Saturday 12th July

Today I needed a break!! I was not in the mood to see another shop or another Primark!!! (much to the dismay of my son!!) But since it is the 12th the bands are out over here, and the shops are closed.


I decided to take a walk up the road to see what the 12th was like these days. It has been many, many years since I have watched the bands and orange men. As a child I loved the 12th day. We always got new clothes for the day. We were always up early so we could get a good place on the Lisburn Road. We had our flags, our cheese and onion crisps and our tins of coke. And I remember I was always ready to run over to anyone we knew who was marching, with a tin of coke, to help them on their way. Happy days!!


So with these good memories I ventured out to walk up to the Lisburn Road to watch the bands. Nobody in the family wanted to come with me. So I went alone. I must admit things had changed. Oh the bands played the same music, the men and women marched but the thing that had changed was this, - I didnt know anyone anymore! I stayed for about 45 minutes before I headed home again.


We spent the rest of the day relaxing at home. Krisitan went back to bed for a few hours, as I had kept him awake during the night with my coughing. (got a bit of a sore throat and cough since arriving.) The rest of us played games, watched dvd`s or chatted with friends over the internet.

Sara also got a chance to watch her friends race go-kart over a live internet site, so she was happy.

Friday 11th July 2008

First thing the girls asked this morning when they awoke - "Can we please go to Primark?" (When Sara saw how many nice things Leah had gotten the day before, she regretted going home so early.) So we, once again, headed into the heart of Belfast to spend another few hours in....guess where?? PRIMARK!!


After another successful shopping trip at Primark, we headed down to Bangor to visit my sister-in-law Gillian, and my neice and nephew, Lauren and Lewis. We had a great afternoon with them. The kids wanted to go into Bangor and look around. So once again we did what we do best - SHOP!

We headed home to dinner and a cosy evening with them.

At one point the door bell rang and to my surprise Gillians aunt was there. I had done CEF camps with her years ago, and we always had such a laugh together. Last time I saw her was at our wedding. It was soooo good see her again.

Finally we headed home just in time to see the bon-fires getting lit. Kristian, Andrew, Leah and me headed out to see them. Sara went to bed - BORING!! Kristian and the kids just could not get over the size of the fires. Take a look below...

Home sweet home

Yes! - I am home again and it feels sooooo good. We had a great flight over. Everything went so smoothly, from taking the train from our home town to the airport, the flight from Copenhagen to Dublin and the bus from Dublin to Belfast.

One of the first sights to greet us was this huge bonfire. A few weeks ago in Denmark we had bon-fire night but the fires there we so tiny compared to this. We certainly know how to do it big over here!!!

After a good night sleeps we were up and away to town to do what I do best - shop!! However my two big kids have a bit more danish genes than irish!! They are hopeless shoppers!! After only an hour and a half Sara, Andrew and Kristian wanted to head home. I was only getting started!!! We decided to grab a bit to eat and see how they felt after some refreshments.

With granddad being a very plain eater it was McDonalds for him, Leah and me kept him company. Kristian, Sara and Andrew went next door to the pizza hut. (They had a horrible meal there which Andrew is paying for tonight - he is spending more time on the toilet than he usually does!)

After a bit to eat my family were still feeling shattered (I thought they were meant to be vikings!! weaklings more like it!!) Kristian, Sara, Andrew and granddad decided to head home. Leah decided to keep me company (thank goodness one of them has backbone!!) We headed off to primark and spent the next 3 1/2 hours getting bargins. I just cant believe that shop! Leah got a whole new wardrobe for £35!!! I mean she got LOADS of stuff. Most of it cost £1 or £2!! I had a very, very happy girl.

I arrived home from shopping just in time to take a quick shower and change clothes as I was heading out to meet up with some of my "old" friends from way back!! We haven`t seen each other in years but recently got in touch with each other. We meet at Sperenaz`s and had a brilliant night together. (The food was soooo good - highly recommend a night out there) We talked and laughed and went a looong walk down memory lane. Thanks you guys for a great night.

For those of you who didn`t make it tonight, you missed out on some fun, but dont despair you still have one more chance to meet up. We are arranging a night together (for those that can) on Monday 21st July at 7.00pm at Seapark - Holywood.

The idea is that you come along and bring your husbands/wives/kids. We can spend a few hours having fun together, maybe play rounders, have a go on the swings. Just whatever takes our fancy. (Colin has volounteered to babysit ALL our kids - haha).

If the weather turns bad we can meet at seapark and then head into Bangor for some ice-cream somewhere. Hope more of you can come along that evening.

Packing time!!

Well the time has finally come - PACKING TIME!! The washing is all up to date and everything is now ready to be put into the case. The kids are excited and I must admit, I am too!! Early tomorrow morning we will head to the airport to fly home to Northern Ireland. It will be sooo good to see the wee country again.

Sara is little better today, no fever, but still swollen tonsils, sore throat and a really sore ear. (Not good when flying - but we are praying that it will all be ok by the morning!) We have stuffed her with all sorts of medicine that you can buy over the counter. Hot tea, hot chocolate and hot soup have also helped. She has spent the day, yet again in bed, so hopefully tomorrow she will be ready for the journey.

Now all that is left to do is pack the passports, dye the gray hairs, relax with a film and get to bed early! Follow our journey over the next few weeks, here on the blog!!

Now that everything is ready Andrew is relaxing by playing a game on his computer!

Sara is sick!!

Sara is sick. She has been lying all day yesterday with fever and a sore throat. Today she has no fever but her tonsils are so swollen and her throat is soooo sore.

I called the doctor this morning (took me 50minutes, sitting constantly ringing, to get through to them!!)I wanted to get a time so they could take a look at her and see if it was a bacteria or a virus that she had. Unfortunately it was a virus which means she can´t get any pencillin. (I was hoping it would be a bacteria so we could get an antibiotic and get it cleared up.) Now it just has to take it´s course. So she is now in bed with a hot drink, throat tablets and a film.

We are flying out on holiday on Wednesday so we only have a couple of days to get her on her feet again. Where are we going - I hear you ask. To the best place on earth - NORTHERN IRELAND!! It has been 5 years since we have been home as a family. I can´t believe it has been soooo long. So we are all really looking forward to it.

On Monday morning Leah and her good friend Mia went off to camp. (It´s a christian camp about 25 minutes drive from here.) Everything was going well, until last night (Tuesday) when we got a phone call that Mia was feeling homesick.

Mia´s mum and I were having a girls night out, so it ended with us going up to the camp to get Mia. I had talked to Leah on the phone and she said she was ok with Mia going home and that she would stay.

Well, when we got to the camp I hid in the car so Leah wouldnt see me and get all homesick too. Five minutes after my friend, who is also called Laura, went to get her daughter she came back alone. Now Leah was sitting crying and wanting to go home and her daughter was standing comforting Leah and telling her what a wonderful camp it was and that she would be alright. KIDS!!!

It ended with us taking the two girls home and then driving them up to camp again for 8 o´clock this morning. We made a deal with them that they would try and sleep there tonight. Now we´re just waiting on the phone to ring for us to go for a wee drive and collect two homesick girls again!!What about our girls night out? Well we got to do a little bit of shopping (got a new skirt on sale for £5!!) and then we went and got something to eat, at my favourite mexican restaurant!! You wouldn´t believe the amount we ate - especially Laura!! (not me the other one!!) We had just got home and had started watching our girlie film when the girls rang, we´ll need to make another girls night out and finish seeing the film. Thanks for a great night Laura - it was fun while it lasted.