look what i made yesterday!

i've had this yarn for over a year now; it was purchased with the idea that i would make gerry a scarf. the original plan involved some immediate crocheting action but it didn't happen.

while packing/sorting tuesday i decided i'd better make that yarn into a scarf so that it's one less thing that i didn't finish or get to do here. so yesterday i whipped up (as per his request) a thin but long scarf for gerry. the timing is perfect, it snowed in white rock earlier this week.

canada, here we come.

party like it's my birthday

a day after returning, the celebrations continue.

london

this was my best trip to london in the past few years. the flights were on time. the hotel was the best i'd stayed in in london: staff were very friendly, food in the restaurant yummy, the breakkie was small but totally delicious and adequate and delivered to our door in cute little bags. the sheets were egyptian cotton, and there was a feather duvet and pillows. and the shower was the dropped from the ceiling in the rainfall fashion of magazines. delightful. did i mention the free internet and how friendly the staff were?

so, the flights worked out grand, the hotel was grand, my earring got fixed quickly and with friendliness.

we met robin at this highly recommended cake place (there's a reason it's highly recommended YUM!). deliciously fresh strawberries on my mouth watering cake. then we walked around a bit, went to covent garden, and then to the restaurant. how fun was this? we had our very own chef (well, we shared him with a couple at the table with us) working away at chopping and cooking and making onion volcanoes.

then we went to see Wicked which is the story about how the wicked witch of the west became that way. super fun, and great story.

the next day we took it easy and after lunch at the hotel we went into the city, shopped a bit and saw the new elizabeth film, then booked it to the airport, where we had a surprisingly yummy dinner before catching our on-time flight back to cork.

we got home at a reasonable time, and were happy as clams.

a brilliant trip, and a great birthday present.

early birthday

being in ireland has some benefits. i'll admit it.

this includes my birthday being 8 hours earlier. how fab is that? as well as all that, i really seem to be getting heaps of presents earlier than the senders have expected. which means before the actual day! whoo hoo.

now, i don't know if i'll be eating my words here, but i have this feeling that gerry has a little something hidden from danielle. it wouldn't be the first time she'd sent something top-secret. so i'm guessing that i have 2 more presents to look forward to around midnight.

but don't tell anyone. :o)

today i got presents from gerry's mom and sister and my host-mam! on top of it, we went for a yummy dinner and i got presents from shaz too!

talk about lucky ducky!

play a game and feed someone?

free rice

it seems legitimate. whoot! the internet isn't just crap.

goodurs gets spoiled

uh oh! i'm totally getting spoiled on my birthday!!

i just got my first present from canada and it's a travel edition of settlers of catan. how fun. gerry's reaction: now you can teach me how to kick your ass.

my next challenge is to find people who will play with us.

any offers?

let's get this party started

friday was my last day at work. so with some peer pressure i ended up having a going away party at the pub beside work on friday. i got shit-faced. and had a hard time getting to the store to get some stuff for dinner on saturday.

there were a few girls invited over for some dinner and games. we ate too much, gossiped too much about work, and i got way too many presents!

it was good, relaxed and fun. exactly what i wanted for this year.

friday we go to london for the evening. we'll be seeing Wicked and having dinner with rob. and there may be a few drinks and some shopping involved as well.

yay birthdays!!!

v is for visitors

it's been a busy couple of weeks since we stole gas.

we had visitors from canada for a week; jen and reid's visit started off a bit dodgy... their flight was cancelled and then the change of flight resulted in them arriving about 12 hours later.

on the sunday that they were here, we were going to go to clonakilty (famous for its pudding/sausage) and then to kinsale. on the road we decided to go to gugan barra to check out the wild sheep. it ended up taking us quite a while to get there, and once at the island, the car looked like it was overheating. turns out we'd some how run out of oil, and the radiator was overheating (oh, did i mention all this was in gerry's car and gerry was at home?). i left them to check out the church and the park, and was going to quickly nip to the next town and get some oil. the nearest town is actually about 15-20 minutes away, and not really desperate to sell oil. i went to the shop, they didn't have any, but were sure that the gas station would. after figuring out the exactly opposite directions, i found the gas station, and decided to fill up just in case, and then i was going to buy lots of oil there... i might have done too, if they sold oil. seriously, the only gas station for miles, and they don't sell oil... and had no idea where i could get any.

finally, it was suggested by some random person i asked on the street that i knock on the door beside the garage that had closed down. i did, and the guy kindly filled up the oil and i was happily on my way. until after i'd picked jen and reid up and we were making our way back home. the heating was going up on the car and we decided to pull over. luckily there was a grotto (a play to pray) on our way. we pulled over and filled up the coolant during a little prayer session that hopefully we didn't disturb too much.

the rest of the trip was probably less exciting for them, but involved lots of mario party and beer.

last weekend provided another full house with sinead, conor and their two kids. there was a spa day worked in there, some mississippi mud pie, and a bit of mario party. another good visit.

there are only 3 weeks left until i'm finished getting paid for work. then i begin my stint as a work-at-home partner. by that i mean, packing, cleaning, cooking and laundry. mostly packing i'd say.

i will also be in charge of preparing things to happen in canada... phone connection, internet, tv, car rental for the first week, etc.. i remember now that it's hard work moving countries.

not so goodurs

gerry and i were driving into town today, since we had to stop for gas, we were discussing the logistics of payment. i said that since i paid for gas going up to carrickmacross on the weekend, we should use the joint account. gerry said since i had paid coming back that the joint account owed me money. that's when i let him know i hadn't. he replied that he hadn't either, and that i must have in the shop. but i hadn't because when i went to the little shop near the gas station they said you had to pay at the gas station, so i assumed gerry had taken care of it at the gas station part.

