Sláinte!

Prior to two days ago, my knowledge of Irish people consisted of watching reruns of Father Ted, that movie about a dead guy who wins the lotto, reading Angela’s Ashes, and a couple of fairly depressing filims about the IRA… We didn’t go anywhere near ‘Craggy Island’, so I couldn’t possibly comment on Ted & Co, but on the whole, it was much as I’d imagined; Dublin is a beautiful city, the countryside is lush and the people are very friendly – with the best accent ever!

Not surprisingly, as many people had warned us, our Ryanair flight was delayed, and it was already pretty late on Friday night, so not the best start, but it tied in quite nicely with my plans to go late-night club hopping in Temple Bar with Kent… yeah, right.
After a comfy, if too short, night’s sleep in our rather luxurious hotel, we hit the footpath to wander into the centre of town… in the rain, ick! It stopped almost as soon as we got to town though, and the rest of the weekend was actually pretty nice - phew.
We took the hop-on, hop-off bus tour of the city – a nice way to check out the sights and decide what we wanted to see later… which led us to a tour of Kilmainham Gaol, the onetime home of some of our Australian neighbours’ ancestors. It also held the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916, most of whom were executed within days of being arrested… a major landmark in Irish republican history. Our guide was really passionate and she made the whole thing quite real, and I have to confess that I had a lump in my throat in some places; it was very moving… certainly wouldn’t recommend it if you’re looking for a pick-me-up!

We had dinner in a quite little traditional pub just off the Temple Bar, minus the hoardes of hens-parties… complete with a ‘Smokers Beer Garden’ which really meant a covered in area that collected smoke and sent it back inside to the rest of us – nice! If there’s one huge difference we’ve noticed on this side of the world, it’s how many people smoke, and how much less hysterical non-smokers are about it; not sure if that’s a good thing though…
Next day was a bit of a rush to get going in time to get to the bus stop for our tour out to Malahide Castle and the Coast… bed was a bit too comfy and we overslept! We did get there in the end, and it was worth the hurry, as Malahide is a beautiful castle, which was lived in until the mid-70s when the last owner had to sell up to pay inheritance taxes, then she high-tailed it to Tasmania… it must have broken her heart to sell the home her family had lived in for a staggering 900 years! Kent was in his element, and managed to find out that they still hire out the Grand Hall for banquets, complete with string quartet, for the teensy sum of €3000 plus €75 per head for minimum of 30 people, so I think it might be a while before we can afford that (but it would be a pretty amazing experience…). We also headed to Howth, for a wicked view over Dublin Bay – lucky the sun was out, and we could see quite a way across. We also saw the school where U2 met (they’re very proud of their rock music protégées in Dublin) and heard a few great (and some tall) tales from our guide.

You may wonder why there are no photos… keep reading and all will be revealed.

Our afternoon was somewhat more adrenalin-filled; we took a ‘Sea Safari’ out of the River Liffey and into the Irish Sea in an RIB (rigid inflatable boat – those open ones that bounce around like nobody’s business in the waves – eek!), around Dalkey Island, Dun Laoghaire and the Muglins… which sounded JK Rowling-esque enough to keep me happy. It was quite exhilarating – not something I thought I would love, but I did – and sooo much better than a boring/sedate cruise up and down the Liffey.

From there it was a short wander to the bus station, past a canoe polo game we stumbled across en-route, to get to the airport… where I lost our camera.

Yup. Lost our camera… bother… or something stronger.

Needless to say, there wasn’t much joviality on the plane home. After a similarly quiet drive, we arrived back in Ipswich about 12.30am; not the nicest with Monday morning looming at work for both of us… and still no camera.

It’s not all bad, though. Someone found the camera and handed it in (which was lovely, am so incredibly grateful to whoever it was – hopefully lovely things happen to them) and it’s now winging it’s way back to us in time for our drive to the continent in less than two weeks… so I will post the photos soon.

Take care,
Kent & Eryn x

Bank Holiday

Who knows exactly why they have it - but the first Monday in May is a bank holiday... I think it's their equivalent of Labour Day, but not 100% sure.

To celebrate, we burnt some fossil fuel and took a cruisy drive to Bury St Edmonds, which is about 30 mins away from Ipswich. Quite possibly every person we've spoken to since we arrived has encouraged us to visit there, and we've finally made it. It was another lovely warm day, no doubt due to the aforementioned fossil fuel burning, (although we're both still finding it weird to have this time of year getting warmer instead of colder... not that we're complaining) and yet another place to add to the list of places to go back to, but it's easily the prettiest town we've found in Suffolk, with a Gothic cathedral, ruined Abbey, and public Abbey gardens... photos are here:
The British go a bit crazy when it starts to get warm - you can bet your bottom dollar (or pound, I suppose) that as soon as the mercury is over 18, the blokes have their tops off... whether they have the bod for it or not. Seriously, they do. I counted 21 in Bury alone... I stopped after that, and have decided that it's just part of the culture and I should stop judging - good luck with that one, huh.

After that we went to Pakenham Water Mill, just outside Bury, which was recorded in the Domesday Book. The current mill was built in the 18th C and is still operational - in fact, we've just eaten dumplings with our dinner made from flour milled there! We had a guided tour of the mill and its surrounds, and managed to blow a few ₤ on second-hand books, not quite what we were expecting to buy at a mill that dates back to 9 hundred and something!
Kent & Eryn x

Ahoy there

Hi! Busy couple of weeks behind us, and it's fair to say we're both completely over this 9-5 malarkey! Managed to celebrate Anzac Day, albeit only with a couple of poppies, not a dawn service, and even then, I had to enter some fairly longwinded negotiations with the RBL (the equivalent of the RSA) to get hold of them, as they don't like them being worn outside of Remembrance time, which is November... I did suggest the woman I spoke to might like to remember that other countries fought in the war too, and that we were all on the same side. She was not amused by this stage. Neither was I, but after a bit more explaining (I honestly thought they would know about Anzac Day, being a vets organisation, but apparently not) she did let me have a couple of poppies (which are rubbish compared to the ones at home). Really, you'd think I'd asked for two of her children, not a couple of bits of paper and plastic!

