Last 2 weekends me and Tura have been taken advantage of Is car. Even if I often say that cars are unnecessary, getting to places around here they have their uses.
2 weeks ago we drove down to South-East region and visited ruins of St. Mary's Church in Gowran, Kilkenny http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/South-East/StMarysChurchGowranCoKilkenny/ - there wasn't that much to see, we only stopped there as we drove by.
Then we stopped at Jerpoint Abbey - ruins again, but there was more to see and also interesting guided tour. http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/South-East/JerpointAbbey/
We had thought to head to Wexford or Waterford, but in Jerpoint I found a book about Ormond Castle that was nearby and it seemed interesting, so we decided to go there. It's in Tipperary http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/South-East/OrmondCastle/
So we didn't see the coast, but lots of other nice scenery. Also Ormond Castle was really nice, the old castle part was in ruins, but newer manor house part was open for visitors and very interesting. I liked the rooms and overall design of the place. There was also some furniture, thought not original to the place.
Overall the trip was much fun and enjoyable. Even the fickle weather of this island favoured as, both with rain and sun, but we never got wet - only the car did.

Last Saturday it was only me and I, as Tura had other stuff to do. This time we didn't drive far, just to County Meath, where we visited Trim Castle http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/midlandseastcoast/TrimCastle/ (some scenes of Braveheart were filmed there). It was very interesting. Even though parts of it were in total ruins, just some walls remaining, the keep itself still stood. As the castle had been standing there abandoned some hundred years, there is not much left of the interior. OPW has restored some wooden floors and fixed stairs and such so it was possible to climb to the top. Very interesting and the view from top was nice too.
After that we drove back to Kildare and visited Castletown House. It's very nicely decorated manor house. Interior was restored to show several different designs the house had gone thru, but mostly it was in style the wife of second occupant had done it. They also had some original furniture and due the decorator wife being avid letter writer they knew a lot about history of pieces - like terribly expensive crystal crowns that had incorrect shade of blue in them!
There was also farm market there and I bought delicious apple juice and bread.
And coaxed I to walk with me to River Liffey that flows just bit away from the house. Well, it looked just like any other river - but now I've seen it in Wicklow mountains, where it starts from and in Dublin, where it ends to sea and in middle, where it just flows.
It was very nice day also.

Other than that, I've been practicing my kendo in hopes to grade 1st kyu. I'm also going to participate one competition here in end of October and other in London. I wonder how I'll do... ><

I also got me a CTS position starting 9th of November. I'm excited about it - it should give a nice boost to my technical skills. :3

I've also updated some new Ireland pictures to my Picasa album, if someone does not have the address, or cannot guess it, ask.

At work, Mondays tend to be busy. Customers have forgotten their passwords during the weekend, and now when it's summertime, during their vacation.

I've been enjoying summertime. It's been around 20 Celsius weather for some time now, and even tho it started to rain last week, it's still warm.
I've enjoyed visit to Malahide beach (unfortunately it wasn't possible to swim there, due the tide. Few weeks ago in Bray I swam in sea - the water was very cold!
Also visited family festival in Naas, c. Kildare. There was also showing of short movies and my friend wanted to see those. They were ok, and there was free food also.

This weekend I slept a lot, and acted as a zombie for movie above mentioned friend is making.

Overall I've been tired and bit restless, I guess I should find something new to do. Work in the new team is very routine already and most calls are not challenging.

I also noticed I have more vacation days left than I thought, so perhaps I should travel a bit again.

I've spend an evening reading several social networking sites, trying to catch up what my friends have been doing.
It's very interesting, but I hope I could meet them more often, to find out those things face-to-face.

I've also planned to update this Journal for ages, but something is always missing. I don't have the pictures I wanted to upload at hand, I don't have time, I just don't remember.

Therefore I decided to write anyway, and hopefully add pictures later - there is lots of nice travel stories. From snowy Britain to cherry blossom admiring trip to Botanic Garden in Dublin.
I'd like to write down those memories, not only for other people to read, but also for myself, as I realised that I've forgotten a lot about my Japan trip. And that was only 2 years ago!
I created this Journal specially to record my time in Ireland, knowing I'm bad writing in diary-kind of things.
Still I hope I could keep it up!

