aannndd the award gooooeess tooo...

I have to admit I get really excited when awards start circling my blogosphere and lovely blog friends think to tag me in them. It gives me a little thrill and I get excited! I now have 2 awards to dish out! Yay!

Also, I was soooo amazed (and excited!) to log onto Blogger this morning and see 50 followers! Wow! When I started this blog a few months ago I never dreamed that so many people would even want to read my daily rants and randoms! Thank you so so much to each and every one of you!

Jessica tagged me in the "Kreativ Blogger" award. Thank you Jessica! This award comes with the following rules: I have to lsit 7 things that I love. I'm going to change this a little bit seeing as I'm in Germany, and make it 7 things that I love about Germany.

1. The Food: I'm most likely going to do a food post in the following days, but I just can't get enough of it! Especially the cookies and sweets!

2. My Grandparents: I only see them once a year, so its always like a trip down memory lane. Looking at old pictures and hearing stories of what I was like as a child.

3. Getting spoiled by said Grandparents: Pretty self explanatory


4. The Language: I realize that German really isn't the sexiest sounding language, but I grew up with it so it takes me back


5. Reading "Bravo" magazine: It is kind of like German-In Touch. More than half the stuff in it is fake, but its such a guilty pleasure!

6. The Cars: I'm such a sucker for German car labels and still get a thrill seeing BMW and Mercedes all around me, sad I know!

7. The scenery: Everything is much more green then back home

I pass this award onto the following people:

Miku
Al
Head Biting Princess
Patty Ann
Sarah


Sarah, the new girl gave me the "friends" award! Thank you Sarah!

Here's the blog award description:

"This award is bestowed on to blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

Now for me to choose 8 Bloggers to pass this one on to! I did a quick check of most of your profiles, so I hope you don't have it already. ANNNNDD the award goooooeess to..

Bluefish
Sweet Pea
Canuckitude
Emily
Jo
Jordan
Ali
Jessica

I have one more award that I still have to dish out, the "Honest Scrap" Award that I got from Emily a while back (thanks Em!) but I think I'll save that for another time. I'm feeling Blog-love overload at the moment haha.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Summer (in the form of a major heat wave) has finally come to Germany so instead of 15 degrees and rain we have 30 degrees and humidity. I'm not complaining! yet.

The Emerald Isle - Part 2

Good news and bad news: I finally figured out how I can upload pictures on this computer, bad newy - it takes FOREVER! Hence the 5 measly pictures I managed to add this time! They do give a nice sampling of the day trip we took from Dublin, and I promise to add more once I have full access to wifi on my beloved laptop again. That may just have to wait a few weeks. Stupid Blogger does not seem to want format properly for me today, so the photos are not in the order that I would like, but I suppose for now I shall have to make do. They are all labeled so at least you can tell what you're looking at. Taking pictures inside of Malahide was strictly prohibited, so although I was tempted, there aren't any pictures of that.

Okay so, our second day in Dublin we decided to do a bus tour to Malahide Castle and Howth. Howth is a tiny fishing village right on the coast with breathtaking views of the cliffs and the water and it was amazing. Malahide Castle is one of the most beautiful places I've seen in the world so far, it is an ancient Castle and was owned by the "Talbot" family for hundreds of years. The last decendant died in february of this year, which I think is simply incredible!

The following is courtesy of wikipedia, but the information is all acurate.

The estate began in 1185, when Richard Talbot, a knight who accompanied Henry II to Ireland in 1174, was granted the "lands and harbour of Malahide". The oldest parts of the castle date back to the 12th century and it was home to the Talbot family for 791 years, from 1185 until 1976, the only exception being the period from 1649-1660, when Oliver Cromwell granted it to Miles Corbet after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland; Corbet was hanged following the demise of Cromwell, and the castle was restored to the Talbots. The building was notably enlarged in the reign of Edward IV, and the towers added in 1765.
The estate survived such losses as the Battle of the Boyne, when fourteen members of the owner's family sat down to breakfast in the Great Hall, and all were dead by evening, and the Penal Laws, even though the family remained Roman Catholic until 1774.
In the 1920s the private papers of James Boswell were discovered in the castle, and sold to American collector Ralph H. Isham by Boswell's great-great-grandson Lord Talbot of Malahide.
Malahide Castle and Demesne was eventually inherited by the seventh Baron Talbot and on his death in 1973, passed to his sister, Rose. In 1975, Rose sold the castle to the Irish State, partly to fund inheritance taxes.

The coast of Ireland as seen from Howth

Cliffs and coastline again

Close-up of Malahide Castle

Malahide Castle

Castle Grounds

Rain, rain go away..

