Throwback Thursday, the Irish version of miracles

So I decided, after looking at my list of photo projects, that there are one or two more important things than making albums of us with the kids....

Like tackling the backlog - the pre-kids overseas trip backlog.

We, like everyone else, went crazy with our digital cameras and came back, stuck them on a disc and did nothing.

My trick is always to get some quick wins first so I tackled the one-week, pre-baby holiday in Dublin in 2009.

I'm now working through the 3-week, 4-country, UK trip from 2008. On the bright side, Wales is done, I'm nearly done with Ireland. Scotland is also done but somehow I only transferred the small versions to the laptop. England is going to be hard because we saw about 10 friends......

But look what I found.....

A day after we celebrated our 14-year wedding anniversary..... and my lovely Woolworths maternity jeans - I may still have these too...

Yes, I'm wearing the same top - it's my warmest fleece, okay? And I still have it....hmmm, at least 6 years now!

But isn't that amazing?

11 months apart, same place, first non-pregnant, just before I came back to have my laparoscopy and Dr G told me definitely IVF, and then 2 IVFs later, and 23 weeks pregnant with twin babies.

WOW - God is good.

I'm believing for such miracles over the next year again. I want to post and write "can you all believe I went through all that hell, and LOOK at what's happening now!"

:)

When I look at the photos, I really, REALLY want to go back to Ireland to take some photos again. But not with the current Euro/ Rand exchange rate!

At these currency rates, it's Thailand all the way :)

What kind of miracles are you hoping for in the next year?

One of my favourite cities, Dublin

I was going to post about our sports day but since it's St. Patrick's Day, this is the perfect excuse to post pics of Ireland, right?

Confession - I didn't even realise it was St Paddy's (that's the only con of me no longer reading the crafting/ DIY/ Pinteresty blogs) til I read Mandy's blog. Good job, Mandy (as my kids say).

Ireland was always one of those places on my must-see list and it absolutely did not disappoint. So much so we went back twice :)

I still need to go to Galway, Belfast and the Ring of Kerry. 

Have you been to Ireland?

Which countries are on your must-see list?

Lesley, looking at the poor quality of these pics, I'm thinking we need to make a trip out pronto to take some decent pics!

These are all from our 2008 trip, just of Dublin and Malahide. (I have many more folders of our trip down the coast, Cork, Kinsale, Limerick, Wicklow, etc)



the bus we used to take into and out of the city landed right in front of this beautiful blue building :)



the pronunciation still tickles me :)







the famous Eason's clock - in the Irish chick lit this is often a Dublin landmark





an absolutely freezing Marcia at St Stephen's Green



Malahide









the River Liffey

and these are all from our 2009 trip

see the blue building on the other side of the road? that's the one in the first pic

GORGEOUS!

23 weeks pregant with the twins

one of my favourite pics - just connecting with a friend

Wicklow!

old friends - how I wish our kids could grow up together. We have 6 between us - C on right and J who's having tea and scones with me have a little one too, and S & P in the middle also have a set of twins.

Your favourites? 

Mine? The blue building and the River Liffey :)

10 things I loved about Ireland

It's 8:09 and I'm exhausted on this St. Patrick's Day.


To be honest, the only green things I did today was serve them lunch on green plates with green glasses, and there were beans :)

The kids are now in bed but there is a reason little kids need naps...

Moving on.

I've always had a "thing" for Ireland. I don't know when it started but of course, visiting has been on my life list seemingly forever.

A friend is like this about England and one day we were chatting about her thing for England and she said, "you know all the things you imagine about a place? Well, when we came to live here, it was all that but just so much more".

I love it.

Well, when I was first there in 2008, it was like that for me.

All that and then some.

I must confess, I have been addicted to Marian Keyes and Patricia Scanlan novels for years too, and to prepare for my Irish holiday, I stocked up and read lots.

Just to get into the culture a bit, you see.

My favourite part about visiting a new place is the people - how they talk, what they say, what they wear, etc. I'm in heaven just people-watching :)

When I read in one book about how a boy and a girl made a date to meet under the clock at Easons, of course I was tickled when right there it was in front of me.

Anyway, so here are a few of the things I loved!

1. the grey skies and the cold weather. Oh my word, it's just so gloriously grey all the time. Like it looks here when it's about to rain except it's just like that without rain, with rain, whatever.

2. the bright green countryside. It really is that green. Almost unnaturally so like the landscape's been saturated with colour. (I said the other day looking out of my window at work, "this could almost be Ireland if only the grass was a brighter green")

3. Wicklow. If you've watched PS I love you, there's a scene where she walks and bumps into the guy. The scenery is just beautiful. Well, it really is like that. D and I drove up there the first time we were in Ireland and I fell asleep in the car. We arrived and he woke me up. I looked out the window and literally GASPED in wonder. It was (is) breathtaking. So much so that when we went again in 2009 (our pre-babies trip), we booked a tour to take us there again.

4. The drive down to Cork, Kinsale, Limerick, etc. I loved the tiny villages with all the bright coloured shops and the quirky names. The pic of me on my life list page (look on my navigation) was taken at Kinsale.

5. Our hostess at one B&B, Marian. We were deep in the country and this lady was "proper Irish". The thing is, Dublin is so cosmopolitan that you really had to look hard to find a genuine Irish person. And truth be told, our expectations were high because Ireland had just been voted the friendliest city in the world, or something like that. If we'd just stayed in Dublin, I know we'd have been disappointed.

Anyway, this lady was in her late 50s but drove like a maniac. We met her at a common landmark and followed her home. She was all lovely and normal, but when she got behind the wheel of that car, she started driving as if Formula 1. And... our friend kept up. Both of them were normally laidback but the change in driving style was so extreme D and I laughed and laughed hysterically (in terror sometimes!!!) on that windy, 5-minute drive to the B&B.

