One month in.

We are settling in. In the area. Which we know and are familiar with. The landscape, the seascape, the village, the people, our friends....

The house will take more persuasion to become 'ours' entirely. The setting is better than we could have hoped for. A stream or brook on the land for me - there are, as a matter of fact, several, a seaview for Bert - which we have. We are, as a matter of fact, right beside the water and our land has extensive water frontage. Okay, it is not a vast and wide seascape, like most people would envisage a seascape to be, but a sea inlet, with tidal water and everything. We also have 360° mountain views.

The little stream, cascading from the rocks into a pool

Now ! All of that is worth having to live in a house that is not perfect - yet.

The first week felt as if we were holidaying in a self-catering cottage. Good quality and trendy (it has to be said) furniture that came with the house, lacked personality and character, and, it wasn't ours. Bare walls, a minimum of kitchenware... I did however bring some throws and cushions by car, also a couple of garden ornaments - concrete cats - to put by the door, determined to put my stamp on it straight away.  A few essential kitchen utensils and ingredients so I could rustle up a meal. A friend of ours, Charley, gave us some violas and pansies, so my mum and I went to Kenmare to buy some window boxes and other planters. Bought more violas and potting compost and set to work imediately.

Note to self : that front door definitely needs another colour.

The dogs and cats felt at home amazingly quickly. After a week, we decided to install a cat flap, which is being used frequently - unless we are there, then the cats DEMAND that we open the door for them - "rolleyes". Our Fergus went missing for 10 days, and I was heartbroken. I know my Fergus ! He doesn't leave the house for more than an hour and he is a bit of a scaredy cat, so he wouldn't go off, galivanting the countryside in an entirely new land! My guess is that he accidently got locked in somewhere and bided his time to escape. I was so relieved when one morning he was home ! I gave him lots of cuddles, which is all fine and dandy, but it was food he wanted, more than cuddles. In the meantime he has recovered from whatever ordeal he's been through and has also found his place in the new home and surroundings.

 Gabrielle, sitting pretty

 

Fergus, finally relaxing

Our first container arrived approximately one week after we did. That's when it all started. The furniture that came with the house was moved into the house in South Square (that's another story) and our own stuff came in - in dribs and drabs. And it still is. Every time I feel I have accomplished something and our home looks half decent, another couple of boxes are being dumped into the hallway. Everything then needs to be reorganised again and again. We have too much stuff !

 Container arriving

Getting into the spirit of Ireland

Or the house is too small...

We firmly believe that is indeed the case. Our plans for extending the house have already been sent in to the county council. We also got them back again ! Declared INVALID ! Why ? Well there needs to be put up an application near the roadside, which is what we did. Only the guidelines concerning this are so fluid and very open to interpretation, we did it wrongly. Just how wrong we don't know, as they didn't say. But we put it a bit different, closer to the road, a bit closer to groundlevel, more, or less, level, looking at it from a few meters distance, closing one eye and tweeking here and there... you get the picture. Oh, maybe I should take a picture for future reference. Anyway, we sent in the application again, plus another €1000, thank you very much. Fingers crossed for a speedy planning permission without too many hitches, but we won't hold our breath. I will keep you up to date.

Here are a couple of photos before and after.

 Entrance before

 

Entrance after

 Sitting room before

 

Sitting room after

 

 Sitting room before

Sitting room after - note : carpet gone and wooden floor laid

Those windows HAVE TO GO and be replaced with white frames without the 'trelis' in between the double glazing !

 

 

 The kitchen before. A trendy show home kitchen without space for what's important : food preparation

 

Kitchen after. Eclectic (to say the least) and chaotic, but with extra storage, which is always a bonus.

I have rejoined the choir, but at this stage I feel I'm still whispering the songs instead of singing them. That will be sorted as soon as I'm feeling comfy again with the songs. And I'll be belting them out for anyone who wants to hear and for anyone who doesn't.

With a little a lot of persuasion from friends I have also joined excercise classes on Wednesday mornings. Jeezes! My muscles don't hurt, as they have all but disappeared over the years. But my joints - ouch ! I will persevere.

Next instalment on this blog will be about 'the other' project.

Thanks for visiting
Patricia xxx...x

It's been 4 weeks tomorrow

since we left Belgium.

We've had some pretty hectic days before we left. Last minute packing, container arriving, loading and container leaving again, before we could set to the road, direction Ireland.

I have difficulty writing about those last days, as I really don't want to think about it much, plus the fact that I was so exhausted that most of it happened with a foggy brain (mine).

Anyway, the cats went to my cousin, Nancy's cattery on the Friday till Monday, when we picked them up and began our journey.

 

 

The container got delivered Thursday afternoon.  Great start ! He got stuck on the small road  near our house and had to be pulled free by a neighbouring farmer and his tractor.

 

That settled, the driver decided not to attempt to offload the container at our house (not possible, he said), but dropped it off at the neighbours, who were kind enough to accommodate. But it meant that all our belongings had to be transported 150 meters or so.  It was an arduous task, but with the help of some friends and family, we did it !

