Thank God Almighty…

I’m home at last.

Colm found an apartment the second day we went looking, via an agency of cowboys. Thankfully, after he’d paid them a prince’s ransom to go away, it turned out the landlord was a charming guy, and much easier to deal with. It’s a gorgeous place – you have to go up two “ladders” to get to it, but it’s well worth it. There’s a view of the harbour, a little outside terrace/balcony, a lovely big, bright sitting room, and the usual bathroom, bedroom & kitchen. And oooh, the shower. Nicest shower I’ve found, outside my own house – hot water, plenty of it, and ooooh such pressure! Mmm (Ok, yes, I’m weird.)

The second week in Leiden was spent mostly fixing up the apartment a bit (covering the beautiful white couch, for one, since everyone knows white couches are spill-magnets), and meeting interesting people Had a lovely Indian meal – nyom – with a bunch of Colm’s workmates one evening, which was fun… And then on the weekend, we headed up to Amsterdam, to do some beer-tasting with a few Dublin lads. That was tasty If only beer didn’t make me drunk… We had some seriously yummy beers though, before it was time to head back to Leiden.

For those of you keeping track of the re-runs of Noirin’s World, Colm and I broke up before I headed home on 12th September, for dad’s birthday. It was really nice to see everyone, and although the Aga died for a bit, we had a lovely dinner together. Thankfully, by the next morning, the Aga was back up and running. Unfortunately, on the next morning, I discovered that my wonderful, lovely FYP plan had fallen through… Grrr, argh!

My job in the Zoology dept started on the Thursday, and I had a quick chat with a few people about various alternatives for an FYP. Thankfully, there’s still some time left before college starts, so hopefully I’ll be sorted by then. Unfortunately, said time isn’t getting any longer, and fourth year really is starting to loom ominously…!

The weekend was spent between Limerick and Athlone, and was awesome. There was Wild Onioning, and Mark came dangerously close to having three sandwiches! There was FireFly watching, and blood, guts & gore… There was learning about handling large pythons (one handler per five foot of snake) while enjoying yummy Italian food… There was breakfast with Diane, who protested that she hadn’t been hippified, while enjoying her vegetarian panini, and telling of hammocks, tents, and adventures in the desert… Lydia turned 14, there was gorgeous weather and a barbeque… River of Life was awesome, and amazing, and inspiring. Naomi, a Canadian who’s over here for 8 months, was super cool… There were walks in the most gorgeous weather, and magic mushrooms found in the grass…

The weekend was unexpectedly prolonged, when I returned to Limerick on Sunday night, to help with Stephen’s impending move. On Monday there was rental of a van that was still in Dublin (according to the computer system), and subsequent filling of said van. Couch, table, beanbag… Guitars, CDs, shelves… Clothes, boxes, books… And finally, and at the very last minute, a rather large chair, that we’d somehow overlooked… Oops!

Stephen drove back to Athlone, started unpacking the van, brought me to the bus station, and came back to discover that the van was fully unpacked – a neat trick if ever I saw one I got home on Monday night, tired, sick and cold, and slept through half of Tuesday…

Now it’s time to get going again, tune my harp, and generally get back to the normal things of life… These blogs are troublesome things y’know.