It's not a cry you can hear at night, it's not somebody who's seen the light...

I was reading my usual Irish news online site which is more Irish-American than actually Irish. I read it for roleplay, shut up. But anyway I stumbled across an article that made me smile.

They are doing an exhibit of Irish immigration to Montana in Cork!

Now my family immigrated to New York, but my step-father's family is also Irish and they immigrated to Anaconda. Most of them then moved to Helena, but I think this is awesome. Especially since one of the US' biggest St Patrick's Day parades is in Butte, Montana because it was a major Irish settlement. It's in the middle of buttfuck nowhere but goddammit, they drink green beer and have street fights on March 17th. No. Really. Every year they arrest huge amounts of people for being idiots after the parade and too much drinking. It even has a mention on wiki on the Saint Patrick's Day PAGE.

Anyway, I just thought this was really awesome. Montana gets overlooked a lot because hardly anyone lives there. Hell, some Americans don't even know where it is despite the fact that it is the 4th largest state. It's the size of GERMANY. Makes me happy.

My step-father has cleared out a large amount of the high wild grass just beyond the area of their backyard they turned into lawn. I finally asked today what the random flatted circle was for. Turns out he wants to make a...wait for it...seventy-foot wide shamrock out there. With wild yellow rosebushes at the edges of it.

Apparently in Belfast his...grandfather? I think it was his grandfather. Anyway some Gallagher dude dug up his wife's wild rose bushes and she told him not to because that was where the wee folk lived and they didn't like their home disturbed. He did it anyway. So the story is that the wee folk put a curse on the family. Something about first borns...something. Which apparently has seemed to have come true. So he wants to plant wild rose bushes for the wee folk. In a seventy-foot wide shamrock.

Just... <3

(This is what people do when they retire...)

My books came *squeals* I got The Legends of Saint Patrick with a prettier cover. It is a reprint from 1889 and full of ridiculous myths which I love. I don't think he turns any blasphemers into foxes like he does in Jocelin's 'biography' (we shall use that term loosely) but it's still amazing.

I also got The Life of Saint Patrick another classic reprint. They're so sexy, you guys. Sosexyomg.

Helios is chewing on my FOOT. Little bugger.

But boooookkksssss. *glee*

Now I am going to go make some salsa and watch Most Haunted while fondling my sexy books.

I don't know.

I posted a thingy on Tumblr last night which was metaphorical of how I'm feeling inside, even though I was talking about something else. It's here in case you feel like reading it. Behold how goddamn deep I am, you guys, omg.

I just feel really fragile. I managed to actually write something I didn't hate. In fact, I really love it. And that made me want to watch Michael Collins so I could Irish!historygasm. Yeah. If you're feeling fragile, watching Michael Collins WILL make you sob for two hours straight. Just, you know, FYI. But GOD that movie. I love it. It is so well done. And it amuses me to see Jonathan Rhys Meyers in one of his first film roles. Where he gets to use his actual accent!

I'm just worn out. And people keep asking me questions I have no way of answering and it pisses me off when it shouldn't. But I don't know when my course will start again and I don't know when my placement will start again and I don't know when real life will resume. We only just got water on at full strength and considering the way it's been going on and off for days at a time, who knows if it will stay that way. Some of the city is still without power and water at ALL, let alone the people who lost homes and families and lives. So yeah, I don't know when classes will resume again.

Stop asking.

...so this morning at like 5 am, I may have thought it was a great idea to order like 4 books on Saint Patrick from Amazon.com

I am not even Catholic. Though one was How the Irish Saved Civilization which I have wanted for a long time, so that makes me feel a little less like a loser...

Shut up, I love history and roleplaying.

I was feeling down today (LONG story) so I decided to do something constructive to take the feeling away (social work training, oy) so I wanted to make a post of all the photos of people and places and things that mean something to me. And when I started to plan it, I realised just how long it would be if I put everyone into it. And that made me feel so amazing, you have no idea...

I did it anyway deciding I would only use photos I have taken myself (or by my family since I wasn't at the reunion to take those and I didn't take the ones of me as a kid, but you get the point!) to cut down on spamming random Hugh Jackman pictures ;). Not everyone that should be here is including my friends in Australia. Woot, Peter, Laura and Ness, I have no (not blurry) photos of you!! And there are other friends who aren't on here, but be that as it may, here it is. Some of my happy things.

( To me you are perfect )

You know what's awesome? Watching A Film With Me In It (a Dylan Moran movie) and realising one of the scenes was filmed just off the coast of Clontarf, and that I've been there. I recognised it. It made me really happy.

Now I should watch the REST of the movie, considering that is only 6 minutes in ;)

Last day touristing and it was a blast. I dig Ireland hardcore. I have to say, if you do visit Dublin (and I hope you do) make SURE you take a day and get out of the city. Dublin is amazing, but I took a half-day bus tour of the coast and it was the best thing I did hereby far. I wish I had had more time to spend on the coast, but alas! The tour guide/bus driver was this awesome old man (who made jokes like 'that interference you're hearing isn't someone's mobile, it's me pacemaker. Oh, and that one was God sendin' me a text message because me use by date is almost up') who has lived in Dublin his entire life. He sang songs and he was GOOD and it was awesome. And he was hilarious. All the bus driver/guides I have had in Dublin have been fantastic. So if you DO do the bus tours, do the ones from Dublin Bus. Ignore the others, they're fakers! This guy even explained why people from Ireland don't pronounce h. Because there IS no h. So that's why they say 'ting' and the like. I love it. His accent was made of awesome.

