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

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 ;)

In Dublin, and it's beautiful. There was an 'episode' earlier where I couldn't find my hotel, but obviously that's sorted now! I do find it uncool that the street the hotel is on is not on my map. :|

ANYWAY, I started off the day by walking to Regents Park for one last commune with it. It was lovely and a little bit cold! Which is good because yes, I do have a sunburn! Then I checked out of the hotel and took the tube to Heathrow, and as Clare said, there were massive delays. Still, once I got there, everything was easy. No lines, nothing. And I had TWO milkshake frappes from Caffe Nero. Oy Vey. They're so good...

After the hotel debacle, I have to say my room is AWESOME. It's HUGE. It's a single, but I have a double bed, and and bathtub and huge windows and a chandelier. And it's the cheapest hotel I'm staying in! Also definitely the fanciest. And the man who owns it is HILARIOUS. He said he needed something to light up his day and then I walked in. And he said 'Tank you fer choosin' my hotel' and I was like *giggles* "OKAY!" Old Irish man FTW. He is like 80 and awesome.

I walked down O'Connell Street to Grafton Street and I ate at TGIFriday's (shut up) before tooling around St. Stephen's Green. Tomorrow I'm doing the hop on/hop off bus tour because it takes you everywhere and Dublin isn't all that big. Which leaves the next day for my tour of the coast. I'm going to Malahide Castle WHEEEE! Oh, and the ghost bus which is tomorrow night :D

When all is said and done, it's off to Montana to be with my peeps :D

I bought books on Grafton Street. For some reason, I cannot get in to Wicked. All this stuff is happening and they're all 'omg she's green' and I'm like 'omg stop whining, where is Stephen King!?' of course I finished The Stand in Vienna (SO AMAZING). I decided I give up on Elphaba and I bought American Gods by Neil Gaiman, because Circe does a game based on it. And I got The Time Traveller's Wife because Lauren told me to, and she's the one who told me to read The Bronze Horseman which I cannot express my love for in words. SO YAY new books! I decided to branch our from my beloved Mr King, because I really should read other books too... And he knows our love is pure.

PS Irish people are strange (I do realise this implicates me, here...). I like it. But they do yell a lot!

More London Photos Here And Ireland photos Here

I am freaking moving to London. Just so you know you're relocating, Baby :D Dear LORD I love it. I love it so much, I hate that I have to go tomorrow DESPITE THE FACT that I have wanted to visit Ireland since I was BORN. Not that I am not excited, by the way, because OMG Ireland omg. But really, I have had the BEST time. I adored seeing Clare, Lisa, Jess and Muz, and I got to do so many awesome things! Clare is a blast and I am keeping her so :P

Today we went to the Globe theatre where Peter got married! He didn't get married IN the theatre, there are rooms in the complex you can rent and he got married in one of them. See, I didn't make it up! That was the room he got married in and, CLARE! I found out it IS the room with the tree! So we DID go there! MUahahahaaaa tree (which you can see in the side of the picture on the site I linked! ...and you can see the prop room we saw. Hot). That's why it has a stage, which was where they would have gotten married omg yay! (Yes, they are fake. Shut up, so is Sherlock Holmes and I took a picture of 'his' toilet :D)

The stage was awesome, and the tour guide was HILARIOUS. She said things like "they would come and have their beer and that's why the stage is so high. You can imagine what it might have been like. One of the crowd gets staggering drunk and he decides he should give Hamlet a hug because he hasn't been having a very nice time, the actors could just kick them back down again". She was AWESOME. Fabulously entertaining. I loved seeing the place AND I bought two shirts, one with Ophelia's crazy song, and one that says 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' :D I love Shakespeare...hardcore.

After that, we took a riverboat cruise with a 'tour guide' who wasn't actually a tour guide, but HE was hilarious too "From here you can see Shakespeare's Globe where you can see Romeo and Juliet and...and...and...one of the other ones". From Westminster where the boat dropped us off, we went to see Westminster Abbey, which is incredible, and then I wanted a picture of the guards with the fuzzy hats. Which saw us heading to Buckingham Palace and then me choosing a way to go which was WRONG and we walked ALL THE WAY around Hyde or Green park (one of them) before ending up about 200 metres from where we started and there the guards were. Ooops. My bad... But I got the pictures! And Clare didn't kick me, YAY!

From there we headed to Covent Garden and had the MOST AMAZING COOKIES and saw the opera house where the Royal Ballet Company performs and I squealed, and then we headed to a cafe to drink more drinks (I love pineapple juice). And when Muz joined us, we went for Mexican food! LOVE! And then I had to say goodbye! I am totally bummed because I already miss Clare and I LOVE it here. I didn't expect to find a place I love as much as Vienna, but there you go! I did. And it has nothing to do with Darker London, either, because I can write about a place and not love it. I just love being here. I love the feel of it. I love the city and the history. It's amazing. Oh, and I got a sunburn. Stupid Irish skin.

Which brings me to Ireland. Tomorrow I head to Dublin and I finally get to set foot in Ireland and I am SO excited. London was about Peter, Darker London wise, and Dublin is about Flynn and Quinn. Well, and Deirdre since she is actually FROM there, but pffft, my boys are way more important (if you know her, you cannot imagine the sound she just made ahahhaa). It's going to be amazing, I know it. I can't say goodbye to London yet, though. In the morning, I'm going for a last walk in Regents Park. I'm getting up early to do it. It's just something that has to be done.

:D New photos start here