This week went by quickly, as they are wont to do when I'm busy, so busy this week that I forgot to write this on Friday. While most of those who read it are still fast asleep, since it's 3 a.m. in the states, I woke this morning and realized that I didn't do it yesterday.
After weeks of thinking that our shipment from the states was going to come any day, we received an email from Allied asking for yet another form before the stuff would be allowed to be shipped from Baltimore! The form required, an Employer Identification Number -- EIN, could only be applied for in the United States. The fact that we are not employers made no difference. Apparently when an employer pays for relocation it's taxable income and this is how they are keeping track of who is getting relo. The instructions said it was 'easy' to get the required number, but when we tried, the IRS site detected we were in Ireland and would not let us submit. The only way around it would be for us to come back to the states to fill out the form and use our US address as the 'employer.' Way more than we wanted to do. After a day or two of thinking about it, we decided that the shipment was not in the cards.
That decision actually was more freeing than I'd expected, a sensation I remembered from when we moved in 2006 from Wisconsin, and a 3,500 square foot house, to Washington, DC and an apartment less than a third that size. The first year there we kept most of our stuff in storage but after a year of not using it and paying the monthly fee, we decided we didn't need all that stuff after all. That's pretty much what happened this time. We have been here since April 3 and except for Alan's lament that he put his winter coat in the shipment and had to buy another one, we haven't really wanted for anything and can't really recall what we shipped. That, and the $3K to get it here and $3K to get it back convinced us that we could live without whatever it was, except coats, shoes and bikes!
Well, those of you who know me, know that was a license to shop! I went to my favorite store, Clearys on O'Connell Street, and bought a great coat, on sale because it's going to be spring here eventually, and a pair of dress shoes. It was a pleasure, particularly that it took me hours, sans Alan of course, and then I had lunch in the tea room in the store. It was just like old times, except for the void where my mother would have been! Sometimes I miss her so much and shopping, with a splurge in the tea room, is one of those times. She's my imaginary companion on these occasions now, I have to guard against verbalizing my internal dialogue with her lest I become the crazy old lady of Clearys.
The one item in the shipment that both of us really lamented was our bikes. This is a great biking city and our place in Sandymount is right on the sea with a bike trail into the city and points north and south for many, many miles. Nice, paved, flat bike trails. There's a bike store right in our little village so once we made the decision that the shipment was off, we went there and picked out two new bikes and all the essentials (helmet, toe clips, basket, lock, padded seat). We were supposed to pick them up yesterday, but this is Ireland. Hopefully that means they can be got today. We're hoping to ride today as soon as the rain clears out -- this IS Ireland.
Finally, I think I made a new friend, Mary. I met her on the weekly Sandymount walking group outing a few weeks ago. We went to a movie, a re-release of Cinema Paradiso, at the Irish Film Institute on Tuesday. She brought another of her friends, Noreen, and we had a great time. Mary is a real match maker and took great pleasure in introducing me to Noreen because we have a lot in common as well. I'm looking forward to how that will develop.
Next week we are off to Bruges and The Hague. We leave on Tuesday and return the following Monday evening, so my post will be delayed until I return on the 29th. Hopefully there will be lots of fun adventures to report.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
This week we did things pretty close to home.
I joined a weekly walking group last Thursday for a 4 mile walk to the port town of Dun Laoghaire (which is amazingly pronounced Dun Leary) and met two very interesting women with whom I hope to follow up. It was a beautiful walk along the Irish Sea. At the end we stopped for coffee and while the rest of the group planned to take public transportation back we three returned on foot, for a total of 7.5 miles that day. There are walks like this in various parts of the city every day of the week and once the weather gets a little better I plan to do as many as I can. These are mainly walking groups designed for meeting people, no narrative provided as to what you are passing as you go. In this case, that was fine because it was all the Irish Sea. I'll be curious about the more inland walks since I'm pretty curious about everything just now.
Another walk Alan and I did together was much more informative; a City Center walking tour led by a student of Irish history studying at Trinity College. The focus was on Irish independence so we passed the post office that was occupied in 1916 at a turning point in the struggle for independence. It was very interesting because one thing I learned that I hadn't known in the past, was that the Irish population was generally not in support of the "Republicans" because of their orientation toward armed resistance. There was more support for the "parliamentary" process, mainly in hopes of getting representation in Britain with a sitting parliament in Dublin. The tide turned, however, when the British routed the rebels from the post office and executed all the leaders, including James Connolly, who was wounded and tied to a chair for his execution. In addition to his leadership of the rebellion, his execution virtually guaranteed his place as an Irish hero. To me it's another example of how a government's over-reaction can have really dire results, where is the deterrent in that? Anyway, it was a quite interesting walk.
