Where does an animal sleep when the ground is wet?...

(Cows in the ballroom, chickens in the farmer's corvette...)

 

Notes on a public life: How come just when I'm about to take my pants off, the tiny laundry room fills with people? How come the sensors for hand dryers in public bathrooms never line up with where you need to put your hands to actually get them dry? One of the places I've been staying has about 5 different brands of hand dryers throughout the building. The first one I noticed was called Eterna; I thought this was a little lofty for a hand-dryer company, what were they thinking? Then there was one called Junior; a little more realistic. Finally I found FastDry, which could use some more originality but at least it's somewhat truthful if not overly optimistic. Have you seen those blade dryer things? You stick your hands in a slot & the air comes out from both sides through really thin openings that increase the pressure. They say it's twice as fast as a normal dryer, but I think it's at least five times as fast. Using physics to make a product actually work, I like it.

 

Things are definitely looking up. Today the sun was shining, crisp and beautiful. I even saw a guy washing the sidewalk outside of his shop, a first since I've been here. You know when you get ready to leave a place gets instantly better. On Sunday I caught up with a few ladies at church & joined them for lunch, great company (& I'm under oath to mention them in my travel journal, hi E!). Yesterday I was in a frame shop, & the lady working was so incredibly nice, & when I was leaving she said, "Please come back again!" and I believed that she really meant it. She even asked me to watch the shop while she stepped out to the loo; that doesn't happen every day in a city. Then I was at the post office today, & the guy at the counter was so amazingly helpful. Not only did he save me about half of what it would have cost to send things the way I had them packed, but he helped me re-pack everything and even gave me his own envelope because the ones they sold weren't the right size. People have been smiling at me on the street today. I caught up with a friend for lunch and realized she already feels like a favorite old friend to me.

 

"Me jaunting car, me jaunting car, we're rolling along in me jaunting car..."

I took a few days out last week to head west, to the nice little town of Killarney, where there's a big lake in a national park and lots of open places to walk. The hostel I stayed at was probably not much different from any other, except that the Dutch kid behind the counter - a travelling spirit and I suspect a growing connoisseur of the really good things in life - was playing the best music in the lobby - nice & loud; you could hear traces of it from all around the building. It made the place feel like home instead of just another stop. The weather was not fantastic, so there weren't many people out... which was fantastic!! It kept changing from rain to snow to rain to partial sun to hail to rain to warm sun to freezing wind, which made for great scenery and some fun walks. I finally saw what I was hoping to see in Ireland: green like I don't think I've seen anywhere else, except maybe in the north of New Zealand but even there I think it's different. Rolling hills and farms everywhere, open space, really friendly people. I realized that the city has been seeping into my attitude; I've become that person who looks at the ground or stares at a fixed point in front of them instead of looking at people to say hi; I was talking to a girl in my room and didn't even take my eyes off of my book. I know it's a product of (hordes of strange)-people-overload, but I don't like being that way. It almost surprised me when people in town were friendly and said hi to me. A break did much good though. I realized as I was cutting across a green hillside & stepping lightly so as not to take too much muddy water into my runners, that I'd found what I wanted to see here, soggy green hills!

 

As much as I've been stressing out about too much city life and getting frustrated with things, I think time will work its magical disappearing act with all the bad vibes. This morning as I was walking across the Ha'Penny Bridge and looking down the river, I was thinking that this is a place I will come back to one day and the memories waiting for me will be all the good ones.

 

But as they say, the time has come to be gone. Tomorrow morning's an early start, for the journey to Kathmandu!!

 

It's time to ramble on.