Be sure in what you think you know

Misconception. A funny word, one that holds so much mystery and lies that often it can be hard to comprehend. I’ve found myself in the midst of this word the last few weeks and I know of others who have also been privy to it. The problem my friends? Snap judgements. 

The reason for being caught up in this word is that (long story short) I broke up with my boyfriend

about a month ago. It was for personal reasons and was surprisingly civil; there is no bad blood between us. This is exactly where misconception comes into play; many people are too quick to latch on to one negative thing that happened and to create stories about what happened in their own heads.

Now, most of you all know that I’m a live and let live kind of gal and I’m well aware that people make mistakes, and often times very stupid ones, lord knows I’ve made enough to last a lifetime and I surely know I’m not done yet. I certainly don’t judge people by the mistakes they have made, which personally I think is a big problem these days, but rather about how they present themselves to me.

To be honest, in my opinion one of the biggest misconceptions you’ll come across is that of the dumper and the dumpee. People have this notion; yes it is a notion, that the person who does the, excuse the insensitivity, dumping doesn’t feel sad. There’s this weird idea that once they’ve set someone free that they’re off jumping into bed with the next jolly Rodger. Wrong (at least for the majority of people). I have been on both ends of the spectrum and let me tell you that neither is less suckish than the other, it’s a different kind of pain. No matter whether you’re the one doing the dumping or the one getting dumped you’re still losing a very big part of your life. Believe it or not cutting (completely or partly)  someone who you once loved and still care deeply about out of your life is a big decision,  one that I struggled with for many weeks, and also one that I admit I should have dealt with sooner but to be frank what’s done is done and that’s that. 

It just irks me the way that some people think that the dumper feels nothing, bullshit. So today people I am sticking up for those who have been in a similar situation as myself, who have felt a lot of love for their significant other, who have decided that being in a relationship just isn’t right for now and those who have felt that they need time to themselves to learn and discover. It can be a very distraught time for both parties in very different ways. While hurting someone else for wanting time for yourself may seem selfish it is in fact one of the least selfish things you can do because staying in an unhappy situation will be more damaging in the long run. 

So friends, from now on if you’re somebody who has been the victim of assumption and rumours, ignore it, if somebody wants to spend their time worrying about your problems then you must be bloody important.

For those who are doing the assuming, I’ll ask you to stop and think for a minute, think about what might have happening in the weeks, days, months even minutes before whatever it is that’s got your knickers in a twist happened. Not everything is as clear as it seems.

And for everyone, remember that life’s too short to sweat the small stuff, we’re only young, let’s live and have fun, we will more than likely fall in love many a time before we’re done. And for Jesus sake mind your own god damn business

Let’s just remember that there are people like this in the world, though I won’t assume too much as assumption has been the main topic of discussion here, she might have had a good reason for electrocuting herself. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JBYeqntiUI

Fun.

Hello friends. So my blog has taken a backseat for the last few months, not because I didn’t want to write in it but rather because I was in final year of college. It was sometimes hard to find time to eat, let alone write for fun. There were times when I craved it after all we all know it is one of my greatest loves and it saddened me that I couldn’t give into it but other things were far more important. Now, now I can because you see people, I am in that ‘oh my god what am I going to do with my life?’ limbo stage and I can do whatever I bloody well like.

This weekend I volunteered at the Cat Laughs festival in Kilkenny, for those of you who do not know what that is it’s an annual comedy festival held in June and really cool people from all over come and perform. I had fun. I made new friends. I met some really class comedians. Here’s pictures of me with Al Porter and Karl Spain just because.

Having fun is important, it doesn’t matter how old or young you are everybody needs fun. I thrive on fun. I missed fun during the last few months; I was all about studying, reading (academically) and writing essays. I lost parts of myself, I found myself trapped in a wrath of responsibility and commitment and to be frank I hated it. Now, don’t get me wrong obviously we all have responsibilities in life, and I will have many more as my life goes on but I’m only 22. I’m reluctant to accept that this is what the rest of my life is about, that when you finish college and it’s working 9-5 Monday to Friday. That can’t be it, not for me anyway. I'll be damned if I enter a world of seriousness at such a young age. The world is my oyster.

