Emma & Maneesh on the Big OE

DECEMBER 4^th – DECEMBER 22^nd

How time flies when you are having fun, or when you are working. After a number of delays at the start of December, I finally started working as a Physiotherapist in Ireland. My first day of work was Thursday the 4^th of December. My job involves working with children with disabilities aged 6-18, something that I have not done in the past. But is should be a great learning experience. After a 40 minute drive to work, I managed to successfully find the building and I met how I will be working with. I will be the only physiotherapist on the team, working with a Speech & Language Therapist, 2 Occupational Therapists, and a yet to be appointed Psychologist. My work is in Nenagh, a small town 40 minutes drive North-East of Limerick. On my first day I found out that the Physiotherapist working on the team that works with the children 0-6 is on sick leave, and so I will also be doing some work there. This again will be quite a new experience.

I got through my first couple of days successfully and started to plan what needed to be done, particularly as there had not been a Physiotherapist in that position for 6 months.

That weekend was the 6^th and 7^th of December. On Saturday the 6^th, I was supposed to be going to Cork to play hockey, but we had a heavy frost, and the game was cancelled because the turf was frozen. So we stayed at our home ground and had a 3 hour training session which was really good. The main reason for this was that we were supposed to be playing a big game the following weekend in Dublin. Em had a Christmas party in the afternoon, run by her work, for all of the children that they see. It was a massive party with presents, face-painting, and a big singing-dancing floor show. Also Santa turned up on a motorbike with the biker club. Over here, they actually call Santa ‘Santie’ for some reason, not sure why.

That evening a couple of Em’s workmates, Eva and Michelle came over for dinner which was nice.

Monday the 8^th was the start of my first full working week and it went well. I started seeing a few kids which was good. Em had another busy week at her work, packing in more kids than her time lets her see. Wednesday night I had a hockey game, just a friendly though. On Friday, we were supposed to head up to Dublin for the weekend. But I got a call to tell me hockey had been cancelled. We were hoping to catch up with my great-uncle Austin and his wife Olive. Unfortunately they were both unwell also, so we cancelled our Dublin plans altogether. On Saturday the 13^th it was a gorgeous sunny day, so we decided we would go up to Galway, Irelands 4^th largest city, which is just over an hours drive North-West. It is a favourite place of most people that come to Ireland. It is a beautiful city with small cobbled streets, situated right on the water, much like Wellington really (though not as hilly). We only had a look around the city centre, then came home again. It was very busy – lots of people out Christmas shopping, perfect conical Christmas trees leaning against the old buildings to be sold, and a brass band playing Christmas Carols.

On Sunday, we had been invited to the christening of Mary-Kate, daughter of Daniel and Catherine. After the christening we were invited back to their house for lunch which was amazing. It was a 3 course meal that seemed to appear from nowhere. Even the brussel sprouts were delicious. We ended up staying there until 6pm, before heading home for a very small dinner. It was back to work on Monday the 15^th, and I was starting to get into a routine which was good. This week seemed to fly by.
Em had her work Christmas party on Thursday night. They went out for dinner, and then onto a few pubs. She came home at midnight, and was happy about this on the Friday, as her workmates struggled through the day after being out until 2:30am. On Saturday the 20^th, we were up early and went into town to try and avoid the crowds. We went into the milk markets again, and were hoping to get a dish to cook rotli’s on, but no luck. We spent another hour in town, before heading home.

That afternoon I had a hockey game, which was at our home ground which was nice. It was against the top team in the competition, who had a few international players, and that was reflected in the score line. I lost count. They scored some fantastic goals, but they were not that good compared to a good team in NZ.

That evening my hockey club had a get-together for Christmas. It was a good night out, as the guys in the team are good fun. I ended up doing a demo of the Haka for some locals.

Sunday was a lazy day at home really. I cooked a lamb curry for dinner, then we went to the movies and saw ‘Changeling’ which was fantastic. We’d recommend it.
It is hard to imagine Christmas is now just 4 days away. It should be hot, not cold!

Em and I both finish work on Tuesday, and we fly over to London on Wednesday afternoon to spend Christmas with our friends Nicola and Niall, and a few others.

Merry Christmas to everyone, we hope you have a fantastic day.