Well, we have settled on the place in Ballsbridge and will move next weekend.  In my last post I described the two options.  Ballsbridge was the first to accept us, but only because it was earlier in the day, the people in the place in Terenure wanted to meet us first.  That was perfectly reasonable but once we were OKed in Ballsbridge we both were pretty relieved and realized that we both want closer to the city center and were willing to trade the bigger and nicer house for that convenience.

We're not looking forward to the actual move but there's not really that much to it, we have our personal belongings and a sofa and that's it, so one van's worth should get is in.  We have a bead on a man with a truck that I will call today so that we can hopefully arrange it quickly.

We met with the tax man last week as well.  I'm hopeful that all that will work out OK.  He was pleased that we got Irish social security numbers (called PPI here) and that we haven't been back to the States since we came because both of those things are signals that we are not just casual visitors and entitles us to a big exemption on income.  Thankfully, as well, we actually earned some income while living in Ireland in 2012, otherwise the exemption would be moot.  It will take a while to get it sorted but I think it will be good once it's done.  More on that later I'm sure.

I've also made a commitment to do Dance Across Dublin with my Wednesday dance group, CoisCeim Dance.  That will mean rehearsals three times a week until the mid May but I'm looking forward to it.  I will know on Wednesday if I will be accepted to do it.  I have a week's work in Lisbon at the end of April which would mean missing three rehearsals so it might not be OK with the choreographer, that would be the only thing preventing it.

All in all, there's a lot going on all here in Ireland.  Other than a Lisbon trip for me at the end of April, we don't have any more travel outside Ireland planned until September.  In mid-September I will go to San Juan de Compostela in Spain to walk the last part of The Way with my friends Mary and Deirdre and a group of people they know.  Alan has taken a pass on that.  Then the following week, we will spend a week in the West of Ireland (Connemara) in a seaside house with friends from the States.  Then in October we've signed up for a cruise on the Black Sea starting in Istanbul.  I'm looking forward to a summer exploring things close by and hopefully getting started on the memoir after my two-day workshop in Sligo when I get back from Lisbon.

I'm just finishing up a white paper on association governance that's been a thorn in my side for months now.  I spent Easter weekend getting all the parts in order and hope it will be done today or tomorrow.  Of course, I thought it was done last month till I got the feedback from ASAE.  There was some good criticism that made for an extensive rewrite.  I think, and hope, that it's a lot better now. 

The home quest continues.  After a week hiatus from the search with a trip to a cold and snowy Paris from the 12th to the 19th we returned with a resolve to redouble our efforts to find a place.  I returned from Paris with a head cold so the past several days have been challenging.  In addition to not feeling very well, the bad weather from Paris continues here, except the snow is rain.  It's just cold, wet and dreary and without a car, it's not fun at all to try and look at two or three different properties per day.

First a little about Paris.  I've been there twice before and Alan once.  We were excited to just be there in the small apartment we rented and imagine ourselves living there for a while.  This is something we both like to do and for a while we thought that after our time here in Dublin we'd spend some months as vagabonds in some of the European cities we've liked.  So far Palma in Mallorca, Madrid and Amsterdam have been considered in this context.  I could see Paris as well but the past week there was pretty miserable weather wise and that so affects the mood of a place.  We really like to walk and the cold, biting wind, with snow, sleet and freezing rain made that hard to do.  Still, I visited the Pompidou Centre http://www.centrepompidou.fr/en and saw two really good exhibits, actually one really good exhibit (Eileen Gray) and the other really crowded (Dali).  Eileen Gray was an Irish woman who practiced as a designer in Paris during her professional career. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Gray

Unfortunately, in addition to bad weather there, we missed our first St. Patrick's Day here.  When I booked this really cheap flight, I didn't take that into account.  We had dinner with our friends last night and they went to a party that they said was awesome and we could have gone!  So all in all not so good a choice for Paris.  But, in the spirit of St. Patrick, here's a funny story about his history done by the RTE http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/10122521/

So, now to the hunt for a new home.  We've seen several properties since returning and have really liked two, that couldn't be more different.  One is in Ballsbridge, which meets the criteria of closer to the city center.  The other is in Terenure, which meets all the other criterion, including a much more Irish experience, an extra room in addition to a guest room, convenient access to public transit.  Both are the same price, the one in Terenure is huge and really, really well done, also just around the block from my dear friend Mary, the only problem is that its much further from the city center.  We've made an offer on both and will let the fates decide.  It's an interesting process here in Ireland, a let (or rental) is negotiated just like buying, in that the price is not really the price.  Anyway, it depends on the demand for both because sometimes people go up instead of down, so if someone offers more than us we won't get either.  Fortunately we still have time because I don't think this place is going to sell fast, still, I don't want to be part of that process for very long.