 

(I Just had to) 

I like to have fun. The younger generation now thinks that fun comes in the form of technology and the internet, which I guess, is understandable because that’s all they’ve really known. For me, it’s completely different while it is true that fun can be got from playstations and the like, that's not all it s about. I have fun by talking to my friends, going for tea, hanging with my family, reading books and even hanging with people I’ve barely met. Meeting interesting people is fun. Experiencing new things is fun. I know I go on about the younger generation and their habits but if I’m being honest, I just don’t really get them, sometimes it feels like they come from another planet but that's a discussion for another day!

I prefer to be happy rather than sad, but as you all probably know it’s hard to be bouncy and on top of the world all the time! Actually, I don’t think I’d ever describe myself as bouncy; it’s not a right fit. Maybe enthusiastic might be a better word. Having adventures thrills me. I have sad days, but with every sad day comes many happy days, so it balances itself.

The key to my happiness and fun having? I’m real. I don’t pretend to be anything other than what I am. Isn’t that what life is supposed to be about? I don’t change according who I hang with, what would be the absolute point? I’m opinionated, and everyone knows it. If I have something to say I’ll say it. You only get one life to live, don’t bottle it up and follow the crowd. Live the life YOU want to live, not what other say you have to live cause then that won’t be fun.

The message of this post: Have fun, don’t be too serious, live your life, be real, go on adventures. As my mam would say; you’ll die and get rich anyway, I have no idea what it means but it seems to be promising so I’ll pass it on to you.

Good day my special readers, until next time. This has not been one of my best posts, and I've probably repeated a lot from my other uploads but sure as we say here in Ireland, it'll be grand. In the meantime here's a little number to keep ye all in good spirits.

Random tales from a random brain!

Salut tout le monde! I hope all goes well where ever you lovely folk may be. This really isn't a post about anything remotely specific or interesting, merely a series of photos that display antics that occur in my daily life. I don't know why I willingly choose to display my ridiculousness across the internet but I do, and I have no regrets about doing so either.

On Monday I decided I'd be slightly domesticated and make Banoffee Pie (because let's be honest why study when you can make things?), anyway off I set to the supermarket to buy the ingredients. It hadn't occurred to me before setting foot into the supermarket that they would not supply the same products that I would normally buy in Ireland, I thought about just throwing in the towel and giving up on the idea of baking, but then I thought 'No, I can totally do this, I just gotta look carefully for the things I need'. So bananas, they were pretty simple..I mean they look the same in every country. Digestive biscuits, lucky for me they sell McVities so that was a pinch of salt. Butter and cream, same old story they have those in every country (as far as I know). Then it came to buying the sugar and the milk for the caramel, I needed brown sugar and condensed milk. Normally, as I said before I would have used Irish product but now I was forced to compromise. I resorted to choosing a sugar that definitely was not white, but it was not brown either, it was somewhere in the middle...I decided I would do. The only thing left to buy was the milk, at the time I didn't know what condensed milk was called in France and I had not thought to look it up before leaving my house, which in hindsight was a pretty amateur move...I should always be prepared. I headed to the baking section where I stumbled upon milk in a can, I took it upon myself to decide that this was condensed milk and to hope for the best. It turns out I was correct in my selection (for future reference its called lait concentré sucré, just so ya know), although while in the process of making the caramel I thought it tasted more like custard, it didn't stop me making it though (sure I thought what's the worst that could happen? we'd only have a vile tasting pie, no biggie, be grand said I) and nobody died; I call that a success. And we all had fun eating the end result (I know it's in a pot but it was the closest thing I had to a dish, life of a student eh?):

Another story (just humour me and pretend you care). So there's this plant that just randomly sits on the little wall thingy beside the kitchen sink:

Up until today I honestly thought it was an ornament (it looks like one right?) until my friend accidently knocked it into the sink and noticed that the soil was dry. I didn't even know there was soil. I didn't know I was supposed to water it. I didn't even bring it here. It came with the house, part of the package and all that. After further inspection we came to the conclusion that it is in fact a very real plant, of which type we do not know, which is on the verge of dying as a result of neglect. Nevertheless, I have tried to save it by watering it now, although I feel it may be a tad late for the littl'un. I will make it my absolute goal to see it through to the end of the year. I fear what might happen if I had something utterly important to look after, 'Oh I was supposed to feed it? I thought I just had to watch it'. I really am tragic.

