What recession?

While large portions of Europe are struggling to keep their heads above water, it's positivity all the way here.  Yes siree ! there's simply not enough ways to rid yourself of that cursed affliction commonly referred to as "the dollar".  A typical example ... a prom for man's best friend (just because you can !).

Of course there's no such nonsense going on in Ireland - right Karl?

Karl chauffeurs Basil to his next dinner appointment - a "bring your own bowl" party.

Things that make you go hmmm

We get quite a lot of rubbish mail, most of it addressed to previous residents or my personal favourite "To our neighbor" (meaning they haven't a clue who live there).  Despite that, the next one caught me a little off guard.

The worst part - it was actually addressed directly to me !

Best thing I can do is to keep schtum, cos no one's going to believe me anyway.

Norms

Every time we head home me and my auld mate Kevin get together for our World Championship Pool Tournament.  There are no prizes - no, no - there's much more at stake ... PRIDE.  Now, as you've probably gleaned from the fact that I'm even writing this, it was my turn to claim the honours this time round (which incidentally means I've no plans whatsoever to grace Ireland's shores anytime in the near future).  The big tournament is always held at the same location - "Billy Kelly's Pub"; usually on the same table, and it always ends up going to 5-4 no matter who wins.  In fact, we could save ourselves a few quid and definitely premature blood pressure problems by playing just one frame, but oh no - it's always the best of 9.

Anyways - I always get a laugh out of what is considered acceptable in one place, and is more than likely a total atrocity in another ...

The local Gun shop ... beside the Montessori School ... beside the pub where we play our pool.   My money's on a generation of kids growing up to be alcoholic postmen.

Contrasting Styles

Back in the day, Alma would drive anywhere without a thought.  Since moving abroad that changed ... just a little mind you.  A slight gasp here, the odd "I don't think so" there.  Night driving - forget it matey.  It all became so clear after our little vacation home. 

A typical freeway in San Diego - a major "no-go" zone for our Alzers.

The road to where Alma grew up (did she?).  One car takes up the full width of the road.  Luckily the locals know exactly when the other locals will be on the road, so everything works out just fine and dandy.

Snap shots of our visit ...

A view from the Hotel in Dublin - "Ireland's Eye"

I'm off to see my Mammy...... (as opposed to the Wizard)

This is for you Freke... The Sugar Loaf mountain to climb !!  It's soooo high that there was even snow on the top of the peak beside it.

The green green grass of home (at high speed).

Anyone can make a small cupcake!!!

A view from Ferrybank, Wexford.

Catching up with the auld gang....

It wouldn't be home without a misty morning, afternoon, evening ... (you choose)

My lovely Auntie Kathleen

Who needs Las Vegas?

The winning line

After spending a weekend in Vegas with ''Non-Believers" who restricted my cash-flow,  I sneaked off to my local, seaside ''casino'' with my Mother.  We were happily throwing our money into the slot machines (as you do) without any negative comments or disapproving glances... you know who I'm talking about (Will & Joe)!!!  Anyway I was down to my last €5 when suddenly I hit the Jackpot!!!  Now I honestly thought that the maximum you could win in a place like this was about €80 and to my utter delight I actually won €400.  Can you imagine how much pleasure I had sharing this news with the Non-Believers!!!!!  A good start to the holiday!

I was just a little concerned that the regulars were going to beat me up - me being one of those "blow ins" taking their money!

A comparison ... firstly - Vegas, gambling capital of the world.

Then Curracloe (the "Winning Post"), gambling ... well shed I suppose.

And just so that we're under no illusions - the view looking the other direction.

 

Golfing in Ireland ...

.... is a little different to golfing in San Diego but I loved it!!!  My brother took me to "Scarke" Golf Club where we golfed in Hail, Rain and Sunshine ... and that was just hole #1.  The Golf course I usually play on in San Diego is a Par 60 (18 Hole) and approx. 3215 meters.  Scarke is Par 72 (18 Hole) and a mere 4574 meters.  I couldn't even see where the green was on most of the holes.  After many hours and an extremely lenient brother, we finished up on even scores.... and I mean very lenient......  I was wrecked after all the hill walking but my Mammy (cos I'm still a big mammy's girl) had a lovely dinner ready for me when I got home.... you can't beat that!!

