August 21, 2024

Meeting my cousin Gerard for first time in person.

My maternal grandmother, Anne Conway was the fourth born of twelve siblings. Her brother Tom was #10 and ten years younger. My Mom Mom left Castlebar, Co. Mayo Ireland for the USA in 1929, at the age of 21. Tom later moved to England, first Liverpool and then married and moved to Birmingham, England. I believe my grandmother never saw her brother Tom again, who would have been 11, after she moved away.

 Gerard is Tom & Nora's only son and he goes between Birmingham and Stoke on Trent and works as an electrical engineer, for GE. Gerard and I have exchanged emails and notes over the years, as we were introduced by other Mayo cousins and both of us had looked into tracing our family's history. I reached out to Gerard to see if we could possibly meet when I went with group to Liverpool, this past weekend. Gerard agreed, since his home is only about an hour away. So Sunday, we meet at the Albert Docks and caught up over a nice brunch at Botanicals Cafe. Then we enjoyed the sunshine and open air on top the Hop on and off bus getting off to see St. Luke's Farm Market and the interior of the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.   

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After a couple of hours touring and getting to know each other, we went back to Albert docks to join the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour.

PORT DEARAU, FIJI - Naidiri Village

By Patricia Patrick • December 4, 2025
Today we went to see the coastal Naidiri Village that has recently won the Top Prize in global restoration, for their ocean reef project. The reef restoration was borne out of necessity to solve their dwindling food/ main protein source for the village, of fish. It was started by 2 of the villages rugby players and today is run by the local teenagers (mostly boys) in the village. It was great seeing how empowered and proud they were of their amazing efforts.

LAUTOKA, FIJI

By Patricia Patrick • December 1, 2025
The port agent offered several trips to areas around Lautoka . We chose the trip to Serenity Island Resort which included van and boat transfers and lunch. It was a really nice day enjoying the sun, reef, pool, turtles and amenities!

RIVER TUBING DOWN THE NAVUA, SUVA, FIJI

By Patricia Patrick • December 1, 2025
I organized a group tour for a fun day experience. We had a great day despite the rain that decided to join in. We started with a 45 minute van ride out through the city, into the countryside. Then we got in long boats and went up river to a waterfall, some swam or cheered on the guides to cliff dive. Then back in the boats to visit Sabata Village where 50 family members live as a community existing totally off the land, along the river. Next was a quick boat ride to our BBQ lunch spot. After lunch we got to tube down the river, through light rapids, for just about an hour. We ganged our tubes together with the guide - we had a chain of 14 in my group and the guides totally blew us away singing hymns for a good chunk of the journey. It was truly moving in that place with the rain drizzling and all of us linked together. Loved it!