Saying Goodbye to the Beautiful Emerald Isle

After Germany we had three weeks in which to pack up our lives in Ireland, find homes for all the stuff we had accumulated in the 5.5 years we had lived there, and say our final goodbyes. Luckily, I (Bex) wasn't working during those three weeks so I was able to sort out a lot of stuff (in between all my lunches, coffees and dinners out of course! ;-)).

So the first weekend was our last trip down to Cork for a while... we traveled down there on the Friday, stayed with the Walshs the Friday night and on Saturday had a bit of a leaving party at a local bar The Rendezvous with many of our friends and family who live in Cork. That night we stayed with the McAuliffes and on Sunday we said our final goodbyes and headed back up to Dublin after a hearty brunch.



The following weekend was our leaving party in Dublin with all the friends we have made over the years. Friends of ours from NZ, Gabriel & Michelle, also made a flying visit so a lot of Saturday was spent showing them around Dublin before getting ready for the party. The party was a great success with lots of friends coming from different areas in our lives over our years in Ireland: my Netball friends, my ex-RBS friends, my KPMG (and ex-KPMG) mates, Johnny's Vodafone and Arantech mates, and other friends we've picked up along the way. It was a fun night tinged with a bit of sadness at having to say goodbye to all these great people.



Our final weekend was a busy one with lots of cleaning of the apartment and final packing to be done but we managed to squeeze in dinner with our Irish adoptive parents, Judy & Des Nix, a trip to Dublin's version of Oktoberfest which was right on our doorstep in George's Dock and a few quiet drinks with our very good friends Craig, Maura & Andy.



Of course in between all these weekends there were various lunches and nights out with current and ex work colleagues and lots of different friends AND Johnny had to work in Atlanta in the States for four days so the three weeks flew by in a blur!

Then it was time to go! Very early on Sunday 18th October Johnny and I shut the door on our apartment for the last time and headed to the airport to fly to Singapore via London. It was a departure filled with a lot of sadness and tears and we will miss so very many people and the beautiful Emerald Isle that was our home for so many years but we are excited about the next chapter in our lives and all the new adventures and challenges it will bring.

More on our adventures in Asia coming soon but for now you can see all the photos of our last few weeks in Ireland and the antics we got up to by clicking on any of the photos above!