I know I owe you all a second Ireland update, but it turns out I find myself with a lack of wifi access here at my grandparents' place. I'm currently using their computer, but my pictures are all uploaded on my laptop. Unless I figure out another solution, the pictures and update may have to wait.

I've gotten used to the daily routine in Germany a little now. Today it has been raining and thundering for the better part of the afternoon, so I've been spending the hours alternating between reading and the internet.

I felt like writing, and I feel bad that I haven't really been able to catch up with all your blogs, which I promise I will do when I get the chance.

I've managed to keep semi-regular contact with ShyBoy so far between msn messenger and the occasional text message, so I'm happy about that. I was going to do the whole post card thing, but then my mother pointed out that it could take almost 2 weeks for the card to get there, and I'm only gone 4 weeks.

This computer uses a "German" keyboard, which has slight differences from the typical North American one I'm used to. For some odd reason the Z and Y keys are switched, which is really messing me up, same with the quotation marks, commas and apostrophes. They are all in different places.

Has this happened to anyone else around the world? How do you cope with different keyboards?

I hope everyone has a great weekend! ..and better weather then I do there!

The Emerald Isle - Part 1

I'm not dead. Just been having a blast in Ireland! Today is my last day here and later on I fly to Germany to see my grandparents for a few weeks. I haven't done the whole flikr thing yet, so these pictures are just a sample of what I've taken so far.

Now, Ireland. OMG I love it! And the weather has been FANTASTIC! Even the receptionist says this is unusual. We've been here 3 days and it has been bright, sunny and warm the whole time! Not a drop of rain in sight! We arrived tuesday morning after an uneventful flight. Our room wasn't ready yet so we checked out the area and then had breakfast. I'm in love with the idea of an Irish Cooked Breakfast. Bacon, eggs, toast, sausages. Mmmmmmm.

This is post part 1, mainly Dublin city and the sights I've seen there. Yesterday we did a tour to lovely Malahide Castle and the surrounding coast lines, which were absolutely stunning! But those will have to wait for another post in a few days.

I'd like to thank you all so much for your warm wishes about my trip! It really touched me when I logged onto blogger this morning and saw so many wonderful comments! Also to my new followers that I've gained, welcome and thank you all so much! I promise to catch up and read all your blogs in the coming days!

Outside of Dublin Castle, now used as Government offices

Dublin Castle, one used as "Ladies waiting rooms"

Dublin Castle, Throne Room. The last person to sit here was in 1911

Temple Bar area of Dublin, pedestrian zone with lots of pubs and restaurants

Henry Street shopping area

The River Liffey

O'Connell Steet, main street Dublin, momument of famous Dubliner killed in rebellion

Parnell Street, location of hotel

Look for Part 2 of "The Emerald Isle" to follow!

Leaving on a jet plane!

Just a very short post today.

Today is the day I've been counting down to for weeks now. My flight leaves tonight, and tomorrow morning I will be in Ireland!

I probably won't be able to post for a few days, but I promise to update you all on my trip and catch up on your blogs when I'm at my grandparent' place in Germany.

And of course post pictures! I signed up for a flikr account, so once I figure it out I'll post all my lovely pictures for you all to see!

I just wanted to say goodbye to all of you (temporarily) and wish you all the best!

The Final Countdown

I can't read that title and not have that song in my head...you know the one....the final countdown. I have no idea who even does it, its just one of those sports event type songs that everyone seems to know.

Anyway, I'm rambling.

4 Days and counting!

I have no specific topic for this post, so instead I shall give you all a daily dose of random. Very random.

Shy Boy update
Movie #3 was good. Well, the date (see I'm using the "d"-word now) was good, the movie was average. It was your typical good-guy versus bad-guy action movie, although both Travolta and Washington played excellent roles.

Still no physical contact except that our shoulders touched throughout most of the movie. I realize I sound like a 12 year old saying that, but I've learned to be thankful for small favours when it comes to him, haha.

I tried the whole post card thing, but I just couldn't bring myself to ask for his address, I know, stupid right? But I had a good night and I think things are improving. Perhaps me being gone will change things for the better. A girl can hope anyway!

Random 1
I got my hair cut a few days ago, it desperately needed to be trimmed. Every time I'm sitting at the salon, and the hair dresser is cutting my hair and then nicely styling it I have the same dilema.

I love the way the stylist blow dries and styles my hair, BUT then a few days later when I am desperately trying to copy that exact style at home, I'm dissapointed and frustrated. I always feel like asking the stylist to dry my hair looking bad on purpose. At least that way I won't know how nice my hair could look, even though I know I'll never be able to duplicate it.

Does this happen to anybody else?

