Life of an au pair

28-11 tm 20-12

This week started with a day off. I slept in a bit and went downtown. At 3 I went to the gym and in the evening I skyped with the parents to catch up ;)! Tuesday I had to work so Katie and Kevin could go Christmas shopping. The day went by pretty fast and nothing special to report really haha. In the evening we had dinner, drank some hot port and chatted for a bit. It was nice.
Yes, another day off. Besides a work-out I didn’t do much again. I didn’t go to the au pair meeting. I don’t know why.. but I wasn’t feeling it and the cold wasn’t helping haha. So it was Netflix for the rest of the evening.
Thursday was a chill day as well. I had to start at 12, so I slept in a bit. In the afternoon I put Iarlaith to bed and did some arts and crafts with Naoise. Kevin came home around 4, so I was off. I watched some Gilmore Girls and hung out with Katie and Fiadh, while Katie was decorating the Christmas tree. I also watched a bit of Harry Potter 2 with Naoise. He didn’t want to watch it alone and I happily helped out haha. Friday I worked normal times from 8 to 6. I held Fiadh in the morning a bit, she is a dolly haha. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I went to ‘Fantastic Beasts and where to find them’ with Ayleen and Patricia. We didn’t mind to see it again haha.
On Saturday I wanted to go to Cork for Christmas shopping. I went with the bus at 10.40 and met Ayleen and Patricia in Cork during the day. We went to Oliver Plunkett for dinner, which was really nice! The girls were kinda tired, so we took the bus back at 19.22. I watched some tv for the rest of the night. Sunday was chill-day. I had breakfast and hung out with Katie and the kids a bit. After I went for lunch at Costa with Ayleen, Barbara and Ana. This was nice and fun! I skyped with Lena at 3, which was LONG overdue haha! In the evening I went to the gym and just watched some tv rest of the evening.

SINTERKLAAAS! I obviously didn’t notice that much of this, although the ‘pepernoten, chocolade letters en Sinterklaasspulletjes van mijn vriendinnetjes’ helped ofcourse haha. The rest it was a normal day with working from 8 to 6. In the evening I facetimed with the parents and Rik and they showed off their presents from Sint. Tuesday and Wednesday went by pretty normal as well. On Thursday I was off and I watched ‘the theory of everything’ at Ayleen’s house. This was a lot of fun!
On Friday I went to see Santa with the fam. We went to Fota island resort, where they made this whole Santa village time traveler haha. The story was that we were traveling to the North pole. The kids had a lot of fun and it was fun for the adults as well. It was exhausting though haha. We went for some soup at a bar/restaurant on our way home. In the evening, after a powernap, I went to the gym. This was supposed to be at 9, but after a delay and some chatting with Kevin and Katie, Tadgh and I left at 10 haha. I know.. commitment!

The weekend was here again! This time it was a Mallow weekend, filled with lunch and coffees at Costa, a movie in the cinema, some drinks at Alberts and Chasers, dinner at Bella’s Café and some chilling haha.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was working as usual. I did go to dinner at Kevin’s parents with them and the kids on Tuesday. This was lovely and so nice I was invited as well. Thursday I was off. I went downtown for some more Christmas presents and Ayleen and I watched ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’ here at the house. Friday was business as usual.

I went to Cork for the weekend. On Saturday one of my friends Patricia was getting a tattoo and she asked me to go with her. It was at the same place as I had been, so we took the bus at 9.40. After the tattoo appointment we went to Starbucks for some nice coffee! We walked around Cork for a bit and went to the hostel around 3. We wanted to do the Irish tradition ’12 pubs of Christmas’. It basically means that on a weekend in December you go to 12 pubs and drink 12 pints while obeying some rules. There are 12 rules, 1 for each pub. Because we wanted to make the 12 drinks, we started around 3 haha. You also should wear an ugly Christmas sweater and as much Christmas stuff as possible. I could borrow a sweater from Lisa, Katie’s sister, so that was great! Patricia bought one and we both got a chrismas tree hat at Dunnes!! Lara joined us, but Ayleen wasn’t feeling well so she went home. We didn’t make the 12 pubs, because Lara is 19 and Patricia is 21. There are a lot of pubs that have the age limit of 21, some even 23. BUT we did make the 12 drinks haha! Don’t worry.. it were half pints ;)! We had a lot of fun. One of the rules was to take a selfie with a stranger. Obviously we did that haha. It was a good night! We got back to the hostel around 12.
On Sunday we woke up, got some breakfast and Patricia and I took the bus back to Mallow around 12.30. Lara was meeting a friend in Cork, so she stayed there. I relaxed a bit and went with the family to dinner at the Gallery at 5. I had kung po chicken and it was lovely!

New week! Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal. It was a weird feeling packing a bag to go home for Christmas, but I was very excited to go!

Hellooooo Christmas!