Helloes!
We are back from four weeks in California, where the weather is apparently always hot and sunny at this time of year. Which gets disconcertingly boring after a while. The drizzle at Dublin Airport this morning was an unexpected pleasure.
Some Random Things I Liked
Swimming!
The residents' pool and jacuzzi. OMG. I haven't been swimming regularly since our last French holiday in 2005. As a child I went on family holidays to the Continent most summers (my parents lecture in French and Italian), which entirely ruined me for indoor swimming pools. (Yes, this is incompatible with my new-found drizzle-love. Work with me.)
The one where we stayed is particularly beautiful - set among white-painted pergolas clothed in wisteria (just finishing, but it must have been incredible two months ago), with white roses and gardenia(?) all around, and birches and mystery flowering trees on the street outside.
The pool was generally deserted during the week, and we never saw it with more than about 30 people. The water didn't smell chlorinated - it seemed to be treated with some kind of salt. The boys and I went nearly every day, and it turns out that the Oyster shares my extreme delight at being in the water. I watched him at the end of each visit - dragging himself along to the steps, not wanting to get out until he absolutely had to - and I thought, I remember that.
The Oyster can basically doggy paddle now, and he can jump in over his head and push himself back to the surface if I'm there to catch him. The Feaster bobs around in his armbands and ring, and can get himself from place to place quite efficiently when he wants to. They both like clinging to my back while I swim. I like that too.
BIG Trees!
We went to Muir Woods. And even though the Oyster was in a mood so finely calculated to push his parents' buttons that it's a wonder we didn't explode, it was spectacular. Coastal redwoods! They are tall. The end.
Safety!
Car seats for people the Feaster's size come with a chest buckle, as well as the crotch buckle we're used to. This is just a plastic slidey thing, but it has the very desirable effect of preventing him from wriggling out of the shoulder straps (something he does regularly in Dublin for the purpose of putting the heart across me). I must see if they're available here.
Efficiency!
Cafés and foodcourts have this brilliant gadget. You place your order at the counter and pay for it. They hand you a square plastic device like a very thick coaster, about the size of your palm, with their logo on it and some little LEDs around the rim. You find a table. After a few minutes, the device buzzes and the LEDs flash, and you go to the collection counter and pick up your food.
It is magic.
Actually, it reminds me of the first time I was in California, in 1997. I went To The Mall, tee em, with one of the Irish friends I was staying with, and she urged me to buy a newfangled drink I'd never seen before. It was a smoothie, and my mind was blown. Within a year, they had hit Dublin.
So I'll be very much looking out for these food buzzer things. (Or am I just fearfully out of touch and everyone else has been using them for months already?)
Right, the Feaster has awoken. I'll be off.
Some Random Things I Liked
Swimming!
The residents' pool and jacuzzi. OMG. I haven't been swimming regularly since our last French holiday in 2005. As a child I went on family holidays to the Continent most summers (my parents lecture in French and Italian), which entirely ruined me for indoor swimming pools. (Yes, this is incompatible with my new-found drizzle-love. Work with me.)
The one where we stayed is particularly beautiful - set among white-painted pergolas clothed in wisteria (just finishing, but it must have been incredible two months ago), with white roses and gardenia(?) all around, and birches and mystery flowering trees on the street outside.
The pool was generally deserted during the week, and we never saw it with more than about 30 people. The water didn't smell chlorinated - it seemed to be treated with some kind of salt. The boys and I went nearly every day, and it turns out that the Oyster shares my extreme delight at being in the water. I watched him at the end of each visit - dragging himself along to the steps, not wanting to get out until he absolutely had to - and I thought, I remember that.
The Oyster can basically doggy paddle now, and he can jump in over his head and push himself back to the surface if I'm there to catch him. The Feaster bobs around in his armbands and ring, and can get himself from place to place quite efficiently when he wants to. They both like clinging to my back while I swim. I like that too.
BIG Trees!
We went to Muir Woods. And even though the Oyster was in a mood so finely calculated to push his parents' buttons that it's a wonder we didn't explode, it was spectacular. Coastal redwoods! They are tall. The end.
Safety!
Car seats for people the Feaster's size come with a chest buckle, as well as the crotch buckle we're used to. This is just a plastic slidey thing, but it has the very desirable effect of preventing him from wriggling out of the shoulder straps (something he does regularly in Dublin for the purpose of putting the heart across me). I must see if they're available here.
Efficiency!
Cafés and foodcourts have this brilliant gadget. You place your order at the counter and pay for it. They hand you a square plastic device like a very thick coaster, about the size of your palm, with their logo on it and some little LEDs around the rim. You find a table. After a few minutes, the device buzzes and the LEDs flash, and you go to the collection counter and pick up your food.
It is magic.
Actually, it reminds me of the first time I was in California, in 1997. I went To The Mall, tee em, with one of the Irish friends I was staying with, and she urged me to buy a newfangled drink I'd never seen before. It was a smoothie, and my mind was blown. Within a year, they had hit Dublin.
So I'll be very much looking out for these food buzzer things. (Or am I just fearfully out of touch and everyone else has been using them for months already?)
Right, the Feaster has awoken. I'll be off.