January 19th-26th

This has not been an easy week in Lima.

EVERYONE ILL

Last Friday night (18th January), or the early hours of Saturday, I was writing my blog at 3am while monitoring Liam as he slept. He woke up on Friday 18th with a fever of around 38 degrees but as the day went on he his temperature increased to a maximum of 39.6. During the night his temperature hovered around 39 degrees.  On Saturday we took him to the clinic and it turned out out that he had an infection which required a course of antibiotics. He took antibiotics for five days and spent most of the week off school but the good news is that he is well again,

Liam wasn’t the only one of us who was ill as Licety and I were both feeling under the weather. The good news in our case is that we didn’t need a course of antibiotics, rather a good night’s sleep. By Thursday everyone was well again.

ICE CREAM

A new ice-cream place has recently opened not far from us so it is becoming a Saturday tradition that we go there. Last week we didn’t go as Liam was ill but everyone was well yesterday so we went there. The ice-cream in this place is great so I hope we go there again next week.

 

VENEZUELA

I suppoose the main story in the international news this week, certainly concerning Latin America, is the ongoing crisis in Venezuela.

Venezuela has been going through severe economic difficulties since 2010 due to corruption and economic mismanagement. Elections held there recently were boycotted by the opposition who didn’t believe they were free and fair and many Venezuelans have fled the country. There is a large population of Venezuelans in Lima and I have met some of them over the last year. Sometimes they get a negative press in the media in Peru but I have to see they are, on the whole, nice people.

Despite the difficulties that Venezuela face, and as inept as the current president, Nicolas Maduro, is, a coup d’etat or regime change backed by the United States is not the answer. Indeed, the history books will tell you that any intervention by the United States generally makes a country worse. There have been calls from the European Union for fresh elections to take place there so everyone in this region is monitoring this situation.

WHITE SMOKE

We are currently waiting for the sight of white smoke billowing from a chinmey in Belfast but more about that next week. Take care. Bye.

 

 

January 14th-18th

The last few days have been rather uneventful but a few things have happened.

iPAD

Liam had blocked our iPad by putting in the wrong code several times so I tried to go into my iTunes account to unblock it. After spending an hour bouncing around the Apple site and tearing my hair out (what’s left of it) I decided to go to the Apple store and ask someone there to do it. Thankfully there, everything was all sorted in five minutes.

BREXIT

With Liverpool out of action in midweek, British politics provided me with a lot of entertainment. What will happen next in the Brexit process? I don’t know. I would like to see the UK go for the Norway Plus option that has been mentioned which would mean joining the EFTA and stay in the Single Market and Customs Union. The problem with that option, I think, is that the Norweigens are not too keen on it.

Whatever happens on Brexit, the future of the border in Ireland and the Common Travel Area are my primary concerns. With only ten werks until 29th March, the clock is ticking down and a No-Deal Brexit is looming. Things could get very interesting indeed.

NIGHT FEVER

Unfortunately this paragraph is not about dancing to The BeeGees but with the hot humid weather there is a bug going around and Licety and Liam seem to have caught it. They will shake it off soon however and we will be back to doing things like going out for ice-cream again in no time. Im sure of that.

That’s all for now. Talk soon.

Brexit: My 2p’s Worth

As Mrs. May’s meaningful vote takes place tomorrow (Tuesday) and as the government has three working days to come up with an alternative, this is going to be a momentus week in the Palace of Westminster.

PROVIDING CERTAINTY

Although the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated by Mrs May is not perfect, it will provide certainly for businesses and individuals so they can plan ahead. If the agreement were not to pass we would be plunged into a period of uncertainty which benefits no-one.

THE BACKSTOP

This seems to be a difficult issue in the UK but for the island of Ireland, the backstop is essential. There is no way we want to go back to the hard border of yesteryear and the backstop is an insurance policy against a hard border.

GENERAL ELECTION

As much as I would like to see a Labour government I don’t think there will be a General Election. Tory Brexiteers and the DUP would back Mrs May in any confidence vote and anyway, if Jeremy Corbyn thought he could get a General Election in this way he would have tabled a no-confidence motion before now. The clock is ticking down to Brexit on 29th March and there is no time for a general election.

SECOND REFERENDUM

I didn’t want people to vote for the UK to leave the EU but I am not sure about the idea of asking them to vote again. The proposal would be devisive and could lead to civil unrest so in a sense the UK has made its bed and will have to lie in it.

EXTEND ARTICLE 50

This seems like a sensible option as it would buy the UK government time. It wouldn’t solve the problem but it would mean that there would be time to form another plan. This could be seen however as kicking the can down the road.

A NO-DEAL BREXIT

This option would be very damaging for the UK and for Northern Ireland in particular and must be avoided at all costs. This would lead to a hard border in Northern Ireland and could destabilise the peace process.

DAMAGE LIMITATION

Brexit was always going to make the UK worse off and Mrs May’s job in getting a deal with the EU was to limit the damage. The Withdrawal Agreement achieves Brexit and doesn’t damage the UK economy too much in the process, therefore, although I’m not a fan of Brexit I want a hard Brexit to be avoided so I hope the Withdrawal Agreement passes.

Week Ending 13th January

Here is an update on what has been happening over the last couple of days.

CONNECTED AGAIN

On Thursday my Father-in-Law gave me an old phone so I am connected again. It’s nice to be connected again as it makes it easier to make plans and organise things. I enjoyed my couple of days in the 1990s but it’s nice to be back in 2019.

