Day off

I'm working this evening but, unusually these days, I wasn't today. I hadn't planned much but then a friend rang and said, "Let's take a vagary!" (this is what she actually said -- I'm assuming it's Hiberno-English of some sort, as I'd never heard the phrase before.



Anyway, as she has a new car (new-ish), she proposed that we take a half-day trip to Wicklow. I love Wicklow, and I love that it's so green and rural and so close to the city, but somehow I had managed to overlook this whole area of the Blessington Lakes. Wow, it certainly is beautiful around there. Completely different to the mountainous part of Wicklow, but just as pretty. We stopped off at a spot near Russborough House, which is a tucked-away stately home with a big art collection. I'm kind of sorry now that we didn't go in, because it's a really famous place with a massive collection of fine art, but it was just so sunny and lovely that we decided to go for a walk on the lakeshore instead. And we weren't disappointed; there were foxgloves, big, old trees, jumping fish, handsome local fishermen and, well, it was all nice. On days like today, I think "Heck, maybe I'll go live in the countryside," but when I think about it more carefully, and especially when it's rainy and cold, I realise that there's nothing to beat the buzz of the big city. But I've said it before, and I'll say it again: one of the great things about Dublin is the fact that it's so easy to escape from it into the green countryside for a couple of hours.

Workwise, I'm having a bit of an awkward situation. The head chef kind of asked me out. I muffed a response and it's all up in the air right now, and my housemate Bepe thinks that I think I can't go out with him because I live with him (Bepe) whereas I actually don't want to but also don't want to piss the guy off because he's above me in work and while he's always perfectly pleasant and I've no reason to think that he's pulling rank or anything it's all a bit... arrrghh... so I think I'll put it about that my Heart is Still Broken after my last Unhappy Relationship. This has the benefit of being at least partly true so I'm hoping it'll fly or I'll have to find another part-time job to keep me going with the other two!!!