From over here to over there

2012 on the march

2012-03-06T15:00:00.003+10:00

So, since Christmas we have had....

- Birthdays for both Alissa and myself – probably the most non-eventful occasions we’ve experienced in a while. We’ll save it till next year.
- Aibhe’s 6th birthday which involved a party with about 20 6 year olds in the house and pool and garden for 2 crazy but fun hours.
- Aibhe starting year 1
- Emma starting proper Kindy
- Max....... ‘starting’
- Nana and Tom’s visit for the month of February – incorporating a trip to Sydney for all. Everyone enjoyed the time and the room downstairs certainly became "Nana and Toms".
- Lots of rain resulting in rather phenomenal growing all around the house – meaning a very busy Toro tractor, regular mower and whipper snipper come weekends. An acre is time consuming.
- Roughly 100 plants put to ground around the place
- A brown snake experience
- The somewhat embarrassing saga of the Australian PM battle between Gillard and Rudd. Nobody I knew cared – they’re both crap. As for the ultimate muppet Treasurer Swan, God help us. If Stalin was around they'd be sharing political views.
- Regular early wake-ups to Max (pretty much 5am or thereabouts daily) – now going through that terrible frustrating 6 to 12 months phase (7.5 months old now)
- Confirmation that it is now medically impossible for us to have another – so put away any thoughts about asking if we’re going for 4

I have also been up and down to Sydney with work regularly, to Melbourne once, heading to Fiji for a conference on Sunday, then the following Monday to Shanghai for 3 days. Then back into the short hops up and back to Sydney. Alissa and I are heading to Auckland for a few days in June (without the kids!) to take in the Ireland vs All Blacks encounter and then come August, Emma and myself fly home for a couple of weeks.

The house. I think we can safely say we are done for the time being. Recent amendments include fly & insect screens pretty much all around the house (now I concede these are 100% necessary and not nearly as ugly as I was lead to believe), more joinery in the spare (guest) room downstairs and giant remote controlled outdoor blinds for the main deck to reduce the need to wear sunglasses in the living room from late Autumn as the early sun blasts in for the first few waking hours of each day. This latter addition also has the effect of almost making a quasi room out of the big deck area, most pleasant. We have one final plan for the place which is of a larger scale, but that can wait. We need to sit back and enjoy for a while.

What is very pleasing is that despite the massive amount of rain we’ve had (still less than last year mind you) the pool is still pristine. No need for stress every time I see the next bout of torrential downpours approaching – unlike back at the old place in Bardon.

Safe to say, we’re appreciating and enjoying living where we are now. It’s good. All we need now is for Max to start crawling (very close), expending some daytime energy and frustration so that he'll go past 5am in the morning. Autumn is coming and mornings are darkening, it's just not right to be awake at that time.

Christmas Day 2011

2012-01-06T10:36:00.012+10:00

Seasons Greetings

2011-12-20T20:50:00.002+10:00

Mad, mad, mad. Oh yeah, and that lyric was a Dire Straits classic – Roller Girl from Making Movies back in 1981 (I think). Toro has had a few outings since the picture was posted. Interrupted by our trip to Kingscliff, during which time the plumber finally arrived to ‘finish’ our septic tank work. Required digging up 400 sq metres of my beautiful grass to put drainage down – let’s just say they don’t take too much care when doing it. The once lovely luscious green turned back to brown & shale coloured again. Not happy. ‘It’ll grow back’ I was told. Sure enough, most of it is coming back but it’s now many sections of ‘stony grey soil’ as the great Patrick Kavanagh would say. Time, time, time. That’s all it needs. And rain. Had a week of it recently which was good, now it’s all dry again. And mild. 28 degrees and it's deemed mild.

A bit of maintenance and upkeep on an acre I have to say. Spent Sunday just gone moving 3 cubic metres of dirt and then planting. Lots. 48 plants this time. We’re getting there – smallish but lots of them to give them a long chance to grow. And so we can actually afford them right now. A few years and it’ll look like we’ve been here forever. Have to tackle the fricken creek soon – lots of weed spraying required and weed tree chopping - chainsaw style. Someday, we might be able to afford someone to come along every so often and start trimming. Maybe.

2 weeks of uninterrupted sunshine adorned our holiday in Kingscliff – about 1.5 hours south of here – beyond the concrete crassness of the Gold Coast. A beautiful, laid back and fairly untouched spot. The kids had an absolute cracker of a time, 3-4 hours a day in pools of various types in the resort we were in. Brown as berries by the end of it. We spoiled ourselves with a Nanny for a few days during the trip, expensive option and quite weird getting used to it. She previously looked after both Aibhe and Emma in their day care, but was really there to help with Max. But the girls were very attached and there were tears of devastation and dejection when she left us after her 4 day stint. Having been asked not to return to work post holiday by my daughters, I’ve now explained that without Daddy’s work and the money Daddy gets for it, there is no holidays or ‘special things’. Aibhe practically pushed me out the door first day back.

Emma’s had a few speech lessons. She had been struggling a bit with some of her words so it was time. Now we cannot shut her up as she spouts all the previously difficult parts of her vocabulary perfectly. She’s the joker of the pack, but we’re told she’s very intelligent. She hides it well.

What else.

Ah yes, been to Hong Kong again for a few days. Overnight flights there and back, but thankfully upgraded to business on both legs so just about tolerable. Stayed in a bit of a smelly dump while there. Hong Kong is nuts when it comes to how busy it’s hotels are. It’s constantly booked out.... so if you go on short notice, it’s a case of paying ridiculous rates or accepting a lower standard. Next time I will be getting advance notice, no intention of staying in a place with a fish and meat market right outside the door. Big bloody project coming our way next year which will mean a few more trips to Honkers. As usual, while I was gone, the family got sick. Alissa had tonsillitis and the kids were struggling too – a few rough days. May as well set the sickness clocks by my travel schedule at this point.

Max is fat. No 2 ways about it. HUGE. I’d like to say he’s still quite cute, but then we said that about Aibhe and looking back now......... hmmmmm. But, the big fella is eating like a horse. Thankfully, he is now sleeping ‘through’. Meaning we put him down at 7, and he wakes at 5’ish. Really can’t complain about that after 5 months.

Just moved offices also. From level 33 to level 3. Same building. No more spectacular views over the Brisbane river and out to sea and Stradbroke island for me. No, a nice modern office now looking across the road at 'Felix', one of the high rise buildings Geoff designed. Parkers are now in my life during the day as well as night!

Tell ye what though. It’s a very interesting job discussing salaries with people at remuneration review time. Not sure people read papers or listen to the news sometimes. The world doesn’t know if it’s going to shit itself tomorrow, never mind start forking out 20% pay increases when really, job roles haven’t changed that much. Some hard discussions being had - ahh all the fun of the CFO. While the economy here has been what I would call ‘steady’, it’s certainly not picking up at any rate that’s for certain. And there’s probably at least 2 more years of that sluggishness ahead.

I watched the 2000 to 2009 Reeling in the Years recently – very weird as I can’t connect with a lot of it having been in Australia for 6 of the years. In all the older ones I know the tunes, remember the stories, feel the nostalgia. Anyway, watching the series was quite sobering with the countless warnings about bubbles bursting etc that came from the more experienced and reasoned of the population between 2004 and 2007. How they were just outright ignored and dismissed as pessimistic (or whatever) is truly shocking – bordering on criminal. How f&cking dumb were the most senior and ‘respected’ heads of our banks not to pay heed to any of this and to then come back and say everything is grand – less than 1 year off the start of the collapse?? Not sure what good time Bertie is up to these days, but himself and McCreevy have so much to answer for it is not funny – has to go down as the most mismanaged period of Irish governmental history, which is saying something given Haughey’s reign of greed and lies. Am sure everyone at home is sick to death of all this, but it is so enraging that we entrusted these f&ckwits to run the place effectively and look after the futures for us and our kids, and we may as well have put a bunch of fluffy clouds in the Dail and they’d have done less damage. Rant over.

It genuinely did not have to happen this way. I just keep hoping and praying that the people I am close to can manage to steer clear of its effects. So far, fingers crossed and long may it continue.

Nollaig Shona dhiabh go leir.

As good a snap as we could possibly get

2011-11-07T20:36:00.001+10:00

"Toro toro taxi, see ye tomorrow my son"

2011-10-21T10:25:00.018+10:00

From what 1980's classic is that one pulled from? Answer in the next blog update. Anyway, Toro is the new automotive addition to 77 Dillon road. I had twice attempted to pare back ('manually') the somewhat incredibly quick growing 'commercial' grass seed we had sprayed on only a few weeks back - and came away shattered each time saying I could not do that again. From red dirt to foot long grass in a few weeks. Cue the urgent need for the ride-on mower. It is quite an exiting thing for a bloke. And the kids. It looks awesome now (the grass), having a nice big stretch of green in front of the house was what we wanted. Must put up some house photo's next time. But this is Toro.

We had "Geoffie's" 60th. Above photo is the girls and poor Max waiting patiently in the beer buckets. A nice pleasant family affair in the residence of same Geoff & Barb - surprise too. Big family. 6 years in Brisbane and am still learning the names. Getting there though. At the point where it's just the cousins I confuse. Kindov.

The job is going well at this point. Not overwhelmed or anything - just absolutely full on when at work. Tends to be a line of people waiting to come and see me if I leave the office for even a day or two. Tomorrow am off on my 3rd trip to Sydney this month. At least it is just Sydney and I tend to just be away for 1 or 2 evenings midweek. And Max is being quite the routine baby at present (though now that I've said that - bound to go pear shaped). He's usually just about asleep when I get home, 11 o'clock jam bottle in him and 5am we're off. Sounds like an early start, but summer is kicking in here and honestly - we're up and at it early doors.

We thought he was fattening up a bit, but all the scales and measurements are saying just on average. After the Aibhe explosion in her first year, we're a little more conscious of the weight factor this time round........

She picked the right side just in time

2011-09-18T06:53:00.004+10:00

With the slow burning adoption of facebook in my life, I’ve been letting the auld blog updates go by the wayside. I guess it’s the instant nature of life these days – and the sheer simplicity and ease of facebook on the mobile. Blog updating takes a little thought, time and energy – and I wonder whether it’s really that interesting for most people with such busy lives and kids of their own. My family excepted of course – am sure they like to hear all my boring news.

It’s the Monday after the big sporting weekend for Irish rugby & Dublin. I’ll make no reference to Liverpool right now as this one is about where we’re all from really. Am not fanatically patriotic – never have been - I love Ireland and I love Dublin – but have never been an “in your face” type Irishman. The fanatical patriotism scares me and have seen it lead to many fights and arguments in the past when taken that one step too far. I far prefer the subtle tricolour on my top or cap over the local GAA/Ireland jersey (mind you right now a Dublin top would go down well). I don't know what it is. When you wear the sports jersey outside of the relevant sporting occasion, your looking to make a statement or something. The Man Utd tops all over Asia.....

I had a few punters asking me as we approached the game on Saturday who I was “barracking” for. Most were tongue in cheek – but a couple were genuinely asking. Simple answer/question back – “I’m Irish - who are you going for?”. The same way I would always expect an Aussie to support Australia no matter where they were living. Don’t get me wrong – when the Aussies are playing anyone else (in basically any sport), am absolutely 100% behind them – it comes with the territory and Australia has been very kind to me. The level to which I supported the Queensland Reds this year even surprised myself – but then there was an extra element in that with the family connection. I can’t quite do the Bronco’s thing mind you. Brisbane they may be – but it is still Rugby League.

So anyway. You have probably all soaked up the joys and massively strange uplift such sporting achievements manage to deliver – and it’s so good for the place. Ireland needs it every now and then. The Aussies and the Irish get on pretty well, so it’s nowhere near the same scale as an Ireland England rivalry – for those at home am guessing this was more about the magnitude of taking out one of the world’s top teams. Here, there was an added spice to it, being an Irishman in the midst of it all. The remarks and quips I was receiving for the few days before were always light hearted – and to be honest, I just accepted them and said nothing. Didn’t have to. When you’re the underdog, the pressure is not really there. I was just surprised at how BIG an underdog we were considered to be despite recent performances. It was always a possibility Ireland could do it, and I don’t really see it as the biggest upset in World Cup history. We’re not THAT small a rugby nation and we won the 6 Nations not so long ago with most of this team. Weird. Anyway – I don’t think the Aussies should feel that bad. But they do. The papers crucified the team here – some more gracious in defeat than others – thankfully Alissa’s cousin (Brendan Cannon) is on Fox Sports commentary and he lent the most impartial and balanced (and complimentary to Ireland) view of the game in his comments on TV and his newspaper column. Maybe he was thinking about the next time we would catch up at a family event!

Then came the Dubs. 16 years. Now just to say – we get no coverage of the GAA here. None. And RTE stop it being accessed on their website from non Irish locations (which I have now figured out how to get around... so bring it on). But I was keeping an eye on the Dubs progress through the papers, my nieces and nephews and of course Deirdre & Kieran. The game started at 1.30am our time. Simply not a runner for me to be up given...

Sleeping has been at a premium in our house recently
I feed Max lots of nights at 11pm (Alissa gets up to him later in the night as he’s been sick and basically waking from 2.30am)
I was getting up at 4.30am to fly to Sydney for the day

Of course Max chose last night as the first night he would crack on until almost 5 before waking. I was almost at the airport at that stage.

Anyway, the texts were rolling in from 2.30am. And I was happy to see them – waking to a text that says something along the lines of “GO ON TO F&CK BEJAYSUS WE DID IT” will always put a smile on the face – even at 3am. It was only when I got to the airport and started reading the reports that I realised it was 1 point and the last kick of the game. F&ck me. How good. And Kerry. I wonder do the kids today truly understand the Dublin Kerry rivalry when we grew up when every kid my age had a Dublin jersey and had a deep rooted dislike of Kerry – we knew every single player on both sides. Christ I remember saying I hated Kerry sooooooo much as a 10 year old - I genuinely hated the sight of the green and gold jersey. I think Mum pulled me aside to tell me it was not quite the way to feel.

Now that was a truly innocent and passionate sporting time when it was all that mattered.

Momentous occasions. The arrival of Max and our beautiful grass

2011-08-21T17:35:00.009+10:00

Howdy Max Thomas Foley

2011-07-25T19:13:00.006+10:00

So much to say, but for now, we're 'home'

2011-07-04T21:10:00.016+10:00

The end of June. 7 years on for Marian, 4 years for Jen. Same for Georgia. So much has gone on and still goes on it's just plain wrong I guess. And now my little sis has overtaken Marian in age - tends to be the moment you realise just how young she really was. And makes us feel more fragile.

And this year, we moved into our new home on our anniversary - 2 days later. Alissa is hanging in there with just a few weeks to go. For now, photos and next one will have a bit more news.

et voila

2011-06-04T15:22:00.005+10:00

The scaffolding has come down. And inside is progressing fast! 3 weeks, we're going in no matter what!

Got the roof. Lets go baby.

2011-04-14T17:46:00.011+10:00

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.

Next up, a roof please

2011-03-23T17:42:00.005+10:00

In hindsight

2011-03-16T20:39:00.002+10:00

...given whats going on in Japan and what happened in Christchurch, the floods in Brisbane earlier this year were but an inconvenience. Not to those who lost loved ones in Toowoomba and the Lockyer valley.

But the scale of this. Jesus.

CBRE had an office in Sendai.

Had.

House update................ and Happy Paddy's Day!

2011-03-15T17:00:00.007+10:00

Every picture...... tells a little story

2011-02-23T17:22:00.009+10:00

Before (and after) the floods

2011-01-30T19:15:00.004+10:00

Brisbane has a reputation for being uneventful? Can't say it has been recently.

I assume the majority would have seen the repeated clips and images that would go some way towards painting a picture of what has happened. But it's one of those things. It's impossible to fully understand or interpret unless you've been close enough to witness and experience the reality. We are blessed to be relatively unaffected directly on personal level, family, house and belongings all o.k. But many close friends were right in the firing line and lost everything. In Brisbane at least no lives were lost.

There was a gradual build up to this. It didn't just happen. We were pretty much p*ssed on for the 6 weeks before Christmas, and from our own perspective, this was frustrating more than anything else as it delayed progress on the house build (more of that later). I know it rains in Ireland. But this was just incessant and really started dragging people down. Australia means beaches and bbq's - especially in summertime. Then Christmas arrived and a cyclone (Tasha) smashed the northern part of Queensland, then weakened to boring old torrential rain, and then moseyed on down the coast, flooding everything in it's path. Rockhampton of course made the headlines. On New Years eve, the discussion centered around Rocky and how severe things were and the airport being closed etc. While relatively close, it was still almost 1,000km away and then Tasha's impacts diluted further to just plain old rain. Brisbane itself didn't cop much out of it, but the inland area got soaked once again. Then came the run up to January 11th. We were told there was a lot more rain coming, and the obsession with the radar loop started growing again (my obsession, and now that the iPad has a quick application - Geoff too). Alissa's Mum said (for the 2nd time this summer) that this is just how the 1974 floods were preceded.

