Home again

There really is something special about boarding that last aircraft for the final leg home. The trip home from Ireland was long. 8 hours or so from Dublin to Abu Dhabi, a few hours in the airport there, then another 8 hours odd to Johannesburg. We flew Etihad which has to be the most pleasant economy class travel around. You actually have leg room, they feed you continuously and the list of movies and TV programmes is endless. I hardly sleep on a plane so the entertainment was great and time passed quickly.

Ireland is lovely – what can I say about it? Well, the country-side is lush and green, and green and green and green. We missed spring but there were still plenty of little buttercups and daisies, irises, poppies and other flowers to provide a welcome break to the green grass, hedges and trees. There are lots and lots of sheep and cows dotting the landscape. We mostly kept to all the little back roads; travelling at about 80kph max on these well maintained roads we went from the east coast (Dublin side) to the west coast, down south a bit to county Dingle then across to the west cost again to a beautiful nature reserve in the Wicklow area. Then back to cousins in a small town outside of Dublin called Malahide.

We did a great deal of milage, hiking, walking around small towns, some cities and villages. Every place we went to was neat and clean and mostly pretty. Always lots of pubs and the buildings are painted in bright colours. No litter – in fact: some of the towns proudly display their awards for the ‘most litter free town in 20??’. There are No Dumping signs all over the place and you will get a 3000euro fine if you are caught dropping your trash. The towns and cities are festooned with hanging baskets of flowers – they are glorious and I just wish I knew what their secret is to doing this so well. The people are really friendly; they are interested in you and ask lots of questions about where you come from, what you do and so on. And they speak English – well sort of. There were some times when you just had to say “what? Please say that again”.

I also think the Irish have a ‘charming gene’…they are very charming; but it is so nice to be around charming polite people. Even their drivers are charming and polite. At a zebra or other pedestrian crossing they stop for you – this took a bit of getting used to! Driving on the same side of the road as us is a bonus – they have lots of roundabouts and being on the same side of the road makes this much easier. (I rode a bike in France and would hold my breath when I had to ‘do’ a roundabout there – quite terrifying!)

Whenever I get back I tell myself that that is that for the next few years. But already I am planning my next trip – not sure where yet but Bhutan is quite high on my list. But in the meantime it is back to work tomorrow…

Photos:

1.      We went on a fabulous walk in the Burren – a spectacular spot on the west coast. Oliver Cromwell went into Ireland he said of the Burren (and I para-phrase: there is not enough water to drown them nor enough trees to hang them and not enough soil to bury them – charming fellow)

2.      A huge field of poppies – it was jaw-dropping!

3.      Hanging baskets – I like the cone shape.

Packing for Ireland

 Lisa and I fly out of Johannesburg on Monday night for Dublin, via Abu Dhabi. Am I excited?  Yes I am…. This holiday has been in the planning stage since mid January and now that it is just about here I can’t keep the excitement butterflies down.

For the last 2 weeks I have been checking the Irish weather reports; hoping that by looking at 3 different sites I might get a better report than: nice warm weather with a high of 18 degrees… Nice? Warm? One of the Irish guys we are meeting up with says they almost strip naked when the temperature reaches 20.

And who are these Irish guys? Well, they are people Lisa has met from adventure races in various parts of the world and they have opened their houses and handed out invitations to us whilst we are there – it promises to be a nice social time. Lisa is racing in the 24 hour Rogainne with one of them and he will meet us when we arrive. I also have long lost cousins with whom we will be staying – after all the sporadic letters and emails over the years it will so nice to meet fact-to-face.

So far all the packing has been done in my mind. Suitcases, backpacks and so on can only be hauled out of storage on Monday because little Bracken cat gets quite anxious. We have Sarah coming to look after her for most of the time, but Sarah has to go off to race in Slovenia 4 days before we get back. Then Jess and Kate (my neighbour’s daughters) will be coming to look after her. The house is fine – it doesn’t need looking after – just Bracken and it is quite reassuring to know that she will have these attentive girls to care for her.

I am off first thing this morning to finalise the medical kit. I like to know that I can cover any emergency like removing an appendix or performing open heart surgery. Needless to say, Lisa then chucks out about 90% of my kit; I guess I have to concede that I have never died or had to remove an appendix on my travels - yet!

 After my Camino walk I know that I can get away with a very small amount of clothing – so my list is very small and everything very practical. I think my suitcase will weigh in at about 15kgs and that includes my 3 rather large guide books.

At the back of one of the books are some handy Irish phrases like “Dia dhuit” (pronounced jee-a dich) which means Good day. My firm favourite which I think I will use frequently is: “Ta me I mo idirgalacht-ach bhithiunach” which means “I am an inter-galactic space criminal”  Hahaha – someone had a sense of humour when compiling this list.