 

Or so you would think !

If only Bert had notified me beforehand that our belongings wouldn't fit into a 20 ft container, but in fact that we'd needed two three of them ! I would certainly have organized it differently (that's what I'd like to believe, anyway)

Just how many times have I said : "Bert, that will never  fit into the container, will it ?", Only to get as reply : "Of course it will ! "

Never in a month of Sundays.  

Thus we set to the road with more than half of our belongings still left behind. Lucky that the house sale hadn't competed yet or we would have been snookered.

Bert then arranged another container for 2 weeks later to get the rest of our stuff. He would be in Belgium then to sign the contract for the sale of the house.

The new owners were kind enough to let us have a day extra to empty and clean up the house. Which Bert did, by the skin of his teeth AND renting extra storage from Shurgard self storage

 

I really don't want to think about it for the time being, so I am going to leave it at that !

 

 

Monday morning at 7am the first container left and not long after we did too. Two cars. Bert driving one with our dogs, Millie and Sam, while I took behind the wheel of the other car with my mother and 5 cats. Calais, here we come !

 

A few hickups with the trafic in Belgium later, we arrived at the channel tunnel in Calais safely.  There we had to have the pets' passports and micro chips checked, which went very well.

Once in the UK, the journey from Folkestone to Pembroke was extremely smooth sailing, unlike the ferry crossing from Pembroke to Rosslare.

The Irish Sea is rough at the best of times, but this was something else entirely. Thank goodness all three of us were tired at the verge of exhaustion and that we had a cabin booked or we would have settled into the lifeboats for the night - just in case.

Never knew ships could make circular motions like that. A few times I was woken up because I felt being lifted off the cabin bunk and dropped right back onto it. All three of us between wakefulness and fitful sleep, too worried and tired to speak. The ferry toddled into Rosslare harbour an hour later than foreseen on Tuesday morning around 7.30 am.

Thank you, Ireland, for welcoming us back with a clear blue sky and the sun out, even if it was still somewhat blustery.

A gentle 5 hour drive later we arrived at the house, where we unloaded the pets and flopped out on the furniture that was left by the previous owners !

 

 

I would go through it all again for a this. ^

 

Thanks for popping in.

Patricia xxx...x

 

 



Perpetual Home Movers

So we are now the proud new owners of two houses in our beloved Sneem, county Kerry, Ireland.
My life feels quite surreal right now. Who would have thought that after leaving 9 years ago we would ever go back.
I remember when we left, Bert saying, "You do realise that we will never be able to buy a similar house in  similar surroundings around Sneem for the price we got from the sale of the house."
He was right - for a while.  House prices went up and up and up, until the bubble burst...
Being the restless souls that we are and, not forgetting, perpetual home and country movers (gosh ! life would be simpler if we were just to get rid of all our tat and bought ourselves a gypsy waggon and a horse), we decided to go back to Ireland. 
It took us 2 years to plan and  to get things in order.

The timeline of the big move is as follows.

• Friday, 12th April

- Arrival of shipping container (we bought a second hand one, that way we can make use of  it in Sneem as storage - we're gonna need it !)

- Cats go to  my cousin, Nancy's cat hotel , which is just on the other side of town.  Easy peasy.
The dogs will stay with us, hoping we'll be able to manage them as we load the container.

• Saturday, 13th & Sunday, 14th April

- Load container with the help of friends.  Neatly loaded, to make good use of the 20 ft space.

• Monday, 15th April

- Container gets picked up in the morning.
- Stuff 2 cars full of dogs and other belongings
- Get cats from cat hotel, stuff them in car too
- Pick up my mother (who will have made picnic parcels), she is coming for the ride and will get a suitable space in my car.
- Ready to roll by 12 noon
- Drive to Calais to get to the Channel Tunnel
- Hopefully all goes smoothly with importing the pets.
- Arrive in Ashford
- Drive through England and Wales towards Fishgard to catch the ferry....

• Thuesday, 16th April

- Ferry Fishgard - Rosslare at 2.45 am
- Arrival in Rosslare at 6.30 am (or thereabouts)
- Drive to Sneem with estimated arrival at 12 noon
- Brass band, cheerleaders, flags will be welcoming us back (haha)

The shipping container will leave the docks in Antwerp on Wednesday and arrive in Cork on Friday morning, so we will not be seeing our worldly goods till the next Monday at the earliest.

At this point the pets have had their shots, micro chips for the ones that didn't have one yet, passports have been updated, etc etc.  The dogs need a treatment for tapeworm between 1 and 5 days before arrival in the UK.

Boxes have been filled and many more still need filling. The weeks ahead are going to be hectic, to say the least.

Thank you for reading
Patricia xxx...x

A Neglected Blog

Well, dear readers, I have neglected my blog good and proper !
There are reasons and a thousand excuses for that, but I'm not going to bother you with the latter.
The fact is that my head space didn't let me get onto the Blogger World.
We will be moving house and country soon. I wrote about that in October 2012 . I'll leave the developements of that subject for the next instalment on this blog.