But with Wivenhoe dam, we were lulled into a false sense of security. A dam that just over 2 years ago was under 17% full and in danger of running dry after the 8 year drought.

For the few days before Jan 11th, it rained and rained - and we were just over it. Everything was damp and mildewed. But again, Brisbane itself escaped the worst and even the final stages of waterproofing the retaining walls on the land were finished. The Brisbane river catchment didn't escape and the dam levels hit 154% by then. It was when the Toowoomba & Lockyer valley disaster hit that people in Brisbane really sat up and started saying 'Ohhhh f&ck'. Thats 126km away, and all river paths go through Brisbane to get to the sea.

I remember sitting at work that day and the odd time looking at the radar (just to be sure Alissa wasn't driving into a thunderstorm, or at least to warn her) but I do remember thinking at one point, thank Christ that storm cell has avoided Brisbane - looks nasty and slow moving. That was the one that caused the inland tsunami - initially when we heard it being called that we thought impossible, or even no need for exaggeration, Toowoomba is basically on a tabletop? Anyone can look up the Internet to get an explanation for the geographical reasons - but basically, the amount of rain that fell in the space of 2 hours was simply overwhelming. How do you confront an 8m wall of water? That's as tall as the average house in Malahide. And that's where the most tragic damage came from, the stories too difficult to listen to with parts of families being lost as others were rescued.

Back in Brisbane, the news updates became more and more frequent, intense and attention grabbing. I drove into work that Tuesday morning as the rain pummeled down thinking, 'I won't be doing a full day of work today'. Listening to the radio they were starting to estimate river levels - basically telling us the river will flood in some shape or form. The rain again that morning was painfully constant and hit where it hurt most - the river catchments. The dam hit 174% and was rising quickly to 200% - massive danger zone so the floodgates were literally completely open. We begged the rain to stop so they could at least tighten the taps at the dam to relieve the pain in 2 days time (36 hours to get from dam to city). The evacuation alarms sounded in our 37 floor building and the others beside us. That's quite a scary moment, and right then and there, all you want is to be in your house with all of your family. Survival instinct. I got my car out of the soon to be inundated basement car park, checked Alissa was on her way - she got Emma, I got Aibhe and we were home by midday, watching and waiting. Being on a hill was such a comforting factor. Less than 1 km down the road, the river was seeping into familiar homes, businesses and retail outlets. We were still being told the worst was a day and a half away - the king tides made the estimates very precise.

Brisbane was closed.

The rain stopped and the sun came out. Stories started coming in of the friends whose houses were simply 'under'. I spent half my Wednesday checking on staff, making sure they were all ok, and then trying to figure out how we would run Payroll for the entire Pacific business (1,500 people) by the Friday. We went to Coronation Drive to see the river in all it's might, smash its way through the city. This street would be like the quays leading in Dublin, only 6 lanes only very picturesque and always very busy. It had been cordoned off and people were walking through the middle of the 6 lines lanes with kids to get a peek at history unfolding. The silent hiss as we stood at the police tape, the river covering the road less than 50 metres away is something I won't forget too easily. The visible destruction across the other side at West End was surreal, the random debris floating down the river and it's sheer velocity was frightening. Nobody was talking. Panic buying was emptying some supermarkets and then our power was cut.

Discussions with the office 'disaster group' went from 'if we get back in on Thursday' to me saying we're not getting back in this week. Absolute minimum. I don't think I'm blessed with clairvoyance or practice pessimism, to me it was obvious and founded in pure common sense. Others continued to indulge in wishful thinking, but I managed to get the over ride. Fortunately, a little luck with servers and quick thinking on the Tuesday meant we had a feasible option for the pay run (people around the country still need to pay mortgages, sympathy runs thin very quickly when it comes to these issues) and we managed to access another of our suburban offices on Thursday to get it all done. Just driving there that Thursday was another of the more surreal experiences I've had. This office was about 18km south of the city, but I had difficulty negotiating my way around the city to get there. But once there it seemed like life as normal. Supermarket nearby was fully stocked with anything you needed.

The peak came and went, short of the 1974 record, but destroying thousands of homes and billions in infrastructure. The weekend following the flood, as the river receded, was one of the more inspiring and humbling periods I've been through. I would estimate 80% of Brisbane and around, got involved in some shape or form. Probably 5% of the population was directly effected, but they happen to be near us. A weekend of back breaking, filthy but incredible work was what everyone will remember. For our part, we took care of 2 boys for a couple of days while their Mum and Dad started the process of insurance, cleaning, claiming and then looking for alternative accommodation for the next 6 months. Alissa couldn't go near the toxic sludge, being pregnant.

The next week things got back to semi-normal for most people as the city opened up again, but the remnants of the river stayed behind in almost every basement in the CBD, limiting what could and could not open. Our office stayed fully closed for the week. I spent my time organising a team of 30 Finance Staff into locations where they could work with the right computers and software and accesses they needed. Absolutely exhausting, despite the fact you feel like you're getting nothing done. In the midst of all this, we finished off year-end and successfully completed an audit. It became more and more obvious as time moved on that tolerance and the general understanding levels re what went on had vanished rapidly. Times like these, you feel like letting the emotions do the talking for you, but of course, not good for long term career prospects so you bite the tongue and suck it up as they would say here. Move on.

There's now talk of a flood levy and the country is up in arms. Let's see how this pans out.

I had a surprise 40th dinner (had to be re-arranged very quickly by Alissa thanks to the floods), I've just been to Hong Kong for practically a week, Aibhe has started school, as I said above, another baby is on the way touch wood, the house build has made a decent bit of progress since the rain stopped pouring down. But more of those more cheery events and some pictures in the next instalment.

Since you all like X factor...... plus, a local house

2010-12-24T08:38:00.004+10:00

Where is Aibhe.....her Aussie Kindy Christmas

2010-12-11T14:45:00.005+10:00

No chance seeing her in this one, but a general idea of the outdoor style party for the kids

If that chick in the black didn't get in my way.... Aibhe and her mate are wearing white

Her favourite tune, Aussie Santa. Watch the kid that moves from Santa's legs halfway through

End of year snaps... in no major order....

2010-12-09T08:08:00.018+10:00

Status update approx week 3/4

2010-12-09T08:01:00.007+10:00

Progress ... albeit slowly thanks to the sub tropical climate & rain

From rain and descending winter

2010-11-08T16:50:00.010+10:00

OK. So the jet lag coming back was a little more difficult to get over. We tried hard to get into the time zones on the flight, and Aibhe was an absolute trooper flying, but we still had a few nights waking at 2am wide awake, like the proverbial Billy Connolly piece (live at the Albert Hall, highly recommended). I basically had 4 days of 3-4 hours sleeping bursts at best. Still, can't complain - nothing like the nightmare that was Emma the last time we came home from Ireland. Nothing a few good coffees and some red wine couldn't fix.

I believe it rained since I left. Not what I wanted to leave behind, as really, we had a wonderful time and thanks to all who made the effort to see us. And sorry to those I missed, the last few days were just a bit mental. The purpose of the trip, a surprise for Dad's 70th, was accomplished with great success. Shame he had to go and almost catch pneumonia after the event! Touch wood all good now.

Summer has well and truly kicked in over here, and thankfully, the house excavations have begun in earnest. Amazing how much of a mess they can make in the space of just a few days. Pictures below. It does get somewhat exciting when we get to this point, though am sure that excitement will dissipate a little when the cheques start being written.

And the arrival of summer means lots of swimming again. Kids have just leapt to another level completely in terms of ability and confidence in the pool in an amazingly short timeframe. We'll be using and abusing Barbie & Geoffie's pool this summer in the absence of our own. Though there will be a hole in the ground on the land representing the pool spot at some point soon I believe.

Also picked up our new 'family' car at the weekend. Hyundai ix 35, Elite. Nice little thing. Looks a lot like the far more expensive and upmarket Lexus 4 WD so am calling it the poor man's Lexus. Now to flog the old jammer and put all that cash into the house building money pit.

P.S. Lyn - baby?

There and back again

2010-11-02T12:10:00.029+10:00

So these are some pics, the written report will follow when we get over the jet lag!

The devil and the princess

Grandkids.... but little Emma missing

"Surprise!!" I think Dad's heart may have even skipped a beat

have a think about it Aibhe?

Parklife

Early 40's

Doggie heaven

Kajjal (cha char.....)

Just snaps... beach time returns at last

2010-09-13T10:21:00.008+10:00

and...... my new office view

And we wait.

2010-08-23T20:49:00.006+10:00

For the plans to come out of council. For summer to start kicking in. Though that's really not that far away. For the final prices/costings etc to come back from the builder so we can figure out if we can actually afford this. And how much we'll have to sell our bodies for to fund the exercise.

At the end of what was a pretty full on and hectic August for me on the work front. Sydney for 3 days one week, then 2 days the next. And long days. One day consisted of going in to the Sydney office for an hour, heading off with a hire car to drive 2 hours west of Sydney to where a Leadership forum was being held (I was an attendee last year), presenting on Finance for a couple of hours, then driving back to Sydney, dropping the car off at the airport, then hopping on a plane back to Brisbane. Home for 9.30pm. The next day, Alissa headed off to Sydney for 3 nights to catch up with her friends. Lots of Sydney happening.

Interviewing a lot too. No matter what they tell you about being trained with interviewing techniques and what have ye, it comes down to your gut feel as you walk away from them. I've asked the same questions over and over, and some answer better than others, but at the end of the day, it comes down to how I'd feel about them working for me. Half the time you do not even listen to the answers, it's about how it's said rather than what. But Christ it's tiring. Ye start hearing yourself repeating the same sentence for the 4th time in a day and ye feel like a total twat and it doesn't even mean anything.

Aside from that, there's not a lot to report. Oh yeah, the election.

Technically a hung parliament, and while I guess am used to the whole concept having lived through coalition and minority governments many's a time (till we all decided to give FF carte blanche to go f&ck up the country on their own) - it's the first time since 1940 here apparently and they really aren't ready for life in the hands of a few independents and 1 green. Massive backlash against Labor, they're not getting any 'credit' for their claim of keeping the economy out of recession. Knifing the sitting PM (Kevin Rudd - nerd extraordinaire and a class A spanner) 8 weeks ago did nothing for them, especially when replaced by a trade union puppet Julie Gillard. Country is dividing in two at the moment. NSW, QLD and WA vs VIC. I heard them call Victoria the more 'progressive' State on the TV the other night, but then I read some more and really, it's just the home of the trade union movement so is more lefty. But the swing there is heading more and more green.

And to complicate matters, the Governor General, who could ultimately have the task of asking one or other party to form government, minority or otherwise, has a son-in-law who is a member of the Labour party....... the plot thickens.

20 days later.....

Labor got back in having given in to the demands of several hick independents. Representing 2% of the country's population. Here we go. Crap.

Winter picnic in the forest

2010-07-25T08:28:00.009+10:00

And sure, we did have to wear jumpers. For a while.

A new layout...... sure why not.

2010-07-21T09:03:00.004+10:00

Another anniversary. Another year further from June 30^th 2004. Another chunk of time between us and when Marian was alive. And Jen. And Georgia. We’re still here.

Not so long ago I was having one of those days. Ye know. 5am start coz the kids woke up early for some Godforsaken reason. The things went downhill quickly at work – all sorts of sh&t going wrong and basically had people coming in and out of the office all day asking questions. Snotty e-mails dumping into my Inbox and doing everything possible to wait the full hour before responding to them. Coming home there was an accident on the expressway so I was stuck for what felt like forever (looking back it was probably 10 minutes) on the way home. Arrive in to more big bills to be paid. Kids are foul – utter tiredness thanks to them waking so early, and as a result, Alissa’s at her wit’s end. For a moment, I caught myself feeling sorry for myself, but anytime it gets to me, I stop pronto. I just think just how much Marian or Jen would love to be “having a bad day”.

Alissa has had her knee operation and recovered remarkably rapidly. All went well and in the end, she was back doing everything she always did pretty much within a week – except for the running of course. Still a few to go for that, but it’s quite clear she’s chomping at the bit to get going again.

Now Emma has pneumonia. Fully blown. She’s trooping through, but she’s a sick little girl. Quite amazing how it suddenly develops. We had the classic symptoms apparently. Cold like cough for a few days. Tick. A couple of days where she seems like she has completely shaken it. Tick. Sudden redevelopment of dry coughing and temperature. Tick. Hospital. Tick. Big whack of antibiotics and keep it up for several days. Tick. Watch like a hawk. She battled through.

The house. It’s in with council for approval of the plans. Geoff (currently watching the golf from the gallery at St Andrews) worked his butt off to get it all in train before he headed off, so it’s pretty good timing really. 6 weeks turnaround on the planning approval, 6 weeks holiday for Geoff. We’re hoping to ‘break ground’ in early September. Currently going through the hardest part – the costings. Let’s just say even getting everything into planning costs a packet. I’ll put up a couple of pictures of the 3D designs.

The pressure is mounting for a dog. Seriously. Our kids are absolutely obsessed with the idea. Please tell me all kids are? Emma would sleep in a kennel with a dog if she had one. Aibhe has gone from accepting that she needs to be 12 years old before we get one, to asking Santa (nothing to do with us she says, so what’s the problem?). OK so we will have plenty of land where we’re going, but we just know we’ll be stuck with walking, washing, in general looking after the thing after a month. Maybe even a week. But the girls just behave like fruit loops when a dog appears. I know we will lose the battle in the end, it’s a case of how long can we survive.

Am on my way back from Auckland right now. Another quick 2 night visit. Had to be done. New Managing Director in place, so had to show a bit of Finance love. It was bloody cold. But then it is the middle of winter. Had the joys of staying in a bit of an average hotel this time. Noisiest I can remember since the hotel I stayed in while working with Price Waterhouse, Prague, and we spent a week in a place (dump) called Teplice and the hotel was on the main city centre street with a tram stop outside the door. Beds were like rocks I seem to recall. Czech winters. Now they were miserable.

Of course it is winter in Brisbane. The usual. Beautiful. Cold and snappy at night, 22 and blue skies during the day. The fact that it does bring the city down with bouts of flu’s and colds is another matter. Ye just have to accept it.

Friday I got home and Emma was much improved. That night, Aibhe woke up with a dog bark cough. The croup was back....

Girls, girls, girls

2010-05-29T06:52:00.009+10:00

2010-05-24T12:22:00.007+10:00

Well I really have left it a while this time. Between selling up at old Alexandra st, settling on the new land, getting the rental organised and moving into it, March and April were nuts. Occasionally stressful as we wondered if the house would sell for what we wanted, or close to it. In the end, we were there or thereabouts. Not after a few little 'discussions' with our agents. I should know what they're like at this stage, though Commercial real estate seems to be just a tad less full of crap than residential. It's all relative mind you.

So, for the next year (or less hopefully at this stage) we'll be living at 2/54 Terrace St, Toowong, QLD 4066. Not too far from where we were or where we're going. But definitely smaller. Takes some getting used to but it will all be worth it.... eventually.

On that note, our architect has been working away (when not working/golfing/looking after our kids) on our designs and so far the floor plans are done, and the elevations started. Still dont expect a shovel in the ground until August. For those curious, it will be a modern design, and we'll put some pics up when we get the final designs.

The kids have settled relatively well into the new abode. Aibhe moreso, as Emma is going through the 2 year old wake and yell at night cycle which we're working through at the moment. She can still certainly let rip. Just had her 2nd birthday which passed off nicely. Aibhe's kindy fair was on the birthday itself, Alissa was on duty taking money for the rides, and as Treasurer, I spent the afternoon counting up the cash. Over a beer or two of course.

Works been ridiculously nuts. Say no more.

Some pictures for ye.

Firstly, our land.... from the top

and from the bottom

and enter Emma Doolittle

First things first

2010-03-09T11:56:00.006+10:00

Welcome to the world my 3rd nephew - Conor, born March 4th. All are fit and healthy after a relatively quick delivery. So, little sis Sinead and Ferg have 2 boys on their hands. A nice balance with our 2 girls and Marian's mix of 2 girls and a boy. Clearly no male/female dominance in the Foley genes.

As for ours, well Aibhe has taken to her new Kindy like she has lived there all here life. Mind you, it's an absolutely wonderful little place, so no surprise she loves it so much. I've been crazy enough to volunteer myself as Treasurer for the place for the year, time to give something back I say. Emma is finally getting some words out - increasing by the day, and a gentle 'No' is still her favourite, but am sure that soon we'll be asking her stay quiet after months of encouraging her to speak.

We're moving.

Bought a block of land about 7 minutes away from current abode, on a sloping acre. Happened relatively quickly, but then we have been watching out for over a year and this was always going to happen. We're now in the throws of our own house being on the market and it's relatively slow going and a pain in the butt. We have signed contracts in place now, but a couple of conditions awaiting. We'll be out in 3 weeks if all goes to plan. Now to get a rental (another painful task) for a year and get started on building - Geoff of course will be our master designer and architect. I reckon that will then be our lot for quite a few years to come - touch wood.

