Dunedin Update

Isn't that cute of Ciara's little feet?

Well, it's been beautifully sunny here for the past five days or so. We are not unhappy! Ciara and I capitalized on the balmy weather and had a stroll down to the beach today. We watched the surfers and bathers. There were quite a few people soaking in the sunshine and populating the beach. It's really supposed to be autumn here now but someone's forgotten to turn it on :-).

Woe is me, though, as I leave in four days and will miss everyone here ... not to mention my daily fix of Ciara. And then there is the matter of all the coffees and lunches out ... and the movies and treks to the countryside. There are some great cafes and restaurants in Dunedin - more than you would expect for a city this size.

The photo below is one I took when I happened in on Kate and Ciara lounging around on the chesterfield early one morning. They looked soooo cute.

My last week in New Zealand

This three-month stay has, quite predictably, gone by in a flash. Ciara is now a little over two months old and trying hard to communicate. She smiles quite freely, as you will see from today's video clip - sorry about the orientation - unfortunately, I can't rotate a video clip, so you'll have to turn your screen sideways if you can :-). Kate, Ciara, and I have just returned from a four-day stay in Auckland. Kate attended a conference there and Ciara and I just hung around the hotel and went for long walks with her in her carriage. It was HOT in Auckland - a pleasant surprise.
I'm very pleased with the number of movies I've been able to see while I've been in Dunedin. My movie buddy is my friend Maureen. She's just as keen as I am to work in a movie here and there. The most memorable film I've seen so far is 'The Boy in Striped Pyjamas.' It's definitely not a comedy but it's very well done and certainly worth seeing.
Last month, I planted a lemon tree and a lime tree. They're both bearing fruit and seem to be growing all right. Time will tell.

Cousin Lizzie

This is Lizzie, six months old, with Diarmaid, her dad. Kate and Sean took this video when they were visiting Lizzie and her parents in Wellington recently. Apparently the water is quite cold, so the sounds emitted might be giant shivers :-).

A rainy Sunday afternoon in February

A rainy day provides a good opportunity for some computer catch-up, don't you think? Tomorrow, we leave for Queenstown on the west coast for three days. This will be Ciara's first trip and her mother is presently packing the clothing and equipment needed for the occasion.
I've been baking a little ... almost smoked us out of the house yesterday, though. That's because of the carrot cake I had made for Katie's birthday last Monday. There was leakage ... lots of leakage ... from the baking dish onto the oven floor and when I put the oven on yesterday to do a little baking, the smoke came billowing out with a speed and thickness that were hard to ignore or avoid! I've now cleaned the oven and used it today to make some tarts and banana bread ... the latter is the kids' favourite, I would say. No smoke in evidence today, I'm happy to report :-).
By the way, it's almost autumn here. I was told that it begins around the end of February. No big deal. As long as those days continue to be long, I don't care about the weather. I love the extra hours of daylight though.
Here's another short clip of Ciara. By the way, Ciara calls me 'Grandmere' and she calls Eithne 'Granny.'

Today

Kate, Ciara, and me ... enjoying a rhum and coke expertly prepared by Sean. Not just because of the rhum and coke, but because of her mother's good care and her father's doting, Ciara is thriving and continues to be a most agreeable baby. She eats (drinks), sleeps, and is beginning to look around and take longer breaks between sleeps. She is awfully cute!!!
Kate and Sean are both very well. Sean is off on three weeks of paternity leave - such a great idea! He's busy painting a bedroom at the moment, just on time for Jimmy Rhodes and his daugher Alice's impending visit. They're in New Zealand for three weeks, old friends from Kingston. They will be arriving in a few days.
I'm doing some gardening ... of all things!! The kids have a fairly large, terraced garden that is in need of care and attention. They've hired a gardener and I'm supernumerary. I can weed and mow the lawn. Also, last night I planted two trees: a lemon and a lime. Woohoo!
I hope you will enoy this video of Ciara (pronounced 'Keera', in case you've forgotten). It's from at bath time yesterday.

Dunedin Revisited

I'm just trying this out. Haven't visited this site in a year, since I was in New Zealand last year. Now, I'm motivated to dust this blog off as I have a few video clips of the new baby to publish ... if it works. Ciara (pronounced 'Keera') will be two weeks old tomorrow. She's a lovely little baby - very good-natured and quite beautiful (to our eyes, at least).
I arrived in Dunedin one month ago and have two months left before I set sail for Somerton once again. The time is going altogether too quickly, of course.
We are managing to fill our days with a mix of childcare, little toots into town or to visit friends and, for my friend Maureen and me, loads of trips to the little repertory cinema downtown.
Now, enjoy this little video clip of Ciara and I'll be back soon with more news of us and our escapades.

