Bleary Eyes

I’m not a morning person, never have been. Some people hear their alarms and bounce out of bed. If this applies to you, I applaud you…and hate you. I’m far more likely to hit the snooze button and attempt to bury back under the duvet, preferably until I hit Narnia

When you’re working you don’t have a choice. The problem is unless you want to be in college for the rest of your life ( I learnt this one the hard way ) you don’t have a choice either. How do I survive the injustice of having to get up. every .single.morning. Music.

And coffee.

Earphones are the most antisocial piece of technology ever invented, and my God I love them! That ” I want to chat” person attempting to make eye- contact on an already steamed up, cramped up bus? Ha, good luck to ya buddy. I don’t do small talk until after 9, at least

Here’s one of my favourite, thaw out tunes. Add a piping hot coffee and a bus partner ho is happy to ignore me right back, and the morning becomes bearable.

 

A couple of nights ago, I sat up and wrote about the blissful heat. Pride really does come before a fall.
The next night in the space of an hour I went from messing about with my house mates to quite literally throwing my insides up and becoming a sweaty shivering mess.

Too much information? Apologies, I’ve spent a lot time with guy friends recently and they find all bodily functions hilarious,

For example Danny : Hey, how you doing?
Me : Better, actually managed to keep
breakfast down!
Danny : Bet it comes back up as lunch in an
hour!

Four days later, I never want to see dry toast, flat 7-up or sunshine ever again. Vomiting bugs are never fun, when it’s the hottest week of the year and there are no cold spots anywhere. Like I said..pride…fall.

On the bright side ( no pun intended, I threw my sense of humour up 2 days ago ) not being able to move leaves plenty of time for, well, arsing about on the internet actually.

Downloading new music is always great, stumbling upon new artists, the ones where you just have to stop and listen always give me buzz.

So much so that sometimes I forget old loves, the songs I listened to when I was 15 and NOBODY UNDERSTOOD. The ones that were on my first iPod, not necessarily classics. Just my classics

“Some things in this world
Man, they don’t make sense
Some things you don’t need
Until they leave you
And they’re things that you miss ”
– Bright Lights, Matchbox Twenty

Nothing nurses you through a bad few days quite like it. That and my wonderful ridiculous friends,

*No breakfast did not come back up as lunch

As I write this I’m lying on top of my covers. There is a dead swollen heat filling the room,making the usual comfort of burying under blankets unthinkable . The window is open as far as I dare without the glow from my laptop enticing any unwelcome wings yet still attempting to coax in a breeze.

My bare feet are propped against the radiator, the coolness of the metal soothing after a long day serving tables.

There’s something not right about this scenario. I’m Irish.

Heat is quite literally a foreign concept. Summer memories involve stubbornly wearing shorts to the airport, covered with a warm hoodie because your bloody freezing and running under an inevitable misty overcast sky before finally reaching the plane and eagerly awaiting the sunshine.

We do get a summer but it normally lasts for 3 days. Everyone suddenly cheers up, drops everything and scoots outside “sure it will be gone tomorrow we may aswell make the most of it”.

Yet this year it’s not going. The sun determinately shines on. People are eating outside at the restaurant I work in. Which was great as I got to pretend I was working abroad for the first while. As the heat continued and customers have requested shade (it’s called eating inside bright spark) and complained about flies buzzing (I’m terribly sorry sir I’ll ask said fly to stop) my enthusiasm has waned. On the up side the back of my neck has a great colour.

Between final exams, exhausting jobs and a general weariness that hung over the last months of the college year this summer was always going to be a much needed break for us. It’s a time where we all vowed to work hard but play harder. To get out and go to gigs in the evenings, to take random trips and enjoy home instead of wishing we were away.

It’s my last summer for a while in a city that that I am oh so in love with. To be able to spend balmy evenings exploring hidden beer gardens with my favourite people the sun meandering lazily along with us as we sip pints and wind each other up is an extra gem.

Sooner than later the rain and clouds will sweep through again. But this stolen time before responsibilities have quite caught up to us. these memories will be tinged with frozen beer bottles, bare legs and writing in the dark listening to the city.

This is also a really beautiful piece of music. Have a listen.

