One, Two... One, Two... Is this thing on??

Hello? Anyone there? Look! A resurgence in blogging!  Megan reminded me that this still existed and here I am waving a big hello, because once again, due to the chaos of general day-to-day life, I've fallen out of step with Megan, Ciara and Dee... as well as many other nearest and dearest.

I'm in Limerick. It's Week 9 of the first semester. I've not failed anything yet! I'm living with some great friends. There are some great friends still hanging around Limerick, although there are more who have left and are off doing their own things. I've come back from a relatively successful year out and am already looking at where to go next. I'm thinking either Canada, America, Spain, Japan or South Korea. You know... away, away. It's actually a point of stress. There are two great programmes in Japan and S. Korea respectively but they both begin next August. Considering that I need to work away for the summer (either America or the UK), I would be expected to leave just after returning from summer employment. This doesn't suit because I am determined to attend my graduation, particularly considering that this course has just bled me dry of confidence over the past four/five-ish years, so attending it will be a happy "F- you course", attended by my super family of course. Secondly, my family and I missed out on Glastonbury tickets this year (very upsetting), but have decided that the Murphy's will take on the joys of Bestival next year instead! Watch out Isle of Wight! All of us are going, but because it's on during the first weekend of September, I'm not about to leave for Asia. More on that later.

Here's some pictures of things that have happened recently. I'm going to get back to blogging more. My attempts at journal-keeping haven't been as successful as I'd anticipated. 

All for now. Cheerio!

S

Grrrr

I find blogging really therapeutic. It's much easier and less time-consuming than writing a diary, which I have tried and failed to do. I am glad that some of our friends seem to enjoy reading our little posts and I know that I genuinely enjoy reading Ciara's and Megan's contributions. Always nice to see what a person may write but not put into words. Though Megan and I really did discuss a TaySwift parody. 

I'm all over the place at the moment and feel all bleurgh and I can't blame the disgusting weather raging outside my window entirely either. I'm mighty fed-up though I'm not exactly sure why. So I'll just project my bleurgh feelings on the little things that are currently pissing me off. Just what everyone wants to read! I am however hoping that I will be less stressed by rambling on for a while, so please humor me.

Number 1: Texting. I hate texting. Probably because I don't get many texts as I never have credit but when I do, I find the idea of having a conversation via text nightmarish. So much thought goes into the length of the text, how enthusiastic the punctuation is, is the spelling too formal or not formal enough, which is the correct winky face to use when you want to convey a very specific message, trying to imagine how the recipient will interpret the message, analysing their use of punctuation and winky faces, the timing between texts and on and on it goes. You can't talk properly via text and you are blind to the semantic markers of body language, tone and intonation which account for about 80% of what we say and help us interpret conversations. Also, it's very hard to be real and talk about proper, non-trivial things via text. Ergo I hate texting. 

Number 2: Trying to get tax forms from previous employers is proving again nightmarish. After three weeks and unanswered phone calls and texts, I'm feeling less than impressed. 

Number 3:  Fruit scones with currants in them. Currants are the bane of my life. Why do they ruin a good fruit scone? Are currants even considered fruit? Blurgh.

Number 4: Being defined by my job. I am lucky to have a new job which I do genuinely like. However, it feels like all I do now is get up, go to work, come home from work, eat, at which point I am so tired that I retreat straight to my room. Press pause, rewind and play... 5 times a week. I know that eventually most of us will conform to the 35 - 40 hour working week but I'm not entirely convinced I want to live that way; live being the key word here. We work to survive but at what point do we sacrifice living for surviving? I read a very interesting article about this topic here recently and it makes me think that I may eventually forge my own path away from the daily 9 - 5 slog. Life is too short and I don't to live just for the weekend, though I suppose we all have such notions in the folly of youth and are too naive to see that there is little way around it. Incidentally, how come the "Friends" characters had so much free-time?

Number 5: This song. Christ. 

Number 6: This man. I might lose friends over this but I'm sorry. It's irrational but I can't help it. Me and Ed don't see eye-to-eye. Looks like someone threw up a packet of Crayolas on his arm. 

Number 7: Having to wait until every Wednesday to see new episodes of "New Girl". Megan and I were only discussing our love for this sit-com recently, and while the series is nearly over, we are no closer to getting, well, closure on Mr Miller. and Ms. Day. 

