Where on Earth is Fanad Head?



The Lighthouse



Well, it’s the second most northern point of Ireland, in County Donegal and my friend Olivia happens to live there, otherwise we’d have no reason to go!  But I’m glad she does live there, because we would have missed out on seeing a gorgeous part of the country.

It’s about a 5 hour drive from Dublin, so half way there we stopped at The Murphy’s for lunch.  I’m giving it capital letters, because even though it’s my good friend Sinead’s family home, it’s also good old fashioned Irish hospitality at its best, and we may as well have stopped in at a pub or restaurant of the same name!  Lovely Margaret treated us to a full lunch including desert she’d made herself as well as special orders for the kids!  I think they must have been happy to see the back of us though, as Amelia and Noah went absolutely mental in there, running laps around the table squealing and screaming.  I guess that’s what happens after nearly 3 hours stuck in a car! And it was lashing rain, so no hope of letting the energy loose in the garden.

The Murphy’s are in Northern Ireland, and the quickest way to reach our destination was to pass through it.  It was a bit unnerving when we passed through a town and came across thousands of cars parked near a field.  A music festival? A fair?  Men in bowler hats, others wearing some kind of uniform with sash’s bearing numbers/dates?, and Union Jacks flying all around.  It felt like a bullseye on the political dartboard of religion, or country, whichever rings the truest.  Not sure, but with the trouble going on in the North again we were glad once we’d left it behind.  Chatting to Mr Murphy about it later the words ‘march’ and ‘Black Saturday’ were mentioned.  Not sure what that really means, but haven’t heard any news about it since so all must have gone well with it.

As we drove further north out of Northern Ireland, the landscape became more rugged and wild, but despite this we found Olivia’s place with no problem at all thanks to her no nonsense straight talking right on the money brilliant directions!  We had packed all our woolies in the boot to have on hand as we expected our heads to be blown off by the gale force winds upon stepping out of the car on the driveway of the house at the end of the world!  But, not so, it was sunny and calm!  Albeit not so warm!

Olivia, Colin and little Ollie live in a gorgeous house with a sun room attached which has a spectacular view of the rugged hills and rocky cliffs that make up the coastline.  The one full day we were there the weather was great, and we spend time on the beach, exploring the rocks while the crazy Irish Fanad Head people actually swam!  Olivia thought we were mad, going to the beach dressed in our winter best with runners and socks on, while she sported flip flops and had little Ollie in a swimsuit!

We had a lovely time, beer drinking, chocolate eating, and catching up on the past seven years (Oh my God, we’ve got kids now!!) and Amelia scored an Oopsie Daisy doll complete with a musical bed!

Room with a view

Thank you for having us.  We’d love to visit again someday.  Apologies though for leaving you with the howling wind and lashing rain in our wake!  It appears we spent our one day in Fanad Head on it's only sunny day of the year!

Freezing feet!

Top o’ the mornin’ to ye…..



Glendalough



Splashing in the 'Lough'

First of all nobody says that.  And there are no leprechauns running about, except for the man dressed up as one by the Molly Malone statue in Grafton Street. And not everybody can play the tin whistle, or is an expert at jigging about without moving their arms.  But tis true what they say about the craic!!



Jack and Milly and Little Timmy Cahill



According to Trip Advisor, Dublin is one of the top 5 cities for having the friendliest locals, and you really do feel that.  My friends that live here might beg to differ, but it’s what we’ve always loved about this place and still do.  We’ve had a great week, visiting places we used to go when we lived here that hold memories of friends and funny times!  We’ve enjoyed listening to Ray Darcy on the radio with his entertaining accent and talk back topics!  The weather had been quite good too, as far as Irish weather goes!

It’s been nice to have spacious accommodation, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and big ones at that.  We’ve enjoyed being in Glendalough, away from the hustle and bustle, but close enough to it with a short enough drive.