Before I move on, a little follow-up on the shaving question posed some time back. I've had a series of months to go through all the options, weigh up the pros and cons of the various (well, essentially 2) methods. Conclusion. Big Gav - you were right, this shaving oil stuff is the job. The perfect shave is actually some oil, then shaving foam on top and a nice brand new Schtick 4 blade razor. The key is the confident strokes really isn't it? If you're in any way tentative, it just doesn't cut it. The electric still comes in handy when in a rush and ye have to do it on the way to work, or the airport at 4am in the morning.

So last week I was away in Sydney, well about 2 hours south of Sydney in Kangaroo Valley. It was the company's SLB (Senior Leadership Board) annual event. One would think it might involve presentations or some strategic thinking around a table. Not so. Team building is our CEO's big thing. So...... here's a brief summary.

Lunchtime Wednesday, arrive at meeting point
Meet up with Navy guys running the show - combined IQ's of a small fencepost, but all built like brick sh&thouses
Issued with basic 24 hour army ration packs and told how to eat for the next day. I won't say any more about what was in these, but perhaps if one was dropped in a jungle and walked through enemy territory for hours upon hours with little or no respite, some of the sh&t in the might have tasted acceptable. The M&Ms were OK.

Get into 'wet' gear and pair off into kayaks and into the river we go.
A dissapointingly few rapids and 9km later, we abandon our plastic rafts to trek up to the compound we were staying at.
"UP" is the key word. A 500m climb, 1 in 2 gradient, carrying a barrel ...... and I was in one of the relatively fit groups. Lets just say there were tears in some parts (females - no male succumbed to such a level of pussiness)
After a brief break to cool down and check that all limbs were still working, it was off the get the "hutchies" set up for our night of camping. No tents. Hutchies. These are literally canvas sheets which you combine to create 'shelter'.
Then we all ate something out of the ration packs. Something. I actually made one of the other packets up - it was dried potatoe and onion, and for the first time in years, I dry retched when I tasted it.
An evening around a "survivor"tribunal like campfire with a few beers and then "bed" - I mean sleeping bag under the hutchie.
5am - yes, 5am the hooter went off. Now, while I wasn't snoozing in the lap of luxury, I would happily have tried another hour in my sleeping bag. It was f&cking freezing.
Most people avoided breakfast - the prospects of more vile food wasn't appealing.
By 6am, hike back down the hill and back into the kayaks. We capsized as we got in (I'll take responsibility) - so to boot, we were frozen and saturated as we set off
For about an hour we were surrounded by mist coming off the river, so it was all very cool.
However, 13km later, having paddled for 3 and a half hours, we got out swearing and cursing the CEO that had just put us through it all. If there was a half decent current in the river, wouldn't have been so bad, but it was lake like, so all movement was muscle driven.

Thankfully, that was the end of our ration pack diet, and a steak sandwich firmly put the memory behind us. And that afternoon was a little more fun with absailing, rope climbing, flying fox stuff and trapeze jumping. Dinner was also far more acceptable, and while bunk beds with 3 others in the room was not perfect, it was 5 star by comparison to the previous night. I had cunningly bought earplugs just prior to getting on the bus to go, and boy was I a popular man. Some guys have very serious snoring issues.

So, all in all, an interesting experience. Am due to go to Bali in a couple of weeks time for a few days - a reward for the top 30 performers in the company over the prior year - and this one is a junket, through and through. No ration packs thanks. I believe there will be elephants.

Oh of course. The rain. The fricken rain. From chronic drought in late 2007, to being awash with water. Our dams are almost at 100%. They were 17% just over 2 years back. So thats enough for now thanks very - we're good for a few years, everything is green and we can have longer showers without a pang of guilt. Flooding has been quite widespread, and smaller towns in western Queensland have been absolutely smashed. And then just a couple of days ago, the Melbourne city area was absolutely hammered with a thunderstorm and "hail the size of lemons" (that's a direct quote).

Nature. It's a wonderful thing.

The 2009 finale

2010-02-04T07:58:00.032+10:00

The latest and greatest photos...... Christmas, birthdays, Australia day (citizenship day) etc. I could blog a bit, but with Nana and Tom gone after a month becoming part of the downstairs furniture, we had some sad faces.

And we're going to move house. But more of that anon.

Update

2009-12-21T14:30:00.004+10:00

It rained. A good soaking. Everything is green again.

Also, forgot to mention. Military manoevres recently involved Vietnam style choppers flying around the city in between buildings for days. Here's how close they were, and my office is only on the 33rd floor.

Napalm in the morning and all that.

The year that was 2009

2009-12-07T11:47:00.012+10:00

Can't really believe we're at the end of 2009 to be honest. And that another new decade is about the start. New millenium last time, so I guess no real biggie. One of the more "interesting" years we as a group of late 30 somethings have lived through. Somewhere up there with the year of 9/11, the fall of the Berlin wall, peace (of a kind) in Northern Ireland. And in there are those fun drink fuelled Celtic Tiger years of the late 90's. Ye know what though, its really f&cking sad that it has fallen apart so badly, and so many peope are being effected that just don't deserve it. The people that didn't totally lose the run of themselves during the so called boom times.

Living here, its too easy for me to say it didn't have to be that way. But it didn't. Whatever way this country has managed to get through the year without a recession, despite having a new and somewhat naiive government in power through it all, I think it comes down to the fact that ultimately, the people do not tolerate incompetence or corruption in their officials. And have had a fiscally responsible government (not so much now mind you). I never once voted for FF at home. Never. Despite the 'good times' under their so called reign and good time Bertie. Too many people did. And so it comes to where we're at now. The country on its knees. Over 12% unemployment. And the same old f&ckers running the show. I've said it before in this blog somewhere, but we just tolerate far too much cr&p from 'representatives' either of the State or the Church - and look where its got us. Enough - surely? Stand up and get rid of the biggest shower of crooks to call themselves politicians. Tell the Catholic Church to sort themselves out or there won't be another penny in that collection box. And certainly no more 'vocations'.

End of rant. It just makes me sad to read the daily dose of 80's style news in the Irish Times everyday. We said it could never be as bad as the 80's again. Thankfully its not, but man, we're certainly doing our best.

As for the rain you've had. Well that's another story altogether. Been in drought again here - since April really. We need a bit of rain - apparantly some coming this weekend hopefully. That said, its just been incredible - and being able to maximise the use of the house, pool and garden with the girls is lovely. Aibhe is turning into a mermaid. At weekends, she's in the pool 4 maybe 5 times a day. And she's close to pool safe (not that any child ever is completely pool safe) but we can let her swim on her own and just watch from the sides now. She's not even 4.

Emma. There's a different character. Still a nut job, but getting a little easier. We had finally reached the end of our wits and tethers with her recently having not had a 3 hour consecutive uninterrupted spell of sleep in several months and she was a fiery kid during the day. Cue professional advice from a sleep specialist, 1 night of unadulterated blood curdling screaming (perhaps an hour and a half in total) and the next night, waved as she got into bed and slept without a whimper through to 5am (thats waking time here). And became a happier day time child for it. Mad stuff altogether.

So next year will probably see me doing the odd bit of travel into Asia. Big place and all that but hopefully it will be limited to a week here and there. Tokyo is first off the blocks so am expecting to see their bright lights come March sometime.

I went to the Greenday gig here last week. One of Alissa's mates had a spare ticket so myself and Mike went on a nice date to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre together. Have to say I was surprised at the mix of the crowd - was expecting it to be a lot younger but I'd say it ranged from 5 to 45 (excluding the Mums and Dads that brought the kids along). And while the show bordered on cabaret occasionally, I admit it was one of the best live performances I've ever seen. Springsteen still gets the number 1 spot, but these guys run a good 2nd place (would put our very own U2 to shame with the energy and total lack of attitude from them). 2 and a half hours and the guy did not let up once and Christ, he knows how to constantly work the crowd. I've since crept back into my sheltered shell, listening to them in the safety of my car.

At the same venue 4 days later, Alissa and Aibhe went to the Wiggles concert. Different set-up and less swearing I reckon.

Christmas shopping done. Cards & packages sent. The arrival of the folks gets closer. Thoughts and memories of Marian and Jen come back regular and clear. And Tony M, R.I.P. - I simply remember his constant smiling face and his laugh. And his shouting 'Shoot the Crows' at me in Gibs. Just too young and incredibly unfair.

So, recession or no recession, enjoy, and a peaceful and safe Christmas all. I leave you with the a couple of defining pictures of Aibhe and Emma for the year....... till 2010, over and under.

2 months worth. Still. Not much to say?

2009-11-10T14:39:00.006+10:00

Remember those dust storms we had? Mad stuff altogether. Now I can get some semblence of what a sand storm would be like. Taste's like sh&t.

17^th October

At 17 months, Emma ditched the cot.

We didn’t have a lot of choice to be fair. As I was lying down on Aibhe’s bed one evening reading Hansel and Gretal, having put Emma into her cot (screaming) about 5 minutes earlier, I heard a noise in the kitchen. Alissa had left for pilates a little earlier, so, I wasn’t expecting anyone to be wandering about our house to be honest. I walked out and stood in shock as Emma walked over to me with her dummies (soothers) in hand. I think I said something like ‘What the f&ck are you doing here?’ I picked her up and put her back into her cot, back into Aibhe’s room and tried to pretend I hadn’t just seen that, and thought maybe Emma would forget what she had done. 5 minutes later I went back in and she was dangling on the outside of the cot, about to drop to the ground (on which I had placed pillows, just in case). Out of control. She did it again in the middle of the night, so the next day, decision made, she was going into her bed. That was 2 days ago, and while I have been in Auckland for these days, apparently she has settled into her new sleeping arrangements brilliantly and is altogether chuffed with herself. Can’t talk for sh&t, but sleeps in a bed. So many people talk about their kids getting to 2 years of age and over before they move from the cot. Ours? 19 months and now 17 months respectively. What the f&ck’s going on?

Auckland again. Really have not been doing too much travelling for the past 6 weeks or so, this was due. Pretty much pissed rain for the entire time I was here, made me feel at home. They’re a mad bunch the Kiwi’s. They whinge and moan like they’re suffering death by a thousand cuts when am in Brisbane – usually about stuff they really can’t control. But when I get here and sit down and chat with them, they’re nice as pie and all elements of confrontation disappear. It’s almost as if it’s a case of them just needing to be shown a little love. It’s the small island nation beside a big one syndrome I reckon.

So then, how are things? Am conscious that Christmas is a coming, meaning we’re getting to almost a year since we were home, and there are some people I have not been in touch with since. Terrible terrible stuff. Two way street and all that. Having lived abroad for quite a chunk of my life now (8 years all up counting Prague, Amsterdam, Australia, not to mention the two 4 month stints in the U.S.) I do realise how hard it is for those at home to find the time to keep in touch with all those who have left homes’ shores. For me, the idea of this blog was to make some effort at keeping as many up to date with the generic goings on of the Foley family life in Brisbane, so when we get to actually talk or e-mail (imagine – e-mail is almost become dated as a social contact medium already!) we can cut to the chase. Whatever “the chase” may be. Not the recession that’s for sure.

The good news is that the folks are coming back again after Christmas for a few weeks. Will be almost a year since being home, and the girls are getting geared up for it. Nana with her stash of jelly snakes in the cupboard. Hottest time of year of course, but, they’ve done it before and know all about it. As long as Dad doesn’t go climbing hills or cycling around the city in the 40 degree heat we’ll be alright. Obviously, Sinead expecting number 2 has curtailed plans for travel for a wee while for herself Ferg & Eoin.

03^rd November

So we didn’t win any money on the ‘Greatest Horse Race on Earth’ (or race that stops a nation if ye want the real cliché). Despite Irish horses coming 2^nd and 3^rd in the Melbourne Cup. It is genuinely quite a big deal over here, and being someone that really does not ‘get’ horse racing fanatics, I still don‘t get this either. Never won anything on the Grand National at Aintree either so maybe it’s my lack of betting prowess.

We’re into our 2^nd week in Peppers resort in Kingscliff, about an hour and a half south of home, just over the New South Wales border. Amazing spot. Unbelievably good for kids. We’d thought about a week, but realised that to ‘switch off’ completely, 2 weeks would be needed. First time I’ve done a stay-put “2 weeker” for……16 years I think. That I think was the trip to Portugal with Ken, Annemarie, Deirdre and Simon if I remember rightly. The auld trollies. What I can remember of that trip is

- A helluvalot of Sangria in Villa Casa Mario

- Bar-b-q’s in the pissing rain holding umbrella's over the bbq

- Buying a gigantic bag of 'popcorn', and almost burning the villa down as we discovered it was in fact chicken feed we had bought. How the check out girl must have laughed.

- Almost crashing on the first night as I drove our rental on the wrong side of the road as we went to find booze

- A very nasty dog near the villa that scared the bejaysus out of us every time we walked down to the local bar. I should remember the bar man’s name really.

- Kiss the nightclub, where the Stereo MC’s were the band of the moment and where Deirdre flirted with the DJ's everynight. Felt like we were the only ones in there most of the time.

- Something to do with me shoving balloons up my back and not thinking bouncers would notice me taking them home.

- People doing it right behind our seats in the nightclub

- Hot chicken piri piri (pronounced with the very heavy Scottish accent of our travel agent)

10^th November

Lovely holiday had – and coming back to work was actually tough this time! Aibhe and Emma had a blast.

But, tis time for me to load this up on the blog. Back at work with a bang.

And Christmas is coming quickly.

Here's a couple of recent video clips.... listen to the end of the goat feeding carefully........

Dual citizenship. 35 degree winter. Electric shaver vs Blade

2009-08-25T14:47:00.009+10:00

25th of August. The day I self-multiplied. Dual citizenship. I mean, if am going to live here and have my kids grow up here, it's only right that I have a voice in how the country turns out and how it treats them. It's not a betrayal of my Irish roots, I am still Irish. But I live in Australia and Australia has treated me well so far and provided me with a beautiful family and life in general. If only the Queen of England was not still a figurehead here... it would be so much easier to digest! How things would have turned out if we stayed at home in Ireland, that's all conjecture and impossible to determine, especially with all that's happening now which reads and sounds.... well, sh&te to be honest. I hope it is short lived.

So I let the month of August go without an update. Either too busy, or nothing to say. Which is it. Well, it's mainly because it was all a bit crazy. Am currently coming back from a day trip to Canberra - which, incidentally, is a sh&thole (full of roundabouts and beaurocrats) having done some interviews for another recruit in my ever expanding empire. I didn't and wouldn't choose to put somebody in place here, the local office here just happens to be full of high maintenance precious brokers and they want their own Finance person. Whatever, they can pay for it. Unfortunatley, I have to manage it. Anyway, work, boring, I know. In the last 13 days, I think I've been on something like 9 flights. Amongst all that was Sydney, where I met with the Murt fella again - only to find out there's another wee Mitchell on the way. Waaahayyyy! In for a penny wha?

Weather. I have to bring it up. While its come back down a bit, we did have the hottest August day on record in Brisbane last week. The mercury hit 35. In winter. The tail end of winter, but still. Had a few very 'warm' wonderful days, where I managed to ramp up the solar heating for the pool and myself and the little girls ventured in for the first of the 'summer' swims. Aibhe was a bit rusty to start but before too long, she was on her own, swimming from side to side, goggles on, happy as the proverbial pig and sh&te. Emma will also be a swimmer. She has no fear whatsoever, and while she doesn't know exactly where in the pool she wants to be, she just does not seem to want to be held up by anyone. We'll need to watch her. Though we knew that already.

Of course, as usual, August brought the sickness season with it. Aibhe suffered a little, but Emma copped a right dose (was bordering penumonia), which she in turn passed on to Alissa and Barb. Doctors said it was the Adno virus but we actually believe they got hit with Swine flu. The older generation are still in recovery mode, Emma - definitely herself again.

Spent a weekend in Cairns recently - we have an office up there and we hold a Queensland board meeting once a year (to make them all feel loved etc) - but the nice thing was that partners were invited. So, Alissa got to come and relax while I went to a Board meeting and then went fishing on the reef with the boys (honestly, fishing gets boring after a while - though I did catch a couple of decent sized ones), while she got pampered in a Spa and tried to chill out. And thought about the girls back home with Barb and Geoff of course. And this was when, unbeknownst to us, Emma was slowly progressing to the pneumonia stage, so there was a little unease.

