Yet another busy week...

July is going to go down for us as the busiest month in the year I think! We have been doing so much and it still isn't over yet!

Last week things were normal with regards to work (we worked a full five-day week for the first time in ages) but our social life was still really busy. Various netball things kept us busy on Monday and Tuesday night and on Thursday night Johnny's work-mate Fiona was leaving Ireland to live in Dubai so we went to her leaving drinks at our favourite beer-garden, Dicey's. We also brought with us Kelly, a neice of a friend, who is over from Australia. Kelly is travelling around Ireland at the moment and left Saturday morning so on Friday night we had her around for dinner and to watch a movie with us.

Saturday night was another big one and a good chance to meet a whole heap of new people at my friend Bettina's party. Bettina is from Austria and there was a whole range of nationalities at her party - German, Hungarian, Irish, Australian, Danish, French, Italian, and more! It was a beautiful evening so we all sat outside and had a delicious BBQ with tonnes of drinks. It was a late but great night with the highlights being some fantastic cocktails mixed up by our Danish bar-tender/photographer for the night (thanks Tommy!) and some gorgeous guitar playing and singing by a couple of talented Irish guys.



On Monday I got a chance to meet up with some of my Mum's cousins who were over from Toronto, Canada. John, Trish, and Trish's daughter Daniella, along with an Irish cousin, Bill, and his wife Trish, met me for a nice lunch on Grafton Street. I have met the Canadians a few times in my trips to Toronto so it was great to catch up with them and see how much Daniella had grown!



The rest of this week has been a chance to spend some time with my parents who were up in Dublin. On Tuesday night we met up with NZ friends over on holiday, Nancy and Brian O'Shea, and we all went over for dinner to Su and Tom's house in Blackrock. Depite the bad weather that day, the evening was fine so we ate our BBQ dinner outside and had a terrific time. Hat's off to Su and Tom for all the effort they put into our yummy meal!



We have also managed to secure ourselves tickets to the All Blacks game in Ireland when they are over here in November! Yay! There is a site that sells them to ex-patriate Kiwis so we were up at 4am yesterday morning to buy them. I have also gotten myself a ticket to the All Blacks vs. Wales match in the famous Millenium Stadium in Cardiff which I am really looking forward to! Pity these matches are still months away because I am so excited already!

Last night was my Dad's last night in Dublin so Johnny and I took Mum and Dad out for dinner and a final pint of Guinness... so sad that Dad is leaving so soon! :-(

However, there won't be much time for moping around for me - Mum and I are off to Spain for the weekend tomorrow morning and we have TWO lots of visitors coming to stay with us over the next week.... watch this space!