Wayne, Esme with all of us



We’ve spent a couple of days with Wayne, Esme and their three littlies, having lunch and sorting out disputes about who this block belongs to or who had the ball first!  We dropped in on the gymnastics club I used to coach at and met Louise again who now runs it and two of my former protégés who are now coaches themselves which left me feeling very old! 



On the DART



At Bray fair

We’ve walked around beautiful Glendalough.  Enjoyed an evening at the fair on the Bray seafront.  Caught the DART into the city where we wandered, dodging the crowds and tried to have a drink and experience a bit of the ‘craic’ which didn’t turn out so well!  Because Noah was asleep ( a positive thing in most circumstances!), we couldn’t go into one of the good pubs as they were busy and the music was loud, so we had to settle for a near deserted one, with not so traditional decor, playing not-live Irish music, which was better than nothing.  But then Amelia fell of her stool.  And then she needed the loo so I spent most of the time waiting for her in the toilet cubicle listening to her chattering away!  As Maciek said, we love Dublin, and have great fun memories here , but it’s been difficult to really soak up the atmosphere.  And it felt quite strange walking my daughter down the very steps towards the loo that I must have staggered down, drunk, many a time at two in the morning! Later in the afternoon we met another coaching buddy Sinead in St Stephen’s Green for a coffee while the kids played on the park, a lovely end to a full day in the city. 



Where's the Pot of Gold?



We went to Blackrock, the place Maciek and I lived when we were here together for a year and still loved it.  There used to be a crèche in the shopping centre which we were hoping to avail of.  Unfortunately it wasn’t there anymore, but to our amazement the poor Romanian lady sitting on the corner trying to sell copies of the Big Issue WAS still there!  After 7 years!  I always re member passing her on the street and hearing her quietly call out ‘please lady, Big Issue, please’.  I doubt she’s that poor really.



Collecting pebbles Killiney Beach



The food we’ve had here is the best, eating out.  We always remember it being good quality.  And it was nice knowing when we ordered anywhere we’d have an enjoyable meal (so long as Amelia and Noah were in the mood!)  And Maciek has loved the Guinness!  A bit too much judging by the spare tyre he’s sporting at the moment! (I can’t talk, I’ve been getting into the chocolate digestives with my cups  of tea!)



?????



Coaches old and new



On a parting note, Maciek bought himself some new flip flops (thongs for all the Aussies!).  I’m not sure he realized what colour they were.  Let us know what you think?  To keep or not to keep, that is the question!













How’s Yer Craic?

My Bitter Sweet Pint

Arrh Dublin, it is great to be back in Dublin. We felt it from the moment we drove off the ferry, which was very smooth this time. We are staying about an hour out from Dublin city in the Wicklow mountains. It’s a bit far out but most of the people that we know here live about 20 minutes away in Shankill and when we lived here we said if we were to stay we would want to live in this area and Glendalough is Melanie’s favourite place in Ireland, we are about 2 minutes away from it.  So this is why we chose to stay here and we couldn’t get accommodation anywhere else, to be sure, to be sure.

Its feels very bitter sweet to be back here, as represented by my bitter sweet pint of Guinness pictured.  We would love to be sitting in a great pub drinking and listening to the Irish “go on, go on” but unfortunately that is very difficult with the kinder in tow.  For some reason they don’t seem to like the pub scene very much.

Yep that is a measuring cup!

I BIN to Glendalough

We don’t mean to be harping on AGAIN how the kids are limiting our holiday experience, because we absolutely adore them and love what they have to throw at us, but it’s hard to reflect back and feel nostalgic when you’ve got Amelia asking for ice cream every two minutes and Noah trying to put crayons into your pint of Guinness.  Also his bin obsession seems to have reappeared since we docked here. But nevertheless I have still managed to add at least two pints of Guinness every day to my ever expanding waste line (jogging has given way to napping!). I have discovered that if Ihave one beer during the day it just puts me to sleep, but two makes me quite jolly indeed, in fact, I had a headache today , could have been hay fever, after one pint I felt terrible but the second one cleared me right up and I felt good for the rest of the day.  Well until about 4 o’clock

Us on the dart, taken by Milly, great snap princess

when I felt tired (as I didn’t get my nap) and had to have a coffee.

