yea, i know im neglecting this blog...

well i intend to make up for it now!! :D
so lets get to it. Mixture of subjects today, have a rough list written but we will see where it goes.

Letter Writing
I've started writing letters home to family and friends and its great fun. though when writing them I feel like I'm back in Mr. O'Hallorans History class, trying to write as much as in can in a short space of time. The last letter home to a friend who regularly texts me was four pages long! you can say so much more in a letter. If you want a letter email me or text me!

The Boys and Irish
The boys have asked me to speak more in Irish to them. Now I am glad I can speak Irish, but its amazing how much comes back when you try and formulate sentences! Though I miss my Irish - English Dictionary.

Update on the Boys
The last two mornings have been a struggle barely getting out the door on time to get the tram. We were late today, thankfully the tram was late also (It happens rarely!)!

Apart from that things are going well, though I'm getting a lot of "It's not my problem" when they wont do what they are told!

Irish in Köln
I met two lads who studied in UL on firday in one of my regular haunts and they knew all my friends back in UL. Crazy! I can never get away from Ireland!! :D Had a great night!

I'm Giving Up Drink
*Shock Horror* and all that. Yes, im cutting down on the amount of Kölsch I am drinking. Im only giving up till Paddy's Day mind. Or if another excuse comes along I'll take that! :D

Valentines Day (ValentinsTag)
So Thursday is the day Hallmark loves. I'm going to hate it. I'm not normally a big Vale's day person but being single in a different country will make it that bit more depressing.

Ireland V France (6 Nations)
Went out on saturday to watch the Match on RTE in one of the Irish Pubs with the TT Gang. Had a great laugh, pity we lost. Though it was only me (Ireland) and Helene (France) watching the match. We even had flags!! We are crazy, wait till Paddy's day, then we will be CRAZY!!!

Okay think thats it for now. Remember if you want a letter I need an address!!

Karneval: photos

Okay so i finally uplodaed photos from Karneval.

Weiberfastnacht, Thursday 31st of January
Karneval Samstag, Saturday 2nd of February
Rosemontag Part 1, Monday 4th of February
Rosenmontag Part 2, Monday 4th of February

I could write all day about what happened at Karneval but I think the pictures tell the story. I did take videos but I have no software that I can understand to edit it, so will have to wait till Im back in Ireland for them!

Needless to say I WILL be back for Karneval. It was crazy different and exciting. I met people from all over the world (Ukraine to Canada!) and have made good friends.

Anyone who says the Irish are crazy has not been to Köln for Karneval!!!

Karneval Hangover

So Karneval finishs tonight at 12:00CET. Thank god. I cant go on with this really. me hgead is pounding. The parade yesterday was great fun and the weekend was excellent and i mad emore friends. always important. tomorrow i will do a proper post i promise. and ill post videos!! :D

Kölle Alaaf (Long live Cologne!) and Photos!

Well this is probably my last post till after Karneval! I dont forsee me having much of an opportunity to blog between now and next tuesday!

Tomorrow is the start of it all with the boys dressing up for school. The boys have decreed that I too must dress up as I will look odd if i dont! The plans for after school is weather dependent. We might go to an outdoor party if the weather is good, if not I will be wandsering around cologne dressed as a sailor! Woo!

I finally uploaded more photos to my facebook profile. The pictures were all taken on saturday night (i think).

I hope everyone is well and thinking of what to give up for lent! I will be too hungover to notice lent i think! The boys are actually off School till next wedeasnay, so normal service should resume then!

Karneval! This blog(ger?) may suffer....

So its two sleeps to the start of Karneval im all excited!! Its going to be great fun and I am full of plans, none of which are confirmed cause people seams to be chopping and changing what they are doing.

I got the final bits for my costume today so I am all sorted on that front. Over the weekend I was told if you step outside your door over Karneval and you are not dressed up it is you who will stick out!!!!

I got to sleep in today and it was great. I basically have a day off as the father is home but the mother is working. One of the boys is at a birthday party the other is at music lessons so its an easy day for me.

