February 17th – 22nd

Here is the latest installment of my blog

AN ARRIVAL FROM IRELAND

On Tuesday we received a nice gift from Ireland from my parents. This knife and fork will help Liam in his development as there is a place to put his fingers and will help him to eat on his own

It took a while for this to get to Lima but it finally arrived this week.

POOL TIME

Wednesday was swimming day at my sister-in law’s house. Liam really enjoys the water and a good time was had by all.

CARNIVALES

Thursday was a water day at Liam’s school and he certainly made the most of it. There is no-one more at home in water. Here he is with his teacher Olenka.

22ND FEBRUARY

22nd February is an important date in our house as it is both my birthday and our civil wedding anniversary.

The day started early as I had an 8.15 meeting at work. After doing my morning classes it was time to go to Liam’s school to see how he is getting on.

Then we went to the Larco Museum for lunch. This place is really nice as there is loads of greenery and things to see. Great for all the family, After a look around the place, it was time to eat.

Around 4pm it was time to go home where the festivities continued. I was presented with this amazing cake and with balloons, a nice surprise.

I was also taking to my parents via Facebook Messenger of course

Around 5.30 it was time to go back to work again and give my students their writing exams. When I got back around 9.30, we decided to order a meal using the app Glovo, it is an excellent app as you can oder food from a variety of restaurants. Yum yum

WOOD WEDDING

22nd February 2014, a Saturday, was the day of our civil wedding at Magdalena Town Hall. My Mum came over to Lima for the event, we had a ceremony and a party afterwards, it was a great day.

THANK YOU

At the start of the year I made the decision to cut down my use of Facebook which means that people can’t write on my wall. I got a lot of private Facebook messages and What’s App messages wishing me a Happy Birthday which made me very happy. Private messages and What’s App messages mean a lot as people took the time to send a message through these other mediums rather than a quick wall post. It is very much appreciated.

A special thank you must go to my wife Licety who invited us to lunch and also give me a delicious cake and balloons. A lot of work went into the cake and it came from a firm called Chocogalaxy from whom we buy a lot of cakes. These cakes are very well made, any design catered for.

February 4th – 16th

It’s been a while since I’ve writen this blog so here is what has been happening over the last twelve days:

TOO HOT

The weather is very hot here in Lima in February and this makes it difficult for us to sleep. Liam sometimes wakes up during the night and it takes a while for him to get back to sleep, which means that we are a little sleep deprived.

RETURN OF A TRADITION

I didn’t have a drop of alcohol during January but as it’s February now I returned to a tradition of having a beer and some junk food on a Friday night. I supose I should drop that tradition.

PARTYING BUT SLEEP DEPRIVED

As I mentoned before, we don’t get as much sleep as we ought to because of the heat here at night but that didn’t stop us attending a birthday party last Saturday (9th). A great event and congrats to the child in question, Giulia, who turned 2.

MUSIC MAKER

Liam was given a Cajon for his birthday by our friend Cristina and he is starting to get the hang of it.

This is a percussion intrument that you sit on and hit so it is a usefull intrument to play as you will always have a seat at a seisiún.

(A seisún is a gathering in Ireland where people play music and/or sing)

Last Sunday (10th) Licety was at an event so Liam and I were “home alone” and played a lot of music, him on the cajon, and me on a little keyboard.

SWIMMING

Liam is taking swimming classes in January and February and they are going really well. The only problem is that he doesn’t close his mouth all the time and wants to swallow water. This photo is from Saturday 9th as on Saturday 16th (yesterday) I went alone with him to swimming which meant that I just took the minimum and didn’t bring my phone. It’s not easy trying to remember everything but all went well.

HINODE

Licety has joined a new company which sells a wide range of cosmetics and beauty products. The company originated in Brazil and has only recently come to Peru. What happens is, you get another seller to sign you up and you can then you can buy these produts from the company at wholesale price and sell them on with a mark-up of 100% (after your second purchase) so a great way to make money for anyone who has free time or wants to have a schedule with a lot of flexibility. If anyone reading this is interested you cam send me a message or write a reply to this blog and I will give you all the information you need.

Licety had a day out with her company last Sunday (10th) in Sparza Club in Huachipa and a conference yesterday (16th).

NO WATER

Unfortunately on Wednesday (13th) the water is our appartment block was switched off for essential maintenance so we were without water. Thanks to my sister-in-law who let us use her appartment and pool. Every cloud has a silver lining.