Was also in a place in the Blue Mountains just outside Sydney for a few days last week - Leadership conference - bit of a right of passage for progression to the Senior Management Team - so, wouldn't say I learnt heaps, but was good (and probably nececssary) to mingle with the up and coming hot shots. A few funny little stories always come out of these events, but the start for me was eventful. I had arrived pretty bloody early into Sydney that morning, as the intention was that the non Sydney people were being picked up outside a downtown hotel to be brought to the resort (about an hour and a half from Sydney). So there I was, bright and early (well, not so bright, think Alissa and I had about 2-3 hours sleep the night before with sick kids), and the chick organising it told me the lads coming in from Melbourne were late due to a flight delay so to head off to the hotel across the road and have a coffee. Which I did, started a bit of work on the laptop while I was at it. Probably got a little too engrossed in the work, as next time I looked up, the minibus was pulling out (with my bags inside) - off it went, driving down York st without me. I realised I had no mobile numbers for those on the bus. Mild panic, mild laughter ensued. Quick decision to sprint to the next set of traffic lights to see if I could get the bus before it turned the corner. Thankfully, my recent training regime on our newly acquired treadmill at home paid off - so I stood the lights, knocked politely on the drivers window - guy looked at me like I was going to smash it and him and take over the driving (despite the fact I had spent 5 minutes talking to the Scottish muppet about half an hour earlier). During the driver's slow dawning epiphany, the other lads had opened the door and literally bundled me in, and we were off. The PA in charge of making sure we had the right numbers did not live that one down.

Been having the electric shaver vs blade debate a bit recently (with myself - I do put up some great cases forward for both sides). My conclusion? A combination is the optimum solution I believe. A quick mow with the electric to start off to remove the real length from the bristle so the blade has less "fighting" to do, followed up with a foam and hot blade shave. The latter provides the refreshing close shave feel and gets those rogue bits that the electric always seems to miss. I reckon this is also the quickest solution. And its not like I have the thickest of facial hair - am still amazedthat it goes ginger.

Anyway, Australia and its economy eh? Defies logic really and is a bit hard to explain. I just happen to be in the only country in the world to buck the big recession cycle. Should be a sign at the borders - 'No Recession here - please do not bring it with you'. Maybe they could check baggage for it. They have just reported some ridiculous growth number for the 2nd quarter this year. I think it's that people are quite willing to be optimistic and go out and blow their cash. Given interest rates could and did come down so much so fast also got people into a much more stable and better position financially - of course now interest rates are on the way up again to stop the whole inflation cycle kicking in. So anyone that wants out of the great Irish depression, ….. Brisbane's a grand spot.

Come on over, the water's warm.

Tailwinds and Buttercup

2009-07-20T08:36:00.005+10:00

Am currently writing as I fly my way back from Perth. Tell ye what, it is a long way away. The flight over took almost 6 hours. Same country. 6 hours. The flight am currently on should take about 3 and a half. All down to the prevailing winds they say. Imagine it was like that with car journeys?

Had a couple of beers last night with an old familiar face from home – Donnacha Kennedy – weird how we find ourselves so far from where we grew up but then it seems pretty normal and natural for us. Two kids himself now, about a year behind where we are in child age stages but all very similar. He told me amount Tony Meagher and the op he’s undergoing to get the bastard stomach cancer out of him, so if anyone reading this knows Tony or sees him, please give him my best. Rough few months ahead I’m sure. It’s all a bit scary really.

So what else.

The girls are going well. Emma gets a bit crazier every day and is getting closer to real communication which will great, coz the constant pointing and grunts are all very well, but they’re not helping us too much. Aibhe’s addiction to Hi-5 is bordering on obsessive. But there are worse things. This is the latest version of our girls...

As a 5th anniversary present to ourselves, we got away last weekend without the girls to a remote Peppers resort about an hour from Brisbane – Barbie and Geoffie moved into our place to entertain the pair. We (well, I should say “I” given I was at the wheel) announced our Peppers arrival by reversing into a “small” lamp post – flooring it completely and smashing the light section. We subsequently discovered (through conversations with the guy in charge of maintenance over a cheese and wine at sunset 4WD thing) that it was one of only 2 originals left on the property. Fortunately, his view was that they were too hard to maintain and was quite happy to have to replace with a newer one. He didn’t take up my offer to reverse over the remaining one.

The place itself was very pretty, looking over the hinterlands towards the appropriately named Great Dividing range. ‘Civilisation’ practically comes to a halt after you cross these rolling mountains that stretch for about 100km in width and as far as I know, a good 500-600 km in length. The property was basically 5 star quality cabins scattered around a kind of restaurant/bar/reception HQ. The whole raison d’etre for the place is the roughly 400 Wagyu cattle bred on the 10,000 hectare property, many of which we encountered on our 4WD trip. Happy chappies they all seemed, mind you there isn’t much longevity to their free range lifestyle which gets cut short about 18 months into their existence when their most tasty bits get shipped off to Japan.

Update on the house moving thing. We’re staying put. Having done all the work to make the garden and pool as flood proof as possible, and re-done a few bits and pieces around the house, we’ve decided we like the place and basically everywhere we’ve seen recently is either just wrong, or way over-priced. As for the f&ckwit next door, well, we’ve made up our minds to just deal with her as she or her dog transgresses and to retire to the “quiet room” downstairs in the event of her doing her karaoke thing. Or if it horses down with rain of course. Would you believe, she called to our gaf one evening to apologise in general for her behaviour. The place next door to her has recently been sold and there are renovations going on in there, and it has made her realise just how noisy things are. So the visits from the cops and the letters from the neighbours didn't quite register...... She was half cut at the time I reckon, and did use the words "I'm ashamed" so I took it in good spirit. She also gave us her phone number if things get loud again, so I guess that's a big step forward.

I was working away in the Perth office yesterday when I realised the lad behind me was Irish so I said hello. About one hour later he stopped talking. Lovely lad. Another one that married an Aussie girl and came down under once the family expansion thing was on the agenda. A big fan of the GAA, he gave me a great run down of the Leinster final last weekend – go on the Dubs wha! He said he’s got Setanta Sports and is practically glued to the All Ireland games they’re constantly airing over here. Am going to keep a careful watch on his figures in the accounts going forward to make sure he’s looked after… even if he's from Meath. It's close enough to Malahide.

In front of me on the flight is a young couple, both wearing baseball caps (backwards) and ridiculous shades. They look extremely alike, which is probably why they find each other attractive and why they can’t stop snogging (and being general pests to the Qantas attendants). The bloke has just managed to spill a bottle of coke on himself and has proceeded to take his top off - annoying the sh&t out of the attendant in the process who’s been quite funny and almost mother like way of dealing with them. I think she's about to send them to their room to think about what they've done.

Well that’s all for now folks. Any news? Don’t be shy – enda.foley@cbre.com.au. Aibhe has a new bike by the way.......

Sell, sell, sell. And the end of another June.

2009-06-29T17:35:00.006+10:00

No, the economy isn't collapsing (again). Just thought I'd share the fact that we are now eBay sellers. Successful ones. Got rid of some stuff we really weren't going to use at a half decent price. As well as the CD unit I had built to cover the fireplace in the Redmill. Brought it here but had far too many CD's for it after a while. Somebody happily gave me $50 for it. Plus we got some more space. The selling is quite addictive really once you've done it once - we've been digging around the place for anything that might be "sellable". In fairness, there really isn't very much, despite the fact that the ads say "you'd be surprised at what people want to buy - keep looking!!". Very surprised I reckon - doubt anyone wants either of those old cameras that don't work anymore which for some reason haven't been thrown in the bin yet. Hey - anyone for a broken microwave?

We've also been getting all the bits and pieces we've been intending to fix up for ages finally done. As we've been contemplating moving. 3 key issues.
1. We'd like to not be at the bottom of a big hill. Where the water pours in when the storms come. Not that the house was in any way damaged by the worst rains in 40 years or something, but the garden, the pool. Gives us the sh&ts cleaning up the debris.
2. Buttercup next door. No other words can describe her outside of "common bitch". We really dislike her. She's very very strange. Last week we were woken at midnight by her pounding incessantly on her windows and doors, clearly trying to wake someone that was in there. She woke the fricken neighbourhood, but not the comatosed muppet inside. Not for 15 minutes anyway. And she still regularly screams that song at the top of her lungs.
3. The rain keeps us awake at night. Well me anyway. Seriously. When it pisses down, our room is like being inside a spin cycle washing machine. We could move rooms. But that's down the track. Its cold down there at the moment anyway.

So we're looking around. Blissfully ignoring the fact that moving house is a terribly stressful thing to do. Nothing may come of it all and we may never get the right offer on our place. But it makes us feel better to look.

Did you know that Australia is the best performing economy in the "western world" during these economically uncertain times? This is according to the IMF. Still technically not in recession. So, come on over!! Amazing that the government here are claiming credit for it. Maybe I should give them some credit. Nah. Sorry. Rudd's a nerdy idiot who really doesn't know what he's doing. Speaking of Rudd, he was on a talk show last night the big deadsh&t - saying the same things over and over, but I couldn't really hear him coz I was still wiping the tears of laughter from my face from the interview with Sasha Baron Cohen before him. Thought it would be difficult to top Borat, but this one..... Christ he is a very funny man - his on the spot responses are instinctive and almost always side splitting. His movie will be fun.

Now I don't want to change humour too quickly, but I'm sorry, it's totally necessary. Its the end of June - today the 29th. Our thoughts turn again to Jen and those she left behind. I have her card on the shelf above my desk. Our little Georgia's 2 year anniversary was just a couple of days ago. We're currently rebuilding her garden. And of course tomorrow is the 5th year since we lost Marian. As crazy as this sounds, I don't want it to be that long since she was alive. I want her reality to be recent. I don't want time to create the illusion of distance - or of natural healing - even though it tries to happen. While there are days I can barely catch my breath with work and the kids, she still comes into my head at some point. And I want that to continue. 5 years. Her daughter Aislinn has now lived longer without her than with her. That's the impact of time that is so hard to take in. Just seems to be so many milestones we don't want to cross but the clock keeps juggernauting over them. And will continue to I know.

For Marian, Georgia and Jen. Love always.

Emma turns 1

2009-05-29T08:13:00.011+10:00

We had a little get together for the 1 year old a couple of weeks back. On the one hand, the year has flown. On the other, I can remember most of it pretty well - it's been a challenging time for all of us. Whats weirdis that I was still with Virgin Blue when she arrived. Feels like I've been with CBRE forever. Some pics of the day... the giant Pig balloon is a gift from Godfather Ken.

I have to ask this question.

2009-05-28T08:57:00.001+10:00

Who knew the extent of this? Did I just have a very sheltered upbringing in Malahide? Despite going to a Christian Brothers secondary school - pincipally staffed by lay teachers, I did not witness anything remotely comparable. I saw lads getting a thump - some more than others - but then they were going to turn into armed thieves and end up in Mountjoy anyway. Whether those thumpings contributed - who knows - but that was limited. I wasn't in the country when the "States of Fear" documentaries were aired. I thought incidents were isolated. Maybe it was hope. Very very naiive hope.

I've read some of the Commissions report, and I know there is absolute shock, horror, anger and the rest going on back home - especially with my generation and those I grew up with as we have similar "protected" middle class backgrounds. But come on. It's not that long ago and there is a couple of generations still out there that lived through this. That had these places right beside them. That were told by their children that this was happening but chose to ignore it. It's not an argument that "the times were different" back then. Not acceptable. I don't care where you live or what epoch you lived in - any form of child abuse is morally wrong. Whatever the role of the Church in peoples lives in the last century. Comparing the odd reactionary disciplined smack from a teacher to this shit. Not acceptable.

This has broken through the news over here - and around the world I believe. I'm unable to say anything. I'm ashamed. I know we're not the only country where its happened, but we've placed so much in the hands of the Church since independence, they control too much.

What's wrong with us as a nation? We're a small country - a land of saints and scholars. Yet we have managed to produce some of the most corrupt politicians and government officials the world has seen - including a former Taoiseach who, in some pockets (such as Dingle), is still hailed as a hero. Now many of our once revered Catholic institutions have been revealed as paedophile rings and organisers of systematic torture, guilty of running Nazi-esque concentration camps. What is wrong with us?

Is is our history of occupation? Surely that excuse is running thin a century on?

There's been so much material on this subject over the past week since the Commission's report being released that there's little else to say. Except to ask again. Who knew of this? How could anyone in all concience know this was happening and not act? How could parents not believe their children? How could a State department preside over the atrocities? How could 1 in 100 children go through these institutions and it not affect the entire generation?

Does anybody every read this guys blog http://bocktherobber.com/ ? Calls a spade a spade and restores faith somewhat. Time for people to act.

Emma's friendly nature....

2009-05-11T12:32:00.007+10:00

So she's walking finally. A month before turning one she started - her birthday is next week. An interesting year we've had. She's mad as a fricken brush mind you. This poor boy scout was accosted on his day trip to the State Museum (dinosaur exhibition).

Now then. Other stuff. The pneumonia is passing finally for Alissa. Takes a while to shake it, but we're getting there. Of course, everyone is now coming down with little colds and there are runny noses aplenty. But, I seriously have to put this web site weather forecast report up - just for the word 'mild'. Ah yes, winter truly bites in this part of the world. That said, have had to switch off the old solar heating for the pool - no point anymore, it doesn't get above 25 degrees even on a sunny day. But, it did give us an extra couple of months in the pool and some very pleasant summertime swims. Now when we need a swim we just ask (well, we get Aibhe to "tell") Barb and Geoff that we're coming at the weekend and that they need to switch on the electrical heating in their pool. Costs a fortune to run, but sure we need the odd swim don't we.

As ye know, it certainly does rain here. This summer has been drought breaking. Further evidence to the left. That was just a few weeks back, all that grass is very quickly turning brown as its been pretty much bone dry since.

Everyone sick of talking about and hearing about the recession? Yeah, good. Us too. We're about to get our budget handed down tomorrow I think. Not as bad as back home, but still will be a dent in the finances. Thats enough about it now. We survive.

Other than that, not much news. Work is work. Actually managed a few straight weeks in the office for a change - amazing how much ye get to catch up on when not on planes interstate. For those that wish to see more of the crazy duo, a few more pics going up on www.aibhefoley.blogspot.com

I will get round to mailing people individually soon. Honest.

The trip to Noosa and the Sound of Music

2009-04-08T09:28:00.011+10:00

Thought I'd add a few more snaps while I have a chance.

As mentioned below, the brief holiday to the Sunshine Coast was great - could have done with double the time. Only for the fact that Alissa has come down with pneumonia since we came back - not great really. Yes, pneumonia.

In other news, Aibhe is now a gymnast

This clip below lasts for 3 minutes, and for those who for some unknown reason do not know the Sound of Music verbatim, this is the part where Maria teaches the kids how to sing with the Do a deer song. Aibhe takes the part of Brigitta. The noise at the end is Emma trying desperately to grab my phone.

Back to 9 hours

2009-03-31T08:35:00.014+10:00

It's actually easier to make phone calls and contact when the time difference is 10 hours, before the daylight savings thing kicks in. Back to 10 now, so calls need to be that little bit earlier in the morning, or late at night. Am sure the fact that Ireland is finally seeing the back of a long cold winter, and the days are lengthening is adequate consolation. Our days of course are getting that wee bit shorter (only a little mind you) and the temperatures have dropped to a balmy 27/28 during the day.

Since the last scribblings we've had Aibhe's 3rd birthday and a trip to Noosa again for a long weekend - which we have just come back from. The pictures tell the story of Aibhe's birthday.

Noosa was wonderful as per usual - the kids really are getting a lot out of the beach (and being spoilt for a few days with the Australian grandparents in the house). The main beach at Noosa had all but disappeared - I had been told stories of this happening before, but had never witnessed it. Apparantly it happens when there have been heavy rains or cyclones up the coast which generate big swells and therefore big surf which wash the sand away off the normally very sheltered beach (next to the main shopping strip). This is of course not great for the tourists (though surfers love it), so they basically wait for the weather to die down and then start pumping the sand back from an area about half a km away to recreate the beach. Takes about a week and everything is back to normal.

Another recent outing was the trip to the Brisbane eye. Not quite the size of the London version, but a bit of fun nonetheless. Any chance Dublin could get one? What kind of name could the ever so witty Dubliners come up with for it? I'll start if off - "The spinning wheel by the ........." Best answer will be published on this ever so popular blog.

Aibhe has developed an obsession with the movie 'Mama Mia' and therefore the music of Abba. She pretty much dances her way through the entire set and knows all the dance moves - to the point where she actually copies the main character 'Donna' (Meryl Streep) without having to look at the TV. Though she will not perform if she believes you are looking at her, therefore one has to pretend to be looking elsewhere (the reflection in the glass sometimes does the trick)while she does her stuff. We have added the 'Sound of Music' (to Aibhe, its 'Doh, a deer') into the mix for her (just for us to get a break from Mama Mia) and it's quite amazing to see how suddenly she fell in love with it. Maria this, Maria that. Whats the Captain doing ..... etc etc. The powers of imagination get stretched occasionally when bombarded with 100 questions a day. Alissa has greater patience and comes out with some good lines to keep her quiet and satisfy the insatiable curiosity.

Emma has decided that she likes the head down & crawl mode of movement. So has progressed little since Christmas when it looked like she was about to walk at the ripe old age of just over 8 months. We should be grateful I guess, but now, the day is certainly not too far away. And she's not even 1 until mid May. The child is an absolute live wire. Already bracing myself for her teenage years. looking at her angelic picture (and completely bald head), who would think!!