New Zealand Posting No. 3

There's so much to report that I don't know where to start. I guess I'll begin with what I did yesterday. I left Dunedin by train north along the west coast to a place called Palmerston. Although the journey would only take about 45 minutes by car, the train meanders and climbs and takes double that time - 90 minutes. We started off with views of the Dunedin Port followed by views of the Pacific Ocean, with beautiful mountains thrown in for good measure.

At Palmerston, there was a bus waiting for us and we were driven to the gold mines that are inland and still operating. Actually, some of the 'mines' look like wrecked mountains. They extract the rock and then 'melt' it down so that they can syphon off the gold dust and eventually make gold bars. I find it hard to conceive of rock being melted! But that's what they do.

Lunch was served in an old mining town hotel - a hot dinner that was followed by a delicious dessert.

Eventually, we were driven to a small town where our train was waiting to take us back to Dunedin, via the Taieri Gorge. More spectacularity!!! The little train chugged up steep mountains and ran along a most impressive gorge.

I left at 9:30 a.m. and arrived back at the Dunedin Station at 6:30 in the evening. What a wonderful adventure!!

New Zealand Posting No. 2

Probably like you, I'm busy trying to get Christmas greetings into the mail by the end of this week. I'll still be too late for the deadline but at least my friends will know I was thinking of them at this time. Here is a photo of me taken in Los Angeles. If you look closely, you'll see the famous Hollywood sign in the background. I stayed in Los Angeles for four days enroute from Heathrow to Auckland. The little hiatus helped work off some of the jetlag caused by an eleven-hour non-stop flight ... in preparation for the twelve-hour flight to New Zealand from Los Angeles.

The second photo is of Kate and Sean's house. Almost all of the windows face out toward the inlet and the hills. The views are superb - I feel as though I'm living in a resort! The house is spacious and very comfortable. They love living here but will be moving soon as this was a sabbatical rental and the owners will be returning after Christmas. However, they've already got another home lined up, with comparable views I'm told. We'll see ....

The third photo is one of Kate taken recently. Instead of deer-crossing warnings, they have Kiwi-crossing warnings. Cute!

Kia Ora from New Zealand

This is a long-overdue posting that will be brief as there's too much to catch up on. I'm on a two-month visit to New Zealand to spend Christmas with Kate and Sean who moved here in August of this year. Quite predictably, I'm loving New Zealand. It's spectacular!
Here are a couple of photos to tantalize you.

The first picture is of the view from the mountainside near Company Bay, where Kate and Sean live for the moment. The second picture is of their temporary quarters. The window you see is their living-room window and it overlooks the inlet and hills across the way ... scenery that you want to freeze and carry around. It's truly beautiful.
It's spring here ... lucky me. Nightfall is at around 10 p.m. and the days are getting warmer and warmer. I think I'm lucky to be here at this time of year. However, my friends Sandra and Rodney said that they were in Dunedin (where Kate and Sean live) in January a few years ago. It should have been hot but instead they had hail of a size they had never before experienced. So, we'll see ....

Joy comes to visit

Well, Joy arrived from Kingston for a nine-day stay on March 31st. I met her at King's Cross station in London. We travelled by train to Newcastle to spend a few days with Kate and Sean. From Newcastle, we returned to London where we stayed overnight (thanks to hotwire.com Website, I get fantastic hotel deals) in a Hilton hotel and went to see Porgy and Bess, an excellent musical. It was playing at the Savoy theatre, next door to the Savoy hotel.

Joy lived in London as a child and so she finds it very exciting to be there. We saw a few sights and met with Erich the next day. He came over from Germany. We all travelled to Somerton on good old Berry's Coaches. The drive takes us past Stonehenge ... always a very exciting scene to behold.

We all celebrated Easter together. It was April 8th and we were able to have dinner outside. Brian and Lili were here ... as was Kate! She surprised us by coming down for the weekend. Her very kind friend Shmaila worked all of her shifts for her so that she could spend Joy's last few days in England with her.

