My Extended Family

Since Saturday, Emily has had 2 sisters and I have had a sister too, you could say. Tracy, Skyla and Kiara moved in with us and all too soon it is all going to be over. T & the kids are all moving over to London, and I know it is only across the Irish sea but who knows when we will see them again.

Emily has created havoc and at times it has been like world war 3 but it has been such fun having a full house that I am so going to miss it in a few days. I was however saying to T that it is a good thing that we are leaving first. But I know when we get back in August the house is going to just seem so empty.

It has been such fun having another woman around just to chat to, although D has felt a bit out numbered with 5 woman in the house! Here are a few pictures I took yesterday while the girls were putting on a concert for us.

So WTKS, this is for you :

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind always be at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of His Hand

Photograph

I was just watching the trailer for a new movie which is coming out in July called "Funny People" with Adam Sandler, it really looks good! This song is from the movie and it brought back so many memories, it's one of the songs that were off one of my first LP's I bought back in the 70's and I used to listen to it over and over and over again.

Photofun

South African Humour ...

This is just so typical South African humour, you just can't beat it.

Good Morning

For you ...

Week End

In Dublin's Fair City ...

I guess I have been really luck, things just seem to have a way of working themselves out. I finished work at the end of June last year, just before I did there was a company looking at buying an HR system and they came to the company I was working for so I could give them a demo.

I told the guy I was leaving and gave him my number. So as luck would have it, while I was on holiday in Croatia he phoned me and asked me if I was interested in coming to work for them. The contract was only supposed to be for 3 months, but I have been there on and off now for almost a year.

The best thing about the company is they are multi national, so no favouritism or nepotism that you find in a lot of Irish owned companies. I sit in my office and hear different accents every day, our ex Country manager who is still on our floor is from Belgium, and he has this wonderful Flemish accent. Yesterday there were a whole lot of French guys on the floor, the day before the guys from Holland where there. I must say the dutch accent makes me a bit sad because when I hear them speaking it reminds me of my mom's family, who have mostly all passed away now. But the accent is so similar.

A lot of my mom's family would speak what they called "High Dutch" and the NG Kerk and their bible were all in Dutch. Anyway I am getting away from the point of this post.

So, I have two weeks left at this company and it has been absolutely wonderful working there, their offices are based at Spencer dock, now back in 2001 when we arrived in Dublin, the dock areas were full of old dingy warehouses and it was dark and dangerous. Since then it has been revived, most of the old warehouses have been knocked down to make way for new office blocks and apartments.

The Liffy runs right past my work and yesterday there were people yachting. I am sure going to miss working there, but I have a funny feeling I will be back in that area.

Impromptu Play date

The last couple of months just seem to have been a roller coaster, so many things have happened it is just so difficult to comprehend it all. Usually all my afternoons are planned right down to the Milli-second, so on Friday when I was waiting for Em after school and one of her class mates asked me "Rose, would you and Em like to come home with us and see my moms newly decorated kitchen." My first thought would have been to say No, and rush off home, but I said why not, they only lived round the corner from the school.

So Em and her friend got on her mom's bicycle and she pushed them home, and I met them there. The house is on a road that I travel practically every day of my life, opposite office buildings and pubs, a place you would not really expect to see houses. The front of the house was quite small and insignificant a really old cottage type house, which was probably built over a hundred years ago.

The inside of the house has obviously been modernised and has a huge open plan lounge, dining room and kitchen, but the nicest thing about the house is that the back porch, backs right onto the Royal Canal. It's almost like a holiday home - wow!!!

Night out

It is not often you get to work with a bunch of people that you really make a connection with and they become almost like family. I guess I have been really lucky in my life to make such wonderful friends through work. I am still in touch with at least one person that I met through every company that I have worked for in my entire life, some of the my best friends and some of them as I said like family.

So it was great to be able to hitch up with my Irish family, the last time we went out was in February some time. I had not seen Andrea since December, before she had her baby, and Cormac I had not seen since our reunion Christmas Lunch.

We met at Monty's in Temple Bar every ones favourite Indian restaurant, it's a bit pricey but hey if it's only one every 4 months that I we meet up it's worth it. After Monty's Andrea had to go, I know the anxiousness of getting back to your new baby, so Bob, Cormac, Damo and I headed off to the roof top terrace at the Fitzsimmons Hotel.

I had not been in temple bar at night since I don't know when, and quite frankly it is really not my scene, tons of people having "hens" and "stags" on a Thursday night and making fools of themselves and drunk people all over the place.

Anyway we went up to the roof top terrace had a drink and then Damo gave me a lift home, I was still in bed before pumpkin hour. Looking forward to the next get together!These photos were taken at the Fitzsimmons Hotel, horsing around trying to do our best "Colgate" smiles.

Quick Update

We got our passports back from the Australian Embassy on Tuesday, so D arranged to take Thursday afternoon off so that we could go to the French Embassy to get our Visa for French Polynesia.

