If only we knew where. What seemed like an obvious choice only weeks ago as to where we would "hang our hats" this coming school year has become a touch more complicated with some recent business developments. So much so we are delaying shipping the seven boxes that we call our lives. (We came with ten--probably pilferage by CW's family at dinner parties). If we let our hearts decide, no doubt we would head immediately to Kathmandu or Paris. But, cooler heads have prevailed, it's time to "do a little business as it were", and as Ray Davies put it, "Captain America calling". Two cities on two different coasts and one distant dark horse. We have hedged our bets with enrollments in various schools, bi-coastal apartment searches, etc..., and we are hoping that the obvious choice presents itself to us--most likely the day after we ship our stuff! We are also considering a split year (Sept.-Dec) on one coast and (Jan.-June) on another--Oh, I can hear my Dreadful Creatures now on Dr. Phil. Well, off to consult the Magic Eight Ball!TOP TEN GOOD THINGS ABOUT OUR YEAR IN IRELAND:
1. My In-laws (Graciousness that defies description)
2. Weather (Irish people say we hit an unusual year; I think they just like something to complain about)
3. Drinking Culture (Stopping at your local for a pint is customary and considered good form)
4. Cork English Food Market (Better than Seattle's Pike Place and New York's Union Square Farmer's Market)
5. Furnished Apartments (If only we could get those crayon marks off the settee...)
6. Cork Airport (So overbuilt during the Celtic Tiger Years that it is laughable but so easy and convenient)
7. Irish Bureaucracy (77000 yes thousand Irish Civil Servants added in the last ten years and they want to preserve their jobs err help you.
8. Access to Europe: Quick, Easy, Cheap
9. Irish Radio (None of that "play to the demographic b.s., actually good music and thought provoking chat)\
10.Rural Pubs (Patrons standing at the end of the evening for the National Anthem warms the heart almost as well as a pint of Guinness or Murphys or Beamish)
All right it hasn't all been rosey (but the positive far outweighs the negative)--
TOP TEN DISAPPOINTING THINGS ABOUT OUR YEAR IN IRELAND:
1. Expensive (Paris a bargain compared? Damn straight!)
2. Drivers (Aggressive and not good; still think they are on country lanes)
3. Bar Aesthetics (The one Cork Publican with any sense of style has the market sewn up with his several cool establishments)
4. Lack of variety in Food and Drink Options (French Bistro anyone?)
5. Barriers to opening a bar (Strong Publican lobby keeps the License Fees sky high but they have been falling)
6. Parochial Thinking (I guess no surprise here given the derivative of the word)
7. Law Enforcement (It's not the Garda, it's the politicians that have given them no power to go after RICO Investigations and Public Corruption--oh, I guess there isn't any...)
8. Politicians (Father, then son, then his son, then his son--in-breeding at its finest)
9. Gurriers (Cork Hooligan Punks who are more obnoxious than threatening with their bad haircuts and blond highlights)
10. Newspapers (Even though they thoughtfully published pictures of both my Dreadful Creatures, nothing like the Gray Old Lady)
