Hello to any of you lovely people out there who are still seeing my journal. I am afraid I haven't read a single other journal on here for about two months. I hope you all had enjoyable holidays, and that you were just happy, comfortable, and not too stressed or overfed (ha!) I thank you for your well wishes and cheers (never jeers).
Okay. I've been finding it very hard to get online and post stuff. I think my job is to blame. I read books and work on computers all day at work, so I can't stand to read or look at a computer once I get home. I got back from a twelve-day trip to Ireland ten days ago, and I can barely bring myself to attempt uploading all the photos I took so family over there can see them. It's taken me forever to try to update on here, too. I wonder if I'll convey even a fraction of the enthusiasm I had for this trip at this late juncture. I'll probably have to do it in installments, anyway. It was a long trip and we did a lot of stuff, so I'd like to share things with you piecemeal. Here goes:
My husband and I left JFK on the 29th of December. We love Aer Lingus for all our flights there and back. There's this horrible econo-line in Ireland called Ryanair. They do insanely cheap flights (I've been told some for as low as 99 cents from Dublin to France, etc.) but the CEO is almost cartoonish in his cutthroat corporate cowboy ethos. I was listening to an interview with him on the radio, and he was saying some nonsense about how European airlines shouldn't have to use clean-air technology when the US and China don't follow the Kyoto Accord. I see what he's saying to a very slight extent, but it sounded a bit like, "Why should I have to wear a seatbelt when other people aren't?" If everyone's going to wait for the other guy to start making very important changes, we'd never get anywhere and would be stuck in a silly holding pattern. Anyway, this Michael O'Leary fellow has been trying to take over Aer Lingus for quite some time and has so far failed. I would be very sad to see it go the way of most American econo-lines. I always feel lucky seeing a lucky shamrock winking back at me throughout the flight.
The day after we arrived in Dublin, it was time to take a coach bus to visit one of my sisters-in-law to celebrate New Year's with her family and another sister-in-law's family. Six adults and four little girls. But we had to get there first. This is the roof of the bus depot in Dublin:
That day was EXTREMELY windy. I mean, as we were driving along, I was looking at how all the planters along the side of the road had their plants completely uprooted. I kept joking (semi-seriously) about what to do in the event of the bus tipping over. At one point, the bus driver slammed on his brakes, and we realized that a tree had fallen right in front of us. We were like, whoa. You can see the utter shock on our faces. Don't we look terrified? Erm....
So we made it there in one... two pieces, and there was a warm reunion between us all, some exchanging of small gifts, and some deliciously festive Glhwein in ceramic chalices. I was sad to learn the new golden retriever puppy, Leo, was put in a kennel for the night since he would have gotten too excited with all those people there. We'd have to wait until the morning to make his acquaintance. Until then, there was a lot of deliciousness in store since my sister-in-law, Brenda, is famous for putting on a tasteful spread. She made a fabulous chicken tagine with couscous and Greek yogurt on the side. I played Guess The Spices from smelling the tagine, and I guessed all five spices correctly! Needless to say, I wowed everyone there (and I imagined they looked at me with a little bit of fear, lest I be reading their minds, too). There's a dessert that's very popular in Ireland: Pavlova. Maybe you can find it in The States, too, but I've only eaten it there. It's got a meringue base (not a fan of meringue, really) with a thin layer of marshmallow above that, and then whipped cream and fruit of your choice. Brenda actually made her Pavlova as good as I could hope for. It was topped with explosively juicy and tart raspberries, wih some chocolate shavings to round out things nicely.
I'm lucky I didn't feel too crappy the next day, because I had about five varieties of alcohol that night. A first for me: Black Velvet -- champagne and Guinness. It's not as bad as it sounds. I might prefer sparkling red wine with it, though, since it would create a nice raspberry-ish effect. Champagne is too dry to be paired with Guinness, I think.
We rang in the New Year watching a popular New Year special out of the BBC studios in London called Jules Holland. That's the name of the host, though. I think his show is just called The Jules Holland Show, and it's, like, some music variety show/talk show. It's far more entertaining than creepy Rockin' Eve with Dick Clark and Carson Daly, since the music is a lot cooler and you get to see English comedy/film/TV/music legends getting wasted onstage. We also did some traditional type of thing where everyone joins hands in a criss-cross fashion and sings Auld Land Syne. We played a rock quiz and everyone looked at me like I was going to kick ass just because I guessed spices at dinner, but I kept trying to beg off as the most likely person to get a low score. I proved myself right in no time flat, but I couldn't feel bad since I had warned everyone.
We eventually tottered off to bed and hoped to feel as well as possible for the two-hour ride back to Dublin the next morning, the first day of 2007.
