Unlocking Ireland - an unprecedented thread no. 6

[CherryValanc]

A sixth thread in Craicnet!!

Who thought that would ever happen!!? Has there even been a sixth page before?

Just for adults who need new shoes, Schuh do a 365 day returns policy. So you can order now and if they don't fit return when they are open again.
The money is tied up till you return but at least your not stuck with shoes that don't fit.

@NinthCircle

I saw a wedding party taking photographs in the park today. I realised I couldn’t remember the last time I saw people in dressy formal clothes.

Mind you, they were going to have to do a lot of photoshopping of the background, as the park was full of teenagers bushing.

This cracked me up

@NinthCircle

I saw a wedding party taking photographs in the park today. I realised I couldn’t remember the last time I saw people in dressy formal clothes.

Mind you, they were going to have to do a lot of photoshopping of the background, as the park was full of teenagers bushing.

Dressy, formal clothes

They had a lovely day for it. Small DD went out on the green with a mask on to see a friend and came back in pink. Here's to a bit of normality.

Random delurk to say I have just read this thread and loved all the Irish chat. I'm Irish, living in NZ, very homesick. This has cheered me up

Hi liberty, feel free to drop in any time!

Welcome @libertyonhertravels
I think most of us are homesick on this thread at the moment!

Hi @libertyonhertravels. Hope life is better for you guys in NZ than it is here.

Hi liberty, welcome

Sitting watching the Jack Charlton documentary with DH.
Mother of divine.
Half way through I look up and there’s a Jack Charlton full frontal nudity shot. And back frontal.
I’m traumatised

And welcome liberty. Homesickness is the worst. You don’t hear that side of the story from NZ, just how well they’re keeping Covid out

@IwishIwasontheN17

Sitting watching the Jack Charlton documentary with DH. Mother of divine. Half way through I look up and there’s a Jack Charlton full frontal nudity shot. And back frontal. I’m traumatised

Here

He had nothing to be ashamed of

Thanks for the welcome

IwishIwasontheN17 yes, the down side of keeping covid out is that we are all effectively locked in and there are half a million or so kiwis around the world who can't get home. But I remain grateful that we have such a level of normality here and that DD has had very little interruption to school and activities.

Hi liberty - the more the merrier! I'm homesick too even though I'm in Ireland. I don't think I realised how much I need to visit my DM and be the child for a few days. Recharges the batteries for another round of adulting.

Shoeshop.ie are on that anpost returns thing if anyone is stuck for new shoes.

Vaughanshoes do easy delivery and returns. I daren't buy clothes as I am now Covid-fat, so am sublimating my boredom by buying shoes.

Did anyone see Regina Doherty referring to "800 years of common travel with the mainland". I'm not sure if it's a spoof, but oh my lord shocked! if she did.

@Apileofballyhoo

Hi liberty - the more the merrier! I'm homesick too even though I'm in Ireland. I don't think I realised how much I need to visit my DM and be the child for a few days. Recharges the batteries for another round of adulting.

Shoeshop.ie are on that anpost returns thing if anyone is stuck for new shoes.

I was going to say this. I returned to Ireland after decades abroad in early 2020, and while I’m not sorry, it’s been a difficult time to come back. The house purchase we’d made before returning fell through just before the first lockdown, it was impossible to view others for months, everything took longer, getting a mortgage here was far harder and fiddlier than either of our overseas mortgages, and even getting our foreign-born son a PPSN was a lengthy ordeal as the backlogs are so huge. Plus the job I came home for vanished because of Covid, and I e needed some medical treatment. And we probably saw more of our parents when we lived abroad than here, where we can only talk from the gate doing grocery drop offs! And lockdown has aged them both, so I think that being the child with them will never be possible again.

A catalogue of woes! I’m still glad we’re home, but I have occasionally found myself randomly bursting into tears at ridiculous things like reassuring voices on ads that say things like ‘We’ve got your back.’ Or Fiona Shaw’s voice on those Covid precaution radio announcements.

