The last 3 months..

image courtesy of www.rightbrainterrain.com

I've just come back from a meeting with my research supervisors. They wanted a run down on what I have achieved in the last 3 months. I, of course, panicked and thought that I haven't done enough since I started my research but it got me thinking... what have I been doing over the last 3 months?

• I've started a Masters in research
• I've moved house - twice
• I spent Christmas at home with my family
• I went for a romantic weekend to Paris with Tom
• I booked a summer holiday for August, well Sonya did it for me
  
• I started training regularly for archery
• I've started this blog

When you look at what you can do in such a small space of time it really makes you think...

I'm proud of what I have achieved since November...

Whether you have climbed your proverbial mountain in the past months, or or just keep the ball rolling in your life, be proud of each achievement you accomplish.

Coraline

image courtesy of www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk

I'm just so excited about Coraline, the new Henry Selick movie that's due out this year. You can watch the trailer for it here.

I love animated movies so much, they're sort of like my comfort blanket. If I'm having a really lousy day or am feeling particularly low animation just seem to give me a lift! I'm a complete sucker for stop-go animation but for some reason Monsters Inc will always be my favourite animated piece. I heart Sullys fur in that movie!

Things I Love Thursday...

Image courtesy of www.britstore.co.uk

Nescafe Parisien coffee - I'm not the kind of girl who turns her nose up at instant coffee and definitely not first thing in the morning when my co-ordination is not particularly good. I'm so pleased with myself that I was smart enough to make some of this wonderfully aromatic coffee in a travel mug to keep me company in the office this morning.

Stretching -We have finally put together a stretching routine for the archery team and tested it out on the full group last night at training. Isn't it amazing how much better you feel after stretching? Seriously... So sit back in your chair and put your arms over your head and have a really good stretch for yourself. Doesn't that feel good?

Midnight phone calls - You know the ones I'm talking about! No, not those ones.... I'm talking about the really warm cozy feeling that you get when your phone rings, and you go find somewhere warm and snuggly to curl up in, and you forget about what time it is completely when you're having a great conversation with someone you haven't seen in a while.

Do you love anything today?

Prototype of a person

I was looking at Ruth Crean's blog and she had a link up for a survey on Irish bloggers and the Irish blogging community. If you get a few minutes to spare please click HERE and answer a few questions. It doesn't take very long at all to complete and there is the possibility of winning a €50 voucher to thank you for participating in the survey.

Please take a few minutes to help Sinead with her research.

Weekend shoot

I am weary. My poor body is so tired from a weekend shooting.

Saturday was a great days shooting and our college team took 4th place at the InterVarsity. Our captain, Rory, took 3rd place in the recurve section with a great new personal best score. My day went ok, but I had been expecting to do a little better because of all the training that I had been putting in since the start of the month. The new hall in NUIG is a lovely hall to shoot in though. They have great lighting, staggered bleachers to sit on and a really nice cafe in the foyer that stays opens all weekend. This bit is important.... cause I sort of signed up for a full days shooting on Sunday too. Oh I am such a sucker for punishment.

Sunday was the National Barebow Championships but there was a FITA running at the same time so I put my name down for a spot in that, and I persuaded Tom and Alan to shoot too, along with Rory and Phil, so we had a respectable turn out from the Limerick teams. My only problem was that I had given Dot back her limbs which left me limb less... sort of. I had a set of medium limbs in my case so we set about adjusting the riser so that everything would line up nicely.

This is were I usually fail at archery related things.... I'm not very good with the equipment side of things but I decided that it was time to learn. With a little (lot) of help from a friend called Martin, who instead of doing it for me, told me why we needed to do all the things that we were doing and showed me how to do them myself, we got the bow set up lovely and straight and ready for Sunday. I really love people like that who instead of doing everything for you teach you how to do it for yourself.

So I went forth and shot on Sunday.... and took 3rd place in the female recurve category. What a great day despite having to face my own coach in the head-to-head tournament!

And I also got to try out a set of short M1 limbs to see how they shot with my riser.

