Mommy Diaries: And now we are four - race is on to move home to Ireland

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John has lists of things that need to be done before we leave. Stuff to buy, places to visit, people to see (and say goodbye to), find a house to live in in Ireland, get jobs -- the lists go on and on.

I’m given a list each day to complete and it’s not easy with two kids; albeit Colum is in day care some of the week. I’m hoping this week my routine will fall back into place and things will run smoother.

We’re selling a few bits (strollers and bikes) on Craigslist, and boy have we gotten some weirdoes replying. Mainly scam artists wanting our address and bank account details, but I’m on to them this time.

Unfortunately I wasn’t so clued in nine years ago before I left Ireland for New York.

Moving to another country prohibited me from bringing my vast array of clothing, and not knowing when I would return (and what dress size I would be then) I decided it was best to sell some of my good stuff, mainly apparel I hadn’t yet worn.

I took out a classified advert in a local newspaper. I had a few genuine inquiries which lead to the sale of some of my clothes.

But two particular phone calls (one which turned into meeting the person) were a little strange to say the least. One gentleman from Co. Galway (not sure why he was looking in a Kerry newspaper) called saying he was a cross dresser at the weekends and wanted to know if I had size 14 clothing that would fit a man’s body -- I didn’t.

The next man to call seemed genuine at the beginning. He told me he lived in Killorglin (a town about half an hour from Tralee where I am from). He said he sold clothing at a local market at weekends and asked could he come to see in person what clothes I had on offer.

We proceeded to arrange a meet the following morning. I had my clothes laid out in the living room, price tags attached to each item.

The man arrived in a white van. He introduced himself as John and spent about half an hour looking carefully at each item of clothing. He looked like he was really doing his homework.  He carried a note book and every now and then would open a page and scribble something down.

When he was done he said, “You have some lovely bits of clothes here. I’ll definitely take a few but I want to go home and discuss with my wife first. I’ll call you tonight.”

“Wonderful,” I thought.

And as promised he called about 8 p.m. that evening. However the conversation didn’t go as I would have liked.

“I spoke with my wife and told her how pleased I was with your clothes, what great condition they were in,” announced John.

“Great,” I replied excited at the idea of getting them offloaded and having some extra cash for my future New York wardrobe.

And then came the uncomfortable bit… “Just one question -- we would prefer if you had other items of clothing for sale though,” he said.

Strange I thought. “What do you mean,” I asked innocently.

“Well do you have any used underwear that we could buy?”

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