The memory box

It's almost 22 years since the ex and I arrived at Dublin Port in a rented Transit stuffed to the roof with everything that we hadn't sold.  Security took one glance in the back and decided it was time for a tea break.  We were waved through.  So began my life as an ex-pat.  But I never thought of it like that until I discovered other Brits in Ireland, and now I'm in touch with lots of people who no longer live in their country of origin.  Including Kiwi expat Vegemitevix, who published a lovely post describing the top 5 things that she would put in a memory box to evoke her years living in Britain and asking her readers how they would capture their years overseas in the same way.  Well it got me thinking and thinking, because once you ignore the photographs of friends and family, it's quite a challenge to sum up a country with 5 things that would fit in a memory box!   And Ireland is now my home, and I've no plans to leave, but things change, and who knows what will happen in the future?  So here is my list, and I may have cheated a little bit and got a little bit cheesy...

Via sludgegulper

1. A sign post - I would love my very own traditional sign post, like this one in Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim.  It would remind me of the scenery, the little towns and the getting lost.  The years spent balancing maps on the steering wheel, circling roundabouts, and parking up to read signs.  You wouldn't want to be in a hurry to get anywhere, and if you're not, the Irish signage system is simply charming and picturesque, and it has improved in recent years.

2. A pair of MBTs - To remind me of the most successful PR campaign that I ever managed and protect my back!

3. A palm tree - I love the Irish weather, really I do!  Well except that the drizzle gives me bad hair days.  But it's never too hot and (almost) never too cold.  And I've taught my children to be thankful that they live on a beautiful island that rarely suffers from natural disasters,  Of course most of the palm trees died after the ridiculously cold winter in 2010, but mine is shooting back up again...

4. A blaa or two - My big career breakthrough in Ireland was in 1994 when I got my first PR job here. But it meant a year of biweekly four-hour round trips to Waterford in the pre-motorway days.  And Angel was only two at the time.  And I didn't yet have a mobile phone.  The breakfast blaa and coffee at the end of the journey was one of the things that kept me driving...  There's actually lots of yummy food in Ireland, from sea-food to soda bread to Superquinn sausages and I would certainly miss all of it if I had to leave.

5. The PACUB Banner (if the group would let me have it!) - I've always been interested in politics, attending anti-nuclear meetings as a teenager, going on rent strike in the 80s as a student and making friends on marches in Dublin in the 90s.  But after I lost my job, politics took on a sharper focus, and I made new friends and learned new skills as I helped the PACUB campaign against cuts in child benefit.  Between my blog and twitter I now have as much involvement in politics as I want.  It's amazing the things that can change your life for the better and I'd love to bring the banner with me as a reminder of that...