Monday - Week X

I slept well my first night at Jean Marie's and woke up to sunshine and bitter cold. I left early to take the walk into town which took about an hour and ten minutes. Not too bad but a little chilly since there was a bitter frost over night.

Jean Marie lives in a suburb of Galway so my route to town is very different than from my apartment but still there were lovely views and I took some nice pictures as I passed some housing developments.

Also, as you approach town you come to a charming bay where more seagulls were lounging in the cold water. I also came across some communal gardens in the park on rim of the bay. And although most of the vegetables are gone for the season I found this lone cabbage looking plant happily reaching out trying to get a bit of sun.

I met my friend Maura from class at the Claddagh ice skating rink and then she took me to her house near Barna for lunch. She made a delicious beef stew with potatoes and it was great to have lots of time to catch up and chat. She got some temp teaching work last week and she'll be moderating the Irish language yearly exams for the high school students this week. My fingers are crossed that she'll find a permanent job soon. As I mentioned many times while we were doing our teacher practice's that she's a really amazing teacher and I think since she has her 9 year old daughter, Kate that she'd prefer to teach here in Ireland than to up root Kate and move to Spain but she said if she has to then she will.

Now Kate, as you may recall, has the dog Flipper who owns his own cat, Tiger. Well I was so excited to finally meet them both and they really do love each other. Tiger got in his play box and Flipper went right over to give him love. They're great together and they're both black and white and almost look like alike. Tiger let me pick her up for about a second or two and then she'd had enough. I think she's a bit like Zaboo who only wants love on his terms. I guess all cats are really like that. But Tiger has more than one personality trait in common with Zaboo. When Tiger doesn't get her way, like when she wanted a third portion of cat food within in just an hours time and Maura said no she jumped into her box and looked up at Maura with this mischievous look and Maura said she's sitting there planning on how she is going to punish me later for her not getting her way. Well you all know my stories of how Zaboo plots, plans and executes many an annoying punishment for me when I've not given into his excessive demands.

We chatted about school and Maura got two more distinctions but did not graduate with an overall distinction but neither did any of us so it's fine. She also caught me up on her aunt Sarah's doings. Sarah is an elderly women who lives across the street from Maura and who is an ex-nun who married and ex-priest. Well actually I think her and her husband met in Africa when they were both still in the church. But anyway Sarah, as a married women, moved to Iraq and lived there through one of the major conflicts years ago. She and her husband also lived in South Africa where they knew Nelson Mandela and when the movie Invictus came out recently Maura thought it would be nice for them to go see it but when she mentioned it to Sarah and apparently with Sarah's usual sarcasm said something like "I knew the man I don't need to see some movie." She sounds like a real spitfire even now as an elderly widow. Maura was also telling me that Sarah had mentioned recently that when she was living in South Africa she was growing marijuana in her back yard. She says is was unintentional but when a friend of hers said you must remove it or they'll arrest you she killed all but one plant and put that remaining plant in the house and raised it like a house flower. I think aunt Sarah should write a book I have a feeling she's got a lot to say that would be entertaining.

We took Flipper for a walk in the Barna woodlands park which is exquisite but I'd forgotten my camera in the car so I have not pictures. Flipper was so thrilled to be there and he ran in and out of the babbling brooks fetching sticks. Then we picked up Kate at her school near by took her to the beach near Maura's house. It's another beautiful place and we played fetch with flipper who ran in and out of the ocean like it was warm Caribbean water.

It was a perfect way to spend a sunny afternoon and it's just another reminder why I'm glad I did this course when and where I have. I hope I'll have another chance to walk around that area. Maura and Flipper go out each morning, after Kate goes to school, and walks for an hour and 15 minutes from her house through the Barna woods, along the causeway to the beach, up a hill on the small cliff near the beach and then back around to her house. And when she's not working she then goes to the gym for a dance class or takes a 5 mile jog. I feel so lazy when I hear it. Yes, she's 8 years younger than me but still I could at least make more of an effort to walk around Central Park several times a week.