That's a Wrap

It is the end of the long weekend and the end of the 154th Victoria Highland Games and Celtic Festival.

My day of volunteering was my easiest yet as, due to reasons, there was no hurling. There was, however, further discussion about starting a GAA club in Victoria. When I think about what we're committing to doing, I get really excited... and then question my sanity.

WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?

But let's not think about that right now.

Monday is the day of the Irish camp competitions. They had two stages set up. I have a couple of the little kids and they're adorable, but I don't have time (or energy) to blur all the faces right now.

This gentleman and his wife were delightful. I was just sad that I only ever saw them together at a distance.

The grass is always greener...

"Is it step-one-two-three or one-two-three-step?" They were practising their moves, but I wasn't quick enough with my camera to catch them.

The Highland Games portion of the weekend ends with the keg toss. What's the over/under on the organisers getting the damage deposit back on this keg?

I watched the 12" and 13" bar. They keep raising the bar until only one person successfully gets it over the bar. Given the clearance they were getting on the bar where it was, I could tell it would be a long time before the competition was over.

After three days of being the sun and heat for hours upon time, I called an end to my day there in time to go see "Alien: Covenant". Sit in a dark air conditioned theatre for two hours? Yes, please!

The movie was okay. I enjoyed it but I wasn't blown away. It set up a series reboot in the way Prometheus wanted to set it up. (Which is to say that I actually want to see what happens next after this movie. After Prometheus, I didn't give two hoots if we ever got another movie in the franchise.) The scare factor seemed tame compared to previous Alien films... or it could just be that I'm getting older and not as easily taken-in by jump scares. The one thing that the movie did share with Prometheus was that Michael Fassbender was the stand-out performance.

HERE BE POSSIBLE SPOILERS. (BUT NOT IF YOU'RE READY ANYTHING ABOUT THE MOVIE.) YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

He plays two AI characters, different versions of the same prototype, yet the nuances of the two characters. Just masterfully done.

And with that, it's back to reality tomorrow.

Ireland 2014: Galway

Galway was once a walled city run by 12 tribes. Today, it's an artsy city which serves as a great base for seeing the west. The Connemara region lies a short drive to the north-west, the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher are a hop, skip and a jump south in Co. Claire, and regular buses connect to Roundstone and ferries to the Aran Islands.

We saw none of these things on this trip.

A storm front had moved in off the Atlantic and combined with almost two weeks of go-go-go, the rain was a good excuse to stick close to town. With some well planned lunch and dinner breaks, we managed to miss most of the downpours but when they did come, they were something fierce!

We arrived late in the afternoon and I took Katie on a quick tour of 'my' Galway which amounted to me point out my old apartment as we walked past Eyre Square. We did a quick wander down the main pedestrian street which changes names more times than I change underwear before hunkering down in a pub out of the way of the tourist crowds. It was there I had made my first Hooker.

Beer, you dirty minded sods. If you can't tell from the pint glass, a Galway Hooker is a type of boat, a fishing boat to be specific. Two cousins started a brewery in 2006 named after the boat. The result is the Galway Hooker Irish Pale Ale and annoying tourists like me have been making hooker jokes ever since.

After dinner, we headed back to the hostel for a quiet night of postcard writing and journal catch-up.

The main pedestrian street. Full of bars, shops and tourists.

We woke up early the next morning with the intention of going to Inishmore (one of the Aran islands) to find it absolutely bucketing down. Seeing as the only thing to do on the Aran islands when it's raining like that is to sit in a pub and drink and we could do that just as easily in Galway, we skipped the rough ferry ride in favour of a bit more sleep.

By the time we had finished breakfast and were ready to brave the downpours, the rain had all but disappeared so we decided to join a free walking tour. On the way to the meeting point for the tour, I took Katie to the old wall of the city which is now inside a mall. Well, it's not really the old wall. It's a recreation of the old wall on the spot where the old wall stood and it was made with some of the original rocks. Close enough.

Ridiculous pics or it didn't happen seems to be my motto!

We took a tour with a company called MacCoole who run all manner of tours around the city. We had a great time on the walking tour. Our guide was really knowledgeable and entertaining, and you see a great deal of the city. Unfortunately, I apparently forgot I had a camera for most of the tour.

Looking across the River Corrib at the Galway Cathedral.

