visualdna, bits of dublin and the 25th of april

Haha I know I did this before. But it's been some time and people do change. Like more than 80% of my preferences. And I like the new title: sofisticat. Though I'm quite sure I still have way too much room for improvement to actually get to such a status at this point in time.

It's rare that I'll spend time doing my blog these days. But. I absolutely love this new blogskin and the pretty navigational panels on the top of the blog. It's like such a reminiscent colourful, and it's totally apt for this exchange period that I'm living up now. I usually stay long exploring the crevices of facebook. But now, facebook has met it's match and I feel stretched juggling between it and editing bits and pieces of html in this awesome new template. 4 pages of my own space plus a sidebar whee!

It's currently my "holiday" period from my holidaying. Practically every week or more, I've been travelling to different parts of Europe and it's been one wild (and photo-reaping) adventure! Just covered Dublin last week and met many wonderful friends either on exchange there, or on exchange somewhere else and on holiday there!

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting the Irish coastline at Howth. The place was superbly gorgeous, where pristine blue meets rocks and docks. Although it was forecasted to be a cloudy day that day, we were extremely lucky that it turned out to be bright and sunny! Most of the time, we were idly walking around, resting at rockpoints and watching the ships go by.

Dublin life is also pretty swell. There's a vibrant hustle and bustle along the city streets, albeit a bit small. Nightlife is no longer limited to getting wasted and dancing to trashy music. This place has Irish life bands, greyhound races and mini-casinos. And there's this saying about beginner's luck. I tasted a bit of it, freshly Irish =).

Other interesting things about the Dublin trip includes a visit to the Guinness Factory where we got to pour our own beer from a beer tap (it came with a Guinness certificate!), visited the St Patrick's Cathedral which wouldn't have been interesting if my brother wasn't from St Pat's and MANY MANY monopoly games using the Dublin roads!

Spent the entire day on Tuesday travelling, shuttling from bus, to plane, to another plane, to a bus, to a train before finally reaching back at my hostel. It took a grand total of 16hrs travelling time from 4am to 8pm getting from Wesley's in Dublin back to Uppsala. And it didn't help that I developed a temperature on the way and was shivering all the way back home, with occassional bouts out in the dreaded cold. So basically all that led to major ponning of class.

Tomorrow's going to be another day to look forward to. And it's significant in my life, because it's the 25th of April. It's the birthdays of two important people in my life.

One of them is my grandmother, the lady who gave so much to provide for me and get me to where I am today. It's her 80th birthday today and there's going to be a grand party back at home. (Haha, grandparty for grandmother!) Wish I could have enjoyed it with her. The other important person is none other than dearest Jo, my classmate since primary 4 and the girl who sat next to me in Sec 1 and 2, and joined me for 4 years in chess till we made exco. They have been with me for most part of my life and are the ones I know I can always fall back on.

So..

A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU BOTH! *HUGS*

(ok, I know my grandma won't see this.)

As for those in exchange and in London, have fun celebrating Singapore Day!!!

p/s: Anyone know how to get the photos uploaded in a neater way? The words are all over and in between pictures. I hate the layout.

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