Back to the Roots

Family ties! Here is to my family and my first bi-lingual blog post.

I have been blessed with a family that keeps me grounded and actually keeps in touch with me though I never live anywhere near them.

Last weekend I had the chance for a quick visit and everyone was there to see me. I really enjoyed it so much. Living abroad makes you miss the funniest things: dark bread with seeds, water pressure in the shower, Kinder Schokolade and well ... my family.

Familienbande! Dieser Eintrag ist für meine Familie. Der erste Blog Post, der zweisprachig wird, damit er nicht noch erst von Google Übersetzer verunstaltet werden muss bevor er gelesen wird :)

Ich bin mit einer Familie gesegnet, die dafür sorgt, dass ich mit beiden Beinen fest auf dem Boden bleibe. Eine Familie, die mich regelmässig über alles informiert, obwohl ich nie auch nur entfernt in ihrer Nähe wohne.

Letztes Wochenende war ich auf einem Kurzbesuch in Deutschland und ALLE waren da um mich zu sehe. Es war so richtig nett!

Ich habe mal wieder bemerkt, dass man im Ausland viele Dinge vermisst: Schwarzbrot, Wasserdruck in der Dusche, Kinder Schokolade und ... ja vor allem meine Familie.

Year of the Tiger - Chinese New Year in Dublin

So it's Chinese New Year today and hoping for a dancing dragon, a bit of fun and Chinese food, we braved the cold weather and walked purposefully into to town.
After a quick walk we arrived at a little square next to the Jervis shopping centre with a ferris wheel, a small stage and a few wooden huts. We stopped to watch the performance of two Irish men trying to animate the crowd (or small gathering of people) to join into some basic Tai Chi movements. I found the idea rather appealing and joined in for a while, hoping it would stop the drizzle, but there was nothing for it, it continued to drizzle on us and we were more interested what food would be on offer for this Chinese New Year celebration. Quickly all the huts were inspected and we figured out that only two of them actually sold food. The other places sold toys, brochures for the Shanghai Expo and one sold sweaters from Peru (?). We were surprised about the sweaters from Peru, raised a surprised eye brow when we discovered the Indian incense stall a bit later, but we burst out laughing when we found the food. Two food stalls next to each other: One had German sausages and the other one sold German Brezel and waffles (also supposedly German, but I have never seen waffles on a stick shaped a bit like a Christmas tree anywhere in Germany). This was seriously not what I had expected at Chinese New Years, then again this was my first Chinese New Year's celebration so this could well be the most typical food for this occasion.
We did the only thing you can do in such a situation and escaped into the nearest pub for a Guinness and Fish'n'Chips. On the way back things had lightened up on the party square (as in the sun made an appearance). This time a Chinese pop singer entertained an even smaller crowd of sausage munching people. I thought he did a fabulous job and he really gave the performance his all. We were almost able to hear him all the way home.

(hopefully) catching up!

I still have water and I am enjoying every minute of it. It really made me think about how much water we flush down the toilet every day. Seems like such a waste. Maybe I should change my career and become and inventor.

Weekends have been lovely. Beautiful sunny weather, but as awlays they are way too short.
IMMA has a nice exhibition of photographs from New York; I really enjoyed that one. Also Turners watercolours are on display in the National Gallery. I really liked the earlier pieces.

Today's shot shows the fragillity of our infrastructure in this beautiful country (or in other words it's a picture of telephone cables in my neighbourhood. I always have to smile when I see this array of cables connecting the houses in a spider like fashion.

we still have water

life is good!

I had a shower :)

... at home. We have water now 'til 7 pm and the air lock has been fixed.

Showering at home just feels like an indulgent luxury:)

Glorious weekend

We laughed a lot, chatted a lot, ate out a lot and investigated the nightlife together.
Having a good friend over is priceless!
I am recharged and ready for the next battle (just still hoping the water will be back one day).

good news...

...our neighbour has running water. It can only be a matter of time now 'til we can enjoy a shower in our own 4 walls again.

In other news the weather has started to be mild and lovely (and a bit rainy). No sign of winter anymore.

trying to be patient :)

I have been waiting for this Friday. A very good friend will come to spend the weekend and I wanted things to be perfect.

It will be an interesting weekend; no sign of any water and it seems no masterplan in place yet. To add to the craig the electricity is now flaky as well (as in there was none all morning :)).

I don't want this to become the blog of the biggest whiner in Ireland so I wish everyone a happy early weekend as I have a FREE day and am really looking forward to the weekend.

waterless for a change - day 4

You guessed it, we are without water for a change. Funny how quickly one can adapt to the situation.

I had a warm shower at work this morning. It felt like heaven.

There is a nice article in one of the German papers about the arctic temperature crisis in Ireland. There is a lot of truth in this one :)

Otherwise it's back to wind rain, wind and more rain. Lovely! It's a great place to be in January.

You almost guessed it - Looking for water day 3

The situation is not getting much better. The beautiful winter wonderland has vanished and instead we have wind and storm. The floods haven't quite reached Dublin yet, but there are rumours that they are already roaming elsewhere in the country.

The water situation however has not improved. There is no water to be had and our county has now officially switched off supplies 'til 4 am (so far it was only running on so low pressure that it sadly never reached the flat), but there is more to life than taking a hot shower right? It's really fine. I think it's a good thing to be reminded again of how many commodities we take for granted every day.