A well-lit dusk
Because I work, sometimes it's difficult for me to see beyond the walls of the shop. Today, I managed some sunshine, cool breezes and grass underfoot.

Mark and I met for lunch, and wandered over to St Stephen's Green, a park-like area near the center of the city. A lot of people had the same thought. Everything was pleasant. The pigeons were fed, so that when I threw one a piece of my bread, it wasn't too greedy for it. Likewise, the ducks in the pond. A faint hyacinth scent wafted by occasionally.

It was a good lunch.

We caught the bus home early enough that I could actually see out the windows, towards rambling views through the treetops from my vantage-point at the top of the double-decker. Most mornings and evenings of late, fog has obscured and shrouded everything, giving one's outlook a certain otherworldly eerieness.

I had steak for the first time in a long while tonight. It was absolutely delish. The gravy and mashed potatoes made perfect plate-side companions. Sometimes, comfort food is all right.

Green
Okay, a word of warning. St Patrick's Day is huge over here. Absolutely chock-full of tourists. Wall-to-wall madness in the form of loony costumes and ubiquitous Irish paraphernalia (is it just me, or is everyone over the 'Kiss Me, I'm Irish' stickers?).

It's the day after, thank goodness. So much milder. The morning fog has blanketed everybody's thoughts.

What hangovers there must be in the city of Dublin today.

Birth
A beautiful, if chill, spring day. It's my day off today. Working tomorrow for St Paddy's Day.

It's my birthday! Got daffodils (stolen!), tulips (bought) with a travel journal from the people at work, and a bottle of Bailey's from Mark. Also assorted messages from my mother and sister.

Just a slow, cruisy day. One by one, a wasabi pea crunches in my mouth.

So good to be alive.

Daffodils
Yellow nodding rings around the trees, a trail of butter-coloured drops meandering in the grass, tossed into a dancing frenzy by the passing traffic—the daffodils are out with their best finery.

I long to stop the bus when I see them, go out with a pair of scissors and cut, cut, cut. Take them home, put water in vase and feel them emanate their yellowness into the room.

The wind is sharp tonight as I walk home.

Accountable
I finally got a bank account! It's unbelievable the bureaucratic hoops through which one must jump (how grammatically correct I am). But this means I can finally get paid, as well as not get taxed at the Emergency Rate (40%!). Madness.

One of the best things about working at a bookshop is that I can be current again, and not feel as if I've dropped into an uncultured hole without recourse to good reading material. Plus the perks of the job are pretty cool (free books from the staff library shelf) and a staff discount (not as good as the one in Hobart, but still decent). Hurray for free books and discounts!

You can tell I'm feeling chirpy again.

One bit of news I've had recently is that my brother's had a baby boy. So I'm an auntie. Hmm, Auntie Ivy seems strange to me. Sounds so old-fashioned.

There are a lot of worms on the footpath to my bus stop—crinkled, fleshy-pink wrigglers, they come out in the evening and are stranded by morning. 'The earth must be so rich', I said to Mark on the bus, on the way home from work today.
'Why?'
'There's a lot of worms.'
'I hadn't noticed.'
'I have. It must be because I'm closer to the ground.'

Wellness
I felt really clumsy today. This tends to happen when I am sick. It's probably to do with being off-balance and my inner ear being affected by the flu, but that's just a private theory. Anyway, I cut myself twice at work. First on a papercut (yowtch!), then on goodness-knows-what. And I had another near-miss with a Stanley knife.

Today was a day for not getting out of bed for fear of chopping one's own head off. Inadvertently.

It takes half-an-hour by bus to get into Dublin city centre from Lucan, County Dublin, which is where I live. And Saturday morning isn't usually what I'd term peak-hour. Okay, must remember to allow forty minutes.

In sports news, Ireland won against France in the rugby. Go Ireland!

Mark and I found a place!

It's about half an hour's drive (goodness knows how far it is by bus) from the middle of town.

Our friend from Hobart is also staying with us. A million and one huzzahs I have a place to lay my head, and that I can concentrate on saving some money, and finally feel purposeful. Now it's time to take this place by storm.

Where do I start?

On the foreheads of people I pass, sooty-gray marks, some thumbed on, others in the shape of crosses. Today is Ash Wednesday. People ask, 'What are you giving up for Lent?'

I see Mark today. Unfortunately, I am not feeling 100%. Hopefully, I'll feel better soon. The room I've stayed in for the last two nights was previously occupied by a smoker. From the smell of it, the person would have been a chain-smoker, too. For some reason, I've had a morning (smoker's?) cough. Maybe I'm suffering from delayed passive smoking.

St Patrick's Day is coming up soon. I expect to see a few people dressed up as leprechauns.