Anyway, sorry about the rambling just thought I’d get the weeks blogging started.  Melanie will fill you in about what we’ve been up to soon.

Cheers

maciek

The Only Australians in the Villaaaage

For one night only we are Myfanwy and Dafydd in Llangefni.  You will only understand the title of this blog if you watch Little Britain!

We are staying at the Bull Hotel, advertised as being a 4 star establishment which makes me think the star ratings system in Wales is seriously overrated!  Judging by this place if we'd have booked a 1 star we would now be looking up at the stars surrounded by half standing stone walls and being greeted by wandering sheep with a hole in the ground for a toilet!  I can't believe they have the nerve to call themselves 4 star, they must have made it up themselves, as i can't see anyone else awarding it to them!

It is a one night stop over.  Our ferry for Dublin leaves at 10am tomorrow from Holyhead.  The bar is downstairs and sounds a bit rowdy so hopefully we don't get any drunkard skunkard welshmen staggering about and knocking on the door at 3 o'clock in the morning!

We haven't had internet for the past week, so just catching up on some things tonight while we have it, and not sure if we'll have it next week either. 

And another thing or two:

• The Not-So-Magic Roundabouts in the UK are terrible!!
• Before we left home we put all our music onto the Ipod thinking it will be great on long car journeys to listen to our favourite tunes.  Only it doesn't work.  For some reason we can't tune it in.  Or if we do it drops in and out of range which is extremely annoying.  More annoying is that the only CD's we brought with us are Norah Jones (it was just in there) and The Wiggles:  You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.  So for those of you who think we've been galavanting around the beautiful countryside listening to really cool tunes (or what we think are really cool), we've actually been learning the words to 'Old Man Tucker' and 'One Finger One Thumb' off by heart!!
• I never mentioned the water in Austria.  It comes out of the tap lovely and cold and so velvety smooth tasting better than the bottled water we get at home.  The sad thing is I hardly drank any!  I will definately make up for it when we go back.
• Noah still hates the car.  He seems to spend 4 hours whinging and screaming only to fall asleep 20 minutes before we reach our destination! 

Before I go I just want to say that whilst i've been here in Wales I've noticed quite a few strange looking flags hanging about displaying a picture of a fiery red dragon?  Not sure what that's all about, except that it could be the spirit of Nana Lol following us around??!!

he he he he!!

I say, Chipping, Old Chap

Chipping Campden

The farm owners residence

Our next stop in England was just outside a lovely village called Chipping Campden (rather posh), in the Cotswalds, on a farm where the stables have been converted to cottages.  It’s a stunning area, beautiful historical villages (must be good as even Maciek is impressed) and endless countryside.  And our cottage is not unlike the one we had in France, a bit more modern and luxurious though. There’s even towel warmer in the bathroom, and lovely thick luxury towels to hang on it!

Horsing around on our farm

Harry and Emily taking charge

It’s been a very full week, catching up with family and friends.  Saturday was a BBQ at my cousin Warren and Caron’s house with Nan P.  A lovely afternoon where Harry and Emily looked after the kids the entire time so we could just relax!  And to top it off, Maciek got to see Cadel Evans win the Tour!

A couple of days out in Stratford-Upon-Avon with Uncle Stephen and Aunty Karen and then Nan and Grandad.  Some photo’s outside of Shakespeare’s house, a beer in a 16^th century pub, a boat ride on ! Avon, a picnic, fish n chips and ice-cream and a pink balloon made into a pony for Amelia which was put down for a rest and subsequently carried into the air by a breeze which prompted Karen to say “That pony’s just blown off!” which of course had me in stitches!

