Weather has started picking up. Got out on my bike for the first time in a while. Even have decent brakes again after getting it serviced… lovely! I need to get some practice in because I’ll be biking the St. James at the end of the month with friends and I’m not at all sure I’m fit enough.
I attempted to make mint jelly.
It was a pretty much complete failure. The consistency is completely wrong. Mum said I could just boil it up again and reduce it a bit more and it might come right, so, I’ll give that a go in a bit. Don’t think it’ll go off in the meantime! Shame, I thought it would be pretty straightforward, but, I think I just got the “setting point” wrong. Hey ho.
Found the book “Ferdinand” in the library. An childhood favourite. Anna was initially against it but once she actually let me read it to her she loved it!
Spring is springing. Lovely crisp days and blossom everywhere.
Anna turned 8 and we had her birthday at the gymnasium again. Kids seemed to have a great time, ate a bunch of food, ran around, played games… generally a win. Anna and I made the cake, it was a work of *art
Anna’s school is taking part in the big school kapa-haka competition in October. They’ve been practicing constantly and performed a different routine at the town hall (the other is kept secret until the comp). She loves it. Amazing amount of learning (dexterity, memorisation (dance moves etc.)) let alone language practice.
My first weekend back my friend Mark had arranged a lads ski weekend staying at Castle Hill. It wasn’t amazing timing that it was the first weekend back and Anna was pretty sad I think that I wasn’t about..
The bach was lovely, I do love Castle Hill, great spot.
The first day we went to Broken River. It’s a “club” field, so it’s ungroomed. My thighs were absolutely killing me by the end of the day. I’m just not that good of a skier so it’s really hard work when the snow is all chopped up. Still, no major falls and I was doing fine on the rope-tows.
Broken River were doing a fundraiser for the helicopter rescue service. It’s called the “Cheese Roll” competition. They used to get a wheel of cheese and roll it down the hill and you’d chase after it. Times are tough so instead it was 10?kg of cheese and it was on a sled. Madness. No broken bones though (would have been hilarious if the helicopter had to be flown out for it..)
Then afterwards we all ate masses of cheese. Delicious.
Then the next day at Porters. Pretty patchy snow this late in the season, but, a good day – so much easier on the groomed slopes (but, honestly, BR has the better vibe by a mile).
I always try to see my primary school friends when home. We were an awesome (and obviously stunning) bunch of kids back in the day. Look at us, amazing!
I had a chance to make mums tiramisu recipe and it came out really well. Probably because I nabbed most of dads golden rum. Apparently it wasn’t for cooking with. Who knew? ;)
And then all too soon it was time to leave back to NZ. It’s always hard leaving Ireland, and it doesn’t get any easier as ones parents get older.
Glendalough is a lovely spot to go for a walk. A glacial valley with a medieval monastic settlement in it. What’s not to love? My college friend Mick was keen for a bimble so off we went. It was great to stretch the legs, and the weather continued to be kind.
We attempted to re-create a photo that Mick had taken of my friends Glynn and Declan back in the day.
Probably needed the original there to really do the recreation justice! Still, a lovely walk. Pretty cool to see the deer just hanging out and not at all skittish. You’d never get that close to a deer in NZ as they’d be too worried of getting a bullet in the head.
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