Jan and I are starting to think about running again.   So I looked for a race and found Run for the Kids, on in Melbourne, on March 14th.    It is 14.6kms long.  The last race we did was a 5miler which was about 8kms long.  So this is huge for us.  We’d better start training so here’s my plan… Based on the Hal Higdon’s 15k training plan.

Starts tomorrow for 2km jog/walk.     Ahaha can’t believe we’ve decided to do this.  Not to convinced we’ll stick with it seeing it’s so hot out.  It will mean some early morning or late afternoon runs…. a bit mad…   Anyway see if we can get tomorrows one in.

some of the people i was drinking with were born in the 90s closer to my niece’s age than i like.

November 5th
i woke early to get my train from Berlin to Dresden. I slept most of the way. hopped out at the wrong station though.

First shop i found was a craft store yay. resisted cute german christmas delights.

i wandered around the historic center of Dresden. I felt lost as I have no information about the city.

The buildings are beautiful but they are black. There is a lot of construction. All tourist signs are in German

I’m thrilled to see they are setting up the old square with Christmas markets. So beautiful.

I sit in the palace courtyard listening to a musician play accordian and watching groups of school children being given tours.

I bought many snacks and fruit at Aldi. such a good cheap option for travelers. i spent less than €3.

My hostel room is odd. 4 people = 1xbunks & 1double bed. i chose top bunk. no lockers eek..

today was sunny and warm I made sure to soak in some rays and stay out walking for hours.

In a shopping center i loved the variety of cheeses and sausages. I thing Dresden would make a fab spot for xmas shopping.

Although Dresden has modern and old i like the feel of Eastern Germany more than west which I thought was too posh/rich /fancy.

I know Im only 7 days in but in my head I’m plotting extensions to my trip through albania/croatia etc.

i went up to the bar to get my free drink and found it abandoned and silent. disapointing after the wild nights in berlin.

i bought a half litre of Radeberger and read my book with some football on in the background.

a second beer and a bowl of pretzels from the bar. Another guest arrives and tries to hit on me until he runs out of english and we are left confused.

i read in bed, bunk mate is an 18 yo photographer from the south of germany. he leaves at 7am again.

Another roommate loudly enters late. unzips everything sorts through many plastic bags tested the bed for a bit then decided to leave.

Friday 6th
wandered around Dresden again, another sunny day. walked right across town.

I went to an old dairy, Pfund’s, with blue tiles and fancy cheeses. would be nice to be here longer and cooking treats.

i went in the old church Frauenkirche its decorated with pale blues and golds. the reconstruction is very good.

i am learning a lot about the history of eastern and central europe from being here and from MIchael Palin’s book that i just finished.

I sat in the courtyard of the palace Zwinger letting the sun warm my bones and listening to the bells play on the quarter hours.

i enjoyed the shops in Dresden, free samples of chocolate and Christstollen. xmas decorations and pretty wooden figurines.

my journey to poland was delayed one hour on the tracks however i spent most of the time asleep anyway.

the man oposite me lovingly opened an open suse box he had just bought read every page of the manual as we traveled.

i was surveyed about my trip entirely in german, with passengers translating. each time i explained i did not speak german the surveyer replied yes and kept on in german anyway.

the lady selling train tickets to Krakow did not speak english and Pauline arranged it all for me as we waited for Pawel to get Jan from the airport.

I’m a little worried about my adventures in Poland with such a language difference.

So much going on in our lives right now.  We decided to move back to Australia.    We’re leaving Ireland on December 4th.

Before that I’m going on a 31 day backpacking trip starting October 30th, visiting Spain, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria & Czech Republic.  Jan is going to meet me in Barcelona, Wroclaw and Prague.  I’m actually pretty scared about the trip.  Backpacking, I haven’t even owned a backpack before now. Hostels,  I’m used to fancy hotels.  trains… I love trains but I fall asleep all the time.

We’ve been doing so much,  trip to Grancanaria,  Scotland,  Derry and the Giants Causway. Manchester for PHPNW.  Visited Newgrange. Painted the inside of a house for charity… lots of shows andtheatre and whatnot.  hrmn too much going on really.