Now the other half of the blog title. I kinda started two new series of posts over of my political blog (where the spelling is better according to my Mum!). One on the Treaty of Lisbon, the other on German Politcs. Have a sconce if you are anyway interested!

Touristy things and whats happening this weekend

Hallo!!! My german is improving slightly this week as I have started to make friends with a few of the Mothers on the School run and one of them only speaks german!!! So it must improve! The subjects I will be covering today are (I feel like a newsreporter or teacher writing that!): My Tourist Day, This Weekend, Packages from Home, Shopping (Again!), Photos (Finally) and an Update on life with the Boys. Sounds interesting (and long!) eh? Lets get to it then!

My Tourist Day

Yesterday after dropping the Kids to schoola nd waiting for a bit I wander off into Köln to do a bit of tourist things, sucj as going to the Dom and buying small presents and things (My mother collects spoons, you know the ones!) I basically wondered around the side streets and I found some interesting places which I counldnt read the signs! I found what looked liked a building built over ruins, it was strange see the pic below


This Weekend

For a change I have a plan for this weekend! Tonight I am doing the usual and going to ExCorner to meet friends, but on saturday I have found the Köln equivilant to Freakscene!! (See Post) I am all excited and one of the girls from TT is coming with me! Yay!!

Packages from Home

Have I told ye how much I love (and miss) my mother? Well yesterday and unexpected package arrived for me. I recognised the writing straight off as being my mothers and I thought she had sent over post from home. I opened it up and there was a copy of The Pheonix in it! I love you Mum!!!!


Shopping (Again)
So while on my tourist day I started wondering in and out shops not buying much till I came to H&M. They had their final reductions on a lot of stuff and I picked up a nice hat and bracelet for a 1€ each! Alos went to the English Shop (Again) for those who are wondering this is what I normally buy in the English Shop

* The Gaurdain
* Mi Wadi (Blackcurrant)
* Dubliner Cheese
* Pop Tarts (Chocloate)
* Cadburys Instant Hot Chocolate (Not low fat, sorry Claire!)
* Cadburys Chocolate (Dairy Milk or buttons!)

Lol, a short list I know, might treat myself to a Hershey's bar in the future. I live on those when I was in the US.

Photos (Finally!)

So I finally got around to putting some photos up on Facebook!
Album 1
Album 2

Enjoy and leave comments! (On the photos and the blogs!)

Update on life with the Boys

So the boys have fully realised the amount of German I know and have taken to use it as a Secret language around me. They are not allowed to this this! The rule in the house if you are talking around or about me it has to be in English! Otherwise things are going well. The boys for the most part do what they are told and have taken to singing the songs I have thought them! yay! I am really enjoying working with the boys and though they fight (alot) I get on with them both, though the regular cry is "Its not Fair...!" Every parent knows that. The kids ahve taken to watching TV everynight now that they are back to school and we normally watch Jim Knopf and Pur+, nice programs which I might blog on later.

Karneval nearly sorted and an update!

Yesterday I went shopping with friends from Toytown Germany (TT in future) we had great fun shopping for costumes and getting bits and pieces.

Costume Shopping
So Saturday started off really early (and me majorly hungover) and we set out for a Karneval store on the outskirts of Köln (Near Ikea). It was huge!!!!! Never had I seen so many costumes. We were there for ages, it would take a good 1/2 an hour to walk around the store! I got loads of ideas for costumes! The boys got their costumes. One will be Robin Hood the other a Medieval Knight

That afternoon I went shopping with my TT friends and I got my costume. Im going as..... A Sailor! Woo! That costume was resonable prive being 30€ (I've taken to writing prices the German way!) In another store I tried on a Pirate costume, it was fantatsic but cost 121,95€!!!!! So I got a good deal!

English Shop
After that we went for a walk around for bits and pieces for costumes and just a general shop and had lunch (Burger King, I have loads of vouchers!!) Then we went to the English shop, which really should be called the American, English and Irish Shop! You name it from those country's they have it! :D So I picked up a few bits and pieces and am happy now! They also have a cool video library there which i will join next week I'd say!

