Where the feck is funghi?

We decided last week to come to Ireland for a week - ahh sure why not? I was a little concerned about all of our luggage on the cheap Ryanair flight since we had quite a bit with us. It was the first time I have been told by a check in staff to try and transfer the heavier items into our cabin luggage so that we wouldn't have to pay as much excess! I think the cute baby card helped - we got Lily out of her stroller and put her in front of the check-in staff so we were greeted with oohs and aahs rather than the usual (low) level of customer service. It's amazing how much nicer people are to you when you have a cute smiling baby in your arms!

We spent a couple days with Sandra, Niall, Michael and Liam in Mountshannon in County Clare in their new mini-mansion. What a lovely house and they certainly did spoil us while we were there. Visited Galway, the Cliffs of Mohr (didn't get out of the car...it was raining and we've seen it before!) and Lahinch - the surfing spot for Ireland. It was so good to spend time with Sandra and the family after not seeing her for over five years. I originally met Sandra when she was contracting at one the companies I worked for, Wall and Madison, all those years ago.

Sandra with Lily

Lily with Liam(2months) and Michael (18months) Heffernan - yes, Lily is pulling Liam's hair!

Sandra and Vanessa

What a small place Ireland is....there we were buying nappies (as you do) in Dunnes supermarket in Ennis and we run into Anthony Collins' uncle Patrick with Catherine and Roisin! We met them at Bec and Anthony's wedding in April. They live a few hours away in County Sligo and were just passing through Ennis after a few days in Lahinch which is where we were on our way to! It was great to have a chat over a very ordinary hot chocolate.

From Mountshannon we drove down to Dingle to be greeted by Paul Dineen lying flat on his back - he hurt his back carrying a boat (or was that single-handedly trying to stop the boat rolling down a hill?!). This visit to Dingle was very different to when I lived there for three months over five years ago but it was so wonderful to be back there - I realised how much I love Dingle. For a population of over 1500 people there are over 50 pubs! And no, we didn't see Funghi the dolphin.

We were of course in Ireland for the All Ireland hurling championships with Limmerick vs Kilkenny. Apart from in Kilkenny the whole country was going for Limmerick since they were the underdogs and of course we love the underdogs. Michael enjoyed the game with Paul and I went upstairs to put Lily to sleep and then fell alseep myself so missed the whole game. If you know me you will know that sleep is more important than almost anything! btw Kilkenny won.

We were stuck in a traffic jam!

View of Dingle from Connor Pass

Paul (lying horizontal) with Lily

Lily and daddy overlooking Killarney Lakes

It's Michael's birthday today and we are now in Dublin. We had dinner with Trish (my old flatmate) and new hubby Stephen last night at my old fav Cafe Bar Deli. We enjoyed a walk around Dublin today, visiting the old haunts....Grafton Street and Henry Street (but was not allowed to buy anything since we have way too much luggage but Michael has promised Lily and I that we can go shopping crazy in France - not sure he is prepared for those credit card bills!). Michael also got to meet Claire who I used to work with at the Ulster Bank once upon a time when we were looking into non-resident accounts. Claire still works for the Ulster Bank and also recently got married. We went to Cafe en Siene for afternoon tea and went for a walk around Stephens Green....ahh the memories - it was great to show Michael and Lily around Dublin for the day.

Time to go and pack (again) for our flight to Marseille tomorrow morning - we need to check in for our flight at 5am! That is going to hurt. We are really looking forward to beginning our three months in the south of France - are you jealous yet?!