Work for me has been mad. Been to Auckland and Perth (Perth is further away believe it or not) recruiting staff. Yes, my team is increasing in these recessionary times. Also, regular trips to Sydney and Melbourne all stack up to make me a busy little boy. No complaints mind you as hopefully, things will continue to be that way in here. All predicting a tough year this year - riding it out is the plan.

What about Liverpool eh? Just when I could relax safe in the knowledge that the season was over for all intents and purposes, they go and smash Real Madrid, United at Old Trafford and Aston Villa. Lads lads. Don't get my hopes up. Its been too long.

Now, to finish off with some footage from a recent breakfast outing. I believe we were pretty much sitting down to eat at 7am. So, you can figure from there what time we had to be up at.

6am, 3 degrees in Dublin. Today FM.

2009-02-20T15:06:00.012+10:00

And thats what I have on here in my office. It's 4pm on Friday afternoon in Brisbane, thunderstorm just passed through.

In the immortal words of Something Happens, its been a long time, been a very long time, been a very long time indeed. I guess we're only back just over 4 weeks but I swear it feels like forever. As always, leaving home was not easy. I'll say no more.

Have to say though, it was sad to see the country in such a state economy wise. Whilst at times the Celtic tiger bred just a little too much greed and turned some normal day to day punters into would-be property magnates, it's fair to say that the Ireland of 90's and early noughties was a better place than that of the dark 70's and 80's. That said, it's not like we grew up experiencing it, but its now you can feel a little more for our parents that had to put up with the crazy mortgage interest rates, petrol crises, and outrageous tax levels. Though I actually often wonder if the constant violence and murder in the north that covered our media at the time further contributed the overall aura of poor Ireland at the time. Remember 'self aid'? Christ. A nation so lacking in faith in the ability of its own corrupt money laundering government we had to resort to a charity gig to raise money for ourselves. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad. At least we've come a bit of a way down the track in that now the government actually seem to try to give a bit more of a sh&t. Try raising $6bn at a charity gig.

Anyway. We're not even close to being over it it seems. Yesterday, my old employer Virgin Blue hit the headlines with an announcement that 400 jobs are to go. In some shape or form. Got a few comments from people in our office, along the lines of 'glad your outta there?'. Ye know what, I am.

It sometimes seems difficult to talk about other things when the whole world is so pre-occupied with all this economic turmoil. Guess it could impact on so many. Already touched the lives of friends of ours here. Maybe its right that people go through a couple of tougher years to appreciate what they've got. I say 'they', but include myself.

Anyway. We move on. I can safely say that when we got back, the first week was.... difficult. We got to a point with Emma where we just had no idea as to what to do with her to get her to sleep at night. Alissa and I were living off 3 or 4 hours sleep. Max. Not easy. so we resorted to paying 50 bucks for a half an hours worth of advice from a nurse consultant thingy. Best money ever spent. 3 days (and not a small amount of screaming) later, we had a new baby. Sleeping through without a sound, and in good form. Would have helped if she'd slept in Ireland a bit....

You'll probably all have seen a bit about the Victoria bushfires here. It was strange. The one editorial i saw in the Irish Times was written in a very detached manner, almost immediately critical of the authorities. Little or no empathy. Given how fresh and ongoing the event was at the time, I thought it inappropriate and very very disappointing. Pissed me off a bit to be honest. Obviously being here, I've seen plenty of coverage and in a nutshell, it was bloody awful and quite breathtaking how quickly it all took place. I think its the whole image of how people die in such circumstances that gets us. Our friend Rachel was here with her fiancee John last week, and it was interesting to hear how Victorians are taught from an early age as to how to deal with bushfires and they all have woollen blankets ready to hand. Queenslanders are taught how to deal with the dangers of water - waves, currents, rips etc.

And all the while it's flooding in northen Queensland.

And emma has taken a solo step. 9 months old. God help us.

As for Aibhe. Well, the headcase is swimming like the proverbial fish. And the weather's been beautiful enough for her to use the pool pretty consistently. Constantly asking to visit the friends she made in Ireland. Cute.

But sad too.

A Christmas contrast. Up top, down under.

2009-01-05T07:04:00.021+10:00

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Now for the warmed up version - pre-Ireland.

(the Parker extended family)

(present from grandparents below)

(Emma looking a bit special)

What can I say after that week?

2008-11-24T16:35:00.002+10:00

Not a lot. Don't think anyone will quite get the violent ferocity and the insane amount of water involved. And yes, I do know there were floods back home in August. But 20 cm in 2 hours?

Pool and garden stuffed. House still good. The worst hit suburb is 1km from us. This clip basically captures it I reckon.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/20/australia-floods

Bye bye Dubya

2008-11-07T17:16:00.017+10:00

'Fool me once — shame on — shame on you. You fool me, you can't get fooled again'. Heard this played again yesterday. According to Dubya, it's a famous saying in Tennessee and Texas. Thank Christ he's no longer going to be the head of the most powerful country in the world. Bring on Obama. Should be a few people eating either hats or humble pie at the moment. But, the poor git has all that Bushit (assume thats been used, but I thought of it myself just then, so I'll claim the cleverness for now) to clean-up mind you. And there appears to be a fair amount of it.

(28/10/08)

The last few times I’ve sat on a plane on the way back from a work day trip in either Sydney or Melbourne, I’ve been busy working away on something or other for the next day. This time I find myself having done all I can do, and there’s still half an hour to go before the laptop has to be put away so, here we go. Let’s see what I can come up with in that time.

The biggest news in the Foley household is that we are now 1 set of tonsils down. Oh, and some adenoids. Trooper Aibhe took it all in her stride – and while we’re not quite ‘over it’ as of yet, she’s pretty good at this point – one week on. As we approached the hospital on the day, her pleading that she was fine (or ‘I’m ok now’) were reverberating through our guilty heads as we held her hand walking in. Mind you, it gets made all very easy when you have a private room with bed, cot and recliner seat and she gets the opportunity to watch Wiggles and Peppa Pig DVD’s until the hour cometh. Which was all very sudden. The moment the hospital gown had to go on was when it all became a bit real for her (and us). Thankfully, she was so fricken shattered at that point that she fell asleep in my arms as we waited to wheel her in for the anesthetic. Dr Tony (Alissa’s uncle) came by, said hello, then promptly headed off to operate on our little Aibhe. One hour (and a fire alarm precisely at the moment her op was to start) later and she was back in her room, asleep on her Dad in the recliner chair. It’s a strange and helpless feeling for that hour. I just hope we don’t have to experience it too often. Alissa stayed the night with her and the little one went pretty well (the old morphine works a treat) and by 9pm the next morning we were shipped off home.

Now we wait and hope for fewer throat infections in the coming years to make it all worthwhile. And so she will forgive us.

Emma has started on solids. She loves the stuff. How strange for a Foley baby to like her food. It seems to have settled her previously erratic sleeping patterns at present. The teething or growth spurts always threaten to mess things up.

So then. The aul’ global economy’s not so hot. But from what I’m reading, it’s a bit on the crazy scary side back home. 1% levy? Isn’t that just increasing income tax rates across the board without calling it that? Where’s all the exchequer surpluses from the boom times disappeared to? Why does Ireland have to go through such extreme cycles? Surely there’s a better way. This place will certainly go through a recession too, but the way I’ts talked about is along the lines of…. Ah yes, we had one for a couple of years in the early 90’s and again in the early ‘noughties’ and it was tough for a bit. Tough? Tough? That’s not tough. Ireland in the 70’ and 80’s never ending recession – that’s tough. For some reason, this country has cycles, but the growth and recession extremes never come close to what Ireland seems to have gone through, and is going through now. Good luck? Good government? No idea. Probably a bit to do with country size and diversity and the lack of reliance on any one industry or country for exports. Proximity to the emerging Asian economies is probably a factor too. But then again, what do I know.

(9/11/08)
Sign of my times when things are so busy that it takes this long to get what I've written from laptop to blog. And then ye re-read it and its all a bit dated. Anyway. Swimming is the order of the day over here now, Aibhe will hopefully be 'pool safe' as they say before Christmas at the rate she's going. Suddenly decided that going underwater is a fun thing and that floaties (arm-bands) are for babies. The transformation in a matter of a few weeks is quite bloody amazing. And I have to remind her how lucky she is to have her own swimming pool in her backyard. And trampoline of course. Then I remind myself how lucky we are to have all this aswell. Sammy the seal is the latest addition to the family. She is obliged to wear the floaties for this activity as God only knows when she'll decide to throw herself in. Emma has made it into the water already too......

I'll leave with a little extract from today, the sounds of our 6 month old's hearty laughter. Just so yis get used to it for when we hit the home country in a few weeks time. The girls will have no idea what hits them when that first blast of cold air rushes through them in Dublin airport. Nor will we for that matter. But tis Christmas after all, and aint freezing cold and rain how it's meant to be.

Finally, a the warmest antipodean welcome to Robyn Jennifer Garry, DG & Sue's little treasure......

Room with a view

2008-09-26T13:06:00.008+10:00

So this is the view from my new office on the 33rd floor of Waterfront place. I obviously don't face this way while sitting at my desk, but its pretty good for those meditative moments. Or when ye just have to shut the door and close oneself down for a while. Or do back exercises on the floor. Sunny Brisbane outside and the sparkling Brisbane river winding its way around the CBD. The Storey Bridge in the distance there is Brissie's answer to Sydney's Harbour Bridge. Not quite. Not quite. Lets not talk about the glass panels that have fallen out of this building.

And to put it all in perspective as to where I am, the 33rd floor is 3 from the top. The tallest building in this pic was actually designed by Alissa's Dad. And he has another 2 big ones under construction at present which will top that. In fact, I think there are 4 more big high rises on the way which will change the complexion of that skyline completely within the next 2 years.

Its been a while since I've updated this. Too long of course but man have we been busy. I could say not an awful lots been happening, but that would not be true. we, and in particular Aibhe, got very used to Mum and Dad (nana and dom) being here for almost the entire month of August. It was all very easy and comfortable and hopefully will result in many more visits. The pictures down below give some idea of the time and in the little trip to palm cove just north of Cairns.

To be fair, it was pretty bloody cold this winter, many of the locals have said as much. I reckon it was more that it seemed to last a while longer than usual as opposed to it being intensely cold. Pretty amazing how quickly the temperature rises to summer levels though. 30 degrees a couple of days ago and the pool is back in use immediately thanks to the solar heating I got put in back in May. Have to say, was rather looking forward to summer kicking in again. Really love it.

As for the kids, well, Emma is pretty much porking up to the size of her big sister after what seemed like a normal size child first few months. We again have a top percentile baby in both weight and height. Bless her roly poly thighs. Still smiling though - and as I may have said, is a lot less sparing with her happy face than Aibhe was at her age - we had to work hard for them with our eldest.

The day is fast approaching for Aibhe to have her tonsils whipped out. After what was probably her longest illness free period since she first got sick, she came down with yet another dose of tonsillitis so if there was a shred of doubt in our minds about this decision, its gone now. Dreading the whole operation time of course, but by all accounts, she will forget pretty quickly and we will not regret doing it.

Its really not that long now till we're freezing our n&ts off in the recession hit old sod. Wonder how the Gen Y brigade will handle not being able to ask for anything they want and get it. Genuinely hope its not a very long spell. It's hit here a bit too, but so far nothing like the severity of what seems to be going on back home. I do get to read the Times over here on the web so it is interesting to see who is blaming what, but all over the world there are fingers wagging with useless 'I told you so's' regarding the whole housing bubble. Ahh Bertie. You got out in time and left old Biffo to wade through the mud.

If there is a silver lining, will the Guinness be any cheaper when we get home?

No time to talk. Just pictures. And now for the comments.

2008-08-20T16:54:00.021+10:00

Not normally one for the comments with the aul pictures, but, sure for a change we'll give it a go.

In honour of the Australian Triathlon gold medalist.

Poser

All except Emma and Barb (who were still in car park) at Mossman Gorge

Believe me, the bloke in the water is freezing his nuts off

The water LOOKS lovely. But even Aibhe would not go past her shins. Warm water only please Daddy.

Dad never goes anywhere without his map. Or a paper.

This took a few goes as Aibhe desperately tried to run away.

Cheering the ocean. Good one Enda.

Can ye see the muscle tone rippling through this one? From both of us?

A little excited at the arrival of Jesse, Woody and Buzz - brought from Ireland by Nana and Dom

Emma has started taking her bottles. And is pudging up by the minute.

Nothing smart required. Nana and the girls....

All grandparents, on the Christening day, 2 were 'required' to hold Champagne bottles by Aibhe.

Godmother and Goddaughter

Why so surprised Emma?

This time, I didn not have to pilfer a candle on the altar you'll be pleased to know. Grandad stood in admirably for Godfather Ken.

The not so final countdown

2008-07-07T09:38:00.025+10:00

I mean it is quite possible I will leave a company again, but for now, am in the departure lounge of my Virgin years. It's funny how people think you're really going to miss the excitement, buzz and unpredictability of working in an airline. Possibly. But I will get over it. At the end of the day (like), when ye work in the Finance department of any large organisation, one's exposure to the heady heights of flying jets around the largest island nation in the world is reasonably limited. I am not a pilot. Nor am I a trolley dolley. And I will not miss the turbulent insanity of the industry, the somewhat fake nature of what is perceived to be the Virgin "culture" (it is just another large corporation lets face it), or the penny pinching and occasionally pound foolish nature of what is essentially this low cost airline. It's a job. Family and a career path one can actually see is what matters.

Upwards and onwards.

A little ray of information light has been cast on the antipodes with the "freeing" of access to the Irish Times on the internet. I almost feel a step closer to home - there's something about the familiarity and the style of the writing.

Little Ms Emma Foley is approaching 8 weeks. That mystical milestone at which point kids (and therefore parents) theoretically adapt to having a decent sleep at night. I reckon we're close, but still a way to go to that holy grail. In all fairness though she is being bloody great and is porking up just like her big sister (who now exceeds 3 ft - she's inherited the Foley height genes).

The countdown to the arrival of the Foley folks at the start of August is well underway. Downstairs is being prepared for the arrival i.e. kettle and milk for multitude of cups of tea about to be located in the laundry/kitchenette.

You will all have to forgive the lapse into talk of the kids below, but to be perfectly honest, that's our lives currently (and forever!!) so not much else for me to talk about right now.

The tale of Sea World - where that clip below of Aibhe going nuts at Big Bird and the crew was filmed. Alissa thoughtfully decided that given the time of year etc, it would be good to get away for a couple of days/nights and distract the minds a bit - so we booked into the Sea World resort, about an hour south of here on the Gold Coast. It meant staying in a (relatively small) single studio room with 2 double beds. The danger bells should now be ringing.

Off we went to the park with the girls - Emma was wonderful and pretty much slept for the entire day. Aibhe had an absolute cracker of a day. Have to admit to being incredibly impressed with the whole set-up (and it wasn't even all open due to it being Winter and all maintenance being carried out). The surprise to us both as parents, was Aibhe's reation to Elmo. She barely knew the guy (girl? monster?) yet when he came out for a picture session after the 1st of the 2 shows we attended, she insisted on going up and hugging him. A 6 foot red and hairy character for which she only had one book as a reference point. Straight up there, skipping and barging through the queue where possible.

I walked out of the toys shop $120 poorer having adopted Bert, Ernie, Big Bird and Elmo as Aibhe's latest obsessions. She actually refers to them as her 'Guys' now.

Of course Aibhe hit the brick wall at about 2 in the afternoon so yours truly was lumbered with carrying the 14kg deadweight for an hour while we watched the somewhat kitsch seal lion show. Managing to wake her for the dolphin show was an achievement in itself, but entirely worthwhile as she shouted "MORE" every time the amazing mammals did one of their sky-jumps. I was rather taken by the show - all done in extremely good taste and not even remotely cheesy - which I think I was expecting a bit.

The sub-marine views of the beautiful polar bears and the quite fricken gigantic sharks were mesmerising - ye could spend hours looking at them - if permitted to.

The evening came along and we retired to our abode for the night. Hmmmm. Tight was the first thing I thought of - but sure lets see how we go was the attitude. Roll forward several hours to about 1am, Aibhe wakes in a fever and grizzles away so I climb into bed with her to settle her down. Emma wakes shortly therefter and basically stays awake. Aibhe then wakes again - still sweating and demands to go in beside Alissa - so we swap girls and battle through to dawn. I made the unilateral decision that we would not stay the 2nd night. I think Alissa thought I was giving up too early, despite being just as frazzled as I was. We hung around a while and managed to get Aibhe to meet with Elmo again in the hotel lobby before trying the "heated" resort pool (still too fricken cold) and then calling it quits, packing up the rather unreal amount of baggage we had and heading home. In fairness, the resort refunded the 2nd nights accommodation, something I still find extremely surprising and in one word, kind.

A sleepy drive back to Brisbane and home sweet home. As we both sat with our glasses of wine watching TV at 8pm, both girls sound asleep, we reflected on it being a good move in the end. When Aibhe woke the next morning, she was probably in the best form she'd been in for weeks.

