Sunday 15 April 2012

Ireland, the last week

April 7, Saturday
I woke up around 7:30am, took a shower, and went downstairs. I put some pastries that we’d picked up yesterday into the oven at low to heat up. We also had bread and scones. After breakfast we stayed inside mostly, read, talked, etc. We had lunch, which was leftover supper. After lunch we took off for a walk. Uncle Bill went off towards the lighthouse, Lydia, Lynnea, Londa and Josiah went off to find sheep. I was writing a song so I stayed home. After I finished writing my song I took my iPod and went out. I got some sprints in and also explored one Island that connects to ours at low tide. Then I went out to meet the others. From a long distance away (1mile) I saw what looked like Josiah and Lydia in the mud, not moving. So, I figured they would need my help and I took off. I passed Lynnea on my way down who, saw them, but figured by the time she got down there they wouldn’t need the help. LOL At one point they got out, and then got stuck again. I finally made it down to the water, but they were up and making they’re way to me. When I met up with them I saw that Josiah had mud up to his waist and he was wearing his favourite clothes. A t-shirt he bought as well as his new jumper. It was low tide and they’d tried to cross over and that didn’t work out so well. We learned later from Patrick that that is the trickiest mud and will really get you stuck, he was very surprised that Josiah got both boots out of the mud! They came down towards the house and rinsed off in the channel that was waist deep at low tide. Around 4:30pm Josiah and Uncle Bill took the boat out to make GPS tracks for Paul to use. We (I and the three girls) watched Inkheart and 17 Again. For supper we had a German dish: pasta, eggs and bacon cooked together. It was quite good. After supper we played Up and Down the River. It was quite fun, mostly because several times I had the highest trump cards! : ) After the game was over I rolled out sticky buns for breakfast. Around 11pm I went to bed.
April 8, Sunday
I woke up around 6am, put the sticky buns in the oven to warm up, and went back to sleep. I got up at 7:00am and turned the oven up to cook them.We had breakfast a little before 8am. We left at 8:30am to go to the mainland. We found internet and got the address of a reformed church in Galway. So we went south 1.5 hours to Galway. We couldn’t find the church, so we asked some bikers who were at a Petrol Station. One guy new where it was and went ahead after giving us directions. We followed and came to the church. We were just a little bit early. We met one lady there who was very nice. After the service we had tea with them (which is coffee after church in the US). Then we took the scenic route back to Westport. We stopped by a really cool castle. Probably the coolest site I’ve seen so far! It was a small castle but it still had the wall much in tack, the moat, and the castle building it’s self was awesome! It had four stories and a spiraling staircase to get to each floor. It had arrow holes everywhere, the banquet hall fireplace, murder holes, it was fantastic! After about 30min we left. We stopped at a craft shop and we picked up some stuff, mugs, t-shirts, etc. We went to the Pub where we had internet, got some chips, sent some emails. I meant to post a blog post with the next several days, but completely forgot. I remembered to look up everything else, but forgot about posting on my blog. We left around 8pm, after walking to the Post Office and sending some post cards. Patrick brought the boat, we dropped him off at his house, and we made it to the house by around 8:30pm. Most people were not all that hungry, so we warmed up leftovers and I made popcorn. We played Ticket to Ride (the European version) and I won. Which wasn’t surprising as I’ve played it a lot more times than anyone else. I cam in at 127 points and the next highest person was about 30 points behind. We went to bed around 12am
Monday, April 9
I woke up at 8am. For breakfast we had Muesli. After breakfast we played Sorry. After a small lunch we took a walk at low tide over to Patrick’s Island . They were putting up a new fence. They invited us for tea. So Josiah and I headed back to the house to get Uncle Bill. At least 1.5mile distance. Josiah went along the coast where the terrain was easier but a long distance, and I went along the grass. My route was more up hill and I had to jump fences and go through thorns, but it was shorter. The sunny day was soon overtaken by a rain cloud and severe wind blowing me away from the directions I’m going. Then it started hailing as well. So, now I’m being driven back with rain and hail and being pelted in the face and hands. I make it to the last fence and I’m just going over when my shoe comes off. So I have to go back over the fence, get my shoe and clamber back over again. I made it back before Josiah, by around 3 minutes. I found Uncle Bill wasn’t in the house, he’d gone to collect muscles. So, Josiah arrives, were both soaking wet, and Uncle Bill isn’t here.We both change our clothes and then see Uncle Bill coming up to the house. We met him and told him that Patrick had invited us over for tea. He washed the muscles he’d gotten, and then took a shower and changed, because he too had gotten soaked. First Paul calls Uncle Bill to catch up, make sure everything is going okay, then Patrick calls to say that he just finished the fence and to come on over. So after he called Paul back and we are all changed we walk back over to the Island to Patrick’s house. Padraig (pronouced Poor- Ik), the Irish form of Patrick, showed us the barn and the cows they raise. Then we had tea with them, met his mother. Around 5:15pm Padraig took us out and showed us his chickens, the dogs, their garden, and their two donkeys. Then Patrick took us home in their big boat. The whole time they were joking about us having to swim back because the tide had come in and covered the path that we’d taken that connected the two Islands. We got back around 6pm. Uncle Bill and I made supper. We had muscles as the first course, and then we sautted vegetables and mushrooms with the ground beef and cooked it. We had it over pasta for supper. We also had salad and Cabernet Sauvignon. After supper we played Wild Uno, a version Lynnea taught us. Uncle Bill played and it was really fun! Afterwards Josiah, Lyida and I talked for a little while. At 11:30pm I went to bed.

English Vintner

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