Winter has arrived in Kingston!!

I know, I know - the blog hasn't been updated for a few weeks - mea culpa!! but honestly, we've had various internet/computer problems recently and then what with visiting sisters and friends and life in general, I'm only getting to this now so apologies ok??

Well, where to start? We had a couple of interesting incidents recently here. The first involved a small mouse. I had noticed some evidence of a nocturnal visitor in the kitchen - didn't mention it to the kids but went and got a couple of traps (don't you hate even the look of those things?). The trap was discreetly placed in one of the kitchen cupboards with some peanut butter (crunchy rather than smooth) which apparently mice love - well Canadian mice anyway. Next morning Paddy checked and the peanut butter was gone, the trap had been sprung but no sign of our friend! We re-set the trap and continued to check it for the following couple of days but nothing happened and there was no sign of any night visits which we thought was kind of strange. Was just the snapping of the trap enough to frighten the mouse away we wondered??

A couple of days later we arrived home and Ellen went to go into the kitchen - next thing she let out this blood-curdling scream and ran back into the living room hysterical - we couldn't get any sense out of her but I reckoned the mouse had finally made a reappearance. Paddy and I went to the kitchen and there was the mouse, dragging his back legs across the floor painfully slowly - obviously the trap had broken his back but he'd managed to get away. Well, I don't know if any of you have ever seen a paraplegic mouse before, but its not a pretty sight! I'm ending this particular little story here and lets just say that all's well that ends well................

The next thing that happened was Laura accidentally setting herself on fire. It was actually so scary and she/we were very lucky - she came in from work and put the kettle on and was chatting to Ellie and I in the kitchen. I looked up from sorting the recycling (see how exciting my life is??) and told her not to stand with her back to the cooker so she moved. Next thing there are flames leaping up her back and her coat was on fire! she dropped to the floor and I rolled her while Ellen screamed her head off (she got an awful fright) and we got the flames out. Needless to say her coat was destroyed and her cardigan underneath but she was ok - luckily she still had the coat on as if she didn't and it was one less layer............. lets not go there........... Thank God it wasn't that serious, but it was a timely lesson to all of the dangers of gas rings.

Now to our recent visitors (no, not more mice - humans!). Our first guests to Kingston were Sinead, Robyn and Ben who came for a weekend. It was great fun - the kids loved having their cousins to stay and all went to see a Christmas movie together. We had a short tour around Kingston (I could see my sister from the "Big City" was a little surprised by the size of our new hometown!) and Sinead and I got to have a few cups of coffee and chats so we were all happy with our weekend.

Then Aedeen came to stay - major excitement all round - someone from HOME!!! It was really great to have her here for a whole week! We did our Kingston tour to point out some of the places of interest which have become part of our lives now: Ellen and Patrick's schools, Paddy's office at the CYA, Laura's shop on the main street, the Gym and YMCA - she even came to our ice-skating lessons at the Invista Centre. We had several catchup sessions over large cups of coffee and even larger glasss of wine, nice long lunches at various locations, some fun meals out with the whole family, a few visits to the local bars, we had coffee in my Canadian friend Beth's house, we had Laura's friend Rachel over for dinner, a swedish massage, a few martinis and lots and shopping!! all in all, we thoroughly enjoyed her visit and are all hoping she liked Kingston enough to come back again some day (right Aedeen??!) By the way, the plane in the photos is the one that goes between Toronto and Kingston which Aedeen came and went on!

Just after Aedeen left, the snow came! It co-incided with the opening of the ice-rink in front of the Town Hall and the lighting of the Christmas tree so it was a pretty magical event! We had had a few snow flurries during the week and a big snow storm had been forecast, but to be honest we didn't think it would happen so suddenly. We were ice-skating down town after dinner the evening beforehand and there were just light flurries. We went to bed with no snow and lo and behold - woke up looking at the scene you see on a Christmas card!! There was plenty of snow (10cms) which transformed the place into a winter wonderland overnight. The kids were so excited (me too!).......... Ellen's school declared a 'snow day' but Patrick's was open - he didn't mind as all the kids just go to school in their snowsuits and they had a ball at break time making snow forts and having snowball fights. It snowed for about two days then stopped and the snow is now mostly in banks at the road side (courtesy of the fleet of busy snow ploughs) and is pretty much frozen solid as the temperatures have not risen above freezing for the past couple of weeks. It was -9 on Friday which with the wind chill factor was -15!!! our coldest so far........ we'd better get used to it - thankfully the house is nice and cosy. We're hoping it'll be a white Christmas - apparently its quite usual so fingers crossed.

