Yes, yes, yes!

Ever since I have this blog I was wondering how I could move my old static HTML pages into a dynamic page maintained through WordPress. The documentation made it sound quite easy, but there were a few obstacles to get over. One was the theme I am using - I had to create a completely new template that would not show any items that are usually inserted for posts, like the comments area, the page title, etc. Secondly I wanted the photo page to be automatically updated with new content from my Photo Gallery. I figured I could make use of the RSS feed of the Gallery, but didn't quite know how.

After a whole day of sitting here and trying things out I finally managed to get the photos from my Gallery RSS feed to show up on my new Photos page and also on the blog home page (this page).

First I had to find a tool that could transform the XML code that comes in from the Gallery RSS feed into HTML or JavaScript and that I could run from our server. I found a free PHP script which sounded perfect (http://www.rss2html.com/), but again, this didn't work on the first attempt as I got an error message regarding the curl function (whatever that is…). Finally I found an older version of the PHP code in the Support area of the site and guess what, it works with our webserver setup.

Once I had that figured out I only had to customise the SSI template files to display the RSS items with and BINGO!

Frank and I have been trying for a child for the last five years. OK, maybe not really trying for the first four years - but we also didn't do anything against having children. Nothing happened so far.

Some of the reasons for this might be stress related. For example, three years ago we had the big move to Ireland coming up. And work was always busy, possibly even taking me away on business trips when I could have conceived.

Some of the reasons might be behavioural. I noticed about half a year ago that I tend to avoid having sex during ovulation time - not consciously though (only because my body feels bad for a number of days). I probably did this all the time of my life as I never was pregnant before. Natural contraception, how crafty!

Some of the reasons might be physical. Fact is that I have an unregular cycle and might not be ovulating every time. I tried to find the right days using several different tools (testing urine for hormone levels basically), and was able to confirm ovulation at a number of months, but still to no avail. Both of us are currently being checked out by a doctor to make sure that all the wiring is correct.

So, in the meantime we've been advised to have sex every second day from the point in my cycle onwards that I could ovulate earliest (day 16 to be precise). Having been in a relationship over the last five years and knowing how the sexual relationship changes over time, my first thought was, 'oh, dear, this could be stressful - who wants to have sex only to make babies?!'

As it turns out, we are having a good time, actually both of us enjoying this changed routine more than I thought (not that we didn't make love beforehand), and guess what - all of those newspaper articles are right: having regular good sex makes you feel more relaxed, good about yourself, and in my case it actually took away the uneasiness in my body that I experienced normally during ovulation. This beats testing hormone levels every morning about a million times any day!

Regarding the wiring: we should get more news soon.

Another flower photo that I like because of the intense colours:

Field poppies always draw my eyes, no matter where they are. This one was at a fence between the Castlecurragh Estate and the Tolka River.

Since I seem to be going flower mad, I decided to set up a photo album for the best of the best which will be added to over time.

Isn't this beautiful?

Some time ago I found a great cloud photo when I was surfing for blog posts with the topic of Ireland. Go check it out!

On the same topic I found North Atlantic Skyline - a blog with wonderful photos of the west of Ireland and more.

I can't believe it, it's hot!

I am taking everything back I ever said about the Irish weather: Ireland has been hit by a heatwave! On Sunday afternoon we decided to have an impromptu barbecue in our garden as this probably was the last chance this year, to do this without a shower inbetween

Just my luck - I finally passed the NCT about 3 weeks ago after 3 attempts with plenty of little things to repair, and now this. I guess I can consider myself lucky that this didn't happen any earlier:

There was absolutely nothing in the car worth stealing, and nothing got stolen as a matter of fact. Even the old radio was still there.

The Garda reckon that the people who did this must have got disturbed otherwise the car would be gone! They advised me to get a big chain and an even bigger padlock to secure the steering wheel to the seat. That apparently is too much of an effort to open up. OK, did that. Now the car looks like this:

Notice how my strong boy-friend managed to bend the door back?

Let's just hope that it won't be too windy and rainy tonight for the plastic, and that nobody breaks into the car again, so that I can take it to the garage tomorrow.