The Best Banana Bread ever.

Ingredients:

225g (8oz) Plain Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
110g (4oz) Castor Sugar
1 egg beaten
75ml Sunflower oil
A few drops of vanilla essence
65g pecan nuts chopped (I substituted with walnuts)
4 medium sized ripe bananas mashed

Makes 1 loaf

Method:

Sift the flour, salt , baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl and stir in the sugar.  Mix in the egg, sunflower oil and vanilla essence but do not beat.  Fold in the pecans (walnuts) and mashed bananas.  Do not beat.  Spoon into a a lined 900g/2lb loaf tin and bake in an oven preheated to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 for 50 - 60 minutes, (I baked at just above gas mark 4 for 60 minutes).  Check that loaf is golden brown and springs back when prodded gently with your finger.  Leave in the tin to cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool further.

Awesome Autumn

It was a beautiful sunny Autumn day, kids got dressed up and off we went, wow what a lot of people there were, met more friends and chatted until the sun went down ... then it got cold, really cold ... for a few minutes we thought we would never get out, but we did, thanks to efficient Garda crowd control, home to warm house and hot vegetable soup!  What an awesome day.

Rocktober!

The year is running away from me again, I just can't believe that we are already more than half way through Rocktober, yes it's Rocktober since we have been listening to "Nova" radio.  The weeks just seem to be flying in and along with it, the cold weather.  This is really a busy time of year, both socially and work wise, although our Christmas party has been cancelled at work, or shall I rather say postponed - seems less than half of the company can commit to the same week-end, so it has been pushed out till the end of January, and looks like we are having it outside of Ireland which should be fun!

Well Halloween is just around the corner and this year for some reason there seems to be a lot more going on, Em has to dress up for school on Thursday, then they are having a Halloween walk at a park near us on Sunday, the whole of next week while she is at daycare they are doing Halloween stuff and of course a party on Friday.  And of course then there is the real Halloween on the 31st, so this year Halloween is 10 full days for Em - wish I was a kid in this day and age!

And after Halloween it will be the mad rush towards Christmas, which will be very quiet for us again this year, but I actually prefer it that way.  So that is what is happening in Ireland at the moment, not anything too exciting!

But I am looking forward to putting my new camera to good use at the Big Halloween event on Sunday, and my friend and I have decided we are going to dress for the occasion too, now just have to convince D!

Samhain, Haunted Forest & Fireworks
·                                 Start Date: 24 October 2010
·                                 End Date: 24 October 2010
·                                 Venue: Marlay Park
·                                 Time: 5.00pm - 9.00pm
·                                 Price: Free
·                                 Save to: MyDublin
Visit Marlay Park in your Halloween costume for a spooky walk through the haunted forest! Made bigger and better for 2010 the haunted woods are not for the faint hearted with spooky characters, scary noises, the eerie fog and strange sights.

The haunted trail through the woods will be open from 5pm to 9pm so visitors can enjoy the spooky woods in their own time either before or after the fireworks.

One of the highlights of the evening is Marlay Parks own special fireworks display which launches into the night sky at 7.00pm - this can be viewed from the fireworks viewing area is in front of Marlay House.

The observance of Halloween, which dates from the dark ages, has long been associated with thoughts of witches, ghosts, devils and hobgoblins. Today, many of the young and “young-at-heart” take a more light-hearted approach and the colourful festival has become family-oriented celebration.

Signs

Funny how I always seem to be looking for signs and inspirational quotes, well tonight I found one on Gails blog, I have been going through some stuff at work and was going to fight it, but I had coffee with a friend on Sunday who may be younger than me, but is oh so much wiser - she said to me Rose,"rise above it" (something my mother-in-law would have also said) which I did and felt so much better, and tonight finding this on Gails blog has just put everything into perspective, and I think I am going to print this out at work and stick it on my wall / partition thing.

 Desiderata by Max Ehrmann

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Movies

Saturday we going to the Premier, hope it's good!

