Spa Day

Quick blog...internet connection at the Dam Barn has been wonky today.

James took me to Wye Leisure for my massage today. The treatment were alright....although I don't know why they couldn't do it last week like planned because there was only one girl there doing all the treatments. Anyway....

the massage was relaxing, and it tickled a bit at some points because her hands were doing a very light massage. Then there was a facial which was nice, and a mask that got left on. Then she did my nails....and that was a bit weird.

I'm used to having my nails done this way(and I don't have them very often): nails filed, cuticles cut, cleaned, then nails painted. She just sanitized them, filed them, painted them...and then sprayed something else on that 'supposedly' makes the polish dry quicker...but what I don't understand is...if you put something wet on your nails, then spray moisture on to them...they're not gonna dry quicker. anyway...it was just weird, and the only reason i like my nails getting done is because my cuticles get trimmed and tidied---that's what makes my little fingernails and toenails seem prettier and neatier

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Anyway....after that James and I went to a pub...wasn't really that good of food. James and I could keep picking things about the place that were bad or wrong. But...i had some steak, mushroom and ale pie which was okay and it was what i wanted to eat for lunch so...win.

The the rest of the day we just chilled out at home. We watched 'The Book of Eli', and ate dinner, chilled out with the family.

Back home at the Dam Barn

Short blog, I'm extremely tired. Bare in mind that last night James and I didn't get in and to sleep until after 1am because we were out with his cousins.

5:30am--Wake up, get ready
6am--leave for port(2 hour drive, and we have to be there by 8 to check in)

*It was REALLY hard trying to stay awake so that I could keep James awake. And it didn't help that we couldn't stop to get coffee cause we were in a race against the clock to get to port before check in closed.

8am ish--check in, drive on to boat.
8:30am--eat a full breakfast on the boat
9am--naptime and ship sailed.

I slept most of the 3 and 1/2 hour sail time, with a little tossing and turning on the couches where James and I set up camp. James slept for about 2 hours then woke me up when we came into port.

12:30pm--got into car, started driving for home (a 3 hour drive)
2:30pm--stopped off at a 'rest stop' to get coffee and snacks.
4:30pm--finally home
5pm--ate food, talked, unpacked
6pm-- time for James and I to catch up on sleep.

Thank you and goodnight.

Ireland: The Final Day

Big Day today. It was our only FULL day in Dublin, and it was grand. Now, unlike most of you tourists....I did NOT go to the Guinness Factory, or Kilmainham Gaol, no, not even Trinity College to see the book of Kells. None of that struck my or James' fancy. Instead we spent the day shopping, eating, and drinking.

I'm tired and there's no pictures today so I'll give you the short version:

-got up and ready

-wandered around trying to find this pub called The Church, which we got a leaflet for

-couldn't find The Church and I was starving almost to the point of passing out so we found a pub called the Boar's Head and had lunch/breakfast in there. I had Shepard's pie for the first time, which was alright. 5/10

-After we left the pub to wandering around the main shopping area...we finally stumbled upon The Church, which was only around the corner from where we just ate. pity.

-Went roung Shopping: I found a store called Penney's which seems like the cheapest department-like store that I've found and I've been needing to get some more socks(mine have been wearing out from walking so much), so I got 2 packs of socks and a pair of tights.

-had a pint at a pub called The Old Storehouse.

-went to a bank and had some more Sterling changed into Euro

-Shopped some more, found some souviners

-stopped off and had 'lunch'/an inbetween meal-snack(by this time it was about 4 and we ate at around noon, and we couldn't be eating again til about half 8)

-went back to the hotel, had a little nap

-left the hotel around 7:30 to drive to Malahide(where his Anglem cousins live--bout a 30 min drive) to have dinner with his cousins Siobhan(girl, 23), Roisin(girl, 20), and Sean(16). We went to this thai restaraunt where I had Pinapple duck...pretty good.

