Lady of Leisure...

The harvest is officially over!! Finally, technically, physically and emotionally, all of the taters have been dug. In a previous post, I had mentioned the Irish farmers fall phenomena known as the Harvest Beard. Almost the whole crew Peadar works with have one since they no time to shave, but now that we've reached the end I feel we need to crown a winner. Congratulations Dermot Whyte, or should I say Paul Bunyan!

We saw D's harvest beard at an engagement party for Brendan Whyte (Pad's cousin) and Karina Smyth. Congratulations to the happy couple! I even got Catherine, who is 7 months preggers to have a drink with me at the party. Just kidding!! Well she wasn't drinking, but I was :)

The party was on in Drogheda, which is a medieval city about 40 minutes North of Dublin. There is a fab restaurant there called Eastern Seaboard that I highly recommend. It kind of reminded me of a place you would find in the states, with high ceilings and menus on clipboards. Great seafood!

While I was having a drink we were discussing our plans for a Sunday in the town. I hadn't been up there in ages but when I first moved to Ireland, Peadar told me about a few sites we could go see. One of them included Saint Oliver Plunkett's head at a cathedral in Drogheda. Yes, an actual 500 year old head, on display, for the world to see. I was so there. I had been begging Peadar to take me to see the Saint's dead head since he first told me about it, and today was our day. 

Peadar informed me that this was a bit of a pilgrimage for some people, so I needed to be very respectful. I checked to see if photography was permitted. It was. Below check out the door of the cell where they held Ollie until his martyrdom.

It wasn't fair at all to the old chap, he advocated educating Catholics and Protestants in schools together and accepted everyone. The British, who have oppressed Ireland for hundred of years, had him hung, drawn and quartered, which is not a nice way to go at all. Have you ever seen The Tutors or Braveheart? This includes having your nether bit cut off if you are a guy and also disembowelment.  

So, check out my picture of the head below! It was hard to get a good shot with a flash so I have included one from Google as well. Pad reckons the head looks decent for being 500 years old, but to be honest it is pretty moldy looking.

The church was amazing though, it had beautiful stained glass and the biggest organ I've ever seen. 

I have been living as a "lady of leisure" for the last two weeks since I am finished up with my old job and haven't started the new one yet. Part of that includes shopping and eating a lot, so when my friend Michlle Ryan and I heard there was a new Avoca at Malahide castle we were there in a heart beat. Avoca is like Anthropologie and Whole Foods combined.

Amazing shopping, clothes, food, kitchenware, etc.

They also have a bakery that is to die for. Look at the size of Michelle's eclair. I of course had Eton Mess which is like smashed up Pavolva in a glass. Delish. 

Our adventure to Malahide castle was all well and good until it got dark and closed. This wouldn't have been a problem for people who parked in the parking lot close to the visitor center, but unfortunately I had parked in the one by the playground  which requires a 10 minute walk through a forest. Not like a lit up forest. Straight pitch black. 

Michelle and I hung on to each other and used the flashlight app on my phone, but it wasn't enough. We got 25 yards into the path and started screaming our heads off and ran back out. It was one of the moments where you ask yourself "If this was a scary movie, what would you do?" We would be judging the characters for being dumb and going in the dark forest. We also called our signif others who so insensitively suggested we are babies and to simply walk through the forest. Well, it wasn't that simple.

Using our better judgement, we went back up to the now locked up visitor center, where a cleaner suggested we try the "Park Ranger's house". No joke, this is the door the Park Rangers. It was almost creepier than the forest. 

I was like, twist in the story, what if the Park Ranger turns out to be the killer and not a creepy guy already in the woods? Well we had to use an actual iron knocker (no doorbell) but to no avail, there was no answer.

In the end we called a cab to come get us from the main entrance. We asked him to take us the other entrance when he creepily goes "there are many entrances into the castle but only a few ways out." TWIST again, what if the killer is the cab driver?!

