Just an update.

Hello!

Well there's only been one major occurance since the last blog and that is the end of Summer Camp. I (Aimee) am now footloose and fancy free for the summer. At first I thought this was a disaster but after two restful nights and a bit of sunshine I'm begining to come around to the idea of a bit of time off. Obviously the main downer is the lack of income in the next 5 weeks but finding a job is probably more work than it's worth. As we've found out first hand you have to be pretty lucky to find any job in under 4 weeks let alone a casual temporary one.

So Friday night Emmett and I went out for a beer and said goodbye to little treasures for a while. When I go back in September I'll be running the afternoon session which is mainly 5 and 6 year olds in an after school programme. I'll also be doing at least 2 mornings a week with the little guys as well. It's about 30 hours a week so I'll have to think carefully before taking on anything else, I'll be teaching mainly on my own so I'll probably be pretty stuffed.

Saturday we hung out, went down town, bought bagels at the market as well as a few vegies for the week. We went to the budget supermarket across the street (as opposed to the one downstairs) and made 2 great discoveries. The first is cheese puffs, more fabulous for the name than the product, basically twisties but not as cheesy or twisty - quite yum though. The second was bread in a can. It's uncooked bread rolls in a can that you peel the label off and it pops open in the middle, you pull the precut dough apart and throw in the oven. More than just novelty value as well because the bread is good.

Today we went for a monster walk up the river away from town along the university fields. We saw the tea folly and castle as pictured below and generally enjoyed a bit of sunshine.

Hope all is well at home,
love,

Aimee





We're not sure what a tea folly is but it's really small and thick walled, also it had a shelf inside it.



The boat going across the front is a river cruise/guide. There were lots of people having picnics and bbqs across at the castle so we'll have to walk the other side of the river and see it close up one day.

Mr. Happy

I (Emmett) have worked for two whole days now ( beat that i dare ya). I am in the planning department of the City Council. imagine an office with lots of files piled on desks, under desks and just anywhere. Now double the number of files and you are in the planning department. I manned the front desk today as you can only learn by doing and handled lots of queries. Only had one angry (more frustrated) person but many "concerned neighbours". The angry woman accompanied her grown son and very early on demanded to see the head of planning and quickly followed this with a desire to not leave the waiting room until someone saw her. So our immediate boss met with her and soothed the waters. With up to 18 different agencies involved in one building project I can see how Joe Bloggs would go mad.

My main job is to find files and then lend them to the public or add correspondence to them. They can be in about 18 different places in the chain of processing and evaluation so every task is like a mini hunt. I will soon start remembering files by reference number as half the team do.

The crew are great ( Two Noreens, two Conors, two Geraldines and many others) and I always have someone to talk to at morning tea or lunch. It is definitely a public service environment and just a little bit more old fashioned than home. But no "class" structure (big boss sat next to me at morning tea and ate his chocolate bar) which is good.

Enjoy the photos.

Love Aimee and Emmett

Photos ( captions by Aimee)



A happy Emmett on his first day at work, ain't he cute.



A picture showing just how small Aimee's work is. This is the entire inside play area as seen from the kitchen area of the same room.



The entire outside play area, it's small but check out the built in climbing wall!

Parade Weekend

Well it was a big weekend here in Galway, the rugby was a nice distraction (especially the second half) but really it was all about the parade. We were down at Macnas on Saturday helping put things together for Sundays parade for most of the day.

Sunday was busy and wet, mainly wet. It poured on the floats, the props and the people right until the time of the parade when it fined up for the main event. We were "float technicians" or pushers. While the floats at home are motorised the ones here for the most part are not and the entire parade relies on enough people tuning up on the day to dress silly and push heavy stages on casters. Our float was so unbalanced it required total teamwork to keep it on anything like the straight and narrow, we ran out of teamwork quite quickly but made it through alive if a little stuffed after the hour long parade.

