Halloween in Dublintown

Happy Halloween! 

Tomorrow is Halloween in Dublin (and the world over) and there are many festivities on to celebrate. The Wax Museum has a chamber of horrors, and the Leprechaun Museum has a Celtic Mythology show that is meant to scare even the bravest adults! 18 & overs only! Check out this little creep show below.  The Bram Stoker Festival is on and the holiday happenings are everywhere. In my research of Halloween in Dubs I came across the tidbit that is was Irish immigrants of the late 18th and early 19th century that really brought the traditions and customs of the holiday to America. So yet another connection between my American heritage and my new Irish home.  I am hoping to get to some of the events on this week.

Speaking of Halloween and the dead, that was me last week as I was suffering the worst sickness I think I've ever had in my life. Hunkered down in the "bunker" (my bedroom) for 7 straight days with one thing after another. First I had a sinus infection, which I have come to realize the Irish call the "flu". The with my low immune system I caught a terrible stomach flu, which the Irish call a "vomiting bug". Even the sicknesses have different names over here. Either way they suck, and I was straight out of commission for 7 days. Now that I am among the living again I have some big news....

I have a new job! 

My current company is selling and I have a new job working for an Inbound Marketing Company called HubSpot. They are a Boston-based software co. opening EU headquarters in Dublin and I am one of their first 12 local hires. At the end of November I head to Boston for training for 4 weeks. So any Americans that want to come visit in December feel free. I am still determining holiday plans but may be home for Xmas! I am finished up at my current job today so I have actually have about 4 weeks off for the first time in my life. After going straight from HS > College > Job #1 > Job #2 I have never had this much free time, I am a lady of leisure! 

I am thinking of taking 2 weeks in Dublin then Peadar and I are going to make the most of it and head to Thailand for our first real, proper vacation together. I had a hell of a time convincing him to go since they are still stressed about getting the potatoes out of the ground and the harvest pressure is STILL ON. 

Basically the harvester drives along and drags the grader through the mud. Then the grader sifts through the mud and drops the potatoes into boxes in a trailer being driving by a tractor next to it. 

Peadar told me we can't go to Thailand until all the spuds are out of the ground and it has been too mucky and rainy to dig them. So I did the only thing I knew, and took over the job myself.

Peadar is a bit of a legend in my book. This hair and this harvest beard, recognized the world over.  My mom pointed out to me after reading my last blog that I forgot the most important part of the story of the drunk guy in the bar in Galway recognizing Peadar from years ago. "THAT HAIR MAN, THAT HAIR. I'D RECOGNIZE IT ANYWHERE."

To be honest I think Padman might be the antithesis of the Gym-Tan-Laundy motto. He has been too busy working to hit the gym, he has never tanned in his life, and laundry? We send that out. I may be a Farmer's girlfriend but that doesn't mean I have to do Farmer's laundry! 

There was a mass on for Granny Whyte last Sunday, and afterwards Peadar and I took flowers up to her grave. Many Whytes have been buried in the Naul and it really was a happy moment, because Granny and Grandad Whyte lived for many years together and died in old age. But we walked around and checked out all the graves and there were some very young people there too, and those are the saddest. Peadar told me the stories of the people he knew, like a 12 year old boy from the village who died of an Asthma attack, and I cried for them. It is a very old and interesting graveyard with chapel ruins. 

On a happier note, I have been keeping up with the swimming and water polo. There was a Celtic Masters swim event on with teams from all over Ireland last Saturday. I won gold in the 50 fly and bronze in the 50 backstroke. I actually won another gold for a relay I was in, but my good friend Laura Harvey has that metal... I'll have to get it off of her!!!

Have a safe & spooky All Hallows Eve!!!

XOXO

Amanda

'Tis the Season

....no, not holiday season yet! It's only September!! Although, Brown Thomas, the biggest department store in Dublin, has already put up Christmas trees.

The season I am talking about is the Harvest. I know I mentioned this in my last post, but this goes much more into detail. The girls at swimming this week we asking me if Peadar was done planting potatoes. I corrected them saying, no "harvest is about cutting the wheat (also known as 'drawing corn') and then gathering straw, planting more wheat, then digging the potatoes. Potatoes don't get planted until spring."

The looks I got were priceless. Ask me to explain that a year ago and I would have laughed. So harvest is here, and Peadar leaves before I wake up in the morning and I'm often asleep before he gets home. He is working so hard to get everything done while the weather is good, because when it's bad, well, you'll see below.

