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.

I’ve been pretty good at keeping up with a monthly report and setting new goals, here’s some for May:

* Django Tutorial 4
* Couchdb tutorial
*OSSBarcamp Site Launched
* May Letter
* 3 strength training workouts a week, 3 cardio workouts a week for next 3 weeks.
* The 5 mile race training plan on saturdays
* Washington Photos + Swift Pic
* Lose ~ 4 pounds ~ 2 kilograms by July 1st.
* Track what I eat every day in May.
* Order some moo cards for Ginger Robot.
* 3 Vegetarian Days

* Have scenerios for Todo app - #79.
Again I feel like I’m making very slow progress, the same items end up on list month after month.

Hoping for good weather for golf - #4

Monday May 18th

The streets are covered in Election posters “Clear sky morning, looked out across a messy street, poles covered in election posters. View over the city church steeples to the mountains”.       We both did Django tutorials after dinner.

Tuesday May 19th

Pesto Pasta then the Gym.  440m in 2 mins on rowing machine.  Took along my ipod with an audio book so that made the time go quicker.   I started studying for my MySQL 2 exam.

Wednesday May 20th

I ate vegetarian food all day.  We’ve been invited to play golf in a few weeks, which is also on my 101 list.    I have lost quite a bit of weight now 12kg since January.  I began to get scared that I’d gain it back, especially since I lost a large lot this week alone.  I looked at what the healthy weight range for my height is, and I still have 15kg to go to get there.   Let alone losing  5-6 more to put me at my probable right healthy weight.  i.e. over 20kg more to go!  Needless to say I freaked out and stayed up too late trying to adjust my thinking back to small short term goals.

Thursday May 21st

It was sunny and I got to explore the Iveagh gardens, which are gorgeous. The rose garden is getting set to bloom,  There are statues including some old ruined ones.  There’s a big waterfall and some fountains.  People were out eating their lunch in the sun. The walled garden is filled with old tall trees and deep green forest growth.  I’d like to go back if we get a hot day mid summer and eat lunch.

For dinner I made teriyaki udon noodles with soy beans and other veges, topped with some grilled salmon steaks glazed with mirin. We went to the gym, I tried the hand cycling machine, was a bit too scary because metal bars swing around near my face.  I did 2.1km in 20 mins on treadmil, 15 mins on the elyptical, rower2m/410m.   I have to admit to being a bit tired and willing to go home early.

I played Guitar hero for a while I have felt recently that my life is full of work and weightloss and exercise but not so much fun.  So I need to rectify that.

Friday May 22nd

Getting up at 6 was pretty intense, even tho I normally get up at 6:30. Did an hour of yoga and strength workouts on the WiiFit, That felt good, I have been feeling a little uncoordinated and out of balance recently so I hope to do a bit more yoga each week.  On the way to work I had time to stop in St Stephens green and check out the large orange flowers, they’re quite similar to the huge mystery flower at home.

At work things are getting interesting as I’m getting to learn some new PHP technologies and getting to do things in a more modern way with my latest project.  This is very interesting and should keep me busy.

After work I was really enjoying walking in the sun.  I stopped to take photos from Harcourt Street.  The sun gleaming through the windows of the facade at a building site.  Then I was taking a photo of a flower box on the light poll when two guys walked past carrying a huge set of balloons to decorate the pub down the road for the Rugby Match.

I met Jan on Henry Street where we did some window shopping.   I bought some clothes for our summer trip. Some new khaki&green clothes ready for our beach holiday A full length summer halter dress, bikini & skirt and a green blowse too. All slightly too small so I’ll have to keep on losing weight for the trip.

We also went to an asian grocery store and stocked up with some delicious goodies.  Haw flakes!  many types of noodles.  Some Pak Choi, ginger, chilli and tofu to make a delicious stirfry and ingredients for Pad Thai for next week.

Unfortunately we realised with the changes to the Taxes here in Ireland we’re earning much much less than we were last year.   We’re trying to do a lot with our time while we’re over here and less money is a problem.  Our best solution is to maybe move house,  The thought of moving scares me though, but it would have some advantages.  The biggest disadvantage of a smaller place would be sacrificing our hobbies a fair bit as Jan’s electronics and my Scrapbooking need space.

Saturday May 23rd

We went on our 2.5 mile run.  It went fine, though when my heart rate goes above 160 I get stitch like pains along my right side.  I just slow down but it’s a shame, I find outdoor running much harder than on the treadmill where I can get my heart rate higher and maintain it for longer times, and can go faster and burn more calories.

Jan jogging along the bay

I had my scrapbooking class with Lainey.  We made a layout ‘Top 10…’  Here’s Lainey’s one, mine isn’t finished:

I also worked on my New York Album, making three new layouts for it.  I took a photograph of the cute garden on my way which is packed with garden gnomes.

Back home Jan and I scanned for new places to live.   We found one place that seemed ok and we ran to the station and travelled into the city to see it.  It was OK, but the space being so much different is a little scary.  Unfortunately someone rang while we were seeing it and we missed out.  We could have been more spontaneous I suppose…

Saturday night was also a bit stressful trying to decide whether to move or what to do to reduce our expenses, more baked bean on toast meals,  stay in more hostels when we travel.  It’s hard to conceptualise living in a smaller space and I worry it could hurt our relationship too, let alone mess up our routines, and disrupt my efforts to lose weight.

Also the extra run into the city left me super exhausted.  I barely remember eating our delicious dinner of a lamb chop with spicy couscous, butternut squash and spinach.

