Getting on track...

We were on track, for the time being.  Seemed like there was no end of things to do; setting up paperless statements, taxes, scanning records, scanning photos, scanning, scanning…….

After all the scanning there was shredding, and shredding…you get the point.  We killed at least one shredder and our printer/scanner would never be the same but that was okay, we didn’t care; it wasn’t going with us.

About this time our youngest daughter and her roommate began to talk about traveling abroad and taking a TEFL course like we did.  Their destination; Istanbul wow!  Our original thought was that this was a little bit exotic for two young girls on their first trip abroad but who were we to judge; after all, we’re nuts right?

A funny thing was beginning to happen to us as we slowly began emptying out all those custom made storage cabinets in the garage and shredded our paper files; we were closing doors on many old, no longer relevant parts of our lives.  Yes, there was some laughter and some teary eyes as we found pictures, letters and items with memories of people and events from long ago.  It was pretty good therapy actually.

We also started making a special effort to spend more time together, you know, just to see how that might work.  How the hell were we going to do that?  Well, this may sound corny but we started with “date night” where at least once a week we would go out together, have dinner and a couple of drinks and simply talk.  This gave us time to plan our now complicated lives and to simply listen to the other which was something we found we had stopped doing.  Pretty quickly, we began having date night a lot more often than once a week.

We were really out of shape and were working our rusty old bodies out for an hour or two, at least twice a week and probably would have injured ourselves if we hadn’t had a physical therapist designing our program.  The problem is that by the time you are fifty, if you haven’t maintained a regular exercise program, your body has had time to degenerate and injuries both small and large have accumulated, so care must be taken to strengthen all areas, slowly in order to avoid injury.

Marilyn started wrapping up service on all the Boards and Commissions she was involved with, letting them know that she would not be available to serve in the following year.   Projects that needed special attention required some hand off and she found people to work with her, so that they would be able to carry on without her into the future.   Wonderful people stepped up and most of the big projects that are very close to her heart (see links below) were taken over by competent, caring individuals, who will undoubtedly continue them successfully.  She also had a built in network of professionals that she could hand off any client that had unfinished business to, when the time came.

The Turnbow Foundation
Ms. Senior Arizona Pageant
The Cameo Ball
The Cameo Foundation
Save The Family
Butterfly House
Tempe Chamber of Commerce

Mike’s partner of several years and he ended their partnership in the spring, not over any disagreements but due to the fact that we were planning to be abroad for an indefinite time period.  We were starting to investigate things we could do to earn money abroad that would help us stretch our savings and were encouraged by what we found.  Writing, proofreading, photography and many other things in addition to teaching English were all things we could do anywhere we found ourselves, provided we had access to the internet.   We both still had to maintain our existing clients while investigating these alternatives and otherwise preparing our lives.  We were busy!

It was a beautiful Sunday morning on Father’s Day and I had no plans to play golf.  Marilyn was running a few errands and I settled down to watch the final round of the US Open golf tournament, my usual Father’s Day thing.

Then my cell phone rang and I answered to the sound of my wife’s sobbing and shaken voice……”I’ve had an accident.”

The learning process and new decisions....

With the prospect of Mike going blind now firmly behind us and both of us working hard to get back into decent physical shape to minimize any future health issues, it was time for some hard evaluation.

We had learned that we did like being on the ground in another place and a different culture.  We had learned that the Charles Schwab checking account worked exactly as advertised and was perfect for us.  We had learned how to use Gmail and Facebook in ways that suited us.  We had learned that we absolutely hated flying long distances and we had realized we would now never be content without some significant exposure to other people and cultures in our lives.

The Peace Corps seemed like a perfect way to begin that process of living at least part of our lives outside the United States.  We continued to work on all the medical forms, made appointments for doctors, dentists, lab-work, diagnostic procedures and continued to move that process forward.  We had made the decision when we went to Spain for the TEFL course that we would live in the residencia, a far different environment than we had ever used for vacations (we had been of the 4 and 5 star resort and golf course mentality).  While it was a new experience for us it was also a rewarding one the we thoroughly enjoyed.