Unfortunately when we got back from Sneem last October our dog Sam became ill. A bit of a dry cough at first, so a coughing syrup was prescribed by the vet. No sign of improvents made the vet give him antibiotics. Again, no improvement.
On the contrary, he became very weak and in a matter of days he lost his eyesight and lots of wheight.  In the meantime blood tests were done and the results showed absolutely nothing conclusive.  An ultrasound showed an enlarged spleen. Biopsy. Nothing conclusive.

Our next step was drive all the way to the Universitary Animal Hospital in Ghent. Obviously they repeated all the tests and were stumped, just like our vet. They advised a drip and cortisone treatment in the hospital, but we opted for that to happen at our vet's, which is nearer to us.

He got stronger and his eyesight came back.  He could come home, but has been on cortisone ever since.  Sometimes he gets a bit weaker still and then the cortisone dose gets upped.
It gets upped because he gets fatter, so he can have more.  He gets fatter, because he eats loads.  He eats loads because of the cortisone.  You got it, a vicious circel.

The vet now believes it to be a neurological problem.  Like a brain tumour.  Why not get a scan, I hear you ask.  1300€ is why.  They might find a tumour, but they might not.  And then ? We will know it's a tumour.  His treatment would still be the same.  Keep him comfortable till the day comes when we have to make this damn awful decision. 

A decision we recently had to make already with one of our cats, Squirrel. My little darling. Fourteen she was and was slowly getting  to the end.  Every day I think about her with pain in my heart.  I feel guilty, still.  But apparently it was for the best.

It is something you don't really think about too much when you get a pet. They just don't get as old as we do and there will be a point in our lives when we have to say goodbye.  It is hard.
On the positive side, they give us so much while they are with us. Unconditional love, great companionship. They make us laugh with their antics and sometimes they make us want to strangle them when they have pooped in an unreachable (for us) corner !

So you see, I have been preoccupied with  all sorts.
My next blog instalment will not be far off and possibly of a more positive nature.


Thanks for reading
Patricia xxx...x

Puppet Theatre Makeover

 

I have a nephew - Mathias (5) and niece - Sarah (1.5) who are both cute as pie and misschievious in equal measures. 

My dilemma is what to give them on special presents days, like birthdays or christmas.  They have so many toys that I don't want to add to the pile unless it's educational, something that releases their creativity or something that they will treasure forever.
So I came accross this puppet theatre in a Recycle Shop. Bought it for peanuts and gathered up a load of second hand hand puppets at the same time.  We still had some hand puppets at home that once belonged to Bert from when he was a wee little lad.
I revamped the puppet theatre with a lick (or two) of paint and new curtains.  Some of the puppets got new clothes that I made with pieces of fabric that I had lying about (read : had been hoarding) and got their faces washed thoroughly with soap and water. The other puppets will be given to them in dribs and drabs over the coming couple of years - hopefully before they have outgrown the theatre (blushes)
So here are the pictures of the project.

 

A rather insipid and tired looking puppet theatre.

 

 

Transformed.

 

 

Meet the puppets.

Grandma & Granddad

 

Granddad & his dog

 

Granddad's dog.

 

The Twins (they were Little Red Ridinghoods, but I changed their profiles, seeing I have a whole tribe of them)

 

King and Queen

 

My guess ? Winnetou who got a real suede outfit.

 

We gave it as their Christmas present and boy did they enjoy it !

 

 Look at his litlle face

Granddad's dog has the most success

 

Not always used as was meant but fun nonetheless.



Their parents were going to leave it at ours till the next day, but Mathias insisted it traveled home with them that evening and he started lifting the theatre himself to bring it to the car.

 

Mission accomplished ! Could not have hoped for a better reaction.



Thanks for visiting.
Patricia xxx...x

Overview of 5:2 Recipes

I thought that as an interludium in my blog I would put the low calorie and low carb recipe links in one post. Making it easier for you if you to find if you needed them. 
Oh, I've got plenty more recipes written down on paper. The problem is getting them on this blog (I could do with a secretary ;-) )Sometimes life just gets in the way of the things we really want.


Halloumi Salad - 255 cal

Tofu Stir Fry - 235 cal

Grilled Nectarine with Quark - 50 cal

 

 

Chicken Cacciatore - 265 cal

 

 

Celeriac Salad and Smoked Salmon - 245 cal

 

 

Stuffed Courgette or Marrow - 310 cal

 

The Quickest Lamb Tagine - 400 cal

 

Celeriac Mash, Beetroot Salad with Quorn Steak - 397 cal

 



 

Ratatouille with Grilled Prawns - 366 cal

 

 

Low Carb Pizza

 

 

Roast Vegetable Stack, Served with Smoked Trout - 373 cal

 

 

Cauliflower 'Rice' - 45 cal

 

 

Spiced Chicken Meatballs with North African Aromas - 295 cal

 

 

 



 

Thanks for stopping by.

Patricia xxx...x