T.G.I.F. (Well it's actually only Thursday still)

I've been moaning a lot lately, I guess the pressure of having a full time stressful job is just getting to me and it doesn't help when I get treated like a child either - oh the joys of living in recession Ireland where you just have to take whatever cr@p job you can get.  So I know skinny mama does a "Thankful Thursday" where she lists 10 things she should be thankful for, I am sure I could do the same, so here is my 10.

1.  I am thankful I have an amazing daughter and hubby.
2.  I got free tickets to the premier of "Despicable Me" and Em is beside herself because I said she could take a friend.
3.  Tomorrow is "Finally Friday".
4.  I got to go to aqua aerobics this week and it was brilliant
5.  I heard from a cousin I haven't seen in about 30 years.
6.  Auntie Johanna was so happy I phoned her for her 70th birthday, I really miss her.
7.  I'm going shopping for Halloween stuff with C on Sunday
8.  I live in a country where there is little or no crime
9.  I am thankful to be alive
10.  I have everything I need

I'm not a celebrity, get me out of here ...

Well I've been speaking to a producer and his assistant in Germany for the last month, they found me on the internet from my blog about the Oceanos.  They were doing a story about the sinking for television and were going over to the UK to interview Moss and Michael, and they wanted to fly me over to London as well so I could be interviewed along with them.  However it was just impossible to try and take time off work and I also had Irene and Candice coming over that exact same week, so I decided that I wouldn't give it a miss.

Then the producer phoned me and said that if I could not get time off work then they would fly to Ireland to Dublin and interview me here, wow okay, and they would fly over on a Friday and we could do all the shooting on the Saturday which meant I did not have to take time off work.

Torsten the producer said they would be at my house at 10 on Saturday morning, well they arrived early I had just got out the shower, so panic panic - anyway I was dressed, and OMG winter had arrived suddenly so it was freezing.  They wanted to go down to the harbor and do some shooting first and then come back to the house.  So I took my car and we drove into town and down along the Liffey, we arrived at one of the passenger terminals but there were all these official looking people who gave us the hairy eyeball.

So off we went to the other side of the bridge and through the Eastlink Toll, and stumbled upon a small rowing & yacht club.  The people there were so nice to us and let us film there, it was great fun but freezing!  Luckily though the sun was shining.  After interviewing me for what seemed eternity, they interviewed Irene - 4 hours later we were still there, neither Irene or I had, had any breakfast so we were starving.

Eventually we headed back to our house after making one stop on the bridge by customs house so they could get some photos, and then home.  I headed straight for the kitchen to prepare food for the masses and then it was interviewing again, while they ate they went through all my memorabilia from the Oceanos and took photos and stuff.

They eventually finished at about quarter to five and by that time Irene and Candice had to rush off to catch their plan, but what a day .... I was exhausted last night and fell asleep just after 9.  At least this time I am getting paid for my troubles.

Beautiful Dublin

 Just when I think that I have seen all the stunning views in Dublin, I stumble across more.  We found the Stella Maris rowing club today where the TV crew from Germany interviewed Irene and myself for a program.  It was stunning to say the least and we had perfect whether, I got a brilliant shot of a typical Irish fisherman putting a boat out, anyway you have a look and be the judge.

Happy Birthday A & B

Yes it's Arthur Guinness's birthday today and also the Boss - Bruce Springsteen ... so Happy Birthday to the both of you!

Yes I took this photo at his concert in 2008, what a man!

My song of the week

Don't Let it Die - Hurricane Smith 1971


You may not know this, but Hurricane Smith was the Sound Engineer for the Beatles until 1965 and then went on to Produce Albums for Pink Floyd,  he was a pilot in the RAF and he was born before my mother - A man ahead of his times, here is the only song he ever made famous for himself. 
Read is obituary here:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/mar/11/obituaries.mainsection

A mountainside, a flower grows
A riverside and the water flows forever
The jungle life of mystery
The wide and graceful history of life

Don't let it die
Don't let it die
The tiger's free, the kangaroo
It's up to me and up to you

For what we see is what we choose
What we keep or what we lose forever
The world is ours to tear apart
But what if it's too late to start again?