HERE COMES THE SUMMER

In the Southern Hemisphere the seasons are the opposite way around from the Northern Hemisphere which means that summer is in January.

One advantage of Summer being in January is that you don’t get the post-Christmas blues. January is a “sad” month in Europe because it is dark cold and wet but having summer in January means that you have bright, hot days. The flip-side of that is that July is winter so it is a “sad” month because it is dull and damp. We usually try and go to Ireland when it is winter in Lima so we can exchange winter for summer.

In Lima summers are very hot because the sun is very stong and the level of humidity is very high. Perhaps the sun is strong because of our proximity to the Ecuator and it is overhead or it is strong because of the lack of ozone protecting us, I don’t know. The high level of humidity means that during the day it feels uncomfortably hot so the wise things to do are go for ice-cream and go to the pool.

Liam is making excellent progress in his swimming class and as he is also swimming in the pool of my Sister-in-Law for extra practice. He is almost amphibious and he will be winning Olympic gold in the 200 metres individual medely in the not too distant future.

TIDYING UP WITH MARIE KONDO

This week we watched a series in Neflix called “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.” This series is about tidying your house, ordering your things and throwing out or giving away what isn’t neccessary. It inspired us to do some tidying up here and we reduced the size of our wardrobes. There is a lot more tidying up to do and we will do some more in the coming days and weeks.

Check out the trailer for this series here. It is available on Netflix.

That’s all for Week 2 of the year, Week 3 could be a big one so check back on Friday or Saturday.

2019 – January 6-9

Here is the second installment in this series, it was originally supposed to be a weekly series but it is a bit more ad-hoc than that. Here is what has been going on in the last few days.

HAVING AN EPIPHANY

January 6th has different significances for people throughout the world, In Ireland it is called Nollaig na mBan (Women’s Christmas) and also Epiphany, and in Spain and Peru it is called Three Kings’ Day or Kings’ Day.

In Spain it is a public holiday and it is the day when children get gifts (as opposed to Christmas Day) and people eat the  Rosca de Reyes.  The children are said to receive the gifts from the Three Wise Men

In Peru the day is not as significant as in Spain.  It is not a public holiday and gifts are given to children at Christmas rather than on January 6th. Next year it will be a Monday and I will be working but this year it fell on a Sunday.

As it was Kings’ Day we thought we’d go for a King’s breakfast with the Three Kings  which is something we did last year so it was nice to do it again.

I like the idea of Kings’ Day as it is not as commercial as Christmas is and the idea of the Three Kings giving children gifts is closer to the nativity story than Santa Claus.

After breakfast which we went home and took down the tree, which is something my parents always did on January 6th.

BACK TO THE NINETIES

I had my mobile phone for three years so I guess you could say it had a good innings but on Tuesday it breathed its last. For the last few days I have been using email and old face-to-face communication so it takes me back to my days at university when I didn’t have a mobile phone.  In the modern world and especially when you are a parent, it’s not a good idea to be out of contact for long so I will sort out the problem soon.

CONVERSATIONS ON A BENCH

A friend of mine alerted me to this radio programme “Conversations on a Bench” which was broadcast from Strabane. The programme features conversations with people from the Strabaane and Sion Mills area and it touches on the impact that Brexit may have, especially a No-Deal Brexit.  This is available online for a few more weeks so it is an interesting listen, especially for anyone with a connection to the town.

That’s it for the last few days. I hope I’ll sort out my mobile phone situation soon. Take care everyone.

 

 

2019 -Week One

Happy New Year. This is the first post in a new series of blogs that I plan to write in 2019.

WHY?

Good question. When I visited my cousin Fergal in August 2017 I was impressed by his range of books. He had photo books detailing family life and events for every year. I have decided to reduce my usage of Facebook and write a blog instead so as to have something to look back on in the future. Maybe in the future I will create a book from what I put in this blog and I hope people find it interesting,

NEW YEAR’S EVE

Let’s start with New Year’s Eve. It’s a day I always enjoy, watching the fireworks from Auckland and Sydney before celebrating at night. As my Mum and Dad were going to a party at night, we celebrated with them early in the day.

In Spain and in Latin America there is a tradition of eating twelve grapes to celebrate the New Year so we did this at 6pm while watching the New Year from Madrid

Twelve Grapes

And then we celebrated here in Lima at midnight. In Lima there is no official fireworks display but lots of people let off their own fireworks so midnight was very noisy.

NEW YEAR’S DAY

All was quiet on New Year’s Day but we did go out for coffee in the evening.

 

LOOK OUT MICHAEL PHELPS

January is the height of summer in Lima so it’s when children start new activities. In Liam’s case we enrolled him in swimming lessons for the summer which is sure to be a great success.

LIVERPOOL AND STRABANE

Will Liverpool win the Premier League? I hope so but I was disappointed by the 2-1 defeat at Machester City on Thursday. The Premier League season is set to go to the wire so let’s hope The Reds can get over the line.

On Saturday morning I was trying to follow the Irish Cup match between Knockbreda and Strabane Athletic on my phone. The Irish Cup ( for those who are not familiar with it) is the main domestic football cup competition in Northern Ireand and my local team were in the Round of 32. Strabane won of course and will play in the Round of 16 in February so a big congratulations to all involved. Sure it’s good for the town 🙂

 

TWELFTH NIGHT

Here we are on  Twelfth Night which is the last of the twelve days of Christmas. Tomorrow is the Epiphany or Kings’ Day so that is Christmas over for another year.

Take care 🙂