Rare Ole Days

Hello readers. Some time has passed, I realize, since my last post. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about it. You see Leo and I went over our data limit for our internet so  they slowed our connection way down. Super slow. Google takes nearly 10 mins at times to upload. To stop us from suffering from internet withdrawals we contacted another company to come and install an actual line into the house for internet so we don’t have to do this satellite thing anymore, plus then we will have unlimited data :) I’ll spare you my angry ranting but it’s been since March 3rd and we still are no closer to getting on the line then before.

I don’t remember where I left off on the last bloggness so I’m just going to start with Cliffs of Moher. Back near the time of March first, on a blustry saturday morning we set out westward. We traveled for about four hours before we reached our destination. With many potty stops (Leo pees as frequently as a pregnant lady) and a near heart attack for Leo (he let me drive :D ) we made it. So with pee stains on Leo’s shoes (he’s not a very good aim), sweat stains on the pit of my shirt, and hair in my eyes we emerged from the car and began our adventure. The cliffs are really spectacular. Leo took some very nice photos as usual. I would suggest anyone visiting this island to go to the cliffs. They really are very beautiful. Cliff pictures here. The ones with TSR MEDIA all over them are Leo's pictures.

After that let’s see.....I got a letter back from the EU Immigration. All the letter said was that I need to send some more documents before they could pass judgement on me. Some of the documents are pretty retarded like a letter from this tenancy board saying that apartment is registered with them and that we indeed are the tenants. I guess our lease agreement and utility bills wasn’t enough proof for them. I should be getting said letter shortly and then can mail off the rest of the documents and will hopefully hear from them soon. A useless hope, but a hope nonetheless.

Then came my birthday which was awesome. Thank you to all of you who gave a birthday hello and to those who sent money :D Both were really appreciated!! My parents got me a keyboard which is awesome. Now I can play my boredom away! Watch out Miki!! Soon I’ll be better than you!! ;) Leo got me waterproof hiking boots, an irish music book, and a fly fish rod. We went out fishing the next day and I actually caught a fish. It isn’t so cool when you look at the 9 or 10 Leo caught but still! It was fun to reel it in.

Thank you cards have finally been mailed out. Finally. I hope that everyone got one. If not I apologize. I had a retard moment and mailed some without stamps and so when I reprinted them I’m not sure I reprinted all of the ones I needed to. Someone out there may have received two thank you cards. In that case, I am indeed doubly grateful as the two cards represent. 

A few days after my birthday Leo and I went horse trekking, which just a different way of saying we went on a trail ride. It was so nice to smell and be next to horses. It was bliss being on one again :) Leo, on the other hand, has a different story he’d tell. Let’s just say he says he’s going to ride with sponges adorning certain bits of anatomy if he ever rides in the future. He did well though, for not being on a horse in so long. We trotted, cantered, and walked and he didn’t fall off once. Though he did say that cantering felt weird to him the first time we did it and it reminded me of of Amy on Liz leaving her spirit in the dust after taking off so quickly. Good times :) 

A few days after our ball-busting adventure on the horses, I finally got my hairs cut!! Yay!! I can see again and it’s wonderful!! One thing I would like to mention, though, regardless of if my hair is in my eyes or not, the Irish are far worse about calling me a boy then the Australians ever were. At least the Australians could tell after seeing my face that I was a girl. Not the Irish. Once I’m declared a lad, that’s what I am. I’m not sure if it’s because they have horrible vision, I really do look super manly (in that case what does that say about Leo?), or the Irish are too drunk to tell the difference. In any case I’m not offended by it at all and actually think it’s pretty funny. Since Leo and I almost always get referred to as ‘ye boys’ I like to joke with him about how he unintentionally married a lad. This is even made funnier by the fact he’s a homophobe :)

Before

After

St. Patricks day we took the train down to Dublin. I would suggest that any means of transportation would be cheaper than taking the train down. Transporting from a worm hole in a black hole would possibly even be cheaper than taking the train, and would be faster as well. What was suppose to be an hour was 30 mins longer than it should have been. Another plus to dimensional space travel is that you won’t have to deal with snotty Irish children smacking their parents in tantrum. Let’s just say I was tempted to pull a Karcie. We walked around and enjoy the ambience of the streets. Lots of people from all over the world in Dublin for the day. We waited for the parade and then watched most of it before we decided we needed to eat. They had some pretty cool floats and stuff and lots of different marching bands, but I’ve never really been into parades but this one was pretty good as far as parades go. After that we headed back the long way to the train station and had a good look around. By then the parade was over and most families were gone and the people left were the ones looking to have some drinks. All this walking around plus the horse ride from the day before left Leo with some sore manhood. Nothing that some NuSkin enhancer and birthday-suit basking couldn’t solve :) To be fair, it has been so long since I’ve ridden that even my back was sore from  riding. 