Don't let it die
Don't let it die
Or say good-bye - amen

Don't let it die
Don't let it die
Or say good-bye in the end

The Lost Dr. Seuss Poem ... I love my Job, I do, I do ...

I love my job, I love the pay.
I love it more and more each day.
I love my boss; he/she is the best.
I love his boss and all the rest.
I love my office and its location.
I hate to have to go on vacation.
I love my furniture, drab and gray,
And the paper that piles up every day.
I love my chair in my padded cell.
There's nothing else I love so well.
I love to work among my peers.
I love their leers and jeers and sneers.
I love my computer and its software;
I hug it often though it don't care.
I love each program and every file,
I try to understand once in a while.
I'm happy to be here, I am, I am;
I'm the happiest slave of my Uncle Sam.
I love this work; I love these chores.
I love the meetings with deadly bores.
I love my job-I'll say it again.
I even love these friendly men,
These men who've come to visit today
In lovely white coats to take me away.

Dilbert

The Household Budget

A weird thing happened last night, all my cookery books came tumbling down off the shelf, and one of my books which belonged to my mother is a cook book called : The "Royal Hostess", and it belonged to my mother before she got married, it has her maiden name imprinted on the cover, and inside it says "PRINTED IN SOUTH AFRICA PUBLISHED BY ROYAL BAKING POWDER (PTY.) LTD.  FIRST EDITION 1953", which makes it 57 years old.

I have used this book since a child and got some of my baking recipes out of it, but the thing about this cook book is just what it says, it is a Hostess book and it tells you what cuts of meat to buy at the butchers, etc. It is really interesting.  When the book fell the hard cover became detached, so I need to stick it back together somehow.  Anyway, I was paging through the book and came across a section right at the back that says "The Household budget", and it's all kinds of tips on how to plan your budget.  So I was just skimming through it when I got to the last paragraph on the page that read:

                                A good housekeeper will put out the day's (or week's if preferred) requirements regularly and not leave it to servants to help themselves to stores.  Native servants are notoriously extravagant, but they will usually co-operate in economies if approached in the right way.
                               Put out weekly supply of their food - sugar, porridge, samp or beans, etc., and tell them that it must last a week.  Show them how to measure out by cup the amount for each day.  In small households - where only one servant is kept - it is false economy to buy separate amounts of meat etc. for the servant, and to cook an entirely separate meal.                                 
Once or twice a week the servant can be given an extra amount of meat to cook as he or she likes, but generally it can be planned that there is sufficient left over from the family meal for the servant.

I was quite taken aback with it, thinking oh my goodness this cook book actually is quite racist, but then I looked up the work "servant" and Wikipedia told me the following:

Servant is an older English term for "domestic worker", though not all servants worked inside the home.

So it's not just South Africa that had servants, they had them all over the world, even in Ireland in the last century, wealthy families had servants.

I suppose having come through the whole apartheid thing and everyone being so politically correct it just seemed strange to read it in print.  Interesting.

Births, Engagements & Weddings ... oh yes and Divorces

Births:

Seems like something in the water at the moment, you walk around Dublin and every second woman is pregnant, and yet this country was the hardest hit in the recession and we are still worse off than most European countries, except uh maybe Greece ... however, we suddenly are having the highest birth rate.  This is due to the fact that Ireland have some strong employment laws, with all the redundancies taking place in most companies, they can not make you redundant if you are out sick or on Maternity leave - so what do most woman do, fall pregnant!  And then yes while they are out for the 9 - 12 months having their baby, they fall pregnant again and the cycle just goes on and on and puts the country deeper in debt.  I agree to having 2 kids because you are replacing the population, but more than that ... why?  Surely people have noticed that the world is so over populated already, or maybe not are we so selfish that we only think of our wants and needs?