We went to Malahide Castle, which makes me squeal with glee. Why? Because there is a Tudor connection. Wait for it. Okay, the family who owned it are the Talbots (the last one who lived there died about 3 months ago, and I think they started living there in 1100 or thereabouts, though I think she sold the home in 76) and the Irish Talbots were related to the English Talbots AKA the Earl of Shrewsburys. The Earl title was created and handed down and one of the Earls, one Lord George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury; HE was the Lord Marshal for Queen Elizabeth. And when her wily Scottish cousin Mary got in to a bit of bother, Mary Queen of Scots was placed under Lord Talbot's care (for A LONG TIME). They didn't explain any of this at the castle, but the guide pointed out a picture of "the English cousins" I had a squee. ((And Queen Elizabeth II is a descendant of Talbot's second wife but from her previous marriage to Sir William Cavendish)

See? I AM A BIG FREAKING NERD! None of that came from the tour, it was prior knowledge. Thanks, Phillipa Gregory, even if your novel about all of that was completely unreadable.

Moving on, the castle was beautiful but the coastline...oh my goodness. I'm a big lover of the ocean anyway, but oh. Oh my word. I can't describe it, so I'll let the pictures do that for me. Magnificent. And hopefully it'll make you want to take me at my word. Get out of the city! The coast is breathtaking.

Back in the city, I finally made it in to Kilmainham Gaol! Not a fun time, because it's absolutely unpleasant. The jail was supposed to have a capacity of 120 people at most, and during the potato famine it housed up to 9,000 at one point. Which is unthinkable. And then there's the terrible executions carried out after the Easter Rising in 1916. None of it was feel good stuff, but that's history. Irish history.

Anyway, after that I walked about, visiting Trinity College and I FOUND FITZWILLIAM SQUARE BOOYAH! Granted, I got rained on while I did it, but I was born in Seattle so a little rain doesn't concern me. And it didn't last long. Then I saw a random street acrobat, and gave him 3 euro. Dude, he limboed under a burning pole mere inches off of the ground... Then I strolled back, had dinner at Eddie Rocket's, and came back here. To pack. Because I'm leavin' for MT tomorrow but I GET TO GO THROUGH LONDON FIRST which excites me because I am SO having Caffe Nero again omg.

You have no idea. Unless you do. ;)

New Photos start here and they include the Ghost Bus ones!

Scout, the Fitzwilliam Square photos start here!

Ghostbus=AWESOME! I can't compare it to the London one because they were so completely different, much to my pleased surprise. This one wasn't really a bus with a made up history, it was just a tour with stories and we got to get off and wander. I loved both the tours because the London one was HILARIOUS and fun, and this one was more about stories and history which I love too! I'll share the photos tomorrow (which are pretty mad, okay...), because I can't actually plug my computer in and still sit with it on the bed, and it takes alllll my battery to upload photos :D SO you get them tomorrow along with the photos of the coast and (hopefully) the gaol and Fitzwilliam Square. And anything else I decide to do on my last day in the UK. That's right. After that, I'm headed to the US to see the fam, and then to NZ to see my girls before I return to Melbourne.

You know what's been awesome?! Other than being assaulted by the crowds in Edinburgh, I have not ONCE felt a bout of my normal social anxiety here. I wasn't all weird when hanging out with Clare and Jess and Muz and Lisa, and I haven't flipped out about ANYTHING (in a bad way OMGOMGYAYTHEBRIDGEOMG does not count...). Except not finding my hotel, but that lasted 4 seconds because I am fairly resourceful and decided to find a taxi. Good plan. It's been awesome. I'm forgetting I HAVE issues, which probably won't be so great when they come back but right now? I'm not going to knock it! I go right up to people, I talk to them, I don't hate it when they talk to me... I think there's just something about the UK that agrees with me. And I love it.

Oh man. History FTW. Not that it's pleasant! Today I learned about the Easter Rising and STUFF and tomorrow is the trip to Malahide Castle and the coast *unrestrained glee* And then I'm going to go BACK to Kilmainham Gaol because I gave up on it today. You can't go through without a guided tour and I didn't want to wait for the 5:30 pm one when I have the ghost bus (:D) at 8pm. Tomorrow it is not an issue. If I have time I'll go to Dublinia at Christchurch Cathedral, but I'm not fussed. It's just spend time really. I'm more interested in the gaol. I really like this city too. Not in the 'omg I have to live here' way like Vienna and London and Melbourne, but in the 'this is really a wonderful place to visit' way. It'd probably be even better if I gave a crap about stout. SO MANY PEOPLE were lined up outside the Guinness brewery. Stinky!

So now I am relaxing with coffee, listening to Amanda Palmer and Lennon, writing My Boys, and gnerally wasting time until the ghost bus tour. Speaking of My Boys Look! I SWEAR I didn't arrange them like this, I found them like that and SQUEALED and got dirty looks...

Oh god, I had the BEST lunch. This two course thing with calamari and steak for 8 euro. Freakin' awesome! And I went into St Patrick's Cathedral which was incredible and the history is amazing, but I still think the one in Melbourne is prettier. It just IS.

I'll post more after the Ghost Bus because of the writing I am wishing to be doing. Plot bunnies, you are my FRIENDS never leave me?! Oh, and Neil Gaiman is a genius and now I have mentioned both Neil and Amanda in the same post because I love them both and SQUEEE.

PS I also love Michael Collins, but I think most people knew that?

PPS Do you think my singing is disturbing other guests?! Not that I care, they're getting a free concert. Because I'm a freaking diva. (That was partial sarcasm...)

PPPS Scout, there's a Fitzwilliam square here and I tried to find it for you and FAILED! But I'll try again tomorrow!! Let's see if my lame map-reading skills can help me out here...

Photos! I added descriptions to the ones yesterday because I found out what they are ;)