fekete tulipánom

Been a while

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:22:08 GMT

What am I up to at the moment?
I finally got to do that Poledancing course, but it was just 8 hours, 1 of which I missed, so that's over now. I was a bit rubbish, but I didn't have the time to practice. I'd like to do more of that, but the company is moving to a different venue, I think they haven't got one yet. The rent for the room in the gym got too expensive for them. I bet I won't be able to get to the new venue without a car. This is Sandyford.
I was thinking about doing a jewellery making course, but it's only 3 hours and costs 85 Euros and I'd only be making one necklace, so I probably won't do that. Will have to keep looking for something similar.
I also did a few lessons of Wing Chun recently, which is a variety of Kung Fu. It's all a bit fast and a lot to learn at the moment, but I think I'm doing really well.
TLD is leaving today. :-( It was really good to have him here, but no matter how long he stays, it feels so short when I'm looking back. We went to pubs at the weekend, also played pool, went to the cinema to see Quantum of Solace, did some Wing Chun together, went to a party, watched films, went to Howth again. There wasn't anything to do during the week, but at least Dan studied for his course while I was at work.
I'm coming over to Manchester for New Year's eve, until the 4th of January. It will be good to see you all again.

Stew's birthday weekend

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:37:08 GMT

Hey!

Camping was great!
We were 2 and a half hours late because my flight was delayed quite significantly and we were also held up by football fans at Victoria (and more police than football fans, including barking dogs). Imagine getting squished into a tram with all your camping stuff and a whole load of singing blokes. That took the biscuit. Well, you have to have a sense of humour. It had rained already, but thankfully it was dry when we put up the tents. And I didn't end up with a muddy arse when sliding down the slippery slope. We got bitten by midges at first, but they disappeared soon after it got dark. The fire was burning already, so that was good. I had my usual sausages, the only thing you can cook on the fire. Burgers just don't work. We even had a birthday cake from Sofia. Everone buggered off quite early into their tents when it started pissing it down. Dan, me and Craig were hardcore and stayed at the fire and chatted! With great foresight, I had brought a raincoat and it was warm near the fire. Dan got wet as a poodle though. Later on we raided Scowy's tent (5 people in a 1 man tent). I must say I slept really well, no back pain and I was warm enough. I had nothing to moan about at all - incredible.
After a bit of a drive we arrived in a pub where they had excellent food. Maybe the best roast beef I ever had.
On Monday I went clothes shopping with Dan. I think he survived with very little stress.
A very good weekend, far too short unfortunately.

Don't ask me when I'll be back in Manchester again! I don't know. And I have no holidays left.

*big huuuuuuugs*

Summer time...

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:38:28 GMT

Hey, there I am again. Another boring day at work. The stressful days are over for now. I don't know how to occupy myself, not even the messenger works. It's really hot here. On Saturday I went to Howth again, spent the day at the beach (well we had to wait for the beach to appear, it was high tide when we arrived). I took a short dip in the Irish sea, wasn't too cold, but a bit windy. For that occasion I bought my zebra print bath robe.
On Sunday I climbed the hill and had some ice cold Bulmers in the sun.
Next weekend there will be a big bbq and a quest, with all the food paid by the company and a little prize for the winners. I'm not looking forward to packing my stuff and dragging it to my new house. Not in this weather. This is just for lazy evenings in a beergarden. I'm short of money though. Should keep that for the leaving do of a colleague. Yesterday evening I designed some shirts and dresses for a friend's webshop. Will probably order some myself. Is anybody going to watch the new batman film (or filum if you're Irish)? It's meant to be really good.

News

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:10:57 GMT

What's new?
My brother, his girlfriend and my mum were visiting me from last wednesday to tuesday. I didn't get much sleep, but it was a great. Francisca is a fun-loving, energetic girl. Shame they didn't stay longer.
I'll move house on the 1st of August. Nicer place, living with 2 guys this time. Own shower, but no bath tub. Nice, calm area, a bit further away than my current home.
I'll be in Manchester over the weekend, from the 16th of August for Stew's birthday. That's all for today. I'm really tired.