Our tour guide also played a game with us based on the YouTube video of animals talking (this one in case you've never seen it). If he noticed that any of us started to look a miserable (usually weather related), he'd say "night time" and we'd say back "day time". It worked wonders because it's almost impossible to play 'night time day time' without smiling. Six months later and Katie and I still play it with each other. (I send her this video when I want to be really annoying.)

The way the free tour works is that at the end of it, you tip the guide what you think the tour was worth. This isn't sprung on you at the last minute, you are told this right off the bat of the tour. It's the first thing the tour guide talks about after he tells you his name. I would just like to take a minute and say that I was disgusted with the number of people who just scattered at the end of the tour. I'm sure the guides expect a certain amount of the people to do that, but I really felt like screaming after them "you can't even find one fucking Euro in your pocket?"

After a late lunch, Katie and I spent the afternoon shopping where I found a wooden Ireland puzzle. I hummed and hawed about getting it until Katie yelled at me that if I didn't buy it, I would regret it and she would slap me. Those both sound like very good reasons to buy the puzzle.

We headed to O'Connell's Bar on Eyre Square. If you're ever in Galway, stop in there for pint. Just do it. Trust me. O'Connell's is touted as having the best Guinness in Galway (they do do a really good pour) which is why Katie and I both decided to have a pint of the Galway Hooker Irish Stout. Meh, same colour.

Late lunch meant a late dinner and by the time we were ready to eat, everywhere was closing. We managed a find about the only restaurant that still had an open kitchen at 9pm. When you finish dinner at about 10pm, sleep seems like the only viable option.

A lot of this trip had been Katie following me where I wanted to go, so when she said on the Sunday morning that she'd rather go to the brew pub in Salthill instead of tour the Connemara, I was happy to oblige. Salthill is a small community that sits on the other side of the Corrib from Galway, just past the old fishing village area known as Claddagh. Yes, that Claddagh.

Crossing the River Corrib

They've done a great job of fixing up the waterfront walk along the Claddagh. There had been vast improvements in 2011 since I had lived in Galway, but since 2011 they had made even further improvements to the walking path. It was absolutely lovely, even on the grey Sunday.

Tide's a wee bit low

Looking back at Galway

The area is prone to flooding which saves it from being developed

You can walk out to the lighthouse but we had beer on our minds and that was an
unnecessary detour for two girls who live next door to this lighthouse

Looking across Galway Bay to County Clare

We hit up the Oslo bar, the original bar of the Galway Bay Brewery for some beer and lunch. The beers we tried were fantastic, the food was melt-in-our-mouths groan-worthy, and the decor was fun to look at.

The whole place was covered with pro-beer slogans and
their motto was 'no crap on tap'. I want to move in.

A few beers later and we stumbled back to Galway, grabbed out bags and were off to catch a bus back to Dublin.

Trivia Tuesday: Oktoberfest

If you have the (dis)pleasure of being my friend IRL or on Facebook, you know that I have a love for trivia. I once joked that I'm a horrible dinner guest because I can't stop passing on random trivia that no one cares about. Welcome to Trivia Tuesday, my weekly internet dinner party.

It's the end of September and Oktoberfest officially kicked off on Saturday with a parade from Munich to the fairgrounds (which once upon a time were on the outskirts of Munich... not so much anymore). But if it's September, why isn't it called Septemberfest? Because it used to be held in October.

Celebrating Oktoberfest in 1999. Can you find me?
Hint: I'm wearing a dirndl... just like all the other girls.

In honour of his marriage to Therese of Sax-Hildburghausen on October 12, 1810, Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) invited the people of Munich to celebrate the occasion with a huge festival in a field outside the city gates. It was decided to make the celebration an annual event which would included a harvest festival and horse racing (although those two items have long been done away with).

How I celebrated the 2013 Oktoberfest!

The problem is that the later you get in the year, the higher your chances of rainfall. A decision was made to move the celebration to the end of September when higher temperatures, longer days, and less rainfall prevailed. As a result, while Oktoberfest concludes the first Sunday of October*, the majority of the event usually takes place in September.

*German Reunification occurred on October 3rd, 1990. In the years that October 3rd does not fall within Oktoberfest dates, the event is extended until the 3rd. To get the most bang for your Oktoberfestbuck, you should go in 2017.

The Reluctant Athlete: Ass-Kicking... And Not the Good Kind

This week kicked my ass.

