A Couple Things

Churros with Friends

IKEA Purchases

Joy the Baker Recipe Apple Crumble

A Bull in a Field

A Humungous Leaf

One Hilarious Phone Cover

Finally Finished My Room With These Funky Floral Curtains

Sadly, oh so very sadly, I got a brand new phone, and while it's processor is fast and all that, the camera is beyond terrible. Hence all the grainy pictures. I'm so very sorry.

Colour, Colour, Everywhere!

Autumn is really in full swing now. In other countries the local councils might remove the leaves that clog the gutters of housing estates and streets, but not so in Ireland. I'm grateful for it, though, because I love the burst of colour everywhere.

The last few weeks I've been occupied with the continuing saga of Learning To Drive. I must admit, every lesson is a vast improvement. I have a test date now, so I'm working towards that and praying to the gods that I'm fortunate enough to pass, I have quite a few travel plans which involve the middle of nowhere, and a car is always handy for such instances.

It's almost Halloween, and I've been making the most of the spooky season. There have been several movie nights, complete with popcorn, treats, and, in one case, Indian takeaway. After movie watching comes the ubiquitous dissection of the movie, and the reading of Wiki articles relating to them. Nothing like scaring yourself into not wanting to go to sleep, a strange quirk of our species.

On the weekend my friends and I had an old fashioned sleepover and we carved pumpkins (I saved the seeds and roasted them!), ate pizza, and gossiped.

I've also been making the most of the last few bits from the garden. I stewed a couple of different batches of apples with cinammon and I've been eating them with natural yoghurt. Unbeatable. When I have kids they're going to eat nothing but.

Here's an amalgamation of loosely connected images relevant to my life over the past few weeks. Excuse the grainy quality, I just have a Samsung Galaxy Ace, and my camera skills are thoroughly inferior to Leo's. 

HE'S SO OLD!!!

The weather has been absolutely dire the last few days. Torrential rain and strong winds mean I haven't been able to jog or cycle every day. I've been going out when there's a break in the rain, but boy, is it annoying.

I took that time to actually repaint my room. My childhood bedroom had not had a fresh coat of paint since I was about 14, and at least a month ago I ripped it apart and began the process, but never seemed to be able to motivate myself to finish it.

On Thursday I am heading to Copenhagen for a few days. Let's hope that I get my room finished before then.

Jerzens, Tirol

I spent the past week in the Tirolean Alps with the family. It was my first time being in Austria and Tirol, and, although I'd been the Swiss Alps a few years ago, this time was completely unique because the entire village and basically that whole area of the Alps were deserted save for a few of the locals. Everyone is taking a much needed break after the summer tourism season is over, and the winter one won't begin for another few weeks.

We flew to Memmingen airport, which Ryanair dubs 'West Munich'. This is a lie, it is over 100km from Munich, but was the best way for us to access Tirol coming from Ireland. My parents and I rented a car and before we knew it we were sailing down the autobahn, with the beautiful farmland and countryside of Bavaria whizzing on either side. Bavaria is one of my favourite places; I spent some time in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Würzburg and of course München the year before last, and I have beautiful memories of that part of Germany.

Ruefully, we drove on, and although I would have loved to just stay in Bavaria our destination was somewhere equally idyllic; Austrian Tirol. And I soon realised it was just as great as Bavaria. Gently sloping farmland with sparsely dotted trees gave way to inclines, slight and then steeper, pines, Alpine lodges and eventually dramatic views and extreme winding roads.

We stayed in a family-run hotel called Landhaus Raich which is run by the bubbly and caring Birgit and her husband, who is incidentally the mayor of Jerzens. Small world. On our first evening she invited us for cakes and coffee, and some schnapps she made herself from the berry of a pine tree that grows locally.

She told us that, because of the huge amount of snow they'd had the week before, her friend over in Italian Tirol needed help harvesting her apples right away, so she would be going the next day to harvest, and two days after we could have some of her freshly made apfelsaft. The woman knows how to host, I'm telling you!

On the grounds of the hotel (I use the term 'hotel' lightly, it was more like a series of self contained apartments, each decked out in typical Tirolean style, within her huge house) there were stables for about 7 horses, a chicken coop, a play area for kids, a tiny swimming pool and a goat. It was heaven, and my 5 year old nephew, Adrian, certainly agreed with me.

In the chicken coop were boxes, one for each room, with a special lock belonging to the occupant of the room. In your very own box you could find eggs, freshly laid, for breakfast every day. It was a really lovely touch.

We enjoyed horse riding, swimming, hikes and adventure activities, Adrian and I spent a good bit of time in the playroom playing games and it was good to spend time together as a family. My brother and his family have lived abroad for a few years now, first in Germany and now in Switzerland, so I've come to take for granted that I'll see them once, maybe twice a year.

In the self-created busyness we tire ourselves out with, it was so grounding (is that a pun, considering the altitude?) to make time, to be in the fresh air, drinking Alpine water, feel consistent but mild vertigo, and appreciating life at a different pace, in a different style, with my very own family. Experiences like this make all the difference, rare moments of true beauty and calm. We all need to take more time to realise how lucky we are.

