Day Ten – Field Trip, April 2016

Saying good bye to Belfast, we travelled across Northern Ireland. Because we had a late night last night, I fell asleep on the bus. I do know that we had a quick stop at our hotel and then travelled to Lagcurry in County Donegal to visit the Doagh Famine Village and Visitors Center.

While there, I received some education about the area. It is a very remote area and the people did not have much access to education until approximately the 1980s. I may be out a few years (a decade or two). The people there did not have much money at all. They did with what they had which wasn’t very much at all.

The famine from 1845 to 1848 hit the area very hard. We learned that six years previously, there was a very bad storm go through the area. It was so bad that it destroyed the boats that the local people had for fishing. They had not been able to replace the boats prior to 1845 and, hence, were not able to provide food for themselves in the way of fish.

The guide went on to tell us that the date of the storm was very important in another respect. The government brought in old age pension with the required age for enrolment being 70 years old. There was no civil registration prior to 1864 and it took the government officials to figure out how to determine who qualified for the pension. They realized that if someone was alive and could remember the storm, they qualified.

We then wandered around the displays that they had which included more than information regarding the famine. There was also a display about the making of peace between the Republicans and the Loyalists. I enjoyed the haunted house that they had put together. There were a few things that would scare someone, but I don’t think that it is as good as Nightmares Fear Factory in Niagara Falls. I will have to go back to Nightmares soon to determine this.

A tea was provided for us consisting of bread, butter, jam, biscuits, with tea or coffee (or, in my case, milk). This was just a light snack for us at lunch time. We could have done with more. I know that I would have liked more.

Back to Derry we went. We met our guide for our tour and the bus dropped us off at the part way up one of the hills. We were close to the entrance for the top of the old city wall. This wall was built in the 17^th century and was quite wide. To me, it felt like a street, but no vehicles are allowed on it. We passed a couple of the gates and then descended from the wall. We walked through a shopping area which was closed because it is Sunday. Then we headed towards the Guild Hall where we ended our tour and met up with our driver.

Tonight, we will be having dinner in our hotel and I am sure that all of us are looking forward to it. It may be another late evening as we don’t go to dinner until 7:00 pm.

An Important Member of Our Family

Let me introduce you to DT. Usually, DT has a very good disposition. He takes care of most of his own grooming. He has his favourite things to eat. He drinks lots of water. He makes sure that he exercises. He gets lots of sleep. DT is in relatively good shape.

However, there are times when he is quite insistent. If he decides that he wants to go out, he will talk to whomever will listen to him. If he is ignored while in this mood, he can become quite belligerent in his tone of voice. If he feels that someone has done wrong to him, he will try to get back at them by doing things that he knows he shouldn’t.

DT is quite nosey. He likes to think that he is the center of the universe. If you are sweeping the floor, he will sit there watching every move you make. If he thinks that you will be working right where he is, he will move but he will position himself so that he can see what you are doing.

DT also has a sense of time. He knows when it is time for breakfast. He does his best to wait patiently for it, but, sometimes, he will try to make the process go a little faster through talking out quite loudly. Most of the time, though, he will check to see how soon breakfast is, and then go wait for it in another room. Once you have given him his breakfast, he will eat very fast and then try to muscle more. He has gotten into trouble for that muscling lately. If he hears you getting your own breakfast and feels that he is still hungry, he will come to see if you will give him more. He loves to drink Coconut Dream. But, sometimes, he will come to see what you are doing but doesn’t really want anything more. If you give him some Coconut Dream at this time, he will look at it for a minute and, if he decides that he doesn’t want it, he will just walk away.

If supper smells very interesting, he will hang around until either he gets a taste, or get sent away. Sometimes, you can offer him some of it and he will decide that he doesn’t really want it. Most of the time, however, he loves to clean up the scraps. He loves it when we have visitors in for dinner. He does have to be told not to mooch food, though.

DT loves to tease. He likes to be teased and played with and will play games with whomever will play with him. He loves to play laser tag.

One of the things that he loves to do is to snuggle up with someone and stretch out while snuggling. He loves to show affection as well as receive it. He will actually go to sleep while snuggling.

DT has a wide range of facial expressions. He can look very curious with his eyes going big, very annoyed with his eyes going practically into slits, very innocent with his eyes going extremely big (used a lot when he is guilty), and all the ranges in between. He will even look at my husband as if to say, “What world is she from?”.

When DT hears our vehicles coming into the drive, he will first look towards the door and then go running to the door when he hears the footsteps. He wants to be the first to greet whoever is coming to the door.

So, please, meet DT, otherwise known as Diamond Trouble or I occasionally call him Double Trouble, one of our cats. DT is a true tabby of golden and dark brown fur in a circular pattern with a patch of fur over each eye that is golden in colour and outlined in the dark brown in a diamond pattern. He has been with us for over ten years and knows that if he wants to go outside that he has to have a leash on. If he wants to go out and the leash is within his reach, he will actually drag it for about seven-eighths of the way to us. He has even started trying to play with the broom when I am sweeping. He will watch me using the vacuum cleaner but will run if I try to get the nozzle too close for comfort.

All in all, DT is a joy to live with except for the occasional misbehaviour.