Plenty of stuff going on once we get to AU too.  Central Coast, Sydney,  Xmas in Tamworth.  Heading to Woodford and visiting others rellies in QLD.   Then New Zealand for three weeks.  We’ll be spending 12 nights of that in Wellington because we’re heading to Linux Conf AU.

Wee too much going on :).  Jan’s parents are coming this weekend and we’re heading to the ring of kerry. then next weekend I’ve booked in to go to LUG Radio in Wolverhampton just for the fun of it.  busy busy! :).

I wish I had written up our trip to Gran Canaria as it went, but I didn’t so I’ll just have to move on and hope I can get enough out of twitter when I get around to making the scrapbook.

Sunday July 12th - I was thrilled that we’d left the house in a pristine state.  Got home to fresh sheets, empty washing lines, clothes to wear to work and even meals in the freezer!.    We enjoyed walking in the sun in Dublin before it started lashing rain to welcome us home.   I imagine my summer clothes will be going back in their dusty box for a long time now.

Monday July 13th - I met up with Laura for a pint at O’Donaghues.    We booked the back room and agreed it’s a sweet spot for a couple of drinks after our geeknic August 2nd. Vishal joined us for a while and we joked around for a couple of rounds.  It was fun being back in dublin, out in an old bar too.

Tuesday July 14th - Jan hit the town tonight after we went to the gym.  I think I maintained my fitness and weight which is pretty cool after such a wild 9 days away.   I relaxed with Jan out.  Mud mask, my tv shows, feet up, hot chocolate.  It was so nice.   As I went to sleep I was listening out for the ocean like in our hotel room, but our suburb is completley silent.

Wednesday July 15th - We went to see Harry Potter, The half blood prince.   I really loved this movie, at one point a door knocked and I forgot where I was and thought I was in my lounge room.  I was immersed which was great, I really needed to escape for a while.  The movie is so dark like the books at this stage.  Can’t wait to see it again and to see the last book come to life over the next two years.

Thursday July 16th - At work I learned a lot about JQuery and Boxy this week which was kind of fun and pretty frustrating too.  Though always good to get a new set of skills.  Declan announced his new podcast Code Mongrel which ROCKS.  it’s a quick update of open source news over the last week.  He give our OSSBarcamp a plug as well.

Friday July 17th - Jan and I sat chatting about our future over crepes, then went to the science gallery and saw the Infectious exhibition.   We really love the science gallery,  they always have really interesting exhibits including some electronics,  art works to do with the theme as well as demonstrations of the science as well.    One of the rooms was set up to explore how laughter is contageous.  You would lie back (beer in hand) and watch videos of people laughing,  eventually a smile did spread on my face and I laughed along… I would catch the eye of Jan or another person in the room and we’d both laugh.  Fun.  We went tonight to see ‘Richard Wiseman’ talk about his Laughter Lab project to find the funniest joke in the world.  Richard told a lot of jokes, did some magic and connected his stories to psychology which is his area of expertise as well.

Jan Science

Saturday July 18th

Today was the big day.  We’d been training for months for this.   Andrea drove us over to Pheonix park and we ran in the 5 mile race with over 5000 people.   I came in at 1hour and 4 minutes, and Jan sped ahead of me in the last mile and got to the finish in just under an hour.  The course was pretty easy,  there was a hill but it wasn’t so nasty.  I had fun along the way stopping to look out over the city, and see the runners go past the tops of old buildings.   I even spotted a deer but it bounced away before I could get a photo.   Doing the distance was my goal all along and we got through 8km with no worries.   I enjoyed the finish line where we got Tshirts and goodie bags.  The bag contained a lunch box with cheese sandwiches and an apple.  There was chocolate, popcorn, toothpaste(??), a running magazine, a guide for running the marathon, which we’ll use to train to run for 30 minutes in a row, then set other goals.

