Tankin Yous

Hello and good evening/afternoon/morning! I hope that you have or will have a terrific day. No, I'm not jealous of your sunshine! Don't be ridiculous! Though, if you get tired of the heat I wouldn't mind if you sent some this way.

June. What a month. Pretty soon it will be the summer solstice, Father's Day, and least important, Shayli's birthday. Speaking of which, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SYD! I know she probably doesn't read this but I just couldn't forget her birthday!! Here it is still very light until nearly 11 at night. It's pretty crazy and I feel like a kid again when you're parents made you go to bed at 8:30 in the summer and it was still light outside. It was as if the light was taunting you that while you were in bed other kids were still playing in the bright summer light. Also, feliz dia del padre to all those padres. I hope your chidern treat you nice. Also congrats to all the cousins that graduated. I heard Bailey, Jenna, Preston, and Dallin all graduated this year. If I missed someone, please don't take it to heart and I wish you all the best with whatever the future you's have in mind.

"Your man has a bake like a busted gutty!" "Cracker, so it is like" I decided that I wanted to teach you all some "Norn Iron" slang. A gutty is a tennis shoe (or a trainer). Bake means face or mouth. Cracker is not a white person but something that is good. Yarn is to talk. Wick means stupid or useless. Chin waggin means to talk a lot. Chuffed means pleased or very happy. Like is often used in place of a period. Kex are underwear. Poke is ice cream. Scundered means embarrassed. For more slang click here. 

Back in May I had another interview for a different job at Norbrook. To my embarrassment I thought that when the lady told me about it she was saying it was for a second interview for the same job but it was for a different job. That's probably why I didn't get that job…oops! I am still waiting to hear back about the first interview but I am not holding my breath because it has taken them so long to get back to me. I do have an other interview on Monday and have applied to some other jobs near by. I just hope that I get something soon. So does Leo. He wants to add more filters to his collection and eventually get a new camera. Have I ever mentioned that he has expensive hobbies? ;)

A few weeks ago Leo was on his way to tech and decided to pull over and pump up some of the tires because they felt a little flat while he was driving. As he was getting back on the motorway some cops passed him and then flipped a U-y and pulled him over. As soon as the officer came to the window he said, "We smelt cannabis. Have you been smoking it?" To which Leo told him he hadn't been. The officer asked him if his friends had been smoking it in his car and Leo told him that there had never been any weed in the car while he had owned it. The cop went back to his car to check Leo's id and such then came back, gave it to him, and left without saying another word or bothering to check his car for weed. Now, if they had asked for any brownies, we could have supplied him well from the trunk.

This last week was the nicest it has been in a long time. It got up to 65 degree and was super sunny all day. In all my life 65 degrees never felt so good! With a few days of sun I even got a Teva tan. Shows you how white I have gotten if 65 degrees and a little bit of sun can tan my feet. Despite what the locals may say, it wasn't "roasting" but it was nice to have the sun out for so long :)

The last month or so Ronnie has been bothered by gypsies. I didn't know much about traveler when I first moved here but it is easy to see that they don't have a good reputation in this part of the world. Not all the gypsies travel, from what I understand. When we lived in Dundalk it seemed to be that there were gyspies that stayed in one place nearly their whole lives but they were still called gypsies. Apparently other Irish people can tell a gypsy just by the way they look and talk but I couldn't tell the difference. That upset some of the Irish people because they didn't want to be confused with gyspies and thought the difference was so apparent. Anywho, Twice in the last month they have come to his house asking if they could do labor jobs around his house for him. Both asking for ridiculous amounts of money. One of the times they were trying to get him to pay them to power-wash his driveway for about$160. His driveway is a lot smaller than my parents, for those of you who don't know. This last time it seemed they were trying to rob him. From what the neighbors told me, a young guy knocked on his door and was telling him how there had been sewage back-ups in the area and asked if he could take a look at Ronnie's. Ronnie, who had been on the phone previously to answering the door, told him to wait just one moment while he finishes this conversation he was having. While Ronnie was talking an the phone one of the neighbors approached this young guy and asked what he wanted. The younger man said hello but ignored his question and got on the phone and ran down the street where he got into a car that sped off. It seems that the younger guy was trying to get Ronnie in a room and distract him while a second guy goes in and takes his money and valuables. I can't be sure that's what they were after but it makes sense because in other nearby areas there have been reporting's of that kind of thing happening. One of the neighbors has a strong hatred for gyspies and told me there isn't enough petrol to burn them all.  I thought that was a very strong remark but it gives you an idea of how people feel about them here.

