we have cats, 2 of them!

HEAD ON OVER TO http://jilljordan.wordpress.com TO FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURES.

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we got 2 cats, so its time to close this blog. I've moved it across to wordpress, and the new (mostly photo) blog is here


enjoy!

oh now that was just lovely (wesht is besht)

I was in Clifden for the first time this weekend for Tracy's hen. After a very Wuthering Heights (except with the Twelve Bens instead of the moors) approach what with the ominous grey skies and eerie landscape we set into a bit of grub. Not that we hadn't spent the whole journey stuffing our faces with crips. But sure thats no dinner. The staff were very amusing - the girl on reception was probably actually nice, but she was very stern with us, it didn't really suit the hospitality sector in which she found herself working. She always seems incredibly busy and efficient where really she was neither. However, one thing about hotel staff - when you're in a hotel, you always seem to see the same people throughout the weekend or however long. What kind of hours are they working at all. I know i'd be grumpy. Thats why I don't interact with the public for a living! Amusing staff member number 2 was the kindly man who told me as i was settling a bill to watch out for another party of diners later on if we were going out - he said they were a vulgar bunch. Bless! Warnings heeded (and long journeys travelled) it was mostly early nights all round that night.


Saturday morning we spotted a large spherical bright object in the sky. Those that have been to Oz identified it as a 'sun'. It made me very happy. After a comedy breakfast where we had to forage for cups and the waitress brought one item at a time to the table whether it was a coffee pot or a spoon, we went for a wander. It was on this wander that we bought massive granny pants. I thought it only right to document the occasion. The only other available knickers in Clifden seem to be pheremone-enhanced disposable thongs. I think someone needs to call Dunnes and let them know there's a captive audience out here.


Then it was time for horseriding. Unfortunately for us ladies, horseriding means relinquishing handbags and all other accoutrements (and style) so there's no photos of us on the beach. But i don't really mind as I have de memories. It was breathtakingly idyllic and lovely, even if from the outside we looked like a load of hags on a load of nags. Which we probably didn't. 2 of the ladies showed us all up with their cantering - Fiona & Ann. Fiona's horse also did a bit of a bolt back in the stables, luckily she was able for it and escaped with just a leg bang. I would probably be in a full body cast by now if that happened, however my Rocky was unlikely to do anything so energetic. In fact he wanted to put his head down a lot and the instructors saw fit to furnish me with a whip. I gave him a load of pats too to make up for having to hit him a bit. Before anyone asks, the whip was returned at the end.


There's only one photo. Some of the girls had nice peaked velvet hats with wee ribbons on the back. I had something more akin to the hairmet (from scrubs)


There was a big load of sparkly boozes had back in Tracy & Fiona's bedroom to prepare us for the night ahead. We waited til we got to the restaurant til there was henniness. But seeing as we were such a classy hen, it only stretched to this lovely rig-out. Which didn't last that long anyway! Many drinks were had in the local, and back in the residents bar.


8 slices of toast and a gallon of tea later (that was just me) we went for a bit of a walk to blow out the bad before we headed off. There's a monument above Clifden which looks really far away but is only about a 20 minute walk. Good thing, there were pretty skirts & flip flops and the lot doing the trip. We like style on our sojourns so we do. Diane tried to climb the monument and failed, it had obviously been Diane-proofed. After that last bout of activity, we went on our merry way (our car load anyway). Rachael did impressive driving that got us back to Dublin in 4 hours (that was 4 hours of eating for me and babs in the back), the poor dear spent another hour doing dropping homes (ta love!).

Now, I'm henned out till next weekend!

yes, yes i see.

we're probably talking about cars and houses, sure thats all we talk about anymore.

do you like my new tea cup? should keep me going anyway

in sad news, the rov's not doing so well. gears 2 & 4 are co-operating, none of the others are. the alarm lights don't work, and the clutch doesn't pop back up. prepare yourselves, she doesn't have long. at 159, 920 miles on the clock, sure it's a good innings.

not toronto.

we had a lovely couple of days in belfast, and now i'm back in work. i actually couldn't take the rest of the week off as planned, i was bouncing off the walls there by sunday, which is a sign of better health i'd say. i know i've been awful moany the last couple of weeks. but you'd have to forgive me. to recap, last week:

- we got outbid on another house we went for
- we found out we didn't get affordable housing in the latest draw
- i got an ear infection and couldn't fly so...
-...we couldn't go to toronto as planned

but, coming up in july i have

-a family do
-a lovely ladies lunch
-a trip to clifen for a hen
-a trip to the galway races to a hen

so, onwards and upwards!

belfast was really nice. it was lashing rain altogether when we got there on sunday, but thats okay i got to have a bath, and prepare myself for the walking tour of "mark's belfast". you may recall a similar trip - "mark's london" when we missed our flight to iceland on our honeymoon. I sense a pattern, bad luck strikes, i get to walk around some significant places in marks life.

anyway, off we went to see where mark lived once.