nope.

we've looked up the phone number for the station that was a victim of our gas and dash. and called them to let them know we'll pay in december. he didn't seem too bothered to be honest. i'm the one who was like, do you want my name? and my phone number?

i'm a criminal baby.

stardust

see this movie. it's fun. it's well done. it's a good time.

the gift of confirmation

today we got gerry's passport with the visa. it's really official now. no more dreams about them sending us a letter to say they've canceled the whole thing because of an issue with his passport. no more driving home, hoping today's the day it comes. no more disappointment that it wasn't.

gerry can now get into and work legally in canada. how exciting? super.

it's done! it's over! it's final!

whoo hoo!

plant a tree

despite being sick, i managed to plant a tree today. :o) i think i should have donated it to the girl at work whose plants i was meant to water, but didn't cause i was home from wednesday to friday. oops. next one's for her.

before and in-between pics

as matilda says: it's long enough



matilda said her hand was shaking so it was hard to cut the first one.

looks like she managed to do it though.

there they are.

you might wonder why we didn't cut the front.

1. there are too many layers.

2. i needed to give the poor haird dresser something to work with.

long story made short

i can't lie... i was really nervous today about the hair thing. and i'm sad now. i shouldn't be, but i am. in fact, i really really shouldn't be. i should be happy and proud and whatever else happens, but i feel a bit anxious.

oh well... i feel better than if i had wuzzed out at the last minute. the before and inbetween pics will be uploaded once matilda sends them to me.

thanks for the donations... almost €300. horray!

not a great pic, but you can see the length - or lack thereof.
now you can see that it's cute.

sick hair

okay, once again, i'm sick. some coughy-chest thing going on. again. boo urns.

but i'm gonna tough it out, and go to work tomorrow for two reasons.

1. i don't get paid if i don't go, and this also affects the number of hours i get towards holidays.

2. tomorrow is the big hair cut. i had a really long shower today, washed my hair with care, and brushed it twice.

i've raised over 250€ now, which is super exciting. and hopefully tomorrow there will be a few more donations from work. whoot.

i'll post some before and after pictures tomorrow evening, after my proper hair cut.

Q3-2007

done! well, for me at least.
but, having been home for an hour, i'm still jittery and unable to sleep. took a magneleuvre, so i'm hoping that'll take the edge off in a few minutes.

i'm so wrecked, but my mind's still working on percentages and crap stuff like that. one more quarter-end until canada! since that one is also year-end, i have a feeling i'll still be jittery days after. oh well. that will really be the last one, then.

tomorrow? sleep. tv. dinner. movie. maybe reading, but i don't want to strain myself.

keep counting

well, only 4 days left for quarter-end. and then it's october.

october's big event is us having a whomping thanksgiving dinner... it will be a bit later than the holiday in canada, but the spirit of the event will still be there.

and then of course, there's november: birthday season!

after that comes christmas and year end.

then it's time to go.

we have so much to do, but gerry and i have both been sick lately. me with my never-ending gift from turkey, the mid-gastrointestinal infection (translated by the girls at work as pregnancy) and a cold. gerry with a cold, and now he appears to have caught my pregnancy and has been nauseous all day.

anyway, we have heaps of packing, and heaps of planning for our trip all the while playing more scrabulous!

sick @ work

went to work today. i probably should have stayed home. i was kind of out of it. hopefully i didn't book anything totally wrong.

with the help of some people at work, we've decided that i will make the hair-cut an event at work. on october 1, i will cut off two pony-tails of love. and i'm going to try to get cash from people at work.

keep you posted. ugh. i'm tired.

give it up

we measured my hair at work on monday, and it looks like it's long enough to donate 10 inches for a wig! how exciting!

the plan is to get a very tiny trim (just to make sure it looks really healthy, but keep it over the 8 inches mark). and then with the rest that's left over get a proper cut.

i was thinking of collecting some cash around work to donate to irish cancer society, and then i'll send my hair to canada. i'm not 100% sure on the collecting at work, but i feel like if i can make some cash to donate, then surely it's worth a try.

if you read this blog and want to give me money to donate, work away! if i go to work tomorrow i think i will send out the email... maybe other people will do it too.

i hope whatever hair dresser does it doesn't feel it's necessary to charge me for two hair cuts... maybe if i explain the situation they would be more lax. will keep you posted.

plan-it australia

plans for our trip back to canada are coming along well. we're fairly certain about certain aspects of the trip, but are booking nothing until we get gerry's passport back. despite being sick, i managed to get my sorry sweating body (why do i react to every thing with sweat? no idea.) to the post office. some things are worth getting more sick for, i guess.

(the part i haven't told gerry) i'm stopping work after the first week in january. i think we'd originally decided around the 10th but i'm going to need some prep time. there are always last minute things to buy, send and wax. oh... told my work i was leaving at the beginning of january. it went well the manager was glad for the amount of notice i gave, and that i was staying through year-end.

*huge relief* if you know me, you know i hate leaving a job. even ones that i hate, i find it really hard to leave.

so, plans are really coming together for our time here and our trip back. i have a feeling it's going to fly, and that there's a lot of hard work ahead and it might sneak up faster than expected. we've checked out some camper-van kind of things to rent while in oz. we're hoping for a bed/fridge/toilet/shower kind of deal. at first, we thought we would just stay along the coast, but plans may now include a road trip out to alice springs, which is pretty much the centre of australia. i guess i'd better get going on the music for Peas and Pip.

sleigh bells ring...

yesterday i had to de-ice my car before work. today i'm home sick with a sore throat and sneezes. we've increased the timer for the heating. i guess it's officially winter now. i'm gonna have to dig out the electric heating pad this weekend.