In the end, we found the car, behind some locked up wrought iron gates, so even if we had gone through the forest, we would not have been able to get out and would have had to go back through the forest to get out to the road.  Solution: leave the car overnight and come back in the daylight. Cabbie, take us home!!

Just another adventure in Ireland, exploring castles and creepy forests and living like a lady of leisure. Tonight Pad and I jet off to Thailand for 2 weeks of R&R before I have to report to Boston for basic training. 

Lots of Love, As Always,

Keats

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

Flowers, Stars, Cocktails, Brides & Babies

With all the travelling I have been doing lately, I've been lucky enough to schedule a decent amount of layovers and weekends back home in Chicago. They've had some great weather in the mid-west lately, which makes it more difficult than normal to board the plane in my sundress and run out of Dublin airport into the rainy cold and wind. My dad has been been working in the yard (major stress relief from his high-pressure office job) and created the start of a nature path on in the back yard one day. He gave me a guided tour (complete with wine and everything) after dinner when I was there.

Hands down the best part of the tour was when I pointed to some blue flowers (you can see them in the background of the below photos) and said, "Those are nice." Kev goes, "Thanks, I planted them." Suz (my mom) then interjected that "No, she had planted them." Hilarty ensues as they argue over who actually planted the flowers. I think we netted out that they both had. 

That's compromise, baby. 

I had to go to LA for a conference a few weeks ago, so Suz decided to join me. We had a suite at the iconic Hollywood Roosevelt, and we just around the corner from Madame Toussard's Wax Museum and the Kodak Theater on Hollywood Blvd. The crazies that dress up like celebrities and movie characters on the street are pretty funny. 

Mom took a pic with the Billy Graham Star (an Evengelical minister) and I took a pic with The Doors star, which is one of Pad's fav bands. 

We had a 2 room / 2 bath sweet suite at the hotel, except that the drugged out rocker picture on the wall kind of freaked my mom out. The pool was awesome though, and they have a "Library Bar" that makes organic cocktails with Farmer's Market ingredients for a cool $25 bucks a pop. I think mine had like basil and other weird herbs in it. They were okay. Suz got a good one though, sage and champagne or something. 

When I got back to Dublin in May, like I said it was really cold and depressing. So Peadar and I decided to have host a "Forget Your'e in Ireland and Come to Our Beach Party" for the long Bank Holiday Weekend.  So on Saturday night we got everyone to dress up, put tiki lights up and Jane made delicious tropical cocktails like mojitos and pina coladas with her magic bullet blender. 

C- Bone Whyte

On Sunday, Pad and I had the scariest job of all, babysitting! His nephew baby Joey! But we did grand and the babe survived, and so did we :) Peadar was even more freaked out than me about the whole responsibility thing, but he was a total natural. The boys had some quality bonding time. 

I went back to Chicago for another trip this past weekend for my cousins wedding. Before that though I had din and sangria with my good friend and bride-to-be Andrea at Meson Sabika. 

At my cousin Collin's wedding, my other, littler, cousin Ethan was the handsome ring bearer. 

 The happy couple: Collin and Julie Williams. 

When I came back I went for a walk along Skerries beach, Ireland may be cold, but its beautiful and picturesque. 

I stopped by Olive (Pad's sister) to see how the baba was getting on, and he was hanging out with the teddy bear Peadar and I got him. Joseph and Brownie cuddling! 

My parents are still mourning the loss of our old pup Sophie, and have decided to get a new one! Sophie was a Carin Terrier, like Toto from the Wizard of Oz. This time they are getting a West Highland Terrier from a breeder in NY. Kev and Suz will be the proud owners of one of the puppies below. Since they don't want the new doggie to go on the plane, they are going on a roadtrip next weekend to get him. I want to name him Winston, or another proper old man name. 

Lastly, I can't post a blog without a funny pic of the pad man! He might kill me, but I have to give him some grief over his new found love, the foam roller. He plays with this in the kitchen every night, tells me how great it is for working out muscles or whatever. It's pretty funny.

Lots of Love,

Amanda 

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