Farmleigh

A few weeks ago I posted a picture of Farmleigh on my 365 blog and I said I was going to post more and I never got around to it. Oops. So, here are the pictures from that day. Farmleigh is, I think, one of Dublin's best kept secrets. It's clear up on the other side of Phoenix Park and not within walking distance from the city centre so you really have to want to go there. I noticed that most of the people there were Irish, which is unusual to see in Dublin!

Reviewing my pictures, I see that most are of flowers. I miss taking pictures of flowers. I didn't realize how many I saw when I was in Bath and how few I see in Dublin.

Gate to the residence for the US Ambassador to Ireland. The new ambassador is Dan Rooney! Woot! Go Steelers!!!! I told Wes I was going to stand outside waving my Terrible Towel. He wasn't too excited about this.

The back side of the Ambassador's residence. The house is in Phoenix Park and we passed it on the bus from Farmleigh.

Wisteria in the courtyard

Drive up to Farmleigh

The flowers were just gorgeous!

Donkeys

The Paddock

Our usual pose! Good thing Wes has long arms!

Farmleigh - not sure why I never took a picture straight on. Guess I was trying to be interesting.

Donkey and the Wicklow Mountains

The Courtyard

Feeling a bit more human today

Last week on a whim, I sent my CV to a recruitment agency. She rang while we were at the airport waiting for our flight to Switzerland and asked if I could come in to chat about a potential position. So today I actually dried my hair with a hairdryer and threw on my 'hand wash only' shirt to make my way into public. It was a good conversation and fingers crossed something comes out of it. I feel bad because I know I should be enjoying my free time. If I knew it was coming to an end with a paycheck in the future, I think I'd be enjoying it a bit more!

Secret Confessions

Some days I hope I don't get a job because I wouldn't be able to watch 'What Not to Wear' on 3e at 11am.

And 'Ellen' at 2:10.

Yes, I could record them, but Wes would rather pop his eye out than watch them with me in the evening or on the weekends.

Switzerland

Wes and I went to Lausanne, Switzerland last week. He had a work conference and I went along on this one! We had a really nice time and look forward to going again, especially since it was only an hour and 45 minute flight. The weather was gorgeous the whole time. I think I got more sun in these 5 days than in the entire 2.5 years I lived in England.

Lausanne sits on Lake Geneva, just across from France, so everything is in French. Wes had french in high school and I took it through college, so we were able to make a go of it. My problem is I don't feel confident and even if I know the words, I'm afraid of putting them in the wrong order. Is it better to try and get it all wrong, or just ask if they speak English?? So, I stuck to the basics 'Bonjour!' 'Merci!' and nouns 'deux cafe au lait'.

Here are some pictures from the trip. I was a bit obsessed with the Alps. I just couldn't get enough of them! Sorry, but they're in no particular order.

Posh Hotels on the Ouchy (pronounced Oo-shay) waterfront.

I would never drive in this town if there were snow. It was WAY too hilly!

Sculptures with their original paint inside the Cathedral. It's the oldest cathedral in Switzerland.

Alps from the Cathedral

Alps and Lake Geneva

Looking east towards Lutry

Steep hill. The previous slippery road sign was at the top of this hill.

Le Cite (oldest part of the city) from the Cathedral

The Cathedral from Chateau Saint-Maire

Alps with low clouds from the Olympic Museum

On the Ouchy waterfront

Swiss boat on Lake Geneva with France in the background

One of the many fountains in the city

Boatyard in Ouchy

Gallery sign

View from the Cathedral

Low clouds hanging over the mountains. This was the view from our room.

Alps

Alps and Esplanade de Monbenon

It's hard to see, but there is another hairdresser further down in the picture. There was another one to the left of the picture. Lausanne seems to be the place to go for a haircut! There were tons of coiffures all over the city.

The Cathedral

Chateau Saint-Maire

Tour de l'Ale

There were city gardens next to our hotel.

Sunset from our hotel room

View from the front of our hotel. You can see the tram lines in this picture. Lausanne has a fabulous public transport system - trams, buses, metro, trains.

New blog!

Welcome to my new blog! I hope this one is more user friendly than my last one which means I'll keep it updated more often.

That being said...I don't really have anything interesting to say right now.