Heatwave - ouch

Wed, 07 May 2008 23:22:02 GMT

What shall I do about this poledancing class they offer at the gym?
It always starts when I'm on holidays! I wanted to go there for ages. Costs a 100 euros for 8 weeks. But I'd miss one class. I really fancy doing some dancing.

Nursing my bicolour arm. Basically sat in the same position all monday in the garden and got a sunburn on my left arm. It's not from driving!!! It would have been the right arm then. It looks much better already, but everyone still laughs at me. Who would have thought I needed suncream in Ireland!
The weather has been fantastic. Could have done with some water pistols.

There will be a big birthday at the weekend. Our French translator is turning 25. I'm collecting for a nice present. He's giving a barbeque on saturday. Fingers crossed the weather will be good.

Oh FFS

Sat, 03 May 2008 18:38:56 GMT

What a crap start to the weekend.
I lost my wallet last night. It dropped out of a full bag. The first time I noticed it, but the second time obviously not. I only noticed it in the morning, when we wanted to go to Galway. I was so looking forward to this trip. I checked my bag and couldn't find my wallet. Checked the whole house. Nothing. Phoned the Garda. They didn't get one but I was about to go to the Garda station to report it stolen. Just popped home to get my bank details and cancel my card. When I phoned the bank they told me that someone had found the wallet and left a number. Few minutes later I visited them and got my wallet back. I wouldn't have wanted to lose my driving license (my only ID). Everything was still in it. However, it is a bum that the card was blocked and I had to cancel it. I have hardly any money, so I couldn't go to Galway. :-( Very very unhappy about that. Didn't wanna be stuck here for the whole bank holiday weekend. I can't even go out cause I have no access to my money. Been poor since the middle of last month. I should be happy that I got my stuff back but I'm just pissed off about the current situation.
The rest of the afternoon I spent spilling drinks on a friend and coffee on his paper lamp etc.

Yes, I'm still alive!

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:34:23 GMT

I haven’t posted anything for a long time. There's not much to say, to be honest.
I’ve been hanging around with colleagues. Many of them live nearby anyway. So I just pop over and spend the evenings there. It's cheaper to buy a few beers than going out.
Been short of money. There’s not much left when you have to buy flights every couple of months and pay your debts. I went to Howth several times. It’s been great. Shame we didn't have jackets with us last year, Stew. The cliffs are amazing. And it's a really good walk.
I’ve also seen seals and fed them mackerels. They are absolutely huge. I don't think I've seen them in real life before. And they look so intelligent, so much like dogs in a way.

Last Friday, I've organised a table in Johnny Fox’s form my colleages. All the translators and a couple of testers. It was a great evening. We agreed we should go out together again.
Won't be going to Johnny Fox's any time soon though. I made a reservation two days before and when 8 of us turned up on Friday, they didn't have it! I was so pissed off. Then we managed to get a table very soon actually, right infront of the band. I think they just got the names mixed up or so, cause people mysteriously didn't turn up. Then they didn't have my favourite: the huge rainbow trout. And the portions were half the size compared to last year. Last year, whatever you ordered, you couldn't move afterwards. That night, I was still hungry.
Then we ordered two beers which never arrived but they still charged us. It said 10 Guinness on the bill, and I'm sure we never consumed that much. Then somebody called 3 Taxis (we were 9 in the end) and he was told that they'd take half an hour and we'd have time to finish our drinks. I had told them I wasn't going to leave cause I wanted another pint. And then the taxis were there after 5 mins, so I wasted nearly a whole pint of beer. A lot went wrong that evening. The Irish can't get anything right. We still had a good time.

For the May bank holiday, I wanted to go to Galway and that area. Just don’t know how to see the Cliffs of Moher without a car. I should see more of Ireland as long as I’m here. I hope the weather will improve, it’s been so cold and windy.

I’ll come to Manchester for a week, from the 24th of May to the 2nd of June. That way I can take advantage of the June bank holiday. Flight wasn’t cheap though. And it's at 6:30 in the morning, so I’ll have to leave in the middle of the night. Dan doesn’t have his car anymore, I will have to get home by train and tram. I want to go camping too, that's why I took that early flight. Really looking forward to it. Miss you all.

