What can I say! Tomorrow we will be in Ireland 6 months! I cannot believe it! The time has flown by since we returned home to Galway. The photo above (taken today) is of one of the Connemara sheep that rule the road way out West (here). It is a good depiction of how things are going for us here - rocky, but still climbing!
We have settled in very nicely to our surrounding neighborhood and have made some lovely friends (new) and I have had a great time catching up with all my old school buddies. A few days ago, we managed to clear out (an entire bedroom) all our moving boxes and trash and with the help of our neighbor (Eddie) we burnt every last piece. I know this may seem strange but a huge weight has been lifted of my shoulders since that day. I think (mentally) I was holding on to the boxes in case we decided to move again, but I know in my heart and soul it will be a very long time before we do.
Do not get me wrong - it is not all rosy in the garden. It is hard to come back home after being gone for so long. No matter what career choice I decide to choose (event planning or restauteuring) I am either inexperienced in Irish business or I have too much experience and am over qualified. (imagine that). It is not a great time to be looking for a job (anywhere on this planet) here in Galway our the surrounding towns - but I imagine sooner or later the right opportunity will present itself. For now, I am continuing with a creative writers course (2 x per week) for the next 10 weeks. I love it, it keeps me busy plus I get to make loads of new friends! I do have something else lined up that I hope will start in October - but cannot release the details until July! Stay tuned on this one!
The chef is having a harder time settling into Irish life than I had hoped for. He misses our friends terribly (as do I). He misses American TV (boo hoo) but I think he is turning the corner. Just recently he started to work (3 days a week) at a local bakery called "The Foods of Athenry" http://www.foodsofathenry.ie/ and he kind of sort of likes it. OK, actually that is not true at all. He calls it 'living hell' but he is getting out of the house (thank GOD) for a few days and they are paying him! It is a small enough bakery but they are large producers - so he is spending a lot of time making pie dough for 1,500 apple pies a day, and 600 loaves of brown bread per day. A lot of repetitious work - drives him nuts. He very much likes the people that own the operation though. They liked his Chef history and are looking to expand and grow their company and hopefully will use him for his creativity to help launch a few new products and less of the monotonous stuff. (he has only been there one week!)
He is reluctant to get back into the night time cooking jobs because it means he would not see the kids and would also have to sacrifice precious weekend time too.
The children have really never been so happy. They are blossoming actually. Rory is probably the best student in her class - in every subject. She is quite the little primadonna (I guess she gets this assertiveness from me??) but I love her for it. She is in charge of most situations, is making loads of friends, speaking Irish to beat the band and actually doing a little Irish dancing too! Jack is just a few weeks away from having his 4th birthday and I am madly in love with who he is becoming. He is tall - starting to loose that puppy fat and almost perfectly spoken (I mean that). He is still the most adorable cuddly little pudge that he has always been and overly affectionate too. He prefaces most questions with "excuse me, Mama" because he blathers on so much that I have instructed him to say 'excuse me' when he wants my attention or the answer to a question. He is strong, and funny, and all boy. He wants to be working and doing and building all day and all night and he already does a lot of household chores on a daily basis.
The children have really never been so happy. They are blossoming actually. Rory is probably the best student in her class - in every subject. She is quite the little primadonna (I guess she gets this assertiveness from me??) but I love her for it. She is in charge of most situations, is making loads of friends, speaking Irish to beat the band and actually doing a little Irish dancing too! Jack is just a few weeks away from having his 4th birthday and I am madly in love with who he is becoming. He is tall - starting to loose that puppy fat and almost perfectly spoken (I mean that). He is still the most adorable cuddly little pudge that he has always been and overly affectionate too. He prefaces most questions with "excuse me, Mama" because he blathers on so much that I have instructed him to say 'excuse me' when he wants my attention or the answer to a question. He is strong, and funny, and all boy. He wants to be working and doing and building all day and all night and he already does a lot of household chores on a daily basis.More than anything Rory and Jack LOVE LOVE being so close to Granny. They just love when I pick them up from school and we just pop over to her house for a cup of tea.
So there you have it, an update on our sort of boring existence across the pond on the Emerald Isle.
So there you have it, an update on our sort of boring existence across the pond on the Emerald Isle.
That is all the WiseWords I have for today,
WiseMóna
3 Comments:
I love your photos and your texts, you can really see, smell and sometimes taste Ireland in them.
Please, keep delighting us because me miss Ireland so much!
Your family life doesn't sound very boring to me. You are living life just like us all except you are in Ireland. My wife and I plan on moving to Galway sometime later in the year. We don't know when but we plan on selling our house, putting it on the market in April. I became a citizen through descent in 2005. My grandmother was born in Galway. Sounds very interesting and challenging. We can't wait!!! Glad we found your blog, it will give us an insight in to life in Galway. Thanks, Bill and Shari
Congrats on your 6 months there, and it goes without saying that we miss you terribly!
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