Sunny Days

Em and I caught the LUAS in to Dublin to meet Bob & Damo, so we had a nice casual time, stopping off at the Green to feed the ducks, then off to Eddie Rockets for her Milk Shake and then a late lunch with the boys.  We left them at about 7:00 pm and strolled back up to the green, when we got there, there was a young boy who could not have been more than 15 at the most playing the most wonderful piano concerto's.  I recorded them on my mobile phone so must see if I can download.

Wait till I eventually get my new camera, I will be able to record anything!

It's Hot ...

So what am I doing here blogging, well I was just thinking how lucky I am ... husband busy in the Garden, daughter watching TV and I am off to meet the "Boys" at the pub in Dublin town.  I have to be very grateful that I am not married to a jealous husband!   Although I would rather be taking Em to the park or beach, but I haven't seen the boys for so long - I had better go and see what the Mad Feckers have been up to!  I will report back.  Enjoy your day.

Okay, so back from my afternoon with the boys, decided to take Emily with as it was such a beautiful hot day, and I don't get to spend that much time with her anymore.  I don't think the boys minded too much, we ended up at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, behind powers court and managed to get a table outside.  Em was very bored but the boys managed to occupy her by getting her to draw pictures.  She was actually very good, sitting for almost 3 hours with adult conversation.

Kindness

The Circle of Life

Week 3 of new Job, wow I can't believe I have been working for 3 weeks already it just doesn't seem possible. We are trying to get ourselves into a type of routine, but don't know how long it will last - the nights just seem to be so short.  As it is, it is now 22:36 and I know I should go to bed because else tomorrow I am going to be tired, oh well it's Friday and maybe it will be quiet, but maybe not.

Up at 6:15, shower, dress and in the kitchen by 7:00 in between fighting with Em to get up and get dressed, go down stairs, make coffee for D, get breakfast plates out, cereal for 2, porridge for me, call to Em to hurry up, fight with her to finish getting dressed, 7:30 nag her to get to the car, so endless nagging from 6:30 ish till 7:30 ish.  Once D & Em have left get my lunch ready for work, do odds and ends, check the mail on the computer, out the door by 8:15.

Arrive at work 28km's later at 8:40 work, work, work, work, work, work, work, lunch, work, work, coffee, work, work, work, work - leave @ 5:30 - so Monday & Wednesday off to the Gym and other days straight home to get dinner on the go.  Arrive home @ 5:55 dump bag and belongings, straight to kitchen to sort out dinner.  6:30 D and Em arrive home, homework, bath, dinner, bed - 9:00 pm ME TIME - Blog, read blogs, read mail, facebook, blog, surf, bed @ 11:00 or 12:00 - beep, beep beep, beep beep beep that damn alarm goes off for the next morning - and so the circle of life begins once more :)

No more Yummy Briyani

On Fathers day we had our friends J&C over with J's Mom and Niece, they were really the only South African friends we made when we moved over to Ireland because they are such a genuine nice couple.  No hang ups ! And of course there is baby 'x' who is the most beautiful baby boy I have ever seen in my life, except of course for my godchild Daniel.  

Anyway J made the most divine Chicken Briyani and brought it over, and it must have been one of the hottest days we have had so far this summer.  So we lazed around in the back garden and after, Lunch, desert and tea we went up to the top of the mountain so that Mrs M and T (J's Niece and mom) could see the view over Dublin and Howth, I can't believe it's only 10 minutes up the road from us.  Here are some photos.

We had left over Chicken Briyani for 2 nights, but sadly it is now all finished, have to watch J make it next time so I can make it too!

A year Later

I finally got all our photographs from our Around the world trip into one Photo Book which should be arriving any day, if you want to see the book, here it is:

Happy Fathers Day

DAD YOU ROCK!!!

"M" and I were not very organised this year for Fathers day, so we baked a cake instead, M instructed me how to decorate it and I think between us we did a pretty good Job!

YouTube - Trevor Noah - JuJu

YouTube - Trevor Noah - JuJu

YouTube - Trevor Noah - Julius Melema and Racism

YouTube - Trevor Noah - Julius Melema and Racism

When the sun shines

Living in Ireland you really do appreciate the sun more than most people I reckon, today was another one of those gorgeous days where it was hot and sunny.   I took a drive down to Greystones beach at lunch time, but only had half an hour, so tomorrow I am going to go at one and take my lunch down with me.   There were kids in the water on the beach, people walking enjoying the wonderful sunshine, and the best thing of all, last night it was still light at 11:00 PM, but really only for one more week and then the days start getting shorter again.

