Times are changing.

Jess and I started off in Dublin together and tomorrow a part of that adventure will end. Jess will be moving back to Germany and opening the door for all sorts of new adventures of her own. Our friendship was built on us both being thrown completely blind into an unknown city with only each other as companions. Companions who couldn't speak the same language, but we were completely lost together.

I will miss our chats about how Dublin dives us crazy, how much we love and hate it. I'll miss our travels together and that friend who is always up for anything even if it's pissing down rain. I'll miss her German common sense.

I know this is not the end and we'll see each other again and be keeping in touch. But I will miss her dearly.

London calling...

So we've all been asked to take a week off unpaid due to the recession. This is hard for a few people but for me however, I welcome the time off. So last week I took Thursday and Friday off and Mick and I headed over to London.

Actually, let me roll back a week to when I got the tickets. For some reason I decided to be a scatterbrain and leave getting the tickets until only a week before going. So when I went online to book the tickets, whaddya know—Ryanair had decided to triple the price! So we pushed the holiday out yet another week. We booked tickets for leaving Thursday afternoon and getting back Saturday evening about 10. When I got home and checked my calendar I realised I'd doubled booked over the Wolf Parade gig I already had tickets for on Saturday night. So I got back online again to book another flight home to make us arrive back in dublin in time for the gig. Only a 40 euro charge for the new flight. I didn't bother cancelling the first flight home as there's a 50 euro fee for cancellations or changes, but no fee if you just don't show up...

So finally we arrive in London and get to the Royal Lancaster Hotel just at the edge of Hyde Park. We settled into our 16th floor room, took in the view and then headed out for dinner. After a bit of looking we ended up at Satsuma, a Japanese restaurant, which was okay. Then out for a drink and back to the room to get a good night sleep and up early the next day.

First thing Friday morning we headed over to Portobello Market to get breakfast. Lots of cool stuff there, but unfortunately, not a lot of food. We ended up getting some vegan pastries and had to balance them out with some German hotdogs and burgers (mmm breakfast). Then onward to our main attraction—The Natural History Museum. We spent a good few hours here and only got through about half of it. The highlights were the dinosaurs (duh!) and The Vault, I had no idea I liked jewels so much!

We then took a short stroll across the street to the Victoria & Albert Museum, we took one look at the map/floor plan and decided that it was far too big for us to tackle if we were ever going to get through our plans for the day. Back on the tube and on to Tate Modern. Gotta say I wasn't impressed. I think I may just be burned out on modern art museums or perhaps it's just because I was recently at MOMA and the Guggenheim in New York, which are hard to follow. At this point we were museumed-out. Back to the hotel for a rest up and then dinner. We were determined to find some good indian food. We headed to a recommended restaurant, only to realise it was Friday night and we'd never get in anywhere without reservations. We settled for Masala Zone a chain restaurant throughout London. The food was good, once again, nothing amazing but it did the job. To the PUB! the pub closed at 11...on friday...yeah. So, back to the HOTEL!

Up bright and early again on Saturday, backed our bag, dropped it off at Victoria Station and headed out to see the sites of london. We wondered over to Buckingham Palace where there were thousands of people staring at nothing. Then a stroll through St. James Park trying to avoid the savage pigeons and squirrels. Past big ben, over the river and to the Imperial War Museum. We were lucky cause while we were there a few vetrians from WWII were having a Q&A session. However we spent so much time listening to them that it didn't leave any time to actually tour the museum as we were to meet up with Mick's friend Colm for lunch. Luckily Colm worked just around the corner so we headed to his local and ended up drinking our lunch.

With a few pints in us, we headed back to Victoria station to collect our bag and get the train to Gatwick Airport. The time was tight, but we'd a half hour till our flight took off. We got to the Ryanair check-in desk just as your man was leaving. No luck, he wouldn't let us check in. See, Ryanair actually count on people not making their flights, that's the way they make their money. So there is no kindness in their hearts and they won't make allowances. In fairness it was our own fault...actually I blame the beer.

Luckily, we still had our second, later flight booked. Only a 4 hour wait in the airport. Phone calls had to be made as, Aishling and Gudrun's gig tickets were at my house, but it all got sorted in the end. We finally arrived home at 11pm which was far passed time to make the gig. Two lessons were learned: 1. Don't go to the pub before a flight and 2. Never think Ryanair will be kind.

