Daingean Uí Chúis

I was a bit surprised to find that Gaelic is still a spoken language in many parts of Ireland. I had always thought it to be like Latin, a dead language.
So when we went to Dingle and heard many of the town people speaking in Gaelic, it was a pleasant surprise.

The Dingle Peninsula, in case you didn't know, is the most western part of Europe. And one of the most picturesque.



my parents and I in front of the At-a-lantic ocean. It smelled *so* salty and delicious.


I don't think you can tell in this photo, but all of the sheep are painted different colors, so that the owners can tell what family the sheep belongs to.


What happens when Big Bird meets Colonel Sanders.


We could not figure out why this guy was dressed this way, but it made us laugh.


Gallarus Observatory, built between the 7th & 8th century and the best preserved early Christian Church in Ireland. And, um it is small. Fits about 5 adults inside.



An example of the Celtic stonework that was evident all over the area.
The Celts would make these stone walls with no mortar or anything to bind the stones.

Lucky Readers

It is said that those who kiss the Blarney Stone are bestowed with the gift of eloquence. So you, dear readers, can count yourselves lucky that I made the effort.

I had always thought the stone was just some random rock on the grounds of Blarney Castle. But in fact, it is at the very top of the castle, over an open grate. You have to lie down on your back, scoot backwards over the grate, and bend your neck back to kiss the rock.




Looking very glamourous, fresh with renewed eloquence.

Water Babies

My poor kids don't have the carefree summer days that we get in the US. City life plus cool summers preclude outdoor water play. I'm very wistful when I see pictures of all my friends and their kids enjoying backyard swimming pools, sprinklers, and slip & slides. To me, that is what childhood summers should be, complete with messy popsicles and watermelon.

So when we went to Italy, the kids were both very keen to just spend the entire day in the pool. Kate reminded me that she needs swimming lessons when we move back to the States, "because she doesn't know how to swim, and that is dangerous". She is so very practical. It got quite cool in the evenings, and I had to literally drag them out of the pool once their lips went blue.




Michael loved being thrown up in the air like this, and would start signing 'more' before he was even down. Poor Danny's arms were about to give out.

How Kate & Michael do messy

We plop them, nekkid, in the bathtub.



While in Italy, we found delicious juicy peaches. I had not had a peach since moving here, so I was most excited. Kate had no recollection of ever eating peaches, and she loved them. But they were very messy, so I stripped her down and threw her in the tub to enjoy them in all their juicy splendor.
Michael was working on his yogurt, and succeeded in actually getting about 70% of it in his mouth.

Things I Won't Miss about London, #2

Doing Splinter Surgery Every Night.

British houses are very different. People here place a high value on preservation, and so as a result things are much older. There are very, very few (any?) "new" houses in Central London. You can get a new flat, certainly, but it would be very hard to find a new home.
It is not uncommon for people to live in their house of in the midst of huge renovation, with huge, gaping holes in the floor large enough to swallow a lion, and tell you to just 'mind the dust!' Our house would be considered quite nice by English standards, but probably unlivable to most American standards. Cracks in the walls & ceilings, peeling, warped window sills, a front door that doesn't close all the way, and what I'm pretty sure is lead paint everywhere. And that is just to list a few things.
But the biggest thorn in our side are the floors.

They are wood. Which, in theory, is great. But the wood is literally untreated timber like you would get from Home Depot. You can see the lights & wiring downstairs through the floor below (a certain fire hazard!), and they creak and groan like you would not believe. If you drop something on the ground, it is likely gone into the gaps between.
And, you can't walk around barefoot or stocking footed. Which means we are forever pulling splinters out of the kids feet, knees and fingers.

Things I Won't Miss about London, #1

As we prepare for our move back to the US, there are many things that I will not miss about London Life. One of the biggest ones will be not having a car.
Now, when you have a car you might not really realize how much it impacts your daily life to not have one at your disposal.
For example, all errands must be accomplished separately. So if I need to go to the dry cleaners, the post office and the drug store, I have to go them all individually, returning home after each stop. This is because I can not carry the clothes, the packages, and the shopping all in one fell swoop. So you might imagine how much of a headache this can be when you are walking to all of these places with 2 small children in tow. The day when I can load the dry cleaning, the diapers, and the packages to be mailed into the car and just set off to efficiently get things done is going to be a fantastic day!!

Here is an example of my weekly "big" shop from the grocery store.

I now employ child labor and bring Kate along so that she can put some of the lighter items in her backpack to carry home. While shopping at the grocery store, I can not use a trolley. I have to load all the items into my carrier bags and lug them around the store so that I can ensure I am not buying more than I can carry. This also means that I can not usually take advantage of the multi-buy specials. So even though it is cheaper to buy 2 cartons of milk for £5, I simply can't carry both. If I need detergent, milk & bananas all on the same day, I'll have to make 2 trips since I can't carry all of those home at the same time. I have to be mindful of how many canned items I buy, as well as large items like cereal boxes.
I go the butcher shop to get all my meat, and to the fishmonger for our fish. I go to a bakery to buy our bread. All our vegetables get delivered, so at least that is a big help. I have to go to the store at least every other day to buy milk and blueberries, since my children go through both of those items like water.
This all amounts to a tremendous amount of work and effort to just keeping our food supplies stocked.




One of the other ramifications of not having a car is that we can not load items to be donated or thrown away up and get rid of them. There are occasional charity collections door to door, but they are usually quite selective on what they will take. One of my favorite things to do is go through old clothes, toys, & household items and get rid of stuff we no longer need or use. The trash collection service is also very selective on what they will pick up. Since we don't have a place (garage or closets) to store things we don't need, it is very frustrating for me. So i can't wait to be able to load up my car with household items and take it to the dumpster and the Salvation Army!!

This is really impacting me now, as I begin sorting through our belongings even more in preparation for our move. I would give anything to have the ability to just easily dispose of so many things. You can rent a dumpster to put outside your house, but it is very expensive. And I can't really just put bags of trash out on the street.

City in the Dust

While we were in Sorrento last week, we took a day out to go visit Pompeii.

Danny & I were both expecting it to be similar to the Forum in Rome, which is really quite small. We did not realize how massive Pompeii is. It is literally an entire village, complete with houses, temples, the shops, amphitheater & public baths, open for touring.

When Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, it buried the entire town and its inhabitants under ash & 12 layers of soil. Apparently, the town was then abandoned and completely forgotten about until it was accidentally discovered in 1748. You can kind of see from this photo how the town sits at a different elevation from the surrounding area.



The contents of Pompeii were remarkably preserved, due to the lack of moisture and light. There was even carbon dated bread found in the bakery. The frescoes were all intact, and provided art historians with important information on art & life in Roman times.

They made plaster casts of many of the victims. It is believed they either died instantly when the pyroclastic surge hit (more rocks than gas) or slowly suffocated to death.


This dog is believed to have been chained up outside of a house.



Kate had so much fun imagining what things were. She would pretend that a room was the kitchen, and tell me where the oven, table and fridge were located. This prompted many discussions on how they did not have ovens or refrigerators back then, and had to cook their food over fire. I told her they did not have toilets either, but I don't think she believed me.