I hope the sun is shining wherever you are.
Lily x

Nightly Tune

I’ve had a few much needed few days off work recently and finally got to kick back with my laptop and a cup of tea. Yes I am Irish and lets put it this way America may run on Dunkins, but here in Ireland we run on Barrys.

I love that add reminds me of being little and curled up infront of the fire. getting a kick out of the fact that I was drinking Barrys too, what can I say I’m the youngest 😉

It goes without saying the I’m ridiculously in love with all things English but writing can be as draining as it is cathartic and I’ve lapsed recently, mostly pure to sheer exhaustion in the evenings.

However a bottle of wine or ten with friends and a good slumber and it’s all I want to spend my evening doing. However sure I was pretty that this is an industry that I want to immerse myself in…now I’m certain. And that’s a great feeling.

This is also a great song 😉

Enjoy the weekend, no point in working if time off isn’t enjoyed to the full. ( This is how I’m explaining that new dress to my bank account)

Do you ever get that feeling when you haven’t written for a while? An antsy nagging feeling that won’t relent?

This tends to really strike me hard at silly o’ clock and then I spend the next day doing an impressive zombie impression at work.

But hey a normal sleeping pattern is way overrated, sometimes it’s when darkness and silence has settled and you can just see the stars past the cold mist creeping at the window. That’s when life get’s interesting.

So right now I’ll embrace the witching hour, knowing full well I’ll curse myself for being so silly when I’m knecking back coffee tomorrow.

When I was little I loved The BFG by Roald Dahl. If I peeked out the window after everyone had gone to sleep a friendly giant just might appear..you never know!

“The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world all to themselves.”
~ Roald Dahl

Whether your writing, sipping tea, just have to finish that last chapter or simply need to mellow.

Wake Well.

Lily x

To say this week has been mental is an understatement. Starting a new job is always exhausting in every way, starting a new job and getting whacked with a dose of the flu simultaneously really takes the buiscuit. I have spent the week in sympathy station. That is I’ve whined and felt sorry for myself while my house mates contemplated putting me down ( ” we”ll have to get a new this one hasn’t even made tea all week”)

I’m going to blame all the god awful decisions I made on the Cheltenham Races on my fuzzy fluey head, lets just say drinks are most definitely not on me this weekend. It’s hard not to get caught up in the Cheltenham fever and I had a great laugh roaring at the screens with all the old men at work. Even if I did get chronic abuse when a tip I gave them came in fifth..eh, my bad!

On the bright side the weekend has finally decided to stop teasing me and its here! Two days off and tomorrow it’s St. Patrick’s day here in Ireland. An entire day of wearing silly green hats, watching parades and being totally repulsed by the idea of green pints in the morning only to be dying to get one later.

Have a great weekend guys! Whether you’re doing everything or having a perfectly nothing few days.

Lily x

There are some things in life you know with a certainty. That in the eyes of your parents you are perfect being one.

Today is a day that creeps up and hits me in the gut each year. When in one full sweep it seems like yesterday and it seems like a whole lifetime ago.

A wise man once said “Those that we love never truly leave us” and he was right.

So today I’m not going to be sad I’m going to remember the man that taught me how to ride a bike, who bought me my favourite teddy, who teased me when I wrinkled my nose up and could always have me in helpless giggles.

Who called me his Petal and was the best father a girl could ask for.And who right now feels just that little bit closer.

Internet cafes, I guess they’re like tequila shots you either love them or deplore them.

I have a few strange quirks (okay I’m a wierdo). I absolutely cannot drink milk that’s anything but freezing and just bought, even a day or two until its sell by date is unacceptable, I won’t go near it, ditto drinking out of jars , yes actual jars. We have run out of glasses at home ( looks suspiciously at the neighbours) and we are now recycling every jar instead of just going out and getting more. No one else has a problem with this arrangement but I simply cannot bring myself to drink out of one no matter how many times its been cleaned, because there is still a teeeeny tiny atom like chance it could be dirty.

See wierdo? And yet for some strange reason sitting in am internet cafe not having an iota who last pummeled at the keyboard with a guy of questionable hygiene playing World of Warcraft beside me, I am a happy happy bunny.