In a renewed effort to try and find something other than my traditional work, I've signed up for a memoir writing class in Sligo at the end of the month.  It's my 65th birthday present and the start of my new resolve to get a memoir about our time here published somewhere (see last post if you want more on that).  I'm looking forward to it.  I have a trip to Lisbon coming up where I will be presenting the results of some work I did for ASAE that's just wrapping up, but after that I'm really going to try and plunge into learning to write a "lively" account of this experience. 

Since I arrived here, I've been thinking about how I might write this experience in something in addition to the blog.  All along I've thought of it as a memoir.  But now, after getting a tiny bit of encouragement from a book editor, I am thinking a little differently, something more along the lines of a 'how to retire to Ireland' book. 

Before we came, I was searching for such a book and came acorss three, all of which are old and none that were really helpful since so many things have changed since the recession and the further establishment of the EU:

• Living & Working in Ireland, 3rd Edition (2009) by Joe Laredo http://www.amazon.com/Living-Working-Ireland-Survival-Handbook/dp/1905303718
• Living Abroad in Ireland, by Steenie Harvey (no date but must be the 1990s)  http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/living/livingabroadin/living_abroad_in_ireland.shtml
• Moving to Ireland, Brendan Connolly & Peter Steadman, 1998 http://books.google.ie/books/about/Moving_to_Ireland.html?id=VcYAAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

 AND NOW, I have a lead sentence: 

There aren’t a lot of street signs in Dublin so you kinda have to know where you are to get where you want to be.

I was further motivated this past weekend to go with this lead.  We've starting looking for a new place to live.  The current apartment is about to be put up for sale and I just don't want to go through all the disruption, especially when there's nothing in it for us to have to (a) keep the place clean all the time and (b) let complete strangers tromp through periodically.  It was hard enough doing it when we were selling our condo.  I just couldn't face it again, particularly since I really like to move anyway. Alan not so much, but he got convinced with the impending sale and is now looking forward to getting something closer to the city center.  Sandymount is nice but it's a suburb really and we both want more vibrancy.  If we could find Dublin's version of Chinatown, like our place in Washington, that would be perfect.  So far, Irishtown (which there really is one) is the closest we've come and that's a possibility since we are looking at a house there tomorrow.  I'm also hoping for some outdoor space, but find that a second bathroom is more important so I think there will have to be compromises.

Anyway, back to my lead sentence.  This weekend we looked at 5 or 6 places, riding through the city on our bikes.  The absence of street signs really made it hard.  Sometimes there would be a name on the map, sometimes not, so that was a challenge too.  The analogy works for so many things since we arrived:  the banking, the health system, the use of words and turn of phrase, the social mores, the metric system and so much more.  Can the book be far behind?  I've identified a need and have the sentence to begin.  That and follow through are all that's needed.  

So the book editor that's been a little encouraging, says my writing has to be 'lively' if it's to be published by her house.  That's my next quest, learning to write "lively." If you are a regular reader of this blog you might think that's a tall order.  

Next post will be about our upcoming trip to Paris...

Gosh, I've just re-read Alan's poem "No Wait" posted below.  I just can't get over how much he was able to pack in about my brother Frank in so short a piece.  Frank was everything like that, I've just been thinking and thinking about it this last week. 

We spent most of the last week in Holland.  We left on Tuesday and returned on Saturday evening.  It was a good trip, although quite cold.  In fact it was the coldest weather since we have been here.  On Thursday, we decided to take a train trip to Rotterdam. Initially we thought it would be a good day for it because it was cold and blustery when we started out in the morning.  Unfortunately, by the time we got off the train in Rotterdam, it was a full blown gale.  We walked around the block, had lunch and got back on the train for Amsterdam and a hot bath! 

Although we could not get tickets for the Beethoven concert at the Concertgabow on Valentine's Day, we did get tickets at the Musicgabow (I love Dutch names for stuff).  We heard two Mozart pieces, including his 40th symphony, which I'm listening to just now: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvtoqE33iZg  So, so wonderful. 

I've just made plans for another trip with my friends here to walk part of "The Way" Santiago de Compostela http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Compostela in September.  This is my first foray traveling without Alan.  Initially we were going to do a walk in September with friends from the States in Scotland, but that was quite a bit more expensive than we initially thought and we pulled out of that before this opportunity arose.  September looks like it's shaping up to be as busy as last year in September because in addition to this walk, our US friends are going to come to Ireland following their Scotland walk and we're making plans to get a house in the west of Ireland for the following week.  Exciting stuff.

