Just A February Dip in the Atlantic

Approximately 28 years ago, an Anna was born in the Erinville Hospital in County Cork, Ireland. Many life events later, she returned to her homeland to finally experience Ireland as an adult.

Touching Moment Outside

Erinville Hospital

I have wanted to return to Ireland for pretty much my whole life. I decided that once I returned to Ireland, I would "baptise" myself as an Irish citizen in the Atlantic Ocean in Ireland. Now, with this 3 month house sit, I am finally back! So yesterday my mom and sister and I set out for the coast to do the baptism.

We found a beach near the town of Milltown Malbay, near Spanish Point on the West Coast of County Clare.

Beach

I was originally going to just wade out into the ocean, but Rachel found a little wading pool-type area which seemed like a better choice really, for picture taking and also to not draw out the "being in the water" part. I was a bit afraid that maybe I was going to chicken out at the last minute and not be able to shed my layers on the beach of the Atlantic in Ireland in the middle of February. I did not chicken out, but I didn't dunk my whole body and head in like I'd planned, because once I got in there, holy SHIT was it cold!

It may look like I am saying "Praise Jesus",

but that would be a wrong assumption.

By the time I got out I couldn't really feel my feet. My mom and Rach held up the "changing area" blanket for me as we'd planned, and honestly, once you've taken your clothes off and gone in, it's not that hard to stand around in winter on a beach without all your clothes on! It was actually kind of refreshing! But I couldn't just stay there standing around in my underwear all day, so I got dressed and held the blanket as a cape around me like the champion I felt like.

Champion

We then went into the town for celebratory coffee and warm sticky toffee pudding.

Why wait when you can

eat right away?

And so I am baptised.

A Green Mouthful of Mistake

Today there has been much productivity before leaving the house. Is that still impressive if you're not leaving the house until 12:45? I guess it's all relative. (I'm never really sure how to use that expression...)

At breakfast this morning my mom and I were discussing how to incorporate spirulina into one's food without having to put it in a drink. So we contemplated having a teaspoon followed by a big mouthful of oatmeal. And I thought to myself: it's just spirulina, just put some in your mouth, and have some tea. So I took a giant spoonful, and shoved it into my mouth. DISGUSTING! NEVER do this. I tried to wash it down with some tea, but there was so much powder I couldn't even make it work. And the tea didn't "wash it down", it just turned a bunch of it into paste! Thick, sticky paste. And the best part was that it tasted like an ocean floor. So my mom saw me struggling, and threatening to spit it all out, and kept telling me what a waste of money that would be, finally trying to make it better by giving me chocolate to eat with it. I tried it, and no. Just no. That stuff was not going to be swallowed. It mostly got spat out. It was like "Jackass" for health nuts.

We popped by our neighbour Brendan's house a couple days ago for tea, but he was busy renovating the house. And when he found out my mom'll only be here until Tuesday, he told us we should come by Sunday (today) for lunch. But then yesterday the airline she was going to fly with went bankrupt! So after a day of trying to sort all that out, now her flight is this coming Saturday instead. Now, because we are a bunch of neuorotic fusspants, we felt guilty for having Brendan and his wife make lunch for us under the (now) false pretenses of my mom leaving so soon. So I called him this morning to explain that she would be flying out a few days later, and so should we still come over? To which he responded by saying of course! Unless you have other plans? And he sounded a bit confused as to why I was calling, at which point I realized, it's just lunch, of course the plan is still on. "Oh, now you're not going until SATURDAY? And you were STILL going to come by for lunch?? What do we look like, your lunch slaves??? Call us back when you're actually leaving town! Better yet, never call us again!! .... *muttering*: 'of ALL the NERVE...'"

So anyway, it's off to Brendan's for lunch today.

Marching Into A Mess

Most mornings: sitting around with tea and other hot beverages for hours on end. Activities include: being on computers, stoking the fire, showering, and making breakfast. So Rach and I were feeling like right lazy sods, and decided to do something about it. No more getting up and lazing around, now we were going to start each day with a brisk morning Irish countryside walk. So yesterday morning we set out, still dressed in pyjamas, but bundled into coats. It was lovely, the air with that fresh feeling to it that only exists in the morningtime. We walked along for awhile, and came upon a field off to the left. Often these fields have barbed wire around them to imply that they are someone's private property, but this particular area had none. So we hopped over the ditch, and on into the field. We soon realized that this was a rather muddy field, not surprising, given all the rain, but we went further anyway, since we had our wellies on, and besides, we were not now the sort of people to let a little mud stop us, we were the type to go for brisk Irish countryside morning walks! There was another intriguing-looking area off further to the left, so we decided to head over to it, with myself in the lead. I got about three steps in when suddenly with one step I felt myself sinking extremely fast into the mud! This was very wet, very deep mud, and no sooner did I wrench that foot out of the mud than I was sinking with my next step! This continued for about four rapid and terrifying steps, until I found myself stranded on a safe little grassy mound, completely uninterested in going any further, and feeling rather apprehensive about going back either. So I stood there like a timid silly ninny for about half a minute, before Rachel convinced me that I would probably be able to get back without sinking, if I planned my steps very carefully. So that's what I did, and we tramped our way back to the road, carefully stepping on (by flattening) the coarse wild grasses that have sprung up in amongst the rather moist patches of more mossy grass. We could see the mark of exactly how far I had sunk into the mud on my wellies, and it was about an inch from the top. So that was lucky at least, that I didn't sink any deeper. When I got home, however, I realized upon taking my wellies off that there was mud caked onto my socks and my feet were damp, so maybe not thank god for wellies after all......