"Nick Miller, Nick Miller, likes the taste of vanilla, is a stone cold killer!"

Number 8: Tom Cruise. But sure, doesn't he piss everyone off anyway? 

As predicted, I now do feel a lot better. Yay for ranting! That last picture has really cheered me up. I'm one for the puns. Right, I'm off to bed as I have work in the morning. But let's end the post on a high note. 

Much better.

S

The past week

Yeah! The blog is back in fully functioning mode by the looks of it. So on a more positive note than my last post, this is what I've been up to for the past week with the help of Instagram to deceive you into thinking my life is totes amazeballs, though they are not equal in fabulousiosity to Ciara's photobooth snaps from last summer.

1/ Snow way.

It snowed. In Cork. In the middle of March. It actually snowed. And what's more it wasn't even wet slush, it actually hung around for a while and made leaving the house very unpleasant. But sure, everyone loves a bit of snow.

2/ Whiskey in the jar-o.

I quit my job because I found a new job! I shall be working as a lovely tour guide in the famous Jameson Distillery from tomorrow morning on. Good riddance old job. Bleurgh! Hello new job! I've spent all day learning off the script, which involves a heavy dose of science and 13 pages of pretty detailed spiels on the history of Jameson Irish Whiskey. Times like these make me wish I had kept on Chemistry to Leaving Cert level... but to be fair, Science and I just don't get on... I have a uniform and everything so wish me luck for tomorrow. Eventually I'll be giving tours in German, a fact that turns my stomach to mush whenever I think of it, but let's take one day at a time.

3/ I'll school you!

I am now a fully-qualified CELTA teacher! I finished the CELTA teacher training course last Friday after 10 pretty intensive weeks but I survived and now have a lovely qualification all to myself...as do the other 8 people on the course... Afterwards I felt in the mood for celebrating, so what was better than Scrabble and daytime pints in the grubby but cosy Tom Barry's. I lost miserably at Scrabble because the only decent words my tiles produced were dirty. Eagle-eyed readers may be able to spot a few below.

4/ St. Patrick's Day

A lovely lady pal and I decided to take a journey to visit another lovely man friend of ours. We spent St. Patrick's Eve drinking (bottles of) wine with his mother and generally having a really nice time. St. Patrick's morning was spent recovering from that subtle but persistent hangover wine leaves behind, eating a full fry and followed by a full dinner after some exploring and being threatened by one cranky goose. 

Upon returning home, we ventured to Cork city and the Crane Lane and while the memories are a little bit hazy, I'd say I came out of the night better than the people who cleared Tesco out of whiskey.

5/Tea for two

Megan popped over on Friday for a cup of tea, which turned into tea, dinner and lots and lots of cheesecake and ice-cream. She'll have more entertaining pictures but I will share these gems. 

We went to a local swanky hotel and maybe our in-depth conversations about Nick Miller (Nick Miller, likes the taste of vanilla) and Beyoncé didn't sit well with the service, because we left feeling a bit dazed by their manner. Nonetheless, this was well-received: dark chocolate and hazelnut cheesecake (made by my lovely sister) with  Ben & Jerry's Winter Berry Brownie ice-cream. Top notch.

6/ Let's get physical

In total contrast to the above snap, I have joined a local gym and have been going about 4 days a week. Yeah, I know, as if, but honestly I've found a gym just for all the lovely ladies in the locality and I'm actually enjoying going and working out. The girls who work there know everyone by name and make personalised workout plans for you as part of the service. Bar one or two dodgy dismounts from the cross trainer and a severe case of jelly legs coming off the thread mill, my time there has been accident-free thus far! It's a great excuse to don my leotard, sweatband and legwarmers alá Olivia Newton John circa mid-80's.

I'll be doing this in no time.

7/ Quadruple Vision

And one silly faced selfie + new set of glasses since last years posts. Someone came up to me on a night out recently and asked me why I felt the need to wear such "hipster frames". Shit went down.

8/ Room Renewal

I've moved house twice in the last 5 months and the new room left... something to be desired. My cure for any bare-faced, lonely chamber? Photos! A bit of Pinterest plagarism helped me to create this beauty but more on the DIY-ing later. I still have to know these 13 pages of whiskey-based trivia off by heart for the morning.

S