"The Fall" and Halloween

'The Fall" is well and truly under way here and it is really quite beautiful - the trees are all shades from yellow to dark red and as there are a lots of trees around Kingston its looking great!

Halloween is quite the celebration here in Canada with the whole place dressing up, adults and kids alike. We couldn't get over how into it they are - in addition to the costumes they also decorate the houses so elaborately like haunted houses etc. with cobwebs covering the entire front of the houses and smoke machines, dangling full-size skeletons not to mention the carved pumpkins everywhere! The parents of the kids trick or treating also dress up (I was the only one not in costume!) and even the people at home opening the door to the kids are dressed up - it was great fun and eveyone is invited to house parties afterwards. Then of course all the college students dress up and head out to parties/gigs later on so basically it seemed like the whole town was on the move for the night. The kids really enjoyed it and so did we. We were all invited to a party on halloween night and met some more of the parents from Patrick's school who were nice people so that was a good night and we made some new friends. Laura had a couple fo halloween parties over the weekend too and again everyone without exception was dressed up in fantastic costumes! I think we'll have to be more prepared next halloween now that we are "in the know". We had also been invited to a 'pumpkin carving' evening at a work colleague of Paddy's, but the daughter of the house got the "swine '09" so it was called off. Then the daughter of the house we were in at the party on Saturday came down with it on Sunday so we are keeping our fingers and toes crossed that we escape this dose as its really rampant at the moment. From what we hear, it's the same back at home.

Paddy was in Ottawa on Monday/Tuesday this week and then headed off to the ISAF conference in Korea on Wednesday morning. I didn't envy him the journey - first a short flight to Toronto, followed by a long flight to Tokyo (12hours) and finally his connection onward to Korea. He'll be tired out by the time he arrives to his final destination. It was funny actually, cos it was the first time we had experienced the airport here in Kingston so naturally we left in good time to arrive a good hour before his flight. Well, we were the only people there!!! apparently 20mins is fine and there were only 5 people catching the flight anyway!!! also the journey to airport at 6.50am took about 8 minutes so we were laughing at the contrast!.

Ellie and Patrick are both continuing to enjoy their schools - although the swine flu is rampant and every day we hear of more people going down with it, particularly in Ellen's school where they are running at about 25% absenteeism currently and lots of teachers out too.

Laura is really enjoying work and the responsibility of opening/closing the shop and reporting back to the owners on the days business patterns etc. so its been good for her. She has been pursuing the winter semester with Queens but it now seems from her latest info that the course will be a correspondence one so that doesn't appeal to her so she may skip on that. Anyway, she has plenty to occupy her time at the moment so we'll see.

This weekend Sinead and her kids Robyn and Ben are coming for the weekend so we're looking forward to having our first visitors! the kids are thrilled and are planning swimming and skating and going out for pizza on Saturday night and I'm delighted to have Sinead needless to say! Chris has to stay in Toronto as he has his work farewell on Friday night and with Paddy away, I think he'll be enjoying a quiet weekend. Then we also have Aedeen's visit coming up at the end of the month so I can't wait for that!!!! it'll be fun showing Sinead and Aedeen around and seeing what they think of Kingston - I'll get Aedeen to take pics too so that she can show you all what it's like.

Weeks 4 & 5 - Thanksgiving!

Weeks 4 & 5 and our first Canadian Thanksgiving!
The "settling in" period has really begun to "settle down"......... Laura has now finished all her driving theory lessons and just has to wait awhile for the on-the-road lessons as the driving licence people are on strike at the moment. This also affects Paddy and I as we can't apply for Canadian drivers licences yet 'til that's over. In the meantime, we have been having numerous phone calls back and forth to Quinn Insurance trying to get my insurance for the new car sorted out and finally today (after 2 weeks of calls back and forth) we have made progress and I am now insured to drive again - hurray!