After dinner Emmett went to the after party and I went to sleep, for about 12 hours. I have a cold and after my massive sleep was still asked by one of the parents if I'd been out late after the parade; must have had a good monday morning look about me.

Anyway here are the photos, Emmett downloaded a nifty little programme to shrink them but it doesn't rotate them so rotate your head instead please.



Saturday morning in a pub full of Kiwis and Aussies drinking coffee.



Farmer Brown and his wife before the parade.



Looking after the flock.



Just guys hanging out in the local fashions.



Emmett and the float we both pushed.



The flowergirls were dancing behind us in the parade. Our float produced the music they sang and danced to, may we never hear "zippidy do da" again.



Talking Food (Jelly made by Emmett)



The Monster and the monster wrangler ( Aka Matius and Iain)



The doomsdayers. Aimee painted the 20/20 vision sign and Emmett thought up the line about Haddock.



Paddy (Aimee painted his sign).



To see the Fireman in action battling the crypto monster go to youtube.com and look for "Galway Arts Festival Macnas Parade 2007". Also for more photos and the video link see http://www.galway.net/

See you later guys,
Aimee and Emmett.

Working class man.

Emmett has a job!

The city council finally called and offered him 6-8 weeks of something. We're not kidding he could be in waste management, they didn't say what the job was at all. However it's a job and we are both very happy that it has come along.

It's been a week for good luck as Aimee found 50 euro on the street and not all sneaky like maybe it belonged to the person in front of her but just lying there with no one around it. Naturally we saw this as a sign that God wanted us drunk; then Aimee's phone broke and it turned as so many before us we'd completely misread the big guy. Guess how much phones cost? that's right, 50 euro.

It's rained so hard here it's just been crazy. Floods and bridges washed away and all.

The big parade is on Sunday we'll be sure to take pictures.

Well we're off to buy groceries,

Love,
Aimee and Emmett

Hello!

Well I decided to take an evening walk and to take some pictures while I was out. I went to the university, Galway is basically the Palmy of Ireland but in a better location. The Uni is huge and quite pretty and with fit young people playing tag rugby on the fields and couples playing tennis on the courts it looked like something out of a cheesy university drama this evening.

I try to think of things that are different to at home to show you guys, this can be a challenge sometimes but I can honestly say I have never studied anywhere as mystical as this place so I hope you enjoy.



The new science block, not the old pretty side of the uni but an impressive building none the less.



It''s a lama, it's a cow, it's a little green man in a robot suit about to attack...



Actually it's about church steeples according to the plaque, I like giant robotic rhino better.



One of the buildings in the courtyard.



My pics are a little out of order, obviously this is not a part of the uni. This is Spongebob and Patrick as drawn by on of my favourite kids. I just think it's a cute picture and I like it when work makes me smile :)



There's a bit of a local sport in spotting what's been thrown in the river, shopping trolleys are common. This picture if you look closely has two of the most common items in it and is therefore a typical shot of a Galway waterway. You're looking for road cones (at least 3) and an unbrella.



OK back to the uni; this is the most impressive main entrance, it's like a castle. The building is square with a big square courtyard in the middle perfectly enclosed by the huge castle walls.



The view into the courtyard.



From the other side of the courtyard looking back at the entrance. I love the colour of the plant on the turett and how it changes as it goes up.



In the centre of the courtyard is this street lamp, it reminded me of the lion the witch and the wardrobe very much.

Other than my walk I've pretty much been at work. The Summer camp I'm the main teacher of is doing really well and we've even had some repeat customers that were only going to come back if they enjoyed it! It's mainly girls which is a bit of a relief when it rains too much as they're more accepting of being kept inside. Today my youngest charge for the week dragged a chair into her foot and lifted a toe nail - it still makes me shudder to think of it. She's fine though and her mother took the news as she does this childs every injury, with a roll of the eyes and a sigh (if it ain't broke this kid'll give breaking it a good go!).

I've got 2 days of all day teaching ahead of me now so I'm off to bed.

