Holidays this year were destined to be a calm affair for the Rossiter Mountain 6 for a couple of reasons.
Reason 1..... Liz and I had 3 weddings to attend in a 7 week time frame. The first was my Brother, Ronan, to the beautiful Elaine on the 18th of June which I was best man, so no pressure then!!!
Next came our cousin, Karen, to Emmet which was the 23 of July at which I completly went mad dancing while my poor knee injuried wife sat and watched me dance the night away, mostly on tables I am told!!!.
7th of August came and we attended the wedding of my boss, and friend I have to say for many years.I knew Jack as I grew up in Killinick and he married my 2nd cousin ( I think) Noelle Halligan.
So there's the weddings dealt with.
Reason 2....big son,Aaron, started in St.Peters last year and the note was brought home about the Ski Trip.Straight away Liz and I said yes without considering where the money would come from, for we felt this is something he should do!Bit by bit we found the money and our little big man is off to Bormio on New Years Day for a week of fun with the school....go Aarnie...! Part of the deal was that he earned his own spending money for this trip over the summer. This he did with gusto!!.Liz bought him a sealed can in May and every penny he earned from the job he set up himself cutting grass went into it. It would be rude to say how much he earned but we were shocked, and happy!!!
So, when we checked our pockets we found a few bob and headed off to .......................Clondalkin......yes the Dublin one!!!!!!!!!
I was worried to say the least, I had visions of skangers coming home from, De Nite Klub, and flicking lighted fag butts at the tent with all my care sound asleep inside!!! I worried for nothing.The campsite was off the main road and as myself and Liz checked in for 3 nights the guy behind the counter reassured us no end about safety and campsite courtesy as he went out to some young campers and told them to keep it down!! We were in Doolin last year, and I have to say, I would go back to Camac Valley before Doolin any day, honestly.
So, what do you do when you have put up a huge tent in Clondalkin and furnished it with as much comforts that you can carry in an Opel Zafira????......thats right , you head over to Templelogue and borrow your brother in laws gas BBQ.Liz' brother, John, and his wife Geraldine live only 10 mins from where we were staying so it was handy, we were like yuppie campers with a gas BBQ. It didn't work mind you so we looked like tool's!!! But we managed to cook up some great grub on my parents 2 ring Campinggaz stove which cooked grub for our family 30 years ago while we camped in France.
I am so glad we did this camping trip because we got to see parts of Dublin that are not noticed while driving through it.We did an open top bus tour of the city which I am still talking about and boring people with, the history this country has is amazing and the truth be known Dublin was built and formed by the English, check it out!!
Our trip to Dublin was great and we will do it again next year maybe many weekends you never know.
We ended up staying and extra night because the kids were having such fun and it was relaxing for me and liz to sit off drink a glass of wine and wait for the spuds to boil, thats it!
I did, however, go to Tallaght to buy the groceries one evening and very quickly popped into The Green Isle Hotel for 1 quick pint on the way back , when who did I meet only Ian Hearne and Karen and all the kids, so they came to the campsite and we had a good old drink.
Camping, ......ye can't beat it!
