Crazy Weather

The weather has been insane for the last week. On Saturday last (17 Jan) we had tremendous thunderstorms that included lightening hitting our phone line and knocking it out. We were having a welcome to Ireland party. The party is set to start at 6pm. Paula and the boys came over early to help and we were just sitting on the sofa chatting around 4pm when all of a sudden we hear this tremendous crack like a large firecracker right in your ear. Huge flash of light and oh no power. So we called in to ESB and let them know. Figured its a good thing I love candles and figured we could barbecue the meat if we had to. However about an hour later the lights came back on- big relief. Later we discovered that the phone jack had been blown out of the wall by the lightening and we had no phone. The phone company finally arrived yesterday and fixed the phone line. However, the lightening burnt out our vonage modem so it will be a while before we have a phone for the Americans again. I will let everybody know when its back up and running. The rain storms continued for 3 days, and by Monday we were having snow flurries, with great big snow flakes. Unfortunately, it was not cold enough for the snow to stick to the ground. It was fun to sit in the house and watch the snow fall. Today, Thursday it is beautifully clear and sunny - cold though.

I am leaving for Vegas for a week tomorrow and will be back in Ireland on the 31st.

Keep well, Keep Safe and Keep in touch

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Just another day in Newmarket

Christmas is well and truly over as you can see by our poor dissasembled tree. Don't ever let Adrian Scaletti near a plant of yours with a hand saw! It can be quite frightening. All of the middle got burnt up in the fireplace, he liked the swishing and crackling noise the branches made. Then dragged this poor remnant of a tree into the shed. We will cut it up and burn the rest in the fireplace.





Today we went to check out the market in Ennistymon, it was not a very good market unfortunately and so we took a walk around the village and along the river. After about 3 weeks of no rain we have had 4 or 5 days of downpours and this is what the river looked like after the rains. It was actually quite spectacular.

Advent 2008

We have had a lovely and busy holiday season. It started with Adrian and I going off to Bristol, England for the Christmas Market, we weren't to thrilled with the market itself but, thoroughly enjoyed Bristol and some of the surrounding area. Then the kids arrived on the 20th and Jessie and I went to Tea with friends on the 22nd. Followed closely by a lovely open house Christmas Eve with friends, neighbors and coworkers of Adrian's. Our friends the Kozlowski's spent the night and we all enjoyed a relaxing Christmas morning. We the Scaletti's just hung out Christmas day and did not do much of anything. Adrian and Michael went off to do some exploring on Boxing Day/St. Stephen's day aka the day after Christmas. Jessie and I stayed behind because we had both caught cold. Then we went up to Dublin to celebrate New Year's eve, it was great fun and we inadvertently picked a hotel that had a wonderful New Year's tradition associated with it. The Cathedral across the street is called Christ Church and has an amazing number of bells. It is the largest peal of bells in the world and is rung on New year's Eve, large crowds (and they were large) assemble outside to hear the bells and celebrate the New Year. Will be going back and staying in the same place next year. We had a leisurely drive back to Newmarket on the Friday following New Years and the kids leave to go home Monday, the 5th, which is an appropriate but sad way to end the season.

It has been a wonderful experience for our first Christmas in Europe and unbelievably we will have already been here a year in March! Time is already flying by so don't forget to come for a visit....

Hope you enjoy the photos.

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