Sunday 10th July 2011
Last full day and night in Ireland, bus at 7.25am tomorrow to Dublin, then the 12.50pm to Chicago and change for Toronto, landing 9pm Toronto time. Been packing and throwing stuff out of the backpacks all day, and then small one started on his stuff in the loft and went through all his old bits and pieces. Went for a last meal with small one’s mum, dad and aunt and also met another cousin working behind reception in the hotel. Tall one had finally caught up with the UK Apprentice tv series, after watching the last three seasons he’d missed while he was away.... Small one had watched and rewatched the travel videos from Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand and London/Moscow over and over during the day as each relative dropped in to say there good byes. Settled in for the night, still sorting out last few things before leaving.
Saturday 9th July 2011
Small one up with a sore head. Small one headed out to town and did the rounds of the relatives before leaving in 2 days time. Visited half a dozen different Aunts in different homes before coming back to tall one who was trying to get some rest after being exhausted from his trip to Ireland. It had been a great trip.... but knackering.
Friday 8th July 2011
Up again for 8.45am bus to Galway. Arrived within hour and a half and walked round docks, river and the city. Rained all day, but still enjoyed it. Had some tea in a nice cafe by the water, where small one did not realize the orange juice he ordered was “Moroccan Orange Juice” for almost 4 euros... Headed back early on 1pm bus. Chilled out for afternoon then went out to Dog and Duck to meet Abba, Eddie and Paddy for a few beers. Eddie and Paddy not drinking as driving. Small one bumped into one of the session players a young bloke on the fiddle who he’d served in The Corkman Melbourne and had a lock in with. Stayed too late and was forced to have some jagermesiter shots. Taxi back which Abba jumped out of in the town so Tall and Small paid the bill home. Back at house around 2am. Tall one knocked the front door key out the letter box and so had to ring the bell for the mother to let them in.
Thursday 7th July 2011
Caught the 7.25am bus to Dublin. Just Tall and Small one doing their tour. Had a look round Guinness storehouse tour which was full of old French men and young Spanish children. Even the barmaid who served us our Irish national drink greeted us by saying “Ola!”. Headed into the City, stopped to see Dave’s pub called Lotts. Met Small one’s cousin in Searson’s where Conor used to work and chatted to the chef still working there. Back round town to the docks, up the Liffey and through Temple Bar for a pint. Back to Lotts for a meal and Smithwicks... the Guinness was turning Tall and Small’s guts over by now... Bus back was a 8pm, arrived back at 10pm at the college in Athlone and walked back to the house in the rain which took until gone 11pm. Dublin was nice.
Wednesday 6th July 2011
Small one was really really ready to leave Athlone early, sick to death of meeting people and living with the families quirky ways. A day off completely and had a lie on and did not even leave the house. Tall one edited the travel videos which took most of the day...
Tuesday 5th July 2011
Scary morning when Aer Lingus flying us to Toronto / Canada this Monday e-mailed to say that due to the 3 hour stop over in Chicago we would require to fill out the Esta immigration form online and pay the 14 euro fee. We could not see this being right as we weren’t even leaving the airport, so phoned the USA embassy. The woman on the phone said that actually as we were arriving in Canada on a working holiday visa we were not able to land in the USA on just an Esta online visa and that we actually needed a B2 visa which required an Interview at the US embassy in a weeks time. This was ridiculous and we kept explaining that we were not entering the USA we were just changing planes int he airport to Canada, she said it did not matter and that we ought to rebook a new direct flight to Toronto. We then spoke to Usit (a Canada visa provider online) who said that that was rubbish and to just do the esta online form, so thats all we’ve done. So now have to worry about immigration in the USA for 3 hours andf the immigration to get into Canada...
Anyway, then up town, pint in the Shack, then round to see Eddie, Eleana and Emma’s house. Was a huge and very nice house, but the dog was on speed and kept humping everybody’s legs.