Caron was kind enough to offer to babysit on Tuesday night so me and Maciek could enjoy a much needed dinner to ourselves in a traditional country pub called the Howard Arms a couple of villages away.  I went the whole hog and ordered a starter, main, dessert and coffee and was so full i had trouble breathing while i tackled the tiny unlit country roads on the way home!

Nan P outside our cottage

50P ferry across the Avon

Shakespeares house with Nan and Grandad

Fish n Chips with Steve and Karen

A trip to Tamworth to see friends and family and a day out a Warwick Castle.

Warwick Castle dates back to the 11^th century and is extremely well preserved.  I have been twice before but now they’ve added some attractions to it which makes it feel a bit more like a theme park.  At various times throughout the day there are shows such as sword fighting, birds of prey display, jousting and we even saw a medieval trebuchet (catapult) shooting a fireball into the distant countryside (mind your head!), all in full costume with hidden speakers belting out medieval music to go with the display.  It’s very impressive.  There are people wandering the grounds in medieval costumes, playing the part, and a Princess Tower, visited twice by Princess Amelia!  We paid to visit the Dungeon with live actors (Maciek was called up to demonstrate an execution and had his ear chopped off!) and the Merlin Tower, both new since I last went.  I wouldn’t recommend them though, not so much for the extra cost but the time they took up.  As children are not allowed into the Dungeon Maciek and I had to go separately which took up nearly two hours, and personally we don’t think they are worth it.  It would have been nicer to have more time to wander around the castle and grounds, as even though we were there for almost 6 hours we still didn’t see it all.  Amelia was given a pea in the princess tower to put under her mattress and she went to bed that night SO excited at the prospect of waking up a real princess if she felt the pea (we put it under her sheet and crossed our fingers!) but to no avail!  She was very disappointed but that didn’t stop her dressing up for the rest of the week in her princess dress and tiara!



The real princesses!



Warwick Castle





Oh I do like to be beside the seaside…..

Colourful huts on the beach

I'll have a cup of Tetleys!

Torquay: The English Riviera.  Colder than the Alps.  Two jackets, a woolly hat and a raincoat just in case! 

After I’d tried to hand our passports through a closed window to the passport control officer causing a few embarrassed giggles (well I had been ill and washing sick of my children’s clothes for the past few hours!), driving off the ferry and into Plymouth was a bit tricky.  Being on the right side (the left) of the road in a left hand drive car which caused confusion in itself, the wacky enormous roundabouts consisting of 5 lanes and traffic lights, tiny roads and loads of traffic didn’t do much to help!  Once we got out of the town and onto the motorways it was fine though, and we found our way to our accommodation quite easily.

Pattisseries and vineyards were replaced by pubs and amusement arcades, and the number of barbers’ shops on one street was unbelievable!  Our apartment was close to the high street, seafront and cinema (might get a chance to see Harry Potter!), and a 5 minute drive to Aunty Val’s in one direction and Lyndsey’s in another made it a good base to explore.  It was clean and comfortable if a bit cramped!

The weather wasn’t too good at the beginning of the week, but improved towards the end.  Although the four days wasn’t quite enough to catch up properly with all the family, especially working around the kids and Daisy still being at school.  We chose not to do any touristy things.  Being in England and so close to familiar shops we decided to do normal things like shopping!  We were impressed with how cheap things were and so treated ourselves to a few new items to add to our wrinkled wardrobe!

We took Amelia and Noah to an indoor play centre which was a converted church!  It was awesome fun, huge slides which you needed a mat for and a mini helter skelter.  We also had a couple of meals in restaurants that also had a playroom for the kids, one of them with soundproof windows so you could keep an eye on them but not hear a thing!