Engagements


So my good friend "Bob" finally did it, on holiday in Italy with his girlfriend Aoife, who I really like and he decided to pop the question!  I'd say about time as Bob is 33 and not getting any younger, so last night while we were out celebrating Trish's wedding, it was just wedding talk - Bob thinks he can probably get away with only spending about €10 - €15K on a big wedding .... I think he may be in for a rude awakening, has no one told him what things cost in this country!  In actual fact it is absolutely ridiculous the amount of money that gets spent on weddings in this country, I told him to elope or going and get married in some 3rd world country where it will cost you a fraction of what you would pay here.

Weddings

Yes we were out celebrating Trish's wedding last night, with a wonderful dinner at "Fallon & Byrne", so Trish is doing the sensible thing and running off to Rome to get married, just her Seamie and mom & dad ... very, very wise I say!  All the old crew from the "society" were there, some of them actually still working there, so it was a great catch up and really had a wonderful evening (considering I didn't really want to go).  I had to rush off at 12:50 before they locked up the parking garage where I was parked and I just made it!  Oh yes forgot to mention that Trish is going to one of my favourite places for her honeymoon - Sorrento, told her she has to do a trip over to the Isle of Capri and the blue grotto.

Divorces

It most cases it has been the man's fault, especially in the celebrity world, I mean look at Tiger Woods, Ashley Cole and now sweet and innocent (not), Wayne Rooney, who I only recently said of  to my mother in law "his about the nicest down to earth player of them all" but yet he has a thing for prostitutes and was even inviting woman back to his bodeaur (spelling) on his stag night ... despicable.
Yet in my world it seems to be the woman who are unhappy with the men and deciding to just up and walk out of marriages that have lasted between 10 and 20 years, and the reasons ... "I never loved him", "his too old", OMG surely when you get married in the first place you know these thing, if he wasn't too old for you when you married him, why exactly is he too old now, did he age more rapidly than you ... one day you too will be too old, and that younger man you have now fallen in love with, will leave you for a younger woman ... I always believe "what goes around, comes around".

Remembering

It's hard to believe that the 9/11 attacks on America happened 9 years ago today, it's also hard to believe that my mother passed away 8 years ago today.

I still remember where I was on 9/11, we had only been living in Ireland for less than 3months, I was hunting for that job (seems I do that a lot), my mother and father-in-law were visiting Ireland from South Africa, but were doing a bit of touring and had gone up north.  We were living in a small 2 bedroomed apartment, and I was busy cleaning the floor, I decided to put the TV on for some reason and I had it on Sky News, as I was watching they were talking about the plane that had smashed into the first of the twin towers, I grabbed the phone and immediately phoned D to tell him what was happening and while I was talking to him on the phone another plane smashed into the other twin tower.  To me it felt like the world had gone mad, but that is now all history, but never to be forgotten history.

On Friday night I was switching between channels and there were a lot of programs about 9/11, it's actually heart wrenching some of the stories that have come out.  Amazingly though, most of the stories seem to be about New York, which of course was the major disaster - however it seems that the media forget about those who were in the Pentagon and the other airplanes that were involved in this disaster.  My heart goes out to all those families who suffered loss on that day, because only after the passing of my mother do I realise how much you can actually miss a family member so much.

My mom passed away on 9/11 8 years ago, my mother like most mothers was very wise and taught me a lot of life skills, things that I hope to pass on to my daughter one day.  The thing I miss most about my mother is that she never got to know her youngest grand daughter who was born 8 months after she left us.

Forever in our thoughts!  (The lady on the right).

If you think ...

Interesting ...

I was reading some fascinating accounts on Monsoons blog today on history of Europe and the black plaque, so now going to start studying some more history and learn about Europe's history seeing as we were never taught this in school.  But something else I found on Monsoons blog which I stole was a saying by Mark Twain:


"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover"


So true.

