In January 2020, as I slapped sellotape onto boxes with ‘FOR MARCH’ written on them in Sharpie, I had no way of knowing that these same boxes would remain untouched for the next three years. In my ignorance, I expected to be back two months later to pick up these non-essential essentials; the items I…… Continue reading Ready For Takeoff
When you’re a child, everything is very black or white. You’re well-behaved, or you’re bold. You’re bad, or you’re good. The world is arranged into two halves and, with good parenting, you are steered towards the positive. “Yucky” things are smacked out of your hand, and the explanations of the world leave no room for…… Continue reading Just People
My kitchen smells like cat pee. Considering I don’t own a cat (yet), this is not a sentence I expected to type. A kitchen can smell like many things – the toast we burned at the weekend, the flapjacks I made on Tuesday, the cacio e pepe spaghetti we ate last night – but I…… Continue reading Life Skills Unlocked: Solving the Riddle of the Strong Smell of Cat Pee
It is unseasonably warm in Ireland at the moment. In a freak occurence, the sun is actually visible, the clouds are wispy and barely-there, and the temperature has crept up to Irish-sunburn levels (which isn’t very high, but it’s high enough for people to wander the streets in singlets, puffing and red-faced, panting about how…… Continue reading Thoughts On… Adulting Struggles
In the early hours of the morning, if you walk the streets of Ubud, you will find people sitting on the stoops of their houses or stores, nimbly weaving dried palm leaves together into little containers. The first day I saw this, I watched them do it and wondered about their silent, skilled work. These…… Continue reading Being Thankful in Bali, Indonesia
I’ve been living in Cork for the past few months. I’m a Dublin girl, so I’d grown up hearing Corkonians talk about how Cork should be the capital city of Ireland, and how Dublin had robbed Cork of its rightful place as the nation’s most important city… It left me with a somewhat garbled idea…… Continue reading Cooped Up in Cork, Ireland
“Understand that friends come and go, But a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, For as the older you get, the more you need the people You knew when you were young.” My best friend turned thirty yesterday. She’s become something of a human…… Continue reading Thoughts On… Friendship
Once more from the top. St. Patrick’s Day is either referred to as St. Patrick’s Day or Paddy’s Day. Those are the only acceptable terms. St. Pat’s Day, St. Patty’s Day, any and all of the other variations… they make Irish people feel so unclean they need to scour with wire brushes just to scrape…… Continue reading St. Patrick’s Day from an Irish Perspective
If you ask anyone abroad what the national beverage of Ireland is, I would wager that they’re likely to say Guinness. After all, Guinness has been successfully plying their trade for years now – 258 years, to be exact – with Irishness as a large part of its brand persona. It has the harp, and…… Continue reading Spilling The Tea
Before I get to today’s more light-hearted post, I would just like to say thank you to everyone who read and/or commented on my last post. I was worried about people’s reactions, but everyone was thoughtful and kind. I was really touched by how people took the time and read and comment, even if they didn’t…… Continue reading Tangled
When Do I Get The Manual? 