I should have a well-written, introspective post reflecting on my first full month on the road to a healthier me. Well, I should have a post about it that I've actually put thought into. Well-written and introspective are optional. Always optional.

What you're getting instead is a slap-dash post that I won't even proofread. I hope I spels gud.

Towards the end of last week, a coworker got extremely sick (but she is okay). The result is that this week I have been facilitating a train group that she was scheduled to take as well as try and keep on top of my tasks so as to not get too far behind before training kicks off in full. I've been coming to work early, leaving late, and spending 7 hours of my now 9-hour work days standing and talking. You'd be amazed at how tiring just standing and talking can be.

I love my job - I am so grateful that I have finally found a job that I want to turn into my career - but this week has been a hard week. When I stepped on the scale on Wednesday morning, I wasn't the least bit surprised to see a gain. Disappointed because I had been on target for over 10 lbs this month, but not surprised. I still (just) hit the 8 lbs goal, but I would have loved to have ended my (full) first month with a bang.

But that's life. We don't lose weight in a vacuum, and figuring out how to live a healthier life even during those times of unexpected ass-kicking busy weeks is just a part of figuring out life.

I should talk about my other goals went this month as part of the monthly wrap-up but it is almost 8:30 pm and all I want to do is put on pyjamas, make a big cup of decaf Earl Grey, finally (FINALLY!) watch the new Doctor Who that aired on Saturday night, and then go to bed.

I just realised that there are no pictures in this post, so here's one from a few birthday's ago. Yes, I am topping up my pint glass as I drink it because I'm classy like that.

Ireland 2014: Dublin

Remember that time I went to Ireland on holidays and then never blogged about it? As we all know, if you don't blog about it then it never happened. Right?

Truth is, I have stared and deleted this post at least once a week since I've been back. Talking about Ireland is something that comes very naturally to me - in fact, I usually have a problem shutting up about it - but I spoke extensively about Ireland on an old blog (found here) after my trip there in 2011 and writing about Ireland this time just felt really repetitive.

Still, I do have stories I want to share so I'm going to suck it up and just be repetitive.

We flew to Dublin via London's Heathrow and I was reminded why I disliked Heathrow. The airport is in a perpetual state of 'upgrading'. If it ever finishes, I fully expect a minotaur to live in the middle of that maze. Still, punchy and sleep deprived, the signs looked an awful lot like a moose.

I'm sure our continually shouts of "follow the moose!"
really endeared us to the other travellers.

We arrived in Dublin and made our way to Ballsbridge in south Dublin to stay with my cousin, Conor.

Patriotic reminder at the Dublin Airport to drive on the left.

I had never stayed with Conor before and I have to say that Ballsbridge was a great location. We were close enough to walk into town if we were feeling up to but there was also a direct bus just on the main road and the Landsdowne DART station just a 5 min walk away along the river. If you're going to Dublin but aren't really jazzed on the idea of staying downtown amidst the noise, there were a fair number of hotels in the Ballsbridge area.

We took our first day in Dublin easy, heading into town around lunch time to do a little casual sight-seeing before attending the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl. If there is one thing I insist you do if you ever go to Dublin, the Literary Pub Crawl is it. One thing I recommend, however, is keep your drinks at the pubs to a half pint or a glass of wine. Other than the first and last pub, you usually only have about 20 mins to get your order and drink up before you're off again. At the first pub, The Duke, they have a longer set in a private room. But once you leave the Duke, the educational parts of the pub crawl come between the pubs. You don't need to know anything about Irish literature to enjoy the pub crawl (but you'll definitely know something when you finish the crawl). I have no pictures of that night that didn't end up horribly blurry, otherwise I would post them right here.

We headed out to Kilmainham Gaol early the next morning. You can't make reservations and I really wanted to make sure we got to the jail as Katie said she wanted to know more about Irish history.

The Victoria Wing. If it looks familiar, it's been used in a few movies.

The opening and closing of the jail pretty much bookend the Irish struggle for independence. The tours are about an hour long and worth every penny. The museum attached to the jail is fantastic with a plethora of artifacts from former inmates.

"Beware of the Risen People that have harried and held, Ye that have bullied and bribed."

Paraphrased from the poem The Rebel by Patrick Pearse. The term 'risen people' stems from the Jim Larkin quote "The great appear great because we are on our knees: Let us rise." It was a call to the working class to rise up in protest. If you read Irish literature, especially Fenian or Republican literature, from the early 20th century, the idea of risen people is a common theme.

