Yesterday as we were driving to Dingle we came to an area where there were mountains on one side of us and the sea on the other. It was beautiful, so beautiful that I decided we needed to get off the carriage way (that would be a two lane road to those of you in the States) and onto a side road (that would be a country lane to us). I got us as close to the sea as I could. Along the way we got to see up front and personal lots of darling Irish cottages. As we were meandering the road it began to get really grassy - almost like a drive way, but what could we do? We continued on our path. Soon we see an older gentlemen out for a fine walk with his dog. He looked the typical Irish country man - tall black rain boots, a tweet jacket and the ever present skimmer hat. He was carrying a walking stick. I knew that the both of us couldn't make it down the path so I pulled over as best I could, stopped and let him pass. He nodded his head in thanks and made his way down the path. The dog followed. I had not driven 5 feet til the girls started yelling. I said "what?" they said "the dog is following us - oh no he isn't the man called him - he's going to the man. - OH! the man just bonked him on the head with his walking stick!"God love the Irish - they treat their dogs like dogs - unlike some I know....
We have decided that when we get home we are changing out all of our curtains to lace.
Spotted Dick you say? We were in the big grocery store in Limerick and Peggy said to me "I wonder if they have spotted dick here." I said "No that is England." She said, "Well I thought maybe since we are so close." I should have gone with my gut, but no, I saw a store clerk - a young man about 28 - 30 years old and asked him "Excuse me Sir, do you have cans of spotted dick?" He looked at me rather agast and replied "What?" I said "Spotted...." I smiled and glanced at his crouch and said "Dick" He looked at me searchingly and said real slowly "S....p...o..t..t..e...d" and I said "Dick". He smiled and said "I've never seen it, but I don't work in this department. I will go check with someone who does." Peggy is behind me crying she is laughing so hard and he looks are me and says "Are you messing with me?" I "No, no I promise - it's a real thing." He leaves and comes back says "well, they said if we have it, it would be around here." We all started looking. He looked at me and said, "So what is it?" I said "Well, I don't really know - we just have a can of it and keep wrapping it up and giving it away at Christmas as a joke." He laughed and said, "Excellent!!" There was no spotted dick to be found in Ireland.
No comments:
Post a Comment