Looking forward to getting back to the normal stuff this week, work, dance, dance and bridge, bridge.  In addition to the two dance classes I've been doing for a while and the weekly bridge game on Friday mornings, I've just started taking bridge lessons on Thursday evenings.  It was strongly suggested that I do so by my bridge companions.  There's a lot to learn about bidding, that's for sure.  Before I knew how much I didn't know, I wasn't intimidated at all to play on Fridays, now, with just ONE lesson under my belt, I'm a wreak.  They tell me that will stop.  I have to believe it's so, because it's just the way I felt after my first set dancing lesson and now I'm passable at that.
 

I got caught up with both set and modern dance classes since our return from Madrid, but now we're off again tomorrow and so will miss the classes for both this week.  We're headed to Holland and will spend Valentines Day there.

While in Amsterdam I'm hoping to get tickets to a sold-out Beethoven concert at the Concert Hall.  Since we've come here, I've only been to one classical music concert and I really miss hearing that music. On Friday we saw the movie Hitchcock and, while it wasn't very good, there was a scene in which "Hitch" was listening to Beethoven and I was reminded of how much I miss hearing the classics every once in a while.  I've been so focused on Irish dance and Irish music in general.

Since we returned from Spain, we saw the films Lincoln and Hitchcock and, although I like Anthony Hopkins as an actor, he's no Daniel Day Lewis.  Not once during Hitchcock did I ever get over thinking "Anthony Hopkins in a fat suit."   Daniel Day Lewis' Lincoln was another matter entirely, he WAS Lincoln.  It was a phenomenal performance.  I would definitely recommend it.  I would not recommend Hitchcock. 

I think I mentioned that Alan is writing more regularly here than ever before.  He's written a poem that is quite poignant.  It's about my brother, Frank.  Any family member reading this who knew Frank will remember his challenges with the Veteran's Administration as a result of his military career.  Its some of Alan's best work and I thought I'd reproduce it entirely here. 

No, Wait

By Alan Balkema

What did you say? I don’t hear too good.

I filled out your form.

That’s your problem, not mine.

Yes, disability payments.

Yes, Vietnam veteran.

My body is falling apart.

I have cysts where they shouldn’t be, and your asshole doctors won’t touch them.

No, wait. I’m sorry.

I’m not drunk.

I’ve been sitting here for hours. How could I drink?

I understand.

Agent Orange.

The worst of it.

Fuckin A I killed people. I was in a war zone.

No, wait.

Sorry, sorry.

I won’t do it again.

They looked like the enemy to me.

Nineteen.

Drafted.

Fourteen months.

They extended me for two months.

Disrespecting an officer.

He was a fuckin asshole.

No, wait.

I’m sorry.

I know I said, but I didn’t promise.

This time I promise.

Purple Heart.

I threw it away.

It was bad luck.

Because it never brought me good luck.

It must be in your records.

Nineteen sixty-eight.

Da Nang. Ever heard of it?

How old are you?

Was your daddy in the war?

I didn’t think so.

The base got shelled while we were sleeping. My hootch-mate was killed, and I got shrapnel in my back.

That’s where the hearing loss comes from.

It seemed like the line of duty to me.

I wouldn’t choose that locale for a vacation.

Seven days in the infirmary. There must be records.

I have a picture of me wearing the medal. See? I was young then.

I was mentioned in my hometown newspaper. There must be a record of that.

My mom cut the article out and sent it to me, but I lost it.

She’s dead. Dad, too.

Don’t you have one of those connections?

Do a search or something?

Fire in St. Louis? That’s not my problem.

How am I supposed to recreate records?

I’ve given you everything I have.

Fuck you.

No, wait, don’t go.

You’re pretty.

What am I supposed to do?

I don’t have anything to eat.

Since my last post I've been trying to think of a way to make this year's "Gathering" in Ireland a theme for my posts.  All it's done is caused me to delay posting!  At first I thought about doing some gathering related thing each week and posting about that.  But, most of the gatherings [www.thegatheringireland.ie] are family get-togethers; it would be kinda weird for me to crash a family reunion.  The other thing there's a lot of are sports events, but I'd rather eat rocks than go to any kind of sporting event, so I'm pretty thwarted. 

Still, while we were in Madrid last week, we returned a week ago today, we did marathon museum hopping:  The Prado, The Reina Sofia, The Summer Palace and several on a day trip to Toledo.  I saw several paintings entitled "The Gathering" one of a group of women meeting at a restaurant that I liked very much but can't find an image of, and another of what looks like a meeting of the mafia in The Prado, see it here: http://www.museoreinasofia.es/images/coleccion/300/AS00915_300.jpg .

