The 'first' couple of adventures in 2017!

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Wednesday and Thursday were days as usual. Because of the holiday I got to start a little later each day, that was really nice. I started around 9.30 till about 6. On Friday I worked until about 4. But to be honest, around 2.30 Conaill and Naoise wanted to go to a friend’s house down the street. The mom was fine with it, so I took them over there. Iarlaith was still in bed for his nap, so I had some down time with no kids haha. I got Iarlaith out of bed around 3.45 and Katie got home around 4. I got to pack the last things for my trip to Cork and around 4.30 Katie and the kids took me to the train station. So nice of her, that way I didn’t have to walk haha. I took the bus at 5. On the bus I was meeting Jamie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oeh I was so excited for it! It took about 30 min to get to Cork from Mallow. We went to the hostel first, that I found without a map! BOEM! Granted I had been there about 3 times before haha. We dropped our stuff and went out to get dinner. We went to Oliver Plunkett, so Jamie could have some proper Irish stew. Dinner was nice and so were the drinks we had haha. We went to some pubs after Oliver’s.
On Saturday we went for breakfast at this bagel place I stumbled upon another time in Cork. After some nice bagels, coffee and people watching, we walked around Cork for a bit and did some shopping. We also stopped at Starbucks. I know.. shock right?! I think we sat there for about 2 hours haha, just talking and looking at the people coming by. So nice and relaxing! After all the shopping we went for dinner at Oliver Plunkett’s again. We got there relatively early, around 4.30, so we had a pint first. After dinner we made our way to one of the pubs I wanted to check out, named Brick Lane. I couldn’t go there before, because my company wasn’t over 21 haha. I have to say, going out in Ireland is an experience. The woman/girls here dress a little different from me, just a tad. Think big hair, short dresses and lots and lots and lots and lots of make-up. Very interesting. After Brick Lane we went to An Brog (I went there once before). It was a lot of fun! The night was gooood and ended (as a lot of our clubnights do) in McDonalds.
Sunday we wanted to do some sightseeing. We went to Blackrock Castle and Saint Fin Barre’s cathedral. Blackrock wasn’t as impressive as the pictures made it look and the cathedral was closed unfortunately. BUT we did see some sights. After we ended up in Starbucks again and went to the hostel for a bit. We went to dinner at Nando’s. Before I was taking the bus back, we hung out at the hostel. It was weird saying bye at the hostel. I was really sad this weekend went by so fast and that I had to go to my Irish home alone. But I am also really grateful that I have friends that visit me here, especially mah main bitch haha!!! I got home around 10.

Monday I only had to work from 4.30 till 6.30 so Katie and Kevin could go to Crossfit. So I slept in haha. Katie did ask me around 11 to mind the kids for an hour and since I was just watching some shows on my laptop, I said sure. I went downstairs for an hour, played with the kids a bit and gave Fiadh her bottle. In the afternoon I watched some more shows, did some planning for the weekends I’m still here and basically took it easy.
Tuesday was a normal working day. I could sleep in a bit, because I had to start at 10.30 AM. Other than that nothing special. Ayleen wanted to try out this yoga class and asked me if I wanted to come. I thought ‘sure, let’s try it out’. I can honestly say I’m NOT a yoga person! It was a struggle finding the place in the first place haha, because the recognition points the teacher gave Ayleen were unknown to us. This made finding it a little hard. Once we found it and went into the room, the scent of incense and dampness hit you. There was also this (for lack of a better word) flowy-hippie music. The teacher started with saying that ‘breathing is key’ and she demonstrated what she meant by that, with some heavy breathing and hand movements. I already couldn’t contain my laugh and knew it was going to be a looooooooong hour. You had to take off your shoes. Challenge nr. 1: keeping your balance. We had to do some stretching first and were provided a band to stretch your legs. Ayleen and I noticed that we are not that flexible. The teacher was going around ‘helping’ everyone. She said to me, while trying to push my foot in a direction it didn’t want to go, to ‘put my toes further down’. This only resulted in some pain and some cursing in my mind. She ‘helped’ Ayleen as well. She didn’t like it haha. Her leg just wouldn’t stretch all the way like the teacher wanted. Then the teacher explained the movements and they were supposed to be performed rather quickly after each other. Challenge nr. 2: keeping up! Going through the movements one time was enough for me. I could do about 20% of them and not even well. I tried to do some, but I just was getting more annoyed than relaxed. I spend about half the class looking at the other people and laughing. Luckily Ayleen didn’t think it was a success either haha.
Wednesday was a normal working day as well.
Thursday was a day off. I slept in, more than I normally do haha, and went into town for a bit. I went to the gym at 3.30 and nearly died. The combo of running, burpees and the bike is not my favorite. Walking to the movies in the evening was a struggle with those legs of lead.
Friday was again a normal day of working.