Ellen and Patrick have both had "School Photo Day" and so we will be able to send home some pics of them in their new schools shortly! We have also begun our ice-skating lessons in the Invista Centre.......... Patrick is in a junior group on Wednesday evenings which is great fun and he is coming along nicely. Paddy, Ellen and I are with the adult group on Thursday evening and we are making (slow) progress. On the first outing, I thought I was doing brilliantly until I did quite a spectacular wipe-out and landed flat on my back/ass on the ice! thank God they insist on helmets cos it was quite a thud...... in fact, I'd swear I had whiplash for about 4 days afterwards!! Last Thursday was better tho and none of us fell at all!

Thanksgiving in Canada is earlier than the USA - it fell on Monday 12th so it was a holiday day here - no work or school!...... The Grand Benders had invited us up to join them at the cottage again and also very kindly extended the invite to Laura's pal Rachel to come too. Luckily we had the new car with the extra seats in the back which was still a squeeze with 6 of us and our various bags, some food etc. but off we headed on Friday evening. It was a slow journey through driving rain the whole way (reminded us of home!) but eventually we got there about 11pm!! It was great to see the Sinead and family again, and Al & Shelley too. We had a great laugh with them all on Saturday over dinner and played the game "head bands" which had us all in stitches. The girls ended up staying up til 2am with Chris and Alex playing rock band on the Wii so a fun night all round. Al and Shelley had Laura and Rachel stay over in their cottage and they got 5 star treatment - they even got a chocolate on their pillows!!! The kids had great fun playing with each other - its great that they all get on so well and love being together.

Then on Sunday we had Thanksgiving - it was great! Judy (Chris's mum) joined us all and we had a delicious feast of Turkey with all the trimmings including butternut squash which was a new vegetable for us Irish, and finishing up with Judy's desserts of pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake and carrott cake - it wasn't just the turkey that was well stuffed!!! It was gorgeous and no mean feat to serve up such a great meal for 13 people, so once again our thanks to the Grand Benders for looking after us all sooooo well.

Other news is that Laura started working properly at the shop "blueprint" and they want her to be a keyholder and do opening and closing so good for her! she is enjoying it so far..... her hours are mixed during the week as they are open late some evenings and at weekends so she is still managing to enjoy her social life as well. On Friday we had our new oven installed - halleluia! and after an initial fault which was fixed by a technician on Saturday, we had our first roast dinner at home - might not sound like its worthy of mention, but believe me, it is!!! On Wednesday last, the girls and I got tickets to see Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance which was on in O2 - nothing as fancy tho from what I've heard. The show was fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed our night out.

Last Sunday was a beautiful day - tempertures were up again to about 12/13c and the sun was shining so Paddy, Ellen, Patrick and I (Laura was working in the afternoon) got the car ferry to Wolfe Island and went to a corn maze (i could have called it a maize maze but that would be too corny) where we spent the afternoon trying to find our way out of the maze!! it was great fun and good excercise too since you're basically walking around in circles for hours!!! Anyway, we all enjoyed the day. In the middle of the maze, we had a phone call from my mum and dad who were just back from their hols so that added to the enjoyment for me too!!

Photos of 1st cottage visit

Week 4 - The Cottage update

We've had an eventful week! As I had told you, we were going to spend last weekend at Sinead and Chris's cottage up at Grand Bend on Lake Huron with the Bonthron family (hereafter to be referred to as the "Grand Benders" - no offence intended). We had such a good weekend! it was so nice to relax and enjoy the weekend with extended family - Chris's aunt and uncle Shelley and Al were there and also Chris's dad, Brian, Brenda, their brother in law Alex and his kids Mia and Alexa. It was a long journey (took us 6 hours but includes two stops for petrol, food etc) but it was well worth it as we had a great time. Sinead cooked us up a lovely breakfast on Saturday of "strata" which is a like a full Irish in a pot - it was yum! On Saturday night Chris and Al treated us all to their B-B-Q ribs and home fries which were absolutely amazing!! our contribution was to make Caesar salad using Brenda's recipe for the dressing and we also had fresh corn on the cob. After dinner, we went over to Al & Shelley's cottage where they have a fire pit and we toasted "smores" - these are made by toasting marshmallows on a long skewer then when they're all mushy you sandwich them between two biscuits and add your favourite chocolate (the girls made them with Reeses peanut butter cups) and eat - delish!! and of course excellent for diabetes - NOT! I had to have one - it'd be rude not to? and all in all, it was a great night with lots of fun so a big "Thank You" to the Grand Benders for all of that .......


