It’s all over. Or nearly…we didn’t take down the Christmas decoration yet…brings bad luck…you’re supposed to wait till after Little Christmas. But it’s back to work anyway. My first Irish Christmas, first Irish New Year…turned out slightly different than expected but did had a wonderfull time. Did feel home sick the Wednesday between Christmas and New Year, but that one off-day was more than compensated by some great days and nights before and after.
Christmas started the week before the holidays. Went for pre-Christmas dinner with some kiwi friends at Luigi Malone’s, had a pre-Christmas drink with the housemates (except the French one, for some reason he never showed up…we drunk the Bailey’s we got from the landlady whithout him so). We were playing Christmas music all week, talking about Christmas all week, making plans all week. High Hopes so.
As tradition within the Council goes, we left work at noon on Friday. Tried to do some shopping, but town was crazy. Mostly men, rushing to find that “one special present” last minute. Madness. Saturday morning was for vegetable shopping. Picked up our 10-pound-turkey as well. Cleaned the house, prepared the kitchen for some massive cooking. ‘Cause Tracy and I were about to stuff our very own turkey. Didn’t take us more than three hours to get all the vegetables, cranberry sauce and the turkey ready. Quick shower, prepacked meal and ready to go to the pub…for what was supposed to be the biggest pubnight of the year. Boy…were we disinformed. Walking through Oliver Pluncket Street at 8.00 o’clock, half of the pubs…CLOSED!!!!!Ended up in the Old Oak so, just as there wasn’t really another option…looked like this was going to be a bit of a dissapointment. Couldn’t believe even the Old Oak would close at 10.30 pm!!!Just standing at one of the tables, in an unusual quite pub. Started chatting with some Cork guys. Heared them out about Christmas Eve, St. Stephen’s day, New Year’s Eve. We didn’t feel like going home early so ended up at their place. No regrets…after all they were buying us drinks all night. Real gentlemen so.
Christmas started the week before the holidays. Went for pre-Christmas dinner with some kiwi friends at Luigi Malone’s, had a pre-Christmas drink with the housemates (except the French one, for some reason he never showed up…we drunk the Bailey’s we got from the landlady whithout him so). We were playing Christmas music all week, talking about Christmas all week, making plans all week. High Hopes so.
As tradition within the Council goes, we left work at noon on Friday. Tried to do some shopping, but town was crazy. Mostly men, rushing to find that “one special present” last minute. Madness. Saturday morning was for vegetable shopping. Picked up our 10-pound-turkey as well. Cleaned the house, prepared the kitchen for some massive cooking. ‘Cause Tracy and I were about to stuff our very own turkey. Didn’t take us more than three hours to get all the vegetables, cranberry sauce and the turkey ready. Quick shower, prepacked meal and ready to go to the pub…for what was supposed to be the biggest pubnight of the year. Boy…were we disinformed. Walking through Oliver Pluncket Street at 8.00 o’clock, half of the pubs…CLOSED!!!!!Ended up in the Old Oak so, just as there wasn’t really another option…looked like this was going to be a bit of a dissapointment. Couldn’t believe even the Old Oak would close at 10.30 pm!!!Just standing at one of the tables, in an unusual quite pub. Started chatting with some Cork guys. Heared them out about Christmas Eve, St. Stephen’s day, New Year’s Eve. We didn’t feel like going home early so ended up at their place. No regrets…after all they were buying us drinks all night. Real gentlemen so.
Next morning up at crack of dawn…there was a turkey to be put in the oven. Kiwi friends would arrive at two and calculated according to the “turkey-rule”, it should be in the oven for at least five hours. It was way more tempting to just stay were I was, but Tracy called me down whithout compassion. Fair enough…we didn’t want to mess this up. Felt wrecked all day, but was worth it after all. The turkey was a huuuuge success. Just a pity the roasted vegetables didn’t go as crispy as we wanted them…blame the oven for that. Christmas pudding with fresh straw- and other berries and custard as dessert…mmmhhh…We ended up watching a New-Zealand music DVD.Was definitely an interesting experience. Although I by times only understood 80% from what was said (but then….the kiwi’s do have the worst accent of the world – at least that’s what French guy claims), I did enjoy it. Got a phone call from home later that night…apparently my dad was playing Luka Bloom…hihi…He must really really miss me. Ended up in bed at nine that night…not very cool, but was just knackered.
