London!

I can't believe tomorrow is the start of another weekend already! The week has flown by. We had a great time in London last weekend. Our flight left Dublin around 3:30 Friday afternoon, and it took around an hour to get to London. It took awhile to get the train and subway to our hotel, so we didn't do too much on Friday. Our hotel was pretty centrally located- if I stood on my tip toes I could see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, and Parliament from our window!

On Saturday, we went on the London Eye (a ferris wheel type thing that has "pods" that you ride in and can walk around in while you ride), toured Westminster Abbey, took a bus tour, walked around outside Big Ben and Parliament, and looked in some shops. As you can tell by the pictures it was a bit overcast and rained at times.

Sunday was a nice sunny day. We walked around outside Buckingham Palace, went to Hyde Park, and took a look in Harrods Department Store. To my delight, Harrods had a Krispy Kreme donut shop in it with fresh donuts! It was a great taste of home! We left central London around 1pm to get the train out to the airport and were back in our apartment in Dublin around 6pm.

For my birthday on Monday, I had to take my car, AKA "The Popemobile"- given that nickname because of its odd shape, to get what's called the NCT test. Every two years cars have to undergo a test to make sure they are still road worthy. By some miracle mine passed! Paul then surprised me with a chocolate cake and we ordered Domino's pizza. We didn't have much energy after the busy weekend! It was a nice, relaxing birthday.

This weekend I'm heading up to Belfast to visit Paul's sister, Marie, and her boyfriend, Brian. Marie moved up there in April, and I've never been in the city. Paul is testing and racing all weekend, so I figured I'd head up there. One of my high school classmates also lives up there, so I'm hoping to see her too!

Hope you all have a great weekend, and thank you to all of you who sent birthday greetings!

Paul on the London Eye with Big Ben and Parliament in the background

The London Eye

Me in front of Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

Me at Buckingham Palace- the guard is barely visible in the background

Paul in Hyde Park

My birthday cake! (I had just gotten back from the gym)

One Step Closer!

We were in Louisburgh this weekend and just got back a few hours ago. Below are a few pictures of our site. We got the notice to post at the site stating that we are planning to develop it, and people can then pay 20 Euro to view the plans and make any objections to them. The notice has to be up for 5-6 weeks, and then the County Council will make a decision whether or not we can go ahead and build.


Me in my new wellies- I figured I'll need them for the country life!

The site- that's Croagh Patrick in the background, Ireland's Holy Mountain. We'll have views of it from our kitchen/sitting/dining room area and our master bedroom.

The notice- the engineer was a bit ahead of himself when he listed us as "P and M Sammin"!

Paul putting up the notice. That's our neighbor's house in the background, who Paul bought the site from. Our house will be similar to his.

Summer in Ireland

Just thought I'd share a couple of pictures from the June Bank Holiday (the first weekend in June, everyone got Monday off!) when we were in Louisburgh. This beach is about a 10-15 minute walk from Paul's parent's house. We'll be heading to Louisburgh again this coming weekend.

One thing that I've noticed about the summers here (more so this summer because it's actually been sunny as compared to the rain last summer!), is that there is so much more daylight. The sun is rising before 5AM and the official sunset time isn't until nearly 10PM. And even then, it doesn't seem fully dark. It's great, but I may consider getting a sleeping mask for sleeping in on the weekends!

This past weekend Paul took in the Bon Jovi concert with his cousin while I went to dinner and The Sex and the City movie with one of my friends from work. I really enjoyed the movie even though I never watched the series! We got some disappointing news yesterday (well, disappointing for me, I think Paul is secretly glad)- we had tickets to go to a Prince concert here in Dublin on Monday the 16th, but it was cancelled. No one really knows why. Our next big event that we're looking forward to is a weekend trip to London the 20-22 of June. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

Caving in to peer pressure!

After much encouragement from a certain friend- you know who you are!- I have now joined the ranks of the bloggers. I haven't been very good at sending out e-mail updates lately, so I plan to use this as a way to let everyone know what I'm up to on this side of the pond!

I am really enjoying my work. I primarily see clients in their homes and work on exercises, assess if they need any equipment, etc. It is mostly an elderly caseload, but I've learned that that is my favorite patient population to work with. In the health centre that I work in there are two other full-time physiotherapists, two part-time physiotherapists, the manager, and a part-time secretary. Everyone is really nice, and we are given a lot of flexibility in setting our own schedules. I work 4 longer (but it's not that long- 8 to 4 with a half hour lunch!) days Monday-Thursday and am done by noon on Friday, it's great! I have also gotten very good at my map reading skills finding my way to all the homes! Some of the streets are crazy- sometimes I have to back up if I meet a car because the street isn't wide enough for two cars. And, I park mostly on sidewalks!

Paul's business is always busy. He employs two electricians of his own and also does a lot of work with subcontractors. He does both domestic and commercial electrical plans, installations, and maintenance. His main hobby is single-seater car racing, and he has had three races so far this season. He won two of the races but got 8th in the most recent race because of gear box problems. If you're interested, you can find out more about the championship he races in at www.formulavee.ie.

Our wedding plans are going well. We will be married in St. Paul, MN on October 18, 2008 with a second reception in Louisburgh on November 15. We were back in MN for a week of wedding planning in April and now won't be back until right before the wedding. I feel like I'm kind of in a "holding pattern" at the moment though, because not much more can be done until right before the wedding! The only major thing to do in the next couple of months is get the invitations for the Irish guests addressed.

It's been over a year since Paul purchased a site next to his parent's house in Louisburgh. The site came with planning permission for a specific floor plan for a house, but we wanted to make a few changes. We were fortunate enough that the guy Paul bought the site from was building a house with the exact floor plan, so we could see the "real life" version. We worked with an engineer to modify the plan, and the new application for planning permission will be lodged soon. After that, people have six weeks to make objections to the plan. At that point we can then start clearing the site. We have no specific plans for when we will start building the house, and we probably won't move to Louisburgh for at least another year. A lot depends on when I can find a job there and when Paul feels he can transition to being based there while still keeping his business going in Dublin.

Our plans for the summer include a weekend trip to London in two weeks. We leave on Friday the 20th and will be back on Sunday the 22nd. We're not sure what we're going to do yet, but I just checked out a couple of London guides from the library today, so that will give us some idea! Other than that, Paul will be racing once every 3-4 weeks, either near Dublin or Belfast, with one weekend in Wales. We also go to Paul's parent's house in Louisburgh quite often. It's on the opposite side of the country and about a 3 1/2 hour drive from our apartment near Dublin, but it's worth the drive! Louisburgh is right on the Atlantic ocean with beautiful beaches on one side and mountains on the other. And, we've been very lucky with warm, sunny weather every time we've been down so far this summer.

That's it for now, but I hope to update regularly, so please check back often!