Wed evening Jan. 14, 9pm: Well I got my share of rainy Dublin weather today! Mark had to go to Kilbarack to fetch a package, so I decided to come with him, despite the rain, because I had never ridden the DART. But first we went to the post office here in Fairview – not the closest post office, but where I was supposed to have a package waiting for me. I thought it was my much anticipated mattress pad , but it was actually just the a/c adapter for my computer. So after our jaunt in the rain, we went back out and took a bus into town. Mark bought some books for school, and then we walked over to the DART, which is a train that runs up and down the coastline. The town where the package was (who knows why they sent it there instead of one closer) was pretty bleak – it sort of looked like an army barracks or something. But we were only there long enough to get the package and catch the next train out.

Sunday January 18, noon: When we woke up this morning, I was struck by the cloudless, blue sky, but that has quickly turned into wind and rain, much like yesterday. Today I'm determined to go out, though, and run some errands, though it does look pretty nasty out – the kind of weather where an umbrella is completely useless. Mark and I have been off in separate rooms working on our separate projects since yesterday – him on his papers for school, and me on my portfolio. I'm 14 pages in so far, and I can see why I never did it before – it's a load of work! When I was working two (and sometimes three) jobs and having a social life, how was I supposed to find time to spend the hours putting this together? It's nice to finally be doing it, though I wish the designs weren't so old now. But it's inspired me to do new work as soon as this is all put together.

Anyways, I rode my bike through Dublin at night for the first time Friday night when Mark and I went to see Billy Childish & the Musicians of the British Empire, who put on a great show at Whelan's. But man, was the riding intense! First of all, I'm still not used to the whole riding on the left side of the road thing. Secondly, the cars and buses will ride ride up next to you within inches – you have to be nearly fearless. On the plus side, since I've been here, I have never seen a car beep at a biker, not once. Cars and buses are very respectful of bikers. So while they ride right up next to you, it's not in a head-trippy kind of way, just in a trafficy way, if that makes sense. I felt like I was in a video game; it was really exhilarating and fun, but scary at times. I didn't know where we were headed, so I just had to follow Mark and hope for the best! I am loving my new bike (though I need to tape it up – the bright blue colour screams “new bike, please steal”). We hung around Whelan's a little after the show. The crowd seemed to have some decent folks in it – people who I could see us hanging out with – but of course we were both too shy to actually talk to anyone, but that's ok. Then we got back on the bikes and went to get some felafel, and then walked around a little, tried to find an Indie night that Mark had read about, to no avail, and stopped into a club called the Czech Inn, which was entertaining, and then decided to bike home. By then it had rained. With no fenders, I got a bit soaked up the backside on the way home, but not too bad.

Now the sun is out again, and the wind seems to have died down. I should probably seize the moment and get out of here! I'll leave you with the view out of our kitchen window, with Gypsy napping: