the birthday weekend

the weekend was busy, but not too busy. we got in lots of relaxing, but still managed to shop and see some sights.

we saw Bunratty castle and grounds on the way from Limerick to Galway, and in Galway we went for a walk on Salt Hill, and looked over the bay to Claddagh. you know, all things to help me work on gerry's list of must-do's in ireland. Oh, we also got a pint of Guinness, which neither of us fully drank.

just like paradise

last night, after opening my prezzies from danielle (a foxy necklace from the breast cancer fundraising at CIBC) and a shirt from the gap (the gap?! you say) that is from the 'red' line where profits go to support education and medicine for AIDS in africa.

anyway, yeah, after opening my presents, we went to cafe paradiso. YUMMMMMMMMMMY!!!!

everything was delicious. gerry started with the caramelised onion tart with goat's cheese (just the right amount of goat's cheese) and i had the veg sushi plate with tempura.

for my main i had a 'gratin of leeks, roast pumpkin & hazelnuts with Gabriel cheese & tarragon cream,braised fennel and cannellini beans' and gerry had 'risotto of watercress & roast shallots with Oisin cheese, black kale, and braised sweet cayenne peppers & sweet dumpling squash'.

for dessert? awwww yeah.... dark chocolate silk cake with praline ice cream and hazelnut wafer.

we're going to look for the cookbooks at a secondhand store here. they might not work out as well, but it'd be nice to take the recipes with us wherever we go.

mysteries solved

in order:

1. isabel's extra present was a silver engraved pic of the birthday celebrations.

2. bruises on shoulders are from yoga. but it was worth it!!! i did a shoulder stand today! i wasn't really looking forward to yoga at all this evening because last week i really didn't think i'd catch up and be able to do the pose. tonight, with some encouragement from isabel, and some help from the wall, i did a full shoulder stand and the instructor even commented on how straight my back was. i'm so proud on this eve of my 30th year!

also, as inspiration, we get an angel card at the end of class. tonight's for me: beauty.

3. my birthday present from gerry really is the greatest present! when i got home from yoga, i was digging through the freezer to give isabel these freezies for her son, isabel had gone in and was talking to gerry. as i walked into the house, they were standing there with balloons and these popper things! gerry had flowers, champagne, and decorated the sitting room for me. and then i got to find out my prezzies from him! (as if this wasn't enough!) he made a photo book of all of the pics we've taken (see the one below of us in front of the eiffel tower). and then told me about the trip around western ireland he's booked for the weekend. we're going to see traditional irish music in limerick, then go to bunratty castle, and then to galway for two nights! (finishing off with a massage on monday morning, which is already booked!)

am i over using !!!!! well, maybe but who cares? i'm so excited and happy to be 30 in 4 minutes.

whoo hoo!

now it's try-to-go-to-sleep time.

:o)

paris & birthday

gifting giving

today i gave and received!

we bought christmas presents for a couple of people... you know, we had the time, it wasn't too busy (a miracle on St.Patrick's St.) so we took advantage of our opportunity. we even bought ourselves a wine rack. obviously i can't go into too much detail regarding christmas gifting, so i don't spoil the surprises.

we met with sharon for a yummy dinner at amicus. and i was gifted with a spinning uno game and yummy bath bombs from lush. whoot.

i also got chocolates from lynda at work. things are gift-fantastic around here.

secrets

gerry still won't tell me what my birthday present is. i'll try to wake him up and catch him off guard in a minute.

if you check out the easting out ireland link, you'll see pics of the food in paris. i promise to post pics of paris and birthday festivities tomorrow.

suggestions needed

here's the hypothetical* problem:

say one's sister got married without a pre-nup (because it was going to be forever). say that same sister's husband is actually a complete asshole (surprise, surprise - i'd like to point out that someone might have been suggesting that all along) and now they're getting divorced, and he wants stuff that's not his. because he's an asshole, and probably for a whole list of other reasons, but since this is hypothetical, i'll just let you imagine.

now in this scenerio, what the (asshole) husband is trying to get from the divorce is the shared house that the sister put down a heap of money for, and is therefore causing other problems that the (probably) younger sister is trying to take of.

this example leads to the suggestion part. and because this is hypothetical, one can dream. what would someone be able to do to get the (asshole) husband to get lost? clearly within a realm of legality. or not, and she can just have no knowledge of any events that may have taken place from a simple hypothetical.

if you are feeling vindictive, or know someone who just likes to punish assholes, i can provide an address. hypothetically speaking, of course.

if not, i am willing to take suggestions.

*it's hypothetical because *i* would never do something that might harm someone or cause any kind of jeopardy to any type of legal going-ons. but your suggestions might help me sleep better.

birthday bliss

IT'S ALMOST MY BIRTHDAY!!!