Bert and Ernie are now on an endless TV loop.

Did not realise Sesame St had this impact

2008-06-29T15:33:00.003+10:00

Back to boring old me again. And this week.

2008-06-24T15:28:00.005+10:00

After a brief but successful dalliance with the blogger world, Alissa has decided to head for the background again - but watch/read for more editorial guest appearances.

This week of course is the worst of the year in the Foley calendar. The 26th being Georgia's anniversary - I think neither myself nor Alissa want to think back on that torrid day last year too much, but at the same time, we do want to remember Georgia. I would imagine things would be even more difficult had Emma not arrived. Jen's anniversary will be a difficult time for so many - in particular sister Sue, but hopefully the prospect of a little addition by Christmas will provide some degree of light. And of course marking the 4th year since we lost Marian is still almost impossible for us. 4 years would usually be considered a reasonably long time, and so much has happened in that time. Yet that day is as vivid as yesterday. And the gaping hole in our lives is as wide as ever.

Emma is now almost 6 weeks old. I had forgotten that those early weeks are just plain bloody hard - though maybe its something to do with it being such a novelty first time round and the fact that there is only one to attend to which makes it slightly easier. I do remember thinking it wasn't all that bad with Aibhe. Have to say Alissa has adapted really well, but if I'm to be completely honest with myself, I reckon my patience is slightly lacking on occasions, but starting to get better again. And it's not as if Emma is being difficult - she's actually being wonderful, and am a very happy Dad with my two girls.

Today the entire household ended up at the doctor with ailments - poor little Emma caught the inevitable cold thanks to the smothering slobbering love of sniffling big sister. Big sister's sathma kicks back in for winter so the cough starts. This is my 3rd period transitioning from summer/autumn to winter down under and things don't appear to change much - EVERYONE in this city gets sick at this time. And not just runny noses. People get floored. This 23C during the day and 8C at night lark....

Some news. I will shortly be leaving the clutches of Virgin Blue after 2 and a half years in gainful employment. For many reasons, wide and varied (one being the rather major instability of the airline market at the moment with fuel prices going ballistic, another being career progression) I reached the conclusion that it was time to move on and when an opportunity came relatively out of left field, I jumped. An exciting and educational few years in Virgin territory during which I have actually made some good mates and contacts. Commercial Manager for CB Richard Ellis (http://www.cbre.com.au/) in Brisbane is where I'm off to - based in the CBD and on the 33rd floor of a very sexy building overlooking the vista of southern Queensland. So watch this space for an update on my new e-mail address - which from the 17th July will be enda.foley@cbre.com.au (don't use it yet!) and a new phone number will be forwarded then also.

New baby, new job. Lets not do things in half measures eh?

And the Family Grows

2008-05-26T13:29:00.007+10:00

As per Endas recent Blog it is now over to me. Regarding the birth, I still shudder at the memory and am amazed that I had slightly forgotten the first time round. For those of you due to give birth in the upcoming months (in due date order) Shelly and Murt, Ali and Damo, Kate and Sam, Booty and Matt, Sue and Dave, Lib and Sam and Bec and Al, some words of advice : Dont listen to them when they say to wait for the epidural ...... it may never come ........ it hurts A LOT with out it and try not to dilate from 5cm to 10cm in an hour, it is not a pleasant feeling. But the truth of it is the actual birth is amazing and wonderful and at the end you have a baby, for us, we now have Baby Emma. I still cant believe she is finally here and I am no longer pregnant. I love our girls and I love our new bigger family. Here are a couple of photos taken on the weekend.

To explain the above, we spent Sunday afternoon and mum and dads house. It is newly renovated and has a 12m lap pool which is heated. Enda and Aibhe had a ball, no there was no swimming for me, we so dont have our bikini body back (I am wondering if we ever will) but apparently it was lovely. Did I mention it is winter here and it was 25oC? Thus the sunbathing father and daughter photo.
As for me I am all good, I am happy to be able to have drink or two these days and I am no longer working, in an office that is. Well work is off until the new year but I have a feeling I might get a little restless before too long so you never know I might head back a little earlier.
If you had not heard we are Ireland bound. The Australian Foleys touch down in lovely Dublin on the 19th of December for 3 weeks. We cant wait. Christmas and New Years with everyone again. New children to meet and friends to see. Aibhe is obsessed about going on the plane to see Nana and Tom and can point out Ireland on a map with ease. Sure it will be an interesting flight with a nearly 3 year old and 7 month old but it has to be done.
I would like to say congratulations to all the mums and new boys of May. Mia and Baby Luke, Kim and Baby Frank, Sal and Baby Alex and Louise and Baby James. Emma will have a lovely selection of men when it comes to school Formals.
And on that note I am going to head off, feed time for Emma.

Love Alissa xx

Spot the difference?

2008-05-25T08:10:00.006+10:00

Aibhe above and Emma below.

Emma above and Aibhe below.

Emma below and Aibhe above.

A little sister for Aibhe....

2008-05-16T16:55:00.004+10:00

Emma Foley - born 16th May, 9.41am, weighing in at 3.03 kilos (6.6lbs) . More on the saga of the birth to come, but in the end, labour lasted less than 2 hours..... well done Mum.

Seriously

2008-04-23T20:05:00.003+10:00

what the fricken hell was that nutcase doing heading the ball at knee height, 2 yards from goal in the last seconds of injury time in a Champions league semi-final? No offence Stef, but your Norwegian Riise is a muppet with no right foot. All I can say is he can make up for it next week thanks very much. As for all that boardroom nonsense, well, what do ye expect when ye let a pair of yanks (sorry, 1 Canadian) buy a football club. I could probably have done more research on Google than Liverpool seem to have done.

As for the Celtic tiger economy. Well well well. Things have slowed down a bit. Quel surprise. A bit surprised it didn't happen some time ago to be honest. Be interesting to see how the Gen Y brigade handle it. And all those millionaire developers. Thankfully, things won't ever again be like the early 80's touch wood. And good ole Bertie is gone. Maybe he didn't want to be associated with the economy downturn. Tarnishing his teflon image.

Economy here is feeling it a bit, but not too much yet. Good old China wha?? Of course the central bank f&ckers were still raising interest rates (to over 7% - are you kidding!!) up to last month coz people seemed to just not give a cr&p and kept spending like we're all about to fall over the edge.

Thats the extent of my economics reporting for the year.

I believe I am acclimatising (have acclimatised) to the Brisbane weather. The first in a trilogy of defining realisation moments came in November when I was home for those few mental days. I froze my nuts off. I lost count of the number of times I had to ask why the hell the heating had been turned off in the house. Occasion number 2 came probably in late January, when I bemoaned the crappy summer we had just experienced. It had been over 25 C pretty much constantly for 4 months and true, had rained a bit, but lets face it by my old Irish standards...... And finally, last week I was standing in the bathroom early in the morning, and simply had to put my towelling bathrobe on to get warm and thought how quickly winter was descending. It was probably about 15 C, and within an hour was well over 20. I've thought about wearing a jacket to work already and may even go that far next week. Traditionally, this is the most perfect time of year, with temps in the high 20's and nice cool nights. But I now have a jacket and am willing to wear it.....

As for the most important stuff..... 4 weeks to go. And ye never know, maybe earlier......

One can always hope.

Tick tock

2008-04-09T13:20:00.005+10:00

Happy easter from the choc bunny munching machine

Pregnancy update. Almost 34 weeks and things are 'normal'. No need for more than that. Alissa's looking forward to a full strength beer and glass of wine not mixed with soda water. And having another alarm clock to look after.

I was flicking channels on the radio the other day when I'd been in the car for a while and landed on some station called Bay Area FM. A very amateur outfit but bloody funny and reminded me so much of our old backyard shed based pirate radio stations back home. Sunshine Radio and Radio Nova. Long before the days of the commercial and legalised current versions of Today FM and FM104. The music this lot were playing was incredibly 80's (and therefore well up my street) and when Chris De Burgh came on with 'Don't Pay the Ferryman', I was half way through singing along word for word before I realised what I was doing. I knew why of course. Marian was a fan and had the albums, even went to a gig in Landsdowne or the RDS I seem to recall. Imagine, ole bushy black eyebrows man playing a venue like that. In fairness, perhaps it was the lack of musical quality around at the time, but Jesus that stuff was sh&t. But I like it because of where it brings me. Her only imperfection was her love of Chris de Burgh's music (yes, I know I am a music snob sometimes, but still, come on.....)

Also made me realise. I'm pretty much middle-aged. What that means I don't really know but am getting glimpses of myself every now and then, especially when getting checked out by the GP for blood pressure and cholesterol levels and all that.

I hear Radiohead are playing Malahide Castle. Are you fricken kidding me?? I waited for years and years for them to come and play Dublin, and then they do and they play 'my home village'? Might pop home with Aibhe for it. Ha.

After what was a really average summer (but fantastic news for the dams that went from 18 to 39% full and has ensured everything is very green - yes, I am a little obsessed by the drought situation, I accept this) we now descend into the cold winter days of 21 degrees'ish. Darker mornings means longer sleeps for Aibhe (generally). All is good. I love winter.

I went to the 2nd Virginblue charity hangar ball recently. The blog history has an account of the first one about a year and a half ago. Of course Mr (I refuse to acknowledge a meaningless knighthood) Branson was there in all his glory. A 2,800 person strong affair at 290 per person (I was invited so no paying for it for me - charity or no charity) and all went pretty well given what must have been a logistical nightmare. Even through Earth hour when all the lights went out and I thought I was eating tuna. Turned out to be shredded lamb.

Now then. Anybody wishing to travel from Sydney to LA (or the other direction) from December 15th onwards, please go to www.vaustralia.com.au. They are my new employer. Flying those big Boeing 777 babies. Still part of the Virgin Blue group, but now Finance Manager for, as they call it, 'Australia's newest international airline'. Was actually quite close to leaving the place, but a change as good as a rest as they say. Mind you resting hasn't been in the vocabulary for some time now.

We recently got Foxtel IQ on the high recommendation of Murt. Probably the best extra $20 a month we've spent. Assume you guys have something similar with Sky back home. Our back catalogue is now choc-a-bloc with episodes of Dora the Explorer, Curious George and the Wiggles. A heaven send when instant satisfaction is required or a particular episode is demanded. Must say, Curious George is currently my favourite. A very cute monkey.

We're preparing Aibhe for the arrival of number 2 by various means, one of which is the whole baby's bedroom which she has commanded as her own and has suddenly decided she likes all those baby toys. She has also dictated that this will be a girl. 'Boy maybe Aibhe?' 'No way, girl'.

If she's right, we'll have plenty of clothes.

Very economical.

Aibhe turns 2

2008-03-03T15:37:00.005+10:00

The reason it's a cliche is because it's true (Lloyd Cole). Time goes by so quickly - we can scarcely believe it's 2 years since Aibhe Catherine Marian Foley hit the world. I feel pretty lucky to have had the opportunity to be able to savour and share most of the big moments so far and not be too engrossed in either work (or travelling to and from work) or other extra curricular things to miss out on too much of Aibhe's life so far - as they say you can't get it back. Certainly, it changes the direction and course of your life - but only if you had another direction mapped out. Exhausting, worrying, frustrating, occasionally infuriating.... but the most incredibly rewarding aspect of the daily existence.

And she's only 2 - as you can see with the blowing out of candle event. God help me when the teenage years approach. Having witnessed the behaviour of a few of that age group while down on the Gold Coast for the past few days - I would like to say, my daughter won't be like that. But who knows. Back to the now. Aibhe got a trampoline for her birthday. A very safe (and expensive) version - bought pretty much by her grandparents and godparents - with an element of contribution from her parents. This thing was built to last and theoretically should last for a good number of years. Until she starts wearing make-up or something along those lines.

A great thing about the age she is coming into now is her attention span has increased when it comes to watching DVD's - full length movie versions and currently, Toy Story 2 is the number one choice. Which is of course great in that I get to watch it too - each time I pick up something I missed the previous occasion. Pure genius that stuff.

Right, I know I always said this blog would not be a verbatim account of Aibhe - but the fact is we haven't got an awful lot to report from over here right now. This is a good thing of course in that it means the pregnancy is going along relatively normally and Alissa has hit the post 28 weeks stage now - and has all the discomfort that goes with this stage.

We've just spent a few days on the Gold Coast (Burleigh Heads) - only just over an hour south from here (Aibhe pictured above taking an afternoon break following a busy morning on the beach). A break from the norm in that we usually head north to the Sunshine Coast, but the boss, his wife and 2 little girls were there so we joined them and let the girls entertain each other to some extent. I actually wanted to 'do' the Gold Coast just to see what it was all about. Have to say, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast are like polar opposites and the people in Brisbane tend to fall on one side or the other. The former is high density, high rise hustle and bustle - with all the class of Torremolinos during an England - Spain soccer match. Stuff is just going on constantly. Surfers Paradise is basically cheesey Manhatten by the sea. The Sunshine Coast on the other hand is sleepier, but far more beguiling. Noosa being the beautiful village-like summit. Maybe it's an age thing, but I have firmly placed my loyalties with the Brisbanites going north and that's where future beach holidays will be.

So, for the time being, we count down the clock to number 2. We congratulate Ginge & Michelle on the arrival of their little girls, Kate and Isabelle. And we remember Mattie, Ferg's gentle and lovely father who left us recently after a very short battle with cancer.

Slow train coming

2008-01-29T11:06:00.000+10:00

January 25th, 2008. A date that's been looming large since June 30th, 2004. I was surprised at how many recognised it's personal significance to me - I thought I was the only one to be thinking this way. I reached the same age as Marian on that date. Now I am older than my big sister - something I never ever wanted to or thought I would be. I feel ridiculously young and not ready which has absolutely hammered home how Marian would have felt.

The 25th was of course Alissa's birthday and mine followed the next day. Australia day, a day of Aussie flags, meat pies, parties and back-yard cricket. When I laughed at some of the stuff people we were wearing and doing, Alissa very rightly pointed out.... "Ehhhh St Patricks Day???". Point taken. We had 24 hours to ourselves without Aibhe - who was being spoilt as usual by Barb & Geoff - as we headed off to Toowoomba, a small country town about an hour and a half west of here. Not much there except for a nice quiet hotel room and a restaurant. And some welcome uninterrupted sleep for Alissa. What has stuck out in my mind about this place is the press it received last year when they decided to vote AGAINST using recycled water - with no alternative being put forward. So now their dams are at a dangerous low of 11% with no water in sight. Muppets.

While we we were without child, we took in the Andy Warhol exhibition in the Brisbane cultural centre which was pretty cool - only place in Australia it's being shown apparantly. The guy was certainly talented - albeit a bit bonkers, but talented.

A shindig of the BBQ nature was had to celebrate the birthdays, Australia day and the technical completion of the house renovations. We had about 35 people here (including kids) at one point and for a time, about half were in the pool. Great way of getting them knackered out. A successful afternoon/early evening, though am sure at this point, having been pregnant for pretty much a year now, Alissa would like to be enjoying a BBQ where she could actually drown a few vino's.

We've had a week of wonderful weather - with plenty of swimming pool use - in fact Aibhe literally has to walk out on the balcony, see it to remind herself that we have it and she wants in. So I've spent quite an amount of time in there too and am sneezing away for the past couple of days. Now the rain is back - perfect timing for filling up the depleted pool again.

Great to chat to most of the lads recently - in particular a reasonably successful skype conference call with DG and Kieran. It does work! And cheers for the phone calls on my birthday. Even though a bloke, being so far away from home, it's appreciated.

Ginge & Michelle, well, it must be pretty damn close to doubling your family size in an instant. Good luck with it all and looking forward to hearing all about initial life with twins.

Well I won't be giving blood again. My one big selfless contribution to the world in general is over for the moment. A couple of weeks back, I seemingly successfully gave blood for the 3rd time. the needle came out, I got up from the bed and then sat down for my cheese, biscuits and juice and then woke up lying down with 3 people over me calling out "Edna, Edna!!". I was too f&cked at the time to correct my name, and apparantly I was out for about a minute. Been a long time since I keeled over like that, and on the previous two occasions I was in a church - which when ye think about it, says something. Anyway, had to rest up for about 20 minutes before they would let me go back to work - even then they weren't too happy with me going. They were right. I barfed about an hour later outside our buildling - fortunately no one was around to observe my minced salad sandwich all over the ground. I was informed that low blood pressure induces nausea. Felt great once it was out mind you.

Have I mentioned I have taken up tennis again? No more contact sports for me at this stage of my injury career. Swimming, tennis and golf keeps my competitors at a safe distance. I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed it. I hadn't hit a ball in anger for over 6 years and it showed in my first service game with 4 double faults...... but by the end of the two hours the eye was in and I had the lads going further and further back to deal with the serve. All those years of intense competition and rivalry with Messrs Moore, O'Meara, O'Brien and Pilkington each one with the ability to throw a racquet a long way over a fence - have culminated in my having a nice quiet couple of social tennis hours a week. But I still get very pissed off when I miss.

