The Olympics is over

Oh well! The summer is well an truly over now. The 2008 Bejing Olympics has ended (sob sob) and I have no reason to laze around in my pj's in the mornings. My best efforts to get the boys interested in any of the sports so that I could one day follow them to an Olympics was unsuccessful. They both liked the diving and the gymnastics but that was about it. They were more interested in the Monkey animation from the bbc! There is still time. Come London 2012 I will have inspired them to at least be excited by the games. Roll on London - I have already told Daithi that I want opening or closing ceremony tickets for my 40th birthday(!!!!).

Progress on the house continues.... The mobile home now has new carpet in the living room and boys bedroom. A section of the floor in the living room had to be replaced as it was rotten before we could lay the carpet. No problem for Daithi.

I gave the bathroom a good bleaching and the toilet has now been connected to the sewer. We should now be able to move in next weekend! I actually can't wait for it. Don't get me wrong I am dreading being in such a small space with the boys but I feel very much in limbo here at the moment. We will really get stuck in to finish the place when we move on site.

The boys and I went to the Youghal medieval festival this afternoon. The boys thought the re-enactments were very interesting and loved the costumes everyone was wearing. Liam tried out some armour and I had a go at the archery. The weather stayed fine for the event too. Unfortunately it was on at the same time as the Cork v Kerry SFC semi-final but there was still a good crowd there. Lovely Baileys ice cream too! The gardens are a great setting for the event. They are next to Sir Walter Raleigh's house Myrtle Grove. He was a former Mayor of Youghal and is famed for bringing potatoes and tobacco to Ireland.

The sun shines at last

It is lovely here today: warm, sunny and beautiful.

The glass for the windows arrived today from Wexford. We got such a good deal from Viking glass but were slightly dismayed when the units arrived to find that aluminium spacers had been used in the glazed units when we had specified white. The guy we were dealing with was so sorry and found out that the request had been mistyped in the computer because he distincly remembers checking to make sure the white spacers were available. We could have sent them back and had them remade but they took another euro 300 off the price if we kept them. All in all 1500 euro for all the glass for 15 sash windows. Not bad!

We are still hoping to move into the moblie home sometime this week but a lot has to be done. Emmet was here giving the place a facelift. It needed a good clean and Liam helped too. We still need to lay the carpets and do a few repair jobs. If the weather stays nice then I won't mind moving at all.!

Will the rain ever stop?

What a summer! I am secretly glad that we haven't moved into the mobile home yet - the rain and wind yesterday was awful! There was a stream running down the hill when we got up this morning and there's more forecast tomorrow. At least it did stop and brighten up for a while.

Daithi and Paul put in the lintel above the back door today and hung the huge french windows which were my bargain reclaim. They look great - I had visions of me with my glass of wine walking out to the orchard and sitting in the summer sun(!) with a good book when it is all over (global warming may make it summer here by then).

We have a new carpet for the living in the area in the mobile home and the boys bedroom. The bathroom still needs a good clean but there isn't much rat damage that I can see. I will be bleaching the whole place thoroughly though! D-Day for moving in looks to be next weekend just in time for Liam to go back to school but Daithi needs to lay the carpets and do some work on the underfloor first. I hope the landlord will tolerate us for a couple of weeks if we need it....

Nearly back to school

We are back from holidays in England. We had a great time. The first week was low key mainly because everyone in England was still at school so I couldn't meet up with many friends. Plus we were shattered from the journey. The second week was spent trying to cram in visits to friends and family. It was lovely seeing everyone again. Nan looked very well and will be completely different when her hearing aids, that she was convinced she didn't need, are in place. We won't be able to talk about her at all when she is in the same room.....!

Daithi arrived safely for the last week. Liam made a poster that we took to Stansted in case he forgot what we looked like. The kids were so excited, Conor especially. He is a real Daddy's boy. Daithi's visit started with a trip to a very hot and sunny Southend-on-Sea and a trip to the LazyTown show. The boys had no idea they were going until the last minute and were thrilled. The show was at 2pm and Conor was a bit tired for it after wandering round the sea front and the adventure park but loved it nonetheless. It was all Sportacus and Co. on the way home. We went by train too which made the trip even more exciting.

We had a day to recover before heading to Butlins for the rest of the week. It was Daithi's first holiday camp experience. He was a bit wary at first but he could see how much Liam and Conor were enjoying themselves and was happy enough then. Crowds and noise, of which there are a lot in Butlins, are not really his thing so I don't think he found it very relaxing but he had a good time. It was very different this year I suppose because the boys are that much older. We couldn't get them out of the waterworld this year; Conor wouldn't go in last time! It was so nice to have a family holiday which we haven't really done since Daithi's Cancer scare. Hopefully it will persuade Daithi of how important those trips are to the kids and for him to spend time with them away from the house.

Anyway we are back in Cork trying to decide what to do next. Ballydaniel House has been transformed by the O'Leary's. The site has been cleared and the mobile home and containers have been moved to more appropriate positions. The landlord says that we can stay in the rented place for the month of August rent free but we don't really want to take advantage of his generosity. However, looking at the rain and wind over the last few days I am tempted. The boys will be like caged animals in mobile home in the rain!

The good news is that we have the services connected in the mobile home (sewerage included) we just need a couple of new carpets and a bit of awning out the front for shelter. I think the move to the mobile home will spur us on to get cracking with finishing the downstairs of the house and it will mean I can do work too when the boys are asleep.

The glass for the windows has been ordered and should be here in the next couple of weeks. We got a great deal through a friend of Daithi's father and I can't wait to see that first pane go in. The boxes are all painted and most of the sashes too (thanks to Eileen and Niamh). Thay look fantastic. I can't wait to see them in the house.