So all in all, going for a walk first thing in the morning was a good thing, as adventures probably build character, and are certainly more invigorating than sitting around with tea for hours. And besides, we arrived home with energy, which translated to sauteeing some breakfast veggies and cooking eggs.

Adventures in Scalp

Today Rach and I went for a walk. First walk in a while, tsk tsk.... Many more will follow! First we came upon a forestry road, which we walked along for awhile. We saw to our right, a little ways in, a magical wonderfully mossy green carpeted, rather organized-looking forest, so we hopped over the creek and made our way in. Here are 2 pics of it, it was so fairy-tale looking.

In the summer it seems it would be lovely to go in there and have a lovely picnic on the mossy green carpet in amongst the trees... So then we left that area and headed back out onto the road. We came upon some cows, which we were trying to communicate with via moo-ing. When that didn't work Rach started jumping up and down to get them interested in coming over, but instead succeeded in terrifying them so that they all ran at an ever-increasing clip into a nearby wooded glen of sorts. The poor things do not react well to jumping jacks, it would seem. They were still hiding there when we were returning home from our walk. When we got to the river over the bridge we had a "Winnie the Pooh" race (where you drop sticks on one side and see whose gets to the other side of the bridge the fastest), but the river was so fast and our sticks were the same colour as the river, so we lost track of them and went on our way. The little black and white dog down by Ned's house followed us on our walk once we got to his house, and in fact followed us for the rest of our walk, including all the way back to our house. He's still here, and if he doesn't leave soon, we'll have to drive him back home because we can't feed the cats while he's here.... We call him "the suicide dog" because he likes to lurk on one side or the other (depending on where the car's coming from) of Ned's van, and then race out right as a car is driving by, to chase it down the road. The thing is when you're driving it looks like he's running practically right under your car, so a lot of people (including us) slow down when we get near Ned's house, so as not to accidentally kill the poor thing. He's a very happy dog, very sweet, but I hope he's gone now so we can feed the cats their dinner.....

Of Christmas and Cities (or: In Which I Go Too Far and Start Ranting)

I've been to Galway a couple of times this week, and although it was very exciting at first, my second visit left me feeling a little cold. The first time it was about all there is to see, and cultural differences, and things like that. The second time, however, I just felt like.... what is there to do? Buying things, that is all. I've already looked around and explored, and once you're done being fascinated, what else is there to do really? It's a city. It is there for you to buy things. All sorts of things. Things that you decide you need, simply because there they are in front of you. And I don't want to do that, for one thing because I don't have disposable income, and for another because what is the point of buying things that you don't really need? And it's a crazy thing, becasue really, no matter how much I already have, I can ALWAYS justify buying more. I do this a lot. I don't think, "well why would I need that?". I think "well that could be useful/fun!" Living out of suitcases has been especially helpful in minimizing my purchases. I mean, I've made a point of bringing one (or a few) of everything I could possibly need, so there's really no way I can justify buying anything more! Unless it's very cheap, at a thrift shop, because I won't have room in the suitcases for it once I leave this country. So there I am, wandering around Galway with a couple of hours to kill. So I did the only thing I could think of that wouldn't require purchasing something: I went to a second hand bookshop and found a book to read and just stood there and read it for awhile.

I didn't participate in Christmas last year, and I'm not really this year either. The 2-year break from Christmas shopping has really given me some perspective on how ridiculous the whole thing is. You spend all this money on all these presents for people, and yes, you get about the same amount of presents back to account for all the money you spent on presents for others, so financially you come out even. But then you end up all poor at the end of it, because what you've essentially done is spend a whole bunch of money on what ends up being yourself (because you get lots of presents back). So you've basically just blown all this money on basically buying stuff for yourself. And for what? Because the world says you have to, or you are a Scrooge/Grinch? I was just discussing this the other day with someone, about how they're created these characters (Scrooge/Grinch), which say that if you choose not to participate in Christmas, you're a terrible person. Now, I know, I know, the Grinch was awful because he was trying to ruin Christmas for everyone else as well, but the fact remains that he's considered a terrible character for questioning Christmas at all. And Scrooge, yes he was terrible because he, too, was in a sense ruining Christmas for others. But still: he didn't care about Christmas, which is essentially why he was an evil character. Now I don't have a problem with the Whos down in WhoVille singing in a circle and celebrating love for Christmas, or Tiny Tim and his family blessing and loving one another, my problem is that that is not really all Christmas is about. So you either have to shun the whole thing, or try to get everyone in your family and your life to not get you a present, because you won't be getting them one. And if people are in the present buying frenzy, they are going to buy you one too, no matter how much you beg them not to. So there you go. Merry Christmas.