And Max, shown in the picture here, will accompany us. He was tucked away in a small pocket of my back pack on my Camino walk. He is tiny, about 5cm high, and his tough guy image is comforting. Nice little travelling companion!

Stay well and happy!

DAY 15

For the past few years Lisa has set herself a challenge: to run every day, come rain or shine, for x number of days. The x number of days depends on how old she is going to be. So this year she will be 36; so 36 days prior to her birthday she begins this challenge and challenges friends to join her.

It is quite hard to do this – there is stuff to do and you end up juggling things to make sure you can run every day. Lisa knows a guy in Hong Kong who has run every day for the past 15 years - isn't that totally amazing?

This year I took up the challenge. I am not running, only walking and really getting into the swing of it - it is now 15 days of walks every day. And I must confess, getting a tad obsessive about it. I said to Lisa the other day that while we are in transit in Abu Dhabi we can do a quick speed walk around the transit area for an hour! We finish the challenge in Ireland on the 18^th June – Lisa birthday and we will probably carry on walking everyday for a bit after that.

Someone commented that I shouldn’t find this difficult having walked every day for 6+ weeks on the Camino last year with a lot more mileage everyday than I am doing now…but all I had to do then was walk every day. Back home one has to deal with TIME…fitting everything in. It gets difficult.

And the thing that keeps me going? Well, there is nothing like a challenge, a mission, a goal to keep you focused.

What I like about art

Whilst this Zuma art thing is a hot topic I thought I would put some of my thoughts and feelings down about ‘what I like about art’.

When I stand in front of a Caravaggio I want to weep and sometimes have wept. The first time I visited Sainte Chapelle in Paris I sobbed very loudly and just the thought of the place brings on the tears. When I gaze up at Victory my heart stops…. my jaw is on the ground and my knees turn to jelly when I stand in front of Monet’s water lilies…..

I also love things that amuse me and make me laugh. I love the idea of an every day object being used as art….the pictures below of a good old clothes peg and a couple of fried eggs amuse me no end and I could just kick myself that when I owned a lovely white carpet I didn’t throw some yellow cushions on it….And the clothes peg – well, if my garden was big enough I would have one.

But back to the furore over the Zuma painting; I first heard about it on 702 news whilst driving home after work. I think ‘guffaw’ is the right word to describe my reaction, I guffawed, and then had lots of chuckles and giggles and I hadn’t even seen the painting! I found the idea of this painting really funny and was (am) especially amused by the reaction from the ruling party.

So in a discussion over lunch with friends yesterday I listened really patiently while Fred expounded on the respect that should be given to the office of the president blah blah blah. But I can’t go with this argument anymore – if the office wants respect from me then it should up the ante a bit, actually quite a lot, and then it might get the nod. And the president – well, as far as I am concerned he should have been completely naked in the painting - he asked for this…hahahaha. Yeah for Brett Murray and the Goodman Gallery – thanks for the laugh!

You just have to enter

Do you know that I recently won 2 return tickets to Ireland?….Yip I did. I entered a competition just before Christmas and they phoned me on the 13^th January, which co-incidentally was a Friday, to give me the good news. So, this time in 4 weeks Lisa and I should be at ORT waiting to board our plane. My little stash of air miles paid for the car hire so I feel the whole transport thing is a nice tidy free gift. We are spending 18 days there; will do a lot of hiking and walking and Lisa will participate in a 24 hour Rogainne at a place just south of Dublin. And we get to meet some long lost Irish cousins. It is going to be a good holiday.

So how / why did I enter this competition? I heard the ad on the radio on my way into work and thought “that sounds good”. Did a quick entry via their website and thought no more about it. I guess someone had to be a winner and the lucky winner was me – but only because I entered and the rest was really up to chance!

Anyway: this morning a lady phoned me to tell me that I have won yet another prize….this time a huge hamper of anti-aging beauty products valued at quite a substantial amount of money – and let me tell you that with a milestone birthday coming up, it is most welcome.

So how /why did I enter this competition? Well I saw the ad on a magazine and thought ”could sure do with some of that” and did a quick entry via the internet and thought no more about it.

When I told my boss about this today he said ”Liz, take money from petty cash and go and buy some lotto tickets” and he meant it. However, I will take my own money and buy the tickets – I am not sure of legal aspects of buying with the company money – I mean who owns the winnings then? Hmmmm.

Lucky me!

I really don’t enter many competitions. I only enter a competition if I like the prize… I mean what the heck would I do with a lawn mower or a braai or a new fangled oven glove? I just wouldn’t dream of having something like that, but something like free air tickets and anti-aging products (hope they work) are right up my street.

