Christmas is more for the kids

They say that Christmas is more for children. The thrill of thinking that Father Christmas is coming, the excitement of the pile of presents under the tree, the day playing with your new toys. Well this is how it went for our kid.

It started the night before with a rattie that wouldn't go to bed! Then, Christmas morning being woken up at around 5am by an excited little rattie -clearly wanting to see if Father Christmas had been.



And then getting harassed to get breakfast done quicker.








I then had the idea of making him a little present to open (bad mother that I am, didn't think of this sooner, else I could've made him a really nice one with some nice crinkly paper). It was a pinyata of sorts. I wrapped up some of his favourite foods into a piece of kitchen roll.



He got quite excited wondering how he was going to get inside.



And then he ran off to hide in his box and rip and shred and eat.

Moan about Winter No. 9

Winter Sun. If the sun actually does shine, it makes driving really dangerous. The sun stays at a low level all day, which is eye level, and completely blinding. Be it 9am, 12pm or 3pm - that sun will always be at that annoying level. Combine this with shiny wet roads and you will be completely dazzled!

Dublin here we come

Ok, 'PE Girl in the World' has not really been doing much exploring in the ‘World’ -Dublin as it is right now. But I’ll tell you a bit about what I have discovered.

Dublin city centre has the River Liffey running through it, much like London has the Thames. One day we decided to park in Phoenix Park and walk into the city centre down the river -about 3.8km. The river is sectioned into ‘Quays’ –as you can see on the map (ok, the map didn't come out large enough, but you can see how the river is divided up).




There are many bridges that cross the river – there were about 15 on the walk we did (20 in total), some pedestrian and some road bridges.

These are 3 that we have used – all have some sort of interesting history about them:

Ha’Penny Bridge. This is one of the oldest bridges and is a pedestrian footbridge. It was built in 1816 and was so called because people were charged a half penny to use it.



O’Connell Bridge. This is a large road bridge (50m wide) - apparently it is unique in Europe for being as long as it is wide. On the North there is O’Connell Street which is one of the main shopping streets. On the South is Grafton Street, another main shopping street and Temple Bar, the main drinking area in the city.



Sean O’Casey bridge. This one is on the far east side. It is a modern pedestrian drawbridge built in 2005 and named after a playwright who lived around the area 1880-1964.



Well, I will leave you with that for now - the river and the bridges - more in later posts.

By the way, the pictures are courtesy of various dublin tourist sites, I haven't been out there looking like a tourist with my camera yet!

Winter blues

I hate the winters over here. Have suffered eight winters, yet I’m still shocked by how cold it gets. You’d think I’d be used to it by now.

The British love to moan about the weather – it is a typical British trait (along with queuing). I never knew this because I am always told off for being a foreigner that moans about a little bit of bad weather! I don't even moan that much anymore, but sometimes it just gets a bit much!

So here is a list - a little moan - of what I hate the most:

1. Ice - on the car, roads and pavements. Walking is dangerous as you can easily slip over. You also need to allow extra time to de-ice the car’s windows – and then they’ll ice straight back up.

2. Condensation. Windows are always wet - in the flat and the car. I used to use the busses in London and the windows would get so wet that you'd miss your stop!

3. Dressing like an Eskimo. You need at least 3 layers and then a scarf, gloves and a hat/hood. Don’t even attempt clothes shopping; you do not want to have to remove all those layers in a small changing room.

4. Cracked lips and dry, flaking skin – not an attractive look. Also the bright red cheeks and noses.

5. Feeling unwell a lot of the time. Just generally run down from feeling so cold all the time and also from mingling with loads of generally unwell people whenever you are out.

6. The short days. In Dublin the days are even shorter – the sun rises at 8.40 and sets at 4.08. How is a person meant to get out of bed in the morning when it still feels like it’s the middle of the night?

7. Nothing to do. It’s too cold to be outdoors, so your other options might be to go shopping, go to the movies or go to a pub - but then you’ll find that the rest of the population will have decided to do these things too.

8. Winter is so long. It’s not like in SA where winter is 3 months (and those 3 months are anyway interspersed with warm days). Here you are looking at 5-6 months of bitterly cold miserable weather.

And that’s my moan. Luckily I haven’t had to use public transport recently or else I would be moaning about the fact that it comes to a standstill at the slightest sign of bad weather.

Snow on the mountains

In PE, whenever it is a particularly cold day, you'll hear the phrase 'there must be snow on the mountains'. This would explain why the air is so chilly - and makes perfect sense. I never thought to ask which mountains though.