Crazy Weekend

Wes and I went to Cork this weekend to visit his family and for him to run in the Cork City Marathon. We decided to rent a car for this trip. There were some wedding gifts we needed to pick up, including knives, so we couldn't carry them on if we flew. We picked up the car at the airport on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day, so no need for the windshield wipers I turned on each time I tried to use my signal. Oops! I was pretty nervous about driving, but once we got away from the airport it was fine. We drove into Cork so Wes could register for the marathon and that went well. I even managed the teeny tiny parking garage! It was a really great weekend. On Saturday we got a little disposable barbecue and had a barbecue with his parents. This made me super happy. We have no outside space in Dublin, so we never get to eat food on the grill. The sun was shining the whole time and I even wore a skirt with flip flops on Sunday! We were going to go to Kinsale, but it was jammed with tourists, so we kept driving and went to Garrettstown Beach and the Old Head of Kinsale. Of course, I fell and my knees when straight down onto some nettles. My knees were on fire until well into the next day. It was my idea to drive down to see the house where my parents will be staying when they come in August. The road was so narrow and we had to pass lots of oncoming traffic. This was not fun and proved to bite us back in the end.
On Monday we got up really early to get into Cork for the marathon which started at 9. All went well and Wes was good to go. The started off and he passed me just before the 3 mile mark. Then I saw him again about 30 minutes later. I wondered around and managed to get a spot between mile 13 and 14. I knew if I got there by 10:30 that would be plenty of time. Well, he never passed me. I thought maybe I missed him because I get easily distracted when watching these marathons. People have really strange gaits, wear weird things, are incredibly fit....all of these things distract me. However, I was pretty sure this wasn't the case. The runners are more spread out at this point and I'm less likely to lose him in a large crowd. I waited for about 30 minutes and at that point I knew if he passed me at this point he would be pissed because this means he's going slower than he wanted. He had been having some problems with his left leg, so I thought that maybe something happened. I started to walk back to the center to get the banana and milk he asked me to get. I put my phone into my pocket at this point, just in case I got a phone call. Sure enough, he called me from the physio tent about 30 minutes later. He was almost to mile 13 and his right calf just crapped out. He said he got slower and slower and finally had to stop. He was pretty bummed and I was bummed for him. Fortunately, he knows what he needs to do with his training, so hopefully it won't happen again. He has an appointment with a physio this evening.
We left Cork in good time and made it back to Dublin by around 4:30. We put gas in the car before we returned it and Wes tells me about this huge scratch that's in the car. Neither of us had noticed this before. So, we turn in the car and the guy checks it out. He asks me what happened and I told him I have no idea. I really didn't. I don't know if it happened when we were passing those cars or what. That's pretty much the only thing I can think of. Well, of course we didn't opt for the more expensive insurance, so we leave the rental place after throwing over 850 euros. For anyone out there traveling to Ireland, the car rental insurance on your US credit card is not valid in Ireland. So, pay for the extra insurance!!! Yesterday was pretty much the worst day (except when Obie died, of course).
It was such a downer because we had such a nice weekend and it was a horrible way for it to end. We're off to Switzerland tomorrow and no rental car on this trip!

Bored

Not much new going on here. There's a hiring freeze in the public sector and pretty much everything in this country is funded by the government. The hiring freeze came into effect on April 1st and Wes said it's supposed to last a year. Ever the optimist, I look for jobs every day at the hopes that the freeze has been lifted, but no such luck. We heard that some of the universities are using temp agencies to get around the hiring freeze and Wes is hopefully going to find out from some insiders which agencies they might be using. I've found a couple of jobs peppered here and there, but nothing I'd be interested in or qualified for. It's all a bit frustrating. If I were an accountant or fluent in German, I'd be in a better position to find something right now!

We're in the process of getting a land line for the phone. If anyone remembers my UK experience 2 years ago, this can take 6 weeks to actually happen. It's ridiculous really.

So, I'm bored. I'm becoming quite the cook. Wes is annoyed because I don't let him cook dinner, but some days that's all I have to do!

Some things we have coming up to look forward to are: 1.) Trip to Switzerland at the beginning of June. Wes has a conference there, so I'm going with him. He went last year and I was going to go, but it didn't work out because of work. 2.) Trip to England in June to visit some friends. 3.) Parents and aunt and uncle coming to Ireland at the end of August. Hope the weather's nice for that one!