Random 2
Due to baggage constraints on Aer Lingus, I'm forced to only pack the bare minimum. This means that extra pair of shoes or those jeans or that book have to stay at home. I'm allowing myself to buy ONE new book to take overseas with me, regardless of the weight restrictions.

I have a few ideas from posts from fellow bloggers, but I'm looking for other suggestions as well. Since its vacation, I'm thinking of something light-hearted, things I call "chick-lit". Something along the lines of Emily Giffin or Sophie Kinsella, but I'm also open to more serious or heavy books.

What is your favourite vacation-book ? Or guilty pleasure reading?

I think that's it for my random rambling today. I'm off to catch up on all your blogs!

Blog Friendship!

I was awarded the Friendship Award from Jo today! Thanks so much again!

This award came at a great time because the last few days I've really realized how much your friendships mean to me! Its so exciting for me to blog about Shy Boy and to get all your feedback and opinions and it really helps me too!

I value my friend's opinions too, but with you guys I feel I can be more honest and really talk about my feelings without being judged. Does anyone else feel that difference between blog and other friends?

I'm randomly tagging people with this award, hopefully you haven't gotten it yet (I tried to check and make sure) but every single person that reads my daily rants is a great friend of mine and definitely worthy of this award!

I tag:

Emily

Teresa

Malin

Life Abroad
Kimberly
Fidgeting Gidget

Shy Boy updates:

I don't really have any at the moment *sigh*

Jo asked me what is going to happen when I leave in 8 days (!!!!) and she has a good point: I don't know.

I'll still have internet access in Germany at my grandparents, but with the 6 hour time difference and him working full time, I don't know how often our schedules will match up, and I think writing him personal e-mails might be a bit much at this stage. I'll have my cell phone with me as well, but at .50cents a message long distance, that could get pricey for 4 weeks.

I'm hoping to maybe squeeze in another movie date this coming week, but we'll see what happens. I'm having a going-away party saturday night that I invited him to, but then all of our friends will be there too, which makes it a little more awkward.

I'd really like him to suggest another movie and not me, but we all know he will be his shy-boy self and probably not do that. Which means it might be up to me again.

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

6 things!

I was tagged by Mazzie over at In The Inner Mind and My Wooden Heart at My Wooden Heart in the "6 things" tag - so I figured, why not?! Thanks girls! Everyone: If you haven't checked out their wonderful blogs, you definitely should!

The rules are for me to list 6 unimportant things that make me happy. I have to be honest, this list was hard to compile, I consider most things that make me happy to be important haha.

So here goes:

1. Canadian Geese - now I know this seems wierd, but I love them. These Geese tend to travel in packs and conjugate in the strangest places. My university campus was full of them. I'd see them walking around campus in groups of 3 or 4 just like students. They are actually quite vicious, so I've never actually touched one, but I can always admire from afar. To learn more about the Canada Goose, go here

2. MSN Messenger - alright so this may have a little more to do with the people (or person) I talk to on it most often, but I still think it applies. I'm sure you're all familiar with it and have probably used it at one time or another. In the grande scheme of things, its pretty unimportant, but that annoying little "ding" sound makes me happy.

3. My hair straightener - a little on the frivolous side, but on days when my hair really does not want to cooperate, I'm tremendously thankful for this little invention.

4. Sunshine - Not exactly unimportant, but I always feel happier when its sunny and warm outside.

5. Paper Shopping Bags - I've never actually shopped at Dior or pretty much any of the fancy stores on the bags in the picture, but whenever stores have paper shoppers with their logos on the front, I get excited and happy. I'm also ashamed to admit, that I have a plastic tote full of paper shopping bags that I've collected over the years that I can't bring myself to throw away.

6. Uggs - They've been "out of style" for years, and it hasn't stopped me yet. I know they're ugly, but they are sooo comfy and warm and I love them so much. Very unimportant, but so very very good.

I'm supposed to tag 6 other people and let them know, but I can't pick just 6 so if you feel like doing it - you're all tagged!

A little bit of random

Its finally June! And it occured to me this morning that I leave for Europe 3 weeks from today! Which is both awesome and terrifying because I have so much to do before I leave.

The weather is celebrating the arrival of June accordingly - about 12 degrees and cloudy. Go figure.

I got excited last night because Air Canada finally updated their movie schedules for the flights so I've already made a list of movies I want to watch on the flight to Dublin. My number 1 pick is "The Reader" but I'm also considering "Gran Torino" They're also showing "Bride Wars" and "He's just not that into you" both of which I've seen, but also good choices.

Any suggestions?

Also, on the more random side, the trailer for "New Moon" (the 2nd Twilight book) was released last night - and I have to admit I'm impressed. I loved the books but hated the first movie, but this preview looks promising. I was never a "Jacob" fan in the books, but after this preview - I might be coming around a little.