Disney's Gypsies

Real Gypsies

My mom will be able to relate to this next story, and for that I am sorry. Your poor nose. A few weeks ago I was eating yogurt with my breakfast and because I haven't eaten much diary the last year and half (yup, if I was on a mission I would be coming home next month :) ) my insides don't really like it and those around me like it even less. I had horribly stinky farts. At one point Michael tried to blame a fart on Leo and when he found out it was me exclaimed that he knew who wore the pants in our relationship. Leo has told me that his whole life he didn't think that girls farted or ever stank. He said that I proved that idea wrong. I don't know why a stinky fart is so funny, but have you ever had a stinky fart and not giggled at least a little even after you were done being embarrassed? The real story is that one morning my alarm was going off on my ipad. It happened to be one of the days Leo had off so I was trying to quickly turn it off so he wouldn't wake. I turned it off and picked up my iPad to leave the room and forgot that I had plugged it in to charge. As I tried to walk away I was suddenly jerked back and nearly fell on the bed. I don't know if the jerk scared me or if the sudden movement loosened my butt cheeks, but as I was nearly falling, a very loud fart broke free from my bum. Stunned from the noise of the chord and ipad being yanked from my hand and also the tremendous pressure that I had realized into the room, I picked my iPad up and was about to see if I had woke Leo up when he pinched me on the bum. For the whole week afterwards he wouldn't let me live it down and kept reminding him how rude I am to wake him from his deep slumber with a fart to the face. I fear I will be forever known as "fart-box".

We saw Barbara on Monday and while she was in a lot of pain, she seems to slowly be getting better. This month is the second month she has been in the hospital. Her bedsore is slowly healing but still hurts. She has been able to sit up in chairs and such for short periods but still will not walk. Her legs have atrophied a lot. Leo said that her legs look like his arms, which I don't know who I feel more sorry for. Her having super skinny weak legs or him having super skinny weak arms. Hopefully she will continue to improve.

Leo and I would like you all to call us by our correctly pronounced names that Lilja was kind enough to demonstrate.

While visiting Barbara at the hospital I was able to met her sister Jan who was able to give me a bunch of papers on their family history. Barbara is really weird about the past but luckily Jan seems much better about that kind of thing. It has been fun for both of us to read through the stories that had been collected. There was one story that Leo loved a lot where this servant that would watch the children on a family farm would use the sheep dogs to round the kids up and herd them into corners if they were misbehaving. With the help of these papers and stories I have been able to do a lot more family history work on Barbara's side than I ever thought I would be able to :) Miracles.

Living in Northern Ireland is awesome. To me, the quality of life is so much better, even if the economy is the worst in the UK, compared to the Republic of Ireland. Everything is so much cheaper here and there are a lot more things available here than compared to the south. Ireland, as a whole, is a fantastically beautiful country, especially this time of the year. The culture can be a bit rough but the people are generally nice. It is a quaint place to live with it's bakeries, butchers, and fresh veggies and fruit shops. Life does seem a bit slower here than anywhere else I've lived. We are much much happier up here and are so grateful that we were able to make up here when we did. With that said, I miss Utah a lot. There are lots of things (and people) that I miss. Some days are worse than others but overall I am glad to be with my husband living life together. I felt like I was wick because I just haven't fallen in love with living here because all over the internet there are people who move abroad and fall in love with it and never want to go back to the states. I have found very few people who didn't like abroad that much and moved back. Until the other day when I found a blogger that was married to a Belfast man and had lived here for a year but couldn't hack it and moved back to San Fran. As silly as it is it made me realize that it's ok to not love living here, but to enjoy the difference in scenery while I have it. I am very grateful for those of you who have continued to give your love and support. I know that without strong family ties this would have been so much harder than it already has been. I hope that you all have a fantastic week. Live long and prosper!!