New year... new shoot

The first competition of the new year! WOOP WOOP

I'm about to tidy up my desk and run out the door for tomorrow is the first InterVarsity of 2009. As you may, or may not know, I am an archery fiend. I love my sport... unfortunately my sport does not always love me. The NUIG shoot is starting at 9am and will run all day long. I get to see friends that I haven't seen in ages, I get to spend time with Tom and I get to spend a whole day shooting to my hearts content. What more could a girl ask for?

I would really like to take this oppertunity to say a 'ma-hussive'

thank you

to Dot for letting me try out her G3's over Christmas and I promise to give them back tomorrow evening.
You are my angel!

23 January 09

I know that if you read the posts below the dates will make no sense. Please bear with me as I have moved my old and infrequently updated blog to blogspot.com and in a little while things will return to normal.

hugs & kisses

We're All Going On A ....

Image courtesy of www.directline-holidays.co.uk

The tickets have just been booked!

We're off to Kusadasi in Turkey in August for some sun, sea and sand. We got incredibly lucky with flights and we're flying out for just €315 and will still be back in time for Toms graduation.... with tans! How lucky are we?

Things I Love Thursday...

Image courtesy of www.zebrabot.com

Paris in January - Oh it was so so pretty, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the crisp, cold air, being all wrapped up with a coffee in my hands. I would highly recommend Paris as a travel destination during the off-season.

David Garcia -He was an artist on the Passerelle des Arts bridge by the Lourve. We stopped to talk to him about his paintings and ended up bringing home 3 of them. I'll post photos once we get them framed. They are great pictures of the bridge done in sketch style with a cartoon chick in each one. My one is dressed as Napoléon, complete with hat!

Getting post - I had been waiting ages for a research book to arrive and it was sitting on my desk for me when we got back from our break away. It was such a nice suprise to get.

Flannel Pyjamas - I still love those pyjamas.... so much that I went yesterday and bought another pair in a different colour.

What do you love this Thursday?

Things I Love Thursday...

Image courtesy of www.amgmedia.com

Open fireplaces - our new house has a gorgeous dinky fireplace and I love coming home to a warm fire in the evenings.

The Coronas - I just got their debut album 'Heros or Ghosts' and I can't get the title track out of my head.

My Wish Book - I had forgotten completely about it for a few months and I came across it recently and remembered why I loved keeping it.

Flannel Pyjamas - I had never been a pyjama person but I got a pair in the sales and they are the most fantastic snuggle wear ever.

So what do you love today?

Cirque

I went to see Cirque Du Soleil's DELERIUM in the Odyssey Arena last night and it was amazing.... the never ending barrage of lights, music and dance was incredible.

Tea v's Tae

I was having a little look around the internet today, looking for some new mugs for the kitchen and I came across the Pantone tea set, which I think are really great looking since they show tea in all its varying strengths - from 'able to see the bottom of the cup' to the traditional 'builders brew'.

The whole tea cup thing got me thinking of the huge tea vs tae debate that raged in my house last year when we tried to define the differences between tea and tae.

We did agree on some issues -

• the stronger the brew the more tae-like it became
• the higher the quantity of sugar the more tae-like
• the higher the quantity of milk the more tae-like
• the colder the beverage the more tae-like
• the larger the cup the more tae-like
• if the tea bag is left in it is definitely tae

At one stage I had persuaded a friend to see if we could graph all of this information on a tri-axial graph. We got as far as the putting it on a paper graph but alas nothing ever came of the project. I did however find a really entertaining book while researching the whole tea thing, it was called 'A nice cup of tea and a sit down'

Inspiration

Orange seems to be my new thing right now, and I've come to the conclusion that it's not that I love orange it's just that I'm having an affair with it.

- I'm secretly ashamed that I like it so much

- I can't see it being a long lasting infatuation

- I wouldn't go out in public with it

I was talking to my design supervisor about it and he says that it's just a design thing and that all of us will go through a stage when we want everything around us to be 'product orange' or 'lime green' or 'hot pink'. I hope it will pass; I really couldn't imagine how cinema seating could work if it was bright orange.