Aibhe Catherine Marian Foley

Welcome............................!!! (3 hours old)
Eveyone fit and healthy, Mum played an absolute blinder....

Lemon & lime & bitters, pool maintenance and early labour

Let me just say this. Probably the most thirst quenching, tasty and plain damn beautiful drink I've ever had (aside from a good afternoon pint of Guinness in a small country bar out west of Clare somewhere) and its made up of lemonade, lime and a few squirts of this Angostura bitters stuff. The last ingredient has some decent alcoholic content, perhaps the reason I like it so much, but I'm afraid I am addicted.

Another thing ye wouldn't come across in every day life back home. Hydrochloric acid. Yet I have a 5 litre container of it under the gaf now. Yes indeed, I thought pool maintenance was all about the net on the end of the long pole that the pool cleaner boy would use as you'd see him being seduced in those entertaining "movies" of yester year. But no no no. We fill up a little container of water and off we go to the pool shop - where the attendant duly takes it from us (as if a doctor taking a urine sample) and over he goes to his titrations kit. As we watch the colours go blue & pink and red (bringing back stinging memories of the chemistry lab in O'Connells where there was no way in the world anyone would have been trusted with anything other than a pipette and water) he calls out some stats to another bloke who puts the details into the computer. Whack the Enter button, then Bob's your uncle. Printout telling us we need 899 mls of Hydrochloric acid and 2 kgs of some sodium based balancing salt. Thanks mister, here's your 27 bucks and off we go.

Tell ye what though, it really is Hydrochloric acid. Spilt a drop on my foot and holy mother of Mary did it sting like bejaysus. And another piece of good advice, make sure ye cover the skimmer box when walking around the pool cleaning it with the vacuum underwater yolk. Bruising of the ankle, arm and arse less likely if ye don't go on your ear.

Onto labour. Funny, the movies would lead ye to believe that its a wham bam - there's the water breaking (nobody ever mentions the mucous plug eh??), ouch there's the contractions - off to hospital, an hour or two of agony for the poor mother to be and out she comes. Not so. Well, the early part anyway. So much so that ye can walk around a garden centre and enjoy the reaction of the staff when you respond to their question "How much longer do you have left?" with "Actually, I'm in labour at the moment".

Here we go, here we go, here we go.....

After a reasonably non-eventful week - aside from Liverpool's battling 1-0 victory over the lacklustre Arsenal at Anfield - the time it seems hath cometh. Probably. Somebody called Brackston-Hicks called yesterday and caused some distress. He's a bit of a faker though. Then the doc today told Alissa things are stirring, Berry is getting a bit restless and appears to want out soon. Bets were being taken in my office as to whether I would be "pappa Enda" by Monday morning. Although this would still be ahead of the due date, as I said before, we still kindov expected something sooner........ but all in the kids good time of course. Let this be an indicator of his/her future relaxed but punctual attitude to things. Takes after his Dad.

So then. This is it. This is what its all about. El momento of truth. Weird sensation really. While I accept that we are certainly a pair of very organised people, something tells me nothing can prepare us for whats about to hit us. But as they say here, its all good. Scary. But good.

Another week closer....

This weeks photo. At dinner, Alissa's birthday with our most recent guest all the way from.... Melbourne!

As the heavens open outside and we get a welcome dump of the wet stuff, another week rolls by. When it rains here, ye know all about it. So far, I've had the crows (and other miscellaneous noisy birds), the next door neighbours dog and of course some ridiculously torrential rain, all taking turns at who can wake me up. Next up, junior.

No major updates to report aside from Alissa's enlargement and the doctor telling her (us) to be on standby. So we wait.

The non-cricketing sporting season has well and truly kicked off this weekend, with the start of the rugby (union) Super 14's. Thats the best of the southern hemisphere teams pummelling the living sh&t out of each other for the next 6 months or something. I think the Rugby League season starts shortly (very very big here in Brisbane) and the the Aussie rules gets going. Blanket wall to wall, am to pm football of some sorts on the TV. All that and the coverage from the Premiership and Champs league is ongoing. Absolutley and utterly sports bonkers this nation. If I don't know whats gone on in a variety of sports at the weekend, I am completely out of the conversation at coffee on a Monday morning. So for me, its kind of studying for work.

This will be short and sweet, maybe there will be a little more to report next time, so for now....

HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY CIAN!!!

(on the day your beloved Chelsea got hammered 3-0 - how inconsiderate of them)

Still nothing stirring........

So after almost 38 weeks "in there", the kid appears to be pretty comfortable and has no intention of moving very soon. There goes the whole "she'll go early coz nearly everyone else in her family did" theory. I believe Alissa was more into the idea of going early coz it would mean a smaller bowling ball to squeeze out. So we wait. And no matter how many times Alissa looks down and pleads "GET OUT", the kids just not listening.

And Robbie's comeback wasn't quite the fairytale, but it still feels DAMN good. God..

Earlier today, the Indooroopilly golf club president's son (that would be Adam) and son-in-law (that would be ME) won the opening day of the season competition - THRASHING the rest of the field by a massive 5 points. Given this required me to be AT the golf club and standing on the correct tee box at 7am this morning, this was quite a result. And don't worry everyone, I'll get a copy of the local paper and scan the results section in and load it up. A score of 50 points in a stableford best ball comp did the trick. My handicap of 19 will be carved shortly I believe, though in fairness, I did have a 31 over last weekend so they can't complain too much. Just one of those days. The only drawback was that we had to go up and collect our prize in front of about 300 people and I was handed the microphone to speak - Adam pretty much ran away from it as soon as he was handed the prize (brand new Odyssey putters). Not sure if many people understood me, apparantly we Irish talk pretty fast and I have been told in the past that I am inclined to mumble, but there was definitely a laugh at one stage. Afterwards I discovered there were a few Irish in the gathering who appeared quite proud that one of their own was up there communicating with them only - and they refused to act as translators at their tables. Turns out the mother of one of the guys lives in Malahide. Mad.

Thats me with Alex a couple of weeks ago down the Gold Coast......

So Kieran has decided to stay in sunny Ireland (which I am told it has been for the month of January - although Ferg, your weather reports differ a bit from the glowing ones I receive from others - do you not like the Winter?) . K - am sure 'twas a tough decision, and 'tis a shame you won't be here........... but its understandable and there's always webcams. No point in talking about the weather here. One word. Hot.

Down in Sydney, Murt and Shelly have their hands over the holsters at this stage too, wonder who will get to draw first - probably won't be that much in it given Shelly is due..... next week I believe.

And Mr Murphy, thanks for the texts. We miss you too - though I think its just the drink texting when we hear from ye given the ridiculous hours they arrive in at. Unless of course you schedule them....... that would be very cunning. Right, so, now. Time for a celebratory beer and a bit of a swim by the pool. Funnily enough, we don't have much on the next couple of weekends, except possibly having a baby.

(PS update on the crows saga - despite destroying his nest, we were woken the next day by the f&cker at it again.... so there is now paper over the window to stop the dozy twat seeing his own reflection and trying to get at it. Not pretty, but who cares - it works. Of course, now we have the neighbours dipsh&t dog deciding its going to bark its way through our precious Friday night's sleep.... stay tuned......... maybe I'll blow up the kennel???)