Overall though a very good few days and London has been redeemed on my list of places to visit.

A few pictures:

London	LondonBreak28Nov2008

Ouch my aching back! Part 2

Well, I've followed all my doctor's advise. I started doing physio therapy once a week, then every other week. I stuck to doing my exercises everyday but after a month when the pain continued to be persistent. I started to slip with the exercises. I was up to almost an hour of stretches a day and it was now hard to find the time or desire to do them.

I called the doctor again to look into getting an MRI, he suggested I hold of a while longer and perhaps try osteopathy instead. He arranged for me to meet an osteopath the following week. I went and once again my hopes were high. The osteopath took a look at my xray results and concluded that they were actually normal and the problem was with my sacroiliac joint and that my hips were out of alignment therefore putting pressure on my sciatic nerve, causing the pain. Hooray! She said she'd have me fixed after 2 sessions.

The two sessions came and lots of money went, and I was still in pain. Called the doctor back again...please let me get an MRI so I know what the problem is!!! I had an MRI appointment the very next friday. The MRI confirmed the first diagnosis of a bulged disc (or herniated, slipped, whatever you wanna call it) in my back at the S1/L5 vertebrae. Not only did it show a bulge but it showed a very large bulge, that phsyio therapy, osteopaths or time is very unlikely to help!

I have to say once again I am so frustrated with doctors and health care systems. If I would have gotten the MRI 3 months ago when I originally asked then I would have been on my way to fixing my problem a long time ago.

Fixing however is the tricky part. There is a surgery that can be done called a microdiscectomy, it is simply a keyhole surgery and done as an outpatient procedure. So far the research I've read has said that if a disc is to heal its self it will do so in 6 weeks, which I am well over. However, its also not advisable to have the surgery if the problem has been active for over 3-6 months, which I am just over 3 months. If I do decide to go the surgery route, I then have another challenge on my hands; I can do it through the public system, which there is a 2 year waiting list (that's helpful) or I can do the surgery through the private system for only €7000. There is a fund called the National Treatment Purchase Fund that offers to pay for the procedure if I've been on the public waiting list for over 3 months. I'm just not sure how well this fund works and have never heard of anyone who has used it...so I've to do a bit of research there. But even if I were to wait the 3 months to avail of the fund, I would be well over the suggested 6 month mark of getting surgery.

So that's the story. Here are some pretty pictures of the inside of my body:
Side view

Top view

Edinburgh for the weekend

To forget all this talk of recession me, Jess and Guðrún headed up to Edinburgh for the weekend.

Edinburgh

life update

I haven't wrote for a while, mainly because nothing has been very noteworthy. I've been keeping my life fairly uneventful in order to give my back a chance to get better. Unfortunately I seem to have plateaued. I've been taking Difene daily for 2 months now. And I'm starting to get concerned about the effect it may be having on my stomach, so I've been keeping off the drink and spicy foods. I'm still keeping up my physiotherapy and I went back to the Doctor to schedule in an MRI. I'm really torn on this situation because as long as I take the Difene I'm perfectly fine, other than a few aches and pains in the morning and night. But the moment I go off the Difene, I'm crippled again. I quit the acupuncture as it was only helping the inflammation which is none existent while I'm taking Difene.

Ah, that's not what I meant to type about at all...So on to other things.

There's lots of concern over here about the "recession." I'm assuming it's a similar situation as the states right now. I found out today that my back is one of the banks that has been bailed out. Whatever that means. All I know is I don't have 100's of thousands in the bank so I don't really have to worry. Of course I realise this effects business and it's all we here about at work these days.

On the fun side of things, I went with Mick to Carlingford this weekend and a bunch of friends. It was really relaxing, we stayed in Trea's parents house, which is a huge 7 bedroom 5 bath house out in the mountains. It was amazing there were 10 of us and we each had our own rooms/beds. The only downside was it was raining so we had to catch a ride with Tom meaning we didn't get to take the bike which would have been an absolutely beautiful drive (when it wasn't raining). We'll have to take a spin up there sometime again when we get some nice weather (positive thinking, right?).

Speaking of weather, the cold is setting in again and it's dark by 7 and getting earlier everyday. Break out the hat, scarf and gloves again.

