Upcoming travels

Yippy I'll be in NYC in 14 days! I'm really excited as I've never been there before and it will be awesome to see Aaron. Then off to Oregon hooray! I'll be getting into Portland the evening of April 14th and there till the 25th, with a few days spent in Bend and Salem.

May holds 5 days in Budapest! Wahoo, we just booked out tickets last nite and will be staying in some crazy old building that's been turned into apartments. I was in Budapest 8 years ago (!!!) with Sarah but didn't feel that I got the full experience as we were both sick at the time. So I said what the hell...I'll give it another try cause Aer Lingus is having a flight special! I love cheap flights! Yes, I am bragging :)

Lots of love to you all and see you soon.

Why yes, my boyfriend is Bruce Wayne.

France was great! However, far too short of a vacation. I hadn't been snowboarding in a very long time so I had forgotten the small amount that I learned. Mick was a very patient and good teacher though. I was just getting the hang of my front edge by the time I had to hop back in the rental car and head home. If next time, I can pick up where I left off last time I'll be sailing down the mountain in no time.

Although, I am very sore! I'm hoping my soreness will go away by Saturday, as I'm heading to Edinburgh and am hoping to do some clay pigeon shooting. yippy.

Here's my awesome boyfriend, batman (duh) snowboarding:




And for the rest of my images (more to come from Mick's camera when he gets back):

Les Arcs, France

Give me some snow!

Les Arcs Snow Forecast | Snow Report | by E-mail

In 4 days for 4 days

It's going to be a busy couple of weeks (months).

Whaoo I'm heading to France in four days to go snowboarding in the Alps. I can barely contain my excitement. I'm a bit nervous as it's been over 4 years since I've been, and as I left it last time I was just learning how to turn. eek. I'm going to take a quick half day training course to see if I can pick it back up again. I'll be there for four days and should be able to get in at least 2 solid days on the mountain. Then back to work on next Wednesday.

The following Saturday I head up to Scotland for the weekend, to Gleneagles for the McNaughton Awards. Where I'll spend Saturday clay pigeon shooting and scurry driving, whatever that is.

March, we might be planning a trip to Prague or back to Croatia, April I'm heading home, and in May I've got a week solid of great gigs! June, going to radiohead and Mick's birthday. It's great to be so busy with such fun things on the horizon.

the last few days

It seems like right when I get over a cold I catch another one. I felt entirely healthy for about one week and then the sniffles and aches came again. boo! I've managed to suffer through. Actually, the last week has been really great. The Smashing Pumpkins concert was a total success. The day started off with meeting up Jess for a cup of coffee then heading up to St. Stephen's Green to see Frank Black play. As we neared the top of Grafton Street we got word that the park was being closed and the cops were kicking everyone out. We got to the front gate just in time for them to close it on us, but shortly after Frank Black emerged. Apparently they didn't like the idea of his impromptu gig and decided to put an end to it. So instead, he played there on Grafton street. It was really incredible to see 300 or so people on the street singing along to Monkey gone to heaven.

After the crowd died down we went and joined a few friends for a pint before the SP gig. Before we caught a taxi to the RDS Liam asked if I knew anyone else interested in going, as he had two spare tickets, so Jess decided to join us and I gave Gudrun a ring too and she came and met us at the RDS. Once inside, I was worried I wouldn't be able to find Mick in the crowd of 10,000 people. But miraculously, he found me within 5 minutes! The gang was all there and the pumpkins started things off with Tonight, Tonight. It was mad seeing the pumpkins again, last time I saw them was over 10 years ago! As expected they played a lot of music from their recent albums much to our disappointment as we were all hoping for older songs. After the gig we caught the DART back into town and joined up with some friends for a few drinks. A great day!

Over the last three weeks I've also managed to get back to my roots a bit. A few of the girls at work and I have been going to weekly courses at Trinity College. We attended a Life Drawing class and I've gone twice to the Pottery Workshop. I am so incredibly happy I've started doing this again, it's made me realise exactly what a release of stress pottery can be. The best part is it's located directly across from my work and starts at 6pm, leaving just enough time to grab a quick bite to eat after work. So I plan to continue to do this for a while and am very excited about it!