Our new perspective was that the Peace Corps would really take us back to our roots and help us learn to live very simply and frugally.  We started to realize that our perspective on the entire world and how we would live in it had changed.  Gone was the desire for more stuff or to recreate our American lifestyle and in its place was an insatiable curiosity about other people, places and cultures and a desire to not only see them but to live and experience life with them.

Suddenly it was time to seriously start getting rid of stuff.  We did not know exactly what the future would look like but we knew that we had some significant changes to make.  The house had to go, being a long distance land lord just did not have any appeal to us.  Getting it on the market became a priority for the summer.

First and most important we had taken the time over the holidays to explain to our two daughters what we were thinking.  They actually both thought the Peace Corps was a really cool idea and they were very happy for us.  They had mixed emotions when we told them we had decided to sell the house and that these could be the last holidays we celebrated in this house we had lived in for 17 years.  Then the really big thing….here are your sticky notes, go through the house, pretend we died, and mark anything you want to keep:  books, furniture, artwork, kitchen supplies, everything.  Difficult for them, easy for us!

We actually figured that we would need some kind of small storage unit for the things we would want to keep, thinking that we would need some furniture and maybe a few boxes of things to get restarted with when we came back to the States.  Assuming that we would leave for the Peace Corps sometime in the next 18 months as planned, we would be getting through sometime in 2014, and who knew what we would want to do at that point.

Then the real work began, with more learning, like how to use Ebay and Craig’s list, how to figure out what you should try to get for stuff you haven’t seen for 10 years,  and what charities you want to give things to that you either can’t or don’t want to sell. 

We also had to learn how to manage what we were calling our “leave behind” budget.  A storage unit, life insurance policies, property taxes, and all the other little things that we would still need to pay for even if we were living somewhere else. 

Learning new ways of dealing with each other was no small task either.  Never, in our entire married life had we spent so much time together.  We needed to work as hard on making our relationship work for both of us as we did on all the other stuff.   Two very strong personalities making tough decisions in the midst of very high stress can take a toll on any relationship and yet for us in many ways it seemed to help bring us together.  We began to see that even if we came to the answers from very different perspectives, we kept coming to the same answers.  

The idea now was to get the house on the market so hopefully it would sell by the end of the year.  Once the house sold we would become apartment dwellers, renting until time to leave for the Peace Corps assignment, whatever and whenever that might be. 

The idea of continuing to travel after our assignment just kept getting stronger.

The other eye and other delays.

The New Year brought good news, bad news and news; well we were unsure how to classify some of it.

The Peace Corps informed us that there was no hurry to complete our medical evaluations because, due to budget problems in Washington DC, they weren’t going to send any volunteers in the second half of the year.  It would be at least a year before we would be called to serve so we had some time for my eyes to recover.  This also meant that we didn’t have to rush to put our house on the market in the spring. 

Most importantly, I couldn’t see in one eye and that had to be dealt with.  On January 4^th we returned to my ophthalmologist’s office for another biweekly visit; only this time it was different.  The doctor, with Marilyn watching, had his assistant hold my head against a padded bracket and proceeded, by hand, to poke a needle into my eye repeatedly.  Even though we had discussed the possibility of my needing this procedure; it was still a little bit of a shock.

By my next visit to the doctor I was seeing better if having double vision can be called “seeing better”.  We didn’t know it then but my eye was finally on the way to recovery and it continued to improve throughout the month of January.

At this time we were still evaluating whether to sell our house or simply rent it out.  We were looking at the possibility of purchasing rental properties and were seriously considering traveling to Nicaragua to look at investing in a small casita in a golf course development on the Pacific coast.  A positive aspect to these possibilities was that we would always have a place to live and a place in which to store some of our remaining stuff.  Obviously, we hadn’t quite yet let go of the little house on the golf course retirement concept and were still planning to keep some of our “stuff”.