We have been getting better at not wasting our time away from the office and last weekend we headed up to Norfolk (the next county over from us) to go boating on the Broads, which are a series of canals/lakes created in the Middle Ages when England had a desire to burn peat like it was going out of fashion, so they dug lots of it up, leaving bloody great big holes, which have filled as the sea level has risen.
Thank goodness they did, really, because it was quite fun - Kent even let me control the boat for some of the journey - brave, given that it's all the opposite to what we're used to: steering wheel on the left, keep to the right, etc. To be fair though, at a speed of 5mph max, there wasn't too much danger... and we did manage to pull a couple of what might loosely be termed 'donuts', but they're a bit less spectacular at 4mph. It may also have been good practice for when we take the car over to France, Belgium and Luxembourg at the end of the month - eeek!
Being spring, the trees are looking a lot less skeletal than when we first arrived, and there were lots of baby things around, ducklings following their mums into the water and the like, and it was all rather lovely (and interesting too, Kent informs me)...
Along the way we encountered pirates... the stag party variety, who'd decorated their boat with Jolly Rodger flags and dressed up (which I've suggested to Kent for my next birthday celebration)...the Ice Cream boat, which is like a Mr Whippy, only on the water - especially brilliant, as it was by far and away the warmest day of the year so far - I even managed to stay in tshirt, shorts and jandals all day - hooray... and some of the cutest thatched roof cottages. It's not hard to see why it's a very popular area in the summer, our photos are here:


We both agree that, if we're being impartial, Norfolk is quite a bit prettier than Suffolk, though we won't be saying that out loud anytime soon.
We headed up the same way yesterday, to King's Lynn, about an hour and a half away from home, to have a nosey but we forgot to take the camera - oops! It used to be the third largest port in England and has ties to Admiral Lord Nelson, who led the English to victory (and promptly died in the final moments) in the Battle of Trafalgar. Princess Diana went to primary school there, and it's about 6 miles away from Sandringham, where the Queen lives sometimes... We didn't go there though, as I was in my jandals and in no state to be having tea and cucumber sammies with her majesty - as we share a birthdate, I feel sure she would have invited us in for high tea. With no camera to prove our new friendship either, it would have been a journey wasted, so we'll save it for next time.
On our way home we visited the Wash, where Kent suggested we wait until after a gigantic ship had gone past before we left. Whilst it was indeed an interesting sight, the resulting waves which came up and onto the marshes where we were standing were less exciting and more, err, marshy. Our last stop was Castle Acre, which, as you might guess from the name, has a castle - one which is falling down and was therefore free to visit. It's also the home of our favourite pub so far, 'The Ostrich', so we'll definitely head up that way again soon.
Kent has also requested that I mention the football - he's been at the Ipswich Town v Hull game this afternoon, which everyone (well, me) thought was a foregone conclusion, as Hull are at the top of the league and Town have been floating around the middle... but it was a Town 1-0 victory, so he is happy - although he informs me there were a couple of questionable refereeing decisions, but hey, his team won, and could still make the playoffs (if lots of others lose, and if you stand on your left leg, and poke your right eye with a wooden spoon, I imagine), so it's all good.
That's us for now, we're off on our mystery trip next weekend, so will be in touch soon.
Kent & Eryn x

Best Boyfriend EVER!

Last Monday was Eryn’s birthday. Some of you might have heard!

On Saturday, with the great help of Angus & Janet and Dave James, DJ to the stars, we had her surprise birthday party…

Okay… Kent did write a blog about my surprise party last weekend, but he was a bit modest and really played the whole thing down… so I’ve deleted and replaced it with what really happened:
I really am soooo unobservant… so many chances for me to figure it out, and still I was completely oblivious!
Angus and Janet (Kent’s cousin and his wife) came up from London for the weekend… had a good time with them on Saturday as Kent had to ref a game of football (or so I thought)… went to Framlingham Castle (for the second time in three days… this time to pick up the football that Kent had kicked over the castle wall when he was playing sillybuggers with his cousin Thomas a couple of nights earlier – oops, his bad) and for a bit of a tiki tour of Suffolk…
Kent had said he’d be home around 6.15pm (which, in hindsight, seemed an awfully long time after he said the game started, but being the trusting lamb that I am, it didn’t occur to me that something might be up), so we mucked around till about then and headed home… with Angus covertly calling ahead to alert HQ – which again, I didn’t really pick up on… don’t think MI5 will be recruiting me anytime soon!
They even made sure I reached the door first, only to open it to a number of my friends yelling ‘Surprise!” which was, well, a surprise! I have always secretly hoped someone would throw me a surprise party, but it’s not exactly the kind of thing you say out loud, is it, otherwise it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it? So, I was pretty damn pleased… especially considering Kent’s dislike of surprises, drinking and general partying… I think after I’d had a couple of vodkas, I may have mentioned to both Kent and virtually everyone else present (as well as my parents on the phone) what a lovely/wonderful/insert flattering adjective here boyfriend he is… He also made a rather spectacular cake and arranged for fireworks too… BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!
A few photos are there if you click on the picture of the cake:

Take care,

Kent & Eryn x