That led me to thinking about "The Gathering" in Art and when I googled the term, I found two more.  One that I like very much and think I might just try to buy as a remembrance of my time here, even though it looks like Spain or Italy: http://www.anastasiamak.com/PAINTINGS%20full%20size/gathering.jpg and another that's just strange and I can't imagine why anyone would want to paint pigeons or have them on display anywhere:  http://vyala.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/gathering1.jpg    .  So, I worked The Gathering in after all.

Now back to Madrid.  We had a great time there, although Alan came back with what he thinks might be a stress fracture in his heel.  He's at the docs right now to have it looked at.  I wouldn't be surprised because while all the museums were beautiful and interesting, all the floors were very, very hard and we did three consecutive days of visiting museums.  We were both undone by the hard, and mostly marble, floors.

I think I liked the Summer Palace the most.  It was the summer home Spain's royals in the 15th and 16th century.  If you get to Madrid, the commuter train ride to Aranjuez is worthwhile.  It's a nice little town and a short walk from the station to the palace.  I really enjoyed the audio tour and the porcelain room was just amazing.  I hadn't really thought of royals' role in establishing industries but this room, which is entirely made up (walls, floor, ceiling) of porcelain is really something.  The queen wanted to establish the porcelain industry in Spain so, in addition to outfitting the room, she was getting the artisans to hone their craft by doing it. http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&p=The+Porcelain+room+Aranjuez+Spain+image

Another highlight was seeing Picasso's Guernica up close http://totallyhistory.com/guernica/ .  It was at the Museo Reina Sofia, a very nice modern art museum in the heart of Madrid.  The museum has a real focus on Spanish modern artists and there was plenty to see there.  While we were there, a class of elementary aged children came through.  I was surprised to see first that they focused a lot of attention on Guernica, given its grizzly provenance, but also the reverence that everyone in the room displayed, including the very young children.  We also noted several times during our stay in Madrid, that Spain seems to want to skip over the Franco period entirely.  None of the audio or live tours that we did made any mention of that long and recent dark period.  I imagine it was something like in Ireland, once the period of occupation (in the case of Ireland) was over, all the streets and buildings named for the reviled government were renamed.

The day after I returned from Spain was the day for the public report for the study I worked on with The Community Foundation for Ireland.  It got some good coverage in The Irish Times the following day:  http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2013/0124/1224329226963.html .  Unfortunately, the report neglected to mention my role in the design and analysis of the study.  Since this was the first time I've ever volunteered my professional services, a practice I've always avoided since volunteering research just serves to undercut those out there trying to make a living as I was, I expected that I would not have had to ASK them to recognize the value of the work.  It was quite a shock and disappointment and reinforced my instinct not to volunteer in that way in the future. 

This week I've been trying to finish up a new research project I took just before Christmas, which is growing like topsy.  Once I get it done, I'm going to implement my plan to try and NOT work for a while.  I have a presentation on a research study in Lisbon in April and another in Atlanta in August and that's enough.  I'm going to take some time off now.   So, hopefully my next post will be about doing nothing but fun stuff and gathering...Till then.

It's 2013!

When I was a child, I imagined the far, far away turn of the century.  Like most kids then, I calculated the age I'd be then and wondered if I'd live to see the ripe old age of 52.  I remember telling my mother that I didn't think anyone would get to be that old.  Since she must have been about 40 then, she just laughed and said she'd hoped that we both would be alive to see it happen.  She added that when that time came, I probably would marvel at the feeling that I hadn't really "grown up" in the way I thought about it then.  She was right on both counts. 

Now I'm one year into retirement and still feeling a sense of new beginnings and adventure but also incomplete and insecure.  I still can't decide if I retired too early or if I've really not given myself a chance to experience it fully since I've completed several large research projects in the time I've been here in Ireland.  We've done a lot of new things here, met new people and reinforced friendships with visitors from America but there's lots more to experience.  In the coming year, that's my goal, to try and work less and have even more fun than I did last year!

Which brings me to The Gathering  This year, all of Ireland is putting out the welcome mat for the diaspora to "come home."  The actor, Gabriel Byrne, calls it the Irish shakedown, but he's taking a more negative view than I am about the effort to encourage people to come to Ireland and explore their roots (if they have them) or just experience the country and its people. 

I've been looking for a unifying theme for this blog.  Sometimes over the past year I've felt that my posts might be a little overbearing.  "We went here, we did that everything is cool and exciting!"  After reading several Christmas letters that have seemed that way to me, it's given me pause.  I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do it, but at the end of this adventure I want to try to write a publishable memoir.  I've noticed that the ones I've read and liked have some kind of context or unifying theme and so I'm going to try to make The Gathering that theme for my posts this year. 

As I write this, I still don't know what that means but I'm hoping an idea comes to me between now and my next post.  In the meantime, visit www.thegatheringireland.com and consider your own adventure here in 2013!