We had been working diligently to convert our banking, insurance, tax filing, credit cards and other bills to be completely electronic.  Believe it or not; it can be rather difficult to go completely “paperless” with the insurance and investment community being the hardest cases.  We looked at the rows of filing cabinets in our garage containing past financial records, client information, research, writing and 50 years of photographs and realized that we had an incredibly large scanning and shredding project in front of us.  Thus, began a very long project that, at times, we were unsure if we would ever finish.

We had been reading periodicals such as International Living, Live and Invest Overseas, and The Overseas Retirement Letter  which had sparked our interest in a variety of places that we might want to visit or even live for a period of time.  Places such as Spain, France, Italy, Thailand, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Columbia and Uruguay were touted as having a high quality of life while remaining reasonably inexpensive.  These countries, and others, reportedly welcomed expats and some even had straightforward visa, residency, banking, tax and importation regulations for those wishing to live, invest or retire there.  The idea of traveling extensively after serving in the Peace Corps was starting to take hold.

By early February I could see 20/15 in my problem eye and it was time to turn our attention to the other one.  The procedure this time would be different and it was expected that it would take 3 to 6 months for my eye to heal completely and achieve the best possible vision.  The procedure went as expected and once again, for several weeks, I could only see well through one eye; the other one now but other than readers, no more glasses!

My golf game was in tatters, I was 15 pounds heavier and in terrible physical condition and my old back problem was beginning to resurface after spending 3 months doing nothing but sitting on the couch while I couldn’t see well enough to do anything.  I needed to get back to work immediately because several of my clients were experiencing significant difficulties.  This meant a lot of travel and stress. 

About this time I had a conversation with my friend and physical therapist Widd Workman at Diamondback Physical Therapy.  Widd had worked with me to rehab my shoulder after rotator cuff surgery and I had been very pleased with the results.  Widd developed program for me to strengthen my back, legs and core and I started to put my poor old, neglected, out of shape body back to work.

Lasik eye surgery, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Part of our planning process involved reducing the number of things we needed to carry around with us and utilizing things that were easily replaceable, anywhere.  My bifocals and prescription sunglasses made this list and we decided, after determining that I was a candidate, to have Lasik surgery performed on my eyes leaving me needing only a cheap pair of readers.

We scheduled the procedure for December 2^nd which was very important for the Peace Corps medical clearance process.  Among other things, the Lasik procedure required a six month waiting period, post-surgery, before final medical clearance could be obtained.  Since we were tentatively scheduled to enter the Peace Corps in September, our medical clearances had to be obtained by no later than July.

I had completed all of the pre-procedure items carefully and presented myself at the vision center early the morning of December 2^nd.  The plan was to do both of my eyes that day and it was expected that within a week my corrected vision would be working perfectly.  My eyes were prepared, I was given a mild sedative (for nerves) and my doctor cut my flaps.

After waiting for about 30 minutes it was time for the laser.  After making me comfortable and securing my head the doctor pulled back the flap on my dominant eye and started grumbling.  The laser procedure went ahead as planned and the doctor seemed to take quite a bit of care smoothing my flap back into place.  He then said we weren’t going to do both eyes that day and that he’d speak to my wife and I in a few minutes.

Turns out, I share, with only about 2 percent of the population, a condition known as a “floating Bowman layer”.  The layers of your eye are similar to your skin with the outer layer called the epithelium.  It is this epithelium that the flap is made of during a Lasik procedure and the layer underneath is known as the Bowman layer.  My condition meant that my Bowman layer was excessively slippery which causes the flap to have difficulty reattaching.  The doctor said that the flaps usually reattach within a week for people with this condition and that if everything went well, we’d do my other eye the following week.

Everything proceeded normally for the next week and I again prepared myself for the Lasik procedure; this time on my other eye.  I awoke the morning of the procedure feeling like a thorn had been stuck in my eye.  We went to the vision center and after looking at my eye the surgeon cancelled my procedure telling me that my flap had pulled off.  After debriding my eye (real fun I can assure you) the doctor put a contact bandage on the eye and told me the flap would grow back and attach in a couple of weeks.