As I started to write I'll make a short recap of this year so far.

The big change for me was that the team I had been with ended in end of March. I moved to other team in February and have been there since. The team is nice, our Finnish Request Management is small and comfy after a big team.
Customers are nice, and do not demand things as much as the previous ones, also their problems vary less.

Unfortunately also the horses I used to ride moved away, Milan was sold and Janet moved to Sweden. I learned a lot from them and spend some great time riding.

Now I'm concentrating on kendo, where I've started to wear armour and practise fighting. I also did well in grading 2 weeks ago.

I've helped my friend making few short movies, 2-4 minutes long, mute black and white films. It's interesting. I've helped with some of the stories and acted. Not that I'm any great actor, but it's still fun. As the we use old Super 8 film, it needs to be actually developed and so I have yet to see how our projects turned out.

Lately I've enjoyed sunny, but very windy days. Which is nice after rather rainy wintertime.
The spring came early, and now it's pretty much summer already. Everything is green, flowers bloom and tree leaves are big.
I should take a trip to seaside, enjoy perhaps Bray or Howth again.

Apparently it's been 17 weeks since I made one. I'm such a bad blog writer...

There has been things happening, several lovely friends have visited here, I've been sightseeing with them and have taken lots of pics.
I really should update some here!

For new year idachan and her cousin visited me. On Friday I picked them up from airport and we boarded a bus to Galway.
It's nice place, and it would be even more nice to see it sometime when it's not wet and dark!
On Saturday we went to a tour, saw Cliffs of Moher and some other things, but the Cliffs were the best. It was so windy the sea was spaying on us, even tho we were several meters high. And wind was so strong I could barely move on some places.
Luckily it calmed down and we were able to take a ferry to Inishmor on Sunday. There we found out hostel, rented bikes and went to other side of the island to see a ring fort. It was great day and it ended with awesome dinner. After that others went to a pub and barely got back before we had to take our ferry back on Monday morning.
New Year itself was peaceful, and after that it was ok to return to work.

Only a month later raino and fariini came to visit. I had just moved to a bigger room in our house, and the small room was still vacant so it was easy to find room for them to sleep. Their 2 days in Dublin were way too short, but we had good time.

And then, near St. Patrick's Day, Sharry came for a week. It was much fun also. We visited Wicklow on Sunday and on Monday we saw the parade. The weather was good, and the atmosphere was great.

At work I was talked to let go of the training and move to a more technical role, which might also mean a pay rise in future. Thought I just got my Senior promotion and pay rise on January, and my 6 month bonus on Thursday, more money is never a bad thing. Well, not usually... sometimes it is, with taxes and stuff...

Other than that, life's been normal, being nerd, reading, watching movies and stuff.

I should be sleeping, but I'm surfing instead. On the other hand, I've been quite insomniac this week, so it's not too likely I'd be sleeping anyway... *cough*

I was officially promoted a trainer some 2 weeks ago. I knew I'd become one for a while, but now it's reality. Been busy and interesting. I wonder if I'm people person after all...

I've learned to sit on other peoples desks. Easy reach towards their screen; "Then pick that option and click there..."

I've also decided to get rid of the kilos I've gathered while here and then some more. 2 down, lots to go.

Weather has finally got colder, there was few nights with 0 or so degrees and it feels like autumn.

Waiting for the Christmas... several days off the work in a row!

I've been enjoying the warm and rainless autumn by working overtime and playing tourist.

Today rained first time for few weeks. But after the ultra rainy summer the dry spell was really nice.

Last weekend I went to Cork, saw the idyllic Adare and also Blarney Castle. Didn't kiss the stone, which is said to give the gift of eloquent speech. I also saw King Jonh's Castle in Limerick and Cashel Rock in Cashel.

Nice trip, tho it required sitting in a car over 500 km.

Week before that I went to Newgrange, building older than the pyramids. It was quite magnificent. Specially standing inside, in a small room, with tons of rock piled over me. I hope I'll get lucky and get the chance to go there at winter solstice (2008, I think), when 20 people can get in there when the sun rises and lights the chamber for 17 minutes. They showed us an imitation of the event, it was nice also.