So last Thursday was v-day, I was still pretty stuffy from my cold so we decided to lay low. I made the most delicious pizza ever and then we went and saw Juno which we both really enjoyed. Friday I stayed home from work, but still managed to work. That night I made pizza again with the left overs and we just stayed in and watched episodes of Family Guy. On to Saturday I got a bit of running around town done, met up with Jess for coffee/wine. Then off to Yamamori for Aishling's birthday dinner. It almost turned disastrous because we went to the wrong location at first and I had forgotten my phone so calling was out of the question. We quickly legged it across the river to the other location and made it just in time (actually before Aishling even showed up). After dinner the five of us headed over to the Globe for a few drinks. Mick and I ended the night a little early as I still have a bit of the sniffles. But overall, a very good nite, which was followed by today! We were extremely naughty and went to the Queen of Tarts and ate cheesecake for breakfast! oops. The weather was sooo nice we got it for take-away and ate in the Dublin Castle Garden. Then we went on a little bike ride up to St. Anne's park and walked around for a bit. I seem to view Dublin in a whole new way when riding around on a motorbike, when the sun is out and we're cruising around the streets, it's possibly the most perfect thing I could ever think of. Romantic huh? Now that the sun is coming out and weather is getting better my excitement for this city is returning.

In other news, my best friend in the entire world is now engaged! That's right Ms. Sarah Stanford is gonna get married! And well I approve. I couldn't be more happy for her (and morgan!).

These days are crazy and I love them.

January/February shenanigans

Why am I excited?

I'll tell you why. Because tomorrow I'm going to see the smashing pumpkings, who happen to be playing the same night as Black Francis (aka Frank Black, aka the Pixies!!!). However the pumpkins won out, as anyone who know's me know's my love of SP. Not to mention the ticket was a christmas pressent. HOWEVER, Frank black will be playing a FREE pre-show show tomorrow at Stephen's Green! How awesome is that?!?

I am also excited because one of the designs i've done is up for a McNaughton's Award, and I'm being flown to Edinburgh for the awards ceremony in March! And will be staying in some fancy 5-star hotel (the same one that the G8 was held at a few years ago), with a fancy black-tie dinner. Yeah!

It's that time of year again

It's Pancake Day! And I didn't eat a single pancake, boo!

But it's also time for a visit back to the ol' You Ess of Ay. Got my ticket today with a 3 day lay over in New York so I can do a bit of sight seeing with Aaron, I hope no giant monsters attack while I'm there!

See you in April:
Fri, Apr 11, 2008
Depart DUB: 09:30 AM
Arrive JFK: 11:45 AM

Mon, Apr 14, 2008
Depart JFK: 06:55 PM
Arrive PDX: 10:26 PM

--------------------

Fri, Apr 25, 2008
Depart PDX: 07:10 AM
Arrive JFK: 03:35 PM

Fri, Apr 25, 2008
Depart JFK: 07:45 PM
Arrive DUB: 07:45 AM

Good times

Rain rain and more rain, however I had an excellent weekend. Friday nite, went out for drinks with a few friends, had a great time. Didn't do to much saturday, went for a walk, a little shopping and started watching Dexter. Then went and saw Cloverfield, which was excellent! It has jumped to the top of my list of excellent monster movies, replacing the Decent. Next on the list, Juno and I'm looking forward to I'm a Cyborg at the Dublin Film Festival.

Today was spent doing laundry, watching the new series of lost and kicking mick's ass at tetris.

Still loving this poster:

Twenty-eight and feeling great

Well it's official, I'm 28. Maybe if I keep heading east I can out run it for another few hours. Through my years I've learned that the only proper way to handle growing older is by embracing the fear with delicious food.