I also had a practice at driving from Lyndsey’s to our place, THE MOST STRESSFUL 5 MINTUES OF MY LIFE!!  Poor Amelia was even worrying from the back seat “No mummy don’t drive, can’t you drive Daddy?”  Stalled the car, took a few wrong turns, got beeped at a couple of times.  So much for “I’ll drive in England and Ireland Maciek”.  So much to concentrate on, staying close to the kerb, checking the mirror which is in the wrong place, gear stick in your right hand, indicators on the left, checking the speed limit which is in miles, trying to follow Karen’s voice on the sat nav, trying to stay in the correct lanes which sometimes disappear and you find yourself not knowing where on the road you’re supposed to be……really don’t know how Maciek has done it so far, he definitely copes with it far better than me!

Rainbows Funhouse

It was lovely to see Amelia and Daisy getting on so well (it reminded us of me and Lyndsey when we were little – one tall and blonde and the other short and brown, holding hands and playing tig on the way to the shops).

Val, Lynds, Simon, Daisy and us

Maciek was able to watch Le Tour de France, and it was nice to see some T.V in our own language!  We didn’t make it down on to the beach (not even in our woolly hats!), and I didn’t get to see Harry Potter.  But it was nice to be in familiar surroundings, read menu’s, be with family, and I love the sound of the seagulls at the seaside – reminds me of childhood holidays!

Nightmare on Pont Avon: Ferry from Hell

The Pont Avon

Up early in the morning to load the car and get to the port on time we noticed how windy and cold it was and Maciek even wondered whether the ferry would be sailing.  We’d been looking forward to a relaxing journey after a couple of very long drives in France so with fingers crossed, we arrived at the port in plenty of time, not a mention of any cancellations, so whilst we waited in the queue to embark we ate a small bread roll and banana to tide us over until we could enjoy a FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST on board!!  Woo hoo!!

The ferry was enormous.  Amelia was so excited.  There were two cinemas, loads of restaurants, and an indoor play gym for the kids and heaps of space to sit.  We picked a spot right next to the kids gym and were feeling great about being able to sit in peace and eat our breakfast whilst the kids played.  I thought I might even get a chance to read my book, or maybe they were playing Harry Potter in the cinema?

As we took off, we were giggling at the amount of swaying going on.  I don’t usually feel travel sickness but I was beginning to feel uncomfortable after a short while. We wondered about the kids, given their past vomiting episodes in the car, but were reassured that they’d both had Kwells so surely they’d be fine, and they were busy playing anyway.  And we both took a Kwells just in case. 

The ferry was rocking considerably, and seemed to be rising up at the front and banging down into the sea sending waterfalls over the front windows.  I even joked to Maciek about sinking and then he said ‘it’s possible’ which wiped the smirk of my face!

Sick bag anyone?

Not long after that Maciek was sitting on the floor of the play area saying he didn’t feel too good and I noticed that Noah had been sick on one of the colouring-in tables.  Noah came to lie down on the floor near our seats but he was clearly uncomfortable and Maciek was lying across the seat looking so white he could have played the queen in an Elizabethan play (he’s even got the little red lips!)  Milly came to lie down just before Noah finally vomited, all over his teddy, and as I was cleaning it up Maciek joined in, crawling about on all fours sounding like a wounded donkey!  We had a small collection of sick bags on our table being slowly used up as Milly then started vomiting, only just grabbing a bag in time!  I felt awful but must have an iron stomach as nothing came up.  I went to the bathroom to attempt to wash Noah’s teddy and noticed people, including myself, staggering about like John Wayne after 10 bottles of bad wine!  The four of us slept on the floor for about an hour and a half, and when we woke up the sea and wind had finally settled, and people began emerging into upright positions again.  It was like the end of Sleeping Beauty, when everyone in the land wakes up from 100 years of sleep! Or maybe it was more like the bit from Michael Jackson’s thriller, when the zombie’s come to life and start groaning and staggering about!

What was meant to be a relaxing enjoyable journey turned into the most awful 5 hour ferry ride EVER!  So much for Kwells.  And the worrying part is, we’ve got two more ferry journeys to go, not including a 15 hour overnighter from the UK to Holland!  Eek!