Helene recently bought a 1973 MG, called Rosie. Matt has a Seat (1999). Matts had to be towed away for a new alternator I think it was..

I did manage to get a nice drive in Rosie on the way home via Bunratty Castle.. I did feel a little like Ferris Bueller (my childhood (ok, adulthood too) hero)

Then off to Bunratty Castle – definitely worth a look if you’re in the area.

The odd black picture is off a Sheela Na Gig a Celtic fertility goddess (most likely). The small staircase was kinda cool – if the castle was attacked the children would go up those stairs which a man could not fit up.. and hope that help arrived in time!!. Also, things like all the staircases have a clockwise spiral so that right handed people attacking up the stairs would be hampered. Quite clever really.

So a great week all in all, group picture to follow when I get my hands on it.. not sure when that’ll happen again – not before little Vivian is running around the place one imagines :)

Off to the Aran Islands for a day. We were pretty lucky with the weather on the whole, bitta drizzle but not too bad.

Chris was loving his new Nokia N95..

Cycled off to Dun Aengus a Celtic fort situated at the edge of a cliff (one less place to attack from). Was well impressed by mum who hadn’t been on a bike in about 30 years.

One evening a friend of the family’s (Emma Glanville) took me out climbing to Ailladie .. this is a stunning little spot right on the sea. I’d climbed there quite a few times back in college days.., and it was really good to be back again. NZ is a younger more active (geologically speaking) country, and as such the rock quality is often not so good…

The highlight was probably climbing (well, seconding) Nut rocker, a nice little HVS up a really nice corner.. I was pretty (very) happy to get to the top of it as I’ve not been climbing much lately. Also managed to get mum and dad down to have a look – which was great (required a tiny bit of climbing..)

Co. Clare is on the West Coast of Ireland.. and a very scenic part of the country it is too.. Ludlow, one of Cromwell’s men, described Burren in this way:

“Not enough wood to hang a man, not enough water to drown him, and not enough earth to bury him”.

See why the Irish love the English? Charming folk. I mean really, all we want to do is to drink Guinness and have the craic right ;) Te be sure te be sure.

Ehem… anyway – so off to the Burren it was. The whole family was there – Mum and Dad, Chris (Brother) & Irene and their 4 kids – Orianna, Robin, Sophie & Oliver (twins). Then Liz (Sister) & Tim, and their three Fiona, Ciara and Vivian, Matt (Brother) and Helene and Me. 16 of us.

It is *lovely* to see ones nephews & nieces… but it’s not exactly a holiday! More like communal baby sitting!

Went to the Ailwee caves one day.. there is *so* much caving to be done in the burren – as it’s all limestone and riddled with caves. In fact… *if* I ever moved back to Ireland – I reckon I would probably try to live in Galway and get out to the Burren most weekends. There is lots and lots of fun to be had there.. They also have a bird show (Ori with the hawk).

Had a really excellent hike with Helene – definitely one of the highlights for me (4 hours of peace ;) hehe).. no, it was great weather and just wonderful to be out stretching the legs…

Castles all over the place, ish, and millions of kilometres of stone walls. Not sure why they built so many – clearing the land I guess – and boundries? There are also many different styles of walls (which I didn’t get pictures of).

Stopped off by the Cliffs of Moher (Cliffs of Insanity). It’s kinda sad but here also (like at the golden gate bridge – and probably lots of other places).. there is a message for people who might be thinking of taking a jump..

They also had a place where you could get your picture printed out – or emailed or something… I didn’t write the software honest ;)

Ah yes, while I do whitter on about New Zealand being great (it really is ;) from time to time to time to time… it’s not like there isn’t the odd heartstring pulled when one comes back to ones place of birth ;)

There were quite a few people to catch up with (but for too short a time). This table of degenerates are all friends from college (or partners thereof). Ok, 4 of them (Morgan & Becks and Mary & Lorna) aren’t complete degenerates as they have infact visited NZ… only they didn’t decide to move – so that detracts slightly…

I was also lucky enough to meet the first of my engineering friends to have a baby. Emma (and Dave ;) have brought the lovely Jessica into the world. Not that I am remotely ready for this sort of responsibility.. it is still quite miraculous…

Also had a really excellent night out in the Cobblestone Bar. A great trad music bar in Smithfield.. It was great to see lots of friends out.. I mean… Dublin really does do pub culture very, very well. It’s interesting.. I think someone literally took apart brick by brick a pub from Ireland and moved it to the States… I wonder if it would feel the same? Can’t imagine so.

Maeve and Andy (getting married next year :) treated me to a yum dinner before hand.. which was definitely a good thing.. as if I’d skipped dinner one imagines the trip to Co. Clare the next day (with two kids in the back of the car) would have seemed a *lot* longer. Maeve & Andy also build a bouldering wall in their shed. Very cool.