Long Weekend

A long weekend for you last weekend and a long weekend for me coming up this weekend. Fair warning before I get too much further into this post: I sweetened my burgers with a few glasses of wine. It's about my bedtime but I'm not really sleepy so I thought I'd post in case tomorrow is as busy as the rest of the week.

Thanks to the weekend, my Monday was a pretty exhausted one. Work was fine but I just couldn't bring myself to do much more than crash on my couch that night. Yesterday was busy at work and then I had Gaelic training. I left training just before cool-down laps to get to kickboxing before it was too late to show up. Busy, tiring night. Fun though.

So I love my new kickboxing classes. I'm getting a little more comfy in my gloves. Well, not MY gloves because I don't own any yet. I'm going to talk to Jerry and see if I can sort that out tomorrow. The sweat left behind by other people on the shared gloves is just kind of gross. I've got class again tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it!

My weekend was pretty good. Pretty normal Irish weekend. Lots of pubs and recovering and hanging out with friends. Not a bad weekend in all. I met a few new people and danced to a few good songs. I even downloaded some to dance to around my place as I get ready.

A confession: I've recently becoming addicted to E!. The channel, not the drug. They show it over here. I'm becoming a gossip junkie. Tonight is 101 Best Kept Secrets.

This weekend is the 'June Bank Holiday Weekend'. It means we have Monday off and I'm looking forward to it. I'm meant to run the Mini-Marathon in Dublin. It's a 10k race in Dublin on Monday. It's NOT going to be a fun physical experience since we've got a BBQ the night before. At least I won't be alone in my pain - the other girls are all invited too!!

I should get to bed soon. It's been a long and busy day and I know I've got another long one ahead, dealing with not-so-lovely people. I hope you are all happy to be halfway through your week!!!

Dave, Sweet Dave

Went to see Dave Matthews Band last night. The venue was this place called The Point right on the Liffy River in Dublin. It's a pretty cool little spot. I certainly wouldn't object to going to another concert or two there. The traffic wasn't even bad getting there - only the last little bit which was the most assinine traffic pattern I've ever seen but you'd have to be there to understand.

I also went to that funeral the other night. People were spilling out the doors. Everyone met up at the funeral home and lined up behind the hearse. The hearse then proceeded up to the church (about 3/4 mile) at a VERY slow pace and we all walked behind. Eveyrone waited outside while the family went in and they set the coffin inside. Everyone took their seats and then it was a fairly regular funeral mass. Most people headed to the pub for a few social drinks and/or food afterwards. There were 7 kids in the family so there were quite a few people around.

Training for tonight was changed to tomorrow night to acocmodate for a graduation mass that's going on in town. That means I'm free to go to kickboxing. The only thing is that kickboxing is at 9pm and I don't know if my motivation will last that long. That's kind of late for me. I'll be boxing past my bedtime! :-) I suppose it will allow me a quick sandwich with time to settle after work. Maybe I'll take a quick nap or something so I'm not as tired later on.

No big plans in store for the weekend yet... I have a match on Sunday but it's a 1/4 final for the championship, so the odds I'll get a game are slim to none. It will be fun to watch at the very least. I should blogging again before that, but if not

Only in Ireland

This e-mail just went company wide at the pharmaceutical plant I'm at right now. A 'bullock' is a young bull, for those of you unfamiliar with the term. It just struck me as funny and I had to laugh. Wouldn't see that working in downtown Boston! ;-)

To All,

Missing bullock last seen heading towards site.

A bullock belonging to Mr. John Hughes, it has gone missing from his land, if you see it please ring Mr. Hughes direct at 086-6007363. and inform security.

Regards,
Kathleen

Where does the time go?

Seriously - I feel like I just blogged the other day and then I look and it's been since Wednesday. Hmm... time flies when you're having fun I guess! I'm exhausted today. Another Sunday night out. I met up with Frosty around 10pm, so I didn't drink a lot but we were out until 2am again so I'm pretty tired from it. I'm sure you all are reading this thinking that I must be a crazy slacker and that I don't take my job seriously, going out the night before work. Not the case though - it's seriously part of the Irish culture. I was dancing with my co-workers until close last night and I can tell you I was MUCH better off than a few others. I'm not hungover- just tired.

I'm going to my first Irish funeral tonight. Long story and line of connection and nobody I knew personally. I'm kind of curious to see how it all goes. I think the part tonight starts at the funeral home (although a lot of people hold the wake at their house) and we'll walk up to the church (up main street -the hearse goes first and everyone follows) for Mass. I believe there's another Mass in the morning and then they walk up to the cemetery for the burial. Kind of like in Waking Ned Devine. I'll let you know more in my next blog.