Complete sympathy to anyone overseas who can’t get back — if we’d left things a couple of months later, that would have been us, and I can imagine the worry.

Basic things like sorting out PPS, getting a mortgage, sorting out child benefit (took a full year) were so much harder than I had experienced in the U.K.

Delurking from abroad... This thread has been interesting and comforting to understand what things are like on the ground at home, but the recent posts are close to the bone.

NinthCircle, what you say has articulated one of my fears I hadn't quite identified to myself – that when we eventually see our parents again they will seem to have aged much more than the year or two it will have been. And whether they will ever travel to us again I don't know.

Then there's what you say about the hassle of moving back to Ireland – aargh! We don't have any concrete plans in that direction but I would like my children to have more of Ireland and their extended family than they're getting at the moment.

We're only in Germany so pre-Covid got home fairly often. We are shit at Zoom - I find it so awkward when there are multiple people in the room at both ends. It's an ordeal

Shoe shops have just been declared essential over here, just to contribute something to the thread chat

I hate zoom with a lot of people too. If you go to a gathering of some sort you don't all stand in a circle taking turns to speak to the group. It's little pairings or groups of 3, 4.

@IwishIwasontheN17

Basic things like sorting out PPS, getting a mortgage, sorting out child benefit (took a full year) were so much harder than I had experienced in the U.K.

Interesting. I had no idea, not having lived abroad much (only briefly away from Ireland as a student, a year abroad, twice).

@FionaMacCool

Vaughanshoes do easy delivery and returns. I daren't buy clothes as I am now Covid-fat, so am sublimating my boredom by buying shoes.

Did anyone see Regina Doherty referring to "800 years of common travel with the mainland". I'm not sure if it's a spoof, but oh my lord shocked! if she did.

Did she say mainland or Britain though? I was listening at the time, but not very closely, admittedly. Her pink outfit was giving me Dolores Umbridge vibes (Harry Potter).

greenesshoes.com are great ( well I used them once ) next day delivery and a good price.

@SecondRow

Delurking from abroad... This thread has been interesting and comforting to understand what things are like on the ground at home, but the recent posts are close to the bone.

NinthCircle, what you say has articulated one of my fears I hadn't quite identified to myself – that when we eventually see our parents again they will seem to have aged much more than the year or two it will have been. And whether they will ever travel to us again I don't know.

Then there's what you say about the hassle of moving back to Ireland – aargh! We don't have any concrete plans in that direction but I would like my children to have more of Ireland and their extended family than they're getting at the moment.

We're only in Germany so pre-Covid got home fairly often. We are shit at Zoom - I find it so awkward when there are multiple people in the room at both ends. It's an ordeal

Shoe shops have just been declared essential over here, just to contribute something to the thread chat

I didn’t mean to sound so discouraging, @SecondRow! To put alongside my woes, I should also say that I’m reminded nearly every day of things that are a lot more pleasant and human than in other places we’ve lived, even when dealing with bureaucracy that’s been worsened with Covid.

Getting a mortgage was a very long and stressful process, but our broker (whom I’ve never laid eyes on) was so nice I actually enjoyed talking to him. Trying to get DS his PPSN was brightened by an email correspondence with a lovely woman somewhere up the country whom I suspect bumped us up a list out of sympathy (she immigrated to Ireland) because one minute I was hearing it would be months, and the next we had it.

Trying to find a GP practice to take us on was nightmarish (apparently people are now travelling out to neighbouring towns because no GPs here are taking on new patients!) but when I did get one, she took an ongoing issue far more seriously and sympathetically than my NHS GP ever did and I’ve had good treatment with the workarounds I needed.

And oh, random things like seeing a bride and groom having wedding photos taken in the park, both carrying hurleys.

@Second, our parents have definitely aged this year, but I’m hoping to an extent it may be reversible now that they’ve had their vaccinations. My PILs have literally barely left their house in a year, but we coaxed them out yesterday...

Yes, Lizzie, that sounds right. Why go back 800 years?!