Christmas party

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 13:50:49 GMT

We were picked up at 4 on Friday by the "party limo" which was more like a massive bus. They had nice seats in there and alcohol. The first stop was a pub in Dawson Street where we got the brief for the treasure hunt. We could get points from drinking loads (there was one group who used this approach), answering as many questions about Dublin as possible and dragging some random people into Sin, our final meeting place. We didn’t have a very motivated group and after some running around in the cold, the smokers suggested to google the remaining answers. Unfortunately it didn't help much, we came second last. I took lots of photos of drunk work mates.

After the party, I went on with two Spanish girls and two Italian guys in the search of a cocktail place, but ended up in some club. On the way home we met the others in the Luas, even more drunk. We had to hide from the ticket inspectors. I got off early and walked all the way from Ballaly on my own. 45 mins uphill.

Saturday, I wanted to go to Johnnie Fox’s again, but we couldn't get a taxi. We phoned at 6 and they said the first one they had available was quarter to 9. Unbelievable. We didn't have a table booked anyway, so our only chance was to come early. We ended up ordering a curry and watching a film. Jürgen managed to get a table for tonight and I will preorder the taxi.
Hope it will work out this time.

Jürgen is leaving for Canada on Tuesday and Silvia is going back to Spain in a week.

Nasty nasty

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:34:14 GMT

Zsu is recovering from the winter vomiting bug.

Things Babelfish comes up with

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:02:48 GMT

Fox you stole, gives the goose it again. It gives again. Otherwise comes you the hunter get with the shooting rifle. Otherwise comes you the hunter get with the shooting rifle.

*rofl* That's so good.

I taste like beef

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:45:30 GMT

I taste like Beef.

I taste like beef. I'm probably made of beef. You are what you eat, they say, and if the title didn't mean something else, I would be a beefeater. I think red meat is good for you. Puts hair on your chest.

(If you were not Beef you would be Alcohol.)

I don't know how they get that idea from the answers I gave, but I like beef.
Please don't eat me!

coming soon

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:22:43 GMT

I will be in Manchester from Saturday, the 27th of this month to Monday, the 29th. When do you want to meet up?
Saturday or Sunday?

more spending

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:46:23 GMT

Went do see bog bodies in the national museum yesterday. It was very interesting. There were two very famous ones, forgot the names though, one with a complete face, albeit a bit flattened. He even had facial hair left. The other one was a headless torso but the arms and hands were in perfect condition. Very impressive. They all date from about 400 to 200 BC. And seems like a lot of them were heirs to the throne of some small kingdom, but have been killed by rivals. One of them was strangled, the throat was slit and he was hit by an axe. If you do it, you might as well do it thoroughly.
We only had an hour in the museum before it closed. But it was free so I can go again some time.

Later on we went past that sweatershop I've been looking for for ages. I bought a nice Aran wool jumper in black and a cardigan in dark moss green, and a scarf as well. They were all reduced. I should stop spending so much. This month I bought a green velvet closet from Germany, an expensive silk top which looks Victorian and those sweaters. I also popped into lush. Moreover, I had some expensive dinners. On thursday we had fish in Johnnie Fox's and yesterday a really nice pizza in town, with a bottle of wine, followed by the fantastic Italian ice cream in the Temple Bar area.

It's not even mid October and I have to pay the rent etc. I shall be a good girl now and not buy any more clothes and eat the things that are about to go off in my fridge.

Thursday Pub Night

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:28:20 GMT

I'm dead tired. And my back really hurts from not having slept enough.
Decided to go to the pub on the hill last night. It was 8 when we left and we arrived there at quarter past 9. Bit of a walk. Had some nice fish. But the meal was so huge, it would have been enough for 3 people. I asked the waiter whether I could take the rest home and he said sure then left to look for a box, but he didn't have any left anymore. So I had to waste half of my fish. How sad. He offered me a cake instead. Funny, they don't gain anything with that. I can always squeeze in a bit of cake. How nice of them. But I don't mind the money, it's just not nice to let the fish go to waste. Oh, speaking of money, I found a 10 euro note under a table. :-D
Later on, a magician came to our table. Pat Fallon. He was fantastic, I watched his hands and coat closely and couldn't see any tricks. How did he do it??? I was so focused. He showed me some fake money and said whether I could "translate" those in real money. I thought he wanted a tip but I misunderstood that. Seems like the pub is paying him for entertaining the people there. He gave us his card, it's a fake 20 euro note with him on it and it's quite funny.
It was after 12 when we left. I hadn't realised how late it got. By the time I was in bed it was 2 in the morning.