Twice a week in the ophthalmologist’s office was becoming time consuming and a little problematic.  The doctor did not want me to drive, read, watch TV, use a computer or be out in the wind; wow!  On December 16^th we discovered that I had an additional problem; I was a “steroid responder”, a condition I shared with about 5 percent of the population.  This is important because the primary treatment post-Lasik is to use steroids to reduce the inflammation in the eye.  This condition caused my eyes to develop a very high IOP (intra-ocular pressure) which can lead to glaucoma among other things.  I was now on a boutique steroid along with glaucoma medication.

Everything was going well as Christmas rolled around.  My eye had been debrided a couple more times and I was beginning to see better with the treated eye.  We enjoyed a nice Christmas with the family and were looking forward to a new year that would have quite a lot of changes.

The morning after Christmas, a Sunday, I again awoke feeling as though a thorn was in my eye.  This time we knew exactly what it was and amazingly, my doctor answered his phone and arranged to meet us in his office at 8am that morning.  Since I had been wearing goggles to sleep in and had therefore not been rubbing my eyes, it was determined that my eyelid had been drying to my eye and pulling the flap off when I opened my eye in the morning. 

The doctor once again debrided my eye and, after moment’s thought, put tear duct plugs in the eye and sent me home with new prescriptions and what can only be called “goop” to put in my eyes before bed.  He told me that if the flap didn’t attach in the near future that he’d need to perform a procedure in which my eye would have to have a pattern perforated into it.  By now, I just wanted my eye to be better and took what he told me in stride without really listening.

The rest of the holiday season passed in a blur, literally.  While I could see colors through my treated eye, everything was simply a smear and my condition did not improve in spite of my bi-weekly debridement and careful home treatment.  By this time, I had put on about 15 pounds due to the absolute lack of activity and we were seriously concerned that I might have been blinded by the procedure.  The new year arrived with little hope of our obtaining medical clearance from the Peace Corps in time to leave in September; I still had another eye to do!

My appointment with my doctor on January 4^th rolled around……..

Back home again.....

Well, after more than a month away, we returned to a long list of things we needed to do.  Prior to leaving we had established free Gmail accounts because we knew would not be able to use our cable company’s email when we unsubscribed.  We took the opportunity on this trip to begin training our friends and clients to use the Gmail accounts.  We had also set up free Skype accounts and traded contact information with clients, family and close friends.

Needless to say, client issues didn’t stop just because we were focused 24/7 on becoming English teachers.  Legal documents, financial projections and emergency consultations were needed as always but we soon ran into a snag.  Our Gmail and Skype arrangements were available and worked as advertised but the problem is this: Spain time is 8 or 9 hours ahead of Arizona time depending upon the time of year leaving a narrow and undesirable window of time to communicate by voice or video with your clients when you are teaching until 9pm and clients don’t want to wait until weekends.  We were beginning to realize that maybe we just couldn’t take our current jobs with us when we were traveling.

We both had plenty of fires to put out and in addition, while we were gone, two very large packages had arrived for us from the Peace Corps.  Our medical packages had arrived along with our nomination to serve beginning in September in North Africa (Morocco had the only business consultant programs in that region).  Pleasantly surprised at the idea of serving in Morocco we opened the packages and were immediately overwhelmed by the sheer volume of comprehensive and seemingly repetitive information required.

We were going to need to obtain medical records from as long as 30 years ago, schedule appointments with multiple physicians and dentists, obtain labwork, vaccine boosters, x-rays, MRIs, colonoscopies; the list went on forever and although there is a small amount of reimbursement available from the Peace Corps for this, it was still going to be expensive. 

Additionally, we noticed that the Peace Corps required you to bring two pair of eyeglasses which for me was problematic because I had regular lenses for driving and normal activities, bifocals for reading and working and very expensive prescription sunglasses.  Mike really did not want to haul six pairs of glasses around the world.  The holidays were coming up, business travel was required and he had an appointment to see an ophthalmologist about Lasik surgery.

