Well, I’ve almost finished making an early Christian Irish leine (linen, long sleeved, long dress/tunic thing) and ionar (woolen, shorter overgarment) - all I have to do now is hem them.

I’m really pleased with myself - it’s nice making something by hand, and much more satisfying than just buying it, or even throwing it together in a few minutes with a sewing machine. That said, I was most grateful when mum offered to help, as she was about twice as fast as I was, and it made finishing it sooo much quicker!

Some of the others went down to the sunny south east for a weekend of camping, making stuff, and general merriment, but unfortunately I couldn’t join them. We had our annual family picnic last night - twas good fun tho.

Eoin got himself rather nastily assaulted by a hot, kinky chick, but he seems to have enjoyed the experience… He got in quite a bit of trouble when he got home though, and thankfully Oisin was staying here too, so he was made apologise to all concerned. Oisin’s a great guy, and soo good for Eoin!

Went down to Dun Laoghaire today with Colm, to see the Festival of World Cultures - it was absolutely mobbed, but the crafts were beautiful. Hazel O’Connor was playing there last night - why is it that things always happen on the same day, and then there’s nothing for ages!?

Another post will follow shortly - if you want the password, just drop me a mail at blog@nerdchic.net

I spent most of yesterday learning how to handle a 7ft spear, and some of the rest learning about early Irish history/dress/activities in general. It was lots and lots of fun, but now I ache. Hands owie, shoulders owie, neck owie, everything-in-between owie…

And my favourite, beautiful, hematite ring broke. It just dropped off my finger in two perfect halves. This makes me sad

Well, it’s been a bit hairy the last few days, lots of stress and yucky stuff, but hopefully it’s all sorted now. I’ve seen a few good movies in that time, including Mona Lisa Smile (bit girly, but I liked it), The Hunt for Red October (’tis the second Jack Ryan movie I’ve seen, and I’m liking them more and more :)) and Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. It rocks. Go see it.

“High Anxiety Dreams” - that was what mum always used to called nightmares. Dunno why, but I guess it’s accurate. Whatever you call them, I’ve been having some amazing (and awful!) dreams for the last few weeks now. I don’t always remember the dreams - just the feeling of terror, sometimes. Other times, I remember every detail. Weird.

Went down to the Radisson SAS in Cork with Colm for the bank holiday weekend - the spa was fantastic, with an incredible pool - jets of air & water everywhere, to massage and tickle and relax. It was magic The hotel itself was a bit bleh, but what can you do. I got a massage & facial in the spa too, so it was all good.

We went to Fota, saw the wildlife park & the Libeskind pavilion - Eighteen Turns. It’s well worth a visit - hard to describe tho. This weekend, I was down in Cork again, this time with the family. Had a chance to import all the photos from my camera to the laptop (and play around a bit with the very cool Autostitch, via Virtual PC). Hopefully I’ll get a chance before long to get them into the gallery!

It was a good enough weekend - it was cool to see the lighthouse at Galley Head, and to meet the lighthouse attendant (who is the son of lighthouse keepers, who were both the children of lighthouse keepers in their own right!). It was a bit too hot for my liking, and swimming in the Blue Flag beach at Owenahich was spoiled somewhat by the swarms of jellyfish (none of us got stung, but it did make swimming a little less pleasant, seeing them everywhere). But everyone had fun, and it was important to mum that I go.

There was a bit of panic on the way to the train station - we left two hours for the journey to Cork, thinking it would only take an hour to get there, or ninety minutes if the traffic were bad… As we approached Cork city, we got more and more unsure of where we were going as time got tighter and tighter. Finally, five minutes before the train was due to leave, dad dropped me out at the train station, and I skipped and hopped in the queue for tickets… He ran in a few minutes later, and spotted the ticket machines - he had my ticket while there was still one more person ahead of me in the queue, and I legged it for the train. I had about a minute to spare - dad really does deserve a medal!