Other news for the week is that we got a car on Tuesday - its a Ford Taurus station wagon - 10yrs old but only 15k on the clock and in great condition as it was owned by an elderly couple who didn't really go anywhere. The main advantage is that it has those extra dinky seats in the boot so Patrick can sit in there and the girls have more room in the back - it was a bit of a squish on the way to the Cottage last weekend so next trip everyone will have more room ....... Paddy is the only one insured on it at the mo cos we're waiting on some papers from home to arrive for me but hopefully that will be sorted before the week is out.

I have an admission - after all my saying that I was having no diffs with the driving, I actually reversed into a neighbours car on Friday (in the rental)! We were trying to get away early for the journey to Grand Bend and I have to admit I was fairly hassled!! Luckily it was only a small scratch on his car and he was really cool about it - he more or less said sure its an old car and you wouldn't notice another little scratch! There was more damage to the rental car - the rear bumper was pushed in and it had a good scrape - but the neighbour actually popped the dent out for me - he was really nice!! When we left the rental back I was cowering in the new car which we had just collected, but the rental people walked around the car and didn't notice the damage so I got away with it - phew!!

Laura had her first few hours at work - she's allowed work part-time til her work permit comes thru and she really enjoyed it - they seem like a nice company and she's looking forward to getting stuck in there. Ellen and Patrick continue to settle into new schools, homework etc. Our current routine is that Paddy drops Ellie off to school (she has to be in for 8.15) on the way to work and Patrick and I walk to his school which takes 15 to 20 mins - depending on how many squirrels we see along the way as we keep stopping to watch them. I can totally see where the expression "squirreling things away" comes from 'cos they always have something either in their mouths or in their paws - its a great start to the day. Ellen then walks home at 2.30 when she's finished (I know - its very early!) and I walk with Patrick at 3.30pm. So we'll keep that up as long as the weather allows, which will hopefully be for another 4 - 6 weeks. Everyone keeps saying "wait til the winter comes" so we're waiting with great expection for the massive snowfalls!

On the home front - some further cabinets have been installed in the kitchen so its looking better but still some work to be done on replacing the sink and sorting out the oven. At the moment only the gas rings on top work so my limited stove-top repertoire is wearing a bit thin............. I don't have my cookbooks yet either as they will be coming with the rest of our bits 'n pieces in another 4 or 5 weeks so if anyone would like to send me any suggestions other than Spag bols, stir frys, eggs, pasta I would be very grateful!!! We also had phone, internet and t.v. installed this week so everyone is delighted with that. After some initial set up probs we now seem to be fully up and running and look forward to easier communications with everyone.

Paddy is enjoying the CYA - the president is arriving this week for a couple of days with him so he will have a busy week ahead. They are also preparing for their AGM next month so plenty to keep him occupied. Breaking news - I have joined a Gym!! so now that I've gone public with that, I'd better make it work! so far so good and I'm enyoying the workouts - you mightn't recognise me next time we're home so be prepared! Paddy, Ellen and I are also hoping to start ice-skating lessons together this week and Patrick will join the junior class (Laura can skate already) so that should be fun!! We have to get some kit first today to get us started but I'm really keen that we learn as they put a skate rink in front of the Town Hall from December onwards so we want to be able to take advantage of that and enjoy it. Laura has a 21st party tonight and Patrick has a school friends party tomorrow so that's it for this week from all of us here! Keep the news coming folks, it's great!

Week 3 - A home (well for a few months anyway)

Week 3 - New Home!

Well, you will all be delighted to hear that we have moved into the house on Gore Street and are settling in well. The house is a lovely old limestone townhouse on three floors with a very small yard at the back. On the ground floor there is an open plan living/dining room and a kitchen (also small) and the utilities are in the basement (a bit dodgy, but however!). On the second floor there are two large bedrooms and a nice bathroom with an old claw-foot bath (the house reminds us of Laurelville!) and on the top floor again two large bedrooms and a bathroom and a roomy landing where the girls have a double futon couch - this is their "chill out area" - and we're hoping to get a t.v. up there for them too. The great thing about this house is its location - it is walking distance to Ellie's school (25 mins) Patrick's school (15 mins) the library (5 mins) Paddy's office (30 mins) and very importantly downtown (10 mins). So we can walk pretty much everywhere from here. There is a real walking/running/cycling culture here - that's how most people get around which is great to see. The streets are full of people out and about and I suppose the locals like to do as much as possible while the weather is still so nice (its been 20+ every day since we came). We did have rain one day but only for about 15 mins!