Still no caves

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 12:41:19 GMT

I got up early yesterday phoned the Ballyvaughan cave straight away. All I understood was that apparently there was only one bus from Galway there, so I did some research and yes, there's only one at 10 in the morning. Problem is the earliest train from Dublin would arrive at about that time so we'd miss the bus. Right, so you can't get to Ballyvaughan any other way? Hard to believe. Public transport in Ireland is really crap. We are thinking about renting a car next week. Jürgen would drive. Maybe we find 2 more people to come with us.

I didn't have a plan B so I told Jürgen to come over and we'd look at some brochures. We decided just to do something around Dublin and finally went to Malahide, not far from Portmanock, which I've seen before.

We went to the castle first (on the way we took advantage of the great playground there). I had no camera with me, so there won't be any photos. But it wasn't allowed to take any inside anyway. Well, what can I tell you? It's a castle. When I looked at the chocolate cakes with strawberries on them in the café, one unfriendly waitress told me they were closed already.

After that we walked through the nice woods around the castle. Loads of ivy. Then we went to the beach and had a long walk there, collecting shells again. It was warmer than I thought it would be.

On the way back to the station, we popped into a pub and had a meal. They only had fast food of which I had had plenty recently anyway. :-( The only thing that looked better was the pasta with prawns. But, it was swimming in oil. It tasted alright, but it failed just for that. There was a soup of oil left in the plate after I finished.

After a pint of Bulmers at the bar we headed to the station and discovered that we had to wait for 50 minutes for the next train. Could have had another pint there! But somebody was keen to get back to Dublin.

Back in the City Centre, we walked past Temple Bar and I had to get some pistachio icecream from that fabulous café. They ran out of it, she said. I was desperate. I said I CAME HERE to eat pistachio ice cream. Then the boss nodded to her and she got some from the other room. It's the creamiest ice cream I ever had.

9 and a half hours on the hill

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:05:35 GMT

I had planned to go and see some caves on the west coast of Ireland today but Jürgen said he was roleplaying with the guys already, so we had to do something on saturday. I got up mega-late of course, so there was no time to go on a day trip. We decided to go up the hill again (Three Rock Mountain - or Tree Rock Mountain, as Irish people would say). It was lovely and warm yesterday, plenty of sunshine. I had my jumper with me though cause I know it could be windy on the top of the hill. That's how I got a cold two weeks ago. It was pretty nasty again, I really need to buy a good jacket. The wind went right through my jumper, that's why my shoulders still hurt today. We found a great spot with a gorgeous view and while drinking a beer on one of the "tree" rocks, we wondered whether those other hills were the Wicklow mountains already. On the way down, we went in the "wrong" direction, I wanted to go to the other side of the hill, where that pub was I found on my first walk. We found it finally, after it got dark. It's called the Johnnie Fox's and is apparently the highest pub in Ireland. When we got there, a busload of tourists just rushed into the pub. Apart from warming up and having a pint, we were keen to try the seafood there. It was completely packed and one of the waitresses said there would basically be no chance of getting a table that night. I saw the jummy food everywhere and decided we wanted to be put on the waiting list. After an hour they called the "Zsuzsanna party" to the manager and we got our table. Great spot too, and the band just started to play. A guy on the banjo, a fat entertainer on the guitar who was also doing the singing and a very talented fiddler. I ordered a swordfish steak, it was delicious. The atmosphere was great. I loved all the little antiquities: old shoes, old newspaper articles, all sorts of tools, some stuffed foxes unfortunately and lots of nightpots hanging from the ceiling. It was a big pub with lots of different rooms. They seem to be like it here. The band was good fun, the food was great, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I finally got home at 1 in the morning, gosh.

