An Irish Christmas

Well from no entries in ages to 2 in one day!

Today we had Mary around after mass for an Irish Christmas dinner. Mainly it was an excuse to drink on a Sunday and for Emmett to roast a duck. The duck was delicious and it was a great way to spend an afternoon.



Emmett carving his duck delight.



After dinner we all went for a walk through town to photograph the Christmas lights. The lights are hung all through town and many businesses have their own lights as well making the main shopping streets very festive indeed.





I really like the angel photo.





So from Galway in all it's glory, although it's been said many times, many ways, daidi na nollag to you!

Aimee and Emmett

Looking spiffing for Christmas

Hello and a merry Christmas season to you all!

We're great, Christmas is coming and we can't wait to get to Edinburgh as we're totally ready for a break. And judging by his duty free request so is Richard.

I took the picture below a couple of nights ago, we need to take a few more as like the giant tree the whole town is covered in lights.



Town is actually really pretty, and so is Emmett because he has a new haircut. Based on what he calls his "no one knows me here" theory he let me cut his hair. So I've never cut hair before but it turns out I've a bit a natural talent for it because I think he looks quite good.



The whole thing started with a serious case of the nervous giggles, neither of us really thought this was good idea. Emmett kept saying things like "that's not how hairdressers do it" and "careful" and putting his glasses on to check on things. All this made me laugh more.



In the end though I was starting to look quite professional in my technique, even Emmett thought so. And the end result...







Ta Da! What a handsome husband!

A very spiffing Christmas to you all!

Aimee and Emmett

(Hello,

Long time no news! Well generally all we've been up to is working and trying to stay warm, so to break the monotony we took a weekend to Cork. We know we're supposed to make the most of every trip and all but really all we did was wander around, shop and drink (moderately). We could have kissed the Blarney stone but hanging upside down from the top of a castle in the rain is not our idea of fun so we skipped it.

What we did see of Cork was great, very much the Wellington of Ireland if there is one. Many more coffee and independent shops than Galway and well worth the 4 hour bus trip.



The alleys and streets had their Christmas threads on. Cork had lots of little nooks and crannies to explore and shelter in.



Cork (unlike Galway) has hills, the hill streets are lined with houses mostly painted in pastel colours. If the street curved then so did the house fronts, kinda like a giant maze.



A nice view of the city, we were pretty lucky with the weather it was cold (Emmett's teeth were chattering at on stage) but mostly dry.



Cork is a port city and the river Lee runs through it. Or you could say the city gets in the way of the river as the CBD is between two channels of the river.



These crazy lads were out in the cold rowing boats with what appeared to be very inefficient oars.

So we liked Cork, probably if we were here for longer we'd make a second trip but it has to be said that on our time line it's unlikely. We found a pub owned by Kiwis and drank listening to Che fu on the forst night. And on the second found a pub with a mystical spring that brewed it's own tasty beers (the pub brewed the beer, not the spring). All and all a great place and a great relaxing weekend!

Birthday blog, well not really - it's the day after.

Well I had a birthday, and what a birthday. I started it on NZ time and finished it on Irish time so it lasted a whopping 37 hours, Emmett was a good husband and played along nicely. He even took me shopping on Saturday before the whole thing started for a gift, what a gem.



Me! 25 years old and looking remarkably similar to when I was only 24. I'm wearing the hat and gloves from Christine and Paul, they're very warm and I like telling people they're made from possum fur.



This is the watch Emmett bought for me, perfect as like all my watches it's too big and matches nothing!

I also got a card from home and chocies from the boss and one of the families at work. All and all not bad at all.

Love the now old,
Aimee

Halloween

Howdy folks,

Well if you thought Halloween was an American holiday you've obviously never spent the 31st of October in Ireland. Halloween is a big deal here and like a really big fancy dress party it's very hard to watch everyone get ready and not dress up yourself. We didn't dress up but we did get into the spirit of it slightly by making jackolanterns. When I say we, I mean me, our new friend Erin from Perth and our jackolantern expert Audrey from Canada.



Our pumpkin party, Audrey is the one digging in while Erin sorts the seeds from the pulp. We then roasted the seeds but it didn't really work, it was fun though.



This is my jackolantern, I went for a classic pumpkin face. Not bad for a first attempt.



Audrey's pumpkin was covered in stars and a moon, mine only had four stars but they were very patriotic.



After a few days the pumpkins shrivelled and my scary face looked even cooler, it was however time to throw him in the bin.

So next time it's halloween and you think you can't enjoy it because it's American rubbish, just think of it as Irish craic instead. I know we will.

Aimee

Letterfrack 2

So there were a few more photos that I shunk for the Letterfrack blog that never quite made it. Having done the leg work I've decided to upload them anyway in a better late than never "Letterfrack 2" blog entry.



Emmett sheltering from the rain under a tree after we came down the mountain.



This is part of the local Mary shrine, it was built in 1987 and is big by comparison to other grottos we've seen. It has built in seats and kneelers as well as a letterbox type cabinet that you can put written prayers in.



Also the shrine had the signs of the cross set into the hill around it, below is one of them closer up.



And lastly this photo of the old wreck in the docks is just a nice picture of a run down sort of place that pretty much describes a lot of what Letterfrack is like.



We loved Letterfrack so put it on your list of places to see if you're ever over here,

Aimee

Letterfrack.

Hello there, we've just had a long weekend and just because we could we spent Sunday night in Letterfrack.

Letterfrack is a tiny town about 2 hours away by bus from Galway. There's not much in Letterfrack but it is the gateway to the Connemara National Park. Connemara is the most dramatic scenery we've seen so far on the mainland, and while the mountains are hardly Ruapehu they are easier to climb and still very pretty.





The view from as high as we climbed, as you can see the incoming rain was somewhat of a concern.



The internet is slow and this is taking too long, I have to get up and get on with my day. Consider this a preview and I'll be back to finish it off tonight, scouts honour !)

*************

Well Aimee was never a scout anyway so I ( Emmett ) will now finish this entry.

We stayed at the Old Monastery Hostel which was fabulous. Just think of a junk shop and an old house which were combined in a tornado?

There was an old dog, two cats, a rabbit and a guinea pig to welcome us upon arrival.



Which was good because there was no concierge on duty.

Quirky doesn't begin to describe it.











There was a bar which was built into what may have once been a courtyard area but was now covered over. The bar wasn't running the night we were there but was apparently in full swing the night before with a traditional session (music session) also held in the living room.

After our walk up the hill ( see above) we opened a bottle of wine, made ourselves dinner and sat in the living room. This is as far as we got all evening as we met an Aussie called Erin from Freemantle and chatted with her.

In the morning we were served a hot breakfast of hot scones, hot brown bread, porridge and boiled eggs. It was funny watching the Italian and Belgin couples at our table trying porridge for the first time and nice to chat with them.

Well there are more Letterfrack pictures which we may blog latter in the week. It will be a Mary special (you'll see what i mean).