Limerick

Hi everyone!

Adrians news is great, but as you probably gathered, I am not going with him. I am happy to have a bit of stability in my life, and those shelves won't restock themselves!! :)

I discovered something surprising today... that I love Limerick. My dad said recently that no one would choose to live in Limerick, but today especially, I wanted to be here. I love the people (not all of them of course!), but they are just so REAL. On an average day I now encounter so many, and the amount of good humoured, chatty folk is uplifting. The acts of unexpected kindness, such as the donating of parking tickets, "there's still a good hour and a half left on that", and the passing comments from strangers, "what did you do with your hair today? Mine's the same, curly, crazy! can't do anything with it!" There's still a huge community here, at least in parts of the city, and its nice to feel part of something, something large, and undefined, an undercurrent of familiarity, of caring natures, and the common need for people to just belong somewhere.

Have a good weekend,
Love el xx

Jordan And Syria

Hello everyone, i have cool news. I just bought my ticket to the middle east im flying to Jordan and Syria and probably Jerusalem for 2 weeks and im really really excited as a matter a fact i have never been to the middle east before. I have read great things about Syria and its a great country to visit and well Jordan has petra which its amazing, also i joined the allianse francoise for some french classes i took 3 years of french at college so i dont want to loose it all. My teacher is french of course and all my classmates hava a incredible level very very good for anglophones, since you know spanish is very closed to french but still different. Anyway loving Ireland and the job is quite good its crazy to see how much Irish people travel abroad, like i never seen anything quite like it its pretty much a country of travelers and i love that because it brings a huge diversity into the Irish culture by itself, also had Mariead's party last week end it was really good cos i got to talk with pretty much everyone and also met a big group of frenchies and got to speak some french and spanish because one of the frenchies spoke prefect spanish so that was great anyway i'll keep you posted


Jordan




Syria




Adrian

Hi Guys,

This post is on behalf of Jessica, who would like to thank all of you who donated to the Shining Star Primary School in Kenya.



She managed to raise a whopping 2000 euro!! which is going directly to the school, and I will let you guys know what they do with the money as soon as we know any more.

Thanks again! Your generosity is very much appreciated,

Ellen & Jessica xx

Electric Picnic

Hi everyone!

I was thinking of taking a blog break, but then adrian gave out to me, so here I am...

Electric picnic was an experience! I didnt take many photos, or make many movies, I just tried to absorb the event fully! It was great, on Friday we arrived, and set up our tents, we got there early so no sitting in traffic, or worrying about finding a place to camp, and no queues! Although as a result of arriving early, jessica was practically strip-searched by the over eager first-hour-on-the-job bag-searching attendant!



We heard some great music, danced at the silent disco, did some yoga and meditation, made wishes, proclaimed our virtue at "lost vagueness" (see photos below), laughed our socks off at Des Bishop, watched impressive flame throwers and pathetic kiddy show acrobatics, and ate a variety of organic and fair trade goodies. Adrian even managed to fit in a circus, and some debating over a set menu - no small talk allowed. Didnt manage to meet up with anyone properly! Feel really bad, but my phone went dead on Friday night would you believe, after attempting to ring Jessica about 67 times... trying to get thru to anyone was madness!




All in all, it was a super weekend, and it was lovely to have a dudley reunion.

Now, I'm preparing for Paris on Monday, and my new job on Monday week... trying to get some website work done before the madness of work begins, and I wont know myself!

Hope you are all well,

Love el xx