2 January 2012
Dublin, Ireland

Trying to recover from the holidays is always a big ordeal, as one is used to a lax schedule. But when you operate your own business and schedule, you have to be on top of your tasks and items – and I find that is a difficult transition between America and Europe. I found that out pretty quickly in experiencing the “bank holidays” of Ireland and how an entire city shuts down during one.

While the snooze got hit several times this morning while I was attempting to awaken at 8 am, I did finally manage to get out of bed by 9:30 am. Quick breakfast of granola and coconut milk, water bottle filled, I was ready for a hike into the city for some chai n’ wifi while accomplishing a heap load of uploads and downloads. Of course, after hiking into the city for a half-hour, I come to my reliable Starbucks only to find it “closed”. Uggh … I walked to the next location I knew of, and it too was “closed”. Heading in towards Trinity College, past “Occupy Dame Street” and over to the Starbucks most of the students use – and it was opened. Nestled into the corner with my laptop and a Chai Creme frappacino (yeah, venti – I need to cut that sizing down … too many calories) … Ready to accomplish a day’s worth of work. Clocked 9 hours of work into my business … a decent day for a late start.

Downloading movies, processing photos, research data, uploading photos, blogs, travel reviews, and writing as well as some job hunting. Email overload with over 32,000 messages I still need to dwindle down.

Around 7 pm, headed back home for a 45 min – 1 hour walk back to Rathmines. As I walked into our flat’s door, I was warmed by the crackling of the fire, salmon and cream cheese crackers on the table, and my love making a dinner of pork steak with applesauce, boiled potatoes, mashed carrot n’ parsnips, and a hot chocolate with white toblerone for desert. Delicious.

That evening, we enjoyed watching the finale to Sanctuary and Merlin. We then capped off the evening with The Darkest Hour.  Not sure I cared that much for “The Darkest Hour”, but it had its elements of value. Sanctuary and Merlin of course rocked – both coming to their own “ends” of sorts with “new beginnings” to lead you on into the next season …