Peadar, his "harvest beard", and his nephew Joseph in the tractor

There is a condition going around the farm right now, something I like to refer to as "harvest beard" which is caused by having no time to shave. Stop by The Yard, which is home to all the machinery and grain stores on the farm, and you well see plenty of "harvest beards" walking around the place. 

Have you ever been lucky enough to play Giant Jenga at a bar? (It's a great time).

Well Peadar and his colleagues (farmer pals? co-workers?) fellow crew members play Gargantuan Jenga every day with straw bales. Remember when I mentioned how poor weather can make things go very badly on the farm? Well check out what the rain did to these bales of straw. It caused them to get wet and heavy and eventually the whole mess toppled like Jericho. 

A whole morning's work, ruined. But straw stacker extraordinaire Daithi (pronounced dah-hee) was able to make it right again. He is Peadar's cousin and also works on the farm. 

On Saturday, I decided it would be nice to see my boyfriend in the daylight, so I went and joined him on the tractor for a few rounds. Check out the video below:

Heavy Machinery Action

Gorgeous shot of some straw that has not been bailed yet. The Irish countryside is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

This machine is a bale-chaser. It collects bales (8 at a time) like in the video above. 

Those of you who know anything about farming are probably wondering where the picture of the sweet machines, the harvesters, are. Well Pad was on straw duty the day I joined him in the fields, so that is why I am focusing on this part of the action.

Giant shed full of grain. 

I can't believe I am actually putting a picture of this in my blog, but another part of the harvest season means the critters, aka: effing spiders, are out in force looking for warm and dry places to shack up. And unfortunately, they have decided that every entrance way into my building should be infested.  I am a Stage 5 arachnophobe, and the thing about us, is that we actually like to feed our fear. Like when I Google Iraqi Camel Spiders.  For example, Peadar called me to warn me not to go out the particular entrance this guy was chilling at, and what do I do? Go and take a picture of him and have nightmares for weeks! 

We even found one inside our apartment, which made me have a panic attack. And several times I have not been able to actually enter our building until Peadar comes down with a golf club and kills a few. I just stand there crying until he gives me the all clear. Peadar, and Google, assure me that there are no poisonous spiders in Ireland. However, just the fact that these are called "Wolf Spiders" makes me want to die. 

Lastly, I was hanging out a Peadar's house over the weekend when a crane/stork wandered into the yard, causing the dogs to go ballistic. Eddie (Peadar's Dad, pictured above) caught the birdie before any damage was done, and walked him up the lane way to marshier ground. I actually think Brandy (their Irish Setter) was scared of the bird, but Max (the well-trained chocolate lab) would have gone in for the kill. So genius that I am, decide to take the dogs for a walk not too long after this happened. Can you just imagine the dogs finding the bird, the bird pecking at them with his beak, me fighting the dogs off with the stick yelling "you do not hurt the birdie?" Well, yes, that happened. And in case you were wondering, the bird lived.

 I think. 

I hope.

Love,

Amanda

Remember 9/11

A Few Cheeky Pints

Before I went back to Chicago for Thanksgiving, I had my first visitors (outside of my family) come stay with me here in Dubs! My college roommate Jenna Vickers (pictured below with her Mom, Jan, on the farm) and my childhood friend Preeti, who came the week after (pictured below with me on the Hogwarts Express, aka: The DART).

I was trying to think of good entertaining stories to share with you from their visits here, and the first one that came to mind was when Jenna, Jan and I were taking a DART from Dublin back to Malahide and encountered a serious character in our car, what they call  "a knacker" in Ireland. I'll let Urban Dictionary define that one for you. She kept calling Jenna a "cheeky bitch".

This was pretty funny until she copped on that I was filming her. Had to put the camera down pretty quickly. 

When Preeti was here we went to a bar called Porterhouse in Temple Bar. They had really delicious gluten-free beer called Daura by Estrella. 

On another night Preeti and I got all dolled up and went to the Eircom Spiders awards, which is a big event I had to go to for work, held at the Convention Center in Dublin (see picture of cylindrical building below).

We were snapping pics with the augmented reality app that went along with the event. Check out the picture of the Golden Spider above. 

Last month, I also went on a business trip to London, to an event called the Social Gaming Summit. The event was actually in the Chelsea Football Club, which would be cool for some people, however I actually hate soccer aka: football.

