Photos From the Dingle Peninsula
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Category Archives: travel
Did I Mention That It’s Been Raining…ALL DAY?!?!
Luckily , we were able to have some dry weather during our walking tour of Kinsale. I’ve always enjoyed either taking the historical walking tours or ghost tours when I visit new cities. I love seeing things first hand while hearing the stories – be they sordid, gory and ghostly stories, or just the history and folklore. It must be the teacher in me (I get the same way at museums…give me the docent tour please).
Here are some photos from that tour…
This purple building was once the lighthouse and is actually the location of one of the two town wells from the early, Medieval, walled-city days.
Across the harbor looking towards the town of Kinsale.
Immediately after our tour, it starting raining and turned all sorts of blustery (as they say here). So much so that we couldn’t even see James Fort in front of us – but we could see the water splashing up over the seawall on the way down the crazy, narrow hill from the fort (the big spot isn’t an orb, it’s a raindrop).
I just thought this was pretty and a bit picturesque. The local “giant” lived here before joining the circus in Bath, England hence the name “The Giant Cottage”.
Seriously, outside of the obligatory food shots, this is my one and ONLY photo from Killarney. Just as I finished taking this photo, the rain starting coming down something fierce. Our jeans were completely drenched just walking from the car a block or two to the pub (thank goodness I splurged on those waterproof jackets with hoods!). It was so bad all day that the hubs refused to bring his camera anywhere outside the car so he doesn’t have any photos either. But man, Killarney sure was super crowded and super touristy, even in the rain (check out that dark sky).
Visting Jameson Distillery in Midleton, Co Cork
Enjoying a Cuppa in Kinsale
We just finished our first Irish breakfast. I’m not a huge fan of breakfast, so eggs and meats doesn’t really do all that much for me. Instead, I’m inhaling the pot of tea. Our hostess just left for an appointment but will be back shortly to send us on our way to Middleton (for whisky) and Cobh (for a little history). Otherwise, we’re just planning to drive around to see what we see.
We did pretty well sleep wise – which was great since we barely slept on the plane. We took about an hour and a half nap once we settled into the B&B. So sleep went well last night until we got text messages at 4:00AM from our friend Mel (who we’ll be meeting up with in Dublin this weekend). She was checking in on our cat and wanted to let us know how he was doing. We started tossing and turning and decided to take half an ambien to finish out the night.
The hubs still has some work to do each day. Go figure. The good news…he was finally able to finish his big project. Now he has to work on some contest stuff with Taylor Swift’s people (and yes, everyone knows he’s on vacation and yes, I know I married a workaholic – I got a workfree honeymoon, so I don’t complain).
Believe it or not, this is the reason I brought my own laptop. I figure I’d have to do something to entertain myself from time to time. Plus I wanted to be able to upload my own photos each day. He’s being good though and promises that it will only be a couple of hours each day (which he’s breaking up between AM & PM).
Once the photos import (I’m doing that now), I’ll post up a few for ya. By the time we settled into Kinsale, it was already early evening, so there aren’t anyphotos of the area. There are some nightshots of the city centre, but they don’t look like much.
Until then…I’m off to shower and start our day. And maybe find some more tea since I’ve emptied the pot!
There she sits waiting for us…
That’s Ireland down there!
Herbie was going to be in Ireland?? Why didn’t anyone tell us – LOL (we see him Tues)…
Attention!!! Drive on the leftside, dumbass! (I so need this reminder). Driving straight is easy, roundabouts are fine, turns in and out onto the street kill me!
I Seemed to Have Had a Bit of Meltdown
But really does the entire Dublin metro freeway system need to be under construction?!?! I mean I can learn how to drive on the left or I can drive through massive roadwork. Not both. And NOT on less than 8 hours sleep over 2 nights. A big thank you to those moms for letting their children run up and down the aisles and poke sleeping people – like me. Harumph
Had a bite to eat at the Ivy Pub. Now back on the road.
I’m Bored. And Tired.
I feel like it’s 2:30 in the morning. In reality, it’s just 10:30. I’m tired, but it’s too early to go to bed. I’m bored, but there’s nothing on TV but repeats or politics. If I head to bed to read, I’ll probably fall asleep in mere minutes.
I should pack. But to be honest, I just don’t feel like it. Since nearly all of the hub’s Ireland clothes are new, just for the trip, packing shouldn’t be too difficult. Everything is in one place ready to go. My stuff is all stacked up in the bedroom. But we don’t have anywhere to lay out the two suitcases. So instead I just look at the piles of stuff that need to be packed.
The good news…tomorrow, all I have to do is vote, get my brows done, hit up the bank for some cash, and pack. Nothing all too major, thankfully.
So bored. Really. Even writing this didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would. Oh well.
Well Now, That Was a Good Waste of Two Hours
Who knew that 8GB on an iPod just wouldn’t be enough? I mean it sounds like it’s plenty of room. Maybe it is…for other people. But it turns out I had to delete a good chunk of my iTunes library (mostly my husband’s stuff and it’s all in his iTunes library). On top of that, I still had to leave a bunch of stuff off the Nano’s play list.
Totally not what I was expecting. I still need to make a little room for some teleseminars and podcasts. I guess that’s the price we pay for such a modern convenience. I mean, if this was just 10 years ago, I’d have to choose between which CDs to take and let’s be honest, that would take up WAY more space. So I guess there’s no point in complaining.