By Thanksgiving we had everything business related back under control and it was time to deal with a series of domestic matters.  We had to evaluate what we wanted to do with the house (sell or rent), how much stuff to put in storage and what to sell, what to do with our vehicles and how to complete our medical package for the Peace Corps.  After our visit to the ophthalmologist to learn about Lasik we decided that this was a good step to take in the simplification process of our lives.

It was wonderful to be back among friends and to share the holiday with our family.  We also found ourselves missing the people we had just spent a very intense month with in Granada.  Both friends and family soon realized that we had fallen in love with Spain in general and Granada in particular and we were learning how important Facebook was going to be for us.

A quick word about Facebook:  The younger generation tends to live their lives online and very publicly and this held, and still holds, no interest for us.  Sharing interesting experiences, mostly through photos, is why we use Facebook because it is a forum in which we can share with our selected family and friends in an efficient manner; basically update everybody at once.  You have a certain amount of control with whom you share and communication can be public or private. 

Facebook is also a way to stay in touch with new or old friends who are a long way away and we have found ourselves frustrated in the effort to stay in touch with our friends that don’t use Facebook because it is significantly more difficult.  Also, quality access to the internet is not guaranteed and can sometimes be sporadic while traveling.  We had seen how the young, European and Australian contingent of our TEFL group used a combination of cheap cell phones, Skype and Facebook to stay in touch, we were gradually learning.

Then it was time for Mike to have Lasik surgery and our world came to a screeching halt.

Just a moment in Madrid, Spain

While in Granada we discussed with our friends our plans to take the train to Madrid on Saturday.  We were flying out mid-day on Sunday and wanted to avoid any last minute transportation issues.  After all, we did have to be back at work on Monday.

Everyone thought we were nuts!  They kept asking us why we were taking the train and not the bus.  Well, in our experience buses were not nearly as comfortable as trains, took a whole lot longer, and in some places you could be accompanied by all kinds of other passengers like goats and chickens that you would not want to spend hours on a bus with.  The chuckles of laughter were enough to get us to check it out.

The intercity bus system in Spain is very, very good.  The buses are very modern and equipped with restrooms on board.  They are clean and very efficient and cost a fraction of what the train does.  So we looked at the schedules, much to our surprise the bus to Madrid only took 30 minutes longer than the train and we would not have to deal with the overwhelming size and confusion of the Atocha train station.  The additional trip time is spent at a very modern travel stop where everyone gets off the bus to stretch, go to the bathroom and get something to eat or drink.  These stops are typically well equipped and might also have a book store, tourism office, cafeteria and grocery store.

Many of the buses in Spain are equipped with WiFi and some are even set up as luxury executive transportation with large seats, plugs for all your electronics; and food and drinks included in the ticket.  Even these special buses, which are double the price of a normal bus, are a fraction of the price of train tickets.  There are routes in Spain where the train is a better option because the roads are so difficult and the buses take a lot longer.  In these cases the train is worth the money.  To travel from Granada to Madrid the train was 80 euros per person and the bus was 17.  No contest!

We arrived in Madrid early afternoon and checked into our hotel, a charming small hotel just a 15 minute walk to the Prado and very near both the bus station and Atocha.  Taking a walk, we did what every self-respecting tourist should do in a new city; we found a café and sat down outside to have a bite to eat and a beer. 

Madrid is a big city, over 4 million people live there and the noise and traffic confirm it.  We knew we did not have a prayer of a chance of getting to know Madrid in one night so we decided to limit ourselves to just one thing on the agenda, the Prado museum.  We were there on a Saturday and much to our delight we discovered that the Prado opens its regular exhibits to the public on Saturday and Monday evenings for free from 6pm until they close.  The days of the week and times may change from season to season but they do this so that the residents can go and enjoy the Museum without all the groups of tourists that fill it up during the daytime hours.

