Tinahely Show

When we were looking at moving to Ireland, I started to search on the web, as to where we might like to live, as we had never been to Ireland before and didn't know what was where.  I had heard that County Wicklow was nice, so started looking for information.  I came across a website for Tinahely Show and there was a movie and photos from previous years (see here) and everybody looked like they were having fun, were friendly and the scenery was great.  Something told me that this County was were we should be ...and guess what, we are!

 

So for the last 2 years we have enjoyed the August Holiday Monday at the great Tinahely Show and hope to do so for many more years.

Perth to Singapore to Dubai

On our way to Ireland we decided to have 2 stopovers on the way, to make the journey more manageable.  The first one was Singapore.  We had both been there several times, but never together.  We like Singapore because it is in Asia, but is fairly western ie they have clean water etc, so we thought we would be safe from lurgies.

 

On our first day we went to the fairly new Supertrees at Gardens by the Bay.  They are 25-50 metres tall, there are 12 of them and at night they are lit up with all different coloured lights.  Inside one of them is a fantastic garden display.  You can go up to different heights to see all the different succulents, ferns and orchids growing on the 'trunk' of the tree.  

At the base of the tree there were all different types of gardens eg desert, tropical etc.  It was amazing how they could get them to grow inside, all together.

We were really glad that we saw the supertrees on our first day, because I came down with a stomach virus and couldn't go anywhere for a few days (seems we were not safe from lurgies).

The next stop was Dubai, because it meant no flight was longer than 8 hours.  We stayed at a fabulous hotel not far from the airport.  We had an amazing room high up, so the views were amazing.

View from our room

 

 

 

That wormy looking thing is one of the airport terminals.  The airport is absolutely massive, has it's own train system.

Dubai was a bit of a surprise, to be honest we had reservations about going there, but things were fine.  It was nearly 50 degrees C outside, so we caught a taxi to a shopping centre and it was very western in one part.  However downstairs it had a souk, containing lots of little shops with more traditional fare, although still fairly touristy.

In the hotel the guests were treated like royalty and we couldn't have faulted the service.
We didn't do a lot while we there, as it was only a few nights and I was still not feeling good, but we would like to go back again some day.

First Post

Welcome to my blog.  I had intended to start this 16 months ago, when we left Australia, but it took a bit longer to happen. Oh well better late than never!

We have been here just over a year and have learnt a lot in that time.

• The people in this country are generally very friendly and want to help you if they can.
• It doesn't rain as much as every Australian thinks it does.
• You can have weather for four seasons in one day.
• You don't have to have lots of possessions to survive, we came with 2 small suitcases.

When we arrived we spent a few weeks travelling around the country seeing where we liked the look of, before trying to find a rental.  Even though we could see a lot of empty bungalows, we couldn't find one to rent.  This went on for several months, until we met a lovely B&B owner Edna.  We told her of our current situation and she said she would put her thinking cap on.
We went out for the day and that evening Edna told us that her husband was out walking and her cousin (who she hadn't seen for 2 years) drove past.  He told the cousin about us, and the fact that we were wanting somewhere to rent and her and her husband came in to meet us.  They took us to see their vacant bungalow nearby and it was absolutely perfect. About a month later we moved in.  We thought it was very serendipitous, the way we ended up here, as it was about a 2 hour drive from where we were looking before.
We have been here a year now and the views from the house change every day.  I think I waste a lot of time looking at what's going on in the fields, hedges and sky!
The house is on a narrow road in the countryside and is generally quiet, but at this time of year there seemed to be more tractors on the road than cars.