November ----- 2005

FYI - The first three photos are Luke's work and photos of St. Stephen's Green which is right across the street from his building. The next two photos are of my desk at work and the view from my window! After that are photos of the apartment, which I know you guys have seen but now it looks a little better - photos, plants, posters, a t.v. It's like a REAL apartment!

Last week went well. We did the normal work week and played games in the evenings. I continuously lose the card games Luke and I play so I figured the first game I'd challenge Luke to would be Trivial Pursuit.... well, I LOST. We both had all of the pieces of our pies except one and it was getting late so we decided to just read each other questions until we got the final pieces and guess what Luke's question was?! 'What was The Beatles' first movie?' Are you f*%cking kidding me?! Of course he knew the answer and won the game. I don't need to tell you that I was horribly disappointed. Apparently I am not great in the games department.

The following night I challenged Luke to Monopoly.... and LOST AGAIN. Well, I didn't lose, I forfeited the game as it is incredibly boring (And I KNEW that I would lose because I'm not the greatest at saving money...). After the half-game of Monopoly we were going to play Pictionary but realized that we needed more than 2 people.... It was pathetic really. BUT I successfully tricked Luke into wanting to buy a T.V. BEFORE Christmas! We agreed to get one on the weekend!

Friday night was fun. The accountant at my office (Rachel)had a leaving party. I got a ride to Tonic (My boss' sisters bar) in Blackrock with some of the girls from my office. We arrived at the bar at about 5:30 and started to go to work on the free drinks supplied by our boss who is currently in South Africa building houses as a volunteer... YAY. Myself and some of the people from my office began the party - chatting and having some laughs. Luke also attended a leaving party with his co-workers in town and then met me at Tonic at about 6:30 and joined in the fun. It was good craic. Tons of food was brought out to us - so much that the lot of us couldn't finish it! Fabulous. Luke and I left at about 10:30. Pretty early, I know, but it was a long day at work and 5 hours at the bar so I was ready to make my exit. Luke wasn't really ready to go but agreed to leave with me. He then stopped at the Pearse Pub down the street from our house while I went ahead home and made myself a cup of tea. I didn't want to go to Pearse Pub because the one time I went there to buy beer from their off-licence it stunk like sweaty old men. When Luke got back he told me that it didn't stink and that they poured one of the best Guinness he's had. I guess I was just there at the wrong time.....

Saturday Luke and I took a walk around town - down to the Grand Canal and around some areas that we had not been to before. We had a great time. Stopped for a cappuccino on a patio (Yes people, we can still sit outside to enjoy our cappuccino's. It's not exactly hot outside but lots of people still sit at the outdoor tables to eat and drink anyway, as long as the sun is shining!), chatted and BOUGHT A T.V.! We went to Argos (The best store in the WORLD) and paid €170 or so for the T.V., €29 for a stand and about €34 for a DVD player. Not bad! We then carried it all out of the mall and into a taxi-van. We got it home, plugged it in, hooked it up to the cable and got THREE channels. A little disappointing though we knew we wouldn't get many for free. We made some calls about having more channels hooked up but of course that would mean that one of us has to take half the day off work to do so.... In the meantime we have ONE good channel that is clear, a BORING channel that is a little fuzzy but OK and the Discovery Channel that is FU-ZZY. Eventually Luke will take half a day off and sit at home to wait for them. We'll just make do until then.

That night we went out with Sarah and Tom for Sarah's birthday. We met them at the Wool Shed (The Aussie bar we watch the Sens games at) to watch the Australia-some other team Rugby match. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to hear that Tom had proposed to Sarah! They were thrilled, we were thrilled. More to celebrate! We had a few drinks and a shot that Luke bought for all of us and then moved to Mojo's (This bar was the first one we all went to together - all pints are €3.30 no matter what they are!) where we had a few more drinks. We went to the back of the bar where the dance floor and things were (Tons of Barbie-type blondes in mini skirts and thigh-high boots - a VERY classy place! NOT!) happening. After our first drink Luke made his way to the dance floor and proceeded to break out his moves (Think wedding). Sarah was thrilled that one of us was dancing so she joined him. Tom and I watched for a while, laughing, but impressed with Luke's moves "Wow", Tom said to me, "I had no idea he could dance. He's REALLY good. I NEVER would have pictured him dancing so well". He was shocked and amazed. "Let's go dance with him!". We got to the dance floor and joined in the fun. People were watching Luke and enjoying his fancy moves. It was priceless. Eventually the music turned to dance music so we packed things up and headed to the bar next door where we were told the music was better. The bouncer wouldn't let all of us in. Not sure why. We all continued down the street to the next bar where we were told we would have to pay a €20! NO WAY! From there we headed to the south side of Dublin city centre where we found a great 3-storey bar that played good music, had good Guinness and had a place for us to stand and dance. We continued to drink, dance and chat and laugh and basically just have a really good time! That's the thing about Tom and Sarah. They're always enthusiastic and happy and FUN.

Sunday Luke met with a guy who is putting together a band and is looking for a lead guitar player. I listened to this guy's music on the net and he is FABULOUS. Exactly the style of music I like. Luke took the DART out with a buddy of this guys and was then picked up and taken to the guy's studio. Apparently he is HOOKED UP. Luke and he then played a bit, chatted a bit and discussed their plans, etc. I think it's going to be great. Luke will meet with him again in a couple of weeks and they're going to do some recording, etc. I'm really excited because I can actually say that I LOVE the music.

Last week went well... basically just worked and hit the Pearse Pub a couple of times. (Now our local hangout - amazing pints of Guinness... and for cheap! - see photo). It is just down the street from our house.

Thursday night I went to a table quiz with some people from work. It was held at a hotel just down the street from my house and they had an open bar all night. Four people from my office went. It's a quiz contest between all of the insurance companies in the city. Sounds kinda boring, I know, but it really was fun! I got home at about 11:30 after having a few Bulmer's and ended up waking up feeling like crap. Fortunately I wasn't the only one that felt like shit at work the next day. The really bad thing is that my boss was due to be back at work so I was a little nervous about seeing him and having to get back down to real business. BUT when he came in he was great so I'm not nervous about my job anymore. My "scary" boss came in after 2 weeks away and the first thing he said was " You must be good luck because business has been booming since you got here" and gave me a huge grin! AMAZING.

Friday night Luke and I stayed in, ordered pizza and curry chips and watched a Tommy Teirnan DVD that someone had lent to Luke. Hilarious. Tommy Teirnan is an Irish stand-up comedian. Kinda Dennis Leary like. OH! Luke finally got paid! WE'VE GOT MONEY! I get paid next Friday. We're finally back in the game!

Last night (Saturday) we had Sean Urie and his lovely girlfriend Aubrey over for dinner. We served mussels and cheese with baguette as we had wine and beer and then Luke made chicken curry with veggies and I made a greek salad and couscous. Delicious! We had a good time. Luke and Sean played around on the guitar and Aubrey and I chatted. It was a good night.

Today Luke and I walked around... went to H & M (Just opened) and bought Luke this FABULOUS green velvet blazer. It really is great. I bought some pj bottoms and this cute beaded shrug thingy. All in all a fun day of wandering around the city and shopping. Grafton Street looks great - all dressed up for Christmas. And it's fun to watch all the shoppers that pack the streets here. They go mad for shopping on the weekends.