-Then we went to a pub around the corner called Gibneys to have a drink before leaving.

All in all it was an alright day....lots of walking around the centre of Dublin, which is big, lots of shopping, lots of pubbing. It was still a good day, just always moving...that's why a nap in the middle of the day was essencial.

Now it's time to get some sleep because James and I have to get up at 5 tomorrow to make our ferry.

Ireland Part 3/3: Wednesday....today

James and I had another lay in(that holiday home is just so comfy!), got up, ready, finished packing, said goodbye to Margret and left for Kilkenny again. When we ran into Rohan yesterday, he offered us free tickets to take the tour around Kilkenny Castle, so we thought we'd do that first before driving to Dublin. :) When we got into Kilkenny though, James and I needed to use the restrooms badly and the first ones we found we the public ones that we paid for. In Europe you get these everywhere and this was my first experience of having to pay for the right to pee.

The sink in the bathroom had a sick, soap dispenser, and hand dryer all in one. It was quite cool.

A park just outside Kilkenny Castle where James used to play as a child.

The River running through Kilkenny, just outside the castle.

The tour of Kilkenny Castle was great. It's a nice castle, unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures, with or without flash. Probably something to do with rights of owning the castle and such. He's the brief history of it that I learned on the tour: Kilkenny Castle was built sometime in the late 1100s and was built as a fortress. It was later inhabited by the Butler family who turned it into a sort of Victorian castle, because it was used as their home, and not a fortified castle. The Butlers lived in and owned the castle for just over 500 years. Then they went bankrupt, sold off most of the furniture and things, left the castle abandoned and moved to America. Later, one of the Butler family descendants came back to Ireland and sold the Castle to the people of Kilkenny. And now Kilkenny Castle is in the care of the state.

It was a pretty awesome tour for me to remember at least that much. And I learned other things as well:
-The Butler family had great influence over all of Ireland and had strong friendships with the Royals in England, including Prince Charles I and Price Charles II.
-There was a portrait in Kilkenny Castle of the Royal Children, when Charles II was only about 7 or 8. This was Charles' 'coming out' portrait. Apparently all children, boy or girl, wore dressed until they were about 7 when they officially were recognized as a woman or a man. If you were 'becoming a man', like Charles, you were finally allowed to wear trousers at age 7 because you were recognized as an adult in society.

Those are just some things I found interesting that I could relay from the tour. After the tour, we wandered about the grounds, and then headed off. Leaving Kilkenny was stressful because the car stalled out on us….on a very small street, with loads of cars behind us, in the middle of traffic. We got in started after about a minute of trying to start the car and having the hazards on, but it was still stress that James didn't need before driving to Dublin.

It took us about an hour and a half to drive to Dubin, but finally we got to our Hotel, the Trinity Capital. Here's where things get interesting. We went up to our room on the fourth floor and while I was surveying the room (noticing that there were flowers, chocolates and champagne set up on the table), James was getting down on one knee. I turn around and there he is….! It's finally happened! HALLA-FECKING-LUJAH! I'm engaged.

James trying to pop the cork out of the champagne.

My ring. It's a claddagh with my birthstone as the heart.

After I said yes….with absolutely no hesitation, we went out in Temple Bar(a very bohemian area of Dublin) and went out to dinner to celebrate. James let me pick the restaurant and he paid. I decided on this little traditional Irish place(where I had lamb stew--SO YUMMY!). Then we went to an irish pub across the street with some live music and had a drink.

(weird sidenote...I had this drink that tasted exactly like liquid Sourpunch straws...the blue ones)

After that we walked around the center of the city, surveying where we wanted to go tomorrow, then walked back to the hotel, set up our laptops in the lounge and had a drink while I blogged this whole thing and James fiddled around on his laptop.

Now….it's time for my fiance and I to head up stairs and celebrate. Goodnight.