This is the cell where Patrick Pearse was held after the Easter Rising of 1916. Patrick was one of the instigators of the uprising and read the Proclamation of the Republic out loud from the steps of the G.P.O. Patrick and his brother, Willie, would both be found guilty of treason and sentenced to execution by firing squad.

The plaque on the wall of the area where the executions took place listing those leaders who were executed for the Easter Rising.

After Kilmainham, we made our way to Dublin Castle and its adorable little chapel.

Apparently, you're supposed to pay to go into the chapel. I always enjoy visiting it so much that I would totally pay for it... if I had seen the sign "please pay for your chapel visit in the castle" before I left the chapel. Whoops! Next time.

On our way to grab a bite to eat, I took Katie past this fine establishment.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the first bar I ever got right and truly shitfaced in. My cousins, scared of getting their 16 year old cousin drunk and then returning her to her father would only buy me half pints. Nine half pints later, I needed help walking down the stairs. (Whose bright idea was it to sit upstairs?)

After that stumble through memory lane, a visit to the Guinness Storehouse was in order.

The lease that started it all!

I've been to the Guinness Storehouse enough times to last me until the end of days. That would be three times if anyone is wondering. One of the things I did finally try on this trip was pulling my own pint.

They look so pretty! I want to drink them all!

You get a group lesson and take turns pulling your own pint. When it's done, you get a certificate with your name and get to take your pint up to the Gravity Bar at the top of the Storehouse to drink it. While I was worried about mucking up my pint to the point of not being able to drink it, it turned out to be a really fun and educational option. Also, my pint tasted damn fine. The only downside was that we starting judging every Guinness pint poured for us for the rest of our trip. It was kind of annoying but we couldn't stop. doing. it!

You can hire us for all Guinness pint-pulling needs.

After a quick bite in town (and another pint) we headed home for an early night. We had a day tour to Glendalough set for the next day and we did not want to be sleeping for the drive through the Wicklow Mountains!

After dinner wander across the O'Connell St bridge

Until next time!

Is It Only Tuesday?

You know those weeks where it feels like it should already be Friday but it isn't? In fact, if you're really unlucky, it's only Monday? At least I made it to Tuesday before I started ugly-crying about my desire for it to be the weekend already. During one of my meetings, we were talking about setting up review sessions for next week. Plans for next week?!? It must be Friday!!!

Lying bastards.

For my next (and last) meeting of the day, however, my coworker brought each of us one of these:

I totally stole this picture from Bon Macaron's Facebook page without asking. So, if you're in the Victoria area, please visit them and tell them Andrea sent you so they don't get mad at me when they find out. Or Jennifer. Or Claire. Any of those names should work.

I raved to my coworker about the awesome blackberry not-really-a-macaron creation from Bon Macaron during a meeting on Monday (my picture here). Obviously, my powers of persuasion are amazing if she bought three of the blueberry ones today! Best. Meeting. EVER!

(Just to be really clear, I'm getting diddly squat for raving about the macarons so when I say this is my honest opinion, this is my honest opinion.)

***

Once upon a time, I attended university in Freiburg, Germany and lived in a student residence called Ulrich Zasius Haus or UZH. The UZH had a magical Pepsi machine in the foyer/mailbox area. What was so magical about it, you ask? Well, two buttons dispensed Pepsi but the other six buttons dispensed beer! BEER, PEOPLE! Even more magical? It was cheap beer. Our building became the meeting place for nights out... which often became nights in.

My older brother and two friends came to visit.
They were also amazed by the magic Pepsi machine.

I was reminded of this fact while I stared at the Coke machine in my current apartment building. Sadly, all its buttons are for non-alcoholic beverages and no amount of fake spell casting would change that.

*sigh*

As much as I made fun of the UZH and called it 'the ghetto', I do miss some things about it.

***

I try to remain vague about my job for various reasons (not least of which because it's the professional thing to do when you work in my field and have a personal but public blog) which means that it's hard to explain why finding this picture online today made me so damn happy. Just know that it put a huge, goofy grin on my face for the rest of the day.

If you don't get this poster, click this link.
And then ask to borrow my DVD so you can watch the whole movie.

Now to figure out where I can put it up in my cubicle without it being noticed...

Question: Any work pet peeves of your own to share?