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

So on Wednesday I decided to finally venture out of the house on my bike and out into the town of Flagmount to get some vegetables from the store there. Seems simple enough; get the bike out, cycle along the road for about 1/2 hr to the store, come back! I managed to make it difficult.

It started out alright. I got on the bike, adjusted the seat, and headed out! It was fine for awhile, until I came across hilly bits. Up-hilly bits, to be more specific. Now I'm what's called a skinny fat person, meaning I'm thin, but completely out of shape. Not something I'm proud of, but there it is. So I was struggling quite a bit with the up-hilly bits, which was fine at first. A bit of exertion, pushing myself through it, feeling good about myself. But then I had quite a bit of chest pain and that wasn't fun. The down-hilly bits were of course good fun though! Although I was always careful to slow down when there was a curve in the road ahead, and there were many. By about halfway through, I took to walking my bike on some of the up-hilly bits, because I suspected I shouldn't jump right from fairly stagnant lifestyle to marathon biker cold turkey-like. Or hot-turkey, if that's the phrase for when you're beginning something, rather than quitting something. So I finally got to Flagmount after what was probably about 50 minutes of travelling to get there.

First I bought some phone time, as I seemed to have run out, and then went upstairs to the little cafe area to rest before getting groceries and making the journey back.

So I soon was headed back out, as it was 3:30 now and I did NOT want to get caught in the dark (around 4:30). It rained a lot on the journey back, so I got very wet, along with my cloth bag of groceries. It's just a bag you wear over the shoulder, and I was wearing it as a (very heavy) backpack for the first little while, until I realized I could balance it on the middle of my handlebar. I was not having very much fun on the way back, as the whole thing was just seeming unreasonably difficult for just a trip to the grocery store, although there were some nice moments when I was riding down a hill appreciating the green Irish scenery and the fresh country air against my face. But then it would rain again, and it's hard to see when you're biking the rain... Then at one point, a big dog started aggressively chasing me. I started freaking out a bit, as it seemed to be running faster than I could cycle, and was catching up with me quickly, when I happened upon a rather steep hill that made me suddenly go very fast, and at first it seemed to still be chasing me, but eventually gave up. Luckily it gave up before I got to the bottom of the hill and lost my speed advantage! So I cycled on and on, on and on, looking very carefully for my house but not seeing it. It was getting darker, which was making me very nervous, and I just wanted to be home. Finally, after coming to an intersection I didn't remember seeing before, and not knowing which way to go, I went to the left and cycled about 1.5 km before realizing that something seemed very wrong. I was pretty stressed out at this point. Scared, even. I mean I ha no intention of being out at night, so I had no lights with me, and I'm in the country, so there are no streetlights! And if I can't find my house in the daylight, how the hell was I going to find it in the dark?! So I called a couple neighbours to ask them if they knew where my house was from where I currently was. I didn't want to ask to be rescued, as these are people I barely know, and why should it be their problem that I can't find my own house, and have no reflective clothing, and there are no lights anywhere, and nothing to mark my house? But when I called Rachael, who I hadn't actually even met or ever spoken to yet, she offered to come pick me and my bike up and take me to my house. I was so, so relieved, and so she came and got me and took me there, and I had gone quite far past my house! A good 20 minutes of bike riding, I'd say.

So I've gotten myself a reflective vest to put out front of my house somehow to mark it, so I'll be able to recognize it next time I need to find it, day or night. Although I don't desire to bike at night anytime in the near future. I mean, I can put a light on my bike, but with no streetlights, it's incredibly difficult to see your way... Anyway, that was Wednesday. Feeling very grateful to be home in my house, and to have to such wonderful people here to help me when I need it.

Brrr

Ok I know, no one wants to hear a whiner, but man oh man it is cold. Freezing hail today, I feel bad for the feral cat that I feed, but hey at least it's getting fed! It (he? I am establishing a gender, he) seems pretty tough though, so I probably don't need to worry. The cats seem to be fighting more often and getting more princessy lately. Maybe now that their regular owner is gone, they're treating me like a substitute teacher, someone to take advantage of and establish new routines with. Little do they know I'm in contact with their regular owner, so I know what's up. Cats tryin' to take me for a ride....

Being a bit of a homebody at the moment. I will justify this as needing to get used to the house before going out and exploring much. Sounds a bit weak I know, it's really just so cold out, and I'm cold enough being inside the house, thank you very much. I can see my breath from here. Seems to make about a 5 (celcius) degree difference when I don't light the fire for a day. I know this, because I am keeping a thermometer in the kitchen.

That is all for now.