Stay warm, love,

Aimee

Another Week

Hello all.


This week Aimee worked full time and is pretty stuffed. Thursday was the best (worst) day which Aimee worked all by herself, so no breaks, and 7 kids to keep happy.

I (Emmett) spent the majority of each day down at the Macnas (pronounce mockness) workshop making props for the upcoming arts festival parade. My current project is a large fake moulded jelly within which a persons face will appear. It will be on a table of talking food.

Monday night we went to the Parade launch party which was a PR thing but at least we got free food and wine.

Thursday I had an interview at a recruitment firm which was nice given the brushoff I have been given by most recruitment firms.

Today (Saturday) we have been to watch the rugby in town and are now lazing around reading books.

Tommorow is the Parade dress rehearsal (hope todays sun stays around) so I will try and steal a few photos for the blog. To keep you busy here is a few random picks.




Aimee reading a book in our lounge.



All day, everyday, there is at least one person fishing in the river below the salmon weir. Given that this apparently costs them 2 euro a minute it must be good fishing. I have seen one catch but is was bucketing with rain so i didn't take the camera out.



The yucky entrance to our apartment block. The front half of the building has two large shops on the ground floor and offices above.



Our mailbox in the foyer.




Me in the lift ( note job interview clothes).



The view from our front door.

Hugs and love to all.

Emmett ( and Aimee)

I'm Famous!

Well only 3 weeks into the new city and already I'm in the local paper. I went to the local brass band practice last friday and while they were breaking up for the summer the drummer suggested I go and volunteer for the arts festival parade. So I went down to parade headquarters, alas they had enough drummers already but just the sight of the props workshop was enough to distract me from my dissapointment. I mentioned my design degree and signed up as a workshop volunteer instead, on my first day in the workshop a photographer came and snapped a few pics of the boss. My legendary lense pulling power it seems is not limited to the Army news!

This evening Emmett came along with me to volunteer also and had such a good time he's found a new way to fill his days. The people are all really nice and very trusting - they give you a job and you do it. We've signed up to help on parade day as well, it would seem we're gluttons for punishment.

So below is the famous photo and a couple of others we thought you'd like.

ka kite,
Aimee








The local version of the Pukeko.



So tell again where you parked the boat Paddy?

This weeks update

Not much has changed for us in the last week but here are some photos. We did get immigration cards, PPS numbers and even opened a bank account. We now have to wait a couple of weeks for the modern banking system of Ireland to actually swing into action ( 4 working days to get account details, 3 more for pin codes and then 2 more for actual atm cards).

On to the photos.



The View from our bedroom window on the corner of our block by the emergency stairs! We are 4 stories up in a big U shaped building with a courtyard in the middle down below. Below the Courtyard is a budget Supermarket and Argos (outlet for mailorder shop, pay at the counter and wait for your number- seems this is a theme here in Ireland). Note the cathedral in our view (see below).



Our lounge and Kitchen. If you look carefully you can see the vacuum cleaner hose in the hallway. Hooray the landlord finally bought a new vacuum cleaner. We can now wear bare feet inside! Bathroom is also spotless thanks to the boredom of being unemployed.



Three shots of the inside of the Cathedral with its cool 1960's angels. Interestingly enough it is on the site of the old Gaol ( sight of mass grave for dead prisoners is in the middle of the pay and display carpark next door).







Note this is no longer inside the Cathedral. Our lounge looks over what is ordinarily a big patch of green space. Normal highlights involve people walking their dogs, people sitting on walls or under trees ( when it rains) drinking in groups, people peeing (sometimes from drinking groups but not always) and the council guys mowing the grass. But on sunny Friday evenings it becomes a boys playground. These guys actually brought their own collapsable goal!



I nearly died laughing after I had already photographed the soccer boys some lads then turned up and played golf on the other side of the park. Spot the dolled up darling walking past who the boys were trying to impress.

Catch ya

Emmett