Monday 4th July 2011
Today was the trip to Croagh Patrick, the 2nd highest mountain in Ireland. Picked up by small one’s cousin, Alma and her boxer dog Vito. On the 2 hour drive up was pulled over by police as they said there camera had picked up that her tax disc did not match the car rego which was not taxed at all. They said they could confiscate the car, but thankfully did not.
1.10pm At Croagh Patrick started at the bottom ignoring the wooden simple cut walking sticks for sale at 3 euros or rental at 1.50?? Half an hour in Alma and Vito were struggling, she opted out of the race and said she’d continue at her own pace and meet us at the top. Tall and small ventured on alone, past a lot of old men, women and children doing the walk dressed like they were on the way to a shopping mall, no rucksacks, no water, no proper clothing... Past an old man coming down dressed in a suit jacket with a wooden cane... the going wasn’t that easy, lots of loose ballast and rocks, some very sharp, so very slippery and lots of nasty edges to fall on.
Made it to the top around 3pm to see the little white secluded church. A big group of very noisy Americans stood jeering and shouting each others names “CODY CODY!!!” while a very old Irishman with an enormous white beard was conducting his very serious pilgrimage and penance around the mountain and church barefoot (walking round the church 15 times saying 7 hail marys and 7 hail fathers....). Helicopters dropped in some ballast and spoke to some builders who were doing some work on the church, They said today they got a helicopter ride in (along with their kids who were hanging about with a jack Russell) , but for the rest of the week they would have to walk to work! We asked if we could see inside the little church, and the fella said we could if we shifted some bags of ballast for him, and so did. Then we had to wait for a couple to finish inside, who the builder had let in so the young man could propose to her. Headed back down around 3.30pm and found Alma 10 minutes from the top with a tired Vito. Took her the rest of the way up and had some food, before all heading back down together around 4pm. After all falling down in the last 10 minutes, made it all back to the car park at 5.10pm, 4 hour return trip... Had a cup of tea (much needed) and a 99’ ice cream. Drove back all shattered and aching, but a great experience and some great views.
Sunday 3rd July 2011
An unexpected lie on and then off down to Galway Bay with small one’s parents driving and little Richard in tow. A walk round Salt Hill and little Richard was brought an I LOVE JEDWARD t-shirt and what he described as an Alien’s dead embryo... On to Barna and had a roast dinner, and finally down to Spiddal round the harbour where an old man with a white beard in wellington boots was rowing himself out to sea. Headed back to Athlone that evening trying out the new motorway for the first time. Small one enjoyed a day out with his parents...
Saturday 2nd July 2011
Up early for shredded wheat, Elisa due at 9am to take tall and small to the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast. She turned up 45 minutes late with a love bite and would not stop going on about the sex she had. (haha, sorry Elisa but it had to be noted) Still, we stopped and brought a baguette and a coffee each and some strawberrys from a stall on the side of the motorway.
Elisa’s AA directions had an error on them and sent us to Sligo instead of Limerick, but soon sorted it out with an old fashioned map book... Great weather all day and some great scenary through The Burren and a stop at Dunguaire Castle. Narrow roads full of huge tourist buses and many many tourists. Also a stop at Aillwee caves, where a very hard and very short 5 mintue walk almost killed us to the top of the hill. After buying our tickets off a very comfortable one armed man entered the caves with a bus of tourists. A very short tour it seemed, the English guide spoke his commentary in this bizarre tone and accent as if he were reading from a young child’s story book.
On then to Cliffs of Moher and 6 euros each just to park, if we had realized before would have got out and just sent one of us in the car to pay. It was also very busy there, and traipsed up the well made paths past the sunken visitor centre (built into the hill) with our 99 flake ice creams. The castle view point was another 2 euros and had views not as good as from the ground. At either end of the main strip of Cliffs of Moher the rest of the cliffs had big signs and fences saying NO ENTRY, but despite this hundreds of people had gone over, so followed them. Very narrow paths and a lot of stupid Americans hanging over the edge of the cliff to get photos. Left mid afternoon and headed home, a good day. Though the triathalon in Athlone meant we had to walk back through the closed roads.