And now I have to get ready for the big clean. Everything's a mess here.

Wicklow Mountains

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:49:22 GMT

Yesterday, I went on a trip to the Wicklow Mountains with a colleague, Jürgen. He's been there twice already, so I basically had my personal tour guide. The bus, which left from the city centre, took one and a half hours to Glendalough. It was raining and there was quite a lot of wind too. I was wrapped up warm because I had a cold last week. However, I wish I had bought a rain coat. My umbrella didn't help much. The clothes were soaked anyway. Later on, the sun came out but it was still quite windy on the hill. The view was great, I took some pictures with my crappy old film camera. If they are any good, I will scan them in and publish them.
There were plenty of tourists in Glendalough, despite the weather. I can't even imagin what it's like on a warm day. There is a very narrow path up the hill we climbed. It's basically wooden stairs all the way up, which have metal bits and a wire grid on them to prevent them from being slippery.
There are two fantastic lakes, but they are probably not for bathing because it's a national park. Looks a lot like the Peak District.
We've also seen some mahuusive trees. They are Lawson Cypresses. You can often see them in people's gardens, when they are still small and like bushes. They can grow VERY big. One of the lower branches always seems to be bent upwards. The branch of the one in Glendalough was as big as an entire tree and you could easily climb on it because it was near the ground.

Holidays - part 2

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:45:26 GMT

Oh dear. It's so dull at work. Nothing to do since Wednesday. On Friday I was fed up of staring at an empty screen and finished my book at work. (Laura Joh Rowland - the Revenge of the Samurai) I read it in German. It's fantastic. You cannot stop once you started. It's set in medieval Japan and is about Sano Ichiro, the special investigator of the Shogun who has to find a serial killer who prepares the heads of the victims like war trophies. Sano has powerful enemies and is in constant danger. The chamberlain wants to prevent him from solving the murder case. It's really exciting. And you learn so much about the society they lived in. Very dangerous and a person's life wasn't worth much. And that bushido sucks.

But where was I? I wanted to talk about my holiday in Munich.
I enjoyed the bus ride to Munich. It took longer than on the way to Hungary, but we got to see some of the Chiemsee on the way because the driver had to deliver something in a village. I was quite shocked to see bee garages (himalayan balsam) in Germany. I didn't know it had spread to the continent as well.

We had a rest on Friday afternoon and met a friend of mine, Maria, in the evening. We went for a few drinks. That was good, but we shouldn't have joined the boring friends of her current boyfriend. Maria tried to persuade us to go to a friends's friend's wedding in Nuremburg. Tempting, but they would have stayed there for 3 days, which was a bit too long for us, as Dan only had 5 days in Munich. It would have been a medieval, celtic type wedding - the bride was Irish. So we could have seen some jousting. Oh well.

We met up with another friend, Sven on Saturday and went to the beergarden on the Nockherberg. It was my first time there actually.
No need to mention that my staple diet was beer, pretzels and Aufschnitt for a week. The plan was to go to the Nerodom together (a goth club in Munich). Sven cancelled, but we went anyway. It was good. I liked the decoration and the music was good until half past 2.
Now my memory starts to fade. I'm not sure what we did on Sunday. Probalby just relaxed.

The week after we went for some long walks and bike tours. We rented a couple of mountain bikes. It would have been 22 Euros per bike for 24 hrs but when we brought them back they said we had paid already. I really wasn't sure at that time, but I didn't want to argue. I discussed it with Dan, and we're sure we haven't paid. Well, got that for free then. :-) 22 Euros was quite expensive anyway.
One day we went up the river Isar the other day down the Isar. We set off quite late the first day, so we swallowed a lot of flies and not even the sunglasses helped to keep them out of our eyes. The next day we planned to go to a lake, but it wasn't warm enough for bathing then, so we decided to go to the Isar again but towards town this time. Both days we stopped at the Waldwirtschaft, a beergarden in Großhesselohe. The rock you can see on the photo is the Georgenstein. I used to go there years ago. The river is clean enough to bathe there and I used to jump in from the rock. One time I didn't have my swimming costume with me, so I just undressed and climbed up the rock, when some boats and rafts came along. People called me Loreley and told me to jump, which I did. This time I thought it was a bit cool for bathing, it was the evening as well.