The day consisted of going to work, finding a birthday pastry on my desk, followed by lots of birthday shouts from my co-workers. For lunch a cheesecake was busted out which I gladly ate two pieces. After work I was joined by Susan, Treasa and Laura from work for a few pints at the local. Laura and Treasa departed but were replaced (in so many words) by Aishling and Jessica, then onward to Acapulco where we met up with Gudrun for delicious mexican food, I got the Chimichanga (of course) followed by deep fried ice cream! It was a great evening and I can't think of anyone else (in dublin, calm down you crazy Oregonians) I'd rather spend my birthday with than four of the most genuine, caring and all around amazing girls I know.

I also got a few gifts, one being a big blue long time friend who I never thought I'd see in Dublin, another a snowball thrown in the Alps in my honor.

Good stuff.

Welcome 2008

New Years in Stockholm went well, possibly one of the strangest nites of my life. It consisted of, a dinner of seafood casserole, only to head back to Infamous Studio where they were having a burrito fest. As midnite crept closer we headed a short distance away to a friend of a friend's penthouse apartment filled with 16-17 year olds. Not exactly what we had planned. We babysat for an hour or so before following the children to the river to view the city fireworks at midnite. Kisses and hugs for everyone and then back to tuck the children into bed. Tyson and I then headed on to a club that was a bit more our age, where we met up with tyson's friend, philip. The three of us sat backstage and brought in the new year drinking champaign. New years day I woke up to a snow covered Stockholm.

The remaining few days were spent recovering, trying to stay warm and hanging out at the studio. Overall, a very good trip. Stockholm you treated me well, I thank you.

My flight back to Dublin was delayed an hour because of snow (I thought sweden would be prepared for that one?), putting me into dublin around 11:30pm. Luckily Mick was picking me up from the airport so I was able to avoid the 300 person taxi queue. I didn't head into work thursday as I originally planned, instead opted to spend some quality time with mick before he took off to Austria for two weeks. Now i'm back at work. Dublin is just as I left it, except a bit colder and a little rainier (just when i thought it wasn't possible). I'm keeping myself occupied sitting next to the fire, reading American Psycho and watching the Long Way Around.

New Years 2008 -Stockholm, Sweden

Snow Day 2007

Well, its the last day of 2007. I'm sitting in the Infamous Tattoo studio in Stockholm Sweden waiting for Tyson to finish up his drawings. Looking back, what can I say about 2007? Cha-cha-cha-changes. Lots of things happened, lots of things didn't happen, however the good have always outweighed the bad. Overall, I'm happy and I couldn't imagine being anywhere other than where I am right now (in life, not necessarily in Sweden).

Just to recap my little trip so far:
I got in on Friday morning and found my way to Infamous where Tyson works. It was really easy to get here, just a short trip on the subway. I dropped my bags off and took a short stroll around the old town before it began to get dark around 2.30pm. Tyson and I went and go some dinner and just hung out, headed home early and watched a movie before hitting the hay.

Saturday, more walking around, dinner at some fancy place and then back to the studio for a birthday party. It was rad cause I got to meet a lot of tysons friends and just interesting people in general, not to mention an open bar. After the party on to a bar for a few more drinks and then home for snoozing.

Sunday, more walking around. Went to the modern art museum, then to the grand hotel to pretend we were millionaires and drink expensive beer. Then continued on a small pub crawl of Stockholm. Found a girl passed out in a public toilet and got some help for her, cruised around the park for a while. Home early around 11.30.

Today, December 31, 2007. i slept ridiculously late but woke up to snow. tyson headed into town early to do a bit of work, where I met him him at the studio, where I'm typing this. No major plans for new years as of yet. I have a feeling we might just end up here at the studio with a few cans of beer. Not too sure yet.

Farewell 2007 welcome 2008. Its going to be a great year.

Cozy pubs.

Warm pubs, pint in hand and good friends for company. These are the days of my life, at Brogan's Pub.

Me and Gudrun
(these first two photos were taken by Dara, i want his camera!)


Gorgeous.

Me and Mick


Your's truly and Aishling


Fun times.

Dublin in December

How it goes

The rain is upon us and coming down hard today, which is okay because I'm home nursing my hangover all day. Things have been going good lately. Good thing i did all that traveling last month cause now i'm spending most my time indoors, trying to paint more, watching lots of films and sitting in cozy pubs. I've seen some great films lately, Control, The Darjeeling Limited and 30 Days of Night.