Scarke Golf Club & yes, it is that GREEN!!

Next we headed off to "The Burrow" Golf Course Par 56 (12 Hole) 3481 meters, and again... where the heck are the greens????  and in some cases, I had to ask, where are the fairways???  This was a very wild experience with the coastal winds blowing over the golf bags on more than one occasion.  I could barely keep my cap on at times & my brother was giving us advice about wind direction etc.  eh the ball goes where it goes my friend.  I'm not at the calculating wind phase just yet!!!!  Managed to lose many balls but we had a great time and some of the views were just amazing.  I returned to this course a few days later with Jane and we didn't have to contend with such strong winds.  Therefore it was a little more relaxed and we both came home with improved scores.   I look forward to introducing Sean & Jane to our little course over here in San Diego....you'd better book!!!!!!

A view from the Golf course

If you look carefully you can see the flag in the distance - honest !

Fairway, what fairway?

Ireland here we come.....

Time for Home Leave... yippee.  Two weeks in Ireland with family and friends.  Flight departure 8.00 pm, San Diego - London Heathrow - Dublin.  Economy Comfort secured, lots of film choices - we were on the pig's back!  The fact that it took me almost 4 hours to watch ''We Bought A Zoo'' did not dampen my spirits but did in fact exhaust me (the film kept crashing so I had to Rewind, Forward, Rewind, Forward and so on).  I slept for a couple of hours after that; it was great.

Got to LHR and we thought that we needed to move fast to get to our next flight so we walked very briskly (how very posh!).  First a bus and then a shuttle from Terminal 1 to Terminal 5 (LHR is HUGE for those of you who don't know it).  The time was ticking by very fast and to my horror the unthinkable happened......we needed to RUN.... I don't do running very well!!  I swear we ran for miles when finally we arrived at what I though was the boarding area.... silly me... it was only "A" passport control area (we had already been through one earlier during the marathon) where we could hear our names being called "...... gates closing and bags being removed"  crap, crap, crap.......  Endless corridors, extra crap.... Long legged Will goes flying ahead of me, easy for him the skinny fecker....... my knees are wobbling like mad and I'm trying to find oxygen somewhere.... what is that pain in my chest and those black dots before my eyes .... asthma attack inevitable .... where's the paper bag?????  I hate being that passenger who looks like they spent too much time in Duty Free and gets no sympathy.... I did nothing wrong!!!

After a horrific marathon, we MADE IT!!!!  We obviously looked horrendous as the air steward without any prompting whatsoever gave us water with ice before we even took off (a good Irish lad!!).  I'm still struggling for air, puffing on my inhaler when I notice William looking very uncomfortable....  Oh no, all that ''crapping'' above, he was obviously really in need of one....  Seat belt sign is on for take off....  cramps coming hard and fast....  William is using all his inner strength (NOTE: Karate men bruise on the inside) to keep cheeks together...  not easy!!  He looks at me with Wild Eyes and asks ''how long more'', I say ''just a few minutes Darling'' when in fact I have absolutely no idea.  Next thing the captain comes on with that very calm DJ-like voice (I'm convinced they all use some voice regulation system) saying ''Ladies & Gentlemen, we seem to have hit rush hour in LHR and it will be another few minutes before take off''.  I don't know how Will managed to stay focused (see Karate note above).  FINALLY we took off and I honestly expected to see Heaven before the seatbelt sign was turned off.  William was still staring ahead, maintaining focus and without looking up asked me ''left of right??..... which is closer???''

I don't remember seeing him for the rest of the flight .....

M.I.A.

Notice the absence of William .... I do !!!  The drink can only do so much you know !

New visitors....

  The proud mother as seen feeding her offspring yesterday.  Really cute!!

We've had two very different types of visitors over the past few weeks......

Our little humming bird who has been with us since we moved into the house started nesting in the back yard.  We watched her for weeks building her little nest, reinforcing it with spiders web - that stuff is really sticky over here (everything is better in America !). The nest is tiny but obviously very strong as it survived some nasty storms we've had here over the last few weeks, each one making more breaking news than the previous one.


