The Irish Invade!

Mid June brought an influx of Irish! The first arrivals were Debbie and Seona, two girls who were in ULKC with us, who came from Mexico as they’ve been travelling for a while. They were here for about 5 weeks. We met up with them both just after they arrived and were able to give them suggestions for their trip. We also went to the cinema with them to see the Sex and the City movie, though I think Seán will call it being dragged there by the girls!

A couple of days later another ULKC paddler, Paul, arrived. Neither us nor Debbie and Seona had known he was coming until we got texts out of the blue from him a couple of days earlier saying he was coming out. We spent an evening with him also. He ended up joining the girls and travelling around most of the country with them.

The same day that we met with Paul I got a call from some neighbours from home who were in town so we went to see them on our way in to see Paul. Mary taught me in my first year in secondary school and she, her husband Pat and their daughter Niamh, who had just finished the Leaving Cert, had all come out for a few weeks to see their son/brother Dermot who is working in Hastings. I had contacted Dermot previously when I was in Hastings but we hadn’t managed to meet. Niamh bought her first, and second, pony from us and it was fun hearing the story of the first purchase from their side. They’d been given an audition period by my Dad who wanted to make sure that Niamh and the pony were a good fit before he agreed to the sale, as both the pony and Niamh were inexperienced at that stage.

We had another couple of visitors to work around this time, though not Irish ones. The Aussies who had placed the big order during the summer came to see around the factory. The visit seems to have gone well enough as before leaving they confirmed they’d be placing more orders soon. That means that we will have work with the company for a while to come.

The other bit of socialising that month was the B Grade Barbeque! A platter of meat was bought by Cam and Nic on the way home from the Wellington comp and they decided that it should be used for a barbeque for the B Grade polo players and their significant others. The date was set and Andy offered his house for a Sunday afternoon. Again, all those from the North Shore hopped into the Barracuda Fun Bus and drove south to Andy’s. We had a great afternoon there with some tasty food. It was definitely fun playing the B Grade, and I was quite grateful for ending up on one of the teams as the A Grade could have driven me mad otherwise. Though it wasn’t so much fun at the finals with the lack of sleep!