Christmas in Paris...

While many of you are enjoying a sizzling hot Chrissy in oz, give a spare thought for us 'doing our time' in cold Paris. Yep, tough life for us! lol. It has been really cold here but we are having a great time! We arrived on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day out on the streets of Paris with my brother, Glen, and nephew Jono. We introduced Jono to snails last night but Glen just couldn't go the mile for a taste! Guys, Paris is gorgeous! And even more so at Christmas. Lights are everywhere! The Eiffel Tower is all lit up and sparkling away but sadly today you couldn't even see higher than the first level because of the fog!
Had a great dinner at a French restaurant last night but our Christmas meal tonight was pasta cooked by none other than yours truly! Better than turkey with all the trimmigs though! The guys are keen to hunt down an Aussie pub tomorrow to check out the cricket, I'm sure they will find one. Tomorrow we are staying in a flat but I don't know the code to get in yet... should be interesting!

Here are some of the kiddies...

Welcome to my school kids! For those of you who don't know... I have been working as a special needs assistant at a 'special school' in Cork, as well as still doing some writing (don't worry). Here are some of the angels (not!) that I work with. I do love it... even though they kick and punch me and yell out profanities at me, there is some sort of satisfaction in it (lol). Today I got kicked and punched by the same girl (with down syndrome) - she says she loves me and hates me! But, seriously, we have a great relationship!

More of Ireland

This was the first day it hadn't rained for the past 3 weeks so we thought we should take advantage of this rare phenomenon. And when the clouds receded the rugged but spectacular coastline of south west Ireland was in full view. We sat in awe for about 20mins with our fellow southern hemisphere friend (Nadia SA). Days have been extremely cold lately... and my goodness don't get us started about the wind... and rain! Wearing the full thermal kit already! Off to Paris on Saturday to spend Christmas with Jody's brother Glen and his eldest, Jonathan. Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this (heard there are two or three people... thanks Danny, Nellie and Martina!)

My goodness the weather!

These pics are of Daniel with some friends at a pretty nice traditional pub in ireland, Dan helping out with some 'fish research' in Ireland, and us out by a lake in County Kerry.
Well the weather here has been shocking! A white van has been swaying and feeling the pain of the hard wind which is pounding outside as I write... perhaps the worst weather we have experienced. But the locals tell us this is unusual and they only get a couple of storms a winter, so let's hope this is the worst of it! A guy was even blown in from a bridge into the water and was rescued... not sure how many pints he had though (lol). This weekend we are taking it easy... last weekend we went to county Kerry, nearby, and met up with a mate of ours from England. He was studying the fish there and we helped him out but again the weather was awful! One one occasion I stayed in the van and let Daniel get saturated while he helped to measure fish in the wind and rain. Not a great deal happening of late... school is getting a bit better and I have been to some pretty nice social events for the paper. Our time is going by so quickly here so we want to get away for a few more weekends in the van and tear around Ireland.