Ireland

Am I being obvious again?  I may not have chosen Ireland as my "I" word except for the fact that I'm sitting in the airport, waiting to board a plane for Dublin shortly.  People often ask me how often I go home.  The funny thing is that I have more and more difficulty saying I'm going home when I'm flying to Ireland.  I left because I didn't like it and I've always felt more comfortable and more like I belong in Germany.  Although I accept that part of that comes from my first experiences away from my very dysfunctional family being in Germany.  My first taste of freedom.  My first taste of what it was like to just be me and not someone's daughter, someone's sister, someone's friend.  But this post is about Ireland, not Germany.

I don't go home, then, on a very regular basis.  I sort of aim for about once a year and usually end up going twice or three times because something has come up.  There was the memorable April last year when I ended up going back two weekends in a row for funerals as well as for my planned weekend at the end of April.  And then I ended up having to go over for a few days in September to deal with some bank stuff.   Or there's a wedding to go to or someone has had a baby.  This year, I'm heading for a long weekend so that I can (a) have a few days off work and (b) sing along with my old choir when they perform excerpts from the Messiah on Fishamble Street, the site of the theater in which the original performance was held all those years ago.

I also saw recently that the book chosen for "Dublin: One City, One Book" is Strumpet City and that's one of those books I've meant to read for years and years so I'll be sure to pick up a copy when I'm there.  Any excuse to go to Chapters, the big second-hand book shop in the city centre.  And it's really close to the Kingfisher restaurant so I'll be able to time it to stop there to have egg and chips (and a pint of milk) for lunch.

Although I do miss friends and family when I'm not there, especially as most of my friends now have kids and I don't get to spend much time at all with them, the five days I spend in Dublin will be more than enough for me.  At least I'll be spared too much travel on the bus as I decided to go ahead and hire a car for the time I'm there!  I'm officially forgetting about debt while I'm away and although I won't go mad I know I will be pushing some of the cost to next month.  But I've once again reached a point where I don't care and I just want to pay for the convenience of some things rather than take the cheaper but more hassle-full way of doing things.  Next year, it would be nice to go for a longer holiday but to go out of Dublin to one of the nicer spots on the west coast, perhaps.  Or maybe somewhere down in Cork or Kerry, both beautiful places.

I feel much better at least.  Thanks for your well wishes.  It's only a short flight so with a bit of luck I'll sleep most of the way.  It's the only way to fly!