Sunday May 24th

Completed my New York Scrapbook (1st for my 101 challenge). I even used some of the tiles I made at Crafteire February 2008.  Otherwise we had a pretty domestic day preparing for the week ahead.  It was so sunny that we went for a walk to Raheny to catch the rays.    I’ll publish this now as I smell delicious ginger cooking as Jan is making dinner.

This week has been a little dull,  full of routine and sameness.

Monday May 11th

We launched our new website Ginger Robot and set some goals for the coming months for it.  Jan and I have cooked a lot of delicious meals this week, teriyaki chicken, grilled lime salmon salads,  grilled beef sweet chilli salad wraps. yum.

Tuesday May 12th

The weather was pretty awesome the last few days.   We went back to the gym and it was awesome.  Tried out the rowing machine and did 400m in 2 minutes, which is a good starting point.  Be cool to test it out again in a few months.

Wednesday May 13th

Jan and I popped into a Chinese grocer and bought some goodies, udon noodles, mirin wine, Pokky.  Went along to the python meetup at the Bull and Castle.  There were about 20 python geeks and I shared pokky with them!  I decided we should buy a book about Django, and I chatted with Vicky about the python group and their plans.  I chatted with Stephen about his talk about Django and QT, he’ll also be speaking at the conference I’m going to in the Canaries in July!   I wish I could have stayed longer but i had a headache and the football blaring in the background was too much.

Python Pokky

Ireland Python User Group

Thursday May 14th

Gym again, horrid weather outside. I made myself a 101 goals in 10001 days list.   Since doing that I started thinking of a bunch of other things to do too, so have started a second place to put those goals as they come back to me.

Friday May 15th

I worked late then met Jan to try the new sushi train restaurant in town ‘Yo Sushi’ behind the Brown Thomas building.   We were a little shocked at the prices, and the lack of variety on the train. However you can order things from the menu and they have 30% off the bill until the end of May.   We noticed the fish slices seemed extra thin compared to the same restaurant in England,  we were left feeling similar to eating elsewhere in Dublin, ripped off by  skimpy portions for higher prices.  Anyway I’m sure we’ll be back, we love sushi.

Back home I looked up the nutritional information for sushi, while in general it’s healthy and low calorie, rice is high in carbs so adds up pretty quickly.  Also anything non fish adds up, we had duck rolls,  fried prawns, eel, so it wasn’t such a diet friendly night, but was fine in the end.

Saturday May 16th

Up to thrashing rain and winds.   By the time we were dressed for our run it’d calmed down to just the wind.  We went out into the wild weather with wind in our faces as we ran down to Howth Road.  We ran along the seaside being pushed to the side by the stiff breeze.  I thought it was very pretty,  grey sky, green mossy rocks with the tide pulled back at the waterway between our coast and the long Bull island.  Along the path there was purple flowery heather.  I found it hard to keep my heart rate down low enough to not be over doing it. I had to slow down a lot to get my breath back.  My body feels fine other than my lungs/heart, so hopefully they’ll improve as we continue our training.  Jan is really struggling to go slow enough to stay back with me, which he finds frustrating, but it’s nice to head out once a week together in any case.  We can go at our own rates at the gym Tue/Thursdays.

We relaxed in bed watching Eurovision with glasses of white wine.   We really enjoyed the performances this year, the stage was so amazing, with giant screens all around them, including on the floor, the quality of the screens was spectacular too.

Sunday May 17th

A giant flower appeared in our front yard.   I prickly pear like pod had grown in the middle of our wild garden and in a few seconds the flower burst out.   Anyone know what it is?

Mystery Flower

Mystery Flower

Spent the rest of the weekend scrapbooking, working on my New York Album.  Working on the OSSBarcamp2 website, planning to cook up a giant lasagna for the freezer too.

I found that as I read over my 101 in 1001 days list, I was a little shocked already at things I wanted to do the day before!  How will I feel by the time I’m 31?

Scary Goals:

• 9. Weigh Under 70kgs (Last time was my engagement party Nov 2004)
• 16. Get weight watchers gold membership (Failed so many times before)
• 31. Give Blood (They can never find my veins)
• The sheer number of travel items, can we keep up our rate of traveling?
• The hacking goals worry me because I haven’t ever finished a project for myself
• 84. Get a tattoo  (Always wanted it, have two designs in mind)

I’m already working towards some goals e.g.:

• 1. Complete a 5 mile race
• 79.Write a todo list application in django

Some I will achieve because I already started the planning e.g.:

• 44. Go to the Canary Islands
• 45. Go to Scotland

Now I feel a little bit like that’s cheating hrmn.

These are the goals I want to change my life a bit to achieve, and I’ll make plans for that change right now:

• 21. Complete 3 courses (0/3) - I can do the second MySQL Exam this year, this will take a fair bit of discipline and changing my schedule.   I reckon I make Tuesday Nights MySQL Study night, and do 30 minutes each Tuesday.  Putting this on my Calendar now.
• 36. Eat Vegetarian for 30 days (not in a row) (0/30) - I can do one day This Wednesday! Vego pasta the vego frozen meal for dinner.
• 72. Complete 15 scrapbooks (0/15) - The New York album will be my first and I’m going to work on that over the next two weekends.
• 91.  Spend a whole day playing computer games - OOOH Yeah :D.  I can buy a new game and get right on that one!

I just realised going to Sushi Yo last night is a new restaurant so I get to tick off one part of  number 35!

I guess I should print out this list and put it up somewhere…