Ireland again!

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We arrived in dublin on the 22nd after spending the week in Holland going to Nightmare Outdoor and Distorted Hardcore. It felt to be returning somwhere we knew and that we wouldn't have to stay in hostels for the next three weeks. We stepped off the plane and headed towards our bus which would take us to Drogheda where we would be staying with my cousin Jenny and her two kids Jasmine and Isobella. We spent 7 nights with them and had an awesome time. We filled out days in with playing with the girls, eating delicious meals prepared by Jenny and relaxing. We had been warned a few weeks ago that the weather was terrible but to our delight when we showed up it was all sunshine and heat. It was about 22 degrees and sunny every day we stayed at Jenny's except for an afternoon which got a bit cloudy and spitted some rain. It was good to catch up with Jenny and the girls again for me and for Bee to meet them all for the first time. Bee also got one of her first experiences around kids for an extended period of time and the girls really took to her (They would much rather be on beautiful Bee's side for games then a stinky boy like me!). While they took a liking to Bee I got on with them rather well during our time there as well and we were sad when we had to pack our bags and head off, we both really enjoyed our time at Jenny's and were grateful we got the chance to get to know everyone a bit more.

Bee Dandy: He is toning it down. Bella and Jaz loved him! They climbed all over him and refused to go to bed unless he piggy backed them upstairs haha. I was really happy that they liked me because I've never really spoken to kids before. Whenever Bella played Guess Who? she always picked the girls with blonde or red hair and never picked the ones with brown hair 😞 and she would NEVER pick a yucky boy hehe. She also loved looking at photos of herself, I think that one will be a lil diva when she grows up 😊 Jaz does cute singing and dancing performances...I was jealous. They drew us pictures which I still have 😊 Jenny was lovely and the night we spent with her at the local pub was awesome! I discovered a new drink thanks to her which is pear cider mixed with blackcurrent juice...DELICIOUS!

Our next stop was off to my Auntie Angie's place where she had kindly vacated her room (Even though we argured with would be fine in her smaller room) and welcomed us to her home. We stayed at Angies for 6 nights and they were full of good food, drinking, talking, gossiping and watching some really trashy TV and paying out of the people involved. Angie has always been great fun and during our stay Bee and her really clicked. Bee still tells me every day she misses Angie! But then again so do I. I took on the role of chef for the few days and was more then happy spending my time cooking up dinner and goodies for the two girls. The highlight was of course a roast dinner I cooked with and amazing rib of beef still on the bone with potatoes, carrots & onion. If I may so myself it was one of the best meals I've ever cooked and what made it even better was the fact my cousin Richie was there to enjoy it as well.

Bee Dandy: I love Angie love love love her. I aspire to be a tough cookie like her! We had the BEST time watching Britain's got talent (Sean Smith is soooo hot by the way) and lots of other stuff. She is an honest person but so friendly and awww, I miss her if you can't tell. It was good catching up with Richie and meeting his brother Michael (Irish people LOVE that name :P) and we saw Trisha too. She's so shy around us though the cute lil thing.

Our time with Angie came and went and we headed over to my Uncle Des' house for a few days. We had stayed with Des and Steph the last time we were in Dublin for a week and were looking forward to seeing them again and catching up with that side of the family including my cousin Kellie who had recently had a beautiful baby girl called Lola. We spent our time at their place watching Sky, eating awesome food cooked by both Steph and Des (Including an amazing Paella) and relaxing. We didnt push ourselves too hard to do anything and we were throughly enjoying their beautiful house and they extremely comfortably bed and dark bedroom. Dont think we got up before midday on any day we stayed there =)

History tends to repeat itself I've noticed and this part of our trip was no exception. The last time we were in Dublin we had come over to Des' & Steph's for dinner and it ha turned into a heavy night of drinking and chatting which ended when the sun was already up and resulted in the worst hangover of the whole trip to that point. I didn't think I would feel as bad again on this trip but I was mistaken. After eating the beautiful Paella cooked by Des we began a night of drinking even worse than before. By the time I got to bed the sun was up and I got a few hrs sleep before waking up feeling worse then I have felt for my whole life (Possibly!). Haha it was worth it though as we had a fun night chatting away, playing pool, watching TV and sometimes arguing over the dumbest things. The next day however was little kya's (Little Des' daughter) birthday. Everyone was making the trip down to Athlone kids in hand (Little Des' kids Finn and Kya had stayed over the night before with Kellie's daughter Mollie for a sleepover) for her party. I was in a very sorry state, which was pointed out by a sympathetic Charlie (Apparently over the week before he was as bad as I was!). We did however get to meet the beautiful Lola and catch up with Kellie and charlie again which was good. Kya's party was a hit and all the kids seemed to have fun esp little Kya who, normally a pretty shy kid from what we had seen was so excited opening her presents for actually shaking and jumping up and down with the biggest smile on her face.The standout present I would sat was the Hello Kitty Lava Lamp which when turned on to heat up the lava stuff inside made a shape that very closely resembled a penis.

We made the trip back to Dunboyne and everyone crashed out for the afternoon having an Irish Siesta after the night before. The rest of the days were spent relaxing, one of which we were treated to an incredible meal by Des & Steph at a resturant not far away. I tried liver for the first time and am hooked, it was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten, so tender and flavourful.

Bee Dandy: Dudeee...I don't even know how everyone consumed that much alcohol. Not wanting to have said things that may embarrass me later, I went to bed at the very appropriate time of 4am :P By the way, Des and Steph might be getting a robot that MOWS that lawn and charges itself...oh la la! I had fish, chips and mushy peas at the restaurant...yum 😊

On our last night at their house Des managed to squueze some time away from work and we headed to the golf course for a half round of golf. I had really been looking forward to and dreading this at the same time. Looking forward to because I really enjoy golf and was keen to play, dreading because Des is pretty good and in the two times I had played gold i was pretty horrible. Too mine and I think Des' surprise though I didn't play that bad. I was a shot or two behind Des' on each hole except for two where I played horribly, one hole we were even and one I even managed to beat him on. As luck would have it as soon as we started playing it started to rain and continued until we were putting on the last hole when it magically cleared up and the sun came out again! After the round we were driven back to Angies house for the next two nights and said our goodbyes to Des (Steph had left for spain the day before so we had already done our goodbyes with her). Des was off to a golfing holiday for two days so we stayed with Angie to get a lift to the airport when we were leaving. On our last full day we went into Dublin and went to Burdocks fish & chip shop which we had been told did the best food. We weren't disappointed and the fish & chips were great. Once again staying with Angie was great fun and it was upsetting the next morning when we had to say our goodbyes at the airport the next morning and fly back to Holland.

Overall our three weeks in Ireland were great. The weather held up, we got to spend more time with my family and it was really relaxing not having to worry about dorms or travelling around on longs trains or planes or worrying that no one will speak english when you need them to.

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