We napped in the afternoon and brought home some curry.  We watched Slumdog millionare which I mostly found depressing, not sure why people enjoyed watching so much terrible poverty so much hrmn…

Sunday July 19th

I bought some size 12 jeans which don’t quite fit me but I’ll keep trying on as I lose weight.  I also bought some size 14 jeans that fit fine, first blue jeans I’ve owned in a long long time.  I’m alergic to the metal studs but I painted them with nailpolish.  I wrote up a training plan to jog 15 minutes in a row,  aiming to do that by the end of October.  I chatted with Dad about doing a trip to South Island New Zealand…

Monday June 29th

After work on monday night we went to our local,  The Station House at Raheny Station.  It actually was the first time we’d been there and we sat out in the beer garden in the sun.    Andrea who’s moved in around the corner from us joined us for dinner as well.  It was such a relaxing night.  I really love how in raheny there are flower boxes all over the place, filled to the brim and even overflowing with lovely summer flowers.

Tuesday June 30th

On my way home I saw some strange people dancing, with a huge crowd.  At first I thought it was some drunk guys… but then realised it was a Michael Jackson Tribute.  People had put flowers and written messages on the wall near HMV on Grafton Street.

^ Photo taken on my way home from work Wednesday, after the wall had been vandalised then lovingly repaired.

I spent the night cleaning the house ready for our trip away.

Wednesday July 1st

I booked us in to see the new Harry Potter movie the night it comes out.  Also planned a night at the science gallery aperitivo and to see the Infectious exhibit before it closes.  The city is stunning at the moment with the bright sun late into the evening and even brighter colourful flowers in everyones gardens.   I love all the seasons, but at the moment I love summer.  Stayed up late packing ready for our trip.

Thursday July 2nd

I submitted my work visa renewal forms.  Could wait up to 12 weeks to find out if it’s renewed… fun…. not… I’ll wait in style though.   Today we travel to Gran Canaria for the Gnome Conference GUADEC and Gran Canaria Desktop Summit.  I’ve been looking forward to this for months.  We’ll be spending 9 days and 9 nights on the Island, based in Las Palmas.  Our hotel is on the beach,  we’re about 20 minutes walk along the beach from the venue.  We have a gym, and I’ve packed my r unning gear to keep up with my training for the 5 mile race, which is just over two weeks away now.

Monday June 22nd

Jan was back!  I got to see him before I headed into work!    That night we met for a little shopping then we had a romantic dinner at Monty’s of Kathmandu, a Nepalese restaurant.   We caught up on what had been going on during the week we were apart.  We had news from our friends in the States and it sounded like the Open Video Conference was amazing.  After dinner we went to a Bill Bailey Concert at the Olympic.   This was a lot of fun.  Bill played many instruments and told many clever stories.  Linking it all together with multimedia on the big screen.

Tuesday June 23rd

I had really strange dreams, all about change and Jan wanting new and different things.   We got icecreams at work because it was so warm and sunny outside.  Jan came home with his Beagle board ready to experiment with.  He also brought me a tshirt ‘friends help friends use linux’.  Unfortunately though we decided on Medium but I should have gotten a small, the medium is very wide for me.

Wednesday June 24th

Jan and I have been together over 8 years now!

At lunch I sat in the sun hoping to improve my midweek mood.  I watched some of the guys play football in the courtyard.

I bought myself some cute new kicks.  Black walking shoes with purpley grey stripes.  So comfy too.  I’ve been gaining weight since Monday.  I can’t get my mindset back in a healthy mood.  I’ve been doing my strength exercises but no extra cardio.

Thursday June 25th

There have been some changes at work and intense meetings and what not.  I was happy to sit in the sun in St Stephens green and chill out for a while this afternoon.   We were invited to the release party for the new EA Tennis game for Wii.   We got a couple of free beers and giant slices of pizza.  There were large screens set up with the game for everyone to try.  The ground was set up like a tennis court and a big painting of the crowd behind the screens.  It was a fun night really.

Friday June 26th

Had a chatty lunch at the kebab joint with some of the guys from work.  I did crave a long boozy lunch like we had in Barcelona sometimes,  well over an hour and a couple of beers, then a steamy walk in the sun.

I was thrilled to get the early train home.  Cracked open a bottle of red,  put together some olives and tapas picks and spent a long time making Cannelloni for our dinner.    We watched the home project which is a gorgeous set of images from around the world.  It has a mostly depressing voice over though, which isn’t too helpful for the cause, I feel anyway.   I think Al Gore’s ‘The Inconvenient Truth’  was much better and got our heads in the right frame of mind to make changes to our lives.