I feel accomplished. I just finished writing the diary of the Japan trip. Added some pictures too.

Life here has been like it usually is, changing weather, unchanging, busy work and weekends of random laziness.
Yesterday was great, went to city centre where we played cards with 3 of my friends from work, after several games we went to good Japanese restaurant and had lots of fun and great food. And finally it was time to go to Woolshep, and aussie pub where one of those friends held his farewell party. He is returning to Finland on Monday. Makes me bit sad, since he has been my closest friend here.

My birthday is coming soon. I wonder why it's still a big deal for me. I've had quite many already! Mostly good, and none bad, what I can remember.

But perhaps I'll g and take a walk, since it appears to be sunny out there.

Good news today! I got promoted from Customer Service Representative to Advisory CSR and I got a payraise of 3 % :) Quite nice.

It's Wednesday already. I returned to Dublin on Saturday evening, after spending about 20 hours awake and most of it travelling. Quite tired! Went to sleep like 15 minutes after arriving home and slept 12 hours.

Otherwise the trip back home went fine, I had bit troubles with the trains, but nothing major and then in the airport I found out that my luggages weight 36 kg (!!!) and that instead of 32 kg that read in every document I had about my plane tickets, for some reason I was still allowed to take only 20 kg and cabin baggage. Oh joy. Luckily there was post office near the check in counter and I carried my other bag there. Cost me nicely to send it, but no can do. Now I'm just waiting it to arrive. According the tracking system it was still sitting in Narita this morning.

On Sunday I went to cinema with housemate and we watched Harry Potter and Hairspay. Both were good films and we had nice day. (Bought me Happy Potter and the Deathly Hollows too, 13 € )

And on Monday it was back to work. I'm having evening shift this week, 12.30 - 21.00. Been relatively quiet. But it's next week when the people return from vacation and it's supposed to be mad busy. I'll enjoy the quiet while I can!

Dublin is like it usually is, wet. But warm enough. Yesterday when I walked out the building the ground was dry, but after I had walked bout 50 m it started raining. And didn't really stop till sometime at night.

I finished the HP last night, liked it.

I'm about to write about the Japan trip too, but decided to write about the present first and then backdate the entries. I hope I'll manage, I want to write down as much as possible so I can better remember the trip on days to come. I know I'm bad with diaries, I've always been... But I try to update this one time to time... (My dad mentioned that I don't seem to update much... T_T )

Written in Dublin 19th of August

So it was time for the last look around, the last shopping, last onigiri (rice ball), last everything.
I started with visiting Akihabara again, since I still had some money left I wanted to buy some more anime stuff. I also thought about buying USB memory stick, but never did, partly because I kinda ran out of money. But I bought few things and had fun just walking around, loving the multi-store manga stores and leafing the manga. Didn't buy, since I can't read it anyway...

When I got back, no one else was yet there and I used the time to sort my stuff and pack.

Later Yo, Emily and Justy returned and we went to nearby restaurant to eat. The menu had no pictures and the waiter didn't speak much Japanese, but we managed to order sukiyaki and it was delicious. That place also had a table where you can cook your own meal. Sukiyaki is vegetables and meat cooked in sauce of sake, soya and some other ingredients.

Then I left others packing and went to meet my cousin in Roppingi, which is where people go to have fun. There is clubs and such. Well... we didn't have much luck finding anything interesting. Lots of people yes, and nice cafe where we ate. And it was nice to walk around and chat.



Came back around midnight and it was strange to see the street to ryokan rather empty. I had packed already and I had an early wake up - not as early as others, but still I just went to sleep. Woke up when others left and I'm not sure if I even managed to mumble them some goodbye. But soon I had to wake up too and that was it. All that was left was to get to the airport and board the plane...

Afterword
I was really happy that I was able to make that trip. I saw many things, but there is still lots to see, if I get to go to Japan again. I sure hope I can, since I really liked it there. I have souvenirs and other stuff to remind me of the trip and now I have finally managed to write down what I did, and some of my expressions, so it'll be easier to remember this all later.
Special thanks to my friends - you made the trip even more great! <3