Ireland Trip 2008: Table of Contents

This is a kind of Table of Contents on-the-go of our 3-week trip around Ireland, so that you don’t miss out on any posts relating to it.
Photo album on Picasa:

Photos of Ireland

Before we left:

Cartwheels of Joy (11 March 2008)
Driving on the left or the right? (19 March 208)
Learning a wee bit of Irish (14 April [...]

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Distances cross-country

To give you an idea of the size of the island of Ireland (that’s including Northern Ireland AND the Republic of Ireland), I consulted the route planner of the helpful Automobile Association of Ireland:

If you were to drive from the almost northernmost point (Malin Head) to the almost southernmost point (Mizen Head) (see here for [...]

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Barry’s Tea and Irish Scones

After recovering from the little episode of the squeaking suitcase wheels with a little naplet, we were eager to explore Dublin.
We emerged into rush hour traffic. Hm… not so good. Slightly shell-shocked by the number of sirens*, we found our way to the brandnew Science Gallery Cafe, where we had our very first Irish Tea [...]

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The tale of the squeaking wheels

From Dublin Airport, we took the Aircoach* (forking out a stomach-churning E7.00 per person for the privilege – that’s like ZAR170.00, ouch! Gotta stop converting to Rands!) into Central Dublin.
At last, we arrived at College Green (which is not a ‘Green’ at all anymore, but probably one of the busiest intersections in the city centre). [...]

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Driving around a bilingual country

In case you don’t know it, Ireland has two official languages: English and Irish Gaelic. In the last few months I’d been trying to learn a wee bit of Gaelic in the (as it turns out rather pointless) hope of nattering away with the locals in their home language. Not that I’d achieved ANY level [...]

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Touchdown!

The moment I had dreamed about for years had come at last. The green-and-white Aer Lingus plane was crossing the Irish Sea, which was hidden under a layer of white clouds so impenetrably solid I could imagine walking across it. My popping ears signalled that we were descending. And suddenly we were in the middle [...]

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The saga of the keyboard

We have just bought ourselves a new computer.
Among other things, the software I wanted to run to create snazzy-looking video clips with accompanying soundtrack was placing too many demands on the system, and annoyingly hanging it in the middle of processing. And it had become increasingly sluggish – as happens when one installs an assortment [...]

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The impact of the world financial crisis on South Africa

This is a link to a very positive and encouraging article on one of my favourite websites about South Africa (http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/) about the impact that the current world financial crisis might have on South Africa. Or, might not. Depending on whether you believe the writer of said article, one Ian Mcdonald.
I particularly like the title: “America [...]

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On the downside…

The downside of being away for three weeks – and of not mowing the lawn for about 2 months because we were just too busy – is that this is what happens:
Add to that the fact that September to December is major-league hayfever season in Cape Town, and I am not a happy camper. ’scuse [...]

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Flowers, flowers everywhere

When we returned from our visit to Ireland, we were astounded by the abundance of flowers blooming in our garden. There was stuff flowering that hadn’t flowered in a year and that we thought had withered away!

Black eyed susans

Pink geranium

Colourful pansies

Pretty pink flowers

Small white daisies

Big yellow daisies

And the herbs, most of which I had either [...]

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