Incoming!

Oh look, it's Halloween again. When did that happen?

I was working late so I didn't get to scare the crap out of the small children that came a-knockin' at the door this evening, but Hubby got to dish out the sweeties. Next year he's going to get a big ol' gorilla suit so he can do more trick and less treat. For the first time since we've been here we were in a place where kids go trick-or-treating. And for the first time, he hadn't gone out and bought sweets specially for that purpose so he was most distressed to have to dig into his secret stash of sweeties to give to the young 'uns.

The Irish love Halloween. It's a great excuse to let off fireworks. Fireworks are illgal so everyone drives up North across the border and buys them there. I got to watch a lovely display while I was standing on the cold, dark station platform this evening waiting for the train. Bang! Crackle, sparkly lights all around. From the moment the sun set (which was real early since the clocks went back on Saturday night again) Dublin sounded like a war zone, and there were some really weird characters out in the streets when I left the office. It was kinda nice and the childlike pleasure I get from watching fireworks made me forget all the bad stuff for a while. I think I will petition to make fireworks a nightly event.

In honour of Halloween - or perhaps more to give people a chance to adjust to the time change - this last weekend was a long one. We took the opportunity to drive down south to Cork to see our friends. It took about 3 1/2 hours to drive the 250km there on Saturday morning, and about 5 hours to make the return journey yesterday.
We encountered this about 100km outside of Dublin...
I still haven't gotten used to these traffic jams that appear in the middle of nowhere on Irish roads.

The rest of the weekend was good, though. Some serious shopping was done on Saturday afternoon. My favourite purchase of the day was a stunning pair of black shoes to replace the pair that lives under my desk at work. Shoes not suitable for commuting, so I wear sneakers/trainers/takkies (depending on where you live in the world) to get to and from work, and then I walk around in pretty shoes during the day.
But enough about my footwear, let's get back to the weekend:

My friend is a really good cook so we ate well...

... and after supper on Sunday evening she and I left the rest of the clan watching movies and we kept a bottle - ok maybe a bottle and a half - of red wine company in the kitchen and did what we do best: long talks late into the night till long after everyone else had gone to bed.
These girly chats of ours are really good for the soul and mine felt much lighter the next day. My head, not so much, but everything has a price, hehe!

Our plan of going for a scenic drive and / or walk on Sunday was completely destroyed by the weather. Sunday was a true Irish day: grey, cold, drizzly and foggy. It's kind of pointless going for a scenic drive when you can't see more than twenty feet in any direction, which was a bit disappointing since I'd hoped to take some nice photos. However, I managed to get one or two during our drive down on Saturday morning and back again yesterday.

We saw some roadside art near Cashel when we stopped for a rest on the way there...

... and some cows on the way back while we were stuck in traffic yesterday:

Yep, cows. Lots of cows. I would show you more photos but, well, they're only cows, people ;)

And now winter is upon us. The short days have arrived all of a sudden and even though the sun was out at times today it was, quite frankly, bloody cold, despite what the Irish might say.
I guess now that Halloween is over - and it must be over because the constant popping and banging outside seems to have stopped - it's time to accept that the cold season has once again begun. I have no doubt that all over the country, hundreds of underpaid and overworked shop assistants are busily replacing the witches and pumpkins in their displays with all things Santa.

Anyone know how many shopping days 'till Christmas? Too few, I'm sure.