Dublin

Hello readers,

Just a quick update about my trip to dublin and about the topic of 'what's next' which has been a frequent question in my life as of late.

Last week to celebrate my birthday, and generally just to get away my mates and I took off to Dublin for a couple of days. (please forgive my carbon footprint for flying, but we only had three days, and due to my friend's incredible manouvering of the Ryan Air cheap flight promo, we actually paid a total of 4 pence for the flights)... somehow there was a loop whole for dublin, where when you went to pay the total was 10 pounds each way (still not too expensive), but in the final screen the total reflected a cost of 2 pence each way.

Anyway, we took off to Dublin and stayed in a little flat we rented for a few days.

It's a really lovely city - built by the coast and with the river running through it. I expected it to be quite British (though I'm not sure why) but found it to be a lot more like the European cities I've been to, rather than places like London or Bristol.

We halved out time between enjoying the best of Dublin's nightlife, and doing a bit of wandering around the city... the bars were a lot nicer than those in Brighton, just generally seemed to be a lot better decorated, and one thing I liked is that all the bigger clubs we went to also had tons and tons of seating room... not just giant scaping dancefloor, and only room to stand and drink.

I'll post a few photos of the city as below.

I enjoyed a couple pints of Guinness - it really does taste better there, but sadly did not get to tour the Guinness storehouse/factory... perhaps on my next trip. I definitely want to head back to Ireland, and get a chance to go to the countryside a bit more - so when I eventually do that i'll try and get the Guinness tour on the to do list.

Here is a photo of the River Liffey, taken from the bridge right next to our flat.

A statue of Molly Malone

One funny thing about Dublin was that everyone told me that I wouldn't understand anyone there, but that I understood most people perfectly - and instead of having to repeat everything I said, it was my BRitish friends who were constantly misunderstood. I think maybe in Dublin the Irish accent is quite soft, and so most people actually sounded quite Canadian to me (though I didn't tell them that)...its also funny because I've had people ask me if I am Irish a lot latley, maybe because when I'm working at the restaurant I have a sort of indeterminable hybrid accent. I'm not really sure of the reasons, but it was nice for a change to have people understand me all the time and to see my friends having to repeat themselves.

A statue of Oscar Wilde in the park across from his former home.


lots and lots of leprechans!

Now that I'm back, I'm getting ready with the follow through of my decision to move to London... I'm packing my stuff up this week, and will be moving up all my bits to the city. But will be hanging around Brighton a bit longer until I properly settle into my new home by the end of the month. Look out for emails updates with my new address and details.

will update soon,

- C

time goes on...

since my last well intentioned attempt at reviving my blog, two months and a dissertation have come and gone in my life.

today I handed in the final draft of my final 20,000 word paper for my masters. overall i am really happy with it - I guess as with any piece of work that is limited by time constrants, budget, etc you can think of things you would have liked to have done better, or had more time to look into... but on the whole I'm really satisfied with it.

now its just a matter of waiting six weeks to hear about how I did... yikes.

relating even further to the subject of 'time goes on...' it has occured to me over the weekend that my paper's due date marks the two year birthday, of my first arrival in Bristol... way way back when I started up this blog. Not only has the last year of my school year gone by so quickly,that in almost no time at all my six months engagement in bristol has turned into a two-year stint (albeit with a significant five month interlude) over this side of the Atlantic.

I'm not going to write too much, except to say 'watch this space'

Because the dissertation has been pretty much the entire focus of everything I have been doing, I have put next to no thought into what i'm doing from now on.... I have been applying to jobs and what not, as I want to find some 'proper work' now that i've nearly got my MA, but in terms of the next big steps I have only been thinking as far as head as September 3rd.

I even forgot my birthday was coming up and didn't get a chance to book it off work!

anyhoosit... i'm hoping that in the next few weeks I will form something that resembles a plan, and once I've got something in the works I will be sure to update it on here.

watch this space.

for now I'm off for a nap before I go out to celebrate my being done!

- C