VALENTINE’S DAY

Thursday 14th was Valentine’s Day (obviously) so we decided to go out for lunch. I work in the evening which makes dinner impossible and the restaurants are full then in any case so lunch was the preferred option. We went to El Hornero which is a place where you eat a lot of meat. Very nice indeed.

PARKLIFE

As Licety has a flexible schedule, there has been multiple visits to the park recently. The weather is warm so it’s good to get out. I, of course, still have to work.

And of course no outing is complete without a bite to eat.

BREXIT

A hard Brexit, a soft Brexit, a no-deal Brexit, I can’t believe it’s not Brexit, I’m sure I’m not alone in getting fed up with this, I’m even beginning to have Brexit related dreams.

I’ve been following events on BBC shows such as Newsnight and Question Time and have become exasperated with events at Westminster. The line from the Stone Roses song, Sugar Spun Sister, rings true:

Until the sky turns green, and the grass is several shades of blue, every Member of Parliament trips on glue

Could the UK Government please ratify the Withdrawal Agreement that they have agreed to and leave the EU in an ordely manner? Let’s see what happens but it is very frustrating at this stage, especially for businesses who don’t know if they wil be able to function in six weeks time and for people who are not ceretain if they will be legally allowed to work. Time for the UK to ratify the Withdrawal Agreement, backstop included, or just cancel the whole thing.

(Photo taken from Slugger O’Toole and is a reference to Sammy Wilson’s chip shop comment)

That’s it for this week. See you next week.

Down Memory Lane

With Strabane playing in the last 16 of the Irish Cup last weekend I cast my mind back to cup ties I have attended. I have attended one FA Cup tie and four or five in the Copa del Rey and I must have attended 15 or 20 FAI Cup ties, although none this century. One I always remember was a replay between Bohemians and Derry City in 1988.

I was ten at the time and still in primary school but I remember my Dad picking me up from home around 5pm and driving to Dublin. He must have been going pretty quickly because we got to Dalymount Park with around 5 minutes gone and the score was 1-0 to Derry, so a journey done in under 3 hours.

The first game in Derry had been 0-0 I think, a drab afair but this was anything but. Derry, in their Argentina kit, turned on the style and won 4-1.

I remember I slept most of the way back, maybe stopping off in Carrickmacross for sone chips. We arrived in Strabane about 1am.

January 27th -February 3rd

I mentioned white smoke last week, the undoubted news of the week happened on Wednesday

RORY JOSEPH WARD – BORN 30/01/19

My brother’s wife had a baby on Wednesday morning in Belfast so Liam gained a cousin this week. Congrats to them both and best wishes from all of us. Everything went well, thank God. Liam has a new cousin now so he is the baby of the family no longer.

SWIMMING

Last Sunday (27th January) we went over to my sister-in-law’s house and swam in her pool. A good time was had by all.

Liam is continuing with his swimming lessons too which happens every Saturday. He is making excellent progress.

Excuse the finger. I will need to improve my photography skills.

ICE-CREAM

It’s becoming a family tradition that we go for ice-cream on Saturday afternoons. The weather is very hot in Lima nowadays so I would say cooling off with an ice-cream is essential.

Liam however prefers biscuits to ice-cream

DRY JANUARY

Would you believe it? I didn’t have an alcoholic drink in the month of January. It wasn’t that difficult to be honest but I’ve already had one in February.

DIA DEL PISCO

Pisco is the national drink of Peru and 2nd February is its national day. We celebrated in Parque Media Luna in the San Miguel district which is not far from our house.

Pisco can be drunk straight with or without ice but it is typically drunk with different fruits in what is called Pisco Sour. For the first few months of living in Peru I thought it was called Pisco Shower.

You can see from the photo that we had a good time. Maracuya Sour is my favourite. Sweet, refreshing, goes down easily. We met our friend, Gisella Flores, there so it we had fun.

STRABANE ATHLETIC

One of my favourite quote is from an author Nick Hornby who wrote:

I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it

That was in 1987 when I watched a Liverpool-Everton game on TV. I have followed Liverpool ever since and seen them win the league title in 1988 and 1990. Will it happen this year? I hope so.

My interest in Liverpool took a back seat this week as I followed Strabane Athletic on their Irish Cup odyssey. I say followed but I have never been to see this team play. I have looked on with pride however as the team, only founded in 2010, have made their way to the Round of 16 of the Irish Cup and with it, media attention.

I was up early on Saturday morning trying to follow their game on the BBC Sport website and BBC Radio. Saturday was not their day but hopefully they can take a lot of positives from their cup run. Congrats to all involved.

Well that’s it for this week. See you next week.