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Well, it has been a while since my last post. I am sorry it has taken me so long to write, in my defense I have been studying for exams. But, I finished my last one today and now am all yours. However, I now realize what a predicament I am in. Due to the lack of posts, I have left the world uninformed about many an escapade and am now unsure of the easiest way to fill you all in. Well, why not start at the beginning - all the way into the past year.

• December 19th - My dearest Mother arrived in Belfast on a lovely picturesque day.  We explored Belfast and planned for our next escapade - the north coast!

  

•   And up the north coast we went! We stopped at Carrickfergus Castle, small nameless coastal towns, the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, Giants Causeway, one Nameless Castle, and Bushmills Distillery. The tour was narrated by our lovely tourguide who told us all the stories of Northern Ireland - sadly mother could not understand him one wee bit. But she did learn one very important part of Irish storytelling - everything ends tragically. Everything. You think it is going to end happily despite it all, but then (tragically) it goes, well, tragically. Let me give an example. We were told a story of a woman whose husband was so jealous he locked her into the attic of their house and attempted to starve her.  "Miraculously, the woman escaped out the wee window in the attic! Tragically, she then fell the four stories to her death."At this point the tour guide points out the dreaded window (on your left).

one of the many nameless coastal towns

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

 

Mother with the wonderful tour guide

Giants causway

Oh, and we did some bird watching...

•  Then it was Christmas. Mother and I made dinner for the house members who had stayed behind for the holidays. I was wonderful. The next five days were where the real Mother/Daughter escapade began. We traveled to Dublin, rented a car - and set off! (Note: There are no pictures of this glorious moment of mother daughter bonding. This is caused by one of two reasons: 1) It was simply too amazing to be caught on camera - several attempts were made, tragically the cameras did not survive; 2) Mom took all the pictures back to the states with her. You can choose which one is more likely.) In the end, we traveled to Galway, through the Burren, ferry to Tralee, continued driving to Dingle, Kerry, Killarney, and Kenmare. Various stops of ridiculousness were made, no need to worry about that, and all without any accidents! That was in no small way due to Mother's extraordinary driving skills and in a very small way due to my fabulous navigation techniques. With one exception.

ATTENTION: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!! When traveling along the southwest coast of Ireland you would do well to avoid, at all costs, CONNOR PASS. Take note of the warning signs and turn back. The view is not worth it. And that is all I am prepared to say on the matter....

The moral of the story is that we made it back to our respective homes alive. A true miracle.

• Happy New Year!!! We made it to 2012! I spent the evening at, you are not going to believe this name, the Stiff Kitten. It was truly a mosh-pit to remember. 

• Sadly, a few days into the new year, one of my beloved Scottish terriers passed away. Rest in peace, Frasier.

And, well that pretty much brings us up to date. Oh, with one exception. I have a crazy desire to make latkes. Don't ask me why, it is just a desire burning within me. The only problem is, I have never made latkes and really do not have any idea of how it all works. So, I did some research and this evening I will be endeavoring to make latkes. Wish me luck - I will update on, what will most assuredly be, the adventure of the day, tomorrow.