As Sinead's entire family is falling ill, we went to Ireland to keep an eye on them. Ciaran is doing fine, three rounds (out of 12) of chemo later. His hair is starting to come out, but he still has enough energy to pull a few shifts at the local pub and to do a great deal of going out, despite various protestations (generally when he wants something like another pint) that "My cancer hurts"...
Sinead's dad is still in hospital, but he's coherent, lucid, and actually has a chance of going home in the next month. We spent the visiting hours wrapped in plastic, half-bathing in anti-bacterial gel, having decent chats and betting on the horses.
When not in hospital, we had some lovely dinners with Sinead's mum and brother and one night on the town in a pub called Slainte: Traditional Irish Pub. Isn't that like going to China and seeing advertisements for Chinese Food? Seems rather naff if they have to say that they're an Irish pub when, blatantly, they're a pub in Ireland...
As for Mortgages, Sinead and I have decided that we might try our hand at the housing market again, despite the fact that we're currently in mediation for one housing dispute (previous landlords) and are starting the process for the most recent mortgage advisor (only registered communication has been exchanged, nothing filed in the courts yet). Rather than Buy-to-Let, we've been talking about getting a group mortgage with Pete and Kate, our flatmates. We had a lovely shiny unaffiliated mortgage advisor come by the house (getting white hair all over his pristine suit in the process) and almost laugh when he heard our four salaries combined. He's making some phone calls though, we'll see how it pans out. Fun to have it in the works though; it's something else to keep my mind off my career or lack thereof.
The most exciting news of all is that I made it through all 18 months of my phone contract and qualified for an upgrade!!!! I now have an awesome phone with a 3.2 mp camera which is also capable of video calling so I can have a video call with anyone who also has 3G service, as far as I can understand how it works... hooray! It also has radio reception, mp3 capabilities, and came with an iPod shuffle... my life is complete (I mean, you know, Sinead and an iPod shuffle, what more could any girl ask for?)
Related Links:
Ipod Shuffle
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Beer Gardens and Country Walks and Sunshine(2)
It's been abso-effing-lutely goi-geous here for the past week... sunshine! That being said, we're expecting frost this week, but I'm not as bothered as I might have been as we've have a full week and two weekends of nothing but sunshine (and I even have a little color in my cheeks! oh miracle of miracles!)
As it's been so nice, we've gone on two lovely country walks, Jibril in tow (well, actually, running madly in front of us). We've meandered past a tithe barn, two water mills, a wind mill, and numerous country homes that I would give my eyeteeth to own. We lingered by a pond smothered in frog spunk that Jibril, silly bugger, fell into repeatedly... not the brightest fluffy white beast in the house...
What I, as a die hard American (I got me a gun to protect my property!) about the UK is the concept of the public right of way. There are paths, some used frequently, some never used, some in the middle of nowhere, some cutting through people's private property and all these paths, due to the fact that they have been historically public, remain public and will, for all intents and purposes, always be public.
There are times when people aren't too keen on this and some are less keen than others. We went through a farm where they posted "Beware of Bull" on the fence that we had to cross over to continue on the path. It is, however, illegal to put a bull in a field through which a public footpath crosses, so we just ignored it and kept walking. But at the next fence, there wasn't a stile and we had to crawl under the bottom rung of the fence to get into a field full of horses (which Jibril was less than thrilled about).
At any rate, all country walks, fraught with obstacles or no, end at the pub, in the beer garden, sun on your face and a pint of ale in your hand... There really is nothing that beats that feeling of utter, nigh-comatose, relaxation in the sunshine, surrounded by fairly well-behaved, football kit clad children drinking lemonade out of newly-awarded trophies.
Related Links:
Public Rights of Way - UK
As it's been so nice, we've gone on two lovely country walks, Jibril in tow (well, actually, running madly in front of us). We've meandered past a tithe barn, two water mills, a wind mill, and numerous country homes that I would give my eyeteeth to own. We lingered by a pond smothered in frog spunk that Jibril, silly bugger, fell into repeatedly... not the brightest fluffy white beast in the house...
What I, as a die hard American (I got me a gun to protect my property!) about the UK is the concept of the public right of way. There are paths, some used frequently, some never used, some in the middle of nowhere, some cutting through people's private property and all these paths, due to the fact that they have been historically public, remain public and will, for all intents and purposes, always be public.
There are times when people aren't too keen on this and some are less keen than others. We went through a farm where they posted "Beware of Bull" on the fence that we had to cross over to continue on the path. It is, however, illegal to put a bull in a field through which a public footpath crosses, so we just ignored it and kept walking. But at the next fence, there wasn't a stile and we had to crawl under the bottom rung of the fence to get into a field full of horses (which Jibril was less than thrilled about).
At any rate, all country walks, fraught with obstacles or no, end at the pub, in the beer garden, sun on your face and a pint of ale in your hand... There really is nothing that beats that feeling of utter, nigh-comatose, relaxation in the sunshine, surrounded by fairly well-behaved, football kit clad children drinking lemonade out of newly-awarded trophies.
Related Links:
Public Rights of Way - UK
Friday, April 06, 2007
Sunshine and Haircuts and Bank Holidays
There are many annoying things about living in the UK, the lack of Goldfish crackers and DSWs, for example. One very non-annoying thing is the surplus of bank holidays, especially in the Spring-turns-Summer time of the year. Such good planning on the part of the British government has resulted in time of work on generally very sunny days. Such is the case today and (fingers crossed) Monday as well. The Brits get two official days off for Easter! How brilliant is that?