On the horizon, I'm heading to Edinburgh this weekend with Gudrun and Jess. That should be great! I haven't been to Edinburgh since Sarah and I went in 2001. wow. Then, when I get back on sunday, I'm heading into town to see Jenny Lewis! That should be good fun too. I've also to look forward to Death Cab for Cutie and Wolf Parade next month.

Hope all is well with all of you, please drop me an email and let me know what's new in your life.

Lots of love, Jude

Not getting any younger.

However, I'm getting older before I should! As I mentioned in my previous blog, the acupuncture seemed to relieve my back pain—for about 2 weeks. Then it decided to come back with a vengeance. The pain that I had prevously felt in my lower back now quickly spread to my butt and down my right leg, Sciatic pain. I knew this was not right, so I scheduled some x-rays to be taken. The x-rays showed a narrowing of the L5/S1 disc space with facet joint degenerative change. Basically this means that two of the spine bones in my back are smooshed together, narrowing the disc space, probably making the disc bulge out, therefore, pinching a nerve and making the pain. Apparently degeneration is a normal occurrence but is not noticeable until you're in over 50, not 28.



So this pain has basically left me immobile, unless i pop myself full of anti-inflammatory pills. I hate taking medicine crazy pills, i feel like i'm just filling my body with unnatural chemicals that really can't be good for me. But at the moment it seems like it's the only thing I can do. I'm also keeping up the acupuncture as well as seeing a physiotherapist who has given me a few exercises I have to do twice a day, every day, probably for the rest of my life. If I can get the the inflammation down permanently so the pressure is off my nerve I should be okay again, but that can take a lot of time. Positive thinking is what I need, I'm trying.

Somehow, this is a bit unexpected. Yet when I look at my life, I lead a sedentary life compared to how humans are suppose to live. Sure I walk an hour every day and I've started swimming weekly, but I'm also still sitting at a desk for 7+ hours a day. I've done this since a computer was introduced into my life at about 12. So that's at least 16 years of sitting and leading a fairly unactive (physically) life.

Two years

What started off as a year adventure in my life has now turned into a two year life changing journey. And I feel like it's just starting. However, I'm also starting to feel the effects of getting older, not just the aches and pains, but that time is running out and I have so many things in this life that I want to do. Mainly travel, thailand, cambodia, laos, south america, Japan, and Egypt which will all somehow involve going through Italy cause that seems to be a hub for everything. I'm trying to schedule in a few weekend trips in the near future a wishlist would be Poland, Germany and Switzerland/Austria. Of course all this involves money and time off of work which don't exactly work together. I'll manage.

In celebration of my two year anniversary I spent some quality time with a few friends from my past. Kerry and Jennine from Oregon are visiting Ireland, so I invited them over for a traditional Irish meal cooked by an American. I made Shepherd's Pie and Guinness Brownies which both turned out delicious!

Today Aishling, Guðrún, Mick and I went down to Glendalough and went horseback riding! We lucked out with the weather considering most of Ireland is experiencing major flooding right now. We had great fun which is a direct ratio to the arse pain.

I'm back home now and ready to start my 3rd year of Irish life.

Lots of love to all and I miss you dearly.

Horse Trekking

I'm a believer!

Anyone who has talked to me in the past year is probably familiar with my constant complaining about my lower back aching. It all started a year ago when I got a case of Strep Throat. I was on a weeks worth of antibiotics, which cleared up the strep, which then immediately came right back. I was put on another two weeks of antibiotics. Well this basically messed up my insides causing the need for more antibiotics? Vicious cycle, I think so. A year later, but insides finally became normal again yet the constant back ache remained. I figured maybe it was just a coincidence and had nothing to do with the bout of antibiotics, it was probably aching just cause I'm lazy, need to exercise more and improve my posture. I focused on doing these things, did yoga, started stretching every morning, paid more attention to my posture, went to a masseuse, osteopath, etc. Nada. Still every morning I could barely get outta bed cause my back hurt so bad. I finally gave up and accepted the fact I felt like a 70 y/o while i'm not yet 30.

Well hallalujia! Am I a believer in the power of acupuncture! I've been going every other week over the last two months and after the first session i thought i was cured! However, it did come back slight, but after a few more sessions I feel great again! It's such a relief. The acupuncturist explained that it had nothing to do with muscles or bones but was simply my kidney's still inflamed from being sick, a year ago! The next few sessions we're going to focus on getting my entire body healthy. Oh i'm so excited!

Summer in Ireland

This is the rainfall meter, it's not set to stop for the next two weeks.