Ireland Part 2/3: Tuesday

We got up, had breakfast in the holiday home(the night before Margret rationed off some breakfast supplies to take over so we would have food in the morning without coming over to their house or going out to buy anything), then we got ready and set off for Woodstock. Woodstock is this House and Gardens place in Inistioge. It's a free site, but parking is 4 euro.

I learned very quickly that things in Ireland are very expensive because of the deficit…plus the fact that it's now in Euros. Before James and I left Alice gave us her left over Euros as sort of a thank you/I owe you for running so many errands for her thus far. She gave us 132 Euros, so we haven't even touched our bank accounts yet, but I'm sure that will happen once we get to Dublin and things start getting really expensive.

ANYWAY! Woodstock was great. With all the gardens that go up the hill in levels is very much reminds me of like Jane Austen films where you see those huge gardens that seem to go up and up and up and you see small staircases leading up to higher levels of the gardens.









And here are some pictures of Inistioge, the actual town and countryside:

After that we came back to The Belcher's and had some leak and potatoes soup that Margret cooked for us and herself and then helped Margret feed the goose. Yes they have a goose, 3 cats and a guinea pig , which I will show you picture of now:

That goose is MANIC! When we were leaving today(Wednesday) the goose was let out and was snooping around the cars. James and I were driving out after we pushed the goose back and bit and it like charged at our car head on when we were trying to drive out. It's crazy.

Anyway….after lunch we drove to Kilkenny--the town that James grew up in first in Ireland. James showed me bits around the town….we drove by the Castle, parked somewhere in the centre of town then wandered in and out of shops. The one thing James did take care to show me was his dad's old restaurant, Letrecs. It's on a little street that apparently you used to be able to drive down, but now it's been blocked off and repaved so it's just a cobblestone alleyway. James said that a lot of things have changed in Kilkenny so it didn't really feel like he was 'home' again, but I still liked seeing it.

Kilkenny Castle from the outside:

James outside Letrecs.

One thing that I saw in Kilkenny that made me laugh (and this is especially for one of my readers of this blog, T. Katz), we passed by this café/bistro:

While we were in Kilkenny we ran into the first of many uncles: Rohan. He works at the Kilkenny Castle and we ran into him and talked with him for quite a while. I could understand about 1/2 of what he said, then on top of that I noticed he had a lazy eye so part of the time I was understanding him I wasn't paying attention because I kept thinking 'oh my gosh, where do I look? Which eye is his good eye?' Eventually I figured it out and was able to pay attention and still catch only half the things he was saying to us.

After Kilkenny we headed back to the Belchers, had dinner (thai veg curry, which was alright), then got ready to head out. Since we got here we made plans to see a boatload of his cousins, aunts, and uncles all at once so we made plans to go over to his grandmother's house to say hi to everyone then go to a nearby pub to chill. And we did just that.

We went over to his gran's house and basically all filed into the kitchen and talked and drank and laughed.

Here's the list of people who were there(listing Alice's immediate family first--brothers and sisters--then their families…all how they relate to James):

*Gran
*Paddy Dunne(uncle)--looks after Gran
*Kiaren Dunne(uncle)--looks after Gran
*Malchy Dunne(uncle)--has loads of kids, but none were there
*Rohan O'Conner(uncle), his wife Berny(Bernadette), and their kids Neive(girl cousin, 12years old), Laura(cousin, 23years), and William(cousin, 17years)
*Margret Belcher(Aunt), and Bridget went, but not Meraid (or Mark….the father, who was down in Limerick while we were there)

The ones I DIDN"T get to meet, but I've heard loads about are the Anglems….Mary(aunt), her husband John, and kids: Siobhan(girl, 23years), Rochene(girl, 20years), Sean(15years), and James(6years).

It was good fun and very confusing at the same time. They're Irish so not only are they talkative and loud but imagine EVERYONE being overly loud and talkative but in a very tiny kitchen. I tried to keep up, people were handing me drinks and asking me questions left and right….and even when I wasn't the centre of attention it was hard to follow which conversation I was in; everyone's so loud and interesting to listen to that I panic and look around saying 'okay which conversation can I keep up with? It was quite entertaining.