Who makes a better baldy?

Birds But Not Byrds

Alrighty! It's Cinco de Mayo so let's get this party started!!

After a month of applying for jobs galore, I finally got a request for a job interview!! Huzzah! The job title on the application was Analytical Science Graduate. What is that, you may have asked no one in particular. Essentially it is a chemistry graduate position, specifically analytical chemistry aka separating and identifying components of a compound.  I don't know what you'd do without me. You'd still be puzzled asking no one what an analytical science graduate was. You are welcome from saving you from asking walls, pens, computer monitors, and other stationary objects those deep soul searching questions. Don't want your superiors seeing you acting like a fool do you? (All those with Brewer or Morris blood, I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do to help you…)

My interview was April 30th in Newry, about 30 minutes north of Dundalk ironically enough. I prepared as best I could but still flubbed up on a few of the questions. The worst was when they asked how to make a mole. I know! I messed up on that!? But I just couldn't remember the math for it. Other than that I think it went pretty good. They said they would get back to me in two weeks. Hopefully that is a good day. If not it's back to the hunt! For my interview I was going to wear some of the clothes that I have but Leo and my dear young mom convinced me to get some new clothes. Thankfully Leo has more sense of style then I do (scary thought when you see how he dresses!) and was able to help me pick out a nice set of clothes.

I found out that in January of 2015 Northern Ireland's unemployment rate was 6%, December 2014 the UK's is 5.5%, February 2015 the USA is 5.5%, and Utah is 3.4%. Pretty interesting I thought.

Newtownards in spring.

Speaking of my tallish, dark haired, handsome man, he is so kind. Ladies you'll be envious when I tell you a few nights ago I asked him to do the dishes for me since I had cooked and he asked if he could do them the next day. I told him that I would rather that he get them done that night because every time he says he'll do them the next day I have to nag him to get them done because he just keeps putting them off and that I hate nagging him to do things. To which he responded, "Ack! I'll give you the night off of nagging! I promise!" Who needs RV's and boats?! My fella gives me nights off of nagging! ;)

Leo thought my choices of clothes were horrible for an interview. I thought they were pretty decent considering I was working with what I have and we all know how fond I am of fancy and/or nice clothes.

The other day Leo and I sat down and talked about his schooling and how much more he has left and that sort of shtuff. It looks like that we will be here at least until 2017 but it is fairly probably that we won't be back until 2018. It all depends on if Leo gets accepted to do his masters at Queen's University or not. He came to me in shocked dismay that the masters program costs about £5,000 ($7,600). I couldn't help but scoff at him and tell him that he'd be spending about $40,000 (£26,400) for a masters program in the states. Once he heard this he felt much better about is £5,000.

Living in the country that has 17/25 wettest cities in Europe in its borders, I have come to know a thing or two about rain that I never experienced growing up in a desert.

1. It can rain on a sunny  cloudless day. This has happened more than once since I have lived here.
2. Rain storms 90% of the time don't have a lightening and thunder storm with it.
3. People don't melt in the rain. A little bit of falling water doesn't stop people from getting out and doing things.
4. There are more types of rainfall then types of peanut butter in Tesco. My favorite is bizarre sliver or particle rain. 
5. Rainbows don't happen every time it rains, but maybe that's just because all those pots of gold have been found already.
6. Particle rain (Leo calls it 'wet rain') will get you wetter than downpour. I don't even know how this one works.
7. There is an umbrella made for those windy rainy days. I would like to know if they work.
8. Rain drops don't have to be big to fall fast. Fast rain hurts.
9. Final fact, rain can be really depressing.

Who woulda thunked that a desert kid could learn so much about rain?! Especially one that already knew everything!

Leo is becoming very birdy and wanted me to share some of his latest photos with you.

Bramble Time

We are back and it is already April!! I hope you did a great April's fool on someone. Sadly I forgot or Leo could tell you of how he totally fell for my awesome prank >:) Jeez, I can't even remember what was going on last time I wrote one of these things. One moment while I use my Tardis...right! On with the show!