The ridiculousness does not end here my friends. As you all know (I hope, unless you've got a TERRIBLE sense of time) Halloween has passed, and what does that mean? The Christmas season is upon us. So naturally, you want to celebrate no? We decided we wanted to buy some Christmas trees, put aside the fact that I will have to leave it behind and I already have one of my own in Ireland it's completely logical to buy another, after all it ain't Christmas without a tree. Obviously, a trip to IKEA was in order, you know to stock up on Christmas things. (and to buy a tree). So on we went through the usual routine of following the arrows on the ground until you reach the section you actually want, the IKEA folk were very clever by placing all the Christmas festivities at the end of the path, but not without teasing you with randomly placed Christmas trees and such. 'Tis a downward spiral when you enter the world of IKEA, there's just so many things that you want to buy. Actually no it's everything, I definitely want to buy everything. You go in to buy something specific and before you know it there's a rather large dent in your bank account. And the best part? You regret nothing, everything you bought is just so wonderfully useless that it's justified. Anyway, we got to the Christmas tree area to find that they only sell one size of tree which costs 40€ (whut?), this was rather disappointing, I mean what about the people who don't have large enough living areas to buy a big tree, or those who prefer to be a little more reserved in their Christmas celebrations, or students who merely want to spread their Christmas cheer while remaining inside their financial box, I strongly feel that IKEA has overlooked these major factors. Think of all the money they would make from very happy twenty something year olds, like ourselves. Anyway we pushed on through our disappointment and continued to browse the Christmas decorations, by the end of which we had decided we would buy some decorations for the non existent tree, so now I am left with these:

and no tree. But fear not. I have a plan, like all good things I shall order one on ebay and get it delivered to my house. ebay is my friend. You know when you start saying that ebay and google are your friends that you got to get out more, but if it brings Christmas to my house I could care less about being so ridiculous. It's innovative buying a Christmas tree on ebay, how many of you folks could say you've done the same?

And this is where I leave you lovely peeps for tonight. What have you gained from reading this post? Absolutely nothing. Actually, I'm pretty sure you just lost five minutes of your life. I did warn ya. This blog is nothing but a look into my random thoughts and nothing more. It's bound to be mundane. Sure it might have given ya a giggle all the same. 

I'm off to Toulouse tomorrow and I shall inform you of all my adventures next week. Until then my friends.

Ramblings of a traveling student...

Because of the fact that I can't sleep and am just laying in bed staring at the ceiling I decided to make better use of my time and inform all you lovely peeps how my stay in France has been so far. So I've been here for just over three weeks now (I know time flies eh?) and I can honestly say that without a doubt the most hardest/horrible/funny now but not at the time moment that I've had was the journey we took getting here. I mean I cannot describe to you how utterly ridiculous we looked, we obviously had not thought that far past the plane journey. Let me put it into perspective for you: There were three of us, I had two pieces of luggage (one small suitcase and one large), each of my friends had three pieces of luggage (both had a large suitcase, one had two more small suitcases and the other had a backpack and a small suitcase), that equates to three people and eight pieces of luggage. I'm pretty sure we looked something like this:

Now you have the image, multiply that by three and there you have us. So now you're probably thinking okay grand, it was just a plane journey and they were there. No. I wish it was that simple. We got a plane. Then a bus. And after much conversing with the staff at the train station, a train. Then another train. Then we had to walk. With. all. our. luggage. And can I ask one simple question. WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO HAVE THAT MANY STAIRS?? I mean come on. Three people. Eight pieces of luggage. Several flights of stairs. Surely you can see the picture I'm trying to paint right now? We had to make a random friend named Sammy at the train station to help us. Even the train had stairs. What is this? I'm not exaggerating either. French people really love the bloody stairs. 