Weekend!! I went to dinner with some of the other au pairs (Ayleen, Ana, Barbara, Lara, Irati and Nathalia). Apache this time, which is pizza jammmm. After we went to get a drink at Alberts, before going to the movies. We went to see ‘La la land’. I liked the movie, worth a view, but I didn’t love it. It was weird for some reason hearing Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling sing.. Fun night though!
On Sunday Ayleen, Ana, Barbara and I went to Cork. We met Patricia there, who just moved to Cork for an English course. We had lunch at the bagel house (yeahhh 5 more stamps and I get a free coffee and bagel!!). After that we walked around for a bit, talked and checked out some stores. We ended up at Starbucks again. I didn’t mind at all! After that we made a quick stop at Tesco (supermarket) and went home after. I had dinner at home and watched a movie.

So the week of the 16th looked as followed:
Monday and Wednesday off.
Tuesday and Friday normal day of work
Thursday working from 4.30 to 6.30 so Katie and Kevin can go to Crossfit.
Yes, my life is tough! At times. And other times. It. Is. GRAND! :D

On Saturday there was the babtism of Fiadh. I went to lunch with Ayleen, Lara and Nathalia at Springfort Hall Café. You can make your own sandwich there, so we had a lovely lunch haha. Before lunch I went to a phone shop to get my Irish phone repaired. I accidentally got it wet. The bottle in my bag leaked and the phone was in a puddle. Yeah yeah.. I know. I still have to see if they can get it fixed.
Around 4.30 I left for the church with the family, not before spilling tooth paste on my only nice blouse. Tip: brushing your teeth ‘real quick’ in your going outfit is NOT a good idea. I managed to get it off before leaving though :D! It was interesting to see how a babtism was performed here. In the church we went to all baptisms are performed on Saturday at 5. It doesn’t matter which division of Christianity you call your own. There were 2 this day. The priest said all the important things he is supposed to say twice, once for each child. The rest was pretty standard: holy water, swearing off the devil and such. After about half an hour we went to the Hibernian Hotel for dinner. It was about 10 kids and 19 adults. Dinner was loud and very good! There was also a cake, who made it to the very end (minus one or two fingers who touched the icing). Around 8 my host family and the friends who were staying at the house went home. Ayleen came over to help me mind the kids. There were the 3 boys and 3 kids from the friends (1 boy and 2 girls). To be honest the parents got the kids dressed for bed and actually put them to bed. We just had to make sure they stayed in there and didn’t get hurt. We delivered. I think both Ayleen and I went up twice to check and the rest of the night was quiet. We were watching tv in the tv-room on the first floor with the door open. The kids were on the second floor. Around 1.30AM Ayleen went home and around 3AM the whole gang got home. I’d say a good night! It was a bit of a struggle to stay awake. It gave me flashbacks to my babysitting days haha.

On Sunday Ayleen, Ana, Barbara, Laurel (22, New-Zealand), Hannah (19, German) and I went to Blarney. We took the bus to Cork at 10.40 and had lunch at the Bagel House. After we ordered all our delicious bagels, the oven decided to give up. We already got a refund on our bagels and free mini-cupcakes, when the oven was back up haha. So in the end we did have our bagels! At 1 we took the bus to Blarney. We went straight to the castle. The castle is most famous for the Blarney Stone. For over 200 years, world statesmen, literary giants, and legends of the silver screen have joined the millions of pilgrims climbing the steps to kiss the Blarney Stone and gain the gift of eloquence (ease in using language to best effect). Its powers are unquestioned but its story still creates debate. So we went to the Blarney Castle first and kissed the stone. I can’t say that I feel the power, but who knows haha. There are gardens around the castle, with a lot of different ‘magical and mystical’ things to see. We walked around there a good bit. After a quick stop at the chocolate shop and a coffee, we went back to Cork. We took the bus back to Mallow at 5.25PM and met Lara at the bus station. Ayleen, Ana, Barbara and I made a quick stop at Tesco before heading home. I made rice and vegetables for dinner and watched Coyote Ugly ! It was a nice Sunday!!

Pfoe, a long one this time. Had some catching up to do!

XO

PS: Pictures are coming ;)!