St. Patrick's day was a good time. Last year we went down to Dublin so this year we thought it would be fitting if we went to Belfast. It was a smaller crowd I thought and the parade wasn't as long but I thought the parade was better than Dublin's. Theirs was way too long! Another difference was that there were actually Irish people at this parade. Most of the people at the parade were families that live here out for a family day rather than the rowdy crowd of foreigners in Dublin. It was like being in an international airport that has stops from all over the world. All you could hear around you were people yelling in different languages. There were also a lot more people wearing or decorated in the tricolor flag(the Irish flag) in Dublin. In Belfast they were handing out green flags with shamrocks on them. Flags cause problems in Belfast. In fact after the parade some hooligans burned the English flag and it started trouble. 33 people ended up arrested and one girl had to be taken to the hospital. We were long gone by then so don't worry about us :) My Leo is good at keeping us safe :)

After the parade we watched the little concert thing they put on. They had some Irish and Scottish dancing as well as some traditional music. A video of it can be seen here. It was a swell time. I liked this St. Patrick's Day better than last years :) Irish people don't usually do much to celebrate St. Patrick's day because it's the day that their patron saint died. It use to be a dry holiday but I doubt it is now. Also, I think I mentioned this last year but Irish people don't eat corned beef and cabbage, wear green, or pinch each other if they aren't wearing green. You mention any of these things to an Irish person and they will just look at you like the three eyed, purple American that you are. 

A REAL St. Patty's Meal

Sad days happened shortly afterwords and Mick's grandmother passed away. After her very lovely service Mick, Lou, Leo and I went for a walk around Mount Stewart. It is a very pretty place and I'm sure it is even more amazing in the summer. One thing you will find out when you are around trees with a lumberjack is that they really do know their stuff about trees. They also know a lot about bushes. I wouldn't be surprised if they knew a thing or two about grass as well. Eh, eh! ;D

One thing I have never really understood completely is that Leo calls Subarus Scoobys. I think it is because Subaru sounds like Scooby Doo but I don't really know. It's one of life's Irish mysteries.

Mount Stewart - A Day out with a Lumberjack

That same day we got a letter in the mail saying that while the Home Office is processing my application I am legal to get a job. Wahoo! I might think I'm crazy later for saying this but I am so excited to work again!! :D Last week we went to a job fair at Newcastle down by the Mourne Mountains. It was great and both of us found jobs to apply for. Hopefully we will have plenty of this "irish luck" and get jobs soon. Leo would love a new job. 

We hope all of you had a fantastic Easter. We didn't do a lot but we had a great time together. Everyone was getting in the Easter spirit, except Lilja. She seemed to be obsessed with foxes. Have a look and see for your self just click here. As much as I know Leo would like to take credit, he has admitted that he has nothing to do with her obsession with foxes.

Also I got my hairs cut! Horray!! They gather in groups, encircling one another with long tendrils and razors, as if to claw their way to the top. Where they sit does not really matter, not when they have teeth jutting out extending in every direction. Unsuspecting pray come, drawn by the sweet scents of the dark juices. Coming too close allows them latch onto their pray. Where they sit does not matter at all because they all get the chance to stick their sharp spines into the flesh of the latest catch. Struggling and quick movements cause slicing of skin and deep piercing into limbs. Pray never escape unharmed and most take with them small broken fractures of the razor sharp claws. These beasts of old never loose, and that is why you do not fight a Bramble.

Stupid iPad died a horrible death so I’m writing on a freaking phone... 

