SO MUCH TO SAY!
We have been quiet for the last few weeks because we have been busy and now we have so much to tell you all about! Man! I will try to keep it short but being me you know it will be long anyway so I will hide some of the stories – just click on the links to read more about each event and don’t forget to check out all the pictures!
Anyway, I suppose I had better start where we last left off…. Jessie left on a 6 day tour around Ireland on Monday but that doesn’t mean our week without her was quiet! The weather was fantastic all week and on Wednesday when our friends Anita and Jez came over for dinner we took the opportunity to have a picnic dinner in our local park, Merrion Square before having dessert in the roof-top courtyard of our apartment building.
Friday night was the night that we had been looking forward to for a long time – the U2 Concert and it was fantastic! Despite it raining for the first time all week and the sound quality being not so great we had an awesome time.
Click here to read more about it.
We sold our spare two tickets to our friends Su and Tom so we met with them for dinner and drinks before the concert. U2 weren’t scheduled to be on until 8.45pm but Snow Patrol were on at 7.30pm so we left for Croke Park around 7pm. Unfortunately we ended up missing most of Snow Patrol though as it took us a while to get into the stadium and then we decided to have one last drink together before we found our seats (Su and Tom were separated from Johnny and I). However, by the time we settled into our seats it wasn’t long before U2 were up on stage!
They were fantastic! U2 are meant to be one of the best live acts and I can see why. With the backdrop constantly changing and the passion from Bono it was definitely worth seeing. And to see them on their home ground made it that little bit more special with the Irish flags being flown everywhere. A guy we met there said that he had been to see U2 in Philadelphia a couple of weeks before and the Irish concert was definitely better.
U2 played until about 11pmish and gave a fantastic encore. The whole show was a great mix of new and old songs. Croke Park was a fabulous venue to have it in too despite the fact that they didn’t seem to have their speakers properly in sync so the music was slightly distorted when it reached our ears.
Although it was a late night the night before, Johnny and I got up early that Saturday morning to watch the 1st test the Lions had against the All Blacks. We headed down to The Woolshed for about 7.30am and couldn’t get over the huge queue waiting for the doors to open! However we all still managed to pile into The Woolshed and crowd around their many TVs to watch the test which started at 8.10am. And what a game guys! Despite the Irish going on and on about the tackle on O’Driscoll (and they are still going on about it!), the All Blacks played well and we were very proud of ‘our boys’.
That night Jessie arrived back and was pretty tired so we left her to rest in our apartment while we went out for a fun night with my netball team. As our netball season just finished the other week we decided that we would have a night out to celebrate (commiserate?) our season. We met at a Japanese restaurant for dinner before heading down to the Japanese-style karaoke rooms down stairs for a while and then going out to another pub on the Quays.
Click here to read more about it.
Sharon, Bettina, Kelly, Helen, Aoife, Lorraine, Darren (Lorraine’s boyfriend), Johnny and myself all met at Ukiyo Japanese Restaurant for a yummy Japanese dinner before heading downstairs. It’s funny because the restaurant is quite classy and quiet but then downstairs is full of karaoke booths out of which you can hear people singing (or howling) away. You book the rooms for a certain amount of time and you can fit around 10 people into one. You shut the door, pick songs from the list of thousands, and sing to your heart’s content…. At first I was very apprehensive having successfully managed to avoid singing karaoke up until now but once the ice was broken and the first song was sung there was no stopping all of us! We had tonnes of fun singing all different kinds of songs from Ace of Base to Meredith Brooks to Blink 182! And not only that but we often added in a few dance moves too! With a phone on the wall linking us straight to the bar we didn’t go hoarse with all the singing either. What a laugh!
Regrettably we had only booked an hour and a half of singing fun so once the clock hit 10pm we were out on the street again and this time we went to an Irish pub called Sine for a few pints, meeting up with some friends there and drinking until we could drink no more. It was a great night!
The next day, after a bit of a sleep in, we headed off with Jessie to the movie theatre to see Mr & Mrs Smith (read what we thought about it here) and then to the Arlington Hotel where we took in some of the Irish dancing and music they have there every night.
Jessie left last Tuesday and we only had a couple of quiet days until my parents arrived on Friday! Yay! Johnny and I both took the day off and I greeted them at the airport before bringing them back to our place for lunch. That evening we set off to Lahinch for a weekend celebrating my Grandparent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary.
Click here to read more about it.
My Grandparents told us all that to celebrate both of their 80th Birthdays this year and their 50th Wedding Anniversary they would like to spend a weekend away with their children, their grandchildren, and their siblings. They stressed that they just wanted a low-key celebration and decided upon a BBQ for the Saturday night. So, on Friday July 1st, around 27 members of my extended family from all over the globe (New Zealand, Canada, U.K. and various parts of Ireland) descended upon the seaside town on the West Coast of Ireland, Lahinch and spent the weekend in caravans and houses dotted around the little town. Despite the fact that it hardly stopped raining the whole weekend and the wind was wild we all had a lovely time.
The highlights were: watching the All Blacks play a fantastic game of rugby against the Lions on Saturday morning (go Daniel Carter!), the sing-a-long that we had after dinner on Saturday night (it may sound ‘hippy-ish’ to some of you but the Irish love to sing and it is great fun!), and just generally hanging out with a lot of my relatives that I hadn’t seen in ages!
So, as you can see, we have been very busy and there is more to come with Johnny’s birthday tomorrow (the 6th), a trip up North with my parents from Thursday, a trip to Spain for me near the end of July and my birthday in Cork on the 31st! Make sure you check the website regularly for updates on what we have been up to!