On Sunday, after meeting a distant relative for coffee -- my mother's cousin's great-grandson -- we went to the Irish Film Institute and saw the documentary film, Marley. Anyone who is a Bob Marley fan will want to see this movie. The music was great and the story quite interesting. Once when we were in Jamaica we went to his home/studio in Kingston so it was interesting to see how important that place was to the development of Reggae.
On Tuesday we went to one of the best cafe's I've ever visited, Bewleys. Not only do they have great coffee and a great location, right on Grafton Street in the center of the shopping district, but there's a small theater on the third floor where you can have a light lunch and see a play. The one we saw was called "A Galway Girl" a one-act play about marriage. That's going to become a regular for us. It was really good, and only 14 Euros.
Yesterday we applied for our PPI cards (their version of SSA) and registered to vote. We learned another interesting thing about Ireland, non-citizens can vote, so Alan registered too. There is no absentee ballot so even if you are a citizen living outside the country, you can't vote. The only exception is for embassy and military personnel. Interesting. We're excited to cast our ballots on the Euro zone treaty on May 31st. The government sent a copy of the whole treaty we will be voting on in the mail this week so now I feel pretty confident in understanding it. I think I've come down on the side of the 'yes' vote because I do think that what's needed now is stability; but there's still a good argument for 'no'.
We've also started making travel plans for seeing other parts of Europe. We have a trip scheduled for the end of the month to Bruges in Belgium and The Hague in Holland; in July we will go to Donegal for our 35th anniversary, to Liverpool for an association meeting, and I will meet a friend in France to see the lavender in Avignon. Then in October we have planned a walking trip organized by the Irish Times newspaper to Majorca. We are also on the lookout for a Mediterranean cruise that includes Turkey.
All in all, a good week. Till next Friday.
I joined a weekly walking group last Thursday for a 4 mile walk to the port town of Dun Laoghaire (which is amazingly pronounced Dun Leary) and met two very interesting women with whom I hope to follow up. It was a beautiful walk along the Irish Sea. At the end we stopped for coffee and while the rest of the group planned to take public transportation back we three returned on foot, for a total of 7.5 miles that day. There are walks like this in various parts of the city every day of the week and once the weather gets a little better I plan to do as many as I can. These are mainly walking groups designed for meeting people, no narrative provided as to what you are passing as you go. In this case, that was fine because it was all the Irish Sea. I'll be curious about the more inland walks since I'm pretty curious about everything just now.
Another walk Alan and I did together was much more informative; a City Center walking tour led by a student of Irish history studying at Trinity College. The focus was on Irish independence so we passed the post office that was occupied in 1916 at a turning point in the struggle for independence. It was very interesting because one thing I learned that I hadn't known in the past, was that the Irish population was generally not in support of the "Republicans" because of their orientation toward armed resistance. There was more support for the "parliamentary" process, mainly in hopes of getting representation in Britain with a sitting parliament in Dublin. The tide turned, however, when the British routed the rebels from the post office and executed all the leaders, including James Connolly, who was wounded and tied to a chair for his execution. In addition to his leadership of the rebellion, his execution virtually guaranteed his place as an Irish hero. To me it's another example of how a government's over-reaction can have really dire results, where is the deterrent in that? Anyway, it was a quite interesting walk.
On Sunday, after meeting a distant relative for coffee -- my mother's cousin's great-grandson -- we went to the Irish Film Institute and saw the documentary film, Marley. Anyone who is a Bob Marley fan will want to see this movie. The music was great and the story quite interesting. Once when we were in Jamaica we went to his home/studio in Kingston so it was interesting to see how important that place was to the development of Reggae.
On Tuesday we went to one of the best cafe's I've ever visited, Bewleys. Not only do they have great coffee and a great location, right on Grafton Street in the center of the shopping district, but there's a small theater on the third floor where you can have a light lunch and see a play. The one we saw was called "A Galway Girl" a one-act play about marriage. That's going to become a regular for us. It was really good, and only 14 Euros.
Yesterday we applied for our PPI cards (their version of SSA) and registered to vote. We learned another interesting thing about Ireland, non-citizens can vote, so Alan registered too. There is no absentee ballot so even if you are a citizen living outside the country, you can't vote. The only exception is for embassy and military personnel. Interesting. We're excited to cast our ballots on the Euro zone treaty on May 31st. The government sent a copy of the whole treaty we will be voting on in the mail this week so now I feel pretty confident in understanding it. I think I've come down on the side of the 'yes' vote because I do think that what's needed now is stability; but there's still a good argument for 'no'.
We've also started making travel plans for seeing other parts of Europe. We have a trip scheduled for the end of the month to Bruges in Belgium and The Hague in Holland; in July we will go to Donegal for our 35th anniversary, to Liverpool for an association meeting, and I will meet a friend in France to see the lavender in Avignon. Then in October we have planned a walking trip organized by the Irish Times newspaper to Majorca. We are also on the lookout for a Mediterranean cruise that includes Turkey.
