We had a late start on Friday evening. People from Cork arrived at the Malahide house at around 9pm. By that time, members from Dublin had already arrived and had their tea. Between the members and us volunteers, there were a lot of hungry people waiting for their dinner! Because it is a large group, we had a full house in Malahide, a full house in Swords, and 12 people in a nearby bed and breakfast. I was chosen to stay in the bed and breakfast, and I was thrilled! But we split up the bed and breakfast people between Malahide and Swords for dinner.
When the bus finally pulled up, I went outside to greet Linda. She is in her mid thirties and is blind. I've never been a helper to a blind person, so I was a little nervous that I would run her into a chair or something without looking! (Most of you know what a bad driver I am!) But I think I did a good job. We got along very well. She is very soft spoken and sweet. Dinner went by extremely fast because we were all starving! We left right after to head to The Malahide Guest House. It was a nice little place, tucked away behind the Malahide Castle. Meeting the other volunteers and members from Cork was very enjoyable. They are all older and have been volunteers for CASA for a long time. They do similar work in Cork, but they don't have overnight respite care. They mostly just do day trips or events.
We went shopping and saw a movie the next morning. Between the limited choices of "Bruno," "The Hangover," and "Fired Up." These are all movies that would definitely have dirty humor and we are a group of Catholic adults, including an elderly nun! But they chose "Fired Up"...not exactly a piece of good American film, but I'll admit I laughed a little. I wasn't sure Linda enjoyed the cinema, but she was ok with going, and I just helped her here and there when she got lost on what was happening. When we got back to the bed and breakfast, we all went into our own rooms. This was weird because in the Malahide house, we always stay together as a group and play games. But I had three hours with Linda just the two of us. And it would have been perfectly fine, but I woke up with an extremely sore throat and talking was a challenge for me. But luckly, she was exhausted as well and we took a nap! It was really nice. And then we got dressed for dinner and left at eight. We all met up for dinner at the restaurant that CASA owns called Ten Fourteen. We all enjoyed a great meal, and Linda even indulged in two glasses of wine. (She was so excited!) Towards the end of the meal, there were three women who dressed up like the Andrew Sisters and sang like them too! We got an hour of really great songs from the 40s such as "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "Don't Fence Me In." The members loved it! And if my voice was working at all I would have sang along! We didn't leave the restaurant until about half eleven, and by the time we all got to our homes we were so tired!
The next morning, Linda and I had a nice breakfast in the B&B and then walked with the others to the castle. Jimmy, our bus driver, wasn't due to pick us up until half twelve. After he came and collected us, he took us to The Grand Hotel. We rented out a room there and we had Mass together followed by lunch. The Cork people had to leave soon after lunch to catch their train.
The weekend went by very quickly. I really loved my time with Linda. She was such a sweet person. When we were shopping she helped me pick out meds for my cold because Irish medicine is different than American medicine. And she kept trying to give me lotion and perfume samples that she had gotten from her favorite store in Cork. I wonder if I'll be able to see her again while I'm here. We don't do much with the Cork crowd. She mentioned that she is going to Lourdes in October with CASA and I am really hoping I'm picked to go as well. So maybe we'll meet then.
I didn't do much this weekend. I'm just trying to rest up before this next week. We are going to be very busy with visits in the next couple of days and then we have another group starting Friday afternoon. I spent a lot of time planning my trip around Ireland when Katie come here in August. It's only a month away! I'm hoping there are plenty of rooms left at hostels and B&Bs.
Well it's raining like crazy here, which of course makes me feel right at home. I hope you are all enjoying real July weather. :)
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