Friday 1st July 2011
Tall and small took little Jordan and Richard on the train to Dublin Zoo for the day. Up very early n Jordan was grumpy the whole day as he was shattered and didn’t want to go to a zoo. Small one played a great game on the 2 hour train journey with them both, which was whoever could sit and be quiet without making any noise for the entire train journey they would get 50 euros.... neither managed it, but they managed it long enough to get some peace and quiet on the train. It did result in a lot of bizarre sign language which made passers by think we were all from a deaf family, though the midget sat on the seat next to us did avert some of their attention. The rest of the time it was eye spy, and something beginning with ‘B’ which may have been Barrack O’Bama?
Walk round Dublin Zoo, an expensive day. 60 Euros for a family train ticket and another 40 for the family zoo ticket. Saw the animals, weather was nice, had some food and headed back to Athlone shattered.
Thursday 30th June 2011
Small one’s parents had a Spanish student coming to stay with them in the spare room. A few hours before arrival there was a mad dash to replace the broken toilet seat, clean the room and buy a new 4ft wide bed. Tall and Small went with the mother bed shopping and helped pick out the toilet seat. Small one’s mother told small one to drop the fathers name in the bed shop for a discount, he came out and told her that daddys name doesn’t go as far anymore, as they only got 10 euros off.
Got back at the house, and it soon filled up with visiting family and many many children. Aunt Veronica also turned up and helped tall one changed the toilet seat and dismantled the old bed... a strange afternoon. Got the room ready and then tall and small went to The Shack to meet Elisa (who they’d last visited in Brisbane and also in Sydney when they brought their ford escort Sheila). Elisa had tap water and tall one drank tea. Back at the house via Frida’s for some chips and kebabs, house was buzzing again with Spanish students and other visitors. Up to the room and finally fixed small one’s father’s laptop.... hooray!
Wednesday 29th June 2011
Morning was free, but tall one spent it trying to fix three laptops at once. Laid out side by side in the kitchen, small one’s needed to be restored to factory settings to try and fix his built in web cam, but ended up buying an external one. Tall one’s laptop had an error during some windows update and no longer started up again, so had to find a net cafe to download a Visa Recovery disk, burn it and then repair his laptop, which worked. Then small one’s father’s laptop was slugglish slow, took all morning just to turn on and had taken all night to copy a few photos to back up. Had been trying to reinstall windows to wipe everything and start again but too slow to even do that. Went out for lunch with Pat and Alicia who tall and small had replaced as workers in The Corkman Pub and Hostel in Melbourne. It was good to see them and they discussed the rumours of Stacey being pregnant after a flourish of facebook congratulations which were abruptly removed. Had planned a dinner round Eddie and Elena’s but cancelled due to being shattered. Walked back in pissing rain until took another taxi.
Tuesday 28th June 2011
Booked out for the day, took a taxi to town as raining, small one phoned the cabbie he’d grown up with, but who in the end charged them a fortune for the cab ride anyway. First appointment was with the cousin in Vision Express to get small one new glasses, but he spent an hour not deciding which pair to get and so brought both. Next was tea with Don and Viv in the rain, and then in the evening out with another aunt and cousin for dinner, and then some beer at Sean’s Bar huddled under a heater outside.
Monday 27th June 2011
Met up with Eddie, small one’s friend who they had previously met in Sydney in May 2009. Eddie drove them out to Clonmacnoise, the monastery ruins. Had a good time walking round, it didn;t rain. On the way back they showed tall one an irish bog and some turf drying out. Trip up town to shop again, and tall one got some passport photos down in the little camera shop where small one worked years ago. Got stuck talking to the owner Danny for almost an hour, the photos only took 5 minutes to do.
