Saturday morning to catch an 08h00 flight to Gatwick. All went well, we even ended up chatting to a South African guy while waiting to board and ended up sitting with him on our flight too. We had organised a hire car because getting to Adrian and Nicky seemed like a lot of work, on and off trains and tubes and 2h30 journey times. On the plane my brain suddenly sprung to attention and I asked Malcolm if he had brought his drivers' licence...obviously the answer was NO. When I travel I tend to remove cards and any other useless paraphernalia from my wallet, and so it happened that my pink drivers licence lay on my bedside table as we winged our way across the Irish sea. Ever hopeful we still went to Europcar in the vain hope that they might still be able to help, perhaps they would forget to ask for a licence...I had even taken my sat nav along and in true positive spirit turned it on and entered our destination. Sadly none of my actually helped and we found ourselves standing at the Gatwick train station working out how to get to our destination. I was very proud of the way I handled it, no moaning and groaning, I did not get angry (just walked behind M shaking my head, muttering under my breath and giving him killer looks) I also went to the journey planner guy and asked him if he could reverse our route so that we arrived back at Gatwick at 11:30 the next morning, good under pressure moi ;)
And so we found ourselves dashing from train to tube and back to train until 12:30 when we finally reached our destination.
Champagne was opened lots of talking ensued peppered with more people arriving and so the fun began. We went out for lunch - at 16h00, by then I was ravenous as all I had eaten was half a sandwich and a banana, lunch was well received by my roaring belly. After that it was back to the hotel, the menfolk stayed at the pub, more wine for the ladies while I watched the hairdresser style their hair and then I snuck off for a snooze. (Exhausted as Friday night managed the grand total of 4 hours sleep)
The party was fun, there was a roulette and black jack table, I stuck to black jack and spent much time squandering my chips, very easy when it is not REAL money! There was also a dj so spent a bit of time on the dance floor too, popping over to the buffet of snacks for energy once in a while!
The party wound up at around 01h00 and we all walked back to the hotel and had a night cap in the hotel bar, I eventually admitted defeat at 02h00 - I was EXHAUSTED and snuck off to bed. Sadly woke up at 06h30 in the morning WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? Packed our things up, woke M at 07h30 and we got ready to leave, checked out at 08h0, had a quick breakfast in the hotel restaurant -VERY quiet at that time of the morning and at 08h30 hopped in our taxi to get to the train station. Train, tube, train and finally back at Gatwick. Plane delayed for 20 minutes so much sitting around...thank goodness for "This Charming Man" by Marian Keyes, kept me sane and I managed to finish it too, sorry people but chick lit rules! Everyone mocks it but pure escapism and what a fantastic book, think it might be her best work yet, it was worth the wait!!!
Finally arrived back in Dublin at 16h30, then had to drive back to our friends and pick up the kids, Got home close to sick, SHATTERED. Walked to Supervalu - got dinner things and fruit for Kirstin's school lunch, back home where I made a chicken a la king - a woman's work is never done!!! Collapsed into bed at 22h30, comatose until the alarm went off at 07h00 this morning...aarrgghh

Where?

So my little sojourn to Netherlands gets more interesting by the day. I thought we were staying in Enschede, but apparently we are staying in Vasse which is 25 - 30 km's from Enschede, from the picture I got from Marianne I reckon we are really in the country. Pretty cool, but it is not on my map that I have so I assume it is a really tiny place, wikipedia has this to say:
"In 2001, the village of Vasse had 569 inhabitants. The built-up area of the town was 0.18 km², and contained 197 residences.[1] The statistical area "Vasse", which also can include the peripheral parts of the village, as well as the surrounding countryside, has a population of around 880."
I would say that my assumptions are correct...holy moly...
Memories of holidays with my grandparents are already flooding back, long walks through the country, swimming in rivers, peace and quiet...for a country with a population of approximately 16,570,613 you would not think there could possibly be villages the size of Vasse!
Marianne actually lives in Cape Town South Africa so it is fairly ironic that we will be visiting her and the kids in Holland of all places! Any suggestions of things to do...I know I do have some Dutch visitors occasionally...

Spur of the moment...best way!

Living on Europe's doorstep is marvelous. My sister-in-law is off to Holland at the end of June and has hired a house in Enschede, she has some work to do there and will have my niece and nephew with her.
We all mumbled about getting together while they were over but were not sure of dates etc. She emailed me her dates and I fiddled with Ryanair and came up with free flights! Of course there are still taxes, but for the girls and I to fly it will be 90 euro return, for all 3 of us!!! I could not pass up the opportunity so we are flying to Eindhoven on 01 July and catching a train...2.5 hours - hope it is scenic.. up to Enschede. I am sure we will be able to do a few little side trips, I personally would love to visit Delft, not sure if it can be pulled off on this trip, but you never know! We will spend time up there until 5 July, and then we will go down south to Kerkrade where Marianne grew up. It is her birthday on the 6th July so it all works out fantastically. The fact that we fly back to Dublin on 08 July at 16:35 only to fly to London at 08h00 on the 9th July did not deter me, I could have flown back earlier but it would have cost more than double, so we are going to be in panic stations, but we only live once right? I guess I had better get onto google and find out a little bit more about where I will be...

