Monday, January 07, 2008

Christmas / New Year etc.

Just sat in my study at Ridley getting used to the idea that another term is about to kick off - my 8th out of 9! One thing I'm going to have get used to quickly after leaving here is not having the long holidays, having just enjoyed a 4 week break. Having said that the best part of 2 weeks of it was spent working fairly hard on the 6000 word MA essay that was due in today. Had 2 weeks completely clear though which was great! Spent 10 days including Christmas itself over in Ireland at Lisa's parents place near Dublin - guessing it will be a long time before we will be there on Christmas Day itself again! Did a fair amount of walking on Portmarnock beach just a 5 min walk down the road from the house, enjoyed a few pints of Guinness, saw some live Gaelic football, did a bit of shopping, visited my godmother who was over there staying with her daughter and my 97 year old Great Aunt who lives over the other side of Dublin, caught up with various friends etc. A good break - though it went very quickly.

Flew back to Stansted on the 30th - got home about 5pm, and by 7pm were in the car heading off up the A14 to spend a couple of days with my family. Stayed with my brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece in Shropshire, did a bit of shopping at the Cheshire Oaks outlet village, saw my Aunt and Uncle, and then on New Years Day saw my parents, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and went to the hospital in Warrington to meet our new nephew Joshua for the 1st time. He was born 8-9 weeks prematurely in December, but seems to be doing really well and is hopefully going to be out of hospital any time now. Came back to Comberton for a rest late on New Years Day!

Anyway, enough waffle. Here's a few photo's:

Portmarnock beach

Christmas Dinner (from left Ross, Michael, Pat, and Lisa's Aunt May)

Dublin Gaelic football players in a friendly match at Portmarnock Gaa Club.

Ross on the sand dunes


Our nephew Benjamin

and his sister Amy - 1 of Liverpool's youngest fans!

That's the life!

Pete (my brother) with Lorriane, Benjamin and Amy

Me and Nathaniel (nephew / godson)

And his younger brother Joshua on our 1st visit to him with Louise and Kev.

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