ireland

Dia dhaoibh*, friends from a chilly Dublin, Ireland!

[* This is a gaelic term for hello to more than one person; the direct translation is ‘God be with you’]

It has been one week since I arrived and I am really feeling like I am home. I thought that once I got here it would feel like a bit of a holiday – not permanent, and just for fun. In true Rob and Meg fashion we have jumped in head first and we are loving every minute of it. Last week alone I walked over 67 540 steps; a total of 49,4KM. I am super chuffed I bought a fitbit. It drives everyone around me crazy because I sync and update them regularly but I love seeing how active I am and I am really hoping that once I start running again too, I can finally lose all this weight I have gained over the last few months. Yes, I am in fat mode. Yes, its because I got injured, and I got stressed and moving countries is hard work. But it kills me looking at pictures of how fat I have actually gotten. But I have a plan – watch this space.

I thought today I would share a few pictures of our new home, and what I love/don’t love about it.

For starters, this is our little house:

We live on a small but busy street, within walking distance of two parks, and even the beach! We are also walking distance from the Lansdown stadium (where all the rugby happens); this also means we have some pretty great pubs close by (but that’s a given for any true Irish town).

We live in a suburb called Irishtown. It is right on all the main bus routes, so travelling into the city and out is pretty easy. Rob works in the city, he leaves for work at 8:20am (starts at 9am!) which means we get to get up early and walk Jack together, have breakfast together. I am the good wife who packs his bag for him and sends him on his way before I settle down to work myself.

Here is a pic of my little home office:

I work in the lounge/dining room area of our house. The house has two fireplaces: one in the lounge and one in our bedroom. It is an old house, like very old. Rob has termed it the rusty bucket. I like to think of it as a quaint elf cottage. It is not suited for tall people.

Our house has the lounge area, kitchen and courtyard on the ground floor, then a staircase as you come into the front door that takes you up to the bathroom and two bedrooms.

The kitchen has a low ceiling, and its small. The appliances are very old – atleast 50 years old but they work, so we can’t complain.

The bathroom has a gas shower in the bathtub. Thankfully the water is always hot and the pressure is pretty good. But we have to bend our heads while showering, as the skylight and ceiling are pretty low (hence my thinking it’s better suited for elves).

The bedrooms are full of natural light, which is actually beautiful. Here is a pic of our bedroom (Jack’s fave place is on the bed with the sun coming in):

The house also comes with a lot of storage space and plenty of cupboards – this is unlike most places here, so we are pretty thankful for the extra space. Our bedroom is my fave place, it is so airy and light.

The house came with all the furniture, it is not the best stuff, but it has saved us a lot of money not having to buy anything just yet. It even came with cutlery and plates etc – so we have all the basics and can get by while we wait for our 3 boxes to arrive. I am told the boxes could be anytime in December… but I am not holding my breath. We decided against buying a TV. We are currently watched series off the computer, because the one thing I love about our house is the uncapped wifi – how we did life before high speed internet is beyond me.

Most people in Ireland don’t really have that homely vibe like people in SA. Here, you generally try to get out of the house and visit people at pubs or parks – not like in SA where you are always going over to a friend’s place for a braai. I think Rob and I will be the same in that the house is small, and we will go crazy if we don’t get out when we can.

Another great plus to having a small house is that this is less of it to clean! So you would think it wouldn’t take too long to clean – you would be wrong. We learnt quite quickly that our view on cleanliness is VERY different to here. I am not sure if it is how Rob and I were raised, but our mother’s would have heart failure at the thick layer of grime and dirt that has just built up all over this house over lack of cleaning. We got stuck in and literally cleaned the house all of Sunday, and I still feel as though its not clean enough. It will take a lot of days of deep cleaning to get it looking and feeling the way I want it to look. I feel like I may be classified as an extreme cleaner – but I would rather be called that then live in filth.

So that is our little Irish house, and the start of many great adventures to come.

What do you love about your house? Are you a neat freak or a secret slob at home?

Unlock the simple life,

~Meg~

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