Anyway, I find myself saying that a lot these days because there is a serious chill in the air and there must be some explanation. Ok, one explanation is that a weather front has come in from Siberia, but Siberia seems so far away, there must be snow on mountains nearer by?

Well this morning I awoke to snow on the hillside. This is the view from our balcony -if you look to the left (straight ahead or to the right, you look into other people's flats!).

And they said it hardly snows in Dublin - maybe we will have a white Christmas after all.

All about the rat

This blog isn't going to be all about my rattie, honest, but currently he is taking up most my days. I'm not working, and its too cold to go outstide, and so most my time revolves around him.

This is what happens when you don't get breakfast / dinner ready quick enough!



It happened so quickly, I thought he was just tugging on my jeans like he normally does and then I looked down...



another pair of jeans ruined!

Flat-pack rat furniture

Seen as I'm quite good at putting flat-pack furniture together (IKEA!), I thought assembling Reggie's log cabin would be a breeze - didn't help that the holes weren't big enough to fit the individual pieces in!! Reggie seems to like it. You may notice he is way too big for it, its just to be used as a step down - now that his back legs don't work so well. He sits on top of it and shreds the roof!

Christmas time...

Since leaving South Africa in June 2000, I have had 7 Christmases in the UK, 2 in PE and now 1 in Ireland.

My first Christmas in the UK (2000) I remember having toasted tomato sandwiches for lunch - it just didn’t feel like Christmas. But I remember it snowed 2 days later and being the first time I had ever seen snow, cheered me up a little. Another Christmas was just after we got married (2003) and we were both very sick with flu and had travelled up to the Scottish highlands where we nearly froze to death in a cabin that had wet wood with which to make a fire, heaters that kept switching off and hardly any hot water. We somehow managed to make a roast chicken and potatoes – but I don’t think either of us really felt like eating.

Then we had 2 Christmases in a row in PE (2004 & 2005) – which were great! My parents really know how to put on a spread for Christmas. Usually we have cold meats and salads for Christmas day lunch. This is good as it’s usually quite a warm day and you don’t feel like eating hot things. Of course, some people have to spend the whole day before slaving in the kitchen, over hot stoves, making the spread – thanks Mom & Dad!

The usual spread is chicken, beef, ham, potato salad, 3 bean salad and tomato & cucumber salad. And the last time we had some special ‘potjie’ chips too. And don’t forget the bottle of JC Le Roux! This will all be followed by some trifle and there might also be a Christmas pudding with custard.

The last 2 Christmases (2007 & 2008) we had in our flat in Hythe, Southampton – the 3 of us (me, hubby and gorgeous pet rat, Reggie). The first year I was treated to a traditional English Christmas spread. Richard went all out – we had turkey (which we somehow managed to buy on Christmas eve), roast potatoes, brussel sprouts (with bacon bits to make them more tasty) and carrots. It was super.

So now Christmas in Dublin. Well, I’m not yet sure of any Irish traditions, but I don’t think it’s too different from the UK. It will be cold – that I know. The temperature is already down to around 6 degrees. They don’t have a record of much snow in Dublin, so I think we can rule out a ‘white’ Christmas – it will more than likely be a cold, wet one. We aren’t going to crazy with food as our kitchen is quite… compact. But it will be good – and it will be so lovely to have another Christmas with Reggie who is nearly 2 years 7 months – which is about 80 years old in human years!

Dublin... the middle part

I’m a PE girl - in the world. Ok, it’s not as exciting as that sounds, I haven’t really been around the world, but my adventures have been pretty exciting – for a PE girl. I’m starting at the beginning of my next adventure –Dublin.

Having spent almost 9 years in the UK, moving to a whole new country was quite daunting. Exciting, but daunting. How do things work? Will I be able to get my favourite things? Where will I get them? Will I understand the Irish accent? Will they understand me?

We took the ferry over and on arriving I noticed that some things were actually similar to SA:
- They work in km/h
- The ‘Yield’ sign is called a ‘Yield’ sign and not a ‘Give Way’ sign
- Their number plates have some reference to the town they’re from – which I’ve always liked. I’m sure that’s why I wasn’t hooted at so much in Cape Town when I had to suddenly change lanes – ‘poor lost PE person’ or maybe ‘look at the stupid PE person just cutting me off like that!’

And I have since discovered that they love their fast / takeaway food as much as I do. We have a pile of takeaway menus offering all sorts of wonderful sounding things from all over the world.

I also love the American influence – there are a number of American themed restaurants.

And there are plenty of shops and shopping centres

What more could a PE girl ask for?