New Year, New Beginnings!

I went in the office to do a few hours of work on Saturday to catch-up from being gone on my business trip to London last week. Peadar then called me to tell me he got locked out of the apartment and was going to the pub to wait for me to come home. Now, Pad's plan for Saturday after work (yup, farmers work on Saturday) was to watch rugby anyway, and under normal circumstances he would probably love to chill at the local (pub, but people in Ireland just say the "local"), drinking away and enjoying the games. However, he is training for a 10k obstacle course run this Sunday and was trying to avoid the drink!

4 pints later....

I went home and rescued him with the house key. We had a big weekend and all, seeing as I bought a new car AND we signed on a new apartment! But more on that later, let's begin where we left off last. 

I was at Peadar's last weekend and something that could only happen in the country, happened. A Sunday "Tractor Run" was on, where farmers gear up their brand new tractors or old vintage models and drive through the countryside at 5mph. Check out pics below...

Yes... they are still coming....

 

And there are so many more I didn't even post! Bet you don't mind ;)

Peadar also had a birthday recently, turning a ripe 27 years of age. But don't say he is getting old, he hates that when people say they are old when they are still plenty young. We decided to have a country-western party "fancy-dress". Fancy-dress for all my Americans, is not dressing up fancy, as in formal, but dressing up for a theme! So we asked everyone to come in full-on plaid shirts, braids, cowboy hats, daisy dukes, you know the style! We cleaned up the apartment nice and pretty, and I even had the local florist do some wheat stalks for me to add to the effect. It was a bit of a farewell party to the apartment too, since we are moving out in a week or so!

Makeshift Bar

Sunflowers, Cadbury Heros Chocolate, "Why Every Man Needs a Tractor" and a Cow Milk Jug (The last two items courtesy of Suzanne Keating. I think my mom sends me anything that has to do with farming, tractors, or Ireland. But we love it!)

Note the wheat stalks. Very important. 

Saloon doors! Too cute!

Now that we are moving out of our place, we have grown to love it even more! Even though we can't wait for the extra space and the upgrades of the new apartment, but 6 The Anchorage, Townyard Lane in Malahide has done us proud. 

Catherine Whyte, Rockin' Out. 

I catered fried chicken, mac and cheese w/ bacon, cocktail sausages and green been salad for the party so my Irish friends could get a taste of good ole' country American cooking. The funny party is I'm from Chicago, which is a city and no where near the south, but for some reason I am obsessed with all things country. I guess it works out that I am dating a farmer then! Who would have guessed? From country club to country pub! I was too busy running around all night to take pics so thanks to Pad's bro Mick's GF Lindsey for the great party pics below:

Peadar and I

Ciaran (Pad's lil bro) and his GF Jane

Pad's Oldest Bro Ned and his wifey Joan

Cousin Dermot and Brother Brian. They're all related around these parts. Big Irish Catholic families!

After Peadar's birthday party I headed straight to London for a business trip. boxPAY were exhibiting at the Digital Content Monetization conference at the Tower Hotel in London. Check out our booth and my colleague Paul below.

We went out for dinner one night to a nearby pub and there was absolutely no one in it! We were the only people eating, it was the strangest thing.

But later we went to a bar called the "Dickens Inn" which was super cute (it looked like an old 19th century hotel) and had loads of people in it. It was on St. Katherine's Docks and there were some pretty sweet sailboats and yachts in the harbor.  

The view from our hotel was straight onto the Tower bridge. I have been to London twice before this, once to sight-see and once to Chelsea for another biz trip. But I never got the chance to actually go into the Tower of London, so on a lunch break Paul and I decided to pop in. 

Toture Device. There was actually a sign in there that said "Torture was actually rare in London back in..." blah blah blah I don't believe it! 

Henry the 8th Suit of Armor

We also went to look at the Crown Jewels, which you are not allowed to take pics of, but I did snap a picture (above) of the vault doors going into the exhibit, which I thought were pretty mission impossible-esque. The jewels were cool, but just seemed so excessive and unnecessary. Just made me think of people sitting pretty on their thrones of gold when there are starving children out there.