Thursday, Dan went back to Manchester. I stayed until Sunday. On Friday, me and my mother went to the big spa in Erding. They keep expanding it. It's absolutely huge. And nothing's where it used to be when I last saw it. You can get lost. There's no way you can try everything out on one day. My mother has never been in a sauna. She thought she won't be able to take the heat, but she coped really well and she had a lot of fun. We both overdid it a bit. You're not supposed to go more than 3 times a day, but I'm sure I did more than 7. They also have the longest and best water slides in Europe there. I tried out a few but didn't dare to try the ones with signs such as: Warning, danger, you have to be a good swimmer, try on your own risk etc. I went on a whitewater slide and nearly drowned at one point when I fell in a deep pool and it made a big splash and I didn't know where up or down was. I made my mum go on some slides as well and she said they were "too slow"! Can you believe it! I was absolutely knackered when we got home. This is a link to the Spa, by the way: http://www.therme-erding.de/de/100682/100888/english.html
It's heaven! Entry fee is 28 Euros per person for a day.

back from holiday

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 12:36:14 GMT

Helloooo!

I'm back from a 2 week holiday in Hungary and Munich.
I wanted to go to Hungary first, to make the most of the summer weather. I wasn't disappointed as it was 34-36 degrees. Dan coped quite well, actually. But we didn't go out in the midday sun and we usually had coffee in the afternoon. Some of the time we spent in the town Kiskunfélegyháza. We went to the pool once, which they completely renovated, I didn't recognise it. So we could cool down and Dan did some swimming, for the first time in 10 years or so. He panicked at first. But after a beer, he was totally into it. The problem with people who can't swim well is the fear. Once he got used to the water, he had lots of fun. On the 20th there was a big holiday, so there were events everywhere in the country and fireworks. We watched some traditional dancers from all over Europe. We missed most of the firework though. In the afternoons we often sat in cafés, having coffee and ice cream. What a life. And went to restaurants in the evening. The one I particularly liked was a fish restaurant in the village Tiszaalpár, where we have 2 weekend houses. We should have spent more nights there as the air is really fresh and you can sleep like a baby. There were always thunderstorms in the evening, but no rain. Just a lot of wind and lightning. Dan stood outside one night to try and photograph some lightning. He took two really good pictures. We went on a short bike tour one day, but couldn't stay long as we left quite late and it already started to get dark. Dan had lots of fun on the bike though. Well, some exercise is important, even in the holidays. And we saw some lovely countryside.

Part two will follow shortly.

You can take a look at Dan's best photos here:

http://munichhungarytrip2007.fotopic.net/c1365829.html

By the way...

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:38:39 GMT

Don't try to text or phone me at the moment, cause I forgot my phone in Manchester. I had to buy a radio alarm clock because the phone was my alarm. I was late for work on monday, obviously. Anyway, I will be united with my phone again at the weekend. There's some really interesting stuff on the radio after 12! Vikki knows. Like last year when we went camping. Very weird stuff that fires your imagination and sometimes has a feeling of being underwater. Probably by people who are constantly on mushrooms or something. I have a CD with music like that. I don't even know what the genre is called.

"Well, I'm scared to be born again, if it's in this form again. I wanna be a little seahorse."

Oh, and look at this video. I stumbled over it, while I was looking for something else.

bank holiday weekend in Manchester and Kimchi

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 19:26:53 GMT

I'm hungover. After work, Kevin, Jonathan (the new French translator) and me went to town, to a Japanese/Korean restaurant called Kimchi. It's the traditional meeting point for Keywordians and Ex-Keywordians. As usual there were lots of people I never met. It was Kevin's last day at work, he'll go back to France on Monday and finish Uni. Guada, the Spanish translator is leaving as well. She defects us for another company in the neighbourhood. I knew the testers never stay long, they don't have permanent contracts. But translators also don't seem to stay longer than a year or two.
I had lots of expensive food at Kimchi and a few pints. Didn't agree with me on the bus ride home. I felt dreadful. Finally went to bed at 6 but was awake again at 10. I took a paracetamol and had a pizza for lunch and them some much needed vitamins. A lot of people have colds at work at the moment, and I didn't feel 100% either. I've got to be careful. Would be crap to be ill on my holidays.

