Got the roof. Lets go baby.

And that picture was a couple of weeks ago.

Quite the start to 2011. Disasters aplenty. One after the other in escalating degrees of seriousness. And the Irish election. Good on yis all. Vote (or don’t as would be more precise) the bastards into oblivion. Enda as your Taoiseach. Maybe may name will be more understood first time round? Maybe.

This whole world ‘recovery’. Am still a bit dubious. Where have the trillions of debt gone? Everything's alright now so just push on? Is there another ‘correction’ to come? Am talking about here mainly as I think Ireland has done it tough enough already. Aussies and Yanks are carrying on and forecasting and budgeting as if we’ve had the blip, and are close to back to normal now. There was a documentary I watched recently on the whole GFC thing narrated by Matt Damon – good piece of work and spelt the whole thing out in very simple terms. Have to say, old Obama does not come out too favourably. Go watch it anyway.

Ok, the house. As above, we have a roof – and lots more. Getting just a bit more exciting now as we approach the final stages. Been a year since we moved into the rental – a year since we bought the land. It’s a long process, but we’re hoping to get into the place in mid June. Aside from watching the cash roll out the door, it’s an experience watching the whole process.

The girls. Aibhe is just at the end of her first term at school. A 12 ‘weeker’ and she is dead on her feet the poor thing. Seems to have taken to it like a the proverbial duck in water – we’ve taken it for granted a bit but we shouldn’t as we see examples and hear stories of other kids not quite settling or being very unhappy. Aibhe being a little like Alissa, will talk to anyone so she becomes everyone’s mate. Listening to the boys in her class start shouting excitedly ‘Aibhe’s coming!’ and get ready for a chase as she approaches is amazingly reassuring. Bless her cotton socks as Kieran would say.

Emma, well, she’s Emma. Is also a social butterfly at her day care, thinks she can do anything Aibhe does, is obsessed (I mean obsessed) with Scooby Doo and.... is just a little bit mad. But in a good way of course.

We attended Aibhe’s school ‘bushdance’ a couple of weeks back. Video footage below. Aibhe has yellow scarf and straw cowboy hat. Loved it. Another thing with her school that’s becoming apparent is the mass thing. And God and Jesus etc. Better start re-learning. Though I think I earned some brownie points by going into the class day before Paddy’s day and telling them the story of St Patrick – awfully cute talking to a bunch of attentive 5 year olds hanging on your every word. Their teacher had them compile a book during the day with pictures of what they remembered most from the story. Some remembered practically everything, others, not so much. The banishing of the snakes was quite a popular extract. And I received a certificate.

Other things. Was in Wellington at the end of Feb. Present for a 5.6 Richter scale quake (a tremor really). Sitting at dinner in a restaurant over a kind of jetty, things shook a bit for about 3 seconds. Thought it was a boat rattling by but when we looked around, no boats. That said, some people didn’t even notice it. A couple shat themselves and headed back to the hotel. Nice place all the same. True what they say though – fricken windy.

In Sydney today filming a podcast (dahling!). Terribly boring material, but CEO wanted it done. I get my mug onscreen for about 2 minutes. Am a natural too of course. 2 takes and I was done. Back here again in 2 weeks for a conference.

Alissa is getting along well. Larger by the day, Brackston Hicks around again regularly - pretty early this time mind you. We know what’s coming out but are keeping it to ourselves till the day. Looking forward to getting into the new house, getting back some space and then waiting for number 3.

To take up what once was a spare room.