Saturday June 27th

We completed the long distance run for the training for our 5 mile race!  We took the train to Clontarf road station then Walk/Jogged our way home.  The path I chose was 6 miles long but I think we went further in the end.   We started jogging along Clontarf bay which has exercise machines set up along the path, so it’s very interesting.  I liked the self massaging one where you can lift and moved the rollers on your back.    We detoured through St Annes park and went to the Red Stables where fresh food markets were on.  We tried some pestos and Jan bought a little glass bottle of red chilli sauce.   I can’t wait to head back there another day for a picnic.   We explored the rose gardens as well which were much larger than I saw during the 5K last week.

We came out of the park  at the western gate and I felt like we’d never make it home but we did.  I kept my watch on the whole time from Clontarf Road Station along the bay to home in Kilbarrack in 1 hour 37 minutes burnt over 880 calories.

Saturday Night,  Laura was so kind to host Jan and I at her place for a BBQ.   We relaxed in the sun drinking vodka cocktails and Murphy’s Stout.  It was a stunning day.  Laura cooked up a storm including marinaided chicken pieces, salads, rolls and profitoroles for desert!   We stayed up late chatting and plotting and laughing.  We even filed some Ubuntu bugs!   We came home in a  taxi.  The driver was from Kenya and wanted to know more about Australia and the Aboriginal people there to compare to his home land and the people he knows in the jungle there.   I went to sleep feeling sun blessed and happy.

Sunday June 28th

Chores mostly today!  Planned out a bit of July and beyond.  Booked a couple more trips to see more of Ireland… more ideas and plotting going on as well.  We watched Flight of the Concordes and took it pretty easy.   Not long now until the Canary Islands.

Monday June 8th

Was feeling a bit fed up with wearing layers of clothing during the Irish summer.   It means I have to carry so much with me to work and it’s heavy and it’s steamy and wet.  Jan made us a roast butter pumpkin and garlic risotto, he bought a nice bottle of white wine as well, felt very spoiled, as I relaxed sipping wine, playing the Wii, nibbling on some olives while he cooked dinner (and did the dishes!).

Tuesday June 9th

I find it pretty how the sodium lights make everything in our suburb be different colours so but all in greys.

Wednesday June 10th

Was a nice night at the social club charity quiz, hope we collected lots of money for the L’Aquila Earthquake fund.

Thursday June 11th

My glasses fell to pieces this morning.   I had to put them together with sticky tape.   I think I bought these frames in 2002, maybe earlier.  I was a poor student at the time anyway.  Amazing that they lasted so long.   Well I certainly felt like the stereotypical nerd today. Wearing black, free tshirt from a conf, hacking away, sticky taped glasses. great! I was left wondering what colour glasses frames to buy :D.

3 weeks until I’m heading off to the Canaries for GUADEC.!

I ended up ordering pair of red framed glasses and one pair of blue framed ones.   Back from the gym, I’m so proud of us for keeping up with this for so long! Going to cook dinner now.   Bit experimental meal from leftovers. Baked cod, mash potatoes, veg - sauce made of white wine, ginger, soy, coriander and spring onions.

Friday June 12th

New Glasses!  Sushi!  Drinks with Ebel!    Rory’s last day at work.

Saturday June 13th

We met with Matt to go play golf.  We drove up into the Wicklow mountains to the Baltinglass Golf Club.    The course was just stunning,  up and down big hills,  dragging our heavy clubs around.    It took us 5 hours to play.  There were squirrels, hares, big black birds.   The views from the course were gorgeous looking down the valley.    This was one of the 101 goals. to Play 18 holes of golf.

Sunday June 14th

We jogged to the bridge at Bull Island, but then it poured rain so we didn’t cross. 46 minutes all up. soaked!   Saw an advertisement for a 5K in St Annes park with Raheny Shamrock on June 21st 11am. Having trouble finding where to go to start it. Of course the sun comes out after we’ve gone for a run in the rain, but we still have to walk and get our weeks groceries so that’ll be nice.    After that week I was left completely exhausted.   For dinner we made Bondi Burgers.  Killer headache, probably over did it this weekend.   Can’t keep my eyes open - early night.

