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That's a good idea

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Well, we're having a hectic few weeks here with so many high profile visitors! The Queen of England (Elizabeth II) arrived last week for a state visit that went down very well considering our turbulent past, at the invitation of our Uachtarán na hÉireann (Irish President). Leave it to the women to sort things out eh!

Today Barack Obama arrived to visit our President and Taoiseah (Prime Minister) but most importantly he will fly to Moneygall, Co Offaly to visit  his ancestral home. His great great great Grandfather Falmoth Kearney emigrated to the United States during the Irish Famine (circa 1850) at the age of 19.

This is a link to his genealogical tree: http://www.origins.net/html-email/ON-obama-familytree.htm if you are interested!
The visit has gone down very well so far.

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The awkward moment when the worlds most technologically advanced car gets stuck on a ramp. "The Beast" as it is affectionately known getting stuck coming out of the American Embassy in Dublin this morning:

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They had to change cars Craig to a 4x4! Yup, Bala has it. They actually had gone in a side entrance and decided to come out this way to go past the crowd waiting outside!

Funny though.

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I just love the crowds reaction though!

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Another view:

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"Uh oh" from the someone in the crowd. I love how our fine police force member just jumps back away from it.

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I think it's related to the WYSIWYG coding. I'll PM lbjedward and see if we can change anything in the coding to fix it.

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It's a pain....is an understatement! I think this doc is treating you like a little guinea pig. Oh lets see what happens if we......Well I wouldn't mind if it actually accomplished something, so here's hoping!

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Awh that's fantastic news. Congratulations to you both! Like Barb I can't believe your little girl is 2 now. Wow, time does fly by so quickly! My sister had her second boy in February (almost 7 years between him and his older brother who just adores him by the way) and my sister in law had a baby boy in May. This is their third child but first boy.

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Haha, we surely are !!

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We better get back to "giggling" or Gary will come in and kick us all out!!

Has anyone any nice plans for the weekend? I don't have much myself just getting time to catch up on some house duties that I don't get to do during the week.

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I hope dinner was nice Studio!

Hope your head is not too bad Gypsy.

I didn't get up to too much today. Had a nice walk this morning up along by the Irish Sea. It was a lovely day and then went chestnut collecting with my Nephew and Mam this afternoon. We call them conkers (the bigger ones) and he says he wants to collect the most in the world. Hilarious. He collected 101 !! Haha

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That's great Tina. I'd say you will be delighted to have them back.

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Hey there, I spent it with my sister and her boyfriend (now Fiance) as they got engaged on New Year's Eve, so it turned into a celebration! I generally don't like it either but this was a different one for sure!

My sister, had a very good reason for really disliking NYE....For NYE 1999 into 2000 we had bought bottles of champagne to help celebrate the big one. When the clock struck midnight my Dad popped one of the bottles and my brother the other bottle. We were all celebrating 2000 and I noticed my sister had crouched down. When my brother opened his bottle of champagne, the cork hit her in the eye!! We always joke that she has PTSD about NYE but now it will be replaced by a nice memory of her b/f proposing. He went all James Bond on her and dressed up in a dinner suite. They are together 8 years and it was obviously on the cards, but she was rightly surprised.

Sounds like you all had a lot of fun. Last year, on NYE, I did nothing because I had a wedding the next day. My cousin got Married on New Year's Day last year and it was lovely. Although, we had all started to worry as to weather or not we'd be have a wedding with all of the snow, but thankfully it had thawed. What a contrast this year was. It was so mild, like 13C !!

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They are getting married in October this year so that will be a big event

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That's a great outlook to have calorica and one that will stand you well in the future, for sure.

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Hey all, hope everyone is doing well. I was just looking back over the thread as I had missed a few comments. Barb, that was a joke that you never got the botox. I know you and I have talked about it before, but I still don't see the sense in that!

When will you be 30 Bala? My sis just turned 30 a few months back and she's loving it. Big year for her seeing as she is also getting married later in the year. I remember my 30th so well. We had a birthday celebration with all my close family and friends, great night. It's funny, the one thing that I noticed about being in my 30's is how stupid things don't seem to bother you anymore. Things definitely roll off your back a lot easier. I would say that I am much more easy going. I was never an intense sort of a person, I'm quite rational anyway, but I don't sweat the small stuff these days. What's the point??

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Just looking at my last post. Well my sis got married on Thursday and it was a great day. We also had my nephew's christening this weekend, while everybody was home. I'm just glad we have a public holiday today and it's a nice long weekend!! My sis and her hubbie are off to Florida tomorrow so we're hoping Sandy won't cause any issues. I know it has moved up around NY now but it could still affect the flight path.

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Yeah, they got away ok. I was just tracking their flight online and they landed about 15 minutes ago. I'd say they were relieved!

My friend (that I visit in New York) is home at the moment and her partner has come over too. His first time to Ireland. He manages the Trump building in Wall St so he's been like a cat on a hot tin rough really wanting to be back there! They go home on Sunday.