Mambo Number Four

It's been awhile but you haven't missed out on too much so do not fret and definitely do not pee all over the place. That's just bad manners. Some of you may have read about our little Northern Tour we did a few weeks ago. Wow! It's crazy that we did that a few weeks ago.....anywho, Leo has been a superb tour guid for this little island.

Our latest adventures have taken us to some beautiful places. Keep in mind that like all of the northern hemisphere, it is winter and it is still beautiful here. I can't wait until summer to see everything when it's at it's greenest! The pictures down below are of Castlewellan Castle and the park or whatever that it's on. We got there kinda late in the day because Leo had a half day of work but no tech (for those of you who don't know Leo is currently taking online university courses and in-class technical college program twice a week in the evenings) that day so he decided we should go exploring. The castle on the grounds is more like a stately home. It's not open to the public so sadly I don't have any pictures of the inside. Leo said that he stayed there for a week or so as a kid for school and kayaked and all sorts as teamwork building activities. I'm not quite sure how being the only person in a kayak paddling around a pond builds teamwork but a lot the Irish do eludes me. I'm just a stupid yank after all ;) I was a bit glum this day and I know it doesn't look it from the pictures but I really did have a good time. After walking around the park for a bit we decided to do the maze. It was pretty fun but we didn't finish it. We went through the hedge to the end because it started raining hard. And no, for any of you who were curious, we did not see David Bowie while we were in the maze. You can't really be too surprised we cheated in the maze considering we got lost just try to find the maze in the first place. Really, we never had much chance of getting to the end ;)

Still no word from immigration about my application, but I'm hoping that we'll hear real soon from them or at least get our passports and stuff back. It turns out my license doesn't really mean a lot to anyone over here. Which was no big surprise but a bummer because until we get our passports back we can't open a joint-account. Pictures of Dundalk can be seen here.

Getting internet has been a joke. After not hearing anything back from Digiweb we went to Vodafone and bought a Nokia Luma 625 or something like that. We also spoke to the sells rep about getting internet at our place. He said they could do it but it would talk 4-5 weeks to get everything installed, but that we would hear from them in about 2-3 days what the progress and expected time was for it to all happen. A week later Leo called them and they had no idea that we had even bought a phone from them or that we were even interested in getting internet from them. So after proving that we didn't steal the phone, Leo got them to agree to ring us back about internet because is break at work was up. A little bit later Digiweb called and said it would take 8 weeks to get the cable installed into our place or they could have someone come out Thursday and install satellite internet at no cost and it would be the same price they had previously listed to us. We decided to go with Digiweb so hopefully everything will be all done by February 6th. Pictures from Newtownards are here.

The weekend was good and uneventful. Leo stayed for all three hours of church and left Elder Quorum thinking we were magic because they talked about blessings and agreed with Miki because she calls the Elder's Quorum the Wizards meeting. The elders came over for chili and corn bread. They shared a little bit of a message and played Egyptian Ratscrew before heading off home. 

Yesterday (Feb 4th) we walked/hiked about Ravensdale, and as Leo will tell you, it is a bit of a hidden gem. I think so for different reasons than he does. It was so beautiful. One of the prettiest places I've been so far. He left there pumped to bring his bike down ;)

So far marriage has been good. There have been trials but it's been worth it. Plus we made it through my first period most unscathed and almost two years of emails and video chats so I think we'll do just dandy :) The video of our places is coming I promise. Just not yet because we haven't made it yet :) Until next time, keep safe, happy, and your underwear dry.

Sorry about the bad Spelling and grammar iv never been that good at it or creative writing so don't judge.... Just read on i promise it shouldn't be that bad.  nor should it sound irishy or maybe it will as iv discovered there is more than one form of english. theres UK english and Us english and well us here in Ireland. we have are own  variation on the Uk english or thats what the english people like to think, as when i lived in England they struggled with my accent or just the words i say, 

BUT ON OUR ADVENTURES IN IRELAND NOW 

Ok so some things haven't been going super smooth like getting the internet sorted but that should be finally sorted via satellite internet on thursday which is epic. even the police ( Garda ) they are all laid back they remind me so much of white Rasta Men all stoned out and cant be bothered or actually know were they are and what the craic is most of the time. if they were anymore laid back they would be horizontal and Wee kai would most likely agree with this lad