Almost a week after our ride I went down to Ravensdale Lodge and spoke with the owner/manager Niall (yes Irish names are really weird) and asked if I could volunteer at his barn to take up some of my daunting free time. Due to a show he was busy and said he’d give me a call later that night. I stuck around a bit and watched this guy school a horse over some jumps and his dad came up to me and started talkin to me like we were old buddies, such is the Irish way. He found out my situation, that I currently have nothing to do while I’m waiting for my immigration stuff to come back and that I eventing in the states a bit. After his son was done a man named Conrad McGuinness came and talked to me. His horse was the one getting schooled and the father of the son had talked to him about me. Conrad said that he knew of this gal, Cliodhna Breen (pronounced like cleana, I told you Irish names are really weird), who needed some one to exercise her horses. He gave me her number and I called her shortly after we parted. She called back later that night and arranged to meet me in Dundalk on Saturday around three. We really met almost two hours after three in a coffee shop in a shopping center about 25 mins away from my place, if you walk. We talked about what she was looking for and if I could help her out. She said she would have four horses for me to work on the flat five days a week and that she would need me at least until June when her exams are done. Wow, the wind outside is really bad right now. It just blew over a garbage bin. She is studying to be a lawyer. She asked me to come by her place Wednesday afternoon to ride one of her horses and see if it is going to work between us.

Here are four things I’ve learned while walking the streets in Ireland.

1. Even though you’re surrounded by most languages found on the European continent you are still in Ireland
2. When you’re walking down the sidewalk DO NOT step in anything you don’t know exactly what is it! Even if you do know exactly what it is, still DON’T step in it!!! It’s more than likely poo, sick, or a puddle of pee that a leaf or newspaper got stuck in after someone threw it on the ground once they were done with it.
3. If you encounter someone along your walk and they mumble what sounds like a curse at you, mumble back to them! This is how they greet each other here. They aren’t actually saying anything at all (they can’t possibly really be saying anything, can they?), but they don’t want to be rude and ignore you.
4. Just because you’re a pedestrian doesn’t mean anything to those who are driving. To them you are in a military tank and if they hit you you’ll be fine. So keep your eyes open and alert for someone who randomly wants to park on the sidewalk or go to the gas station even though you are in the middle of the entrance when they made the decision to turn. They won’t slow down for you.

I would like to add a disclaimer that Ireland is not full of drunks, there is not dog poop everywhere you go, it is not always windy and rainy, Irish people are not stupid, and I am not always right. Though many, including the latter, of those listed things are quite prevalent as you walk the streets

For those of you who are wondering if I am the same old me since I moved away and have been married the answer is simply dug! Or as Tati would say, “Doug.” Tati you make my heart smile, and no that’s not suppose to be creepy like the way Kelcie imagines it. Then again she imagines things a little differently and has a hard time imagining herself as a person. to be quite honest, so do I. I still have my same old tick, whorloops, and quirks. I still won’t eat after nine at night, I still have retirement center syndrome (get up every morning by 7:30 and to bed by 11:00, thank Clay for coining that phrase), and most importantly I still don’t like brown sauce *shudders with disgust*. I have picked up a few weird habits from Leo like touching my fingers to my mouth unintentionally when I’m thinking. 

Overall I am the same person I was before.

I bought Leo two nice shirts and some nice slacks, and dressed him up. I’ve never seen him in dress clothes that actually fit him. His work uniform is huge on him. So it was nice to see what he looks like when he halfway “suits up!”.  As you may be able to tell, I am writing this over multiple days while waiting for our internet to be set up.....but after a few long phone calls and a random set of engineers tipping up led us to discover that our place is not able to get a phone line put in due to the fact that our landlord is cheap and doesn’t want to pay for the piping for the cable to be set up. This means that we have to stick with the internet we have, which kind of really sucks since our providers don’t have an unlimited data package :( That means I will not be posting on my blog as often as I have as it requires a bit of data and we need the data for Leo’s schooling. It also means that I will for those of you who like to video me, there will be much less of that as well. Maybe once a month or so. The last one isn't me!!!

My test ride with Cliodhna didn’t go so well. She had me get on her four year old gelding that isn’t very broke (trained). She does show jumping which is pretty cool but I had no idea her way of riding would be so very different to mine. We got in the arena and I asked the horse to walk. A couple of steps into the walk and he freaked out and started running around the arena like a crazy man. Bucking and all sorts, it was a little bit of a rodeo and every time I would just about have him calmed down he would freak out again. I couldn’t figure out what was going on until she said she rides him with really short reins. It was almost like magic, I shortened my reins a lot and he stopped freaking out. He was still a little skittish but was much better. She proceeded to tell me that she never rides on a loose rein. Maybe I’m just really naive or stooopid but in all my years of  riding I have never heard of someone that never rides on a loose rein. In any case I didn’t impress her and what may or may not have been the truth about her dad wanting her to ride the gelding for a few weeks before I start, she finally told me that she was looking for someone with more experience and hoped I wasn’t offended. Fair play to her as I don’t have any experience with horses with almost no training. He was a cute horse though and I hope that she is able to find someone to help her out so she can get showing. Luckily I will be able to volunteer a couple days a week at the place I went trekking so I won’t be so bored :)

This is Derek the 4 year old I rodeod with 

Today we went to Bernish Viewpoint and while we didn’t really like much of that viewpoint we did like the view after dandering down the road for a bit. We ran into Ballymacdermot Court Tomb which is burial chamber of some really old Danes that once inhabited the area. Apparently it had a roof but some of the farms years ago took the stone slabs away to use on their farms. It was supposed to be haunted back in the day but I sure hope not because I walked all around that place and sure don’t need any old small midget ghosts haunting me tonight!! I say midget because they would’ve had to have been really small people in order to fit into the tombs!

Well, that’s all from me this time around. I hope that all iz vell!! And that you aren’t still suffering a St. Paddy’s day hang over, because that would be called alcoholism :)