I took some photos on my trip today but left them in the car, I will make sure I take them out tomorrow and post them up.  Roll on many more days of sunshine!

Classical Indian Dance - Arts in Action 2010

Classical Indian Dance Performance at Art In Action 2010 from jssvideos on Vimeo.

You Are ...

Slide show pictures from the Soccer World Cup 2010

Waka Waka - South Africa2010

View more presentations from Nubia _.

Soccer World Cup Fever

Even though I detest soccer, I am kind of envious of everyone in South Africa.  There is such a hype and every email I get lately is to do with the soccer world cup.  Every status update in Facebook is about the soccer world cup, even the  adverts for the world cup give me cold shivers and you feel proud that you are South African.  But I guess there would also be load of reasons why I should be grateful that I am here and not there, but I am not going to spoil the atmosphere by listing them :) so here are a few pictures I have been sent from my friends in South Africa!

Read the small print.A Giant vuvuzela

I owe, I owe it's off to work I go ...

So from working half day for the past 2 years, I have suddenly been given a rude awakening into a full day job - with less money than I was earning 9 years ago - but hey I guess sometimes you just have to start at the bottom again!  So yes I am feeling a bit sorry for myself at the moment, but that's life and sometimes life sucks big time!  Now if only I could win the lotto!!!

We woke up to really thick fog this morning, made me think of the John Carpenters movie "The Fog", driving down the M50 onto the N11 at times it was so thick you could barely see 100 meters in front of you.  It was pretty eerie seeing this thick fog amongst the beautiful greenery and not seeing the beautiful view of the beach that I would normally see on my journey.   By lunch time it had slightly lifted, and even driving home this evening at 6:00 PM it was still hanging around, maybe it will be gone tomorrow.

So to get back to work, I pulled out all the stops and wore my best interview dress for first day on the job, and I should have known - I looked a bit out of place.  My boss was wearing Combat pants, a T-shirt and docs, but now you have to picture this (I wanted to take a picture of him with my mobile but thought I better not).  I have known "G" for a while now, when I first met him I was working alongside him on a project, he is a red head the viking red and had a bit of a bok baard.  As the months rolled on the bok got longer and longer - "G" is probably about 6ft5" so here I am all dressed up to the nines for my first day at work reporting to a Giant viking Rumpelstiltskin - his head is shaved, but his red / grey beard is now about a foot long and I am not lying it could be longer than a foot - So put the picture in your head, Tall, Skinny, shaved head, foot long red / grey beard, combat pants, T-shirt and docs and this is my boss!  My contract says and I quote : "We pride ourselves on being a professional company and therefore require you to carry this through to a neat dress code at all times, thereby mirroring our professionalism in all areas"  

There ain't nothing neat about the way he was dressed!  So I reckon I can get away with wearing Jeans to work every day of my life without a problem, because the minute they say something about my dress I may just have to say something about theirs!

I spent the morning in a training session with Rumple Rambo (wait I think he is actually doing a "ZZ Top" impersonation - because his beard looks exactly like this) and then the afternoon going through the system on my own and by 4 o'clock I was bored, not sure if that is a good thing.  I was waiting for 05:30 to leave and it seemed to stay 4:29 for a very very long time.

I rushed off to the Gym to do aqua aerobics only to find I had the wrong day, enjoyed the swim and sauna anyway.

Joke of the day

What Is a Man?

A real man is a woman's best friend. He will never stand her up and never let her down.  He will reassure her when she feels insecure and comfort her after a bad day.


He will inspire her to do things she never thought she could do; to live without fear and forget regret.  He will enable her to express her deepest emotions and give in to her most intimate desires.


He will make sure she always feels as though she's the most beautiful woman in the room and will enable her to be the most confident, sexy, seductive, invincible ...

              .... No wait...         




I'm thinking of alcohol!!!!

Maritime Festival - Dublin

Since Friday they have had the annual Maritime Festival on down by the Liffy, Saturday would have included the Liffy swim as well.  Luckily we got a chance to go down today for a while and the rain held off for a few hours but that was all.

Townley Hall, Arts in Action

While Emily was busy with rehearsals, D and I walked around and checked out the place.  When we woke on Sunday morning there was beautiful sunshine, but within an hour it had started raining, and as it does in Ireland, it rained and rained and rained.  If I had known I would have taken my wellies and been better prepared, however it was great to be out and about.