Hey Rach. Where's Wally?

Sunny Brisbane

2008-01-04T14:38:00.001+10:00

It hasn't stopped raining for a week. It's wet, wild and windy. And there are times I could be walking home from eircom by the Liffey, with my umbrella inside out again taking the sideways rain like nails in the face.

Only difference is here I have a T-shirt on. And everyone is happy that the dams are getting a bit of a drink.

Summer is yet to come, but it will. Probably in March/April sometime.

So that was 2007.

2007-12-28T12:31:00.000+10:00

It's always strange when you actually start writing a new year when putting dates on things. Still remember the whole '99 to '00 oddness. '07 to '08 feels like a major one for some reason. Proximity to the end of a decade? Or maybe it's because I feel that Liverpool will return to winning the big one again soon. Perhaps. Unlikely mind you but I cling to the slim hope.

We had a few days up at lovely Noosa a few weeks back. Just Alissa, Aibhe and I in our first family only holiday. Worked out wonderfully as the crazy one wore herself out on the beach and in the pool everyday and slept for Ireland thus allowing Alissa to get some badly needed rest. Take out for dinner every night really aint so bad. I'd often thought that parents who get their kids shades (sunnies) were tossers. However, in order to save your own it's a necessity. I've also been told that it is being recommended to get your kids wearing sunglasses early on to protect their eyes from the seering sun. Thus this photo was not unusual.

2007. When Aibhe went from a basic beginner in the walking stakes, to a sprinter & stair jumper and general all round nutter who knows what she wants and gets it most of the time. From cot to bed at 18 months, to current toilet training. In case you didn't know, part of toliet training requires wearing ones knickers on ones head every now and then. It's a hellova cliche, but Christ they grow up fast and I am so glad I get to see so much of it from day to day.

The house went from 1 to 2 floors, and from some putrid combination of dirty blue and pink to grey and white. Just realised I had not put up any pictures of the finished product - see above and below. "My" garden went from dusty brown to a lovely lush green. Fantastic. Mucho back breaking work went into that. Would love to say its finished, but alas, there is still work to be done on the re-rendering the upstairs cracks after the place was lifted. Long finger. And when there is some money lying around somewhere.

Work, well, lets face it. It's only work. Pays the mortgage.

Baby, Godson and nephew Eoin joined the world. And slept peacefully for the most part, while eating and growing up for the rest it seemed.

It was a sad year for many - losing Georgia and Jen so close to Marian's anniversary and the birthday upon which Marian would have turned 40 is difficult to talk and write about. So I won't. What I said here earlier in the year stands.

Christmas was a lovely day. Goes without saying there's a sadness not being with one's own family and in thinking of the ones we've lost. Next year, all going well, Christmas in Dublin is in the plans. But Alissa & Aibhe are my immediate family now and Christmas morning is all about Santa again which is so good for all involved. No point in even contemplating mentioning the number of presents received by the queen of the house - an easel being the simplest but most utilised. She also quite likes dolls (ALL of them) - so we have a girl on our hands. Having had brunch at our place with Alissa's family, we spent the afternoon with extended family at Alissa's uncle's - I may have mentioned previously - it's a very VERY large extended family. Involved catering for about 40 - and there were quite a few absent. As I stood looking at all the kids from Aibhe's age to 14 jumping and messing around in the pool, it brought back how different it all is here - but in this particular regard, different good. The kids can go ballistic in the good weather with all the new gadgets and gifts and it's simply taken for granted that plenty of time is spent in the swimming pool on Christmas day.

So, it's babies galore happening in the old Malahide group at the moment with Fiona, Lyn and Michelle going together for their first one (or first AND second for one in particular). Congrats to Lyn and Fiona on the arrival of Ciaran and Gracie. Trips to the coffee shop will never be the same again. And Louise with number 2 on the way. Of course we're looking to join the ranks with 2 on board - hopefully - come the end of May, we will be there.

A safe and peaceful New Year to you all. Slan agus bliain úr faoi shéan is faoi mhaise dhaoibh go léir.

Straddie and the winds of political change sweep through

2007-11-26T12:12:00.000+10:00

About 7 and a half years since I first visited the lovely island of Stradbroke just off the coast of Brisbane. I remember at the time writing and thinking how good it was that so few backpackers bothered their arses to go over there on the traditional east coast trek. The same still applies in that it's still very much a weekend retreat for the Brisbane greater population, but there's just so much more going on there now than in 2000. Its still unspoilt, practically untouched and very raw - which is the major draw of the place. The beaches and the transparent water - stunning. Like it's more famous cousin - Fraser island further up the coast, it's a large sand island so really, the marine life don't really treat it as 'pure' land and therefore get very very close to the shore believing themselves to be in the middle of the ocean. Not a great thing when sharks are involved. Dolphins are grand.

Anyway, reason for the visit was that Alissa's work (i.e. her Dad's company) treated the whole office to a weekend away for their Christmas party and invited partners and kids. How fricken generous is that? They're having a good year am told.

Aibhe was in her absolute element with the attention from Geoff and Barb and the activities based around the beach and the pool. Had a cracker is all I need to say and is at such a fun age now it just keeps getting better.

While we were there, the Australian federal election took place and after almost 12 years of relatively right wing conservative government, Labour got voted in, Tony Blair first election landslide fashion. The changes will ring through with the big international hits on withdrawal of troops from Iraq and the signing of Kyoto - both of course I fully agree with - there are few Australians I have met who don't agree with this. The interesting thing will be to see what happens within Australia and whether these guys are as 'New Labour' as was the case in the U.K. when Tony the man rose to power. The last couple of times Labour left government, it took the country years and years to get out of debt afterwards so the general hope is that they just continue to manage the economic boom with some degree of spending restraint and keep a leash on the trade union bigwigs. We shall see.

So then. The Irish health system. Lets talk. Bertie. Lets talk. Housing sector. Lets talk. It was all happening in the 5 days I spent on Irish soil. Hopefully its a soft economic landing/correction across the board. Thanks to Adam McAuley, I now know all about David McWilliam's 'breakfast roll man'.

Hey get this. I went to the dentist a couple of days ago for the first time since moving here so it was all very newby'ish with x-rays and creating your file history and the like. But he proceeded to 'scale' my teeth for 15 minutes which absolutely KILLED to the extent there was a tear dripping from one of my eyes. Afterwards he asked me how many times I have had that done coz it needed a pretty severe job - I had to answer none (that I could remember). He was pretty shocked to say the least as he said it should be done at most visits and makes me seriously question my old dentists capability. Apparantly it should be standard practice for pretty much all visits. So if like me, you haven't ever had it done, next time ye go......

We have about 2 days left in our house exterior repainting exercise (not done by me of course) and its all looking very nice indeed. Will post blog pictures next time round when all done and dusted. Plain sailing aside from Aibhe falling into a paint tray today which am told was funny aside from the clean up exercise.

There and back again. 5 days.

2007-11-26T12:02:00.000+10:00

Good mother of Jesus. I think I have discovered the definition of 'whirlwind trip'. Not sure if I actually 'landed' in Dublin as opposed to ghosted through it. To everyone who pulled out the stops to catch up, thank you. Special mention for Mr Moore even though the beer and whiskey till 5am caused a great degree of hurt the day after. As for Ken and Gavs respectable dinner evening in Siam Thai? The 'see the friends' batteries that lurk deep beneath the skin have now been charged with Guinness fuelled conversations. And being with my family again so soon after their visit here was lovely - a special mention for the smiley sleepy nephew Eoin. To all those pregnant bellies that were around - just beautiful to see. To have squeezed in all I did in 5 days was quite a gargantuan achievement and one which necessitated minimum levels of sleep. Just aswell given the jet lag. Visiting the graves of my sister and then Jen was a sobering and surreal experience. It's just impossibly difficult to accept that those names are written where they are. And always will be. Left on a cold Tuesday afternoon choking back the tears.

How cold was it though? Christ.

By the time I finally got to Istanbul for the work part of the trip, all I was fit for was the very comfortable king sized bed in the Ritz-Carlton.

As for Istanbul. A 17 million person dense concrete mass straddling the turbulent and "mighty Bosphorous" (as Cake would say). The old town area was pretty impressive, the blended history of the epicentre where east meets west coming out of every ancient pore. The romantic skyline of a multitude of domes and minarets at night. The intimidating shopping bazaar (imitation crap, gold and haggling never my cup of tea so not really somewhere that attracted me). The constant gridlock. People actually get into ferry boats with their cars to get across the strait rather than funnel through the few bridges.

But it's quite hard to get past the utter lunacy and complete ignorance of the taxi drivers. In the few days (hours?) I spent in the Turkish melting pot,

I was in a cab travelling at 140kmph in a 2 lane 90k zone, overtaking a cop car (the same one - twice)
I was in a cab that got into a running battle with another car to the point where we were being run off the road
I was in a cab that travelled between the lanes in which there were other cars for about half a km
a cab had no change to give me
a cab had no receipt to give me

The beeping of horns is constant, Lord help you if you dont get going at a set of lights within a milli second of them turning green. Its unfortunate that these tossers represent the principle part of my memory of what is one of the most historic cities in the world. Maybe am a bit over the whole over crowded city thing? Maybe I have developed a touch of claustraphobia? Maybe I'm getting too old to appreciate the danger factor of a place like this? Brisbane feels like a wonderfully peaceful open expanse of Serengeti proportions after that.

Oh yes. The conference, the raison d'etre for the entire trip. Average. And thanks to some shit organising by Boeing and Friday afternoon traffic mayhem in the city adding 50% on to airport trip times, I did not get to present. Typically, my flight was delayed, and in Dubai I had another 17 hour stopover, 10 hours of it delay time. Airports are really not pleasant places to spend ones time. But, at the end of it all, I could not wait to get home to my girls. All over their illnesses and ready for Dad.

And of course our next little one is now due in May '08.

Weird...

2007-10-30T08:01:00.000+10:00

to think that I'll be in Ireland next week, without my own little family. Genuinely, it's going to be bloody hard not seeing Aibhe and her Mum for such a long time. Can't think about it yet. Too sad.

Plans for home. Well, by all accounts there is going to be some Guinness taken. According to Ken and Gav anyway. For anyone interested in my whereabouts, it will be Malahide predominantly of course. But am planning a trip into de big shmoke on Friday the 9th - so those of you who are around and can't get out to Malahide at any point - do let me know and a rendezvous will be established. Am seriously thinking about a pint in the Cobblestone at some point on that Friday, given we couldn't get in there last time we were home due to us being with screaming child. And it being closed at 11 in the morning.

Kieran & Peter - seriously contemplated the trip to Ennis for the trad, but alas, so little time and family comes first, even over the diddly-eye.

News from here? Well. We had a very pleasant few days in Noosa staying with Geoff & Barb in what can only be described as a millionaires mansion ON the Noosa river (with its own private jetty). Most impressive gaf I've ever stayed in by a long way. It' s not theirs of course, they just treated themselves as their gaf is currently undergoing 6 months of renovation (i.e. smash and rebuild) work, so they needed a "place with space and tranquility". Mind you, being woken at 3 in the morning by the sound of someone jumping off the roof with cops screaming "GET DOWN, GET DOWN, DON'T MOVE" (a paradox when one thinks about it) and torches flashing all over the shop, was none too soothing. Some punter was obviously on the run from the coppers and hopped into our place to get away - his mate was caught next door. For one second I contemplated sticking my head out to see what was going on, but fortunately the good sense of my lady wife reminded me that a stray bullet would potentially hurt me as would being taken hostage by some desperado. Aibhe didn't wake up.

And now Aibhe is still shouting "beeeeeeeeeeeech" regularly - such was the craic she had. Every big body of water, including the ocean, is now a "booooooool". It's certainly now time to starting making the most of this hot weather existence and proximity to some of the best coastlines around by getting out there at weekends. This weekend coming we're off with a couple of work heads to the Sunshine coast again.

No mansion this time, but I guess I'll put up with it.

Real bed time

2007-10-15T18:02:00.000+10:00

She just decided. One night. That was it. No more cot thank you, I'm going to sleep in the big bed. Man. So like her parents with that determination and single-mindedness sometimes it's a bit scarey. But it is a very cute thing. And quite a step in fairness, the first one to moving away from being a baby to a little girl.

We've been to a couple of weddings recently, both in the centre of Brisbane, and both in lovely locations along the river. And I got pretty pissed at both of them so all very enjoyable altogether. For those that may remember it was Kate (who married Sam) and Robbo (who married Claude). All bar Sam were at our wedding. I guess we haven't put up a picture of us for a while, so in case yis forgot what we look like...... that pole really hurt.

So on to other things. When I don't have too much to say, I tend not to say anything for fear of talking crap or just plain and simple boring people. So the blog has been quiet of late. That said, most would know there are few occasions when I have little to say. I was sparked into reminiscing last week as I sat watching some wonderful musicians plying their trade in the Queensland Irish Club nearby (in the city). I got to thinking, while surveying the predominantly over 50 crowd, how did I come to love this flute'n'fiddle stuff? And how come, after 10 years of listening, do I now, again, like to hear the "song" embedded firmly in the midst of the powerful, goosebump and whoop inducing "tunes"?

(Note - song = music with words, tune = instrumental)

A not so short description of my personal trad (traditional Irish music) journey follows, so zone out those who couldn't care less about my indulgence. Growing up, there was the occasional ceili band bit of vinyl lying around which my Dad had managed to either fall upon in his teaching time, or were given by his son who did all his Christmas shopping in a record store and who thought that since the Kilfenora ceili band were from Clare (near enough his Ennis childhood home), played diddly-eye, they were an easy gift selection. Now don't get me wrong, the Kilfenora ceili band were (are?) a wonderful group of musicians, but to me back then, it all sounded like loud bagpipes in a large pot of vegetable stew. So David Soul (aka starsky) and "Don't give up on us baby " remained my number 1 choice as I went to the record player. Did you know that the b-side was an inspirational "Black bean soup" which never made it big strangely enough?

I digress.

The mid 90's saw me in Prague of all places being exposed to trad in the Irish bars occasionally and then a little more closely through the Barleyshakes who adopted a friend of ours while we were there and thus I "rubbed shoulders" with the muso's. At this point songs with words were still all that mattered to me. It was a slow but very certain ascension to the love of the tune. I think it cemented during that trip to Milltown Malby with Kieran for the Willie Clancy week. The word craic was made for occasions such as that. As was Guinness for breakfast and sessions in the dressingroom of a local GAA football club at 3 in the morning. Defining times.

I reckon the fact that over Kierans flat on Capler lived one Alan Doherty, now with the Lord of the Rings soundtrack on his resume, who plays flute like a man possessed and obsessed. Weekend after weekend, the trad would kick in after midnight. 2 choices for Kieran. Complain or join in. Kieran and I drank a lot together back then.

After that, we were hooked on the tunes. Songs became a necessary evil to break our foot stomping momentum. The Bothy Band were the natural hook (though the break songs were just bloody awful, I mean seriously, who sings a song with the lines 'Do you love an apple, do you love a pear.....'?). However they had tunes that we often said were like speed metal trad. The genius of Michael McGoldrick and then Lunasa followed and wrapped it up. No songs. Just tunes lads thanks.

Been a bit of a fan since, as our wedding demonstrated with Lunasa's Kevin Crawford playing through the emotional maelstrom. Being over here can make it hard at times just to stay connected to it all but Lunasa and Grada coming to play this year went a long way. Then last Thursday came along. I kept forgetting the date having read it some time ago in the Irish Echo, and it was only at 4 in the afternoon I remembered that Sharon Shannon, maestro McGoldrick, Dezi Donnelly and Jim Murray were playing that evening. I was knackered and the temptation to go to bed and watch a CSI Miami rerun was tempting. But I got off my lazy arse got in the car and got into the city (in 10 minutes so not really that major a journey).

These 4 musicians are legends in their own right, as individuals. And its not too often that a combo of individuals can produce a band sound but Jaysus holy Mary, these guys do it with ease and obviously have a ball doing it. I was introduced to McGoldrick beforehand, shook the mans hand, thankfully didn't do any damage despite my enthusiasm. "Howarye Mick" I think I said. Then Dezi Donelly asks me "is the Guinness is any good here". Ah jaysus lads, I can't be giving advice to a fiddle virtuoso. Even if it was a Finance question, am sure he'd still know better. Think I said it was drinkable.

Back to the reason for this detour. After 10 years skipping or avoiding the boring ole tune breaks as I'd call them, songs are well and truly back on my radar after hearing a couple of fantastic renditions of well known songs on this bands new Renegade album. I actually skipped tunes to listen to them.

And McGoldrick sings one of them the talented f$cker.

Frozen peas for breakfast. Anyone?

2007-09-24T08:14:00.000+10:00

Who are we to say what you should and should not eat when you wake up? I mean, there have been times when I've had a leftover Vindaloo in the morning - never the best for the gut or the toilet, but it helps expedite things from the previous night. But Aibhe has taken to requesting, sorry, demanding, a handful of frozen peas when she opens the freezer door first thing in the morning. She of the never ending snotty nose. She of the beetle obsessions. She of the 5 am starts. While the approach of summer means rising temperatures, it also means the f&cking birds start off their morning concert earlier and earlier. Can't really chop anymore trees down at this point, so its back to trying to get my hands on an air gun.