The weekend was okay. We drew (tied) in our match on Friday. It ties us for first place in our division. Next Sunday is the 1/4 final match. Should be good. Saturday I went to watch Arklow United play in the cup final (men's soccer) and then went out with them (my friend Lisa's fiance plays so I hang with her) and witnessed complete drunkenness unfold. I have pics but haven't had time to get them off my camera. I think they're blog-worthy though!

Today is the longest day ever. I'm looking forward to getting home from the funeral and crashing into bed. Tomorrow night is training and then Wednesday is Dave Matthew Band! Woohoo!!! Catch you soon! ;-)

Blah!

The weather is blah. There's not really a better way to describe it in one word. It's rainy, cold, wet, and dark. Just blah. I swear I must be solar-charged because when it gets like this, my energy level drops in leaps and bounds. I'm not my normal 'chipper self' as one of the girls in the office said this morning.

The weekend was quiet. I really didn't do much of anything besides catch up on movies and tv shows that my mom tapes for me and sends on DVD. I caught up on laundry. One less thing I have to do during the week, I suppose.

Last night I made bread pudding for the first time ever. I was having this craving for it at the start of the week so I looked up a recipe, improvised a bit, and threw it in the oven last night. It came out pretty darn good. I had it warm with fresh cream over it last night and then I warmed it up in the microwave at work for breakfast again this morning. I'll be making that one again for sure. If anyone's interested in the recipe, just let me know!

Other than that, it's been pretty quiet on this side of the pond. I've got a Gaelic match on Friday night, the FA Cup Final (soccer) is on Saturday so that should be a good afternoon/night out, and that's about it. I think I'll try to make it to the Farmer's Market since I missed out on my falafel last weekend. I DID manage to get 4 pairs of shoes re-heeled though and he cleaned them up nicely when he did them. That walk across the bridge does a number on high heels!

I should be back before the end of the week. I've got loads of meetings and things to get done before the end of the day on Friday but I'll try to make time. Maybe get up from the couch (or even bring my laptop over TO the couch) during the evenings... Who knows? Hope you're enjoying the week anyhow. Halfway to Friday!! ;-)

The Sweetest Thing Ever

I think I just saw the sweetest thing ever. I'm just coming in from my morning run (intervals to help improve my speed) and the next door neighbors' door was open. I live in a 3 story apartment building, and all of the apartments have their own entrance. It saves on sharing a staircase, I guess. It also makes life easier for postmen and delivery men, if you think about it. Anyhow - the door was open to the next apartment over and when you open the door, the only thing there is a carpeted stairwell leading up. A young couple live there and I don't really know them so I'm not sure what their story is but taped to the front of every stair (the vertical part) on the way up was a piece of white paper (about 6x10") with one word in big, black marker. Each step had a different word saying I-MISS-YOU-I-LOVE-YOU-I-NEED-YOU- and that's as far as I could see!! A welcome home (but they've both been there)? An apology? A marriage proposal?? Doh!! I may have to get to know them better just so I can find out! How sweet is THAT??? And men think it's all about money and big lavish things. They have SO much to learn! ;-)

Page 3

I was just glancing through the blog of a young lady named April, who happened upon my blog and gets the humour of Irish life, having lived here for a while herself. She mentioned the naked woman in the daily 'newspapers' (aka trashy tabloids that abound here) and I realized I never mentioned the girls from Page 3.

Every issue of certain papers has a 'Page 3 Girl'. It's usually a large breasted, always beautiful young woman looking at you from a full-page photo of herself in nothing but a skimpy pair of panties (if that). It's quite alarming at first, and if one happens to be laying in the break room at work or some older person's home (which they always are) you rush to flip past that page without even reading the juicy celebrity gossip or (very rarely) informative little news bits. After a while you just stop noticing and when your boss stops by to see you, the page stays flipped open in near porn-like glory. Too funny. I should send some home to my male friends. They'd get a kick out of it.

A funny thing about the page 3 girls is that they tend to be nobody in particular. Just 'Mary, 19' or whatever their name is. Occasionally you get a former soap star or girl-band singer, but not often. Then there are the few who got their start on Page 3. Jordan, I believe, is one of those. I just read an article about her staring in her own reality TV show on E! at home, so some of you may know who she is. Incredibly large breasts and blond hair pretty much sums it up. I think she may even be preggers now.

Just a bit of a ditty on Page 3 for your entertainment. If you fly through one of the airports, you'll know exactly which page to flip to. Back to finishing this book about critical path... ;-)

Rain, rain, go away!

I can't believe I made it through an entire winter of this weather. I was getting pretty used to the sunshine and warmth of the past few weeks. It looks like the weather is going to be 'unsettled' for the next week or so, as they like to say here. I suppose it will keep the football pitch soft, which would be a plus. My left ankle (an old break) is killing me from all of the stop and go on the hard pitch last night.

