The week before Thanksgiving

On Thursday, Carol and I celebrated our 15th anniversary by eating out at the restaurant in Dun Laoghaire known as 40 foot. You can see the menu here (Word format). I had the monkfish and we shared a bottle of 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape

On Saturday, we took Sierra to a live taping of the Irish fashion show RTE Off the Rails - I don’t know what episode it will be, but other than the charity fashion show Dell put on in October, this was only the second show we’ve been to. And this show was surprisingly sedate by comparison, despite the fact the “fashion” shown was much more fashionable. On the way back, we stopped for scones and hot chocolate at Harry's café. Harry’s is a nice place around the corner from our house. Sierra passes it every day on the way to school. They recently made the Zagat’s list – one of only 3 cafes in Ireland to actually make the list.

Sunday we went, as usual, to the produce market at People’s Park, then walked along the harbour with Sierra’s friends, twins Eva and Susan.
Finally, we went to see the Harry Potter film, disappointing in most respects except the length. I’m really starting to appreciate the alternative writer Michael Gerber ...

Well, I had held off publishing this because I wanted to be able to post a picture of the Christmas lights along George's Street in Dun Laoghaire. Maybe I'll get one tonight.

A Week in France

Our trip to France coincided with the mounting unrest in various suburbs of Paris. We saw it on the news like most of the rest of France. And, like most of France, we didn't see any violence at all. Our trip was just fine. The weather was nice and we got to see some sights I had never been to before.

I've posted some photos on my online photo album - http://mangum.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php. The rest of this post is the story Sierra wrote about the trip. I only edited some spelling and punctuation:

Hi,
I'm Sierra and I want to tell you about my trip. Well at first we were on a train and Dad went to get Mom a Diet Coke at a stop and then we heard a beeping sound and the doors shut and Dad was trapped! But fortunately a man was outside and he signalled to the driver to open the doors.

Then when we got to Rosslare, they informed us that we have to wait 4 hours. So we went to the beach. The waves were going very high. Then our boat got there and when we got on it I was in heaven - almost. The carpet was beautiful. It goes up to eleven stories. And there was a game station with video games and a play pit, a cinema, a shopping centre, three resaurants and a bar with a lot of stairs and a man singing.

Or dorm wasn't so good. It was tiny - all there was was two bunks, a toilet, a shower, a shelf with very little space. First we got unpacked, then we went to the cinema and watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was peaceful with the ship swaying side to side. Then we went to the resaurant and that was not good at all. I didn't take my motion sickness and I felt weird. Then Mom gave it to me - that's when it started. My stomach growled. It went mad. Some ugly little germ pushed the button - up and out. Dad got me the paper bag.

Then we got back to our dorm I had a lovely dream. It was about me and a famous gymnast called Monique. When I woke up I had breakfast. Then I got on the top deck and saw France. Then we took a train to Caen and it was late at night. Then we got a taxi and went to our hotel called Ibis. Then I was really in heaven. It was even more beautiful than a clean house, our boat, our train, People's Park, and the picture of the Mona Lisa. There was also a restaurant connected to it. First we got unpacked. The we went to La Storia and I had a wonderful Diavolo, which is a pizza with sausages, and an egg on it.

The next morning we went to the Peace Memorial. And I found out about the World War II. World War II is about a terrible man named Hitler who wanted to take over the world. But general Eisenhower wanted to stop war. And he kept his promise. After that he became President. Then he got elected again.

Then we got home. The next day we went to Tours and we went to castle tours. There was one in Caen, Chinon, Amboise, and I found out that I want to be like Leonardo Davinci, who was a famous man and made inventions and art and loved to do mathematics. He also made the Mona Lisa. Then we got on our boat and left France. We watched Herbie Fully Loaded.

And this was a really cool journey. I enjoyed it a lot.

Thanks

P.S. - I'm glad I'm home.