She was fantastic - baked fresh scones for us every morning (anyone who bakes for me has my heart forever!), set out a lovely breakfast, engaged us enough for us to feel the culture but knew when to step back and let the 3 of us get on with it. And of course, all 4 her kids were called proper Irish names (as in my books) so I was TICKLED when I'd hear her say Declan and Orla. :)

That 3-day trip was one of the highlights of my life. I LOVED every minute of it.

6. The doors. Oh my word, The Doors. I wish I'd taken more pics and been less shy about being a tourist (some of my pics are from the side so as not to be too obvious).

7. Meeting proper Irish people in Dublin and hearing them use phrases I'd only ever heard of in my Irish books. Of course I can't think of any right now except for "I'm after my keys" which means "I'm looking for my keys". And then hearing proper Irish names like Aiofa in the shops.

8. Connecting with our friends. The beauty of the world is that it's been possible for people who all started off in SA and Zimbabwe to live and work all over the world. Two of our good friends live in Ireland. It's so hard to have people you LOVE and that GET YOU spread so far apart. Three years ago, at the time of our last visit, we had 1 baby amongst the 3 sets of people. There are now 6 kids, two sets of twins :)


9. Having endless cups of tea. My one friend and I are copious tea drinkers. We both believe you'll definitely feel better after you have a cuppa. Marian from the B&B was the same and we certainly took her up on that :) Also one of my favourite memories is how C and I kept saying on our 3-day trip, "oh, it feels like it's time for a cup of tea". D would just laugh at us.

10. Blarney. Kissing the Blarney Stone was on my life list and ... I chickened out. I just couldn't do it. You see, it looks like a little gap from far away but when you're up there in the castle, there is a huge gaping hole someone of my (then) small stature could quite easily fall through. It didn't help that the guy working there was all "come on, lass, you'll be alright" and was a bit too blase for my liking. Still, the views from the top of the castle were out of this world, the grounds were GORGEOUS and D kind-of kissed the stone. They have these signboards up there talking about what blarney is. Basically, BS :)

Here are some of my favourite pics from the 2009 trip. Enjoy.

these were taken on a tour we took of Wicklow, Sally Way, etc.

Dublin city centre

Isn't this cool? Sand art

Buskers

see that lady wearing short sleeves in 15-degree weather? Brrr

Henry Street with the Spire of Dublin - that big silver thing

very pregnant (23 weeks)

the fancy side of O'Connell Street

Genuine Irish Pub somewhere in the Temple Bar area

one set of friends. They have another 2 (twins) now.

Our friend, the crazy driver :) and he's as calm and gentle a person as you can get

So, did you do anything special for St Patrick's Day?

Does this post make you want to visit Ireland?

Which country do you have a thing for, and can you tell me why?
PS linking up with Janmary

So I'm back!

We had a lovely time in Dublin, Ireland but I am very, very happy to be home.

Are you like that too?

I LOVE going away and enjoy it tremendously wherever I am (provided it's not too hot) but I LOVE coming home too.

The minute I get to the airport and am checked in, I start thinking of home.

Anyway, Ireland.

It was lovely, grey, rainy, cold weather which simply delights me. All the South Africans think I'm weird because I love cold weather so much.

What is it about the cold that I love? The crispness of the air, everything feels cleaner outside, I can have lots of tea (!), dress warm, wear gloves, eat soup, etc, etc.

The one thing I will say is that a city holiday is not a place for a pregnant woman. And we consciously didn't do many walking-type activities, rode the bus/ LUAS as much as possible and still there was a lot of walking.

One morning we had to rush to meet our tour bus and I had to walk FAST. By the time I got there I was absolutely pooped and very teary - "what if I'm doing something to the babies by pushing myself this much?"

Had a bit of a cry on D's shoulder. He is an AMAZING man generally, and more so for putting up with me. Really!

Then I had a moment on the LUAS (tram) one evening. Those Irish people do not give a DAMN whether you are old, pregnant, a woman, etc.(very strange because in South Africa, we're taught to give up our seats - it's good manners :)) - they keep their seats. So frustrating when you see young, able-bodied men sitting and big, pregnant me hanging onto those poles for dear life.

I actually said to our friend, "good thing you're with us otherwise I would have been moaning and whinging some more" and I was not joking!

Oh! We had a bumper bashing one evening and I felt the one baby move very strongly (it felt like she was twisting) and then there was NOTHING for awhile. I was freaking out and told myself if I feel nothing by the morning, I'll have to suck it up and pay Euro to go see a doctor, but fortunately, the next morning she was doing her morning aerobics again and I was a happy mother!

It was lovely spending time with our friends but also a bit frustrating because they're unstructured and we're very structured (I didn't realise we were that structured until living with them) so in the evenings we had supper at 9:30 - 10:00 pm because it was "should we cook? should we go out?" every night! That frustrated me big-time. At home, we decide these things in advance and then just do it. And of course I have a menu plan so I don't have to do much thinking on the actual day.

The one night I actually just said I'm done with this - I'll make a toasted sandwich at home and you guys can go out. I am clearly led of God because D said they actually didn't eat anything until well after midnight!

The actual flights were not too bad. The Jhb legs of the trips were empty so I could stretch out over 4 seats and sleep - lovely, and the Dublin legs were understandably full, and full of noisy kids. I told mine they'd better be good travellers because I can't deal with all that screaming! Felt very taken care of by the air hostesses who kept bringing me extra pillows, water, etc. because I'm pregnant.

So that's our last pre-babies trip and I am happy to "retire" my suitcases for awhile. It just gets too stressful.

Well, I have an organising job in Durban on Monday and Tuesday next week so one last flight (only 45 minutes this time) and then, finally, I can relax and wait for the babies.