I almost totally forgot about Mother's Day being this weekend. They celebrate it much earlier in the year here - at least I thought to buy a card while it was happening to have in-stock for this month! I can't get onto the website to order my gift though - I think it's probably just jammed with shoppers for Mother's Day. Oh - well. I'll have to try first thing in the morning here, when the rest of America is still sound asleep.

National elections are going on over here. It's kind of a funny process to watch. It's so different from everything at home. It's more based on local politics and party platforms. The candidates are all walking door to door for community support and they've got big posters with their ugly mugs hanging all over the place. I think the funniest (not really though) story I heard is the Labour Party sending out leaflets about how they want to save the environment. Instead of sending one packet to each house or using recycled paper, they're sending one to each person - so my friend Frosty's house got FIVE sent there. Way to save the environment, Labour Party!!!

Just thought I'd drop a little post today. I'm reading a novel about project management and lead time for critical paths at work. I know - sounds fun, doesn't it? It's actually kind of interesting but I needed a break anyhow. Happy Wednesday! Halfway through the week already!!! ;-)

Oh my!

I knew it had been a bit since I posted, but I was thinking it was Friday or something. Ooops!! It's been almost a week! Well, as you can tell from my perception of time and how quickly it's flown, it's been a fairly busy few days! We had a bank holiday yesterday so today is more like my Monday and it was a long weekend of drinking to kick off the summer fun.

Here's an interesting little tidbit about Ireland and Europe in general. They don't start 'summer' at the same time we do - whereas we go by the solstice at home, they go by calendar months here. In other words, the first day of summer is May 1st. That makes the seasons break up into four neatly arranged three-month intervals. They were talking about how it's a bit different on the radio the other day, which is what brought it to my attention. So this past weekend was the first weekend of summer here.

There was no lack of people to hang out with this weekend so most of the holiday weekend was spent meeting up with different groups of people in different pubs around town. I did a bit of shopping down Wexford way on Saturday with Frosty (she wanted to visit a new store that opened down there and it turned into quite a productive day of summer shopping) . Then there was a fun group of Americans in town that I ran into Friday night and kept bumping into throughout the weekend. They were over for a racquetball tournament (I'm also scheduled to meet up for a match with Frosty this week, whenever I manage to squeeze THAT in). It's always fun to run into people from home - to get their take on Arklow, if nothing else. They got along just fine from what I could tell!!!

The window in my room lets in way too much sunlight so I kept waking up early each morning - it made me want to scream. Yesterday was a bit cloudy - so between my slight hangover, the cloudy sky, and the sleep mask I had from one of my flights, I was able to get a decent amount of sleep. It felt AMAZING.

We had a match last night and beat Clara 9-5 to 0-3 which is equivalent to 32-3. Ouch. At least the weather was nice for a match. Tonight it's back to training and getting run into the ground. :-) I'm working on my sprinting form, which seemed to help a lot the other night. My calves were kind of tired though so I've been walking around the apartment on tip-toe trying to strengthen them a little. Yep - I look a bit mad but I'm hoping it will work!

Time to get back to work. Hope you all had a good weekend and that your weeks seem as short as mine actually is! ;-)

One Year

Holy cow. I've been living here for a year! The time has flow and yet I feel like so much has happened! I've had 2 jobs, lived in two towns and three different houses, learned a new sport, learned to drive standard on the wrong side of the road, earned a license all over again, and did it all in 2 different vans and 2 different cars. That's a lot to cover in a year.

I don't have much time to write today (it's nearly the end of the day) but I thought it was important I get that into my posts. Kind of cool though. Didn't picture that happening as part of my life plan... Maybe as a vague idea of 'living/working abroad' to add to my life experiences. Anyhow, my friend Noush (the American one or 'yer one the American' as they'd say here) sent me a really cool wine glass to take a proper celebratory drink! I thought it was very cool so I posted it for you all to see. Wish I could find a real one for my apartment! Great conversation piece!

Anyhow - I'm off to get some yummy steak from the local butcher. He's also a farmer and supplies all of his own meat and 99% of the time it melts in your mouth. Very tasty. I've got a great marinade I picked up at the Guinness Factory that I'm dying to try.

I'm also looking to get a bit faster in Gaelic (yes, I realize that eating the above-mentioned steak won't help) so if anyone's got any good sprint workouts or ways to increase speed (I hear hill runs are really good), I'd appreciate the advice.

I'm off! By the way - it's been a full year and there are a whole LOT of people over there who still ow me a visit! If Crystal can pull it off being married with 2 kids, then you most certainly can! You know who you are!!!! ;-)