2023 Christmas Newsletter

I've now been living in Ireland for almost a year! 

And it's been a great year. I've been quite busy getting all moved in, meeting people, joining groups, adapting to the culture and learning what is where and how to get there. 

Real life has taken precedent over updating this blog, but I'll now try to get caught up. 

Learning my way around

My new home is just where I wanted. I'm in County Kilkenny, which was my number one area in my search for my new home. It's in rural southeast Ireland where all my research said is the sunniest and least rainy area. I'm out in the country, separate but not isolated. I have neighbors around me, but I can't see any of them from the house. And I wanted to be within 15-20 minutes of a grocery store, bank, shopping etc...

I'm located almost exactly between New Ross, which is a really cute town of about 8,600 people and Waterford, which is the oldest town in Ireland with a population of about 48,000 people. 

New Ross

I have to drive about four miles on narrow country roads to get to a major road. The roads around me aren't as narrow as some, but they're generally only about a lane and a half wide which makes some interesting driving, particularly during harvest season when there is lots of farm machinery. I'm in a farming and cattle area with gorgeous scenery. It's so lush and green most of the year. In winter the trees are bare but the grass is still green and the views are even better. 

Most of the roads have hedges on both sides. When I got here last January the hedges were neat and trimmed and easy to see over. As it went to spring and summer the hedges grow like crazy and get much taller. Now in the fall, these big hedge trimmers travel the roads and neaten everything up again for the winter. 

It didn't take me too long to be comfortable getting places without using SatNav (GPS to Americans). But I always have it handy for when I go to new places. Everywhere here has an eir code. It's kind of like a zip code but way more specific. There are millions of eir codes because each one is a specific house or building. Each neighbor around me has a different eir code. Unfortunately Garmin decided not to update their system with all the eir codes but happily Google Maps did. So if my Garmin doesn't work, I use my iPhone.

eircode.ie

Getting to know people and making friends

There's a wonderful sense of community here. There's lot of different groups and events. And everything has great community support. I've joined two women's groups, a choir and a retiree group. I've met lots of wonderful people and made several good friends. 

I'm really enjoying singing with this choir. There's about 45 people, of which at least a third are men which makes a nice balance. The choir director asked me to sing second soprano! I haven't sung soprano since college, so it's been interesting. 

I'm part of the steering committee for the New Ross Women's Shed (a nationwide network of women's groups) and designed the logo, a pull up banner and flyers for some of our events. A very nice group of women. We do some type of event every other week. 

Mna is the Irish word for Woman

Glenmore is a small village that is closest to me. There's a village hall and I've been to a play, concert, dinner and the Glenmore Women's Shed events. There used to be a village store and many events are fund raisers for getting the village store up and running again. I'm amazed at the community support. There's always a lot of people attending and donating through ticket sales and raffle tickets. 

I've also joined the Active Retiree group in New Ross. We have monthly meetings, there's activities every week and I've done a day trip to Avondale House and a five day trip to Letterkenny, Donegal so far. I'm looking forward to doing more things with the group next year. 

Donegal

Culture

There is an amazing amount of culture here. New Ross has an actual theatre and two Music Societies who do musicals. One group performed Oklahoma recently and it was amazingly good! Lots of talent. The other Society will be putting on Fiddler on the Roof in March. Waterford has a Royal Theatre with an impressive line-up and Wexford has an Opera Company.

The theatre in New Ross

The library system is excellent. I have two libraries close by and the entire library system across all of Ireland is tied together in the same way the Los Angeles system is tied together. 

The weather

It's been fun to experience seasons again after so many years in Los Angeles. And it's wonderfully moderate temperature-wise here. (I'm slowly getting used to Celcius) It doesn't go below freezing much and it doesn't get overly hot. It does rain, but not as much as you'd think it might, and the rain is mostly a 'soft' rain which is a floaty light rain that isn't bad to be out in. This is my first full winter here and I might have a different opinion about grey days by the time Spring comes around, but so far so good. 

