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WITH OUR FIRST baby due in mid October, myself and Cat, my wife, struck upon a unique way to celebrate the last days of our selfish devotion to each other — a week’s holiday abroad.
Proud of coming up with the notion of a trip away to Sweden in early August, I laid out the travel plans to a work colleague. The response was a knowing nod and the word(s) ‘Babymoon’. Apparently we were not the first couple to plan our escape before being moored to prams, miniature bath-tubs and baby monitors.
Armed with a ‘this pregnant lady is safe to jet’ letter from the local GP, we set off for Stockholm and watched in amused awe as the tot punched and kicked during take-off. The warnings of crazy expense were proved right but Stockholm treated us well.
The Swedes, we found, have a knack of charging you for just about every little extra you can imagine. I got a jacket back from the lost and found at the train station and was duly charged €10 before they handed it back over with the remark, “You are lucky. It must be St Patrick’s Day.” Not quite but, sure, we’ve invented Arthur’s Day while we wait.
Public toilets were sparse on the ground and we needed a pocketful of change as Cat’s bladder-impressioned days are now punctuated by nigh on 20 trips to find relief.
After five fantastic days on the island of Gotland, we were back in Stockholm to fly home. Having a baby does not occupy my every thought but a week away from work focused the mind and ruled out some names, such as Theo Huxtable McCarry.
I’m often asked if I am excited to be having my first child and I nod my head, rather than explain that I am but it is hard to stay excited for nine months and some change. Nonetheless, getting away and having some more time together gave me a chance to experience what Cat’s days are like with the ever-growing bump and the grace with which she carries herself.
I now find myself studying other families with young children or parents handling babies. I spotted a stressed mother of two berate a man for trying to jump the line for our flight home. In the past I would have no interest in this scene and return to feigning disinterest while clutching my ticket and waiting to spring when I heard my row number. Now, I thought ‘I can skip queues with my baby?!’
Tips and advice are never far away. They come hand-in-hand with the ‘wait and see’ warnings from bleary-eyed friends on the rare occasions our gang of friends can meet (weddings, first day of the Premier League season). The one bit of advice we are following to the letter includes taking every piece of baby equipment, gadgets and paraphernalia that is offered us. As we cram our loaner goodies into the back bedroom at ours, I often feel as if we are stockpiling for a coming tornado.
‘What do you mean we’re OUT of formula?!’ (Credit: Warner Brothers/World War Z starring Brad Pitt)
This weekend, as it may be the last time before our hands get full (of baby stuff), we are welcoming our two nephews for a sleepover. As requested by the lads, World War Z has been hidden from the bookshelf and all zombie DVDs thrown out.
We had the deadly duo over last month and sought to tire them out by placing a blanket and pillows in the sitting room while they watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid. By end credits, Cat was asleep on the blanket and the lads were taking turns to jump on my head.
Lesson No. 1 of being a new Dad: Don’t tell children you are a zombie.
Patrick McCarry is sports reporter and rugby correspondent for TheScore.ie. Playwright of shows that have appeared at Vicar Street, Electric Picnic, Bulmers Comedy Festival and New Zealand Comedy Festival. His latest show, Moonshine Travellers, is at The Sugar Club this September 10 & 11. He is a Dubliner, living in Kildare. Happily married for one year and counting.
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This is result of letting a cult like group involve into our way of life support by a blind and deaf pc brigade. It to late for change Ireland has little hope and maybe some other countries. The UK is finished it be very hard task to undo what has grown there.
@: you mean Christianity?
@: are you talking about jehovahs? Mormons?
Actually they are not that bad once you get to know them
Admittedly they have some odd customs with blood and marriage and beliefs ;-)
Returning Islamic State Jihadis popping back to receive their benefits.
Send them back to their Islamic state and let e SAA, Kurds, Syriacs, Yazidi, Iraqis finish them off….https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/36225430/yazidi-children-held-by-islamic-state-found-in-hospital-basement-in-mosul/#page1
More Rats leaving the sinking ship that is isis . There’ll be plenty more of this type of arrest in the coming weeks , however Mayor Khan will try and get them housed in Chelsea , in those new 1.8 million pound council houses .
Don’t be daft. Sadiq Khan’s alright. And the last thing he wants is more terror tearing through the streets of London.
@Mick Tobin: Don’t be daft ? This is the man who wanted the president of the United States banned because he had put a temporary ban on 6 countries , while the mayor himself when he was a lawyer defended Islamic militants , pushed for Louis Farakhan to be allowed into the country , even though he had called for a genocide of white people , had shared speaking platforms with convicted islamic terrorists , has spoken at muslim meetings where isis banners have been flown , called moderate muslims ”Uncle Toms” and says the Met Police do not have enough funds to follow returned Jihadis , even though he took money and personnel from their resources to set up a unit to chase down people who said things against islam on social media platforms .
@Ken Hayden: I will look into this, but contexts do matter. The mayor of Rotterdam, also a muslim, has also been accused of sharing the stage with people with radical ideas, but he in fact told them to p*** off elsewhere if they didn’t like it here.
Khan is right to shun divisions in the city, and my feeling’s been that this has been behind what he’s done, at least recently.
But sure, it pays to be critical, and I’ve taken note of what you just said. However, I now need to badly go and play Irish tunes in the pub, so I bid you goodbye for now.
@Ken Hayden: defended Islamic militants? Can you clarify whether that was as a lawyer or as a citizen? Also can you clarify that it wasn’t perpetrators of 9/11 as was previously stated on this site?
@Mick Tobin: He was a legal consultant for Zacarius Moussaoui , the shoe bomber .
There are links here to various news reports and video clips , if you follow them you will open up a trail . I will give you two links , one about Khan and the other about the Quilliam foundation .
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-27/london-mayors-ties-extremism-call-commitment-fighting-terror-question
https://medium.com/@jonasspooner/blowback-in-manchester-and-why-quilliam-must-be-investigated-f9472be1f26c
@Ken Hayden: In the second link you will also find a connection to Irish Jihadis . I probably couldn’t say the name here , but you will find it .
Why even entertain them. Round up their family and put them all on a flight back to where they came from. Free flight home, everyone is a winner. Especially the UK taxpayer.
@KingBen: put their families back on flights to Leicester and Birmingham?
@Richard Lippy Collins: no, they are not from Leicester or Birmingham. I’d suggest the middle east somewhere, doesn’t really matter. Just out of the country that welcomed them and gave them free houses, education, health and opportunities.
@KingBen: yep,lock stock,and barrel,,,total
Muslim and western values are not compatible we must stand up and defend our native cultures before Islamic domination prevails . it’s simple, Europe must wake up. Many parts of France,Britain,Holland and Belgium it’s too already too late . Ultimately it’s a numbers game, we must not ever allow what’s happened in Germany(2015) to happen elsewhere or else it’s all over
There should be super severe law for that, if found connected to terrorist cell they should have UK citizenships scraped and sent back to Turkey, never allow them back. With law like this all terrorists to be will think twice.
Those pesky atheists at it again…. Oh wait
Islam is to spread in every country and this is meant to be a good thing….. come on cop on, their way of living not suited for western life sure most of them say it themselves, only one solution if you want to fit in adjust to the country you choose to live in and respect our Christian value and our country, nobody’s saying convert but just remembered your choose to move to Christian Europe, and stop playing the race card when you don’t get your ways….
have your say