Hangin´out with the stars in LA

I flew to LA to meet up with Muirs, me little sister and her boy Collers. We had a splendid time on our wee road trip and visited Sequoia National Park, Yosemite, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. I think the highlight would have had to have been driving into Las Vegas late at night, with Mika blaring, covered in muck from camping with the bears, and checking into the Bellagio. That and the marshmallowful campfires in Yomesite where Colin told ghost stories in a nacker accent.

Falconry in Co. Offaly

Naids, my second littlest sister and her French boy, Axe-L, were determined to try out falconry. So after a rather big night out, we headed down to Kinnity Castle in exciting Co. Offaly to check out the burds. It was pretty cool having these massive birds perched on your arms though terrifying at the same time as I was sure they were going to peck out my very hungover eyes. And Kinnity Castle is only lovely.

The whole falconry practice is quite interesting. The birds are trained from a young age by rewarding them with some tasty chunks of raw meat – bits of cute little bunny rabbits mostly. Initially, they are tethered to the trainer. As the training progresses and they learn to hunt, the length of the tether is increased. When they are confident the bird will not fly away, they remove the tether altogether. The birds are weighed every day and if they’re even a few grams under or over weight, they’re not allowed to hunt as they’re pretty thick and very unloyal. They never form a bond with their trainers and will disappear off for good if they’ve had too much to eat.

Micheal's Christening

After leaving a rainy Manchester, I headed home in time for wee Micheal's christening. The actual christening was in Glasthule church, followed by a reception in Aly and John's beautiful grey house which they had been madly finishing off for this auspicious occasion. Naidi, the Dalkey branch of the paparazzi, was responsible for taking the hundreds of necessary photos - we're still sifting through them.
The weather was only gorgeous which was marvellous because we were all sitting outside at Aly's wearing inappropriately light summer dresses. After the delicious food, the lads (and Muirs, my youngest sister) decided to head down to Monkstown for a quick swim - clearly a ridiculous idea; it wasn't that warm.
Micheal was a very well behaved baby even in the church and only let out a few squawks. He had three outfits for the day including the christening gown that Granny, Dad and all of us wore when we were christened. I don't think I know any other baby who is passed around as much as Micheal.

Dublin in summer

I spent most of my time hanging out in Dublin drinking tea, enjoying leisurely lunches, boozing with friends and gorging on desserts - nice. Ireland in the summer is only gorgeous (though it wasn't the best summer - it never is when I'm home. I always miss the heatwaves by a couple of days, hmmm suspicious). The nights are so so long and you can happily sit outside until ten in the evening in the light.

Visiting Grandpa

It appears that I'm bringing the lousy weather around the world. After leaving a miserable Sydney, surviving a chilly Katherine, wandering through an overcast Singapore, Manchester had equally rubbish weather. But it was great to see Grandpa. I spent 3 leisurely days with him. We visited a stately home, 'Tatton Park' (which had a scullery for anyone interested), played scrabble and had dinner with the cousins - all very relaxing.

One day in Sinagpore

So after a teary goodbye in the pissing rain and the coldest June day recorded in Katherine (it's meant to dry season), I headed on the bus back to Darwin and then onto Sinapore. I had 18 hours there so thought I would have a wee look around. It was great - they're fierce friendly there and there's loads to see. I wandered around Little India for 3 hours or so, then on to a wierd resorty beach place and then had a Singapore Sling in Raffles where I ate my body weight in monkey nuts. Big thumbs up to Singapore.

Aideen and Damo livin' it up in Katherine

Well I left a rainy Sydney coughing and spluttering and flew up to Darwin. After a 4 hour stay in a hostel room wrecking some poor girl's head, I got the bus down to krazy Katherine. It was so nice to see Damo and Aideen and hang out with them in the strange town that is Katherine. There was mucho tea drinking and delicious meals going on along with a trip to Kakadu.

The first day I took the beast of a ute out for a spin to see some nice waterfalls. I managed to take a wrong turn and found myself off road with no map, no mobile reception and memories of that crap film Wolf Creek. But once I retraced my steps (30 odd kilometres down unsealed roads), I found myself at Edith Falls where I did a lovely walk accidentally wearing Damo's flip flops and with no suncream and not much water, marvellous.

The next day we headed off for a weekend in Kakadu where we camped under the stars. I can never really decide whether I like camping, but what with more room than you could shake a stick in the back of the ute, Aideen and Damo's best tefal frying pan and the good knife, it was pretty comfortable - glamorous camping I'd say. We saw some beautiful sunsets, crocodiles and some splendid rock art.

I was pretty sad saying goodbye to Damo and Aideen but sure I'll get a chance to see them sometime soon and go on a intrepid four wheel drive adventure in their beast.