The bureaucracy of Ireland

There is a LOT of red tape here. Everything seems more difficult because I'm learning the ropes, probably anyone moving to the U.S. would feel the same. 

My Visa 

First was getting my visa. I went through a law firm in Dublin. I had to provide all sorts of paperwork and all the money stuff had to be certified by an Irish accountant. Once it was all collected and verified, the law firm sent it to the Irish Department of Justice. I got approved but then had to go to the Kilkenny Garda Station (the police station 45 minutes away) to get my Resident Card. 

I have to renew my visa yearly for the first five years and I'm in the middle of all that now. It took awhile but I finally figured out the process. I had to fill out an application and find an Irish accountant to certify all the finance stuff and send it to the Department of Justice. I'm now waiting to hear back that I've been approved for another year (don't expect there'll be any problem). I'll then have to go back to the Kilkenny Garda Station and get a new Resident Card. Then rinse and repeat the next four years. At that point I'll be able to apply for citizenship.

Getting utilities and a bank account

This took months! Round and round it goes. You can't open a bank account without proof of address, which requires a utility bill -- and you can't get a utility without a bank account! All the utilities require payment by direct debit to an Irish back account. They won't accept cash advance payment even! After several trips to the bank, we were finally able to use the private health insurance I bought with the help of the visa law firm to get a checking account and then I was able to do electricity, mobile phone (they're not called cell phones here), wifi, trash pickup etc...

Getting a drivers license

This is another thing still in the process. Before I could even begin I had to get a PPS number, which is sort of an Irish Social Security number. That took some research and two trips to a government office in Waterford. Once I got the PPS number, I then had to take a written test. Only after that could I apply for a learners permit. There's a requirement of 12 driving lessons before you can apply for the practical driving test. This does make sense for a new teenage driver but is a bit much for someone who's driven for many years. Fortunately a friend suggested an instructor who gives credit for prior experience so I got past that pretty quickly. So now I have everything done and I'm officially in the queue to take the practical drivers test but there is a four to six month scheduling backlog! Hopefully it won't take six months. 

Buying a car

I bought a used car in England for the six months I was there (way cheaper than renting a car) and brought it over on the ferry when I came to Ireland in January, but with taxes and tariffs for importing a UK car, it made no sense to keep it here. So I bought an Irish car in June. 

I bought a Toyota Yaris which is a self charging hybrid. I quite like it. 

Fortunately the process of shopping and buying a car is pretty much the same here. There are 'car alleys' here with lots of dealerships too. One really great difference is that the tax is built into the price of the car. There are no license plates here or in the UK. The plate on the car is the car registration and stays on the car it's entire life span. One different thing here is the insurance, tax and NCT (basically like a U.S. smog test) discs that have to be on the windshield. Like this.

I'll have to get the NCT test after the first of the year for the first time for the car since it's a 2020. Evidently there's a waiting list for that too. 

Some interesting cultural differences 

Mostly it's been quite easy adapting to everything here but there is the odd thing now and again that takes a moment. 

The hardest thing to adapt to has been OIL HEATING! I have a big tank at the back of the house and I have to keep track of how much oil I have left by putting a big giant dip stick in the tank now and again and then order oil from a company who comes in a big tanker truck with a huge hose. The hardest thing is that the heating doesn't run on a thermostat. Rather I have to program in timing of when the heat comes off and on. The radiators don't get heat out into the room like a heating duct either. But it's not that big of a problem.

I have an open fireplace and a wood burning stove which makes a huge difference and I've learned the advantages of a hot water bottle on my lap while I'm on the computer and/or watching tv. 

It was a great piece of timing that fiber optic wifi was installed in this area right around the time I moved in. So even in rural Ireland I get great and reliable speeds.

Made the right choice moving to Ireland

I have no doubts that I've made the right decision moving here. I feel at home, love my house and garden, and have made some wonderful friends. 

Can't say I miss the United States other than friends. Food shopping is an interesting mix of finding things that don't exist in the US and missing some things I wish I could get here. 

I'll be glad when I get my first visa renewal and I'm looking forward to my second year here.