I enjoyed my weekend in Manchester. It was great weather.
Camping was not as usual though. Vikki, me and Dan felt more comfortable in eachother's company. Dan tried to build a bridge over the big stream. When I tried to cross it before, I got my left foot wet because one of the stones moved. The little stream had flooded the camp site and we helped Ricki to correct the stream. That was good fun. Dan and Ricki put quite a lot of work into it. I'm pleased with the result. We only had sticks and an axe to do it.
The stream is now clean and not stagnant anymore, and hopefully won't flood the camp site again. Then we went to the carvery, like the last time. We drove Vikki home, had a much needed coffee at home and just relaxed in the afternoon. I tried my lovely 1950's dress on. It almost fits. After some struggling, Dan managed to pull the zip up. It's a bit tight at the shoulders but fits everywhere else. Some bits will have to be died though.
In the evening we went for a walk and got bitten by yet more midges, then sat in the Church Inn for a while. They redecorated it. Lots of disappointing beige colours. Monday we didn't do much. I didn't want to be busy on the day when I went back. I didn't enjoy the trip. The Ryanair ground staff totally infuriated me. The only thing I have to say to that is that I won't fly with them again.

I'm looking forward to my holidays now. Friday lunch time I'm off to Munich and will meet Dan at the airport. He lands less than an hour after me, so I'll wait for him.

Camping

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:58:00 GMT

Camping is still on, for anyone who wants to go.
Saturday, 4th of August. Snake Pass.

Sunday I thought of going to a pub. The Crescent would be nice if it's still there! Let me know who's interested.

last weekend

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 21:23:15 GMT

I was glad that week was over, as it was quite stressful. Dan and I managed to get going again after a brief rest, but had to wait ages for the bus into town. He counted car types. We were on our way to the goodbye-do of one of my colleagues. It was alright, I was satisfied with the food. Dan and I both had Bimbimbam. He had the vegetarian version. Lots of Spanish, French and Italien people there. I particularly enjoyed Thomas (the French taunter) argue with Martin (a German guy who looks like 20 but is infact 3 years older than me). Martin likes to tease the French guy. It was a very wet day. In the morning, the Italians were moaning in the kitchen about the weather. I said, how come so many Italians are in Ireland then, cause they are. Vincenzo said it was for the money and learning English. I said he could do that in the UK as well. And then him and Thomas, the French guy were ranting about how horrible the English are and how deceitful. So I was interested in what his reaction would be if he met Dan. So I said to Thomas on the evening: Thomas, this is Dan, and he's English. To my disappointment, there was no reaction at all. Just the diplomatic facade. But Martin kept teasing him, that was very funny. He also does that at work. We enjoyed ourselves.

Saturday, we slept long, cause I definitely had to catch up with some sleep after that week. When we were having lunch, Stew and Shabs already texted us about dinner. We met up late afternoon and went to a nice pub, the Duke, off Grafton Street, which is the equivalent of Market Street. Dan figured out how to use the timer on his camera, so it took some photos of us. Then the two went to get changed for the evening. I was already styled up because it takes an hour to get into town, so we had to get ready, there was no option of going back home and then back into town.
We had a fantastic dinner in a deli-café-restaurant. Some 5 star pizza for a really good price. And good service. We ordered one tiramisu and the waitress automatically brought us two spoons, without us asking.

