still year end

ohmygosh.

it's hard to believe that it's still year end at work. i'm not even able to think about new year's, let alone our trip to the continent. except that it will be exciting.

christmas was basically a whirl wind. it was pre-year end and i felt really under prepared because we went to celbridge, right after work on friday and then on saturday made it to carrickmacross. on christmas evening gerry and i got back here and we opened each others' presents. (we're still in separate rooms at his parents' place, so we decided to open a few in carrick, and the rest here.)

now i'm trying to not have to work on saturday, so i can pack and get ready for our trip with ian. so far the plans for that include: meeting ian in frankfurt, going to heidelberg for a couple nights, and then hitting some other countries. will keep you post posted!

the christmas party

i've uploaded some pics of my christmas party. you know, the one where i ordered the full-irish breakfast, and the one that i bought a new dress and some jewelry for.

here's ricardo & gerry looking suave


karen and me in the same festive colour, but very different dresses


matilda and her very own special 'love balloon'

it's done!

the blanket made for danielle's baby is done! whoo hoo! after three false starts, large and small, on christmas eve, i made the last stitch. and can now give my old arthritic hands a rest. here's how it looks:



and a close up

giving

i can't believe christmas is less than a week to go.

i've been so busy with work (year-end is even worse than month-end) i can't believe i've managed to get my christmas shopping done!

thanks everyone for the cards, and thanks for the eczema cream, ang and lief! i tried it right away, and will let you know how it goes. smells good. :o)

all i have to do to finish up, is give away the gifts, and finish up the blanket i'm crocheting for danielle's baby. it'd be a sweatshop over here except that we've run out of oil and since thursday have been freezing. once it's done i'll take a pic and post it.

we're heading up to gerry's parents' place this weekend, and will hopefully get some shopping done in dublin before new year's. after new year's we'll be traveling europe, so we've got lots of planning for that too.

the full irish

funny thing happened last friday...

after a good night of dress-up and drink-up for our work christmas party, and going to bed for the second time, we decided to fill out the form for breakfast in bed.

i was so drunk and tired that i ordered two full irish breakfasts. a full irish has black pudding (blood pudding), white pudding, bacon, sausages and eggs. the one i meant to order was the vegetarian version (beans and toast). i woke up at my regular time (6.30) in a panic. i decided to wait until 7 to call to say what i really wanted. here's a sample of my conversation/explanation:

umm, i ordered two irish breakfasts last night, but was too drunk to remember that i'm a vegetarian. the response i got: ah right! i'll get that sorted for you, miss.

the irish, they understand drunk.

checking his list update

while at the mall today (well, not a real real mall) carol and i went to eason's (a bookstore) to have a look for presents. while at eason's we found a munster book (see below) and i pointed out the two guys we saw on monday. they look just like they do in person.

checking his list

today we sent out some christmas cards and a present or too. sorry if you don't get a card, we kinda ran out.

i also sent away some presents and we got almost everything we need for our christmas dinner on saturday. it looks like things might work out alright. whoot.

OHOHOHOHOH
in other exciting news, last night, at dinner, guess who sat next to us? springer and hmmm... can't remember the other guy's name from the munster and ireland rugby team. i was like: gosh, that guy looks familiar. and gerry was like, oh yeah, he plays for munster, and then i was like, i think the other guy does too. and sure enough, it was true. also, we eat similar food to them. gerry and yer man had the same main and springer and i both like edamame. YUMMY indeed!

it's new!

i got a new mobile today. it's pretty. it also costs less than the amount you get in free phone credit. i never had a pay-as-you-go phone before ireland. it works out fine here, cause i don't really use it too much.



it's coffee brown and cyan. and it's beautiful.

another one down

so, last week marked another month-end. more surprisingly, it also marked another month-end that i was sick. i feel like i get sick every month at month-end. it sucks extra because it feeds itself. you work longer hours in recycled air, so you get sick. you have to work a bit longer, cause you're run down from being sick.

i've started feeling better though... took it fairly easy this weekend. mostly i've been watching law & order, tending the fire, and cleaning house. today i made things a bit more exciting by starting on christmas cards. all of the addresses are filled in on the charity cards (still can't find unicef cards here, but i did get some oxfam ones, and gerry got bernardos cards the other day). we also went to a dinner party last night. it was really nice. it was actually kinda cool because she's french, so most of the food was french. and she made lots of veg stuff for yours truly.

it was nice to be invited to someone's event at work. we were having a discussion at work the other day about how it's hard to meet people here (i said that people are a bit more open in north america). of course regina said people in ireland aren't friendly. i said they're more friendly than in germany. matilda said that people here are much more open than in sweden... it kind of proves my theory on in warmer countries, people spend more time out of their houses, socialising and have less layers on so they're more open. all this to say that i got invited to a work person's house for dinner! yahoo.

this will be a week of christmas preparation. we both have tuesday off, so we're going to get a tree, buy stuff for the dinner party on saturday, and hopefully set up whatever room we're going to use to host 16 people for dinner.

i'd say we won't even need a fire, there'll be so much body heat in this place.

on the note of dinner, i should probably check on my marinating chicken and get some taters boiling. (i lost a bet, and am making a meat, potatoes and veg style dinner.