A visit to Derry, N. Ireland

On December 30th, after having had a lovely holiday in the south of Ireland, I travelled north to Derry. I invaded Leona and Ib Banat and their four children ... plus Ib's cousin Ramsi and Aleksandra, Ramsi's girlfriend. I had not seen the Banats since 1995, the year I left the Emirates. At the time I last saw them, Malik was 10, Lyali was 8, Jareer was 5 (I think) and Aiya was 6 months. They were very cute little kids. Now (still very cute), they range in age from 21 to 12. It took a little adjustment on my part to reconcile these big kids with the little ones they had been!
Unfortunately, all of the photos I took on that trip were on a card that was corrupted (don't ask me how that happened - it's sooooo disappointing!!) so I don't have any of my own photos to post. However, the two photos I copied from the Internet give an idea of how beautiful Derry is. If you click on these images, they expand to give an even better view of Derry.
I had a lovely time with Leona and Ib and 'entourage.' Their home (it's a mansion!!) is on a lake and they are in the heart of the countryside while being only a few minutes' drive from the center of the city.
We celebrated New Year's Eve together ... I was there for four days. We also celebrated Malik's 21st birthday.
Malik and Lyali are both studying medicine. They're at University of East Anglia in Norwich. Jareer and Aiya are still in high school, a lovely building on spacious grounds in the heart of Derry. Leona took me on a comprehensive tour of Derry, including the kids' school, her old school, her church, and her old neighbourhood. There's so much history (some of it quite turbulent) and the old buildings are beautiful and well preserved.
Between my time in Killarney and my foray into Derry, this will have been a Christmas and New Year celebration that will be impossible to match!
By the way, Ib and Ramsi did most of the cooking while I was staying with the Banats ... and it was not only delicious, it was artistically presented. Those two are talented cooks and they played Arabic music as they cooked meals of gourmet standards. It was fun to watch them and to listen to them sing along with the music.
I sure hope that we manage to see more of one another. If we wait another 11 years, I'll be 77 and the kids will be in their thirties and twenties. That's 'not on' :-).