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Europe Trip 2023

Antibes, France

My motivation for this trip was driven by my daughter Claire and her fiance Lochy. Both of them had qualified to run in the Chamonix Ultra Trail Mont Blanc (UTMB) event. Claire took on the challenge of a 171 km run around the mountain. She completed 128 km of the loop. Lochy also completed a similar distance before succumbing to hyperthermia.

Over three weeks, the farmer and I travelled to Switzerland (Geneva and Zermatt), Italy (Milan and Genoa), France (Annecy, Chamonix, Nice, Antibes, Cannes, Eze and Lyon) and Monaco (Monte Carlo). Pictures from the snow-covered mountains to quaint little villages, churches to castles, fashion houses to local markets, beaches to boating, royalty to oligarchy are below.

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McCaffreys in Clogher

For the last two years, I have taken an interest in genealogy. Originally, I wasn’t quite sure what had sparked this interest. I now understand some of the reasons why. As a grandmother, I need to see this information recorded somewhere, for the sake of the generations that follow me.

Three generations: me, my daughter, and my grand-daughter.

An Irish Summer Genealogy Trip 2022

On this third trip to Ireland, my primary focus was genealogical. The Irish summer is especially beautiful. Many an hour was spent in churches and graveyards, although most of my time was spent with family in the Monaghan/Tyrone border area where my mother grew up.

Art: Alcohol ink

For the first time in my life, I have discovered an ability to create. The images below represent the fusion of ink and alcohol. The few samples below reveal my colour choices. It’s interesting to note that gold tones feature heavily in my work.

Art: Paint pouring

Retirement update

As of 24th December 2020, I am no longer a public servant, an employee of the state. I have never felt more joyful. The luxury of swanning around the house, choosing how to spend my day, finding new hobbies, picking up old ones, and setting new challenges is very much appreciated and valued.

Costa Rica: the tropical experience

This country has to be one of the prettiest, scenic places I have ever been. We hired a car at the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica so that we could take a road trip across the country.

Costa Rica is a land of volcanoes, rainforests and cloud forests, huge waterfalls, and mighty rivers. It is bordered by beaches and lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

Playa Maderas | San Juan del Sur – Nicaragua

Imagine arriving in Central America, having traveled for days from a small town in Western Australia. We were simply blown away by the vast differences. In many ways, the whole experience was incomparable to anything I had lived before.

We were here because our daughter and her boyfriend had been in Nicaragua for 6 months. They had been managing a surf club in San Juan del Sur and were responsible for cooking each night for the guests, teaching yoga, surfing, and managing the club’s operations. We met up with them at the end of their six-month contract so that we could take a road trip across Costa Rica together.

Granada Nicaragua

Arriving in Granada late at night, we found our accommodation. We booked into Selinas, a chain of hotel/hostels found throughout Central America. We had flown from JFK to Managua and then caught a taxi to Granada. It was 11 pm, we were tired and the place was pumping.

It had been 6 months since we had seen our daughter, so we were excited to be catching up with her and her partner, the following day. Before leaving Granada, we ventured out to explore this vibrant city.

Bocas del Toro-Panama

After traveling across Costa Rica, we made our way towards Panama. Our first stop was the Bocas del Toro Province, an archipelago that lies at the southern tip of Isla Colón, in the Caribbean Sea and northwest of Panama.

Bocas is a largely undiscovered mecca for surfing that has been compared to what Hawaii, Bali, and the Maldives were like over 20 years ago. Surf was some of the best our son in law had experienced (Paunch Reef, Dumpers, and Bluff Beach).

Having a young couple with us made it that much more interesting. Web sites, travel blogs, and tourist information cautioned us to avoid the main island (Isla Colon) but we didn’t listen. Instead, we found it open, warm, lively, and colourful. The place was quiet through the day and it pumped at night. It was hot and humid, and we walked or cycled everywhere.