I'm not complaining. (Yes I am.)

It's official.

I'm legal to live in Ireland again! I went down yesterday and extended my work authorisation for another 2 years. I can't believe these past two years have gone by so fast! And I'm continuing to have the time of my life. I now know that moving to Ireland has been one of the best choices I've made. I do miss my friends and my family. But the good thing about them, is they're always there, and they're just as I remember. However, I'm making new friends, some as close as family.

What have I been up to recently, you ask? Well I was helping Mick celebrate his birthday with lots of shenanigans. I tried my hand at baking him what I've just dubbed, Judy's Crazy 8 lime cheesecake, with a strawberry hat. The cheesecake topped off some delicious enchilada's.

I've been relatively busy the last few months and that seems to be slowing down now, unfortunately that means no more holidays planned. I'll have to change that soon. I've a few exciting things on the horizon, but they're top secret for now. More details to come. For now feast your eyes on 'Crazy 8.

Camping

What an amazing past few weeks! To follow up on Budapest, this last weekend we hopped on the bike headed to into the west driving three hours to Oranmore, just outside Galway, were we were camping for 3 nites with some friends of mick. On the second day we took the bike for a trip around Connemara which was amazing. Neither one of us knew Ireland had such a big mountain range! It was pretty amazing, we stopped off at this cute little swimming hole which also amazed us cause the water was so clear blue it looked like we were in the tropics! the only way we even knew we were in Ireland anymore was cause there were cows watching us the whole time. Then the next day we all went to Salthill and walked the beach front and played mini golf, bumper cars and pool. loads of fun. Now I'm back at work...not as much fun as camping.

Camping Oranmore / Galway / Connemara

Budapest and back

Last Friday, Mick and I took off to Budapest, Hungary for 5 days. My previous memories of the city weren't that great, however they were also 7 years old. My new memories are amazing. We basically spent the entire holiday walking, up hills, over rivers, through zoos and parks, only stopping occasionally for food and beer. I highly suggest Budapest to anyone planning to travel to Europe.

A few pictures for you:

Budapest

The fun's not over with yet, tomorrow we're heading off for a 3 day camping weekend near Galway! I've just finished packing and now I've to do my anti-rain dance.

It's good to be home

While America was fun, it sure is good to be back home; my own bed, clothes to choose from, seeing mick, overcooked veggies, the rain...okay maybe not. The weather this last weekend, however, been amazing! In fact this last weekend was one of the best weekends I can remember in some time (perhaps even ever!). Friday, mick and i headed out to malahide to have drinks with some friends, stayed up there and nursed hangovers saturday (okay, maybe that part wasn't the greatest).

Sunday, we were sun-struck and hopped on the bike and headed up north to Skerries and Rush really beautiful coast towns. We stopped along the way to feed swans, walk on overgrown tracks and lay in the grass by the sea. On our way back we stopped off for a bbq at mick's friends. Only to come back to my house to join in on what remained of a house party.

We took advantage of the bank holiday monday and headed south this time to hike up Bray Head. We were almost halted by the fog but we pushed on and once up the mountain and through the clouds we had an amazing view of a fog framed Dublin. We still had bbq on the mind, so we headed back to mine and jess joined us grilling at my house (excellent burgers!).

That's pretty much it, I'm afraid if I say summer is here, it will go away. So I won't say it. Here are a few photo's from mick's fancypants camera:

NYC day 3

Up and at it early this morning, my last day in NYC. I joined Aaron on his way to work at 9:30 and we grabbed coffee at his neighborhood coffee shop. He went on to work and I went on to finally see the Natural History Museum. It was everything I thought it would be. I walked around for 2 hours (that was all my brain and eyes could handle) looking at fantastic dinosaurs, wonders of the deep sea, wonders of the universe and every other animal to walk the earth. Very educational and very cool!

1:45 I hopped back on the subway to meet up with Aaron one more time to do what we do best, eat. We went to the cutest Cuban restaurant that made me want to dance the minute I walked through the door. Then the food made me want to go to Cuba! I had crab cake salad with guava cheesecake for desert! Holy moley!!!

Back on the subway again to head back to aarons, with a quick stop off to one more touristy area so I could pick up some of them 3 dollar I heart NY shirts. Now I'm sitting at the JFK airport, awaiting my flight to Portland. See you soon Oregon!