After a few cans of Magners Irish Cider and looking at baby pictures later, The 'younger crowd' of cousins decided to go to the pub. As we were leaving I took this picture of the 'older' generation who were staying behind:

From left to right:
(top) Margret, Kiaren, Rohan
(bottom) Neive, Gran, Berny

The only two NOT featured in there are Malchy, who was driving us to the pub, and Paddy who slipped James two 50euro notes before letting us leave. Laura was slipped some money as well(I think they were the ones who got money because they're the 2 oldest, so they could buy everyone drinks). Apparently Kiaren and Paddy give away money to the cousins like free candy when anyone comes around. Still….we appreciated it and Laura and James each bought a round for everyone.

When I say everyone, I mean the following who were at the pub: Me, James, Laura, William and Bridget. It was great fun hanging out with the cousins in the pub; I really enjoyed myself. James and William even taught me how to play darts, and I almost beat William at it…I only lost by 2 points. I honestly really enjoyed myself; I talked a lot with the cousins and when asked i told Laura and Bridget about how James and I met and plans the we had and stuff. So I felt more included in conversation, even when I wasn't centre of attention, I felt like I could have a right good laugh with the rest of them.

(from left to right) William, James, Bridget, Laura

Margret came round after about half and hour to pick us all up, because she wanted to get Bridget home in time for bed, since it's a school night. So, we drove William and Laura home, then headed off back to Margret's house.

When we got back, we munched on some pizza and more apple pie, then went off to sleep.

Ireland (Let the mass blogging commence!) Part 1/3: Monday

This is a long few blogs because well, the internet service wasn't too great where we were the first two days in Ireland and I doubt if Blogspot will let me post a gazzillion MB blog…...Sooooooo, you'll be getting a mass blogging now, in 3 parts. Lets start with Monday first:

Monday we got up at 8:30am, drove 3 hours to Fishguard, got on our boat(it was WELL stormy though, pissing it down), ate some REALLY expensive Steak and Ale Pie, then tried to sleep. We both felt a little sick on the boat (boat rocking + full stomach + alcohol, drink with meal, = 'ooooh I need to lay down'). So we tried to go to sleep….he 'comfy chairs' at the back of the ship didn't work very well, so we literally laid down on the floor then I was able to, James not so much, but at least both our stomachs settled.

James and me being silly on the floor after we got some sleep:

It was a 3 and 1/2 hour boat ride to Fishguard, then it was a 1 hour drive to Inistioge, where the Belchers live. The Belchers have been kind enough to let us use their holiday home for 2 nights. It literally is a nice holiday home separate from the Main house. It's got a upstairs and downstairs, kitchen, living room, 2 bedroom and 2 bathrooms.

Exterior of the Holiday Home.

The view of the driveway and the Belcher's house from the terrace room of the holiday home.

The different angles of the bedroom we stayed in...the downstairs one.

The kitchen.

The stairs.

The views on the living room and such from the upstairs balcony.

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The Belchers are nice people. Margret--Alice's sister--is basically like Alice (talkative, motherly, hospitable, etc) except James likes her better than his mum. Bridget and Meraid are her children. Bridget is James' favorite cousin, she's nice, very talkative, and very sociable. And Meraid is alright…she's 14 so she doesn't socialize much.

We ate at Margret's house (lamb roast…soooo good. And Apple pie for dessert…sooooo gooood), then hung out for hours in their living room chatting the night away. Most of the talk was about family--inside jokes/ taking the piss out of family members, and the latest gossip of everyone--which I could understand because it's been at least 2 years since James saw the Belchers, but I felt a little left out of conversation because half the time I had no idea who or what they were talking about. I just tried to smile and nod and laugh at all the little anecdotes.