Sunday 26th June 2011
The aunt and cousin flew back to Scotland. Afternoon headed out to meet another of small one's aunts for her 50th birthday party at her house. Weather held off at their country home for the family BBQ, tall one met lots of people.
Saturday 25th June 2011
Small one’s aunt and cousin, Lynne and Megan came over from Scotland. Took a trip round Athlone castle and got stuck talking to an ex-butcher in the rain, but bought some cakes outside. Trip on a boat up the Shannon, with a very droll speaking commentary, but a nice lady playing songs on a guitar. Meal at The Shack and later a meal out with the family at the Olive Grove, where tall one was the tallest person there. Afterwards went down to The Mill for a drink around midnight. Tall one was so tired he just sat and had tea with small one’s mother.
Friday 24th June 2011
A rain day, caught up with some internet research for Canada, and went for a breakfast while small one’s mother had her hair done. Had a few visitors and phone calls for small one to catch up with, 3 pairs of friends / relatives turning up at once in the morning. Dinner and then cinema to see Senna at the cinema that night. Small and Tall took along young Jordan not knowing the film was half subtitled, but he seemed to go okay. Followed by a Supermac’s curry chip and cheese which small one had gone on about for the last 3 years.
Thursday 23rd June 2011
Small one acted like tour guide and took tall one around the town. A lot closed down from the recession, and a lot of army people jogging nosily up the Shannon. It was a pretty good day, a short spell of rain, but then some blue skies. Tall one enjoyed the old streets and was taken to small one’s one locals. Had food in The Shack and a couple of Guinness, then over to Sean’s Bar, the oldest pub in Ireland (900ad) for another Guinness, where a man came in who looked just like Dublin John’s brother (local from The Corkman, Melbourne). Throughout the day Small one had slowed their walking progress by the queue of passers by stopping to say hello and catch up, some waving from cars, others walking on the street. Back to the house exhausted for some dinner.
Last full day and night in Ireland, bus at 7.25am tomorrow to Dublin, then the 12.50pm to Chicago and change for Toronto, landing 9pm Toronto time. Been packing and throwing stuff out of the backpacks all day, and then small one started on his stuff in the loft and went through all his old bits and pieces. Went for a last meal with small one’s mum, dad and aunt and also met another cousin working behind reception in the hotel. Tall one had finally caught up with the UK Apprentice tv series, after watching the last three seasons he’d missed while he was away.... Small one had watched and rewatched the travel videos from Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand and London/Moscow over and over during the day as each relative dropped in to say there good byes. Settled in for the night, still sorting out last few things before leaving.
Saturday 9th July 2011
Small one up with a sore head. Small one headed out to town and did the rounds of the relatives before leaving in 2 days time. Visited half a dozen different Aunts in different homes before coming back to tall one who was trying to get some rest after being exhausted from his trip to Ireland. It had been a great trip.... but knackering.
Friday 8th July 2011
Up again for 8.45am bus to Galway. Arrived within hour and a half and walked round docks, river and the city. Rained all day, but still enjoyed it. Had some tea in a nice cafe by the water, where small one did not realize the orange juice he ordered was “Moroccan Orange Juice” for almost 4 euros... Headed back early on 1pm bus. Chilled out for afternoon then went out to Dog and Duck to meet Abba, Eddie and Paddy for a few beers. Eddie and Paddy not drinking as driving. Small one bumped into one of the session players a young bloke on the fiddle who he’d served in The Corkman Melbourne and had a lock in with. Stayed too late and was forced to have some jagermesiter shots. Taxi back which Abba jumped out of in the town so Tall and Small paid the bill home. Back at house around 2am. Tall one knocked the front door key out the letter box and so had to ring the bell for the mother to let them in.