Yes I could use my laptop at home but where’s the fun in that? The girl on skype to her boyfriend clearly feels the same, I ferverently hope she sticks to telling him how much she “missies his awesome face”

Add into this the fact that I just went to get a hot chocolate and the guy handed me a cup of warm milk and a stick of chocolate to dip and swilrl and SOLD. This place is worth every euro per hour!

What do you guys think of internet cafes? Icky germ infested places where the odd balls combine or oddly charming?

These guys are a six piece Indie folk band from Iceland. “Little Talks” was a huge hit and really threw them out there. I had heard of them before but never really paid much attention. Bad decision. they’re really great. “My Head is an Animal” is their debut album and all I can say is drop everything and take a listen.

Happy Monday ( it’s nearly over hence the happy )

Lily x

Because it’s Saturday night and sometimes a girl just needs to grab a her dancing shoes…and yes we look EXACTLY like that when we hit the dance floor 😉

Have a great weekend

Love Lily x

Home Away from Home…Literally

The phrase “Home home” seems to crop up on a regular basis in student houses, sure here is where I live, love and store my ridiculous amount of shoes and books but “Home home” that’s where we all leave a piece of ourselves knowing that whether it’s every weekend or just from Christmas “I’ll be back”. It’s where you automatically hop the creaky stair and no matter how hard you battle against it your mum will always pull out “that” naked baby picture.

My house this year is tiny, old and rustically charming….okay I lied it’s a total kip but it’s ours and I’m ridiculously fond of my little slanty bedroom. Even if the hot tap has never worked and the velux window makes even the slightest of showers sound like a thundering storm. 

There is a spare room a teeny box just off the sitting room where a perpetually musty smell clings determinedly to every surface no matter how often I jam open the window. There’s a reason it’s a spare. A clothes dryer is a luxury we don’t have and nobody likes musty smelling clothes so the hallway has turned into the laundry room. Coming in the front door and doing giant frog steps to make it over the heaps of clothes has become so common that I find myself doing it whether there’s anything there or not. There will be an assortment of jocks and thongs drying around the place under the plies of post addresses to the owner that none of us have bothered to open, if you close your eyes bills don’t exist..fact.

There are certain things you can only get away with as a student. The first time I found my housemate drinking out of a jam jar my inner grandmother burst out and I was horrified but I have to admit I’ve come around to the idea and now I think its genuius , much less hassle then robbing glasses from pubs! Even if I have a touch of OCD and have to clean the thing 40 times before use. Speaking of ocd does anyone else have dirty tea towel paranoia? I CANNOT use a tea towel unless its either new/just out of the wash. Having lived with dee for 3 years she’s well used to my weirdness and after washing a mugs for our wine the other day she handed me mine with a don’t worry I air dried it.

 
Speaking of housemates I don’t think anyone makes it through college without living with some serious crazies! If there’s one aspect of house sharing that doesn’t get enough good press it’s that no matter how weird you think you are there are people out there that will make you feel soooo much better. Don’t get me wrong I’ve made some of my closest and (hopefully) lifelong friends just from being randomly lumped in together. I’ve also lived with the guy who’s frozen dinners were made for him each week and labelled Monday through Friday, his Mum coming back each weekend to fold away his clothes and glare at us the awful inhabitants of this place who once offered her 21 year old son a beer was always entertaining. L’Only child syndrome I guess. My favourite was the housemate who hoovered every day without fail and was generally so scrupulously tidy she made me feel like a slop jyst standing there with hair out of place like it doesn’t matter when it does!

This year I’m convinced that someone is sneaking in and messing up the place. Going downstairs in the dark is not a smart option the chances of falling over a random chair/passed out body is all too real. Leaving for an early morning work shift I sleepily reached around the sitting room door to grab my jacket off the couch and landed on a random fuzzy head instead, I’m not sure who yelled louder. It’s also the kind of place where when someone warns you to watch out for the snake, they aren’t kidding. He’s actually pretty cute when you get over the fear of being lunch.

Who knows where we will all be in ten years but I know without a doubt that days spent drinking wine out of jam jars, climbing in windows and never letting an opportunity to steal loo roll pass really will be among the best days of our lives.