I do feel better about what’s left to do. Turns out there’s not that much left. Tomorrow I’ll vote, get my brows down, pick up the dry cleaning and finish the actual packing. If there’s time left (I’m sure there will be) and I’m so inclined (no comment) I’ll also give a quick vacuum through the place. We come home to enough cat hair, no sense making it worse by not vacuuming up the old stuff, right?
I left figuring out our travel arrangements to the hubby. Looks like we’ll park at his office and then taxi to LAX. That should work out just fine, though it will be on early morning considering we have the stop the pupster off first thing.
And now, I really, really need to get that Press Release taken care of. later.
What’s Left to Do…
We leave first thing Wednesday (man is that going to be a crazy long day). Tuesday, being Election Day I figure the husband will be glued to the TV all night. Needless to say, I figure we have to basically have everything gathered and be pre-packed before bed on Monday.
Of course, there’s still stuff that needs to be done…
- buy cat food and cat litter
- do the last load of laundry (no promises here) – not gonna happen
- strip the bed
- add light to a timer
- move extra lamp out of office to front rooms
- organize the heaping mess of prizing – half-assed, but done
- pay bills
- call bank re: vacation travel (in the past, Wells Fargo has been known to cut us off while on vacation – simple phone call fixes it, but what a PITA)
- write & send interview questions to MG
- get battery for travel clock (hell, first I need to find it) – can’t seem to find it, guess we buy a new one *sigh* DONE
- touch up roots
- bring in luggage from the garage
- get brows done
- vacation messages on phone & email
- organize all the computer equipment to go with
- organize my iTunes library for my new-to-me iPod – work in progress, seems I’ve hit a glitch or 3
- do last minute work regarding contest event marketing and thank you’s
I think that’s it. It’s totally doable, just a pain in the ass. Funny how it’s always the little things that take all the time and effort when going out of town.
Is it Really Friday?
I’ve been off all week on my days. So if today is really Friday, then I’m ready for it. Of course I have a crazy busy day tomorrow with two clients and dinner with friends, but let’s face it, there’s not all too much of a difference between a Friday and a Saturday when you work from home and your husband is always working whenever he’s home. Needless to say, I’m still happy it’s Friday. And this time around I was smart enough not to make a lunch date and get stuck in that insane, mid-day, all day Friday freeway traffic.
So you know what I did all day yesterday instead of working? I read the Beaut.ie blog. Seriously, I spent the entire day reading an Irish blog about beauty products. So now I’m all ready to spending some of my vacation money on beauty products!! And tea, let’s not forget the tea!
Oh yeah, back to the beauty part. I’ve read enough fashion magazines and beauty blogs to know that when you travel to certain countries there are certain beauty products you should be on the look out for. So yesterday I gave my good friend Google the task of finding me what products I just might want to check out. This of course brought me to Beaut.ie. I took a moment to shoot Kirstie an email asking for some recommendations so hopefully she’ll suggest a thing or two.
And speaking of Ireland, I can’t believe we’ll be there in just THREE weeks!!! I finally ordered our coats and waterproof shoes. I decided that windproof and waterproof, as well as warm might just be worth the investment for this wimp. Now I just need to find the right gloves and a cute scarf or five, of course.
And on that note of cute scarves, I’m going to head on over to the more chichi of the local malls and see if I can find this great black and grey scarf I saw at Macy’s and see if they have the Shiseido Think Pink lipgloss. I shouldhaven’t have to worry about the boys (not that I do); the cat is getting stoned on some catnip and the itchy pupster is having fun with a peanut butter kong (hasn’t had one of those since he was a wee little pup).
Happy Friday Y’all!
I Hate Feeling Groggy Like This
Turns out my migraine didn’t exactly leave the other day. After getting back from the dreaded dentist (where my Xanax didn’t work nearly as well as it should have!) I basically crashed for like three hours. And you have no idea just how much I’ve slept this weekend. Really, I’m not sleepy at all. I’m feeling crappy and groggy and achey, but not sleepy.
Even now I kind of feel like I’m in a bit of a daze. I have no desire to do my pile of dishes (we’re out of forks and cat bowls) or to write my work articles for tomorrow’s newsletter (guess I’ll be taking advantage of some stuff that others have written and made available).
I also have to figure out a little business prioritizing here. I had this brilliant idea to pitch for some giveaway product via HARO. My goal was to do a giveaway a day on my site for the entire month of November. On top of that, I’ve been pitching individually to some of my favorite products. And well, it worked. Some might say it worked a little too well (if that were even possible). It now looks like I’ll be able to start my giveaway a day in October and probably run straight through to some time in December. And while this will be coller than cool, I dread the future post office trips and the post office costs to fulfill the sweepstakes.
Now on top of all that, I’m also going to be taking on a newsletter for my new site highlighting blog posts, contest and giveaways (all while still writing my regular business blog and newsletter). Which means that for the next three months, my main focus will be on my site and not on my business. Such a switch for me.
And on top of it all, of course, is our so awesome trip to Ireland in a couple weeks. The paperwork is in it’s totally 100% booked and official. I just need to finish shopping, prep and then pack for that. I have a feeling things might get a little busy and slightly frazzling in a couple of weeks.
Wonder if I can talk the hubs into picking up dinner tonight….hmmmmmmm