My ten days in Ireland are drawing to a close as I fly back to Estonia tonight. As always it was great to catch up with friends and family and the latest local news stories, such as the pharmacists dispute with the H.S.E., Thomas Cook staff looking for more redundancy money, the government's NAMA plan to save the economy and another drug dealer / gangland killing in Dublin and all this happened in one week.
I spent a day in Northern Ireland with a trip to the Marble Arch caves in Fermanagh http://www.marblearchcaves.net/, interesting stuff, but with a return journey time from Dublin at five and a half hours it was pretty exhausting. Having said that it was the only day of constant rain, which for those unfamiliar with Ireland it's rather unusual even in the summer.
Meeting up with friends was off course wonderful, as was the surprised look on one or two of their faces as they saw my new bearded look for the first time, weeding the garden was time consuming yet in a strange way rewarding., But the highlight of the trip was seeing my son getting picked for his football team's final selection of players at the start of the new season. The squad was cut down from 24 to 16 players due to new regulations. There were tears from the boys that were dropped but at their first game of the new season there was an air of confidence, even arrogance as those that made the grade congratulated each other before the game.
Having indulged and banished those uniquely Irish things that I felt I was missing, namely salt and vinegar crisps, minstrels chocolates, a kebab at Abrakabra and the shops Game, Chapters and Waterstones I realise that I wasn't missing too much after all.
I spent a day in Northern Ireland with a trip to the Marble Arch caves in Fermanagh http://www.marblearchcaves.net/, interesting stuff, but with a return journey time from Dublin at five and a half hours it was pretty exhausting. Having said that it was the only day of constant rain, which for those unfamiliar with Ireland it's rather unusual even in the summer.
Meeting up with friends was off course wonderful, as was the surprised look on one or two of their faces as they saw my new bearded look for the first time, weeding the garden was time consuming yet in a strange way rewarding., But the highlight of the trip was seeing my son getting picked for his football team's final selection of players at the start of the new season. The squad was cut down from 24 to 16 players due to new regulations. There were tears from the boys that were dropped but at their first game of the new season there was an air of confidence, even arrogance as those that made the grade congratulated each other before the game.
Having indulged and banished those uniquely Irish things that I felt I was missing, namely salt and vinegar crisps, minstrels chocolates, a kebab at Abrakabra and the shops Game, Chapters and Waterstones I realise that I wasn't missing too much after all.
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