A Date, A Run and More Cousins Visit!

Two weeks ago Wayne and I went on a date! It was awesome! (and only a bonus that going out for dinner means we get to walk around Dublin - still surreal for us after nearly 2 1/2 years)

The night before was the Chi-Running workshop for the running group (which Wayne attended as well), and since it was 6:30-9:30 pm, we decided to have Norah sleep over at Lilia's house. Her first ever sleepover. Of course she was great and Kirsten said she was just the most polite little sweetie-pie (more so with other adults than with her own parents). Kirsten (Lilia's mom, my good friend) asked if Norah could live there all the time.. awww.) :) A great compliment to receive. So, we picked her up in the morning and she was less than enthused to see us at the door. (she wanted to stay longer)
So, then the next night (Friday), a friend of ours was having the opening of her NGO which works on Malaria education. Norah's other best buddy is Sebastian and his parents have been asking for months now for Norah to sleepover. We figured, what better time than now! So, we dropped her off yet again (we could get used to this), for her 2nd sleepover, ever. And again, she had a ball, loved it, and did not want to leave.

So, off we went to the city for the opening of the NGO - it ended up being in a very tiny top-floor loft on Grafton Street and it was so crowded we only stayed for about 15 minutes. Enough time to say hello to the hostess and see the CFO say a few words. So, we wandered happily and found a tapas restaurant to have dinner (best part, not expensive but incredible food!). So, 9 pm rolls around and we're going..."what do we do? Do you have another drink? Do we go somewhere else? When's the last DART train?"
So, we made our way to another pub for a drink, and then walked back toward the train station for one last one. This was in the Lincoln Inn pub which is the hotel where Nora Barnacle (James Joyce's wife), worked. (if you're into the literary history at all) It's an amazing pub though - all original woodwork and stained-glass windows - gorgeous inside. And then, off we toddled to the train by 11 pm. (which to us, 70 year olds in 30 year old's bodies, felt like a rip-roarin' night on the town)

I cannot tell you though, how nice it is to have a night without a child, and without a babysitter deadline to get back to. We've had friends watch Norah 1 or 2 times but (sadly, for romance' sake) that's usually for a running event where we're both competing. So, for an actual "date" with dinner and a drink, this was the first time in close to two years. Now, we're not complaining - we feel like we have loads of quality time together and we get to watch a movie now and then after Norah goes to bed - but having a real-date night reminds you that you had a relationship BEFORE child. Man, is it easy to forget that. We've only known this little being for 3.9 years....and yet....you'd swear we had never existed as a couple-unit, or even as individual humans, before she arrived. So, here's to remembering how wonderful it is and actually calling on friends for sleepovers. :)

Aisling, Sebastian's mom, sent me this picture of the three of them having porridge in the morning after their sleepover. Happy as could be!

 My longest run to-date with some members of our group - a twenty-mile run from Malahide to Glasthule - so 32Km if you're so metric-ly-inclined.

 And here's Clare and I, hobbling down to the water at Sandycove and putting our feet in the ICE cold sea. The water was so cold that day it felt like a brain-freeze, but in your bone-marrow. I could only dunk my feet for a minute and then I had to physically hold my legs to stop the ache. But they say....this is the best possible antidote to muscle soreness (and I had zero the next day so maybe it helped.)

Wayne's expressions here just kill me! hahaha! Looks like he goes "Oh." when he looks over."Oh." So funny!

Last weekend we took the bus out to Marlay Park (the best playground around). Well, they installed this set of exercise machines outside the playground so we had a ball on those.

 They have these sets of machines all over the place in Dublin (health initiatives) but most are just absurd and would do absolutely nothing to help your fitness (let alone get people out there in their workout gear in the middle of a park for a genuine "session".  99% of their use is from people walking by going, "oh, hey, let me hop on this thing for a laugh". They're a great idea but just don't quite work in action.

Well, these ones though, were actually really good machines! This one you push out with your legs and it's like a squat-press with your own body weight.

A fantastic restaurant we had never tried in the City Centre. For anyone who has come to visit, we usually bring you to this Lebanese place just near Grafton Street/South William Street. Well, this is directly opposite that place. We actually intended to bring Aly & Doug to the Lebanese restaurant (Cedar Tree) but this caught our eye and we all decided to try something new. UNBELIEVABLE! It was so goooood!

 Which brings me to my next point - meet Aly & Doug. :) Aly is my cousin from my Dad's side. My Dad's sister is Aunt Marlena (a woman I absolutely adore). Aunt Marlena & Uncle Wes are just wonderful people. So, Aly is their daughter and Doug is her hubby. They live in Idaho Falls and decided to come and visit (while also spending a few days in London visiting other friends they knew from when they lived in China).