The Kids are settling in to their new schools. Patrick even ran for class representative!! he wrote his speech and practised it over and over (we all knew it off by heart!) and he stood up there in front of the class and said it for everyone. He didn't get elected but wasn't he brave?? Ellen is getting on well too in RND high school and has made some friends which is great. Laura has been looking at the winter semester courses at Queens which all start after Christmas. She has a lot of time on here hands tho, during the day so she did up her resume and dropped it into any shops that are hiring at the moment. One shop called her for interview yesterday, then after a good in depth interview they gave her a trial on the shop floor and then offered her a full time job!! She is delighted but the only snag may be that although she has applied for her work permit, she doesn't actually have one yet so they are going to call her today to say if she can start right away or if she has to wait til the permit arrives.

Paddy is enjoying getting stuck in to his new role in the CYA. They are a friendly bunch and the offices are very nicely situated at the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour so its so far, so good. He starts his travels this week with a trip up to Ottawa and over the next couple of months he will be visiting Toronto, Nova Scotia and a week at the International Federation's conference in Korea!!

I'm keeping busy with setting up the house - it came with furniture but none of the extras e.g. bedding/towels/kitchen equipment/bins/pots and pans etc. etc. it's funny to be shopping for all this stuff again that was just "there" at home!! Even the most basic supplies like salt and pepper, herbs and spices for cooking, a can opener - the stuff you take for granted at home, have had to be got. Thankfully though, during our first week in Kingston, a colleague of Paddy's (Marty) invited our family over to his home for dinner. It was lovely!! apart from being a much needed home-cooked meal (best ever brownies!) it also meant I met up with Beth, Marty's wife, who kindly took me under her wing and brought me shopping to all the right places for the stuff we needed. I'm telling you, the amount of choice for everything here is crazy!! Anyway, Beth pointed me in the right direction and we are now almost sorted. We've also had a couple of cups of coffee along the way and its been really nice having a friend too!! I've also cooked my first few meals here and haven't either blown up the kitchen (well half a kitchen - it's not fully installed yet) or poisened the family so its all good.........

Today is Arthur Guinness day and Paddy and I are planning to pay a visit at 17.59pm to a local Irish Bar called The Toucan to raise a glass and toast you all in Ireland!! so 'Cheers' everyone!! Tomorrow the kids have no school and we are going to head to Sinead and Chris's cottage on Lake Huron for the weekend. We're all really excited about that and can't wait to spend some time with the Bonthron's!!! yippee!!!

Thats it for now folks - more updates next week.

Week 2 - "have ye no home to go to??"





So we went to Ottawa - it is a really beautiful city and the government buildings are amazing! We were all well impressed (except Ellie whose reaction was similar to when she saw the Grand Canyon "It's a big canyon - get over it") . We enjoyed a walk around by the canal locks and took in the all the sights, it's well worth a visit.



Changed the rental car and I drove for the first time over here - driving on the right wasn't that bad - the cars and roads are both very good and the GPS is a great help, so no probs so far.



The main item occupying our time is of course the house hunting. We have seen a number of properties and have narrowed it down to two - one really cute one opposite the lake, with a nice garden but a drive out of town. The other which came up as a result of our putting a "wanted" ad in the local paper - the Whig Standard - which is a townhouse, right in the heart of Kingston a block up from the waterfront and walking distance from pretty much everything and this is the one we're leaning towards. It is owned by a lady who is about to go off on active duty to Afghanistan for 6-9 months so we think we will take it for an initial 6 months and see how we get on. It is a lovely old 3 storey building with fine big bedrooms and lots of character. On the downside the kitchen needs replacing and there is only one other open living/dining room and a tiny yard, but we have decided to go with that old saying "location, location, location" and see if we can make it work for us. It's currently unfurnished so if we can come to an agreement on that, then we're on.