The photos: Joy on her first night in Newcastle, Joy/Sean/me on a Newcastle walk, Easter Sunday at Gill's ... there were thirteen of us!

Life on the fly!!!!

This is a quick ... and merciful rendition of what I've been up to. It goes to the end of March. There will be more :-).

It's great to steal a few moments in the early morning to write a little bit about what has been going on in my life lately. It's been fun, it's been hectic, it's been absolutely insane!

Where do I start? Well, after my visit with Judi and George to Kate and Sean's in Newcastle in early February, there was my old Montreal boyfriend Ron Pickering's very brief visit in mid-February. He flew over for five days for his aunt's funeral (she was 92) and then stayed with Gill and me for a few days.

Then, Judi Ryan arrived for nine days in early March. She came over for Crufts dog show (she's a stay-at-home mother of 22 ... Irish Wolfhounds and Ibizans) and to see me. We had a lovely time together.

Right after Judi left (the day after), we had a Korean student for the weekend. She was on a homestay visit - an arrangement whereby foreign students are guests in English countryside homes.

Then, at the end of March, Kate and I had a four-day visit to Kingston as our dear friend Harry Lawson was in hospital and very ill. The good news is that Harry is now recovering. He's defied all the odds, thank goodness!!

That's enough about my activities for now. Here are a few photographs. The first photo is of Kate and Judi Ryan in a pub, poring over Kate's portfolio. The next one is of Gill, the Korean student, our friend Frank, and me. The third is our celebration of Kate's 31st birthday on February 16th. The fourth is a poor-quality photo of Ron and me at Heathrow Airport.

More later ....

News from Somerton

Well, it's almost the end of February ... ouch, what am I saying??? Life does not seem to slow down in this part of the world. Since late December, I have been to Killarney, Cork, and Galway in Southern Ireland, and Derry (Londonderry to some) in the North of Ireland.

Gill and I drove to Bournemouth not too long ago (see earlier posting) to see Brian. Then recently, I travelled to Oxford to meet with my friends Judi and George, on to London with them, and finally we all took a train to Newcastle for a weekend with Kate and Sean. Judi and George are in the photo above, with Sean and me. Kate is taking the picture, so we don't see her. We were visiting Tynemouth, a coastal town located a short metro ride from Newcastle. Judi and George had come to London in late January for a week of theatre, museums, galleries, and some bonding with me (just to provide a healthy balance to all that culture :-). We had a lovely time together which included a concert at St. Martin-in-the-Fields church in central London.

And it doesn't stop there ... my 'nephew' was here for a few days in January, and Gill's niece stays over every week as she's on a course near here. I continue to have my daily walks with Sam and never tire of seeing the beautiful old buildings and the lovely scenery in and around Somerton.

This past weekend, my long-time (he hates it when I say 'old') Montreal friend, Ron, came for a brief visit after he had gone to Birmingham for his aunt's funeral. It was lovely to see him despite the fact that it was a whirlwind visit. He flew back to Montreal yesterday.

Joy will be coming over for a visit at the end of March but Judi Ryan may get here ahead of her by arriving at the beginning of March.

Kate and Sean continue to have a nice (but busy at work!) life in Newcastle. Kate turned 31 (dare I think of it!!) this past Friday. She's still 5 in my mind and imagination.

Keep well, everyone.

Daily Life

Here are a few photos of daily life at Linden Lea, by Tom Tits Lane, Somerton, Somerset. The top one is of Rachel, our friend and close neighbour holding Sam. The next one is of Gill making marmalade (she consumes most of it herself!! - she loooooves it). Then there's me with Sam, and Gill with Joan, Rachel's mother. We were invited to Rachel and Joan's for Sunday lunch when that photo was taken.
I'll try to take more shots (and more candid) of daily life here.

Bournemouth Visit

Yesterday, Gill and I drove to Bournemouth to visit Brian and to see where he studies. He's in his third year of four at the Anglo-European Chiropractic College there. We had a lovely drive - it takes two hours to travel sixty miles as there are numbers ( ... and I mean loads!!) of traffic circles and other time-consuming tricks of the highway. However, the scenery was delightful and the sun was shining. It doesn't get any better than that, right?

We saw Brian's living quarters - he shares a lovely house above a shop with three other 'mature' students. We also had a tour of his college (pictured here). For the catholics amongst you, you may make out that the building is an old convent. In fact, the present-day library is the former chapel and still has niches for statues (one had Priscilla, the human body that you can dismantle, only Priscilla had male appendages in this case), remnants of altars, and stained-glass windows.