The summer ... she is over ... or not quite yet

So the holiday was over, the in-laws back in Africa, Em back at school and hubby and I back at the salt mine, which means the summer is over, but yet we have been having fabulous weather.  It was like 23 degrees the last two days, okay you guys in Sunny South Africa don't laugh, I know that is a good winters day.  But honestly it is a different type of 23 degrees and humid and the same heat in SA would probably show about 27 on the thermometer.  

So Thursday Dianne enticed me down to the beach for lunch, pity we had to go back to work because it was just so wonderful looking out onto the blue sea and sitting in the sun.  Yesterday was another Fab day, so I went off to Avoca at lunch time and just walked around in the sunshine.

So no sooner is Em back at school and she has a birthday party tomorrow, I am going to make a big pot of veggie soup in anticipation for winter, and freeze it - that way I know summer will last a lot longer, but I am also going to try and cook some meals for the week, so there is no rushing each evening and besides that way I can get back to my aqua aerobics and the gym.  Besides I need to try and lose loads of weight in the next 3 weeks, help! Think I may have to go onto the high protein diet or starve myself.

I hear thunder - well that is what woke me up this morning and I can honestly say it is probably only the 2nd time in 9.5 years that I have heard thunder, for a minute I thought I was back in Africa, I then went back to sleep and then realised I had to get up because we all had a hair appointment this morning, the 3 of us and you think they would give us a family discount or something .... NO so 115 Euro for 1 kid, 1 man and 1 ladies cut and blow - yes you luck people down in SA, things over here are VERY expensive!  Then it was off to the shops to do the necessary shopping ugh!

This afternoon I picked up a friend from work and went for afternoon tea at my favorite little coffee shop in Milltown, I so needed to bitch about work, so it was great to get a lot of stuff off my shoulders with someone who understood where I was coming from.

So what else has happened today, well how was that earthquake in New Zealand, OMG and here one of my friends is flying over in a few weeks time, to look at going to live ... uh I don't know so much, maybe Australia is a better bet, and of course there was an anti-war protest in down town Dublin, as Tony Blair was out for the week-end to sign his autobiography, got to find out more about those.

New Post, New Month, New Season

Okay I am ditching the details of the holiday, as nobody's really interested in my cultural holiday in Portugal, so as from tomorrow it will be filling you in on "Life" and what has been happening in my little world and on my little Island of Ireland.  Till tomorrow ...

Portugal - Week 2

So after realising that we had less than a week left before we had to fly back home, we got out the tourist book and did some strategical plotting on the sight seeing front, in fact I thought that if we don't get our a into g we will never see everything we want to.  So decision was the next day we would be up early and head for Tomar which would be the furtherest point we would travel that day, then coming back stop in Fatima and lastly in Batalha.

Tomar

So next morning we managed to get out by about 9 a.m. and headed up to Tomar, by the time we arrived it felt like it must certainly be the hottest day of the year, driving into Tomar had such a nice feeling to it especially as we got into the old city and towards the beautiful castle on top of the hill.   Walking into the grounds of the castle, I wondered what it would be like to have lived there almost 400 years ago.  The grounds and the castle were absolutely stunning and so well preserved.  The chapel inside the castle is beautiful, it has a center section that is so awesome it leaves you speechless.  I would love to go back when it is not so hot or crowded, because it really is worth seeing again.  I found a little bit of History on Tomar on the internet that reads:

Although a small town, Tomar plays a large role in a very important stage of Portuguese history, with links to the Knights Templar andthe Discoveries, and remains an attractive and interesting place to visit.

Its story begins in the eleven hundreds when much land in the area was donated to the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem by the then Queen Dona Teresa and her son Dom Alfonso Henriques. Upon this land the Master of the Order of the Temple, Gualdim Pais, instigated the building of a castle which would continue to grow in size and grandeur throughout the ages until the 17th century. 