YAY!!!

on saturday evening i celebrated my birthday with the girls.

we went for dinner and had drinks, and then went to suas for more drinks. the second part of the drink fest wasn't that successful because we were so full from the first part it was hard to fit it all in. good times, food and drinks were had.

i got a present from isabel and elaine which included a cute green wallet (perfect since my other one had been wrecked from the thievery). and, among other things, there were a pair of fuzzy pink slippers to match the robe isabel had given me earlier in the month. oh, and from tara and jim a purse lamp, which sounds weird, but is actually quite lovely and sexy.

sunday i spent the day in those slippers, the robe and my jammers.

gerry made me pancakes with butter and maple syrup. and he spoiled us when isabel and elaine came over, and of course, made me dinner! i got to pick the movies/tv all day. being spoiled was great! (especially because it was pouring rain outside and really, not weather to go out in.)

after a rough start, the weekend turned out well. i'll post a couple pics when i get home.

firsts

yesterday i got my first birthday card of the year. thanks for the dirty thirty wishes anghold.

in other birthday news i still don't know what gerry got me.

and in other other birthday news, i made reservations the other day to SoHo, a restaurant/bar in cork that serves food and cocktails... what more could a girl want? how about the actual reservation? i called today to confirm it, because i hadn't heard from anyone. this evening i was told that i didn't have a reservation and that they just hadn't gotten around to calling people back yet.

madly, gerry and i scrounged to find a place that would take 8 people on a saturday night. cafe bar deli said that we could call saturday morning and let them know when to expect us. we'll head around the corner for cocktails afterwards.

mood: annoyed at SoHo. grateful to cafe bar deli. still excited to turn 30.

voulez vous?

one more sleep and we're off to paris. whoot. it's just a quicky. we get in late-ish on friday and then we'll spend saturday wearing out our shoes (i'm bring comfortable runners this time... none of this high-fashion cuteness, it's gonna be high-function all the way) and then saturday evening we have the show at the moulin rouge! sunday will be spent hitting the cobblestone again, and then we fly back.

it's one of the things i'll miss the most about living here. it's really quite convenient to get to paris for the weekend, or to catch a show in london midweek. the problem of not liking to fly is somewhat less major, as long as it's not on ryanair. i lose my head with that airline because you don't get assigned seating. it's like getting on a bus, and i'm always really not keen to sit next to strangers when i'm about to have a panic attack while flying. i feel it's more fair to subject people i know to that kind of excitement.

in other news:

we had a team night out last night. good fun there. dinner was nice and the company was great. we made some confessions to each other. one of mine and carol's was that when ricardo first started here, i couldn't remember his name so we gave him a new name ending with 'o' everyday. fernando, eduardo, federico, carlo... you get the idea. he confessed he thought i was american. boo-urns.

oh, i also found out that someone in finance overheard me say that i was gonna break a sweat one day and they think that i really keep my island (the group of desks where we sit) really entertained. i've tried to tone it down a bit today, but we laughing at ourselves because last week, in excitement of borat, we were going on with 'i liiiike' 'high-five' 'it's niiiice' 'we make sexy time?' for ages, and laughing our asses off at it the entire time. at least we're having fun. :o)

it's almost my birthday. i'm pretty excited about 30. as i've said before, 'it's the new 20'. but better, i hope. :o) i still haven't nailed down any presents, but i love surprises so that's cool. i liiiike guessing too... so it's a really tricky in-between.

hmmm... maybe i need to buy myself a present in paris. like these cute chanel earrings... i will have to see how much they are.

uh yessss... i liiiiike

saw borat on thursday.

high-five.

we pretty much laughed our asses off.

head games

last night i had some people and their partners over from work to play a few games of cranium. it was good fun. last week had been a bit crazy, cause of month-end. so it was nice to socialise in a more relaxed way. the rest of the weekend is all about chillaxing and getting ready for paris next weekend.

i can't believe it's already november! soon i will be 30! whoo hoo!

gerry's been bugging me like crazy about my birthday present the last week. hints include: we might need a tent, him slipping about buying a holiday during interrogation, telling me to absolutely NOT book anything else between the 24 and the 27th. at first i thought it was a holiday to spain for the weekend, but now i'm leaning more towards going to the czech republic or something for a christmas market. then again, i'm kinda all over the place with guesses. and i wouldn't be sad at all to just stay in ireland and do something nice... but i just don't think that's what's happening.

in other news, this is meant to be a weekend of chillaxing and some tidying up.

we've already watched heaps of law & order and the daily show. whoot!

wanna make some money?

last thursday i got a call from the garda. someone called to say they found my ursula bag. i got the number for her, she said it looked most things were in there, and that the money was just gone. that was cool with me.

we picked up the bag last saturday, and YAHOO!!! everything except the money was in it... just like she'd said. that's the great news. less great is that the bag was hanging in a tree on the side of the road during some pretty wet days. i'm going to clean it out and try to get it dry-cleaned.

oh, and extra good news? gerry's wallet was in the bag. weird hey? we were going to have a look around where the woman found the bag, but when i went through it in the car, his wallet with license and cards (again, no money, which still makes me feel bad) was there.