This article is from page 15 of the 2011-12-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
THERE will be no roast turkey for Miltown Malbay man Davey Rynne this Christmas Day. Instead, Davey will be barbecuing his dinner outside, in a pair of sandals, short trousers with a handful of ice cold beer.
Davey Rynne has been living in Wellington, New Zealand, for almost six years. Unlike his brother Declan, who will be making the long trek home this Christmas, Davey will be spending Christmas Day in New Zealand, enjoying the heat of a December Down Under.
“I have a Kiwi wife and a Kiwi mortgage so I am fairly settled over here now. I have been back for Christmas once or twice but I think you need to acclimatise here – you need to spend time here or there is no point living here,” he said. “The climate is just so different here at Christmas time. I’m looking out the window here now and it’s 9pm and the sun is just going down after a scorcher of a day.
“I think there is a different emphasis on Christmas over here – it just seems to creep up on you over here and then it is gone again, whereas at home they are building up for it for months beforehand and you’re talking about it for a month after. Coming from what we have at home it is just so different.
“It would be very rare to eat turkey over here at Christmas time – just because of the heat. It is physically too hot for a roast dinner, you actually just couldn’t eat it. Instead of hoping for a white Christmas, you are hoping for a fine day. We will be out in our shorts and sandals and a t-shirt and we will be going up my wife’s family farm to have a nice barbecue.”
While Davey is well settled in New Zealand, there are still things about the wet streets of Miltown Malbay that he misses once December 25 rolls around.
“I think the one thing that you do miss is sitting around the big family table at home and having the turkey and the ham. I actually miss the wet wintery day where you can sit inside and eat to your heart’s content and relax for the evening,” continued Davey.
“It is super easy to be in contact with people back at home now. I’m probably in better contact now with people in Clare than I was when I worked in Dublin. With Facebook and Skype, I know more of what is happening at home than some of the people at home themselves.
“We do have a good Irish crowd out here now, especially in the last year or so. I think it is because of the bad news that we keep hearing about the economy at home that more and more people from Clare are passing through Wellington and a lot of them are staying.”