The Prado is far too large and has way too many exhibits to be seen in an evening (or a week for that matter) so we picked just two artists and tried to see everything that was on display by Velazquez and Goya; after all we were in Spain.  We did manage to see most of the collections by these two wonderful Spanish artists in the three hours we were there but the closing bell rang much too soon; hours in the Prado fly by like minutes.

We had a late dinner in the hotel restaurant and slept soundly on our last night in Spain.  In the morning we had our coffee in the hotel and checked out the metro and buses schedules to the airport, we decided to relax for the morning and just take a cab.  We knew the travel back to the states would be grueling and we could not have been more right.

Flying out of Madrid was very interesting.  Additional security measures were being implemented on all flights to the US due to an elevated terrorism threat level at the time, we still don’t know why.  These security measures cause major operational problems for many airports.  The Spanish way of implementing “additional security measures” was to put all the planes that were leaving Madrid to go to the US at the very far end of one terminal and restrict access to this area by installing additional security procedures.  Once you passed through this additional security and went down to the gate area you were absolutely not allowed to leave for any reason.  There were no restaurants or shops located at this end of the terminal though water bottles were available from a vending machine, and of course, our flight was delayed by an hour.  Poor Mike, the smoking area was 20 yards outside the secure perimeter!

We were flying a US carrier that we have flown many times and never liked.  We had an eight hour flight across the water, a four hour lay-over in Philadelphia and then a five hour flight home to Phoenix.  Well, in Madrid, our flight was delayed another hour, and then another…..by the time our flight left we were exactly four hours behind schedule.  Once we got settled in our seats and got off the ground the announcement was made that one of the restrooms was not working, really….four extra hours on the ground in Madrid and they could not find a plumber?

The pilots managed to make up about 40 minutes time in flight, probably not long enough to make our connection but long enough to let us hope.  In the Philadelphia airport we found much to our delight that Spain had gone through their seasonal daylight savings time adjustment, which had not been reflected in the aircrafts schedule, and we actually had arrived in time to make our flight to Phoenix!  Clearing customs and immigration in Philadelphia we were surprised and slightly chagrined to discover that the US was now stamping an entry stamp into the passports of its own citizens.  We wonder if we’ll need an exit stamp as well.  Needless to say by the time we arrived in Phoenix we were very happy to be done with the “travel” part of traveling.

Nasrid Palaces at the Alhambra

Playing hookey from our graduation ceremony gave us the afternoon to get to the Nasrid Palaces at the Alhambra that we had missed in our first visit.  We went on-line and bought tickets a few days ahead of time so we knew we had to present ourselves at the entrance to the Palaces right at 2pm.

We had a little time to wander from the main gates through the gardens and down to the lower level where the palaces are.  The Nasrid dynasty ruled in Granada from the 11^th century until the Christians conquered in the 1492.  These palaces are what are left of the original Moorish palace and many areas have been beautifully preserved and restored.

We began our tour of the palaces in the Mexuar, or the public rooms of the palace.  These areas would have been meeting rooms and the places of commerce and diplomacy.  The design of these rooms was meant to be impressive of course, to the people seeking an audience with or the services of the ruling family who were no doubt awed by the vastness of the spaces and the huge expense incurred in their design and decoration.

Islamic artwork uses geometric patterns and patterns found in nature like flowers and leaves but does not use depictions of people of animals.  The written Arabic language also lends itself to beautiful designs and words and phrases are carved everywhere.

From the Mexuar we headed into the Comares Palace (Palacio de Comares) which was the actual living quarters and private residence of the Caliph and his closest family and advisors.  It is difficult in this day and age to really comprehend how people lived at this particular time.  Many rooms had pool s and fountains with running water to help cool them in the hot summer months. Ceilings are coffered and inset with inlaid wood and painted in flowing Arabic script.  The windows and arches were designed for both strategic significance and for the views of the kingdom, and each one is fully carved and decorated from the inside so the view of the window is as beautiful as the view seen from it.