Tuesday June 2nd

Well I think that’s the first time I’ve been able to walk to work with no jumper or Jacket in Ireland so far.  After work I took a long walk through the city to Luis and Albertos place.  I stopped off at HMV though to play Metallica Guitar Hero for a while. OK OK I also took my time walking along the docks, there was an old boat left set up from the maritime festival.  There’s a bridge that has been delivered butnot yet put in place, that’s fascinating.  Also it was a stunning warm day with blue skies.

We had a party at Albertos because he was leaving for Manchester.   We ordered pizza sat in the sun and chatted.  Played Wii for a while too.

Wednesday June 3rd

Got woken up at 6am because it’s so hot….. IN IRELAND!! I’m still in shock by the weather change, but enjoying every sunny minute of it.  I found out the PHPNW conference will be in Manchester in October, I’d really like to try and go. Made good progress on my project today. Swapped out some ajaxy stuff for jquery stuff on another task too! first time using jquery.

Don’t think I can resist the ice creams put in freezer at work cuz it’s so sunny and gorgeous and ice cream weather!

Thursday June 4th

Fixing bugs, hacking on PHP & JavaScript goodies, the usual.  Went for a walk along the canals, plenty of sunshine and ducks.  Exactly four weeks now until I’m on the plane to Canaries for GUADEC 2009 Heading to HMV after work to play Metallica Guitar Hero for a while then decide what to spend vouchers I won on … hrmn.. :D Bought little kings for Wii, Burn after reading, Slumdog millionaire, Twilight and Casino Royale at HMV. Planned groceries for weekend. Cracking open my new game, hope it’s going to be fun! :D  I’m now King Jaime and I got a workplace.

Friday June 5th

OK back to normal Irish weather grey sky, light rains, prediction for the next four days is the same.  I went outside for some moments of sun at lunchtime and I played frisbee with some of the guys.  Our company launched a new site bedandbreakfastworld.com it’s very pretty.    We went out for beers to celebrate.  A bunch of ex employees were there too so it was a great chance to catch up with everyone.   Had a pretty awesome night, went out with some sales people to work after drinks at the Barge for Chinese food, fun fun.

Saturday June 6th

I had to just pretend I didn’t have a hangover.   I played Okami.   We adventured out into the wild weather to stock up our fridge for the week. Bit miserable with the wet rain and wind. Can’t wait for GUADEC.  smoked salmon, chive and new potato tartlets with salad, desert is blackberries, strawberries, mango and cream.

Sunday June 7th

Glad that there’s alright weather outside, heading to my card making class shortly and want to go for a run this evening 3.5 miles.    Heading out to play with glitter, pretty paper, shiny things and sticky glue! I did Jackies Sunday craft class on pearse street. Simmering a pot of Indian butter chicken with butternut pumpkin. serving with basmati rice and fresh coriander.

The week before we went away May 25-28 was super boring,  gym, work, lots of working on my goals and tasks.  I was sick on the Tuesday and stayed home and slept.

Friday May 29th

We got a free breakfast from work which was a nice start, and we got an early mark at the end of the day to head out in to the hot gorgeous weather ready to start the Long Weekend away.  Jan and I drove to Kilkenny which wasn’t much drama really.  We made it with plenty of time to rest and eat some salads in our room in the B&B.

We walked into the center of town, along the river and walked around the city too.  We really liked Kilkenny the little alley ways.  There seemed to be a pub every half block.  Plenty of shops and shopping centers.  It looked like a great place to live.   With a population of around  8,500…. this was pretty impressive.  I guess it’s a hot spot for the neighboring towns as well.

Tonight our first show was four comedians.

The MC was  John Colleary who introduced each of the acts and had us in stitches plenty of times.   First up was Shane Mauss who apparently won some competition in the states, but he wasn’t popular in this Irish  crowd. you could feel how uncomfortable the whole audience was throughout the act, which I found pretty funny even if not many of his jokes worked this night.  Second was Jon Richardson who was quite a cranky young man from england.  Finally Des Bishop who was the most famous person to me atleast. We’d watched his series in the name of the Fada and I’d been wanting to see him some day.   Des talked about his years after he moved to Ireland.  He seems so passionate about the Irish language and Ireland itself.  I felt Des had a political agenda that he tries to push through with his comedy and that’s very interesting to watch and experience.

