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I am sure if you are following me   on any form of social media you won't have missed me rabbiting on about an upcoming hike Im going on. I haven't been posting about it non stop out of a pressing desire to let everyone know how active I am because if that was the reason all my previous hikes would have garnered similar social media coverage. This however is not an ordinary hike. So the hike this coming Saturday is in Glendalough but that's not what makes it different. It will finish in the dark which I'm sure will be magical but that's not why I'm telling everyone about it. It's a hike for charity,  in aid of the Irish Heart Foundation. They have organised the guides, sent out the fundraising packs and ensured that everyone attending the event has paid their €30 to register. Then it's up to all of us taking part to fundraise at least €120 for the charity. Which is fair because obviously they organise events like this in order to raise some much need...

I don't think I'd ever really been on holidays by myself before and I will admit to being a little bit concerned at the prospect. I had wanted to go away for a few days last year but my ex (then actual boyfriend) was a bit put out at the thought that I might go away without him (even though in truth it was mostly relationship related drama I needed a break from) and persuaded me to go away with him which went as well as you might imagine and we split up two weeks later. So I was worried that I might be bored or lonely if away too long plus I still wanted to get in some training and I had an appointment I couldn't cancel on Thursday morning and then I decided I would have a mini break Thursday to Sunday. I had already cleared with my parents because they own the house I was staying in and I had to make sure they weren't going to be using it.  As I discovered over the few days, I am actually very well equipped to travel alone and I had a lovely and relaxing time. I ...

It seems like almost every day now as I log on to Facebook it seems to keen to remind me that on this day some time in the last four years that I went somewhere scenic with my ex. Given that I have unfriended him and updated my relationship status, I am unsure what algorithm decides this is content I want to see and yet there it is. Me standing somewhere scenic. Facebook doesn't show me doing all the driving on this outing or himself being a narky fecker because the dope didn't eat before we headed out. Anyway that's not my life anymore and I'm fine with that but I'm doing my very best to carve out some adventures for myself. In many ways being single again is a very freeing experience and I like spending my time outside of work exactly how I want to but on another level there is an element of slight terror to it when you realise that you need to make your own adventures now and sometimes that involves pushing yourself outside your comfort zone. With all of th...

So I've been living in Kilkenny just under a month now but it's really starting to grow on me. I wasn't exactly a stranger to kilkenny before I moved here so it's fair to say I wasn't immune to its charms but since moving down I've fallen a bit in love with the city.  Now my social life has not exactly been hopping since I got here. I have friends in work and people I make small talk with in the gym but I haven't exactly been out on the town. Don't get me wrong I'm perfectly okay with this.  I'm still really enjoying exploring the city. There are corners I haven't seen and lesser known gems soon to be discovered. I think this particularly exciting for me because after 11 years I found Waterford had lost its lustre for me. I felt as though it had given me everything it had to offer and I wanted so much more.  I felt stuck and hemmed in but here I am embarking on a whole new adventure.  I started off exploring the city streets and soaki...

The first thing I should tell you is it's not really an ode at all. Sorry I lured you here under false pretenses. I like a lot about Dublin city but I dislike just as many things and the first of which is that I am still too much of a scaredy cat to drive there (not just because it's illegal for a little ol learner driver like me) but the thoughts of trying to navigate my way around the big unfamiliar city has me breaking out in a cold sweat. This means I am forced to navigate public transport which always gets a bit more annoying when you have become accustomed to driving everywhere. With everything I need on my passenger seat and being able to sing completely out of tune to the music of my choice ( this is frowned upon on busses). Also you need to take into account that these days with my dietary restrictions I am an actual pain in the ass which means when I take a bus somewhere I am usually forced to lug around a bag of snacks I can actually eat. It does have advantages ...

After much waiting, stressing and a whole lot of working my holidays finally came around. On Sunday night I got home from work around 10 and began preparing to leave for our airport bus a few hours later. For future notice I will remember that my holiday will be a lot more enjoyable if I actually manage to get some sleep beforehand or at least if I am not packing between my many shifts at work. As I mentioned before this was not my first trip to Belgium, my boyfriend had also been before but both under different circumstances. Himself with a group of friends and I had been with the college on an educational trip that also involved a lot of beer consumption. On our previous trips neither of us had spent much time in Brussels but it seemed like as good a choice as any for our holiday. We arrived in Brussels just after 10 and proceeded to get very lost trying to find our accommodation. It doesn't seem to matter if we are in the next town over or a few hundred miles away, myself ...