We just adore these two and have had a ball. The overwhelming feeling is that we want them to live close to us and (if we end up in Seattle) to coax them into moving there! We are so much alike - same senses of humor, same love of the best television shows (Seinfeld, The Office, Breaking bad, etc. etc.), same political views; the list goes on.  I've only actually met Aly 3 or 4 times in my life but every time it has been as if we were great friends since childhood.

My Dad's family is pretty well dispersed around the U.S. and we were raised right near my mother's side of the family, so they're really all I've ever known. It's really nice though, to get to know the other side and have such a strong connection, right off the bat.

After dinner, on the walk back to the train, we took them by the very famous "Murphy's ice cream" of Dingle. So good!

Walking back toward the train. Me, hanging back, as Norah insisted on walking along the bars (on the right) and touching each and every one as she went.

And after our first day together, we got them all set up with their rental car before their 3-day-Ireland-by-storm-roadtrip! And they did it all successfully! It's now Friday morning, and they'll be back soon, after driving North to Belfast, farther Norah to Portrush (northernmost tip), south through Derry & Sligo, to Galway. South father again to Cork (Southernmost tip) and then back to Dublin on day four. Pretty impressive! We can't wait to see their pictures today as they've officially seen more of Ireland in 4 days than we have, in nearly 2 1/2 years! Hopefully they'll let me share some photos  and I'll get some up here.

Don't judge me for being absent....

Please don't judge me for being such a terrible blog-updater-writer. It's all for good reasons...good reasons. :) Wayne's Ph.D. moved into the interesting "data-collection" piece - which is not like most Ph.D.'s where this piece is experimental data. For him, this involves interviewing brilliant psychologists around the world, using liberation psychology as their framework in civil rights' activism, human rights' work and critical-psychotherapy. These are amazing people. Last week he was lucky enough to fly over to Manchester, UK, to do two interviews in one day. Only while living in Dublin is a flight to England something where you leave after breakfast and get home at 11 pm. All in a day's work. :) Pretty surreal for a guy who had never even left Canada and the U.S. before moving to Ireland.  

Ok, these photos are now way overdue and out of context but this was on our drive back from the Connemara half marathon in early April. This is the ancient monastic site called Clonmacnoise. Little bit of info on the site:

Clonmacnoise was founded in 548 by St. Ciaran, the son of a master craftsman. The settlement soon became a major center of religion, learning, trade, craftsmanship and politics, thanks in large part to its position at the major crossroads of the River Shannon (flowing north-south) and the gravel ridges of the glacial eskers (running east-west).
The settlement was also situated between the two provinces of Meath and Connacht, and benefited from the patronage of powerful provincial kings. Clonmacnoise was originally associated with Connacht, but from the 9th to 11th centuries allied itself with Meath. In the late 11th and 12th centuries, allegiance reverted once again to Connacht. The last high king of Ireland, Rory O’Connor, was buried in Clonmacnoise’s cathedral in 1198.

Looking out at the River Shannon.

 

Our friend Ernesto came to visit on his trip back to Dublin (they now live in D.C.). Ernesto was one of Wayne's first professors at UCD and became a good friend of ours. This was the tail-end of his trip promoting his new book (!!) which included speaking in Mexico City, Peru, throughout the U.S., the UK, and Ireland. Pretty incredible. We were so happy to see him for an evening and he brought Norah presents from Peru so Tio Ernesto was quite the hit with the little lady.

For Easter break, Norah brought home one of these chocolate rice krispie treat nests! So cute! It has chocolate eggs on top and little fuzzy chick. Too cute.

 I let her eat it but man did it take some self-control to not steal bites...

On the way into the city to watch our friend Graham as the umpire for a big sailing race between University College Dublin (Wayne's school) and Trinity College.

The boat there is a restaurant and pub. The sailors were all on there and we sat on the other side of the River Liffey to watch. Of course we had no CLUE what was going on....but still...nice to see. :)

They have to go around different buoys (sort of like an obstacle course) but there is no indication of which team is which, OR, most importantly, who is in the lead. Their sails-colors are all interspersed, they wear no 'jersey's to speak of, so its a blind-race from a spectator point of view. Not to mention, they're all over the place so you have no idea who's 'out in front'.

But there's Graham, the umpire, (right corner/green coat) - and he's our buddy and he's amazing so it was a good afternoon.

Graham giving us a wave.

I just noticed we both had pretty rockin' socks on so I snapped a photo. And yes, our feet were naturally perched in this whimsical pose. We don't even have to try. We're just plain cool.

Norah in Grand Canal Dock. If we could compare Seattle neighborhoods to Dublin, this would be the modern, up and coming, hip South Lake Union area. It's all new buildings, fancy restaurants and cafes, and the center of Dublin's tech-sector. (Google, Microsoft, etc)

Headin' to the park - and bringing an extra pair of shades for her friend Lilia.