We had lunch in a vegetarian restaurant (yum, yum) and also went for a toot by the seaside. It was a most pleasant day. Poor Brian had to put up with introducing the 'two mothers' to all those we encountered in his college. That ordeal should earn him a few notches above a pass mark!!

We're planning to hit the road again soon - after Judi and George's visit - to Oxford this time, to stay in the B & B where Brian and Lili are planning to have their wedding reception. There's no stopping us now! :-)

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' :-).

Hello Kids

January 15, 2007 ... I can't believe it. Where has January gone????? I'm just beginning to accept that it's the beginning of the year 2007, and January is already half over. Yowks!!!
See that building in the photograph? That's Coffey's Loch Lein House Hotel in Killarney. That's where Kate, Sean, and I had rooms. Some of Sean's siblings' friends also had rooms in the hotel. Although it's officially closed until April, since they own the hotel, Sean's parents arranged for us to stay there. They turned on the heat and allowed us the pick of rooms. It feels like living in a Hollywood mansion. All of the windows you see look out on to a lake and an impressive range of mountains. Sean's parents have a beautiful, large home across the road from the hotel. When they travel the few hundred feet from house to hotel (sometimes by car!), they say they're going 'above.' When they leave the hotel for home - you've guessed it - they say they're going 'below.' Cute! Those are very Irish expressions, I think.
I spent ten days in Killarney. Eight of the nine children were home for Christmas. The tenth, Brian, was visiting his sweetheart in Korea (she's there for six months, teaching English). For those of you who know him, Traolach was also there.
Need I mention that I had a memorable Christmas 2006? It was more than I could ever have wished for!

All's well in Newcastle

November visit to Newcastle
I spent the first ten days of November back in Newcastle, visiting with Kate and Sean ... again!!! It was great. We saw two Shakespearean plays - Much Ado About Nothing and King John, the Pirates of Penzance operetta, Lord of the Dance Irish dancing, and three films: History Boys (10/10), The Queen (10/10), and I alone saw Borat (probably 3/10 but very funny in spots). The Irish - mother, father, and three of the nine kids (four if you count Sean and five if you count the fact that we saw Brian in Edinburgh) were over for a visit. They all went to a soccer match. I didn't because I've been to so many in my life, I wanted to leave my seat for someone less fortunate.
The two top photos give a small idea of the beautiful rooflines in Newcastle. The next photo is of the front entrance to Cafe Royale, our favourite place to sit, eat and to drink coffee. The photo beside the one of Kate and Sean is of Eithne, Niamh, Clodagh, Brian, and Eanagh in Edinburgh. We spent the day there ... it's only a little over an hour to get there by train from Newcastle.

A RAMBLE TO REMEMBER
I belong to a group called the U3A (University of the Third Age). It's actually an interest group, with many activities to suit a variety of tastes. The sub-group I belong to offers walks in the country, culminating in a pub lunch. Here's a photo of Wednesday's walk. We walked for five miles with a stop about halfway to climb a tower (referred to as a 'folly') in the middle of a field. We climbed 260 steps and the view from the top of the tower was well worth it. In this photo, my little pinhead is at the back (left). Although you see mostly women in this photo, there were probably five or six men on the ramble. Jasper, the dog, is also a male. The pub where we had lunch was quaint and fitting. What a great day!!

SAM The Cute
I thought I would post a few pictures of Gill's dog, Sam, my fairly constant companion. He dogs my every step :-). As you can see, he's very cute. If you were an acquaintance of Beans many years ago, I'm sure you would agree that Sam looks a lot like him. Sam is a Border Terrier. He loves people and other animals and never barks. Well, that's not quite true. He barks if he's upstairs in my bedroom and he hears the garden gate open and close. Otherwise, we never hear a peep from him. I always expect small dogs to be a bit yappy so his non-barkyness is a bit of a surprise.
Sam and I go for long walks in the countryside and around Somerton almost every day. I think we're fairly equal in our love of these walks. One day, we walked quite far and ended up at a great pub. I hope to repeat that ramble one of these days. The two shandies I had were delicious!!
In these photos, I'm trying to get my bedroom tidied and he's taken over the bed. He loves sleeping with his head on the pillow, just like a human. It's cute.