Back to my childhood...

With Fergal and Catherine over, we all decided it would be a good idea to go to the Waterpark again, since they've never been.

So we all piled into the van and off we went. It was the best day!

For some reason, Fergal being there made me feel like a kid again, and believe it or not I went on all the slides! Some I regretted (ouch!) and some I went on over and over again... Fergal and I spent alot of our childhood summers bounding up steps to slide down the local waterslides called the "rainbow rapids" and I swear there was one stage today when I was back there, heading up the steps behind my big brother, putting on a brave face as I launched down the fastest slide after him, hearing his yells of excitement mingling with mine as the rush of water carried me away...

It was a really fun day, we could not get enough of the Lazy River, although it was hardly lazy, sitting on huge inflatable donuts we were gushed down around this wide slide, holding hands and laughing our heads off as we were spat out the end! At one stage there was a bit of a pile up and poor Bill got flattened by Fergal as he came along! Bill was laughing so much he swallowed water and ended up half 'drownded'! (The reason there are no photos of us having all this fun is because we were busy having all this fun!)

Great craic!

Yeay!

My big brother Fergal and his wife to be Catherine have arrived, they will stay on after we leave! The Mill has never had so many people under her roof!

I'm also delighted because we won't have to do all the dirty jobs like putting the pool away when we leave!! Ha!

Sora...

We have two towns near us in the mill, Cassino and Sora... We prefer Sora, it is to Cassino what Greystones is to Bray, and I love it!
Its plonked up high, in the middle of the hills...

and has the prettiest streets, all candy pink and baby yellow...
There is also lovely restaurants......where you can make new friends...

Sora, Sora, Sora...

I love it mostly though because of the doors!

Nearly every door is a lovely door in lovely Sora!

The Mill - an inside peek!

All the doors and windows line up which is really good for light and breeze!

The Kitchen...

...which is usually a big mess!

The sitting room with its huge fireplace, this was the mill room originally where the huge mill stone would have been(we're still thinking of things to do with it!). They left some stone showing through the plaster around each window and door, there are lovely fossils in some of the bricks, which are all either part of the original building or from the ground around about...

Bedroom

Bedroom

The architect included this seat, which shows off the lovely views...

Our mill is called the "New Mill" - this is the old mill...

Surrounded by fields...

Some local wildlife...

Here we are!

Sorry I haven't said hello in nearly a week! Here is a bunch of posts I've been keeping by, waiting for an opportunity to get uploaded... there are a few so make sure to click through to the older posts page where they continue so you don't miss a thing!

Dear Santa...

An Orderly Cue...

M learns to play pool, and kicks ass!

Poor Bill Part Deux

Bill seems to be fodder of choice for the wildlife on this trip! He came out of the sea with this weird burn... It was little blisters that are now little scabs... No idea what it is, maybe some sort of Jellyfish... Send your postcards to...

Traffic

The usual view out the back of our old bus!

Nice not to be the one under pressure this time! Even birdie was muttering "Oh come on!"...

A pidgeon flew onto the window ledge of my room when myself and m were getting changed...

Mary meet Sea...

...Sea, this is Mary...

They hit it off!

Mary and co...

Oh thank God.

Mary has met other children.

We haven't seen her since... except when she arrives to have food stuffed in her beak...

The other night, the gang were heading to the nearby Bowling alley, and she was gone till half eleven.

As Ciara says, she was a couple of inches taller when she came back to us...

I was a couple of stone heavier from chewing my own hands off...

To the coast we go!

The heat here in the mountains can only be described as relentless... and don't get me wrong, its brilliant but you can only lie in it for about 20 minutes at a time before even the most hardened sun worshipper would be running for the cool indoors...

So yesterday, craving breeze like a reformed smoker lurking outside a pub, we headed to the coast and the sea...to Gaeta with its palm trees and busy marina...

...and its lovely Lido style beaches...

...where the sand is clean (not like the public beaches, a friend of mines child stood on a syringe a few years ago!)and the water clear and warm...

Why is it impossible to resist a cigarette on the beach?

How does the sand always make its way into your sandwich!!

Joe had a great time, bar two sand-in-eyes incidents which had me almost implode with helplessness, and another wave-in-face incident due to bad timing (mine).
But the sea air wore him out and he slept for most of the day!

The day was great, Bill swimming miles off shore though nearly giving me a heart attack, but mostly I was found, sqwauking like a chicken, making an absolute show of myself, at one point helplessly flayling, like a limp hotdog in a small childs hand, off my Lido bed, all at Charlie Brookers Screen Burn, if you haven't read it do yourself a favour - get a copy now - I defy the most pebble minded dullard not to weep with laughter.

At about half 3 we suddenly noticed all the italians (ie the whole beach) packing up frantically and running like mad. Like a scene by Roland Emmerich, as we turned we saw the darkest navy blue clouds rolling into place, soon to be above our noggins! We ran like hell, and just jumped into the van as the most enormous raindrops started crashing like enthusastic cymballists onto our little tin bird!

Mental!