Thursday 7th July 2011
Caught the 7.25am bus to Dublin. Just Tall and Small one doing their tour. Had a look round Guinness storehouse tour which was full of old French men and young Spanish children. Even the barmaid who served us our Irish national drink greeted us by saying “Ola!”. Headed into the City, stopped to see Dave’s pub called Lotts. Met Small one’s cousin in Searson’s where Conor used to work and chatted to the chef still working there. Back round town to the docks, up the Liffey and through Temple Bar for a pint. Back to Lotts for a meal and Smithwicks... the Guinness was turning Tall and Small’s guts over by now... Bus back was a 8pm, arrived back at 10pm at the college in Athlone and walked back to the house in the rain which took until gone 11pm. Dublin was nice.
Wednesday 6th July 2011
Small one was really really ready to leave Athlone early, sick to death of meeting people and living with the families quirky ways. A day off completely and had a lie on and did not even leave the house. Tall one edited the travel videos which took most of the day...
Tuesday 5th July 2011
Scary morning when Aer Lingus flying us to Toronto / Canada this Monday e-mailed to say that due to the 3 hour stop over in Chicago we would require to fill out the Esta immigration form online and pay the 14 euro fee. We could not see this being right as we weren’t even leaving the airport, so phoned the USA embassy. The woman on the phone said that actually as we were arriving in Canada on a working holiday visa we were not able to land in the USA on just an Esta online visa and that we actually needed a B2 visa which required an Interview at the US embassy in a weeks time. This was ridiculous and we kept explaining that we were not entering the USA we were just changing planes int he airport to Canada, she said it did not matter and that we ought to rebook a new direct flight to Toronto. We then spoke to Usit (a Canada visa provider online) who said that that was rubbish and to just do the esta online form, so thats all we’ve done. So now have to worry about immigration in the USA for 3 hours andf the immigration to get into Canada...
Anyway, then up town, pint in the Shack, then round to see Eddie, Eleana and Emma’s house. Was a huge and very nice house, but the dog was on speed and kept humping everybody’s legs.
Monday 4th July 2011
Today was the trip to Croagh Patrick, the 2nd highest mountain in Ireland. Picked up by small one’s cousin, Alma and her boxer dog Vito. On the 2 hour drive up was pulled over by police as they said there camera had picked up that her tax disc did not match the car rego which was not taxed at all. They said they could confiscate the car, but thankfully did not.
1.10pm At Croagh Patrick started at the bottom ignoring the wooden simple cut walking sticks for sale at 3 euros or rental at 1.50?? Half an hour in Alma and Vito were struggling, she opted out of the race and said she’d continue at her own pace and meet us at the top. Tall and small ventured on alone, past a lot of old men, women and children doing the walk dressed like they were on the way to a shopping mall, no rucksacks, no water, no proper clothing... Past an old man coming down dressed in a suit jacket with a wooden cane... the going wasn’t that easy, lots of loose ballast and rocks, some very sharp, so very slippery and lots of nasty edges to fall on.
Made it to the top around 3pm to see the little white secluded church. A big group of very noisy Americans stood jeering and shouting each others names “CODY CODY!!!” while a very old Irishman with an enormous white beard was conducting his very serious pilgrimage and penance around the mountain and church barefoot (walking round the church 15 times saying 7 hail marys and 7 hail fathers....). Helicopters dropped in some ballast and spoke to some builders who were doing some work on the church, They said today they got a helicopter ride in (along with their kids who were hanging about with a jack Russell) , but for the rest of the week they would have to walk to work! We asked if we could see inside the little church, and the fella said we could if we shifted some bags of ballast for him, and so did. Then we had to wait for a couple to finish inside, who the builder had let in so the young man could propose to her. Headed back down around 3.30pm and found Alma 10 minutes from the top with a tired Vito. Took her the rest of the way up and had some food, before all heading back down together around 4pm. After all falling down in the last 10 minutes, made it all back to the car park at 5.10pm, 4 hour return trip... Had a cup of tea (much needed) and a 99’ ice cream. Drove back all shattered and aching, but a great experience and some great views.