I've also been to a few great gigs, Wilco and The GO! Team, where I met the most amazing guy. Upcoming: The Good Life tomorrow nite, Múm and Seabear, CSS, Stars (again) and maybe the Smashing Pumpkins in February.

In other news, work is going good, just found out last nite that one of my designs won the Design For Print Award! So that's very cool. You can see some of my most recent work on my new online portfolio. I also bought my ticket for Stockholm, hanging out with Tyson for new years! Hooray! I'm super excited because Sweden has always been on my list of somewhere I'd like to visit.

We'll that's my life at the moment. Hope you're all doing well.

More travels!

Last week I made plans with Jessica and her two flatmates to drive up to Belfast this weekend. Well, as life has it, the other two girls' plan's changed and jess and I were out of luck. But we though, hey, let's go anyway! So this morning we hoped on a bus to Belfast. I'm not quite sure how it works but the bus costs 22euro and takes 3 hours while the train takes 2.5 hours and costs 60euros. So the bus was just fine with us.

Of course we made now plans of where to stay but figured we'd find something. Belfast greeted us with a torrential downpour! More rain than I've seen in quite sometime and of course accompanied by gale force winds. We opened our umbrellas and headed in the direction of a few hostels. The first hostel had a sign posted, no vacancies, so we headed to the hostel I stayed at 8 years ago! It however was also full and we came learn that it was quite a busy weekend in belfast due to a football game and two big gig's on (one being My Chemical Romance, causing the town to be crawling with 16 year old goth kids). Next step, bed and breakfasts. Once again turned away from the first, we found the second one only had 1 three-bed room left for £75 ($154!) no way were we gonna pay that. But as we were walking out the door we met a another lady how was looking for a room and she was on her own. Bingo! So we decided to share the room with her for a much more reasonable £25 per nite. We were set!

We booked ourself a Black Cab Tour to go take a look at the war murals, with piping hot chips in hand we hoped in the cab. It was going to have to be a short tour because it was already beginning to get dark at 4:30 and the weather was not cooperating. The murals were not quite like last time i saw them, 8 years ago, because this time there is peace! thank goodness. Once back in our room we warmed our feet for a while and had a great chat with Janet, our roomie. Then Jess and I headed out for the most amazing indian food and then to meet Janet for a pint at the pub across the street.

Wow, all i can say is, wow. What a crazy "pub". It was a bit more like a bar than a pub, but it had such an eclectic mix of people there and we had our pick of any of the 60-year-old men we wanted. Needless to say it wasn't exactly our crowd, but very entertaining none-the-less. After two drinks, and watching the "belly family" get arrested, Jess and I decided to head back to our warm beds.

Up-and-at-em early this morning we walked with Janet back to the bus station, where she caught a bus back home to Monaghan and us up to Giant's Causeway. We completely lucked out with the weather, a crisp clear day with puffy white clouds, making the perfect day for a cliff walk by the ocean. Giant's Causeway is such a magnificent place, it's no wander it's been named a national wonder of the world. After a few hours there, we headed back to belfast and then on another bus back to dublin, about 4 hours of bus ridding all together. Not so bad.

Tomorrow I'm off to the exciting land of work! (that's sarcasm).

Belfast and Giant's Causeway

Home again, home again.

Rome was great. It never ceases to amaze me. Walking through the doors of saint peters, exiting the metro to find the coloseum looming before us, or turning a corner and seeing the sun gleaming off the magnificently beautiful trevi fountain. This was the third time I did all these things, and it still felt like the first. However, my anticipation was even greater, cause I knew they were all coming.

Rome was more packed than usual due to the bank holiday weekend, because of this we decided to skip admission to a few of the major attractions and opt for people watching in the piazzas. Our last nite included an amazing dinner of salads and pastas chased down by delicious red wine. The food is simply amazing, however, we somehow also mananged to find a bad restaurant, i wouldn't suggest it unless, day old microwaved vegitables is your thing.