Homesick no more
Despite a MSN converstion that nearly had me homesick again, I am over it and have devised the Stephen Spillane Cure For Homesickness. It consists of the following, 1 sweet cake of your choosing, 1 tube of pringles, 1 funny DVD (Ice Age 2 in my case) and relax while the kids are at school! Of course there is a surprise ingredient which is lovely phonecall from home! (Thanks Mum!!)

Karneval
So Karneval is getting nearer yay! It starts on the 31. Jan and Im all excited! I see more and more people dressed up! (I know i promised a Pic but i never have my cam with me!) I have figured out where I am watching the parade with TT friends on Rosenmontag and may be going out on the Saturday to Wolkenburg (TT LINK) for the Paprika Ball! It should be great fun!

Thats it for now I think!
Tscheuss!
Steve
xxx

Illness strikes

One of the boys came down with something last night so had today off School, so I had company today not that I was much good as I konked out when I cam back from doing the school run.

After school things went from bad to worse, everyone (me and the boys) was in bad form and I had to fight for them to do anything, this made me worse. I apologised to the boys before they went to bed. One was very understanding, the other suggested I drive home!!! That put a smile on my face!

The cause of it all? Well partailly I Am Legend, I am sleeping badly since I saw it, it scared the bejayus out of me and Im homesick!

So I miss cork and everyone there. I miss my parenst and family (even the extended one :P). I miss my friends, who are great and have been keeping in contact on bebo msn and facebook.

So to cure this before going on the net (the father was on it) I watched part of Ice Age 2 and that always cheers me up! :D

So all is well again do I did tear up when I was typing who I missed maxbe I will be better tomorrow.

AN update on the washing, no colours ran, but have two odd socks already!!!

Day ??? What? I cant remember

I have given up on counting days to use them as titles, so todays post is about the following, Wash/Music Day, The Long Day (Monday), Songs to Teach the Children, and my Sister's blog!


Wash/Music Day

So today is wash day and I had great fun trying to figure out the washing machine. (Its my washing by the way!) So its working away at the moment I hope and all seams to be going well! will update ye tomorrow on the state on the clothes! :P

Today is my favourite week day as after I drop the boys to school I do not have to worry about them as the mother will collect them as they have their music lessons today so I only have to deal with them one at a time, making life much easier! I decided at the weekend to teach a card game we played at home its called ,,Take Two''. They love it so will be stuck playing that for awhile, at least its a break from ,,Pay Day'' (from the last Au Pair) and ,,Discovering Ireland'' (which I brought over!).

The Long Day

Mondays are my long day as the boys finish school at 11:30am! Lucky sods so that means I do not get long to sleep or whatever while they are at school! Thankfully they have rugby in the afternoon and I am able to relax then! In other words I fell asleep!!!

Songs to Teach the Children

I ahve started to teach the kids some songs in English. Here are somne of the ones I have decided to teach them.

There was an Old Lady who swallowed a Fly (remember that one mum?)



Two Little Boys



Those two I am sure of. All suggestions welcome of course!

My Sister's Blog

After much badgering from me, my sister has finally started a blog! yay! Have a looksie, she has a distinctive way of writing so hopefully she will get a bot of a following!

Well thats all for now I think, I was going to start about German Puncuation but that can wait as this post is long enough without me throwing another spanner in the works!

Tscheuss!

What not to do: Fall asleep on a tram!

Okay so last night I went to one of my regular haunts and decided to leave after a fantatsic night and making new friends! So I walked to Neumarkt as no trams were running from Rudolfplatz. So the Number 9 arrived eventually and I got on. It was ahead of schedule, so we had to wait 5 minutes I think. I cannot rememeber the tram leaving Neumarkt cause next thing I know I'm in Koingsforst, the last stop on the line! 5 stops beyond my stop! I woke up and the driver was talking to me. I did not know what he was saying so i promptly got off the tram and got on it again after it turned! Thank god it was not the last tram!

So that is my first embarressing incident in Germany, I'm surprised it took this long!!!!!