Until next time, I wish you all the best....
Okay. I've been finding it very hard to get online and post stuff. I think my job is to blame. I read books and work on computers all day at work, so I can't stand to read or look at a computer once I get home. I got back from a twelve-day trip to Ireland ten days ago, and I can barely bring myself to attempt uploading all the photos I took so family over there can see them. It's taken me forever to try to update on here, too. I wonder if I'll convey even a fraction of the enthusiasm I had for this trip at this late juncture. I'll probably have to do it in installments, anyway. It was a long trip and we did a lot of stuff, so I'd like to share things with you piecemeal. Here goes:
My husband and I left JFK on the 29th of December. We love Aer Lingus for all our flights there and back. There's this horrible econo-line in Ireland called Ryanair. They do insanely cheap flights (I've been told some for as low as 99 cents from Dublin to France, etc.) but the CEO is almost cartoonish in his cutthroat corporate cowboy ethos. I was listening to an interview with him on the radio, and he was saying some nonsense about how European airlines shouldn't have to use clean-air technology when the US and China don't follow the Kyoto Accord. I see what he's saying to a very slight extent, but it sounded a bit like, "Why should I have to wear a seatbelt when other people aren't?" If everyone's going to wait for the other guy to start making very important changes, we'd never get anywhere and would be stuck in a silly holding pattern. Anyway, this Michael O'Leary fellow has been trying to take over Aer Lingus for quite some time and has so far failed. I would be very sad to see it go the way of most American econo-lines. I always feel lucky seeing a lucky shamrock winking back at me throughout the flight.
The day after we arrived in Dublin, it was time to take a coach bus to visit one of my sisters-in-law to celebrate New Year's with her family and another sister-in-law's family. Six adults and four little girls. But we had to get there first. This is the roof of the bus depot in Dublin:
That day was EXTREMELY windy. I mean, as we were driving along, I was looking at how all the planters along the side of the road had their plants completely uprooted. I kept joking (semi-seriously) about what to do in the event of the bus tipping over. At one point, the bus driver slammed on his brakes, and we realized that a tree had fallen right in front of us. We were like, whoa. You can see the utter shock on our faces. Don't we look terrified? Erm....
So we made it there in one... two pieces, and there was a warm reunion between us all, some exchanging of small gifts, and some deliciously festive Glhwein in ceramic chalices. I was sad to learn the new golden retriever puppy, Leo, was put in a kennel for the night since he would have gotten too excited with all those people there. We'd have to wait until the morning to make his acquaintance. Until then, there was a lot of deliciousness in store since my sister-in-law, Brenda, is famous for putting on a tasteful spread. She made a fabulous chicken tagine with couscous and Greek yogurt on the side. I played Guess The Spices from smelling the tagine, and I guessed all five spices correctly! Needless to say, I wowed everyone there (and I imagined they looked at me with a little bit of fear, lest I be reading their minds, too). There's a dessert that's very popular in Ireland: Pavlova. Maybe you can find it in The States, too, but I've only eaten it there. It's got a meringue base (not a fan of meringue, really) with a thin layer of marshmallow above that, and then whipped cream and fruit of your choice. Brenda actually made her Pavlova as good as I could hope for. It was topped with explosively juicy and tart raspberries, wih some chocolate shavings to round out things nicely.
I'm lucky I didn't feel too crappy the next day, because I had about five varieties of alcohol that night. A first for me: Black Velvet -- champagne and Guinness. It's not as bad as it sounds. I might prefer sparkling red wine with it, though, since it would create a nice raspberry-ish effect. Champagne is too dry to be paired with Guinness, I think.
We rang in the New Year watching a popular New Year special out of the BBC studios in London called Jules Holland. That's the name of the host, though. I think his show is just called The Jules Holland Show, and it's, like, some music variety show/talk show. It's far more entertaining than creepy Rockin' Eve with Dick Clark and Carson Daly, since the music is a lot cooler and you get to see English comedy/film/TV/music legends getting wasted onstage. We also did some traditional type of thing where everyone joins hands in a criss-cross fashion and sings Auld Land Syne. We played a rock quiz and everyone looked at me like I was going to kick ass just because I guessed spices at dinner, but I kept trying to beg off as the most likely person to get a low score. I proved myself right in no time flat, but I couldn't feel bad since I had warned everyone.
We eventually tottered off to bed and hoped to feel as well as possible for the two-hour ride back to Dublin the next morning, the first day of 2007.
Until next time, I wish you all the best....
VIEW 12 of 12 COMMENTS
Yes, that fingernail picture is part of that book with anonymous confessions from people.