Guest Blogger at IrishFireside

Michele Erdvig · Host

Guest Blogger at IrishFireside

yesiree · Guru

Michele, I'm still chuckling from that post. Readers have already started adding their own "Not Gonna Do It" items to the list using the comments feature.

For those who want to read it...there's a travel blog button at the top and on the side column on the Irish Fireside website. Michele's post appears on Nov 11, 2008...and you are invited to add your own comments under the post.

You can read Michele's other posts by clicking her profile tag, "IrelandYes" under her post.

Thanks Michele, you made my day,

Anchoress · Guru

Enjoyed this:) Ireland as others see it:)

I mean, you expect portable toilets in the wilderness??? That is what bushes are for:)

The first cottage we had here, even when the plumbing was put in ( the previous residents used "the bucket" and the mother was nearly 80).. the water supply was "run off" from the bog, and when we had a dry spell, about twice a year, no flushing. Back to the woods... and always bottles in the car to fill from one of the local springs. We knew where every good one was.

This was only a couple of years ago too.

Needless to say the water that came in through the taps was dark brown and sometimes a slug would get trapped in the tap and block that.

Bath time was interesting.

This is the first Irish house where we have had mains water. Also the first one with even a chance of broadband, which is under negotiation even now.

The utter luxury is very, very strange. Feels quite decadent.

But some things are familiar. Yesterday I planted two gooseberry bushes we rescued from the bargain section of a new garden centre, and behold! Hit old bed springs...and the customary bottles are popping out all over the place.

Blessings this day

Michele Erdvig · Host

Anchoress,

Always good to hear of your personal experiences in Ireland. A slug! Yuck. I found Liam's post funny too. I guess he knows what the Irish wilderness holds now. No toilets. It is fun hearing all the comments once a line of thought is started.

Michele

Anchoress · Guru

Michele; I am learning from all of you what a culture shock our Canadian Sisters had here. So I am apologising to them..... I just never understood before. Compared to there we are primitive indeed...

A German lady we knew boasted about her "new" cottage; thatched roof and only E50 a week.. we were turning shamrock green.

I was nearby one day so dropped in.

The half-door she proudly displayed was fine; we have a door opening straight to the outside here.

She made coffee, and as she was in the kitchen I happened to look upwards.. No ceiling; the bare thatch... dark and messy

Anything could be crawling about up there; never a wink of sleep would be had for watching for beasties.

Then she told me that when she moved in the place was infested with fleas...

Left there itching:)

Hence the care needed with rentals; and hence the great value of exchanging findings here. We have a checklist now... Even so we got caught out with the phone here, or lack of it.

Michele Erdvig wrote:

Anchoress,

Always good to hear of your personal experiences in Ireland. A slug! Yuck. I found Liam's post funny too. I guess he knows what the Irish wilderness holds now. No toilets. It is fun hearing all the comments once a line of thought is started.

Michele