Iesus Non Amat Me

I have returned from the Emerald Isle! And I think my experience can be summed up in three words:

Rain.
Booze.
Castles.

Pretty much everyone I've mentioned the rain to has kinda laughed at me and gone "Well it is Ireland" like I'm some naive idiot who didn't realise that it might rain while I was there. So I have to point out that when I say it rained a lot, I mean it rained a lot. Even the locals were commenting on the weather and how bad it was. One of the staff at the Smuggler's Inn said that it felt more like November than early August. Of course that day it wasn't just raining, it was also so windy I was a bit worried I might be blown into the Atlantic Ocean if I wasn't careful!

My second word is booze. Specifically beer and whiskey. We visited so many breweries and distilleries and I've lost count of how many different varieties we tried. I like beer but I'm not a huge fan and I must admit that by halfway through I was getting a bit sick of the stuff. I was trying to keep local with my drinks choices, but I had to give in and branch out a bit after a while. The whiskey was good though. I think there was only one that I didn't actually like!

And then castles. So many castles! I'm a big castle fan, so that was good. I went to Blarney Castle but didn't kiss the Blarney Stone because the thought of being held onto by a complete stranger and having people stare at me while I did it was just too much. The Bunratty Castle medieval banquet was a lot of fun and definitely one of the highlights of the trip. And the various other castles were all pretty cool in their own ways.

Overall it was a good trip. But I am thinking that maybe next time I'd prefer to stay mostly in one place rather than move around quite so much. It meant we got to see a lot, but it also meant there was very little time to relax.

Oh, and we flew business class on the way back. Because it was such a short flight it wasn't as fancy as long-haul business class and didn't cost that much more than an economy ticket so we decided to go for it. And I can definitely see why people do! It makes me want to fly business every time now. If only it weren't so ridiculously expensive.

I just looked down and there was a wasp chilling in the handle of my scissors. Definite Do Not Want! I took him outside and eventually was able to shake him off but it took a while. The little dude did not want to leave. I wonder if he was hoping to do some arts and crafts and I have cruelly deprived him of his vocation.

It was drizzling outside, which was actually quite pleasant after the heat this morning. Although, having said that, it was really the humidity that did me in. The cash office felt like an actual sauna. And I couldn't even have the small relief of the little tabletop fan because certain people have stolen it for their own use! I should just steal it back. It was mine to begin with after all. (Well, the cash office's, but that's pretty much the same thing.)

Still, could be worse. On Friday I was helping to push three 800kg pallets up a hill. At least the weather wasn't too bad then. I think I would have actually died!

In other news, I had a good weekend. It was Rob's birthday on Thursday and Mum's on Saturday so Rob came round on Sat for a joint celebration. I gave Mum the Corkers board game, which we have now played twice and she won both times. I suppose it's only fair since it was her day. And it turns out that I don't know as much about wine as I thought I did.

Pre-packing for Ireland is going well. I have my lists and a vague idea of where everything is that I'm going to need to take with me. Can't quite believe it's only four days away!

Well, me and five other people. We did one of those Escape Room mysteries where you get locked in a room and have to find clues and solve puzzles to open the door within an hour. It was so much fun! And, best of all, I wasn't completely useless! One of my main worries going into it was that I wouldn't be any help and would just tag along while everyone else solved everything, but I actually did pretty well for myself. I solved the map room on my own, which our guide was very impressed with. She said that most people use one of their hints for that room. Clearly all these years of doing word puzzles has not been in vain!

Because we were able to escape the room under an hour (51:46!) we got our picture taken and put on the wall. Hopefully we'll see it again when we got back and do the other room they have there. Because we totally have to do this again!

That was Friday evening. I then stayed over with Paul and yesterday we spent a lot of time discussing our upcoming Ireland holiday. We now have a pretty good idea of where we'd like to go and a vague idea of how long we want to spend in each place. But I was looking up hotels earlier and a lot of them are already booked up for the dates we're planning to go. I really think we need to get a move on here otherwise we could end up missing out on staying where we'd really like to.