Union Jack

The Spirit of Ireland welcomes you! She welcomes you back in hushed tones that sound like grass rustling in the wind. That wind is warm and fragrant with the smell of fresh lawn clippings. You realize you just chopped up the Spirit of Ireland. Never fear, the Spirit of Ireland is everlasting. There she is now, formed in a new body. 

Welcome. Welcome back.

I know a good few of you just want me to skip all the blabbering and get right to the pictures but you're going to have to wait because I want to blabber. I have one new story to share from work. Yes, gather round. It's story time. For a good few weeks now there has been this family that comes in and steals stuff from us. Sometimes they pay for one or two items but not the rest and other times they take everything without paying. It just so happens that this family are what people here call travelers but you and I would know them better as gypsies. I didn't know that they were gypsies until Tuesday when they were pointed out to me. A few days ago they came in and the store manager was there and she yelled at them to get out. It was, of course, done in a very Irish way.  Meaning there was no shortage of obscenities as she yelled. The mother began yelling back saying this was prejudice because they were travelers. The store manager told her it had nothing to do with the fact that they were travelers but the fact that they kept stealing stuff from the shop. The mother proceeded to yell at Elaine telling her that they had never stolen things. Then the oldest children got involved and it kind of became a yelling match. Of course everyone in the shop stopped and starred just like they annoyingly do at a traffic accident on the freeway. It reached it's climax when the mother stormed out of the shop followed by her children but not before the kids had knocked things off the shelves and stolen some things. They still continue to half pay or not pay for things. I don't know how true this is but I heard that the mom was prosecuted for stealing from 23 shops in one day and they let her go because she has six kids to take care of.

We had a large spider in our apartment the other day which reminds me of a story that happened back home. Don't ever let Shayli tell you to shut up. That's all the warning I'm giving to you.

The last few days have made it appear that summer is over and winter is getting closer here in Dundalk, Ireland. Not that there's much of a distinction. In winter is colder and rains more, other than that they are the same season. I was able to wear my tevas for about a month. During that glorious month I wore a sweatshirt and pants with my tevas. Not the whole summer ensemble you'd expect but my toes sure enjoyed the fresh air. I hear it's been a very cool August back in Utah. Sounds like things are taking a cool turn this year. That's not a bad thing at all. Maybe it'll stop the west from having so many fires this year.

Hahah! Pictures before descriptions!! >:) More here.

Our trip to London was fun (I enjoyed it). We arrived at our hotel (a B&B) about midnight and had a very unrestful sleep as our room was under the reception desk and anytime they moved up there the ceiling in our room creaked very loudly. We got up Sunday morning and met Deidre at Kings Cross Station. We had a little look at the Harry Potter store and danced around the massive group of Asians crowded around the 9 3/4 pillar where they have half a cart sticking out with books and a stuffed owl on the cart. This confused Leo greatly as he couldn't figure out what the Asians where doing in such a massive group around a station wall. Then we went to a few markets where Deidre got her daily dose of coffee and we shared some yummy food. From there we went to the British Museum. It was really cool and Deidre sure has learned a lot at this fancy english school. She can tell you all sorts about Asian art and history. One thing I learned is that I am glad that I am not a collectable because those English guys sure to like to collect things and I'd hate to be on display for the rest of forever. From there we went to a big nerd store and then had Korean food. It wasn't as good as Sam Hawk but it was still better then eating the same food they have in Ireland. After that we took a walk around Hyde Park where I got some footage of a little girl falling into the pond. Deidre said I am an ass but I just think I'm lucky ;) Plus, I'm not good at braying.

We had an early night that night and met up the next morning where we saw Tower Bridge, and another market. Leo and I went on the HMS Belfast, built by the same cranes that built the Titanic, and had a look around. That war ship is HUGE!! It was like a maze! It was pretty crazy and cool. We met back up with Deidre and she took us to the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament building, and Buckingham Palace. On the way to our hotel, Deidre had us stop at this fancy shop where they had all sorts of cool looking things, including cronuts! I bought some mini ones and Leo and I shared them back at our hotel. They weren't as good as I was expecting but they were still nice. We said good bye to Deidre and went to our hotel to grab our stuff before meeting up with Leo's "mum" Karen.

Karen met Leo while he living in England and loved him so much decided she would adopt him. Karen and her boyfriend, Gary, took us to this Chinese place and fed us. Then they took us back to their place and talked until about 12:30. We got up the next morning and Karren took us to see her ponies. She let us ride her one of her ponies, that is almost a horse, and walk the other. After that she took us to a nice Italian place. It was so yummy! I have missed all the yummy foods we had on our trip!! It's so nice to be able to go somewhere and enjoy all sorts of different foods. They just don't have that in Ireland. At least not where we live. After lunch they dropped us off at the airport, but not before stinky Leo had a bath. He had gone nearly 5 days without a shower. Our flight out was delayed so we missed our bus to Dundalk and had to wait 2 hours before the next one came so we didn't get home until 2 am but it was a good trip and I'm glad I got to see both the city and countryside of England. A big thank you to Deidre for being an excellent tour guide and another set of big thank yous to Karen and Gary for being wonderful hosts, feeding us, and letting us ride her pony!

Leo did not enjoy the trip to London at all. I found out the day we were flying out that he never wanted to go and wished he could just stay home. Yay for awesome communication skills! We rock! He did, however, have a much better time once we got with Karen.

In other news, I'm trying to become legal to work in Northern Ireland so that we can move up there once our lease here finishes. It's a pain though because know one seems to know what to do. Pain in the bum really. I will keep you updated as it continues to not progress. Thanks for joining and have a great last ten minutes of your life. To help you with that, I've included a video of Tristan's star pupil. Tristan is hoping this one will make it into the Olympics.