It seems like the Irish music industry have gotten together and said to themselves, better get this Foley fella an injection of some daycent live trad before he starts wearing thongs (not what you're thinking yis muppets, these are flip-flops over here), a vest and finishing his sentences with "ey" or "mayyte" (spoken with an upward inflection of the voice - a Queensland specific trait). Lunasa hit the 254th wonder of the modern world that is Brisbane on the 2nd March, and Grada follow not too long afterwards in April. Luka Bloom plays in late March. I have a grand possy lined up to see the Lunasa lads demostrate the art of trad on speed. I might even drink a couple of Guinness that night and start using the phrase "ask me bollix" once again. Of course its Paddy's day around then too, though there is a reasonable chance that Alissa and I may be heading off to Lord of the Rings land for a couple of days over that weekend. We don't have the culture of Europe on our doorstep, but by God, we have the spectacular beauty of New Zealand and its time to start seeing it. Without child for the first trip is the plan. I have had to subscribe to an Aussie Irish newspaper - the Irish Echo - as the only reason I heard of the Lunasa gig was through good old Peadar O'Murchu back in sunny Clontarf. Of course I found out we had missed Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill playing Brissie two days previously - I wasn't impressed with that, however, armed with my quality publication, I will recover and will never miss a half daycent band playing here again. So then. Roll on the musical months of March and April - should top me up for a while.
The letter I had completely forgotten was due a year after I arrived into the country as a spouse sponsored migrant (for some reason, that sounds a lot like a freak circus animal to me), duly arrived a year after I entered the country. Hooray for Aussie punctuality. Step 2 in the process of my visa application thingamaig. Some may recall the quite onerous step 1 while back in Ireland, with Health checks, police clearance certs from Australia and the Czech Republic where I had been for more than 12 months of my life, statutory declarations,
birth certs, marriage certs...... you get the picture. Fortunately, once the documents were collated, it was an incredibly efficient 6 week turnaround I must say. They of course told me that I would have to do much of the same 2nd time round once a year in Australia - basically proving we are still married and all the rest. So, here we are, filling in forms describing what we've been up to, getting certified copies of this and that, statutory declarations up to the eye balls and of course getting the police to confirm I have not been a criminal in the past year. I think the fact that we have a 10 month old head case, that needs 2 parents purely for entertainment purposes would be enough on its own to keep me here. Will keep yis posted on my "migrant status".
Christmas and New Years passed off quietly and uneventfully. Never the easiest time to be away from family and friends and still just too hard to believe Marian is not around for a time of year she always got so excited about.
Aibhe enjoyed her first Christmas (we think), though her biggest gift was probably being allowed get at the Christmas tree decorations rather than the incredible array of presents she got. She had pretty much started walking the week before so come Christmas day she knew she was onto a good thing. You can only guess what she is like now. I have to ask, did I insist on climbing up on fricken EVERYTHING that one could possibly gain any kind of elevation on? Anyway. New Years was a quiet dinner and bed by 10. Yes. I did not even witness the passing of midnight. Then again, I was well and truly awake when the clocks struck 12 in Ireland. So that should count for something?
I contemplated describing my Saturday morning just passed but decided against a full blown description for fear of offending any of the less-hardened. In bullet form though
- Alissa had been quite sick during the night, toilet sick if ye get my meaning so little sleep was had by all
- Aibhe decided to wake up shouting at 4am - nice one - Dad got up so Mum could try recover a little.
- Aibhe is cranky as hell (OBVIOUSLY WHEN YOU GET UP AT 4AM) and doesn't eat brekkie.
- Aibhe falls over & smacks chin of corner of sharp coffee table. Blood and tears and screams.
- Aibhe does sh&t to end all sh&ts which leaks out of nappy up her back onto her clothes. Mmmmmmmm.
- Aibhe is put to bed and sleeps for a record morning nap of 1.5 hours - allowing Dad time to remove red from eyes.
I would like to say thats the end of the story, but it's not really. While Alissa was still in recovery mode, about 8 hours later I got the bug and barfed my way through the early hours of Sunday morning. I had actually forgotten just how incredibly painful the retching of bile is. When doing it for the 3rd time. I could remember the Billy Connolly sketch on this scene and could recall his mentioning how he feels as if his eyes are going to pop out as the convulsing worsens - and for the first time in my life - I related. There were real tears in my eyes and I think I wanted my Mammy. Those casual vomit days are long behind me now. Alissa's Mum ended up coming down with it on Sunday and got it pretty bad too. Thats what weekends are for. Ey?
I've given the lads at the visa office this blog page so they can see just what we have been doing in a year. Honesty - the best policy and sure, they may even get a laugh. We've had a few things to do since we got here.
birth certs, marriage certs...... you get the picture. Fortunately, once the documents were collated, it was an incredibly efficient 6 week turnaround I must say. They of course told me that I would have to do much of the same 2nd time round once a year in Australia - basically proving we are still married and all the rest. So, here we are, filling in forms describing what we've been up to, getting certified copies of this and that, statutory declarations up to the eye balls and of course getting the police to confirm I have not been a criminal in the past year. I think the fact that we have a 10 month old head case, that needs 2 parents purely for entertainment purposes would be enough on its own to keep me here. Will keep yis posted on my "migrant status".
Christmas and New Years passed off quietly and uneventfully. Never the easiest time to be away from family and friends and still just too hard to believe Marian is not around for a time of year she always got so excited about.
