I've been quiet again, as you can see. There are several reasons for that, including the existence of the High Maintenance Baby, who's had the flu for a few days.

However the most important reason was that I've been living in computer hell.

My PC (which I have had for five and a half years) has been getting cranky lately. I tried to improve things by installing a new motherboard, but that created as many problems as it solved.

I tried to solve the problems by looking on the internet. But part of the problem was that my internet connection kept going off for no reason and would not operate again without a reboot.

So I tried on the laptop instead. But that was worse. It turned out that it had a virus and it took several days to track down and wipe out all the virus files. I did have anti-virus software installed, but it was out of date and I couldn't update it without connecting to the internet...

So I had two computers malfunction at the same time. Now I've got the laptop sorted out but the PC is still behaving weirdly. I could reformat it, but I don't want to do that without backing up the files first. Which I cannot do because the CD burner is not working ....

Sigh. Give me babies any day.

Well, she’s over nine months old now, which means she’s been out of the womb for longer than she was in. She seems to be getting used to it. She’s still officially the World’s Cutest Baby®, but she’s changing by the day. She seems to have many more expressions on her face, and they change even from moment to moment.

Naturally we have to think about her future. It’s never too early to plan her career. Or to discern what her plans are going to be. At first I thought she was going to be a research scientist, because she wants to find out about everything - especially electronic equipment. (Hopefully she will discover better methods of analysis then biting and sucking).

She’s also persistent. When you drag her away from something she really ought not to be playing with, she calmly starts making her way back again. On one occasion, when her brother lay on the floor to stop her, she simply climbed over him.

But she’s got other skills as well. I was holding her yesterday and I was feeling hungry so I took a banana and sat down with her on my lap. It was only when I finished it that I realised I’d let her eat most of it.

My current thinking is moving away from science, though. Given that both our families have some theatrical influences, with her good looks and charm, she may well be intending to be an actress. She’s got a powerful voice that tends to end up getting her what she wants. And of course, crawling over everyone that gets in her way is sure to prove useful there.

So we went back to the old country for Halloween. Well, for half term, but it coincided with Hallowe'en, which works much better in small towns in Ireland than it does in a bit city like London, where everybody is afraid to send their children out at night.

The children had a great time. Philipp went trick or treating, then watched some fireworks. Caitriona went to sleep in her cot and slept through the lot.

We also met people - family and friends we'd not met for ages. The picture shows Caitriona with her grandmother. We went out to see her grandparents, travelling on the new Luas, the high-speed trams (luas is Irish for 'speed') which have just been installed in Dublin.

We went on one line, the red line, which goes across the south west of Dublin, through areas that traditionally have been badly served by public transport and are generally run down. The arrival of the Luas seems to have taken them by surprise.

With modern, shiny trams you expect to pass through modern European-style areas with trendy little bars and shops. The red Luas line (the green one, which passes through another more prosperous part of the city, may be different; we didn't try that one) passes through little streets and housing estates that haven't been trendy since the 1950s. Maybe now they will catch up.

The other new thing we experienced was pubs without cigarettes. Being a non-smoker I have no problem with this, but it's interesting to see what other issues arise. Without the deadening effect of cigarette smoke it's suddenly much easier to notice dowdy decor and foul toilet smells. In the long term, that's probably a good thing - assuming it leads to improvements.

The other good thing about Irish pubs is the opportunity to buy decent Guinness without shamrocks. You can barely get your pint away from the bar in London without some smiling barmaid drawing a little shamrock in the head for you. The poor things, I suppose it's the way they were brought up. There's none of that nonsense in Dublin, I'm happy to say. And the Guinness definitely tastes better. (Link courtesy of the ever informative Slugger O'Toole).

We all enjoyed ourselves, especially the children. Maybe it's because when you have children you only seem to meet families with children, but there definitely seem to be more children in Ireland than London. Philipp met up with some old friends and enjoyed a wander alone across the pebbled beach, looking for crabs in the rockpools. Caitriona was the centre of attention most of the time, paraded in front of lots of new people, as if we'd won an Oscar.

It was good to be back. And now we are seriously considering moving back, permanently. But that's a story for another day ...