May 24, 2024
Spending time with Mayo Co. Cousins!
I am having a fabulous time visiting all my Irish cousins in County Mayo, this week. Last time I was here was 2016, about seven years ago and since then there have been a lot of special additions, spouses and children! My oh so lovely and welcoming hosts are John and Anne Keane (Anne's mother and my mom's mother were sisters), making her my first cousin, once removed. They live in Balla, Mayo and have both mostly retired from running the Keane Farm Machinery & Repair
Business. Their 2 sons Gerard and Sean now run the business, which is located right next to their parents' home. Aine, their daughter is married to Barry Moran and their 3 children are pictured above and they are expecting one more, in October.
Cuties above are Cuan, Seoidin & Barra,
all Gaelic names and they are 1.5, 4 and 3 years old, respectively. They live in a stunningly converted, energy efficient home just outside Castlebar and are very active in sport as are both parents. Aine
is a Physical Education teacher in middle school and Barry
was a Gaelic football player and now coaches and works in Finance for American Life Science Firms. Below is John Keane
performing one of his favorite retirement duties - heating up feed for the cats; Anne
visiting her brother Martin
out on his farmstead: John & Anne
together and Anne
in Cong.
Sean Keane & his wife Helen McGarrigle, a pharmacist, have 2 enchanting boys Oisin and Fionn and little sister Niamh. The boys are 6 and 5 and in school together and I got to spend a fun afternoon with them playing with Legos and learning all about farm machinery.
Another of my grandmother's sister was Josie McEveney who is survived by her 5 Children in Mayo. I got to spend time with 3 of them.
Patricia & Thomas Fitzpatrick on their farm in Hollymount. Tommy McEveny & son Conor in Snugboro, Castlebar.
I really enjoyed my first trip to Thailand! On our final morning here we went to try breakfast at this spot, down the road, we had been hearing rave reviews on, King Of Bread . The hype was correct, the breakfast was delicious and they had some unique choices. I had eggs benedict on a croissant, in lieu of the standard english muffin and Bosco had it on Milk Bread, which was equally tasty.
We love having authentic experiences with locals to really get a chance to see how they live and thrive in the Ports we visit. So when I found a cooking class, by a local woman offered in her home, we were excited to book. Um ( our teacher) picked us and brought us back to our hotel along with the family of 4 from Sydney, Australia, that had also signed up for this afternoon class. Um's house, which has a lovely open air kitchen, garden and dining area, was about a 30 minute drive and turned out to be on the beach, right next to the Grandparent Rocks.
The nightlife scene doesn't really get going till after 11pm and goes till 5 am in the Chaweng section of Koh Samui . We made our way over to the club district, and one of the hot spots called the ArkBar a little past 10pm to have some dinner, while watching the beach fire shows.