Afterwards we enjoyed our walk home through the busy streets.  It was a warm evening and Jan enjoyed an icecream as we wandered along discussing what we thought was funny or not.

Saturday May 30th

We enjoyed our hot breakfast, then we headed out for a run.  We decided to go out for 30 minutes then turn around.  The sun was quite hot but we made it the whole way just fine.  Later we measured it and we went over four miles.

We spent the early afternoon wandering around Kilkenny, again a hot gorgeous day.  We walked alongthe rivers edge watching kids leap off the bridge into the water.   We went up some stairs into some pretty forest growth and realised we actually were in the grounds of Kilkenny castle.    Many families were relaxing on the huge lawns having picnics and enjoying the sun.

We also explored the gardens of the area across the road too.  Back on the streets of Kilkenny we did some window shopping.    There were a few performances on the streets worth stopping to listen to

I had to use all my might to get out of this candy store without buying anything.   We ended up buying a picnic lunch from the supermarket instead.  Mini cheeses, crackers, coconut rum,  ham and salad.   We spiked our drinks for the concerts that night.

First up we were at Langtons to see PJ Gallagher, Alonzo Bodden, Adam Hills, Bernard O Shea.   The acts were just fantastic and for some reason this was the perfect mix as well.  We laughed so hard.  Next up was  Ross Noble, Lewis Black, Karl Spain, Fred MacAulay.   Again an amazing show. (Wish I didn’t leave it so long to blog so I could comment on each)Anyway tonights performers were all top class and got the room going, fantastic.

Our final show for the night was across town at the watergate theatre.  It was an improv show, I was a little warey but it was funny over all.  I enjoy watching improv once in a while as it’s fun to see how the guys really try and muck each other up. For example in one scene the crowd set the location as maternity ward.  Three of the larger guys stuck out their stomachs obviously intending to be pregnant women.   Then a fourth man walks over and says ‘excuse me doctors’.  Making them all doctors with huge bulging bellies instead :).

We walked a back way back to our B&B again enjoying the atmosphere and the live music flooding out of the bars.

Sunday May 31st

Just as we were waking up this morning Jan got the call that his Grandmother Umma had passed away.  So this was a sad day for us.   We were on the road though but had most of the day to get where were going.   We took country roads west of Kilkenny, the radio station was set to some classical music and we mostly had the small dirt roads to ourselves, except if there were some cows, or a tractor or whatnot.  It actually took us a long time to make it half way to our destination but we enjoyed the journey.

Around lunchtime we stopped under the rock of Cashel and ate some fruit and grainy bars.  Jan called Australia to chat with his family a while.  I walked through a field of buttercups and enjoyed getting some sunlight.

We arrived early in Bunratty and had enough time to relax the afternoon away and watch the final of Britains got talent on TV.  We really liked the winning group Diversity so were happy they won.

That night we’d booked into the Medieval Banquette at Bunratty castle.     The actors were all fantastic, plenty of singing and playing along.  We got messy eating with our hands and only a knife.  The food was so delicious.  I’d go back tomorrow. We drank far too much mead then wine with our meal. What a blast.

We’ve been having a rough time of it in Ireland lately with the tax increases and everything just being rediculously priced.  It has been hard to see why we bother living here at all.   Well this night was amazing.   We stopped at Durty Nellys to have a cider and enjoy the late night sunshine.   There was a live band playing and local families were there with their kids and their dogs out on the grass infront of the castle by the river.   Jan even met a guy who had gotten married that morning and he and his new bride were leaving on honeymoon in the morning.   We stayed up late drinking and dancing to live Irish music with the Bunratty Locals.  It really was a memorable and amazing night.