Italy Novemeber 2007

So now, i'm back in Dublin, I feel truly home again. My friend jess (from germany and my compainion on this crazy irish adventure) captured my feelings about dublin:

...I would miss these thousands of people from all around the world who jostle my shoulder when I go through the city, where parcels never find our house, always a beer in front of me without having to pay...that amazing wind, I will miss the smell of winter... in Dublin that is a smell like a flowery open fire, pub's where looking from the outside look empty and dead but inside all hell is breaking loose, where the rain and mist can be so lovely especially in the country side, bicycle lanes where actually there aren't any ... where elderly people and the pub keeper bring the night to an end ... just a 10 minute drive when I want to smell the sea, just 30 minutes drive to see beautiful mountains ... excellent and affordable fish and chips in the irish film institute ... where people keep acting naturally in all their life situations, to live in the real and rough north side, the city where a river divides the money... but otherwise where everybody is a star.

Thanks Jess.

Rome again Rome again

Yippy, just got into rainy Rome. Once in Italy we stayed two nites in Lecce and then headed over the the supremely beautiful Amalfi Coast, where we stayed the next two nites. And where I reminiced of the days of yore. Here in Rome were staying in the same hostel I stayed in last time i was here, however, they are booked up for the holiday weekend so we need to find somewhere else for the next two nites. So I best be internet searching for hostels. tootles.

Amazing, just amazing.

The last week Emily and I have been living in postcards. We have seen places I thought were just TV sets, but no, they exsist and we were there. Climbing the walls, walking the streets, eating the food and drinking the beer in these unbelivilby beautiful places.

After Dubrovnik we headed south to to Kotor were we hiked the walls that were built in 1166. After a cold, restless nite, dreaming of zombies coming down from the mountains, we headed down to Bar for a nite, where we lounged in the ruins of the 10th century Stari Bar (old city).

Last nite we jumped aboard our 9 hour ferry ride across the Adriatic to Bari, Italy. Yet another restless nite filled with dreams of the boat running into a whale, into another boat, and somehow sinking from a hole that just appeared out of no where. Emily finally dragged me out of our cabin half an hour after we docked. Still in a daze, after agruing with the taxi driver, we managed to grab a taxi to the train station with several other travelers, for minimal price. We napped for our two our journey to Lecce, the Florence of the South. Here we have set up camp in my idea of the perfect apartment. I may just move here so I can live in it perminitly. So far we have managed to walk around the city at nite, which is so beautiful because all of the old baroque buildings are lit up. Absolutly amazing.

We are here for two nites, then we head to Mantra and stay the nite in some swanky cave hotel. We will continue our way north to the Amalfi coast and then spend our final nites in Roma!

I will leave you with an image of what I will be dreaming about from now on...

Mi jesu idiomi

Rough translation: We are idiots. Here we are in the most beautiful place in the world, huddling in our apartment. Why you ask? Because instead of believing the weather forecast and bringing coats, gloves and scarfs, we brought swimsuits, skirts and tanktops. Now we are freezing. but its okay cause its our own fault. Today we are shopping for warm clothes. Two more days here and then were off to Montenegro! Were trying to follow the warm weather south!

burrrrrr!

Dubrovnik!

Day 4 in croatia, this is our second day in Dubrovnik and it is more beautiful that i ever imagined. One of those places that words/pictures can't describe. Emily and I flew into Pula (northern croatia) on tuesday evening, found our incredibly cute private apartment with the friendliest owners and most amazing view. The next day we spent walking around Pula, which has a colosseum similar to the one in Rome. However, as the sun began to fall, we quickly learned that we didn't pack the right clothes for the weather. It's true that during the day it is sunny and beautiful (we even went sunbathing!) but once the sun goes down croatia quickly turns into an in credibly cold country. We're layering all out cloths and are working through it.

Thursday we hoped on a 14 hour over-nite bus ride to Dubrovnik. we couldn't believe our eyes when we got here. so beautiful. The first day we walked all around the old city and atop the city walls. Today we ventured into the new town and on to the famous copacabana beach. we're just in town now heading for some dinner, seafood for me!

Here's a photo from the internet, i'll post my photos when i'm back home in Dublin.