Feeling Great in the Countryside

Let me just tell you, I can’t believe I’m here, last week of September, cycling at high speed down country roads with random insects hitting me in the face, sun still shining. It’s like nature is being extra kind and giving just a few more weeks of summer before it gets dark at 4pm. The leaves are starting to coat the ground and it’s been foggy, but we have had some fantastic days lately. 

Being at home in the country is fantastic, and coming to Ireland for these few weeks (maybe months, if I ever get a driving test date finalised) has, so far, been an excellent decision. I’ve been spending a lot of time on the roads because I want to get fitter to try and do a triathlon in a few months. I’ve been out walking and jogging every day.

When I was younger I hated the countryside. I thought it was so boring to be surrounded by fields and trees, I just wanted to live in a town or city and actually be able to walk to friends’ houses. I wanted to socialise and be around people, not cows. I itched to be saturated in the feelings of urban things; paper coffee cups and take-out sandwiches, department stores and cobbled streets and city buses. Then I started spending time in cities, living in apartments and taking those city buses, and let me tell you, their quality varies hugely depending on their final destination. I’d walk around the most crowded parts of cities and let the feeling of being surrounded by people wash over me. I felt at home.

In the past year, though, something changed, and now I don’t want to be in cities anymore. Fumes, traffic, crowded streets, endless shops, endless streams of people, none of these things excite me. I want to get away from people, faceless, nameless numbers. I want to work on my existing relationships and be surrounded by positivity, not sit pressed against a stranger on the Tube. I want green fields and dusk on country roads and fresh air. Maybe it’s a natural progression of growing up (finally), maybe it’s the fact that the guy I spend most of my time with is highly cynical of all things commercial. Maybe I’m just realising what’s really important in life, and it isn’t what you get in a Penneys’ bag for €3.

Yesterday I was cycling around the block, and it was a gorgeous day, and I just felt so, alive, you know? One of those rare moments when you know you feel so good that you know it’s special, and won’t come again for a time. Everything was perfect. It was about 15 degrees, no wind, I was cycling downhill, 5.30pm and the sun was just setting off towards the western corner of the sky. I saw a group of pheasants rushing down a field lane, flocks of birds hovering above a freshly ploughed field, cut grass smell, country manure smell, cabbages and potatoes and rows of green fields. I saw horses, cows, neighbourhood dogs in varying sizes and temperaments, mostly verging on cranky and territorial.

It was fantastic, and I’m so lucky to be here, living at all. There’s been a bit of bad news in the last couple of weeks, and maybe I’m just sentimental because of it, but I really feel so glad to be here. In a world that is so random and, at times, just so senselessly cruel, that I am here, with so many good things, well I just feel very lucky indeed.

I have no nice pictures today, just plenty of good wishes. Slán go fóill!

A Stupenduous Weekend

This weekend I am in Copenhagen (well, it's Monday and I'm still here, but think of it as an extended weekend). The 20th marked three years to the day since Leo and I met, and since we never officially started 'going out' I decided we may as well celebrate this date, as there is no more meaningful alternative.

Three years is an awfully long time to know someone, and not only that, but to be consistently overjoyed by that persons' presence in your life.

Enough of my babble. This weekend, was filled with deliciousness of all kinds, a trip to IKEA and to Sweden itself, cycling, saunas in the sea, cakes, a lot of coffee, and a lot of contentment. Hygge abounded. Det var meget hyggeligt, one might say!

I shall let a picture say 1000 words instead of meandering on. P.s. there are no pictures of the delish cakes we had in IKEA because they are on Leo's phone, and he is in work:

NO BALLOONS?!

This guy's house fell over because he had a party and had too many people on it. Absolutely mental! The guy in the kiosk beside it said they had to rush in and rescue a lady trapped in the toilets because she couldn't move and had only a little bit of airspace left. Omgeh!

'Lol'

This Sauna in the Sea is the greatest experience, it's my second time being there and it's so relaxing. You just feel reinvigorated afterwards. There are gender segregated changing and bathing areas and communal and segregated saunas. The only problem with the communal sauna is that the aged men that frequent it stare far more than is necessary. If I wasn't with my boyfriend, I wouldn't go in there. I think the gender separation is ridiculous. Grown ups are more than able to handle the nakedness of the opposite sex, it won't cause strokes or heart attacks.

We had both a dinner and breakfast buffet included in the price in our hotel, and let me tell you, they put on quite a spread. In typical thrifty fashion I brought enough breakfast foods with me from the buffet for lunch. Oh how I over-ate.

Leo forced me to watch the gaelic football final in a dingy Irish pub in Malmo, and I did not enjoy it. Dublin won, Mayo lost, but as far as I'm concerned in the petty sport of football, there are no winners.

Now I'm back in Copenhagen, having done some gift shopping in Tiger etc. and now it's off to the airport to head back to my beloved (or not) Eire.

Until next time, Danmark.