All in all, a good week. Till next Friday.
Friday, May 4, 2012
This week I've been thinking about the responsibilities of citizenship. I think most of you know that I'm a dual citizen of the U.S. and Ireland. When I was 19 I worked at JFK for Aer Lingus and knew that I was considered a citizen of Ireland then, through my father's birth here. But, if I were to apply for a passport then I would have had my U.S. passport seized and that was of of the question, of course. Now the rules are relaxed and I have both passports. The only requirement is that I enter and leave the US on my US passport, otherwise I'm free to travel throughout Europe with all of the benefits of an EU citizen. I haven't exactly identified what those are yet, but the line at immigration is a lot shorter!
But, passport issues are the least of my concerns right now. There's a pretty important vote coming up in Ireland and I've been trying to fully understand the issues. I think that participating in civic life is really important. The vote coming up on May 31 is on whether or not to ratify the EU austerity treaty that's been negotiated. The two sides seem clear, a 'yes' vote means that Ireland's economy will contract yet again, a prospect that doesn't seem in doubt by any side. A 'no' vote puts the possibility of access to EU 'bail out' funds might be jeopardized because it would appear that Ireland was not willing to abide by the negotiated decisions of the stronger economies.
On the 'no' side is a convincing argument that further contracting government spending might actually make things worse by making the population more alarmed and even less likely to spend thus limiting capital investment. Companies and individuals might opt to save their money instead of hiring and spending. On the 'yes' side is a sort of Sword of Damocles, if the treaty isn't passed, they say, the EU won't provide the funds to pay the Irish bonds that will come due in the coming months. Of course, if the economy expands, Ireland should be able to pay on its own bonds; but if it doesn't then bankruptcy is a possibility.
The thing that's troubling me right now is that the 'no' vote side uses the example of Barack Obama and David Cameron (the UK Prime Minister). Obama opted for bail outs in key industries and Cameron didn't and now the UK is in the dreaded 'double dip' recession. So, while those of you back in the USA might not feel it, the anemic 'recovery' is actually better than what they are experiencing in England where they have fallen back into recession. They say this is an illustration of what can happen when government spending is curtailed too far.
So, it's an interesting time here. I'm grappling with my civic duty after just a month! I learned yesterday after going over and over this in my mind, that my choice might be moot because I still have to register to vote and, unlike in the States, that seems to take a while, so maybe I will continue to watch on the sidelines. I was reminded of the importance of voting during the walking tour we took of Dublin earlier this week, it used to be that only land owning Anglican males were allowed to vote in Ireland -- not even the Presbyterians were enfranchised. So I'm going to vote if I can.
But, passport issues are the least of my concerns right now. There's a pretty important vote coming up in Ireland and I've been trying to fully understand the issues. I think that participating in civic life is really important. The vote coming up on May 31 is on whether or not to ratify the EU austerity treaty that's been negotiated. The two sides seem clear, a 'yes' vote means that Ireland's economy will contract yet again, a prospect that doesn't seem in doubt by any side. A 'no' vote puts the possibility of access to EU 'bail out' funds might be jeopardized because it would appear that Ireland was not willing to abide by the negotiated decisions of the stronger economies.
On the 'no' side is a convincing argument that further contracting government spending might actually make things worse by making the population more alarmed and even less likely to spend thus limiting capital investment. Companies and individuals might opt to save their money instead of hiring and spending. On the 'yes' side is a sort of Sword of Damocles, if the treaty isn't passed, they say, the EU won't provide the funds to pay the Irish bonds that will come due in the coming months. Of course, if the economy expands, Ireland should be able to pay on its own bonds; but if it doesn't then bankruptcy is a possibility.
The thing that's troubling me right now is that the 'no' vote side uses the example of Barack Obama and David Cameron (the UK Prime Minister). Obama opted for bail outs in key industries and Cameron didn't and now the UK is in the dreaded 'double dip' recession. So, while those of you back in the USA might not feel it, the anemic 'recovery' is actually better than what they are experiencing in England where they have fallen back into recession. They say this is an illustration of what can happen when government spending is curtailed too far.
So, it's an interesting time here. I'm grappling with my civic duty after just a month! I learned yesterday after going over and over this in my mind, that my choice might be moot because I still have to register to vote and, unlike in the States, that seems to take a while, so maybe I will continue to watch on the sidelines. I was reminded of the importance of voting during the walking tour we took of Dublin earlier this week, it used to be that only land owning Anglican males were allowed to vote in Ireland -- not even the Presbyterians were enfranchised. So I'm going to vote if I can.
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