Our next visitors weren't so welcome.  We first noticed sawdust on the ground (despite my endless vacuum cleaning) and then holes in on one of our chairs.  Sure enough, on closer inspection we could see that we had some uninvited critters.  I rang the housing agency.  They sounded quite concerned when I mentioned it could be termites or woodworm.....  It still took them 2-3 days to remove the chair....  The guy that exchanged the chair was obviously well traveled.  All I could get out of him was "oh - never saw that before".  2-3 days people ! - haven't you ever seen a house destroyed by termites??????  It really makes you wonder when the house is totally made of WOOD!!

It could have been us !

Safari, Zoo & BBQ

There was a butterfly exhibit at the Safari Park two weeks ago.  It was really lovely.  When you entered the enclosure there were all sorts of butterflies flying around.  You had to be careful where you stepped and we all had to do a little twirl before leaving the enclosure to make sure there were no butterflies on us.  The park was very busy, which also gave us a taste of what it will be like in the summer.  We are spoiled at the moment.  Most of the parks are pretty quiet and we can come and go as we please...  It's amazing how quickly you get used to these luxuries and then start to complain about silly tourists :-)......

Last week we headed to the Zoo and met up with Marie-Jose, Thijs and the kids.  We saw some more beautiful animals and the creepy insect enclosure.  It was full with all the things you would NEVER want to encounter on a camping trip; beetles, scorpions, ants, bees and really weird stick insects.  Thankfully we don't have any photos to commemorate the occasion.

I much preferred the cute monkeys.  If you look carefully at the picture of the monkey below, you can see that he thought ''the grass is always greener on the other side".  It was fun watching him swing into action and grab the grass through the wire with his ridiculously long arms.  The San Diego Zoo is really beautiful and deserves the worldwide recognition it has.  After a lovely day at the zoo we ended with a delicious BBQ at Fam. Neerhof.

One of the many homeless in San Diego.

Call 911....... twice!!

This is the part where the movie gets exciting and I've always wondered what it would be like to say those lines.. ''call 911''.  Well I got the chance at the golf course a few weeks ago.  Some poor unfortunate fell over a stake in the ground and needed to be taken to hospital.  It was all very exciting, there was a chain of  ''call 911'' from the tee all the way to the club house.  I got my chance at the putting green, "call 911'' I shouted.  The guy next to me immediately pulled out his phone and repeated the information from me to the ambulance crew.  Me: "he's fine''... Him: ''he's fine''.... Me: ''it's NOT a heart attack" ... Him: ''It's a heart attack"... seriously how did our communication  become sooooooooo bad???  Anyway I'm happy to report that the guy had just some bruising but was otherwise fine.

Now today was a different story... I was coming out of the post office when a woman came running across the street shouting something at me about losing her pappy.... I was like ''your what"??  She repeated herself, pointed at the storm drain and ran indoors for help.  Well I thought it was probably some gadget she dropped, probably her phone according to the distress she was in.

Well I thought I better show some interest and walked calmly over to the storm drain... and there he was, a very cute little PUPPY.  I know, a puppy!!!!!!  How the hell do you manage to loose your puppy into a storm drain??  It was probably about a 4ft drop and the poor little fellow was crying but you could see that he was totally fine.  Still, I felt I couldn't leave him and waited for the owner to return (she had disappeared).  Finally she arrived back, she had already called 911.   I was trying so hard not to laugh (seriously the puppy was fine Sandra!!) she was in total panic and she was constantly saying ''oh fu*k" followed swiftly by an apology for such terrible language.  Anyway it turns out that Animal Rescue were on the way.  I hung around for another few minutes while the woman became a little calmer.  Then she told me that she only got the puppy the night before against her husbands wishes.  He really didn't want a puppy but when he saw him he fell in love and now the poor thing was in the drain.  I told her I wouldn't tell him anything until the puppy was safely in her arms again.  She replied ''that's very smart'' and then went ahead and phoned her husband.  The conversation didn't last long............. he was on the way.............. I legged it!!!!!