NYC day 2

Aaron woke up hung over from the nite before, the exact reason I didn't want to join him. So while he slept, I headed over to the Statue of Liberty and then wandered up Broadway Street, past Wall Street, strolled passed the massive hole in the ground where the twin towers once stood and then took a ridiculous taxi ride to a restaurant Bread to meet up with Aaron and an old high school friend, Ryan, for lunch. I arrived 20 minutes late thanks to NYC traffic. However, I was still there before Ryan and his wife. It was super good to see them again. It's strange how you don't see someone for 10 years and our lives have changed so much but are still the same person you remember. Fun times.

After lunch we parted our ways and aaron and I headed in the direction of the Natural History Museum, we headed in the direction alright, and then went right past it. By the time it would have taken to backtrack our path, we would only have had an hour at the museum. So, we decided to get off where we were and stroll through central park. I called this our Cloverfield Tour. We passed the subway stop, saw the apartment buildings, hid under the bridge and saw the open green where that dude got eaten. Oh by the way Central Park is HUGE! If you decide to walk across it, wear good shoes and get lots of hot dogs on the way.

At the end of Central Park lays the mother of all nerd stores, the brand new NYC Apple store. We spent a little while in there drooling over all the latest overpriced gadgets. I wanted to shove my pockets with iphones, shuffles, imacs, macbooks, and anything else i could get my hands on. I didn't (not yet!). Then on to dinner! We dined on NY's finest street food of hot dogs, cookies, and pizza. The pizza was probably the best i've ever had! Yes, even better than American Dream Pizza. Then on home, where after the long day of walking I fell asleep watching No Country for Old Men.

I <3 NY!

Hey everyone I made it to NYC! A quick rundown of what's gone on so far. I got in yesterday, friday, at around 12pm got my huge luggage and headed off on the subway to meet Aaron in Manhattan at his work. After sluggishly lugging my luggage through out the many stepped subways of NY I finally arrived at his work. After hello's and hugs we got down to business, on to mexican food; the only reason a really even came back to America. Two enchiladas and beans and rice later, I was on my own again with keys to Aarons flat in hand.

Once again I attempted the ridiculous task of getting my gigantic suitcase through the subway, at least I didn't have to change lines. I popped out of the Morgan Street exit to arrive in the heart of Brooklyn, aka, the ghetto. Aaron had drawn me easy enough directions and only left out several major points consequently getting me very lost...in the ghetto...white girl...huge luggage...in the ghetto. Sure no problem, I've traveled all over the world, I've no problem stopping and asking for directions... ironic thing however, no one spoke English. After wondering around for a half hour I finally found a helpful person who pointed me in the right direction. At last finally at aaron's place. I was down for the count, took a three hour nap waiting for
Aaron to get off work. Turns out he had to work late and didn't get off until 10pm, on a Friday! We then headed out for a few drinks at a local bar. Ah fine American beer, at last.

We woke up bright and early this morning and made our way into downtown Manhattan. We walked around a bit checked out some of the more famous spots. Then headed off to the Guggenheim Museum where there was an exhibition by Cai Guo-Qiang . It was extremely cool. Basically the guy blows things up for a living and in his spare time creates creepy political artwork using lots of taxidermy animals. After that, on to the next museum, possibly the mother of all modern art museums, MoMA! Before hand, however, we went and got amazing ramen noodles! Delicious! Then on to ponder the works of Andy Warhol, Picasso, Kandinsky, and the special exhibit, Design and the Elastic Mind. In the MoMA bookstore on our way out I had my first ever celebrity spotting! There standing right next to me was the former White House speechwriter, not to mention Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian, and game show host, yes, that's right none other than Ben Stein! Funny stuff huh?

To finish off our sightseeing for the day we headed over to Rockefeller Center where we had free passes to the top, courtesy of Dominic's visit the previous week. We had perfect timing, we went up to the top about half hour before the sunset began, we stayed through the sunset and watched the city come alive with lights. What an amazing site. Now it was time for dinner, over to chinatown for dumplings as an appitizer, then back across town to Mama's for some NY style home cooking, I had mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, and corn. One more time: Delicous! All of that chased down by yet another tasty american beer.

Finally back home now and i'm completely wrecked. Aaron has headed out to a friends party to live up the NY lifestyle. I will stay home and sleep off my Dublin jetlag. Besides big plans tomorrow.

New York

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