The finally the Palace of the Lions (Palacio de los Leones), this was the part of the palace that housed the harem.  The women and children lived in beauty and luxury.  The patio of the Lions is the centerpiece of this area and at the time we first visited it was closed for restoration.  We could only glimpse in through the scaffolding and plywood but what we could see was spectacular.  (The restoration work is now complete and it is absolutely spectacular!)

The tours of the Nasrid Palaces can be done many ways, we did it on our own, just purchasing tickets and reading about the things we saw.  There are Audio guides available for those that haven’t done their research and live, guided tours are offered if you want to spend the money.  The number of people admitted to the palaces is limited each day because they are trying very hard to protect and preserve them.  If you want a very different and quite romantic experience, try taking the tour at night, the views are spectacular and the groups are smaller so there is a more intimate feel to the palaces.

All in all and afternoon very well spent!  

The best Irish Pub we've found yet...

Seems like everywhere we’ve been there’s one or two self-proclaimed Irish pubs.  So, out of our own personal interest, hunger and thirst, we’re going to look for and document Irish pubs wherever we go.  We’ve been saying for years now “There’s an Irish pub in every town and if not, there’s a business opportunity”.  We’re going to have a little fun with this so please let us know if we’ve missed a candidate.  We welcome all suggestions (researching will be enjoyable). 

The first Irish pub sets the standard of course, and it sets the bar high.  To try and bring a little objectivity to this very subjective effort we propose to rate the pubs on the following scale.

1.  Ambience (1 to 3 points) – dark wood paneling and furniture, lighting, mirrors, floors, signage, etc.

2.  Irish Bartender (0 to 3 points) – a second point is available if there is more than one Irish bartender.  The third point is for a bartender that insults you while he/she serves you and you find that you enjoy it (he or she could only be Irish).

3.  Taps (0 to 3 points) – One point each for having on tap:  a) Guinness, b) Irish ale, or beer, and c) Irish cider.

4.  Kitchen (0 to 4 points) – One point each for having: a) an Irish breakfast fry-up, b) a bacon sandwich, c) a shepherd pie, and d) food quality.

5.  Entertainment (0 to 3 points) – No I do not mean “Paddy jokes”.  Fiddlers and tenors are appropriate as is futbol and hurling (on the television of course).  Bartenders count.

First up:  HANNIGAN & SON(Granada, Spain)

Located at the base of the Albayzin near Calle Elvira we are rating the original Hannigans (there are two in Granada).  We found this gem in the fall of 2010 and have been returning ever since.  We give 2 points for ambience for the dark wood, the bar and the signage.  Uncomfortable and poorly arranged seating are only a small problem.

Hannigans receives 3 points in the Irish Bartender category because Rory and John, God Bless them are both Irish and Rory is also the house master of the insult, bad jokes and on good days, part of the entertainment.

This pub scores extremely well in the Taps (3 points) and Kitchen (3 points) categories.  Guinness, Strongbow and Murphys Irish Red are all on tap although we have been considering that we should deduct one point for their also having Amstel on tap.  The kitchen is small but generates an amazing fry up, bacon sandwich and hamburger (made with Irish beef and good Irish cheddar cheese) along with a limited number of other items such as chicken wings.  They do not offer a shepherd pie.  Kitchen hours are somewhat limited (currently 1:30pm to 5:00pm weekends and 7:00pm to 10:00pm weekdays) and closed for a couple of months during the summer so you have to plan a little but it is well worth it.

Finally Hannigans receives 2 point for entertainment.  Futbol and hurling are regularly on the television and the bartenders are worth a few laughs every time.  Music is from the bartender’s playlist and requests are sometimes granted.

Summary for Hannigans:

Ambience                                2

Bartender(s)                            3

Taps                                         3

Kitchen                                   3

Entertainment                         2

Total                                        13 point of a possible 16

This is a very high standard indeed and we can’t wait to get back.  Oh and Rory, you are only worth 3 points “petal”.