As many of you have probably discovered, this is a dual recap. I thought it might be fun to share what Leo thinks of our adventures as well :)

So one fine day we took a wee dander around a wee forest park in a Town called castlewellan. its a very pretty place its got a wee stately home. Well most call it a castle tho it doesn't seem that its a proper castle in my standard but it sure is pretty still its got a forest a big lake and surrounded in hills and it has an adventure centre were you could go climbing, kayaking or canoeing its got cross country mountain bike tracks, it also had a proper wee maze which wee went into it thinking it would be smallish but nope it was a pretty huge you could easily get lost and spend hours in there trying to get out. then the rains came so we started running around it and if anyone asks we made it and found or way out Without cheating sure kai did we cheat? NAH of Course not. 

then i had a few days of work yep proper exciting the most exciting fun iv had! YEAH RIGHT!!!!!! thats what my boss should believe.  

we then went back to our apartment house thing and started sorting it out further and working out exactly what else we should have or need in the house. we then took a wee trip to ikea kai said its a bigger store than USE have out in the USA thats weird, although some pretty good stuff. we got a nice mat rug thing depends what ye wanna call it, some kitchen utensils more plates and such. we also got an orchid and called it petunia as its like a dog with the amount of care ya gotta put in to keep it alive But Can WE? I'm not so sure but patunia is a very pretty wee orchid, tho it reminds me of something very familiar! but what?

then we drove all the way back from ikea Belfast back down to dundalk it is a very pretty drive down with big viaducts, rivers and such and hills to see and its down the fastest road in our wee country 75mph tho kai doesn't let me open the car up as I'm restricted to 45 mph but i sit at 55mph but once i pass a wee town called newry. I'm no longer under the restrictions and could go at the 75mph tho kai tells me to keep it at 60, Spoilt sport!!!!! tho the restriction is only for a year as iv just past my test >>> its kinda a good idea tho as our roads are dangerous and id tell ye Irish drivers are dangerous or just plain stupid like putting on there hazard warning lights to sit in the middle of the road to talk to someone on the footpath or a person in a car going the opposite direction and the car on the other side does the same thing so ya cannot pass them or they will just pull out of a junction at ya or from being parallel parked but other than that its good craic but can be really frustrating in heavy traffic.

then we went for a wee walk up in the Cooley mountains in a part called Ravensdale its a fun wee drive  and is very pretty place and driving it is on like a single lane road which is a national speed road so 70mph and has two way traffic it can be very close when the cars passing on the other side but thats all grand. theres wee water falls, wee old stone bridges and very slippery hikes up through the trees but is a very awesome place for my downhill bike. i got way excited on the walk about getting my bike in to these hills as iv raced about 3 times in the area. there are many bike and horse runs about these hills there not very well known but there is also an equestrian centre there that do all the training of riders and such like and organise competitions and such so I'm hoping to get wee kaiya hooked up in there as she love that something shocking as i could drop her of with her horses and i could then take the bike up the mountains and arrange a wee time to meet up again to go home and such which would be good craic. but yes its a very lovely wee place its very close to carlingford were the last remaining leprechauns are so I'm thinking they could be out dandering around the coolys too it be good to capture one to get its gold but ya cannot get the wool pulled over your eyes by those we blighters as they will do anything to escape and keep there gold and don't believe there rainbow crap iv had experience with them those and the fairies are very tiny but ya gotta look hard to find them. some have dedicated there life's trying to find them but haven't ever succeeded GOOD luck if ya ever go on the Hunt for one. if ya do please share the wealth. that would be very kind and great but put the little bugger in a jam jar or something as a wee pet there not hard to look after what ever you do don't let him escape he would be a very angry leprechaun arn't pretty they are lethal and would be very murderous they will have no remorse at all so do the same with the little blighter AND MAKE SURE THERE IS NO WAY HE CAN ESCAPE JUST BEWARE THERE NOT AS CUTE AS THEY LOOK. IF YOU CHOOSE TO CAPTURE ONE DONT BLAME ME I TRYED TO WARN YOUS NOT TOO.  JUST REMEMBER THAT. 

GOOD LUCK 

LEO