Thursday, August 30, 2007

His first day!


We're waiting outside! (I moblogged this but it kept saying COULD NOT PUBLISH). Then I get home and find that it has.....Anyway the two of them went off fine and all is good. I was so proud of the two of them, as if they were my own. I now have an hour and a half free that I don't know what to do with. I'm not running today so besides cleaning the oven or the rest of the house, I'm at a loss. This "stay-at-home-mommy" thing hasn't quite kicked in yet! Just kidding, I'm lovin' it!

Saturday, August 25, 2007

We are here!



Ultra Trail Tour du Mont Blanc 2007


Tony is, at this very moment, doing the Ultra Trial Tour du Mont Blanc. I'm getting SMS alerts sent to my phone as he passes through the various stages. But you can also follow the runners on line. Last year myself and Tony finished together in 43 hours.


Basically it's 160km through the Alps, through countries, around Mont Blanc. It's billed as the toughest foot race in Europe and it really is hard. The mental torture involved in just keeping going is incredible, never mind the state of your legs. Anyway he's doing great so far and I've been updating our Ultrarunners blog too as well as Team Geared Up.


I wish I was there.


Worrying about someone doing it is worse than doing it!! Well not quite but you know what I mean. Our account of the event last year is here.

Friday, August 24, 2007

What We're At...


We've been coming and going from Wexford/ Dublin for the last few weeks. I must be brown, people keep asking where I was on holidays (strangers in parks ad petrol stations) and when I say Wexford they're shocked. We've had good enough weather to warrant lots of beach trips. We're right down on the South Coast as opposed to the East and I think we got it slightly better down there than the rest.
We've had trouble there all Summer with noisy neighbours, who have made the weekends miserable with all night partying and sometimes well into the next day and afternoon, beer bottles and cans all over the street and about twenty cars permanently parked in a street of only 5 houses. Makes it difficult for the kids to play with all this going on. The noisy neighbours are renting and we've complained enough to the two landlords (there's two houses involved, they're all mates), so we're hoping their leases will not be renewed when they come up in the Autumn. If they are, we've made a decision to sell the holiday home. Life's too short for that crap. And it's meant to be somewhere to go and relax etc. Not to be avoided. The trouble with all this is that the trouble makers appear to be making it into an anti-Dublin thing. I've noticed this with parts of Wexford now, and we're in a very small village, that there is this feeling of resentment towards the Dubs. They want your business, they want you drinking in their pubs and spending money in their shops and tourist attractions and even want you in their mobile home parks. But if you have a house it's reason enough for resentment and we've been sensing this for a while now.

Anyway while there we've done all the touristy stuff with the kids and they've loved it. Fota, Splashworld, JFK Arboretum etc. etc. Back in Dublin last Tuesday we went to Dun Laoighaire and the sun was shining and there was music in the park and it was just gorgeous! We might head there today and tomorrow for the start of the Festival of World Cultures. Lots to do!

The foster kids are settling in great! Having fun and enjoying themselves. Let's hope the fun doesn't end next week when they're back at school. I've been enjoying getting kids ready for school, doing Mammmy stuff! Me and the 11 year old girl have been getting along terrifically, spending lots of time baking together and doing nails and preparing meals; she loves to cook and bake and she also loves to run!! Hopefully she'll make new friends in the area at school, she could do with having people to call into. The 5 year old boy is still just mad as a brush and loving life (can see him on a serious mountain bike very soon)!