It was Emily's birthday as well, so I picked Emily up from school early and went off to the French Embassy in Ailsbury Road, Ailsbury Road is where most of the Embassy's are and some Ambassadorial residents as well, it is one of the most expensive Roads to live in Ireland. The house are Georgian and huge and most go for over 5 million Euro some for us much and even more than 25 million Euro.

We had to queue up outside, what seemed like for ages, the Embassy is only open between 2 and 4 pm, Monday to Thursday and from 2 to 3 on Friday. We eventually got in and the guy spent about 15 minutes checking all our papers, by the time we got out it was 3 pm. The guy said our passports and visas will be ready on the 15th of June and on the 17th we have our interview at the British embassy to get our visa for Britain.

We stopped off at Rathfarnham Castle on the way home as they have a nice little cafe and kiddies park, the weather was still glorious and I had only had breakfast, so was starving. The meals are very healthy, very much like the Avoca cafes so I had some quiche and salad.

Emily had great fun playing in the park and all to soon it was time to go home. I took some photos which I will add as soon as I have downloaded them.

Friday was a hectic day at work, I only have 3 weeks left and the system seems to be falling apart and of course we know who will get the blame once I have gone ... but no, no one has a blame culture in this country. Yea right.

Then Saturday night we had "The Nery's and the Steven's" over for a Roast Dinner. The Nery's are returning to SA and the Steven's are going to live in London, it was a nice quite evening just chatting, it felt kind of sad though to know that we probably won't have them round our dinner table for a very very long time, if every again! ;( (A reason, a season, a lifetime).

Good Morning

The Great Tool Shed Robbery ...

So yes we were burgled here in Dublin, Ireland ... and so we discover there is crime everywhere in the world. However, let me tell you the whole story...

On Tuesday night, D and I went up to bed at about 12:30, Emily for some reason was awake and almost gave D a heart attack when he went into her room to check on her, she was apparently sitting in her bed and when he walked in she said BOO! ;).

I climbed into bed and my head did not even touch the pillow and I was asleep, D put E back to sleep and then came to bed.

The next day as normal I went off to work, picked up Em from school at about 2:00, I think we went off to M&S to buy veggies and then came home. Em was outside and I went outside and the tool shed door was open, so I moaned at her and said she had better close it - to which she replied but I did not open it. So I went to the shed and closed the door, nothing seemed odd however I did have a feeling that someone had been in there.

When D came home I asked him if he had left it open and he of course said he doesn't know but he might have, now the shed does not have a lock on it. He went and had a look, and a while later discovered that his edge trimmer was missing. He went next door to ask them if they knew anything. WELL this is where the story starts ...

Apparently there were two of them, at about 1:30 a.m. they hopped over the neighbors wall on our left and into our yard from the green behind us. The neighbor on the right of us heard his dog howling, he thought something was not right, so went over to the back bedroom in his house and switch on the spotlight, there were two guys in our shed, so he called the cops.

Three cop cars made there way to our Estate and one pulled into our driveway, they sent a helicopter which was hovering over our house and shining their spot down over our house. Our windows were open, the Guards (police) rang our doorbell about 10 times and knocked, but nothing... we slept through the whole ordeal.

The next morning our neighbor took his dog and went scouring round the back, he found our Edge trimmer and some other tools, later that evening D went back with the neighbor and found some more stuff, so we think we have recovered everything they took. The shed now has a BIG padlock on it to stop further break in's.

We were chatting about it and it is so sad that in SA you can't get a cop to come out when there is a murder or high jacking, and here they send 3 cop cars and a helicopter for a robbery in our shed.

Photos from the Party - Courtesy of Len

Sunshine, Events & Birthdays

I guess my friends must think I am nuts when I go on about the sunshine, but when you don't get much of it, it becomes a special event in your life. We have had nothing but Sunshine since Friday, and with it being a bank holiday week-end it has made it extra special.

Wow, so where to begin, the exam is over - it didn't go too bad, but I won't be winning any awards! Now we just wait for the results. Our friend K had her baby a month early, a little boy - baby and mom are both well. Two lovely families that we met from SA are both leaving Ireland, one for the Island on the other side of the Irish sea and the others to return to the land of blue skies and sunshine. Lisa has acquired a cat! So I think that is about all the local news.

Emily's birthday bash is finally over, we had a bouncy castle in the garden and thank goodness the weather was perfect. So now most of the stress is over and all we have left to worry about is getting our Visa's for our holiday!

Talking of which a number of people have asked us if we are going to put our Itinerary up on the blog, well once we have all our visa's I will put it up or maybe before then, but it will be in the next 4 weeks, as we really only have 4 week-ends left before our BIG trip!

Here are some photos from the birthday.


This post is a bit all over the place as I haven't really been in the mood to write either - So please forgive me.