Needless to say the event didn't have anything to do with the sport, so I didn't mind. See a picture of me below at our company booth. At the last minute, the organizers actually invited me to speak on a panel called "Measuring the Health of Your Virtual Economy," which was nerve-wracking but exciting.

In other news, my old pup Sophie kicked the bucket. It was really sad because we had her for 14 years, and she was a really good dog in general. Sophie was a Carin Terrier, like Toto from the Wizard of Oz. 

I found the Judy Garland pic after I took the other one with Sophie, I swear. In her last few weeks she got very tired and slow, but I got one last picture of her out in the front yard, keeping the watch. A classic Sophie moment.

Below is a picture of Peadar and his dog, Brandy. They say people can look like their dogs, and I think in this case it might be true. Divas.

With less than 2 weeks till Christmas, it's amazing to think that I have lived in Dublin almost 7 months now. This is a picture of Peadar and I last year on Christmas, at the Launch holiday party in the Q Room at 565 W Quincy. We had no idea that a year later, I would be working and living in Dublin with him. 

This is a picture of our 1st Christmas tree together in Ireland, at our apartment. There were a few arguments over how big of a tree we could get, but in the end we decided on this one. Look's great, don't you think? I brought over a few keepsake ornaments from back home in Chicago, to keep the connection. My Grandma Keating gives every grand-kid an ornament every year since we were born.  It's a great tradition, and now I have loads of memories from my childhood on my tree. Try to find Clara, from the Nutcracker, hanging towards the top. The best ornament she ever got though was for my little brother Greg, and it was a SportsCenter ornament. Click here to see a picture of it, although a picture doesn't do it justice, since it also plays the theme song as well. 

My blog wouldn't be my blog if I didn't post some funny pics of Peadar on here for general entertainment. I brought back a bunch of winter clothes from Chicago my last trip, and as we were unpacking them, Peadar started modeling them.

I guess he was born to be a model though, he's been doing it ever since he was little. Check out that little gem of a picture I unearthed. Pad's in the middle below! (With brother Brian on his left, and sister Olive on his right). 

On Saturday, I participated in a charity "Polar Plunge" for Special Olympics Ireland. I only found out about on Thursday at swim practice, but I signed up to be a volunteer for them awhile ago and wanted to participate. Between Pad and I we were able to raise about 500 Euro in one day! I think it was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit when I jumped in the water... and who knows how cold the actual water temp was!

Check out the video here:

Afterwards I had my towels, slippers and robe ready to lash on. 

Then I changed into even warmer gear. We had brought a hot water bottle, which I stuffed into my sweatshirt pocket for added warmth. That, and an Irish coffee afterwards sorted me right out!

Later on Saturday, I was doing some serious Christmas shopping around Malahide, and couldn't carry everything. So I just wheeled the cart from my last store up straight into the apartment. Genius, right? 

On Sunday, Catherine and Louise Whyte hosted a baby shower for Olive, Peadar's sister, who is due on New Year's Eve. A "Mum to Be Afternoon Tea" it was called, so cute! Except the funny thing was that we couldn't bring gifts for the baby, only for Olive, because in Ireland people are superstitious and consider it bad luck to buy anything before the baby is born, in case something happens. I mean absolutely nothing. They don't buy diapers, assemble the crib, accept baby clothes as gifts, or anything like that. I find it to be the kind of crazy, considering after the kid arrives who would want to be running around having to get all that stuff?! The father has to, I guess! The Irish obviously wouldn't be down for the show "Pregnant in Heels". Catherine and Louise put together a gorgeous day, complete with games and treats, and they totally surprised Olive.  

Picture above: Olive in the moment of surprise. 

This Monday, Peadar, Catherine, Brenden & Hagen (cousins) and Hagen's girlfriend Lisa and I all went to the theater. And by theater, I mean we went to go see Trailer Park Boys live show at the Olympia. Catherine and Lisa had never seen the TV series before though, and I don't think they were too impressed with the live show. It was pretty crude, but I thought it was funny. 

Before the show we ate dinner at the Millstone, which had an extensive GF menu and had the Duara GF beer. 

This Friday, I am going on my first pheasant hunt with Eddie (Peadar's Dad, see picture above. Yes, that really is a pheasant emblem on his sweater). I can't wait. I even bought an outfit so I look like Kate Middleton when I go, which I will put pictures up of next week so you can see. 

The other day after work a colleague of mine asked if we wanted to go for a "few cheeky ones" referring to going out for a drink or two. I thought that was the best Irish phrase I have heard so far.

Lots of X's and O's,

Amanda