Sunday 3rd July 2011
An unexpected lie on and then off down to Galway Bay with small one’s parents driving and little Richard in tow. A walk round Salt Hill and little Richard was brought an I LOVE JEDWARD t-shirt and what he described as an Alien’s dead embryo... On to Barna and had a roast dinner, and finally down to Spiddal round the harbour where an old man with a white beard in wellington boots was rowing himself out to sea. Headed back to Athlone that evening trying out the new motorway for the first time. Small one enjoyed a day out with his parents...
Saturday 2nd July 2011
Up early for shredded wheat, Elisa due at 9am to take tall and small to the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast. She turned up 45 minutes late with a love bite and would not stop going on about the sex she had. (haha, sorry Elisa but it had to be noted) Still, we stopped and brought a baguette and a coffee each and some strawberrys from a stall on the side of the motorway.
Elisa’s AA directions had an error on them and sent us to Sligo instead of Limerick, but soon sorted it out with an old fashioned map book... Great weather all day and some great scenary through The Burren and a stop at Dunguaire Castle. Narrow roads full of huge tourist buses and many many tourists. Also a stop at Aillwee caves, where a very hard and very short 5 mintue walk almost killed us to the top of the hill. After buying our tickets off a very comfortable one armed man entered the caves with a bus of tourists. A very short tour it seemed, the English guide spoke his commentary in this bizarre tone and accent as if he were reading from a young child’s story book.
On then to Cliffs of Moher and 6 euros each just to park, if we had realized before would have got out and just sent one of us in the car to pay. It was also very busy there, and traipsed up the well made paths past the sunken visitor centre (built into the hill) with our 99 flake ice creams. The castle view point was another 2 euros and had views not as good as from the ground. At either end of the main strip of Cliffs of Moher the rest of the cliffs had big signs and fences saying NO ENTRY, but despite this hundreds of people had gone over, so followed them. Very narrow paths and a lot of stupid Americans hanging over the edge of the cliff to get photos. Left mid afternoon and headed home, a good day. Though the triathalon in Athlone meant we had to walk back through the closed roads.
Friday 1st July 2011
Tall and small took little Jordan and Richard on the train to Dublin Zoo for the day. Up very early n Jordan was grumpy the whole day as he was shattered and didn’t want to go to a zoo. Small one played a great game on the 2 hour train journey with them both, which was whoever could sit and be quiet without making any noise for the entire train journey they would get 50 euros.... neither managed it, but they managed it long enough to get some peace and quiet on the train. It did result in a lot of bizarre sign language which made passers by think we were all from a deaf family, though the midget sat on the seat next to us did avert some of their attention. The rest of the time it was eye spy, and something beginning with ‘B’ which may have been Barrack O’Bama?
Walk round Dublin Zoo, an expensive day. 60 Euros for a family train ticket and another 40 for the family zoo ticket. Saw the animals, weather was nice, had some food and headed back to Athlone shattered.
Thursday 30th June 2011
Small one’s parents had a Spanish student coming to stay with them in the spare room. A few hours before arrival there was a mad dash to replace the broken toilet seat, clean the room and buy a new 4ft wide bed. Tall and Small went with the mother bed shopping and helped pick out the toilet seat. Small one’s mother told small one to drop the fathers name in the bed shop for a discount, he came out and told her that daddys name doesn’t go as far anymore, as they only got 10 euros off.
Got back at the house, and it soon filled up with visiting family and many many children. Aunt Veronica also turned up and helped tall one changed the toilet seat and dismantled the old bed... a strange afternoon. Got the room ready and then tall and small went to The Shack to meet Elisa (who they’d last visited in Brisbane and also in Sydney when they brought their ford escort Sheila). Elisa had tap water and tall one drank tea. Back at the house via Frida’s for some chips and kebabs, house was buzzing again with Spanish students and other visitors. Up to the room and finally fixed small one’s father’s laptop.... hooray!