Anyway, I suppose I had better start where we last left off…. Jessie left on a 6 day tour around Ireland on Monday but that doesn’t mean our week without her was quiet! The weather was fantastic all week and on Wednesday when our friends Anita and Jez came over for dinner we took the opportunity to have a picnic dinner in our local park, Merrion Square before having dessert in the roof-top courtyard of our apartment building.
Friday night was the night that we had been looking forward to for a long time – the U2 Concert and it was fantastic! Despite it raining for the first time all week and the sound quality being not so great we had an awesome time.
Click here to read more about it.
We sold our spare two tickets to our friends Su and Tom so we met with them for dinner and drinks before the concert. U2 weren’t scheduled to be on until 8.45pm but Snow Patrol were on at 7.30pm so we left for Croke Park around 7pm. Unfortunately we ended up missing most of Snow Patrol though as it took us a while to get into the stadium and then we decided to have one last drink together before we found our seats (Su and Tom were separated from Johnny and I). However, by the time we settled into our seats it wasn’t long before U2 were up on stage!
They were fantastic! U2 are meant to be one of the best live acts and I can see why. With the backdrop constantly changing and the passion from Bono it was definitely worth seeing. And to see them on their home ground made it that little bit more special with the Irish flags being flown everywhere. A guy we met there said that he had been to see U2 in Philadelphia a couple of weeks before and the Irish concert was definitely better.
U2 played until about 11pmish and gave a fantastic encore. The whole show was a great mix of new and old songs. Croke Park was a fabulous venue to have it in too despite the fact that they didn’t seem to have their speakers properly in sync so the music was slightly distorted when it reached our ears.
Although it was a late night the night before, Johnny and I got up early that Saturday morning to watch the 1st test the Lions had against the All Blacks. We headed down to The Woolshed for about 7.30am and couldn’t get over the huge queue waiting for the doors to open! However we all still managed to pile into The Woolshed and crowd around their many TVs to watch the test which started at 8.10am. And what a game guys! Despite the Irish going on and on about the tackle on O’Driscoll (and they are still going on about it!), the All Blacks played well and we were very proud of ‘our boys’.
That night Jessie arrived back and was pretty tired so we left her to rest in our apartment while we went out for a fun night with my netball team. As our netball season just finished the other week we decided that we would have a night out to celebrate (commiserate?) our season. We met at a Japanese restaurant for dinner before heading down to the Japanese-style karaoke rooms down stairs for a while and then going out to another pub on the Quays.
Click here to read more about it.
Sharon, Bettina, Kelly, Helen, Aoife, Lorraine, Darren (Lorraine’s boyfriend), Johnny and myself all met at Ukiyo Japanese Restaurant for a yummy Japanese dinner before heading downstairs. It’s funny because the restaurant is quite classy and quiet but then downstairs is full of karaoke booths out of which you can hear people singing (or howling) away. You book the rooms for a certain amount of time and you can fit around 10 people into one. You shut the door, pick songs from the list of thousands, and sing to your heart’s content…. At first I was very apprehensive having successfully managed to avoid singing karaoke up until now but once the ice was broken and the first song was sung there was no stopping all of us! We had tonnes of fun singing all different kinds of songs from Ace of Base to Meredith Brooks to Blink 182! And not only that but we often added in a few dance moves too! With a phone on the wall linking us straight to the bar we didn’t go hoarse with all the singing either. What a laugh!
Regrettably we had only booked an hour and a half of singing fun so once the clock hit 10pm we were out on the street again and this time we went to an Irish pub called Sine for a few pints, meeting up with some friends there and drinking until we could drink no more. It was a great night!
The next day, after a bit of a sleep in, we headed off with Jessie to the movie theatre to see Mr & Mrs Smith (read what we thought about it here) and then to the Arlington Hotel where we took in some of the Irish dancing and music they have there every night.
Jessie left last Tuesday and we only had a couple of quiet days until my parents arrived on Friday! Yay! Johnny and I both took the day off and I greeted them at the airport before bringing them back to our place for lunch. That evening we set off to Lahinch for a weekend celebrating my Grandparent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary.
Click here to read more about it.
My Grandparents told us all that to celebrate both of their 80th Birthdays this year and their 50th Wedding Anniversary they would like to spend a weekend away with their children, their grandchildren, and their siblings. They stressed that they just wanted a low-key celebration and decided upon a BBQ for the Saturday night. So, on Friday July 1st, around 27 members of my extended family from all over the globe (New Zealand, Canada, U.K. and various parts of Ireland) descended upon the seaside town on the West Coast of Ireland, Lahinch and spent the weekend in caravans and houses dotted around the little town. Despite the fact that it hardly stopped raining the whole weekend and the wind was wild we all had a lovely time.
The highlights were: watching the All Blacks play a fantastic game of rugby against the Lions on Saturday morning (go Daniel Carter!), the sing-a-long that we had after dinner on Saturday night (it may sound ‘hippy-ish’ to some of you but the Irish love to sing and it is great fun!), and just generally hanging out with a lot of my relatives that I hadn’t seen in ages!
So, as you can see, we have been very busy and there is more to come with Johnny’s birthday tomorrow (the 6th), a trip up North with my parents from Thursday, a trip to Spain for me near the end of July and my birthday in Cork on the 31st! Make sure you check the website regularly for updates on what we have been up to!
..:: Bex ::.. at
10:38 pm
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