Over the past 18 months – 2 years I have won the following prizes: a complete set of crystal wine glasses for just about every conceivable type of wine invented – each set for 4 people. A really enormous, just about 5 ton ceramic bowl that takes up just about the entire dinning room table – well it did until my domestic worker somehow managed to let it fall off the table. A designer bottle of Evian water – bottle is really lovely – the water…well was water! (in this instance I did enter the competition for the bottle). And worst of all there are a couple of other little things that I can’t remember. I liked the prizes so I entered the competition.

I don’t by the way, win every competition I enter….I didn’t win amazing sewing machines valued at R40,000 for example; despite or maybe because of, sending in about 3,000 entries…only kidding, but I did send in a lot more than 1 entry for that one.

The moral of the story is: if you don’t enter you cant win…as with most things in life (just thought I would tag that last bit on *grin*)

Tomorrow I am going to buy a fistful of lotto tickets…you just never know.

Princess

I must confess that if anyone else tells me that someone is a ‘real princess’ I think I will bop them on the nose – the teller, not the ‘princess’. This is one title I can't stand.

And why I ask myself, do I get so antsy about the ‘princess’ comments? Well, after a lot of soul searching I think it is because it implies that I need to tread carefully in the presence of a princess - in case I upset the ‘princess’ or say something that might set her off on a little tantrum or something, treat her differently to the way I treat others.

Why should I pussy foot around someone because she has been labelled a ‘princess’? I find this unacceptable especially as she has, usually, acquired this label because she is self-centred, arrogant, obnoxious, expects people to run around her and is generally quite a precious little soul who behaves badly. By labeling people, we are actually condoning this behavior.

I thought though, that seeing that Princess Anne is in SA at the moment, I would mention a cool princess thing I saw her do. A few years ago I was in London at the time of the Trooping the Colour for the Queen’s birthday. It was pouring with rain that day, almost monsoon like rain coming down. The parade ground was at least ankle deep in water and every time the guards did a foot stomp they created mini fountains. The Queen was sitting on a little dais which had a canopy so she was ok. The rest of the family were in their regimental uniforms on horseback behind her. So there was Phillip, the 3 princes and Princess Anne getting well and truly soaked and they were solidly rained on for about 2 hours (I was watching on TV). None of them flinched – they kept

poker faced, there was no fidgeting or wiping nose and eyes…they just sucked it up – even the horses hardly moved. She may have told her Mum afterwards that that was the last time she did something like that; but during the long hours in the rain you would have thought she (and the rest) were having a nice jolly time. This picture of the Princess shows the hat she was wearing - part of the uniform. It certainly didn't provide much shelter!

Perhaps our little home grown princesses could take a leaf from her book!

Fabulous customer service and great products

Crocs:

A couple of years ago I bought a pair of Croc slip slops and I just love them. They are comfortable; I can walk to shops in them, slop through puddles with no fear of spoiling them and do some gardening and hose them down if they are covered in mud.

A month or so ago I was doing some gardening; it started to rain so I left the slops on the front step – they were filthy – and promptly forgot all about them till the next evening when I got back from work. I kicked off my work shoes and tried to slip into the Crocs but my feet wouldn't fit in them….NO WAYS! Either my feet had suddenly grown a lot or slops shrunk. Yip, they shrunk.

I felt a bit miffed so I went onto the Croc website to get the ‘complaint’ contact info and then thought I would check the technical spec for Crocs and, lo and behold, it said (to paraphrase) ‘if you leave your Crocs in extreme heat they will shrink’….Extreme heat – Johannesburg? But they did warn me, albeit on the website. So I wrote to them anyway to tell them how accurate their information was – how true it is and that now I have fairy sized slip slops.

Within 24 hours I had a reply from the manager saying it must have been a really hot day and how they would love to replace them for me – free of charge…. I am now the proud owner of a brand new pair of Croc sandals…lovely!

Fortune Cookies:

Lisa put on a Metrogaine event last week. She always likes to do something special for her events – so for this one she decided to hand out fortune cookies to the participants.

She tracked down a guy who makes fortune cookies for a local Japanese restaurant. Within minutes he h

ad emailed her the prices for plain and chocolate covered ones. He told her she could choose her own fortunes – gave her an Excel template to type up the fortunes and said as soon as she sent this through plus the money she would get her cookies.

On a Thursday morning she sent through the order for 300 chocolate dipped cookies, her list of fortunes and the proof of payment. That same afternoon there was a buzz at the gate and there was the driver with 2 large boxes of cookies! Isn’t that amazing.

Needless to say we ate a few just to check that Lisa’s fortunes were there…yes they were and at the Metrogaine last week everyone enjoyed them…and the fortunes!