Legend tells us that the position of the castle, and indeed its name, came to the Templars in a vision upon their arrival in the area.  The castle and the Knights of the Order served to defend the centre of Portugal from attack and invasion, and often they were besieged, but by the 14th century there was a movement throughout Europe to ban the Templars and so came about the extinction of the Order. However, they continued to be supported by the Portuguese royals and so in 1319 Dom Dinis eventually succeeded in negotiating with the Catholic powers the establishment of the new Order of Christ, which would basically take over from where the Templars left off, with the same people, property and privileges. It was this Order which worked alongside Henry the Navigator in the 15th century and whose knowledge and financial backing aided his voyages of discovery. The knights became explorers in their own right with a remit to extend Portuguese influence in the world and to spread Christianity to these new lands.

These voyages and discoveries over the ages are represented in the enormous variety of architectural styles which adorn the castle and convent.

After spending a few hours there, we walked through the old town however everything was closed as it was obviously now Siesta, so off we went to find a nice little restaurant for lunch.  Tomar is such a pretty little town and the river that runs through it, the Nabão and the park just make it stand out from all the other towns we visited whilst in Portugal. 

Fatima

Next stop was Fatima, which according to the books is what Lourdes is to France and Bethlehem to Israel a place of pilgrimage where every good Catholic person want to visit.  D went exploring and came across what was almost like the Vatican, however could not go in because they were having some kind of ceremony.  Now I realise why almost every second Portuguese girl in my school was called Fatima or had it somewhere amongst all her names.

Overall I was not very impressed and spent the hour or so we were there going up and down the souvenir street, which was rather tacky to put it mildly.  I couldn't wait to leave and get onto our next stop Batalha.

Batalha

Batalha was not very far from Fatima, and driving into the town the first thing you see is the huge Medieval Gothic monastery absolutely stunning.  It was getting late so we did not have time to explore too much and only went into the "Founders Chapel" which was completed in 1434, It contains the tombs of King João I and his English queen, Philippa of Lancaster (daughter of John of Gaunt), whose stone effigies lie in repose with their hands entwined. The tomb of their famous son, Prince Henry the Navigator, is nearby.


Very beautiful, however a 7 year old does not fully appreciate all this history and while D was snapping away and exploring I had to try and keep her from dying of boredom, with the heat from that I think she had already had 3 ice-creams but who's counting.


We eventually decided it was time to go home, it had been a long lovely day but now was time to depart.  On our way we saw the sign for Nazare and I said that seeing as we were so close we may as well go and see it.  However, driving into the town was a nightmare, it is obviously a very popular holiday destination and has wonderful beaches and restaurants, probably like Durban was in the late 70's, so we managed to bypass with out going in and took the scenic route home.


The next day was a well deserved rest day and then onto Sintra the following day, another palace and castle to explore - well in actual fact you probably need to spend a few days here and again not in the height of the summer tourist month, we only managed to see the palace in the middle of the town, so will return to do the castle someday.

The palace however was something else, the Palácio Nacional de Sintra, one wonders how many royal families there were in Portugal to have so many many palaces and Castles and not small ones either.  It is the best preserved mediaeval Royal Palace in Portugal, having been inhabited more or less continuously at least from the early 15th up to the late 19th century. It is an important tourist attraction and is part of the Cultural landscape of Sintra, designated World Heritage Site by UNESCO.  It also seems that every place we visited in Portugal has be designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.


I enjoyed walking around this palace however once again Em was bored, which you can't blame her, going through the rooms one by one was eye opening, imagining the queen retiring to her bedroom whilst walking past this gigantic bed where once she slept, and the wardrobe that once housed her many fine clothes.  The Swan room which was probably used for entertaining, the beautiful chandeliers that hung in huge ballrooms.    The kitchen where copper pots and utensils still hang around the iron stove.  All you can say is wow.

Palaces, Castles and Cathedrals - Portugal Week 1

Well although the holiday now seems like a distant memory, and I am in the end stage of a chest infection and conjunctivitis, my will to finally blog again seems it may have returned.