"No, like this."

Norah had two weeks off at Easter (another reason for blogging hiatus) - so one morning we went for a mommy-daughter bike ride/walk out the East Pier and I got her a very special ice cream. (why is it though - every single time you want to reward your 3-4 year old with a special outing & treat - namely ice cream - you regret the decision after 20 minutes when the sugar hits their blood stream. Almost every time I decide to do this, the walk back home (almost 2 miles), is.....really tough. There are always tears.) This is why I do it so infrequently.

But, once the weather gets nice here, it seems such a wonderful thing to do for her. And here....in Dun Laoghaire especially - the culture of 'getting a Teddy's ice cream' is REALLY ingrained (Teddy's is the company, the cones are like a McDonald's soft-serve type. The company and these exactly locations have been here for 60+ years.).

People come from allllll over the place to drive down and 'get a Teddy's' in Dun Laoghaire. (picture Alki in Seattle, or Port Stanley in Ontario, on a summer weekend.)

At least for those 10 minutes while she's eating it, the happiness it gives her is pure bliss. Of course I'm allergic to milk so I can't enjoy one with her but I bring myself a yummy tortilla chip and I'm fine. Or I find some crumbs in my purse...

The Blackrock Market is a really cool swap-meat type walk-thru on the weekends but on weekdays its deserted. Norah and I took a stroll-through on one of our aimless weekdays over Easter break.

One exciting aspect to Wayne doing these 18 interviews with psychologists is that I get to help him with some of the transcribing. Neither of us understood the time involved in doing this though. Someone told him it would take 4 to 10 hours to transcribe a one-hour (they may have meant, IF you have a Dictaphone, which we don't) . Well, we naturally assumed we could 'bang one out' in 3 hours. Not happening. The first one took him 10, and me nearly 12 hours! (mostly because mine was broken up into 2 hour segments here and there)

Anyway, here was me, set up at Starbucks, just around the corner from us, setting to work. When you've been a stay-at-home mom (not entirely by choice) for nearly four years, doing something 'professional' feels really exciting.

Oh and the week after the Connemara run, three of us did a long run from Dun Laoghaire to Greystones (14 miles). This involves a fairly hill run down the coast, then halfway up that mountain there (Bray Head) and 5 miles past it is the town of Greystones. It was, by far, the most gorgeous run of my life. Hard....but stunning.

Billy & Donal, superstars. (If you can even fathom it, Billy on the right is almost 60!) He has run two marathons already this year (1st and 2nd ever) and will run his third in June.

And the reward, breakfast and tea in the Happy Pear in Greystones. A foofy-Seattle-type café who do free porridge (dairy free) on all weekdays until 11 am (main reason for running there!), and they carry only really decadent vegetarian and vegan foods. Porridge with fresh fruit never, ever, ever tasted so good.

Later that day we took a walk down to Sandycove (thankful my legs let me walk a few miles after the run) and had ice cream at the original Teddy's. Nearly every single human in this photo has a Teddy's ice cream in their hand. Bunch o' loiterers....

It appears Norah's Easter break was filled with nothing but ice cream cones. We really lucked out with weather - it was gorgeous out! 

That evening we had our first dinner of the year on the balcony!

Another day, we found a little neighborhood tree swing in park near us. This was just before dinner, about 5:30 pm.

Well, Norah was not in the best mood for the walk back and before we knew it, she was passed out on Wayne's shoulders. What do you do when your three year-old passes out at 6:00 pm...pre-dinner....do you wake her to feed her but run the risk of it backfiring? Or put her in bed, knowing she'll be up at 5:30 am, for breakfast?

And lastly, a week and a half ago, we had this running-training with a wonderful woman here in Dublin, named Mary Jennings. She is a phenomenal athlete! (My running hero, absolutely) 

She can't be more than 35 but has run 30 marathons and 10 ultra marathons (including several 12-hour races). She is a Chi-Running instructor and so I polled our group to see who might be interested in a workshop specifically for our running club. I got a fairly large response so I met with Mary and organized this evening and it was amazing! There were 15 of us and we all learned a ton from Mary. (I'll let you google Chi-Running, if you're interested. In short, it has to do with good posture and alignment and consciously relaxing while running. Counterintuitive when you first hear it but so logical once you learn it). The Chi-running tag line is that "you'll be able to run farther, with less effort, at any age" so who wouldn't be on board with that?! As Mary says on her site:

"ChiRunning is a running technique focused on reducing the impact of running on the joints and muscles of body and therefore avoiding the onset of running related injuries."

http://forgetthegym.ie/chirunning/

We all found it so helpful and had a ball at the workshop (and our group included members running ultra distance down to those who have only ever run 10K).

All the guys laughing at the knee stretches she taught us.