Of course, the bank holidays in the UK have caused me a great deal of stress in that I never assume that there will be a day off around a Christian holiday, completely forget that it's a Christian holiday, and then send out big steers with required submission dates on said Christian holiday. The recipients of said steers are in two minds of how to deal with such terrible oversights. Most feel that I'm a bit silly and just assume that the deadline is the following day. The others feel the need to phone me up, state explicitly that I have, yet again, scheduled something on a holiday, and then ask me if I really expect them to work over the holiday weekend. To which I generally grit my teeth and let them know very sweetly that early submissions are most welcome, thus negating the need to think about a project over the weekend.
At any rate, silly Brits aside, my plans for the bank holiday weekend are few and far between. I shall be getting my haircut today. Not as exciting as it could be as all I'm going in for is to clean up the current disaster taking residence on my scalp while I continue to try and grow it out. There may be a 10 mile walk on the horizon, should it still be sunny and should Sinead allow me to drag her a** out of bed at a decent time (*tangent: The Brit's *bleep* out the word a** in That Seventies Show) . That's about it for the plans. The household is having some folk 'round on Monday night and I am secretly endeavoring to get them all to play Cranium, which Sinead got for Christmas and has never opened.
Happy Easter - enjoy all the resultant chocolate. (*another sidenote- the UK concept of Easter eggs and Easter chocolate is randomly really different from ours... Rather than rattan baskets filled with Easter grass, jelly beans, and those awful marshmallow chicks, kids in the UK wake up to a big box with an egg (and occasionally a mug, or an egg cup, or some other Easter-related paraphernalia). Is it me or is that crap and unexciting? On the other hand, whenever I try to give Sinead an American-style Easter basket, I end up eating all the candy and cleaning up the Easter grass, so I'm going minimalist this year. The Easter Bunny has brought her a box with a chocolate egg and a Simpson's mug).
Related Links:
British Bank Holildays
Walk in the Cotswolds
Other place to find me:
Couchsurfing
Of course, the bank holidays in the UK have caused me a great deal of stress in that I never assume that there will be a day off around a Christian holiday, completely forget that it's a Christian holiday, and then send out big steers with required submission dates on said Christian holiday. The recipients of said steers are in two minds of how to deal with such terrible oversights. Most feel that I'm a bit silly and just assume that the deadline is the following day. The others feel the need to phone me up, state explicitly that I have, yet again, scheduled something on a holiday, and then ask me if I really expect them to work over the holiday weekend. To which I generally grit my teeth and let them know very sweetly that early submissions are most welcome, thus negating the need to think about a project over the weekend.
At any rate, silly Brits aside, my plans for the bank holiday weekend are few and far between. I shall be getting my haircut today. Not as exciting as it could be as all I'm going in for is to clean up the current disaster taking residence on my scalp while I continue to try and grow it out. There may be a 10 mile walk on the horizon, should it still be sunny and should Sinead allow me to drag her a** out of bed at a decent time (*tangent: The Brit's *bleep* out the word a** in That Seventies Show) . That's about it for the plans. The household is having some folk 'round on Monday night and I am secretly endeavoring to get them all to play Cranium, which Sinead got for Christmas and has never opened.
Happy Easter - enjoy all the resultant chocolate. (*another sidenote- the UK concept of Easter eggs and Easter chocolate is randomly really different from ours... Rather than rattan baskets filled with Easter grass, jelly beans, and those awful marshmallow chicks, kids in the UK wake up to a big box with an egg (and occasionally a mug, or an egg cup, or some other Easter-related paraphernalia). Is it me or is that crap and unexciting? On the other hand, whenever I try to give Sinead an American-style Easter basket, I end up eating all the candy and cleaning up the Easter grass, so I'm going minimalist this year. The Easter Bunny has brought her a box with a chocolate egg and a Simpson's mug).
Related Links:
British Bank Holildays
Walk in the Cotswolds
Other place to find me:
Couchsurfing
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Anniversaries and Carrot Muffins and Opposites Attract
Two years today. Gracious!
We have no real plans because Sinead's week has been pretty insanely awful, father in hospital and brother starting his radio-therapy. She got home last night after one, having had to drive all the way home from Stansted Airport which is a bit of a schlep. Poor wudgy.
I wanted to plan something quite special and extravagant and really spoil her today, but a) we have no money and b) what she really wants to do is sleep past noon and sit on her bottom and just not think.
So, I made her favorite carrot muffins and I'll bring her a cuppa and a muffin round abouts 11:30. And I'll do my best not to say "Seen this one" when she turned the Simpsons on. Might be the best anniversary gift I could offer actually.
One thing that I've realized this anniversary is how different Sinead and I really are. I guess that I always knew that, but it was really brought home when I got into an (admittedly tipsy) discussion last night about what I should do for her this anniversary. All the suggestions of cheap/romantic options were things that I would absolutely love but, upon reflection determine that Sinead would actually not only not love them, but really really be resentful if I suggested them (get up and watch the sunrise together, case in point). I think it's good to have lives independent of each other, but where's the point of too much diversion?
Other places you can find me:
Multiply
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