So, the holiday was wonderful although I can't say very relaxing as we did a whole bunch of sightseeing, we flew into Lisbon, then got the car and headed up to our accommodation 90 KM's north of Lisbon in a golfing estate called Praie Del Ray, you can always Google it on Google earth if you want to see exactly where it is.   Although none of us are golfers or anything, the accommodation seemed perfect for touring up and down the coast of Lisbon which it was, close to the beach and pool.


We took 2 days just to acclimatise and then ventured out on the Thursday albeit not too far, we went to one of the closest villages called Caldas da Rainha, we arrived just before lunch which wasn't such a good idea as most places were closing for Siesta.  We stumbled onto the Farmers market in the middle of the town and when we saw the fruit and veggies, wished we had not just done a shop the day before.  It's amazing how fruit and vegetables can have so much flavour when they are organic.

The next day we had made arrangements for D's folks to see mom's long lost niece who had moved to Lisbon  about 15 years earlier, so we ended up at their lovely little house near Estoril for some family memories and beautiful Portuguese chicken and salads.

Saturday we decided to relax and just do the pool thing, which was great!

 Alcobaca 

On Sunday we headed out to a town called Alcobaca which is home to Portugal's largest church, although I enjoy seeing all the old churches and stuff, I am not obsessed by every detail which in one way D is, so after a walk through the main church, Mom, Dad, Em and I excused ourselves and left D to explore all the alleyways of the church.  We opted for shopping for souvenirs and having ice-cream at the pavement cafes. 

The traditional hand painted crockery is really nice, although not quite the style I would like to decorate my house, but very beautiful.

One thing that struck me was the amount of money spent on building lavish churches and decorating them with expensive works of arts, surely in those times the money could have been spent on other things that would possibly have benefited the people.  The church in the photograph is called the Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Alcobaca, it is renowned for it's medieval architecture and was founded in 1153.

In the 2 weeks that we spent in Portugal I think D managed to take 700 photographs and of course I took at least 300, although I must say mine contain people and not just statues.

Peniche & Obidos

Two days later we headed off to a little fishing village called Peniche and then over to Obidos, although we had had dinner in Peniche a couple of days earlier we had not done any sightseeing there, to the side of the town there is a 16th century Fortazela used as a prison during the Salazar regime.  It also harboured South African soldiers during the Anglo Boer war, not quite sure what they were doing up in Portugal but I am going to Google it and see what I find.

Just about lost everything trying to Google what I read, but did not find anything, so I guess we will leave that bit of history for another day.

Obidos 

After a lovely seafood lunch, although I decided to try the grilled sardines for a change and really not to my liking, I think sardines are just meant to belong in cans and fed to cats.  We head over to Obidos which is one of the towns closest to where we were staying.  A beautiful village still enclosed by it's 14th century walls.  The castle is now a boutique hotel and you can view it here:  http://www.pousadasofportugal.com/portugal/pousada/obidos.html  

Obidos is now a tourist haven and you battle to find parking let alone walking space in the height of summer time, we had a lovely afternoon tough, Emily had her caricature portrait done and we browsed all the little souvenir shops in the alley, we had intended taking a walk around the wall, but being unprepared in the scorching heat we decided to give that a miss.

Choices

Life is full of choices, how do we know if we are making the right one or the wrong one - how do we know what the consequences of our actions would be months after those choices?

Dumping Friends and Influencing Garbage

Dumping Friends and Influencing Garbage

This is something I have been wanting to blog for a long time and it has been put so brilliantly in this post.

Holiday

I know I have been a useless blogger for the past while, what with work, a child and visitors keeping me busy, but I thought I would let you know that I have not abandoned you and will be back in full swing in a couple of weeks, with lots to tell you about our holiday in Portugal.  Just to make you envious I found some photos, we are staying in a village near Obidos, called Praia del Rey which is 90km's north of Lisbon.  Will be basking in 39 degrees and eating loads of seafood and spending plenty of time at the pool.

Till we meet again, have a wonderful two weeks without me.