Ye might remember a while back I mentioned the new English neighbour, "buttercup" as we called her. Well, she has disappeared. Nobody in the house for almost 2 months now and the back garden shows it. Alissa has actually called the cops with what I assume becomes a missing persons report, but we've heard nothing back. All very strange, given her car is still there, mind you the worrying thing is that an overgrown unkempt garden is a breeding ground for snakes. Nice.

We all paid a visit to Lone Pine Sanctuary yesterday, only 10 minutes drive from us. It's a mini-zoo type thing, with a heavy concentration on Koala bears. Kindov means the place stinks of stale p&ss most of the way round, but of course the little stoned bears themselves are all very cute. Mind you much of the initial excitement was around the lizards and bush turkeys (gobble gobble) freely wandering around, which really, ye could see anywhere. Aibhe and Stella (Bec's little girl) befriended a couple of kangaroos when we went into the 'roo reserve and within seconds, each had developed their proprietry instincts and "owned" a little marsupial of their own. Thus followed cries of "myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyne" and tears when the creatures dared to bounce away a little. Stella showed her early loyalty traits by following and standing still as a post right beside her new found pet for about 10 minutes, probably 20 or 30 yards away from where we were.

Oh and we fed a sheep. How terribly Australian.

I won't mention my golf.

The Virgin Blue annual birthday bash passed off successfully again last weekend - Las Vegas themed and all very well put together. Tell ye what though, for a single male (regardless of orientation) on the trail of a little eye candy and maybe some action, THAT was the place to be. All our trollie dollies (male and female!) were out in force and bedecked in whatever pieces of string they could lay their hands on. The one thing that became very transparant though, aside from some items of clothing, was the bloody ridiculous taxi situation in the city on a weekend night. I thought Dublin was bad. At least if all comes to all, ye can get the nightlink home. Here, people wait for hours in taxi-lines hoping and hoping that they bother their a%se coming back into to the city. Certainly does put a dampner on a night, and talking to people at work about it all - they pretty much say they avoid the city at weekends because of the taxi situation. Bit of pity given the activity, though, at this stage of our lives, why should we care? It's not like it's actually a relevant problem.

After the visit

2007-08-21T17:12:00.000+10:00

And so the house goes quiet again and the downstairs area becomes practically dormant. For almost 3 weeks, the house was busy with activity (not full mind you, there's now plenty of space for everyone) and Aibhe running around to see who was available at the time, desperately looking for "Baba" Eoin, who invariably was either sleeping, feeding or just chilling quietly and happily on his mat. Such a quiet peaceful child I have never come across. And lovely of course. Aibhe was quite obsessed with him though her enthusiasm bordered on assault at times. No doubt the young lad will grow to take her on at her own game quite quickly.

From the moment they all landed, I had it in the back of my head of how hard it was going to be when they left, and of course, when they did depart, it was even harder. It broke our hearts the following morning and many times since then to listen to Aibhe calling their names and then going through each room to see where they were. Dom (Tom), Nana (Granny), Nay (Sinead), Baba (eoin). Ferg, she has finally got to saying "Gus" for you. We should have concentrated on that from the start!!

We had a few days in Hamilton island on the Whitsundays, which was absolutely beautiful and pretty much set the tone for the remainder of the stay. Very chilled out and relaxing for all. We were lucky enough to be upgraded to a gigantic luxury apartment over looking the marina, which, despite the JCB and jack-hammer going off from time to time only 50 yards away, proved to be a fantastic stroke of luck for us all and the space it gave us. The mode of transport on the island is the golf buggy, which Aibhe would have been quite content to spend all her time in. Alissa now has serious problems getting Aibhe out of the car - she has to spend a few minutes each time in the front seat, tooting the horn and ripping the sh&t out of the gearbox.

When the family left, it rained for almost a week, how appropriate. Though the best winter rains for a long long time is very good news round these parts. All that grass we bought after the renovations has returned to life, the pool is full again and so is the water tank. And Georgia's garden is now complete - with all our families contributing beautifully to it.

Over "the pond".....

2007-07-24T16:54:00.000+10:00

......being the Tasman sea, we finally got to go to New Zealand. Obviously, we didn't make it last month given the circumstances, but the badly needed break eventually came along. Aibhe stayed at home with Barb (Baba) and Geoff (Jess) for the few days and appeared to have a cracking time. So then, New Zealand, a new country for us both. A few words on the myths that go with the territory.

1. Sheep. Yes, they are everywhere. 40 million of them in fact, 10 times the human population.
2. Cold. Yes, fricken freezing in Christchurch, but then it was the equivalent of January/February in Dublin.
3. The accent. Oh man. The Aussie accent can be funny, but the NZ accent is actually quite hard on the ears. It's the vowels, they're all over the shop. Almost the German of the antipodes. For instance:
- Check-in desk = Chucken disk
- Six = Sux
- Ticket = Tuckit
4. Rugby. Yes. Obsessed. Totally. 4 pages in the main paper on it pretty much every day.
5. Stunning. Yes. Quite breathtaking scenery once ye get out of the "city" (Christchurch barely qualifies I reckon but anyway). Snow capped mountains practically jumping out of the flat plains of Canterbury to really give an idea as to why the Lord of the Rings was filmed here.

Did I mention it was cold?

A few days of eating, drinking (though we got so pissed on the first excited night that it pretty much took another two days to recover), driving through mountains, jet boating (very cool and very cold), wine tasting and sleeping. Pretty much covers it. Next time (and working for Virgin Blue, there will be a next time) we'll probably try get further south on the south island to Queenstown and Dunedin which are meant to be even more spectacular in a swiss Alps kindov way. I thought parts of Ireland were relatively unpopulated, but Jesus, we drove for HOURS without seeing another car on the road on several occasions. One bit was a little over hyped - Akeroa on the Banks peninsula. I'd compare it to driving through the Wicklow pass to arrive in Baltinglass. Nice, but not knock me down amazing though to be fair, time of year probably didn't help in that there was barely a soul around.

We of course missed Aibhe, and it was pretty cute that she was eagerly anticipating our return, as we walked through the arrival doors at the airport, there she was, swinging off the bars trying to attract the attention of others around - but thankfully, didn't ignore us....... and the requisite hugs duly arrived.

Not much to add right now.

2007-07-15T18:57:00.000+10:00

But photos of Aibhe have been requested so here goes..... and we're finally getting to New Zealand this week - didn't happen last month for obvious reasons. Will give a decent report on our return.

For Georgia, Jen and Marian

2007-07-01T14:25:00.001+10:00

For a while I thought about whether or not the recent events should be written up on the blog, and whether or not it would belittle the scale of what has happened. But I believe that this has been a pretty consistent, occasionally flippant, account of our lives here, so it would be pretty much a false restart if I were to begin writing again without somehow "verbalising" in writing what we've been through.

The last week of June has certainly become the saddest time of the year for the Foley family. The 26th is now the anniversary of the passing of Georgia Foley, our little girl who was born prematurely after 22 weeks with us. Following the 18 week scan, we knew she had been sick for some time and had developed a condition called "Hydrops" - an extremely rare occurance. We knew then that the outlook was bleak and that it would be a matter of time so we had a little time to prepare ourselves for the worst. However, having to go through the entire labour experience in this kind of circumstance is something I would not wish on anyone. We had a hell-ish 24 hours which included some post delivery complications for Alissa (requiring some minor surgery). We spent 12 hours with Georgia then had to let her go.

Battered and bruised, Alissa badly needed to spend some time sleeping and resting, but of course, about an hour after we arrived home from the hospital, little Aibhe came down with a fever which lasted 3 days (she's actually still not quite over it yet), resulting in 2 GP trips and a visit to the hospital. She also developed an obsession with her Daddy, which given Alissa's fragile state was probably not the worst thing. There's something to be said about a child of such a young age being able to pick up on the vibes of her parents and of those around her. We fortunately had plenty of support to help us get through the few days. I'd also just like to say now, thank you to all of you who sent such beautiful and kind words to Alissa and I, I know I didn't get to text or call or e-mail back, there really wasn't much I could say.

The news of Jen's passing on the 29th needs no words. The fight she put up was nothing short of astonishing. I'd rather remember Jen not as the girl who fought with cancer to the bitter end, more as the intelligent, straight talking, party-loving and smiling girl that she was. And the one responsible for getting me so into skyping with the rest of the world. She gave us sunflower seeds when we left Ireland, we'll be planting more in our garden for her. These are the times we wish we could be home with you all.

Marian's 3rd anniversary came a day later. The memories of that day and the ones that followed are so raw and clear, and probably will be forever. And she would have turned 40 on the 1st July. We all still miss her incredibly.

That week is over now. Am currently looking outside the window at the clear blue skies (and the weird English woman next door who sings that "why don't you build me up" song at the absolute top of her voice late at night REGULARLY - so we call her buttercup amongst other things).

The family arrive in a few weeks time. Things should get better.

Georgia, Jen and Marian you won't ever be forgotten.

Next stop New Zealand

2007-06-05T17:56:00.000+10:00

Well, we kindov reckon this is our last holiday of its kind, as Aibhe will be left with her Aussie grandparents for a few days - who will camp out in our new home to take care of her. I guess the place feels new at the moment, aside from the spilt Thai green curry on the carpet which Alissa's pregnancy enabled heightened sense of smell manages to pick up every time she walks by. Christchurch it is, not the one on the south side of the Liffey, the one on the south island of New Zealand. We get to stay in a nice posh hotel in the city, get to go to wineries and visit some of the landscapes of Lord of the Rings. It'll be fricken freezin' mind you and we have no warm clothes, so we'll have to see the place either from the hotel room, the car, the restaurants or the spa baths. Also, apparantly its very foggy this time of year over there so we might see f&ck all, but sure it'll be almost like home. I'm sure.

Am sitting here in our new study room and its positively p&ssing down outside. There's been talk of the upcoming rain "event" for the last 5 days. And, unlike the last time when we were meant to get a cyclone to fill the dams and got NOTHING, this time the event has happened and the good news is our water tank will get nice and full as a result. 4,000 litres of water under the gaf - that should keep the grass green in 53 Alexandra St for a wee while.

Had a trip to the dermatologist yesterday morning, almost like a dentist trip to be honest, except rather than numbing the gumbs, he numbed a little section of my back before removing a mole and sewing me back together with a few stitches. Was in work just after 9.30. Gas. Pretty standard stuff over here, and unlike in the case of getting a tooth out, I can't play golf for at least 2 weeks after this extraction. B&gger.

By all accounts, my newest nephew at home - little Eoin, is not so little anymore. Horsing through house and home so he'll be in a position to take his cousin Aibhe on when he gets here in August. If he keeps going he'll be able to fly on his own, or at least will need his own seat on the plane.

And lastly, the house. Budget completley blown asunder, not to worry. Its great to be finished, aside from the painting outside and the auld garden thingy. We need some half daycent grass along the side where the excavators ran a-muck (get it? God I'm hilarious). Now I'm all new to this lark, I mean, whats wrong with going out and getting some seeds, sprinkling it along the dirt and waiting for them to sprout up nice and green? In Ireland, you woundn't even need the seeds, grass seems to grow in concrete. But there's lots wrong with that over here apparantly. I'm told we have Sir Walter Buffalo grass or something along those lines, so to get anything else and have a mixture would look "shithouse" as they say over here. So, best be on the lookout for that stuff. Secondly, this is not the time of year to be throwing seeds into the ground due to the lack of daylight hours (a mere 11......ha....) - ye need "turf" and be well able to water it. Tick to the second one after tonights rain anyway. Now, given I HATE pebbles and concrete - Jesus, if the folks had done what they have to our garden back home while I was a chisler, I'd have had many more broken bones and probably smashed even more windows than I did - so I'm just going to dig deep (there I go again!!), tramp the dirt down and turn it all green again. Sometime. My back hurts at the moment so it'll be a while yet.

Before.... and almost after - just the odd bit or 20 left

2007-05-19T14:09:00.000+10:00

and lastly, up top where the front door used to be and where it is now underneath

Here comes winter again

2007-05-01T08:31:00.000+10:00

I laugh as I write that. Whatever. Just means longer chilly nights and therefore sleeping without the aircon. So then. Whats been going on then over here. Ah yes. The house. At least the painters have been and gone. The carpet was going down today. Plumber and electrician due to complete by the end of this week. THEN it will be all done. Aside from moving all our stuff. In fairness, while not easy living through the dust and the dirt and the grime, it will be worth it when its all done. Honestly. Latest status photo's coming shortly.

The little one went on a bug-free, sleep filled few weeks till she came a cropper last week with an ear and throat infection. Now all good again though trying to get her back into the nice sleeping routine she was in prior to the sickness. God help us with two little ones.

I gave blood recently for the first time. Ashamed as I am to say it - I never bothered in Ireland. There was always something. Always is eh? Isn't that the ad? Over here they actually come round in their big mobile van and park it right outside our office - so really, there's no excuse for not doing it. This was my 4th attempt at giving blood since I got to Brisvegas - things like gastroscopies, recently being on anti-biotics, having had some injections amongst other things blocked me on previous occasions. Anyway, this time I was determined to offload my red corpuscles so I tried once again. Initially, they had trouble getting a nice vein - my right arm blew up like a little balloon so they whipped the IV needle out, watched as the whole area bruised up to a nice yellow/purple and asked if I wanted to pack it in. Heroically I rolled up my left sleeve and demanded they try the other arm. It worked. Nice veins aplenty there.

It would be great if I could say that was it and that I marched out proudly with my cheese and cracker crumbs on the edge of my lips and returned to my desk to finish my days work as if nothing happened. Alas no. As soon as the blood bag was filled to the brim and they took out the needle for the 2nd time, the nauseau and sweats kicked in. Apparantly I went quite green and had to stay on the bench for a good 15 minutes till I looked less like Herman Munster, all the while sipping my cordial through a straw. I managed to fight off the whole fainting thing, that would have just been too much to bear. As I sheepishly left with my chocolate in hand, I asked if that was it for me giving blood to which I got "No, of course not, lots of people are wusses on the first go, see you next time!" Damn it.

Welcome baby Eoin

2007-04-22T14:13:00.000+10:00

My 2nd nephew arrived yesterday at about 11am Irish time. Eoin O'Neill weighed in at just over 7lbs. After a long day of texting back and forth with Daddy to be with the latest dilation results. All extremely well and getting even better. Congrats to all and especially well done little sister.

We raised a glass to the arrival over here.......... wine had to do the job. A pint of Guinness will be the order of the day when the family arrive over here later this year. Slainte.

Hope the sun was shining for Easter

2007-04-09T11:49:00.000+10:00

I wonder do others have the same Easter memories as we do? Staying up late past midnight on Good Friday so ye could finally eat again after the whole 3 meals thing (or was it 1 meal and 2 something or other of a lesser size than a "meal")? Then finally getting to eat chocolate again after 39 days of Lenten abstinence (excluding St Paddy's of course) and absolutely horsing through your eggs (which were usually made of cheap crap chocolate coz that meant you could buy more, but anything would do at that point). And of course, there was "The Passion" on Good Friday. Warm, Spring afternoons, the first rays of summer starting to penetrate through the winter grey, finally kicking balls with those new boots ye got for Christmas, all of the Easter holidays ahead of you. But to enjoy such an Easter experience, one had to first suffer through an hour and a half in a jam-packed church, standing for the majority of the time, lining up to kiss the cross and then right at the end, when tantalisingly close to getting out, a decade of the rosary. 10 Hail Mary's? Ahhhh Jaysus...... the Passion. Mother of God. Literally.

The house renovations trickle along progress wise. Lots done, lots to do. Over the long weekend I spent a few hours under the house putting down a gravel and sand bed for the bladder water tank we've got. The things I would not have done in Ireland eh? Back-breaking and dirty work and have several cuts and bruises to prove I did it. Now whether or not it does the job is another matter. I decided not to believe the spirit level. Since there's no more watering the garden or filling the pool from the tap, this is now our only option for green stuff and a pool with actual water in it. Level 5 water restrictions kick in today - ye can't even wash your car now. Seriously, this is a fricken desert.

Little sis is now only a few days away from mammyhood. Exciting times.......

Speaking of which. Come November hopefully, there will be another Foley here in Brisvegas. Yes indeed. The 10 week scan (as they do it here) showed up only one kid in there so Aibhe will have another toy to play with (and attempt to batter) come Christmas time 2007. And life in general gets put on hold for a little while again. Can ye see him/her?

We're taking the "whip the band-aid off quickly" approach to all of this. I'd like to say Alissa has been well, but, alas, she's been sick as a small hospital. Now diagnosed with whooping cough of all things and FINALLY getting some drugs for it. Drugs that will do no harm to the above of course.

So there yis have it. Sure isn't this what the aul' blog is for wha?