I will also preface this with - mark thought we shouldn't smile in any photos because we were supposed to focus on the fact that belfast is not toronto.

and in this one i was suppose to be sad because my iced latte wasn't a tim hortons ice cap, but it didn't work and i just look pale and scared. this was in a cafe called sinammon in stranmillis which is a lovely bit of belfast i'd never been in before.


after that brekkie treat, it was time to admire some flowers in the belfast botanic gardens. i liked the wilty ones best.


there were lots of structures like this around. they seem a bit pointless - the stone inset at the base all made different tones when you stomped on them but i think that was an accident. anyway i am demonstrating the scale here.


mostly everyone that knows mark, knows his general feeling about walks. he was very amenable to the idea there on monday, but sometimes, his misgivings shone through.


i also brought my antibiotics with me. sure, drugs need holidays too.


later i saw this sign. unfortunately the shop didn't seen to be there anymore, as i have to have this dress.


we went to a beautiful old bar i've never been in before - the crown bar - it was breathtakingly deadly, and this is only a tile on the outside!


we went to sainsbury's in lisburn on the way home to get some groceries, and wine and brita filters and not feel like we'd been totally screwed financially. there were no photo's of that.

king of the snacks

crisp sambidges and tae.


You'll notice we're drinking our tea out of our lopsided commemorative Canada mugs. That is to commemorate the fact that we should be in Toronto by now, but we're not because I can't hear out of one ear and therefore can't fly.

cake cafe made me cry

I am not a happy bunny. we went to cake cafe for a bit of post-house hunting analysis and i ordered the tart off the days menu - tomato, durrus cheese, olive tapenade. After about a third of it, i remarked to mark that it was very salty. then i saw capers, presumed it was them and i picked them out. The tart didn't list capers - if it did i wouldn't have ordered it as i don't really like them, but i went on because i was hungry and it wasn't that big anyway. There was only about a quarter left when i asked mark did he want it and as i prodded it across the plate to him i saw something fishy. Literally. he took it, had a look and then we asked the waiter was there anchovies in the tart. He looked confused, and went off to the chef. I saw the chef do a big eyebrow raise in a 'like, duh' kinda way. The waiter came over and reported they were part of the tapenade, and that always has anchovies. The manager lady came over at this point and apologised at my being upset but reiterated the same. I argued that they might think there's always anchovies in tapenade but i've eaten plenty of it listed as vegetarian. Mark went and paid - we weren't charged for the tart, and they gave us 2 cupcakes.


But its hardly enough for breaking nearly 12 years of being a vegetarian on me. I was really upset at them, and felt like they were not really taking responsibilty for it. Mark was very understanding of my reaction, and told them they should really highlight that there's fish in something that its not obvious in. To make sure i'm not being thick i looked up several olive tapenade recipes. Half have anchovies, half don't, and jars of Sacla tapenades don't either - so from the chefs POV it might always have them, but from the customers point of view, it may never.

I had woken up with a really sore throat and sneezes today, and coupled with my teary lunch i was in a right state for going for an eye test - but, for the first time ever, specsavers made my day! It wasn't gonna get shitter anyway. The optician asked me a load of questions about my laser surgery, before doing the eye test bit. She proclaimed me to a be 'a poster girl for eye laser surgery' with my 2 very healthy eyes, and 20/10 vision. Thats better than 20/20 folks! Then I went and bought a new pair of shoes to congratulate myself on being able to see so well, and comiserate with myself on having ingested fish.

i'm not even sure how much more eating i can do this weekend. i might just have to go to work tomorrow in order to stop it. the mini marathon was on today, which made mark take 1hr 15 to travel about 5km, and this was hours before the aul bints had even started huffing and puffing their way around. Ah i'm only messin, i did it one year, and it was such an achievement i haven't done it again since for fear of being slower. then to cement a good excuse for not having to do it again, i went and got married on the june bank holiday weekend, in order to maybe having better plans every year for infinity.

we went and ate in itsa4 instead. ho hum. good company, and good brownies mind! we strolled for about 15 minutes. Tom & Liz made noises about going to the Forty Foot. Madsers. We've come home to veg instead, and as a nerdy treat decided to go through the Port Tunnel. 3 yo's on the weekend, up to €12 at other times. yikes.

But the most exciting part of the trip was the discovery that they're building a massive pope where the Point Depot used to be, or else he's doing a show:


then i did some messing out the sunroof

happy anniversary husbag.

courtesy of katherine kenny, here we are - all (drunken?) youthful exuberance - 2 years ago:




and us, pictured earlier today:

messing with the macro setting

robbed roses from the bridge in brooklodge on the occasion of Mark & Sylda's wedding. marriage is in slightly healthier state i'll warrant.


One of the cacti i keep in the hall to keep burglars at bay.