Got J over for the weekend and we decided to go to the zoo (we didn't stay all day). Managed to get there reasonably early and had to ignore some of the google directions and use better judgement and it was fine! M loved it, he learned lots of new words including hippo, giraffe, monkey - I was well impressed! Poor lad fell over and rolled a bit, on gravel, at one point. He doesn't have gears, he has stop, or full speed and that's it! So he did a lot of walking which is good (saved my poor shoulders) but he charges off and often stumbles over. He did on a hill and poor lad rolled a few times when he fell and grazed his nose and scared himself a bit. Didn't take long for him to calm down, be put down and charge off at full speed again! It was very busy though, but the zoo is well layed out enough not to get too crowded. Except when they were spraying the elephants (including the baby) that was fairly packed. Had a nice time!
Then back home and M napped in the car. We went to the Avoca Cafe in Ashford for cake...! Mmm! There's nothing like Avoca cake! I had chocolate, S had coffee and J had carrot (which slightly surprised me). M rather loved all of them (which didn't surprise me). He knew full well where we were as the moment I put him down in the car park he legged it round to the bakery to stare at the ceiling fan (he got rather into them in Cape Verde). Wonder how often S takes him there...!
Then we had a delivery curry. I often have a chicken Madras from this place and they are usually hot enough to notice but no so hot you have to fight the thing to eat it and not cry. But todays was hotter than I'd bargained for! It was a fight! But eventually I won.
My turn to get up with M tomorrow, so bed time!

I've been somewhat crap at writing on this recently, so since I've got up with M this morning and he's watching Pingu, now seems a good time to catch up. S and I went to Belfast on Friday. The inlaws could have M on Thur/Fri night and since they are very hard to pin down for a couple of days due to how busy they are, we jumped at the chance for time away. It was annoying in that we'd planned to go when C was there to take her out and see her Nordy home, but we managed the week after she finished and was home. However a chance for a night away is not to be sniffed at so we took M to them Thursday afteroon, while it seemed a bit pointless to pay for a hotel room for the night when we'd only just get there in time for bed, we stayed here on thurs and I went to band. That's a whole other story, but thursday wasn't too bad. It was slighly weird in that the music we were playing was all hand written by the conductor so not easy to read or particularly accurate. C (different C, this one's a trombonist and a damn good one) is a bit of a music perfectionist so got out a pen and rewrote most of it. Anyway, Friday morning we got up at normal time and drove to Esmonde Motors (Ford garage in Stillorgan) where I ordered a car! I've been thinking about what to do for ages so in the end ordered the Flexifuel Focus - diesel prices have gone mental recently and I dont see them going backwards. I already pay 60euro a week for petrol which over a month is enough and I can see that doubling within the next few years. While the bio-ethanol isn't that common there are garages that sell it in Bray and around so I'll just have to make sure I go home via it after band/crinken. Only downside is that it wont be ready until Aug! And then my current car is worthless and they wouldn;'t give a trade in for it. They will sell it for me and give me a %age of what they get but it'll be pathetic. Less than what it'll cost to get the thing fixed up.
So then on to Belfast. We were going to Ikea first but the Sat Nav had a fit the moment we went in to Nordyland and while I knew Ikea was near the "George Best" airport, I had no idea which one that was. So a quick stop in Sainsburys and a text to C sorted that out. But the sat nav was naving none of it and you get to the City Airport before Ikea and it wasn't obvious what to do. You dont have to go much further past it before a massive Ikea is visible. We enjoyed going round it and bought a lot (book case for top of the stairs, bathroom cabinet and lots of other crap). It's a lot of walking though! Then back to the Holiday Inn for a swim and a jacuze. That was lovely! Then walked into town to find Nandos. Ikea and Nandos, was very weird, just like being back in England! Except NI isn't really like England, it's a weird mix between British and Irish. I generally find it a very odd place but like to visit Belfast once in a while and was surprised that it's been 2 years since we last went.
Drove back via an Outlet place on Sat where I should have made more attempt to get stuff I need but couldn't quite be arsed. The inlaws brough M back for dinner, which was lovely to have him back! We enjoyed our night away though.
It's a bank holiday here today which is nice cause all my English contacts will be at work later! Although I was last monday when none of them were... We got a good amount of flat pack constructed yesterday but I guess we'll finish that off today and start to rearrange the spare room for M to move in at some point.