When I got back from London, I had scheduled a drivers test for the next day. I can drive on my American license for up to a year, but the insurance is brutally expensive on it and I have already been here 8 months, and it takes like 6 months to get your Irish license. Americans- never complain about the DMV again, Irish bureaucracy can be much worse! First thing, you have to pay 40 quid (slang for money, i.e. Euro)  to take a written exam and get 35/40 questions right. Once you send those results in you can apply for a provisional license, which you have to drive on for 6 months. Then you have to take an independent eye test and apply to a waiting list to take your actual exam. It's a process. So anyway, I made the mistake of scheduling the test less than 12 hrs after I got back from my week-long trip and the result is below:

34/40!! I needed a 35 to pass. Failed by 1 question, 1 stupid question!! Well, no matter, I can still drive anyway for a few more months. I haven't been driving at all since Pad's car is a stick and I only drive automatics. So I solved that problem on Monday by buying my first car completely on my own! No help from parents anymore, I am a real grown up. I feel so old! (Sorry, Peadar).

It's a Suzuki Jimny! Basically, a baby Jeep. If you took my old Jeep from the States and chopped the back half off of it, you would have this little weapon. She's a grand car, and a good fit for me too. I wanted an SUV to sit up high (helps my car sickness on the curvy roads), but here cars in general are much more expensive than the states, especially SUVs. For example a new Ford Focus over here is 22,000 EURO. Yup, you can thank government sales tax for that. On top of that, you have to pay car tax every year as long as you have the car. So in addition to petrol (Americans, read: gas), car insurance, and a car loan, you also have to pay a motor tax. It's the environmentalist mentality as well. For example a 1.3 liter engine has a 333 EURO tax, but a 2.3 liter engine has a 925 EURO tax. Anything 3 liters or higher pays 1,683 EURO in tax, EVERY YEAR. To put that in perspective, a Jeep Cherokee typically have a 2.8L or a 3.2 L engine. So choose your engine size wisely! And pray for me driving on the opposite side of the road over here :)

In other fantastic news, Olive had her baby finally! She was 16 days over her due date! Meet Joesph Edward, a healthy big baby boy at 9lbs 9oz. (Potential nickname oppty: Jedward, for any of you Irish people who know who they are) He's not chubs at all though, just very long. I'd say he's going to be quite tall when he grows up. Conrats to O and Finn :)

Alright, hope you have enjoyed this nice long blog. It's the start of a new year, and there a lot of new Firsts for me here in Ireland. I hope all is going well for my friends and family back home, leave a message and let me know how you are getting on. I will post some pics of our new apartment after we get settled in next week! I'm off to Derry in Northern Ireland tonight for my first swim meet since I've joined the National Aquatic Center's Masters Team. 

Lots of Love,

Amanda

Cars, Cows and Castles!!

Happy Wednesday Everyone! Meant to do a post right after the weekend but work has been very busy!

Well, let me give you some updates. This past Saturday Pad and I went autocross, where his cousins Dermot and Brendan race what is basically an off-road buggy for time against other cars in the Irish countryside. Check out a short video of Bren below:

Buggies lined up...

Team Whyte keeps it all in the family. Jimmy is the Coach and also happens to be their dad, Brothers Bren and Dermot drive as well as work on the car, and their 3 other brothers Hagen, Declan, and Barry serve as pit crew for them on race days!

Haha, Peadar and Dermot caught in the act of... helping a cuz out with the kink in his back!

I was more interested in checking out the cows then the cars...

Peadar looking fancy in my sunglasses at the race:

On Sunday we went for a lovely walk around Malahide, because the weather was so good!

We saw a group of kids windsurfing out on the estuary so we decided to sign up for lessons ourselves! We are going next weekend so I'll let you know how we do :)

We walked up to Malahide castle, which is about 10 minutes from our place. Like having a local pub or bar, in Ireland you can have a local castle! You can go to lunch here, take a tour, visit the parks and grounds, it's really a great spot. 

After our walk we went to go pick up our GAA tickets for the match from Phillo's house. He has two dogs, Clubber and Chopper. This is Chopper:

And Clubber. Doesn't Clubber look like "The Beast" from the Sandlot? 

At the actual game we sang the Irish National Anthem. And by "we", I mean Peadar. Doesn't Irish seem impossible to pronounce? For next game we are going to phonetically spell out the words so I can read it properly. I promise to post a copy here :) And some pics of Croke Park Stadium and the game.

Lastly, Peadar's sister Olive just announced she is expecting a baby! The first one in her family. Peadar is going to be an uncle... Uncle PadMan haha!

Cooking blog later this week, I promise.

XOXO, Amanda