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*birrrrr* 2005 November 1 22:50

Posted by diamond in : Cycling , add a comment

Went for a cycle with dan tonight, in the lashing rain and freezing cold. It was… cold. Definetely time to break out the cycling pants and leave the shorts at home next time. Did 30km @ 23.45kmph. Feet in particular were cold all the way through when i got back. I think i might need to invest in the overshoes that mark uses. Also i really need to get new batteries for the light on my bike as they died completely during the cycle, so had to be extra careful at roundabouts etc. All in a good days cycle ,-)

Dublinia

Posted by diamond in : Random , 1 comment so far

Yesterday i went to dublin to visit noirin who’s back in the country for a (very) long weekend from germany. After some discussion we came to the conclusion that it was about a year and a half since i’d properly seen her last. It was really good to catch up. I also got to meet her family. Her mother in particular is most wonderful. After being introduced to her, she asked me had i eaten, i replied without thinking “Yes, many times”. I then realised that such comments might not be suitable for someone who had only just met me. Noirin quickly reassured me that her mother would cope just fine with my sense of humour. I took this at face value, and over the course of the evening i managed to both imply that her mother used drugs, and had taken up patchwork quilting as an attempt to help her quit, and that she had killed her first husband and buried him in the back garden. All in all, it was a most amusing conversation -) (As an aside, noirin’s mother is also an amazing cook. Mmmmmm tasty)

When arranging what day to go to dublin to visit noirin, i randomly chose monday. After some reflection, i then realised that i’d picked the worst day trafficwise for a trip to dublin. It all worked out for the best though when i realised that diane was down for the weekend, so i offered her a lift back up early monday afternoon, avoiding the worst of the traffic, and spent a few hours chilling at her place, which was good. She taught me how to do some basic tricks with poi, which rocked -) I appear to have some kind of natural apptitude for this sort of thing, didn’t stop me from hitting myself in the head a few times though ,-)

I also collected my new keyboard from elrond (which cost me a hurtingly high €135 thanks to vat and vat collection fees on import -/). I’ve been typing on it for most of this afternoon, and so far so good. The feel is very solid, and seems to give very nice feedback. It’s a bit clickier than i’m used to, but that’s not really an issue. The touchpoint in the middle of the keyboard is also going to take a bit of adjusting to, but it’s a feature i’m very glad i went for. I often want to copy/paste in terminals, and reaching for a mouse just for that is inefficient.

The trip home turned into a minor expedition. Leaving noirin’s house at about 00:45, i saw a sign for rathfarnham, and seeing as i wasn’t in a major rush to get home, made a slight detour. When i worked in motorola in swords on co-op, i went out with a girl who lived in rathfarnham. It seems like so long ago now (summer of ‘98). I drove around rathfarnham a bit, found the estate where she lived, drove past the house. Part of me was vaguely hoping to see her walking home, that i could say “hey. how’ve you been?”. Of course if it had happened, it would most likely have gone like the last time i met her, about 3 years ago. That was soooo awkward. *cringe*.

The rest of the journey was fairly uneventful until i was on the road between nenagh and limerick. As i was driving along, i saw two guys on the road frantically waving me down. At first i thought there had been an accident, but as i pulled in i realised they were just trying to get a lift. Feeling somewhat philanthropic (there’s a big word for ya!), i pulled in and asked them where they were going. It turns out they’d been playing in some gaa match earlier, and had won the county finals and went out celebrating. Getting a taxi home didn’t work out so well however, the taxi driver had for some reason decided he was only going so far, and had forced the lads to get out about 3-4 miles away from home, at 2am on an october night, and they were only wearing teeshirts. They were frozen to the bone and shaking. When they flagged me down they’d walked about 2-3 miles, so i dropped them home, down one of those generic boreens. I was told that one of them worked in a petrol station just across the road from the turnoff and if that i called in today that i could have free anything. I just laughed and told them to go warm up inside.

And that was my monday.