Then we went to the only goth club in Dublin: Domion. First I was quite disappointed. It's a similar shape to bin cupboard, but I reckon it's even smaller. The toilets are appaling. They are shared with the club above, and you can hardly get into the cubicles and I'm not fat. What would I do with a big dress. And it's all wet everywhere, and not clean. There was some weird woman who kept coming back, washing her armpits. And standing around, looking at me putting my makeup on. I think she just tried to think of a reason to talk to me. She asked me about the club and the music, but I didn't say much, it was my first time there anyway. What a weird person. She was in my way when I was trying to put my eye makeup on. The music sounded like out of a casette player and it generally didn't feel like a club. But suddenly everything changed. When they started playing the cyber music, they suddenly had a decent sound system. People kept pouring in and there was a fantastic atmosphere on the dancefloor. Everyone was full of beans. I've never seen so many energetic people in the goth scene. We also got to talk to the DJ, who sat next to us for a while, and his mates. And there was this - Stew says - weird bloke, who's friends with Janice. I said a few words to him when I stood at the bar. His teeth are a bit off-putting and he seems weird. Cause he's so timid. I tried to make him to sit down with us, but he didn't want to intrude. And Stew told me off for asking. I can't see much wrong with him. I'll see them again, I'm sure. I'm not going out this weekend, but will be soon. It's time to meet some locals. And bloody hell, there were some fit blokes! And it was such a small club. There was also a girl I liked. She wasn't that pretty and she wasn't a goth, she didn't dress like one and she moved weird, but she reminded me of a very butch girl at work I find really interesting, except that she wasn't that butch. She danced all night. It was like a workout. Where do people get the energy from?
Little tip: when in Ireland, don't drink Kopparberg pear cider. It's just a shitty fizzy drink. Undrinkable, and it costs ridiculous 6 Euros! That's more expensive than anything else.

I had a massive headache the next day. And we had to be up at 11 because Stew and Shabs wanted to meet up early. (We only got home at half past 4 in the morning, so I didn't have enough sleep). We went to Howth, to the coast. But it was very windy there. I had a jumper, but I wish I had brought my coat. The ruin of the abbey was nice, but everything else was rather disappointing. Two small lighthouses which didn't look like the one on the photo at all. there were a lot of rocks, but I didn't see any cliffs. Maybe we should have had a better look around. We went to a very shitty pub called "the Cock", funny haha. Full of old alcoholics. I didn't like it there. Everyone else was hungry already, so after the walk to the lighthouse, we were already looking for a place to eat. Sunday was more or less another pubcrawl. I felt a bit zombified and lacking energy and I was disappointed by Howth. But I enjoyed everyone's company. And the nice Guinness Nort(h) star. All in all it was a good weekend. And I feel honoured that Stew and Shabs came to visit me. I liked the last pub we went to, the one near their B&B.

Monday, Dan met up with the two again. I was at work, obviously. They also found the Foggy Dew, that's the alternative pub in Dublin, apparently.

My week so far was ok. Went to the gym yesterday. But I can't remember all the exercises on my plan and I think I'm doing them wrong anyway.
I'm drinking cider now and watching telly. Bit bored really.

Looking forward to camping in a couple of weeks. Vikki will be there as well!

Weekend

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:53:54 GMT

Finally, I have a new appointment for an assessment at the gym. Took a while. They phoned me back in the end. I'm impressed. Well, measuring my blood pressure cost me 55 Euros. And then I had a hard time getting a new appointment at the gym. I thought I'd only have trouble with that membership. But it's ok now. After having paid for nothing for 12 days, I have an appointment for tonight, 8 pm. Afterwards I will pick up Dan from the Bewleys Hotel.
Friday evening, I will drag Dan to Camille's goodbye do. She's the French translator who's leaving. I feel I have to show up. The company was nice enough to pay us translators a lunch on tuesday.
Saturday, I guess, we will do a little pub crawl and see where the Guinness tastes best and then go to Dominion, the only goth club in Dublin. I don't know what the StewandShabs unit wants to do on Sunday, but I'm keen on going to the coast. My colleague Kevin said that's a good place to go. They have great cliffs there and a lighthouse. I've never seen one. I want a relaxing day after pubs and clubbing. And see something nice.

The Great Irish Summer

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:47:42 GMT

I'm sure you all know that, especially those of you who have been to Ireland. You go somewhere, and it starts raining cats and dogs for the time you are out. As soon as you get back inside, it stops. I managed to get completely drenched in less than a minute. As if someone had thrown me into a lake. Everyhing was wet, including my underwear and I had water in my boots by the time I got home. I popped into Londis and whiped the floor with my long wet skirt and dribbled everywhere, they were very impressed. I also bought an ice cream, just for the irony.