Wednesday 29th June 2011
Morning was free, but tall one spent it trying to fix three laptops at once. Laid out side by side in the kitchen, small one’s needed to be restored to factory settings to try and fix his built in web cam, but ended up buying an external one. Tall one’s laptop had an error during some windows update and no longer started up again, so had to find a net cafe to download a Visa Recovery disk, burn it and then repair his laptop, which worked. Then small one’s father’s laptop was slugglish slow, took all morning just to turn on and had taken all night to copy a few photos to back up. Had been trying to reinstall windows to wipe everything and start again but too slow to even do that. Went out for lunch with Pat and Alicia who tall and small had replaced as workers in The Corkman Pub and Hostel in Melbourne. It was good to see them and they discussed the rumours of Stacey being pregnant after a flourish of facebook congratulations which were abruptly removed. Had planned a dinner round Eddie and Elena’s but cancelled due to being shattered. Walked back in pissing rain until took another taxi.
Tuesday 28th June 2011
Booked out for the day, took a taxi to town as raining, small one phoned the cabbie he’d grown up with, but who in the end charged them a fortune for the cab ride anyway. First appointment was with the cousin in Vision Express to get small one new glasses, but he spent an hour not deciding which pair to get and so brought both. Next was tea with Don and Viv in the rain, and then in the evening out with another aunt and cousin for dinner, and then some beer at Sean’s Bar huddled under a heater outside.
Monday 27th June 2011
Met up with Eddie, small one’s friend who they had previously met in Sydney in May 2009. Eddie drove them out to Clonmacnoise, the monastery ruins. Had a good time walking round, it didn;t rain. On the way back they showed tall one an irish bog and some turf drying out. Trip up town to shop again, and tall one got some passport photos down in the little camera shop where small one worked years ago. Got stuck talking to the owner Danny for almost an hour, the photos only took 5 minutes to do.
Sunday 26th June 2011
The aunt and cousin flew back to Scotland. Afternoon headed out to meet another of small one's aunts for her 50th birthday party at her house. Weather held off at their country home for the family BBQ, tall one met lots of people.
Saturday 25th June 2011
Small one’s aunt and cousin, Lynne and Megan came over from Scotland. Took a trip round Athlone castle and got stuck talking to an ex-butcher in the rain, but bought some cakes outside. Trip on a boat up the Shannon, with a very droll speaking commentary, but a nice lady playing songs on a guitar. Meal at The Shack and later a meal out with the family at the Olive Grove, where tall one was the tallest person there. Afterwards went down to The Mill for a drink around midnight. Tall one was so tired he just sat and had tea with small one’s mother.
Friday 24th June 2011
A rain day, caught up with some internet research for Canada, and went for a breakfast while small one’s mother had her hair done. Had a few visitors and phone calls for small one to catch up with, 3 pairs of friends / relatives turning up at once in the morning. Dinner and then cinema to see Senna at the cinema that night. Small and Tall took along young Jordan not knowing the film was half subtitled, but he seemed to go okay. Followed by a Supermac’s curry chip and cheese which small one had gone on about for the last 3 years.
Thursday 23rd June 2011
Small one acted like tour guide and took tall one around the town. A lot closed down from the recession, and a lot of army people jogging nosily up the Shannon. It was a pretty good day, a short spell of rain, but then some blue skies. Tall one enjoyed the old streets and was taken to small one’s one locals. Had food in The Shack and a couple of Guinness, then over to Sean’s Bar, the oldest pub in Ireland (900ad) for another Guinness, where a man came in who looked just like Dublin John’s brother (local from The Corkman, Melbourne). Throughout the day Small one had slowed their walking progress by the queue of passers by stopping to say hello and catch up, some waving from cars, others walking on the street. Back to the house exhausted for some dinner.
