bright, bright sunshine!

And I've been in a fabulous mood all week. Until today. I was walking through the front gate at college when I found myself unable to avoid bumping into my ex-boyfriend. I don't care if he thinks now that he wasn't "really" going out with me. He behaved like he was, he talked like he was and y'know what they say: If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck...

Anyways, turns out he is engaged. And get this: "You must come to the afters of the wedding," he says. (In Ireland, "the afters" is the bit when the band plays, after the meal).

Excuse my language but WTF? Why would I want to do something like that? I don't know what I ever saw in that guy. PhD or no PhD, he must be stupid. And between you and me, his PhD topic is one of the WORST I have EVER heard of. Honestly.



The weather is beautiful. It's bright and sunny. It's also doing that funny spring thing of being alternately warm and cold, depending on whether the sun is behind a cloud or not. I took this picture to show someone with bare arms walking just behind a lady in an overcoat, but sadly the bare-arm guy isn't very visible. Still, you get the gist. A lot of the locals are rushing about in short sleeves, but it's not really quite warm enough for that. Still, it's so lovely seeing everything in the parks come to life. I am amazed every year by how apparently dead sticks suddenly produce green leaves and flower buds. Here's hoping the sun will be shining next week on St Patrick's Day.



Another shot of Dublin in the sun. I love the way there's always -- literally always -- a seagull overhead. There are times when I almost forget we're on the sea, because I live downtown and the city centre is focused around the river. But the sea is never more than short, brisk cycle away!

So I received some advice about a wine bar to visit, the Ely Wine Bar. On first glance, it looks lovely but maybe a little too grown up for me? Then I remembered that I bumped into that nice lady who gave me some research advice and introduced me to her friend who now hires me to watch her kids ... and I thought, what the heck. I'm gonna call her right now and see if she's free one evening this week. Things are going pretty well with those kids and the 70 yoyos (as my greengrocer refers to Euros) don't hurt, either ;-)