Good news - We have the house!! we met with Susan the owner again and she is happy that we rent it from her. She is going to replace the kitchen straight away and furnish it for us so we're all delighted. We've told her that if she even gets the beds in we will move in right away and put up with any inconvenience while the kitchen goes in just so we can get out of the motel as soon as poss - hopefully before the weekend. This also means that Ellie can stay in the school she is in and maybe Patrick too but we have to check that out. Happy Days!!!

ok - week one in Kingston

Arrived at Greenacres Motel and checked into "self contained 2 bed apartment" which sounds good, but turned out to be Fritzel style basement, dark with low ceilings, claustrophobic and one bathroom with no window. Entrance was via a hidden door where two buildings connected and when you opened the door, there was a flight of steps down to the basement - get the picture?? It was ok for a few days but luckily we were able to move then into two inter-connecting rooms upstairs which also gave us two bathrooms, more space and it was much brighter with nice high ceilings, more space etc - so much better all round.

First tasks were to sort out banking and communications (our Irish mobiles not suitable). The banking was straight forward enough but the phones were another story!! They were very reluctant to give more than one phone to us (eventually got two) apparently living in a motel on the outskirts of town is not good for your credit rating!! Anyway, got that sorted and with the addition of a ready to go phone, we are all back in the land of telecommunications.

The search for housing has proved somewhat of a challenge. The fantastic house that we were so excited about fell through.......... having contacted us and said that their deal wasn't going ahead and agreed we could have the place (we viewed it twice on Friday) and having gone to Chez Piggy (yes Aedeen, it is a really nice place - one to bring all our visitors to!) when we got home they phoned to say that original deal was going ahead after all so no house - sorry!!! Needless to say we were all gutted, mainly cos we thought we had a home from next Monday but also cos it was such a nice one in perfect location etc. We had also gone ahead on Friday afternoon and enrolled Patrick in the local school 5 mins walk from house due to start on Monday. We had the school tour and met the teachers and everything. Now we're in the position that we may have to take him out as we are not in that area at all and they are quite strict about all that. We'll have a chat with them on Monday morning and see if they will let him stay at least until we get somewhere defo to live. BUMMER!!!

So its back to the drawing board - we have a couple of places that are of interest but its very hard to get a place that ticks all the boxes...... anyway, we've no choice but to keep looking, can't live in a motel forever - we may have to become trailer park trash after all!!! Meanwhile Paddy starts work on Tuesday and i will have to continue the search with Laura - and i will have to start driving from today - YIKES!!! look out Kingston!

Meanwhile Ellie started school yesterday! we had an appointment set up before we left with the school principal for 10 o'clock on Thursday and i'm not joking you by 11.30 am we'd had the meeting, Ellie was kitted out with her full uniform, had all her books, met the guidance counsellor to work out her personal timetable and was all set to rock and roll on Friday morning!! Now that's what i call efficient!!

Yesterday we took a drive (as part of our house search) to a place called Ganonoque on the St. Lawrence River, in the Thousand Island district - here's a bit of trivia for you - it's where thousand island dressing comes from! It's a beautiful place and we all enjoyed lunch by the waterside and a walk, ice cream included of course - not quite Teddy's but very good all the same. It was nice to relax for a bit and did us all good.

Laura met up with a friend of her cousin's last night, a girl who is on a year's erasmus in Kingston so it was great for her to get an introduction to the student social scene, particularly with this week being freshers week (or frosh week as its called here).

Today we go up to Ottawa to return our first rental and replace it with a smaller one so I'll let you know how that goes.

We're Here

Monday 7th September 2009 - Labour Day
Gettin up after the party was tough, but we all managed to get out in time for the taxi, even if we had to dump some excess baggage in Tarbert's on the way!

We had to balance the weight between suitcases to accomodate Delta's wishes but other than that the flight to New York was uneventful, particularly for Laura and Ellen who slept most of the way. BTW if you are a movie fan - don't fly with Delta - we had seen them all before.

JFK was grand too - until we tried to depart the - gate when it was discovered that the stewardess (only one on this tiny plane) was out of hours and we had to wait on the tarmac for an hour for a replacement. This delay added to the processing time for work permits and visas meant we didin't get to the hotel until 1900 (2400 Irish).

Sinead, Chris and family met us there and we had a quick dinner with them before collapsing into bed.

This morning Paddy hired a 7 seater (known as a minivan over here) for our trip to Kingston. Roisin is having coffee/breakfast with Sinead and the girls while Chris, Paddy, Patrick, Robin and Ben are swimming in the pool. We'll be leaving shortly for our first view of Kingston!