Ok, so that time of year has come again. Circuit of Ireland Rally!! Woop woop! As you probably all know that this country is famed for booze and motorsport. There's not much else I think this country does. Well if you think of any let me know. Oh oh! I forgot natural beauty. Apart from the people by irish women faired high in poles that were conducted, but Irish men on the other hand faired poorly on the same pole. So all that said kai got her first taste of a rally stage on the circuit, but I guess she didn't like it as she said she liked watching aircraft better. But what's better than standing a few feet from a drifting, farting, popping, 500 bhp rally car?! Sometimes we were a few feet too uncomfortable to said rally cars as they came round the hairpin bend as we were literally standing in a line if they failed the turn we would be wiped out by said 500bhp rally beast. I think she also finally understands I call Subaru scoobys too, but she also said the cars were far two loud. Goodness me! The sound is like bliss peace and quiet :-) the smell is quite nice too with petrol, and the odd tyre burning smell that's quite the opposite, but all that said its an experience for Kai as most people in the world wont ever get that close to a drifting 500bhp rally car from the international stage, and even national stage. I could just imagine karcie being the co-driver navigator - oh sh*t sh*t stop the car , 30 right over crest oh crap, that id pay to see :-) oh I forgot to mention if you want to see newtownards well a good portion of it with rally cars and even me and Kai check out this link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8MDirMfGDw  Circuit of Ireland TT/power stage and also my pics below which coulda done with a tad faster shutter speed. It’s a little sad to say but this is probably the last time I’ll see a rally before moving off to America and getting stuck with boring America football. On another note, if they keep up the live streaming like they did this year or with eurosport tv channel I’ll still get to see it, but sadly not in person :-) 

I would also like to congratulate Mick as he won a tree surgeon modeling competition and got himself published worldwide see the pic below in the magazine. Congrats mick I wish you well in your future endeavors in your modeling career.

We have also been to Mount Stewart estate. Probably one of the richest family’s in Ards, they pretty much own Ards lol. Their estate is managed by a charity called the National Trust. They have these famous formal gardens, big ass house, a lake, lots of woodlands, and pretty stuff overlooking Strangford lough. I think there formal gardens have won lots of awards but I’d have to check with Mick as he use to be a volunteer there and a place he began his journey into tree surgery and tree loving. I really do think this place has a wee special place in his heart. He is also a self confessed tree hugging hippy but hopefully you all think this place is as beautiful as me, Kai, Micky bo and his wifey think it is. It defiantly deserves a visit! If your ever in the area!                

Iv seen the new canon 5d mark 3 goodness me I wish I had a better paying job. It costs almost 3k Its so much nicer than my grainy 600d. I was looking at also getting external square type filters for my camera. Especially for long exposure work and gradual filter the light, as to be honest most of my pics have been taking without any filters. I’ve been looking at lee filters 100mm system as it seems to have a better grow with the person with the camera more upgradable and the likes and for what it is can be considered pretty expensive too but I think its a worthy investment.    

We did go to a job fair in a town called Newcastle at the foot of the Mourne mountains, which was in this pretty spectacular hotel called donard hotel or some shit named after the highest peak of the mournes. Anyway, kai got to meet people from Norbrook labs and randox labs and has since applied to both and plenty of other jobs, but hope to here something back soon. Tho getting a job here is pretty much about luck its not an easy task to get a job here at all in any work sectors and most people these days are getting put on stupid 0 hour contracts which literally disregards employment rules legally. On a good note, all minimum wages go up this October again to near 7 quid an hour probably 11-12 dollars but I’m not sure.  

Then I’ve also applied for another job. The company is looking trainee software developer. I also talked to them at the jobs fair and the guy said I sound like someone they are looking for tho they are looking for people that have completed hnc/hnd in software dev, but I do get my cert hopefully this summer :-) but what I think is going for me is that I am also doing a degree, but we will see as apparently there's lots of applicants I should find out by the 10th if I have even been called for an interview.

The other day I was talking with an owner of an animal charity/registered zoo mainly for birds of prey who were looking for a desktop pc to be donated to them still no joy for that, but I have donated an old macbook pro for there traveling displays across schools and various other things for education. Turns out I might end up being one of there volunteer staff tho the place is just staffed by volunteers. Talking with the guy, he is looking for someone with my particular skill set with software development and even web design. Mostly just updating the site and developing wee add ons and things, but they also said they would put me through certain academic training to get certified with birds of prey and such so that's pretty cool with plenty of photo opportunity’s. It is pretty nice to get offered that kinda thing only for a semi-regular basis like once every two weeks but it does add more certs to my CV, and a little experience too which I do lack in as I’m still training but I do think it is a wonderful chance to gain experience and to help such a wonderful place I’ll keep use updated with this one to see how it all pans out when I speak with the guy in person over the coming week. The only downfall is its situated, 30 mins from Belfast but I do have a wee motor so it should be too bad :-)