After that less than desirable trip to the city of Avignon, I find myself standing alone (my friends had to go to their accommodation, at a train station, with just the address of my house, waiting for a taxi, that never came. I decided I'd take a stroll up the street to see if anyone could help me, thankfully some kind man directed me to the tourist office where he thought they would be able to help me. Off I go on my way to said place, creating absolute havoc along the main street of Avignon with my two suitcases. When I arrived at the tourist office the lady was able to provide me with a map and directions, which I was very grateful of. But since I was late to meet my landlady and I was swamped with luggage I asked her if there was somewhere I could grab a taxi, she replied with a mere 'you don't need a taxi, it's 20 minutes walk away'. This was not an acceptable answer to me so I tried again. Nope. She replied with the same unhelpful answer I left thinking did she not see all that luggage? Finally after much difficulty I arrived at my landlady's house. What did I find? SHE WASN'T THERE. I had to wait outside her house with my two suitcases looking like a stalker for an hour and a half until she arrived home to inform me that I couldn't actually stay in my house for another week because the electricity was cut off. Surely that was something that they should have checked no? Exhausted and Fed up with the days events I barely managed a nod to all her questions and settled into my guest house. To say that the day was a bit of a nightmare would be an understatement, although it has provided us with a good story about our arrival. 

The rest of my stay has been quite enjoyable though, regardless of the few random days when I feel a little homesick in which case I just eat some spuds and I'm grand cause, ya know,  I'm Irish and all that. We've had a lot of time to do various things too though, which I will present to you in a series of pictures that will give you a snippet of the goings on, I'm not going to write it all because I'm too lazy and it would be far too boring for you. And let's be honest....who doesn't love pictures?

So here we are just chillin' by 'Pont d'Avignon' as ya do:

It's the place to hug tree and poles, I mean, why wouldn't you given the chance?

                         

These have 'Fanny' written on them. Like...why? Avignon is quite random..

I've eaten a ridiculous amount of bread and cous cous:

     

Crepes and BN's, I'll be a whale when I return:

                        

We even visited the Pope's Palace:

                              

I got interviewed (you can tell by my face I'm not very comfortable):

And the best part? We danced 'Sur le pont d'Avignon'...now how many of you can say you've done that?

Somewhere between all the picnics, visitin', and banter we've started into actual college work, but that doesn't mean we're going stop dancin', huggin' and explorin'...there's a plenty more for us to do. It just means we've got to be ninjas and juggle uni work and the oul travels, but hey, no mountain too high, no river too deep right? 

So there you have it people, a brief summary of what I've been up to the last few weeks (even though most of it was about my journey here)  and proof that I'm still alive, I'll keep you posted on the happenings in Avignon. 

À la prochaine mes amis.

P.S. I really need to remember that they drive on the other side of the road....this could become a great problem....

That time I was ridiculously bored..

Two posts in one night? That shows how little I actually do with my life. 

Right. So some of you might know that I have a brain full of ridiculous and pointless facts that nobody in the entire world could possible care about. And a lot of them are pure ridiculous and probably not true anyway. If I could remember my college work as well as I remember these then I'd be doing far better. Here's a few for ya to ponder! 

1.     Cat's are lactose intolerant (you're not supposed to give them milk. It's a myth)

2.     Walt Disney actually had a fear of mice (so obviously it's logical to create a cartoon about a mouse)

3.     Everyone's tongue print is different (I really don't know why I know this but I do!)

4.     Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth (I just thought this was funny)

5.     It's impossible to lick your elbow (everybody knows this)

6.     Apparently (because it's probably not true) people who suck ice cubes have more sexual desires than those who don't (ridiculous right?)

7.     French speaking residents of Belgium are called a Walloon (maybe I'll be one, one day!)

8.     You can't hum while holding your nose closed

9.     It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open (please don't try it)

10. Coca-Cola says that only two people know the recipe and they aren't allowed to travel on the same plane in case it crashes. (what if one dies, then the other dies, will there be no more coca-cola?)

11. It's not possible to tickle yourself

12. Ketchup used to be a medicine

13. SWAG originally meant 'Secretly we are gay'

14. Coca-cola would be green if colouring wasn't added to it

15. Prostitution has been observed in penguins and chimpanzees (what a random thing to observe)

16. On average a person spends an overall of 2 years on the phone

17. On average right handed people live nine times longer than left handed people (if this is the case I am royally screwed.)

Okay methinks I should end it here. There is one thing and one thing only that we have learned from this post: I really really need to find something better to do with my time, this is starting to get ridiculous.