I'm a little shocked at the moment. I've just come away from some Irish sunshine (rare, I know), strolled along the Grafton Street pedestrian area, and witnessed a horse-and-carriage operator punch his horse in the neck. So I wrote a letter to the Dublin City Council and the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. My hope is that, in bringing this to their attention, licences would only be allocated to responsible animal-owners.

Is this a pipe-dream? Am I being naive? I feel the answers are 'yes' and 'yes'. But I really wanted to do something about it. My next course would be to bring it to the attention of the press, I guess. I know something about pushing the media's buttons, anyway, so it might do some good.

This state of shock reminds me of something I hadn't yet set down here. I lost my wallet early on this week.

You know how when something bad happens, everything telescopes to an intense feeling of immense wrongness? That was how it was. In the midst of my bureaucratic errand-doing, walking down the street to the place next on my list, I reached down to my pocket and found what I needed just. wasn't. there.

Frantic, I ran. I ran back to all the places I had been. I was out of breath, sweaty and panicked. I ran to the police, then I ran to another police station. Distraught is the only word I could babble out to describe what I was feeling.

Mark rang, after I wished a million times for him to ring me. I cried in the middle of the street, as passers-by passed me by.

Then, when I went back to the hostel, at the counter, held aloft casually, like it was not a good chunk of my life, was my wallet, cards intact, €50 and some stamps missing. Relief thundered around me. I had to sit down, disbelieving.

My boomerang wallet, returned to me by a postman in the three hours I ran around Dublin's streets like a maddened chicken.

It's interesting to spot the differences between working at this bookshop and the ones with which I've had experience in Hobart. Here, it is more relaxed, less strict and there's a camaraderie about it all.

I quite like it, though it feels strange to not be on my toes all the time.

Mark gets here on Wednesday and I can't wait.

Been feeling a bit abbreviated these entries. Mostly attributable to ... not sure. I don't really feel expansive when I don't have my own space to write in. What thoughts can I put down except feeling irked by the dirty keyboard I'm typing on, the feeling that I might get smoked out by anyone who cares to light a cigarette, keeping my eye on the clock so that I can save a precious Euro?

I'm also hungry, which usually increases my irritation.

Start work tomorrow, from 11AM to 8pm, one hour lunch, and half an hour for dinner. Woohoo! Rocking.

Hard to really give a feel of Dublin, since I no longer have the luxury of time to ramble on, but if the catchword of Aberdeen is alcohol, then Ireland is religion.

On the flight over to Ireland, there was a nun. On the bus from the airport, an older woman crossed herself after passing, what I can now guess with some certainty, a church. From buying my sushi on Clarendon Street, I saw through an arched doorway, a figure kneeling in front of a gilt statue.

No poetry as of yet, but I did see someone selling their books on Grafton Street.

I can't wait to get settled and started.

I have a job! I found out on Saturday. Great news. Yay! Took only three days, too.

Now I'm sorting out bank accounts and tax (pooh!).

So. Now we'll see what Dublin's all about.

People seem quite friendly here, laidback, not as stressed as it is in Sydney or Melbourne, but it has elements of both.

Also need to look for accommodation because on March 8th, a rugby match is on, and I have no bed.

And the beat goes on...

The sun is out and my spirits are up. I'm pleased because I approached a sushi place for some casual/temporary work. Yes, free sushi! Not sure what the outcome will be, but I challenged myself and I rose to it.

Followed up on my initial contact at the bookshop in St Stephen's Green, which is part of the same chain of bookshops that I applied for at the airport.

It'll be interesting if I receive several job offers, won't it? At least this noose won't be so tight. I've spoken to two print publications this morning, too. Push, push, push. Have to walk the talk.

Things are looking up a little. I am just scared about making it here, but after the last two days, I'm finally settling into a routine. And routine can sometimes be a comfort.

Dublin is grizzly and drizzly today.

I bought a mobile phone! And I spoke with a manager at a bookshop, who seems very interested in what I had to say. Also, another manager emailed me after I dropped off my CV at the airport bookshop, fresh off the plane from Aberdeen. My, aren't I the frisky one?

The editor of a magazine also replied about an internship, which is, unfortunately, unpaid. I am a bit disappointed at this, but still unsure whether to toss it away or stick to my guns.

In Dublin. Yay! and Woe! at the same time. So expensive and missing Mark, who remains in Aberdeen.

Approached half a dozen places for a job today, but no interviews yet. I shall perservere! I do have an appointment with the public library internet computer on Friday afternoon, so things are looking up.

Feeling misted over thinking about what I must accomplish alone, but I resolve to adopt the stiff upper lip.

Money is disappearing quicker than a dead body in quicksand.