Elizabeth and I in Central Park, after a lovely day of Touring New York!


I love this photo of Elizabeth with the Statue of Liberty in the background. It was taken on the Statten Island Ferry.

Elizabeth and I on Broadway! Mayor Bloomberg has closed off the street and set up all these deck chairs for people to sit in the middle of New York and enjoy the summer evenings. It was so funny as a couple of people got up from the chairs and Ivan charged off at full speed to get a seat for a photo, two young girls spotted them at the same time and headed off towards them, they were barreled out of the way, by the 6' Irish giant. I reassured them, that he wasn't attacking them, we just wanted a photo, they were laughing so much at the stupid tourists!

Early morning Yuckies!

Our family does not do mornings well, especially school mornings. I have found that despite fairly early nights, it is a struggle to get children out of bed and motivated. Saturdays and Sundays are days they lie-in and this is often until after 9am. (Matthew after 11am if he was allowed - but then he is a teenage boy!)

I am an early morning person, although do love my lie-ins. Once I am up then it is okay, I can motivate myself to get going quite easily, but the initial moment when lying in bed thinking about the day, I often wish I could just cancel everything and stay in bed.

Winter is especially hard as it is darker until later, although by 6.45am the sky is light and clear, no direct sunshine yet, but certainly bright. Summer is easier with daylight around 4am.

One thing that has helped is me getting a nice breakfast of fresh fruit and a glass of juice set up for each of them at our lovely new bar. This keeps them out of my kitchen and I can work at the school lunches. Roll on school holidays, only another 8 weeks to go!

Do you know why the grass is always greener in Ireland?

It is because all the Irish are walking on everyone else's Grass!

I know that it rains a lot in Ireland, but we were so lucky with our few days. We had times of glorious sunshine and in fact during the whole trip, this was the only place that Elizabeth and I got sunburned. Well just a little.


Elizabeth took this great photo of me kneeling on the rocky outcrop at Carrick-A-Rede, what an amazing place and this lovely group shot of Elizabeth, Karen (Ivan's sister) and me. I like it because I was standing uphill, so was almost the same height as both of them.

I also managed to take a great group shot of everyone, Elizabeth's Aunty Karen, Uncle Geordie and cousins Rebecca (front left), young Ellen and behind her Ashleigh.

Elizabeth was persuaded to dip her toes in the Irish sea, she said it wasn't so bad, as within seconds her feet were totally numb!

A few Irish photos!

Ivan and Elizabeth on the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge!
It was a challenge to cross the rope bridge over the sea below, but great fun. This amazing rocky outcrop is up on the Antrim coast and we were all up for the challenge.

The Giant's Causeway!
Columnar Basalts or according to the legend Finn McCool's pavement across the Irish Sea to Scotland.
Elizabeth having fun balancing on the rocks.

Ivan and Elizabeth posing at the Causeway.

New Glasses

I can see clearly now with my glasses on!

Well sort of?

These are my new progressive lens glasses and will take a little time to get used to wearing them. I chose the frames without any family input and I am still getting used to them, but quite like the more modern look.

I now need my specs for reading and also a little distance vision, so have opted for progressive lenses which will allow me to wear them all the time and see for both reading and everyday sight.

Uni Results!

I did it, I passed first semester.

My final results came out while I was overseas, but I managed to log onto the computer and get them just before I arrived home.

I achieved a 5 (Pass with credit) for my Writing narrative course.
A 6 (Distinction) for World Religions and
A 7 (High Distinction) for Meditation and Soul Journeys.

I am so thrilled with these results, especially the 2 religion courses.

Semester Two starts on July 27th and I have signed up to do Literary Classics in English; Writing (Poetry); and History of the Supernatural in Religion. So it should be another challenge, but hopefully just as much fun.

Home Again!

I am back!!!

After an amazing 19 days away, I am home, but totally jet lagged. We had a 42 hour travel time home, sleeping around 6 hours during those 42 and our body clocks have not adjusted. Ivan and I were asleep by 6.30pm last night and awake from 2.30am - Yuck! So am doing quite well tonight, with it already 7.00pm and I am still awake - well sort of???

Elizabeth and I had an amazing 19 days, (lots of photos to follow - need some editing). We flew from Brisbane to LA, then straight onto New York arriving around 5.30pm the same day we left. We then walked around the city until about 11pm, collapsing into bed exhausted. A full day followed with 2 exciting Hop on/Hop off Bus tours, more New York shopping and another really late night. Day 2 saw us on another bus trip and even more shopping, the credit card was beginning to moan in despair.

Day 3 we picked up the car and I negotiated the streets of Manhattan and the Lincoln Tunnel to get out of New York. I then drove to Washington D.C. We stayed in Georgetown, and explored D.C. for just one day fitting in as much as we could including all the Memorials, White House, Arlington cemetery etc, etc. Plus another bus tour. Then in the afternoon (Sunday I think) I drove to York, Pennsylvania. Monday (Day 5) Elizabeth and I explored Gettysburg - what an amazing tour, so interesting, especially to Elizabeth who loves History in all its forms.

Day 6 saw me driving from York, PA all through eastern Pennsylvania up to Stamford in Connecticut, a total of 630 miles in just 3 days. Quite a journey. We had a quiet day in Stamford and then in was back to JFK, to fly to London and onto Dublin. By now we were operating on adrenaline and will power. Quite an experience. We took lots and lots of photos about 800+ in this first section of the trip.

Next installment to follow hopefully with photos in the next couple of days.

It was however, wonderful to come home on Sunday and see my beautiful younger two children who I missed terribly. Granny and Grandad had looked after them wonderfully and they were looking well and happy, excited to see all the gifts we had brought with us, of course we spoilt them as always.

Now it is back to the daily housework and sorting out. 4 loads of washing later and chores have settled me back into the routine quickly enough. Elizabeth is back to work tomorrow and possibly for the next 4 days, she is quite happy though as she needs some money to pay for her trip expenses.