French maids - but no fishnets!

So tomorrow I am off to Blackpool with 8 similarly minded women, we plan to play a lot of hockey and have an extraordinary amount of fun too. I have been told: 'What goes on tour, stays on tour' but that is all hot air talk coz I was not on tour last year and I already know all about Blackpool 2007!!!
On Saturday night there is a dinner and we have to dress up to a theme, VE Day, and we are all going as french maids, O sewed up frilly aprons and hair pieces and we were all going to wear fishnets but as we are classy french maids we have decided that good ole' black tights will do. I have my first pair of heels which I wobble around on considerably, how am I supposed to walk on heels???? Is it toe heel or is my clomping heel toe right? I did choose a good solid heel, no stiletto type heel for me, I swear I could not walk 2 steps in those, as it is my kids are trying to give me lessons but considering they do not wear heels either how the heck do they know? HELP!!!! Also at 5'11" and then another 2" of heels I feel a little giant like....

Home is where the heart is

Home. What a week! The most amazing thing of all is that everyone looks the same. After 6 years I thought we would all have a few more lines, I know I do, but it was like I had been gone a week! That of course was the most thrilling part for me, I have to admit to some niggling concern with regard to seeing friends after so long and it truly was like we had never bee apart. The size of all the children I last saw was the only reminder of the years gone by. Babies were at school, ‘bumps’ were now little boys and little boys and girls were teenagers!
It really was a week of catching up and although I did get about 12 kg's worth of shopping done....in such a short span of time that a hold was placed on my credit card within an hour - oops! A quick call and a few security questions later and I was on my way again! It actually sounds a lot worse than it was, many of my purchases were birthday presents for my offspring and Jess had saved like mad in order to buy an Ipod and a Fossil watch because it really was a lot cheaper than getting it all in Dublin.
We went into Manhattan for brunch on Sunday, possibly the second coldest day, definitely the windiest...we went to a very popular spot on Madison Ave and 90th or 93rd street, I THINK...cannot remember the name, but I do know that Oprah rates their marmalade very highly!!!
The rest of the time was spent in the 'burbs', I did have flitting thoughts of going into Manhattan during the week but the weather kept me in my place!
I got to go to my favourite Mexican restaurant where we ate steak and cheese quesadillas, heaven in every mouthful, I promise. I am not sure what the heck they do to those little morsels but it is too divine! We also ordered fresh guacamole which they make at the table while you watch, halving and scooping the flesh from the avocado before your very eyes! Two margaritas later and I was ready for silly conversation!
Much food was consumed, the tightness of my clothes the only reminder, but with promises of more visits, people coming here and me going back with the girls, it was all very much worth it! And now I have to get some more washing in the machine….
I have to say that my family deserves a medal, hubby kept the home fires burning, did washing and ironing and my favourite eldest daughter took over as mother and bossed my favourite youngest daughter around like nobody's business, but also kept the house tidy and helped keep everyone's hunger at bay. Kirst took it all in her stride, got herself to school and back on the luas and even sometimes humoured her big sis by doing what she was told!!! So thank you family for giving me such a great oppurtunity!

Ta ta for now

I'm off in the morning, a week with no kids, no husband, no housework, no shopping, no washing, no nagging and and and. This has never happened to me before, the last time I left the hubby and kids was for a WEEKEND - a school reunion, IN THE SAME COUNTRY. I know it is only a week but suddenly seven days looks like forever.

I must be feeling guilty, yesterday the kids got pancakes, I made chocolate bread twister buns and a loaf of homemade bread too, all mighty delicious - now hopefully they will remember all hat and miss me while I'm gone!

Start spreading the news...

I am finally doing it, I have been talking about it since last year and on Friday I took the plunge. I booked myself and myself alone onto a flight to New York in February! Jeane has been very encouraging, she even bought a sleeper couch to entice me, lucky me to have such fantastic friends. The girls are already doing some serious online shopping and wishing that they had stuck to their chores during December so that they could have earned their full quota of pocket money. I am going to do my own bit of retail therapy online, no point in wasting a week in the shops when I can spend it with friends! Of course I am not totally INSANE, I will definitely pop into the mall and probably go to the outlet stores for a look...but this trip is all about catching up with people I care about and have not seen for SIX years. I am also really nervous, my best memories happen to be in Rye, I will see my old house, it is around the corner from Jeane so no avoiding it and I am sure there will be a lot of changes around town, some of which I may not like. I really did have a sense of belonging when I lived there and now I am going to be a VISITOR, a tourist and I am not sure that the thought sits too well with me. I guess it may actually be good for closure, that chapter of my life has always felt incomplete, the rug got pulled from under my feet and i was not ready to leave. But George W has been around and from what I have heard it is not the rosy USA it was when last we were there. ANYWAY... I am more thrilled than not, and I cannot wait for that walk through Manhattan to Grand Central and the train trip out to Harrison, then the walk to Jeane in Rye. No way am I getting a cab, I need to experience it all the way it used to be, the walk is still so familiar in my head. I am going to be a part of it....all over again for a week!