MONDAY 13TH – SUNDAY 19TH OCTOBER
Time is starting to seem like it is gaining pace and the days are flying past. I have spent the past my time doing odd jobs that needed to be done, such as stock up on groceries, pick up day to day things and go to McDonalds to use the free WiFi to find keep in touch with the outside-Ireland world. On the job front for me, I have had some encouraging news. There is a position available with Enable, which is who Em works for. It is in Nenagh, which is a 30 minute drive North-East I think. It will be working with kids mainly 6 – 18 with physical and intellectual disabilities, which will be something new for me. What's more encouraging is that they have already signed me up for a 3 day hydrotherapy course, which I will be going on next week. This is before they have even talked to me, but I'm not complaining. It means that I will hopefully not have to have an interview or anything either.
Em started at work on Monday, and she has had a busy week. The children she will be seeing will be different from those she saw at the Gold Coast. They will require more specialised input as they generally have more severe disabilities, with lots of Autism and Down Syndrome. This will keep her busy, but will be great experience after the base she made at the Gold Coast. Her work mates are very friendly. She is taking over from Olive who is a super-efficient worker, and has Em totally booked out for the near future, so that will keep her out of mischief.
On Friday night Em and I were watching TV at home with Marie. Joe arrived at 10pm and said “Right it's time to go for a quick pint at the pub lads”, so off we went to a very small, very Irish pub called Curragower. It is on the riverfront opposite the castle we went to last week. It was a long skinny pub. There was a 5 piece (fiddle, flute, bohdrain drum, guitar, singer) band sitting around a table playing traditional Irish music, and we had a fantastic night. Joe taught me that whenever you drink a Guinness you have to leave a small amount in the bottom of your glass for the leprochans. We ended up staying there until about 3am, at which time the pub was closing and the band had only just finished playing! It was a very fun night in a great pub. Before we came, some of my workmates said that it is quite normal for a few musicians to be at the pub on a Friday night and it was a great watch, how right they are.
As you would expect Em and I were both quite tired from Friday night, so the only thing we did on Saturday was go to the supermarket. The day was rather dreary anyway, so it was a good day to have a lazy day on.
Sunday was more productive. After doing some jobs around the house in the morning, we went and had a look at 3 different cars that afternoon. We looked at an ever reliable Toyota Corolla, which was okay, a dodgy small Peugot 106 and a rust filled Ford Fiesta. That day we decided to buy none of those cars, although the Toyota was worth considering. That took up most of our afternoon. Looking at cars is hard work when you are using public transport, but we got there in the end.
MONDAY 20 – SUNDAY 26TH OCTOBER
The past week has rushed past really. It was nice because Em had work to go to and for the first 3 days of the week I had my course to go to. My course was held near Em's work so she showed me where to go. It was a 3 day hydrotherapy course, each day spending at least 4 hours in the pool, which initially was only a freezing 27 degrees. It should be 35. Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed it, and also enjoyed having something to do. Em's week at work went well, and she is starting to get busier with more children to see.
Monday evening bought some excitement when we arrived home, as we found that our PPS numbers had arrived. This meant we had an official bit of mail sent to our address which meant we could do everything we needed. It probably doesn't seem that exciting to other people, but it was a BIG DEAL.
On Tuesday night, we went back to have another look at the Toyota Corolla, a 1995 Japanese import. It looked reasoable, the motor seemed to run really well, so we decided to buy it. It was 650 euros which is reasonable, as it has only done 135000km. Insurance was another matter and after many hours on the phone Em managed to get us a reasonable policy. She had quotes up to 3500 euros! Anyway so we are now set up with an insured car which means our weekends should be filled with small trips here and there around Ireland.
On Thursday Em worked a half day and we met in town, and we managed to get a number of jobs done including setting up a bank account, Em paid her Visa immigration fee, getting wireless internet, we got our car insurance finalised, and we also handed in our Australian drivers licences to get Irish ones. Amazingly they do not recognise NZ drivers liciences, so it was a good thing we had some time in Aussie. It was a very productive afternoon. Unfortunately it poured with rain the entire time, and we got rather wet. My shoes have got holes in the soles so that didn't help things. (Em says it's time to get new shoes, I reckon they can last a bit longer).
This weekend is the October bank holiday weekend. We found out that there are about 6 bank holidays during the year, which is great. Anyway we were invited to Cork to stay with one of Em's workmates. She was going down there with her boyfriend and a couple of friends, as it was the Guinness Jazz festival. We headed down there on Saturday after lunch, after spending the morning talking to people usig Skype. If anyone has it, then our user name is Maneesh.Nahna. They were staying at Currabeha, County Cork, which was about 30 minutes drive from Cork. It was a very grand, very Irish house in the countryside, which they built 3 years ago. We had a nice relaxing afternoon there, and that evening we all headed into Cork. We didn't end up actually seeing much jazz through bad planning really. Em and I stayed there until around midnight then headed back to the house. The others didn't arrive home until 4am, and they still didn't get to see much jazz, so we were glad we didn't stay longer.
Sunday morning was pancakes for brunch, then we headed off back home. On the way home we stopped at Ballylanders (a town established by a Londoner - Ballylanders translates into town of the Londoner) and looked around the beautiful roofless church. We haven't found much information on it but it seems like it was built sometime in the 1800's. It doesn't seem to get much attention. The locals seem to only go there now to use the recycling bins outside it's main entrance. I think that quite sad really. After stopping there, we drove for another 15 minutes and went to Hospital (it's a town). There we walked around the ruins of another beautiful church.
That rounded off our week really. Still one more day of our long weekend which is great, but no real plans. The weather is looking promising, we may even get to see the sun.
MONDAY 27TH OCTOBER – BANK HOLIDAY
The week started well with Monday being the October bank holiday, so Em did not have to work that day. Weather wise it was one of the best days we have had while in Ireland. We spent the day doing odd jobs at home, but nothing exciting. In the afternoon, Em wanted to go to a craft fair which we had seen advertised, so we took the drive out to that. We were expecting big things when we had to pay an entry fee, but it turned out to be full of absolute rubbish. We both wanted to buy some nice jams or spreads but there was nothing like that. We could have bought some very ugly pottery or lamps. We got the giggles when we got back to the safety of the car. Thankfully the trip was not wasted as it was a gorgeous drive out to Castleconnell – country lanes lined with stone walls and big Autumn trees - and we found a great butcher during our travels, so went there and got some really good meat and sausages (guess who was most excited about that find!).
Hope everyone in NZ had a nice labour weekend and the weather behaved itself.