Monday June 1st

Monday was tragic.  My head hurt.  So hungover.   I kept waking up on our very hot drive home as we wooshed around round abouts.   We stopped a couple of times in the shade including once at McDonalds, so much for the healthy weekend!  Anyway it was worth it :) Sun burnt, exhausted and hungover but a head full of memories of another adventure in Ireland.

Monday June 15th

Jan left early on a flight to San Fran.  I’ve been left on a week by myself.  At lunch time on Monday I walked to the Iveagh gardens to check out the roses. “The sun warmed my back as the sky spat on me. 20 minutes up to the Iveagh rose garden where thousands of roses are in bloom with more to come with the many gorgeous buds. The strong rose smell was intoxicating in the steamy weather, All the beautiful colours of pink and red.”

Tuesday June 16th

On my way to work a google street view car drove past me as I walked along the walls of Trinity College.   I’ve decided to cook vegetarian meals while Jan is away.  I always cook for four so it means eating the same thing four times in a row.  Tonight I lightly fried some cubed cooked potatoes with red peppers, garlic and hot habanero chilies (hot hot). Topped with grilled asparagus and a poached egg and cracked pepper.  This vegetarian meal atleast took a long time to cook/prepare (around 50 minutes) and a long time to eat (20 minutes).  I still made it to the gym though where I jog/walked 2.5k on the treadmill in 22:20 then 15 mins on elyptical. Going to do another 2.5k on Thurs ready for 5K race on Sunday.

Wednesday June 17th

For some reason when I hear someone in a similar situation to me gets pregnant it completely freaks me out.  I think it’s that my life is fairly planned out and I have many goals, so a pregnancy at this stage would disrupt it all.  I’m sure I’d cope, but my reaction is to become completely stressed out and anxious.  My stomache didn’t unclench until about 4pm after reading such news this morning.

It was a miserable day in Dublin, it rained over night, the streets flooded and I arrived at work soaked.  I wore my new red glasses though which are very cute!

Thursday June 18th

After work I bought art supplies ready for the weekends craft workshop.  I also did 2.5K on the treadmill again  this time in under 22 minutes.  I’m able to run faster now. I’m getting closer to 9kmph.

Friday June 19th

I went to the Street Performers World Championships at Merion Square.  I arrived as a man was juggling knives up on a tall structure of tin cans.   I watched an amazing balloon twister make a penguin, though I found his outfit with the large apron pocket full of balloons just as interest as his work.   I saw a man whip a stick held in a volunteers mouth and make a sandwich with his feet.   I sat through all of Bendy Em’s show, sitting up close to the front, as she bent herself into shapes.  Got men from the crowd help her do some acrobatics, and finally squish herself into a 16″ glass box.   The final show was ‘That Guy’ who performed mime to music.   He had to deal with many hyperactive children that kept running out into his space to ‘help’ him.

Saturday June 20th

Saturday I went along to the Midsummer crop that I’d been looking forward to for a while.  The guest teacher wa Celine Navarro who showed us a few techniques using Acrylics.  The first was painting over masking tape, twisting it to give it texture and effects.  The second was painting a paper background as we wanted it with the paint.  The third was wetting and scratching photographs to bring out the center image. Finally we put all the techniques together on a canvas.

We had a picnic at the hall today where everyone brought a dish to share, there were so many treats and I was looking forward to it all week.  I was happy that we got to take a group picture as well. Yay.  I also won a prize, a scrapooking kit.  Everyone was so kind all day, sharing materials.  Also I was amazed how everyones works turned out so different everyone was so creative today.

I was so exhasted after the big day that I slept all afternoon until well into the night.  I didn’t eat dinner utnil 1am while I watched Twilight.  Even after that I made some calls to Australia before bed.

Sunday June 21st

This morning after breakfast I ran the Raheny Shamrock 5K in 39 minutes, through the beautiful St Annes Park where I saw squirrels and roses. Plus it’s 20mins each way from home.  I burned over 800 calories!  I even got  a wooden trophey.

Using my remaining energy I tried on most of my clothes to find enough summer wear to take on holidays to the canaries.  I also tried to pick things that were now way too big for me to give away.  This doesn’t leave me with many clothes though I’m thrilled to be putting items back in my cupboard that I haven’t worn in four years.

I treated myself to a bubble bath and an early night.