Nollaig

I haven't done the Christmas card thing this year, been too busy with coursework. I have cards, just haven't written or posted them, and at this stage it's unlikely I will. My Christmas tree is up, though, which is something. I haven't got any of my decorations in Cork, since I moved in with my partner 6 months after moving into the previous temporary house, I just had to cull so many of my belongings and last January and May Christmas decorations weren't an issue. Haven't been home to Kerry in that time so they're all still down there! OH had a tree though and some decorations, so that's up, and we've a few bits in the window and polar bears in the porch. Would like to get a wreath but time is getting on so again, dunno if I'll bother this year. Have some window snowflake stickers still to put up. Will be more organised next year as I won't be doing a course at the same time!

It's been lovely here the last couple of days, got much colder today, first morning I've seen any frost so it's just about the right temperature for me now! Bright enough, bit cloudy but as long as it's dry I'll take it! But we've had some gorgeous mornings and evenings.

As per usual, there's been Christmas chocolate alongside the Halloween chocolate here. Brown Thomas have also decorated their storefronts with their usual million lights, and another shop nearby has followed suit. I'm pretty sure the Christmas trees will be going up in town in the next couple of days. I'm on top of presents for my partner, I have 7 for him so far, after giving him two already. It's our first Christmas together, and lots of them are small (two 10 euro t-shirts, one I gave him already and one for christmas, two books which only cost 10-13 euro each etc). I have an idea of presents to get for one friend, and I probably won't bother with presents for anyone else except mum. No idea what to get for her though. I'm pretty torn this year - my dad left my mum, so he won't be there for Christmas this year. It's also the first year, as I said, that I'm with my partner, and my first opportunity in my life to have my own little Christmas (I suffered through many unpleasant ones while my dad was around for my mum's sake, and because I had nowhere else to go.) My brother lives at home, so mum won't be alone if I stay in Cork with my partner (who will be alone if I go to Kerry), but it's sucky that it would be the first year she both doesn't have her husband, OR her daughter. Due to animals (and honestly, out of preference), my partner can't come with me to Kerry. So far, I'm planning on staying with my partner. I've had a ton of chats about this with various friends. All agree it's tough, but also that I spent years having miserable Christmases to make others happy, so I should take advantage of the opportunity to have my own happy one this year. Obviously, I will still go see my mum within a day or two of Christmas day, just maybe not ON Christmas day.

The House We Grew Up In is definitely not a thriller, very much drama/fiction. The Girls has a bit of a mystery at the heart of it, and I Found You is full on thriller/mystery. So I liked I Found You the most, The House We Grew Up In the least and The Girls in the middle. They got five, four and three stars reflecting that. Still, she's an excellent writer, the characters in House just didn't appeal so much.

I'm on 69. For a few weeks I've been staying at exactly 7 books ahead of schedule, so if I keep that up I should hit a total of 80+ for the year. And that's not including comics. But it will include graphic novels. (I just can't justify including a 130 page comic as a 'book', if anything, it equates to a short story! But graphic novels have 300+ pages quite often.)

Lovely here today in Cork - bright and dry. Not that cold, Met Eireann says 11 degrees, with top temps of 13-14 during the day. I haven't really had a chance to wear my nice Winter coat yet, which is a shame. Still, happy that it's dry and cool.

Either salmon and waffles or pizza. Probably salmon and waffles, save pizza for friday.

Lately I've been reading a bunch of Lisa Jewell books. I'm really enjoying them. So far I've read The House We Grew Up In, I Found You, and The Girls (in the garden). My favourite was also the first one I read - I Found You. I just loved the characters! I'd love to read more mystery/thrillers by her, as the other two were a little more character-driven and not as exciting. I've started making a list of graphic novels I want, and picked up Through the Wood by Emily Carroll yesterday, and I've also bought five Deadpool comic collections in the last couple of weeks. That's not going to be an expensive hobby at all At the moment I'm focusing on reading Lost Girls, the third in the D.I Kim Stone series. Really enjoying it, as always.

I can't believe it's November! I'm still super busy with my course, all of my spare time that isn't spent on coursework (which isn't much) is spent on getting in a bit of reading or cross-stitching, which is why I haven't been on here much lately! Still, the course is going well so I'm happy. I've also started a little collection of Deadpool comics - my partner has a huge collection of Batman comics and I love Deadpool in general so when we were in Dublin last week for a retro gaming conference, I went with him to peruse comics and I came away with three Deadpool collections. I've since figured out all the starting points for various different runs of different series/authors for the character, and am working on gathering those. Lots of graphic novels are speaking to me too - I have about 5 or 6 on a list and I bought Through the Wood by Emily Carroll, which is one I spotted in Waterstones yesterday after adding it on Goodreads months ago. So that's me - all quiet aside from that. Have to take down my Halloween decorations this evening - lots of cobwebs and gel window stickers, not looking forward to trying to preserve them for next year!

I'm reading Lost Signals, a collection of spooky short stories around the idea of radio waves, stray transmissions etc. So far so good!

Hey everyone! Hope you're all well. I haven't been around much because I'm swamped with my course. Loving it though! And still finding some time to read, which is great.

We're having a piri piri stuffed roast chicken, veggies and baby potatoes. It all came together in one tray, looks really tasty.

I'm glad your grandfather is recovering well, Gaia Got everything sorted in the end - the bank gave me the overdraft without bothering to tell me, I realised a few days later when paying a bill. So I also paid my deposit, and am all set up with my student number and email. Halfway through week 2 of the course, and I've decided to tackle all six modules this semester (rather than 3 this semester and 3 in the 2018 Autumn semester). Three of the modules are in stuff I have a pretty good grasp of technically, and mostly focus on the technical side, so I think they'll be easy enough (famous last words). The other three are the meatier more theoretical modules and that's where the real learning is for me. Love it so far! Hope everyone is well

Read Local Girl Missing over two evenings. Very readable, enjoyed it. Kind of an odd ending, imo. Not as good as Last Seen Alive, but still good. I've bought Copycat by Alex Lake (I now have two different thrillers by this name on my Kindle! Really got to start reading what I have before buying more). That will probably be my next read.

Yup. Part one is the kids section of the book, part two will be the adults section. Apparently a lot darker too.

The afternoons are still 17 degrees here, but with cold mornings and nights. Also some very heavy rain, so very changeable weather.

Watched IT in the cinema. Enjoyed it - knew the basic story but never read the book or seen any other version. Felt very Stephen Spielberg-y in its execution. Wasn't scary at all, though it managed to make me jump once, and the use of the more horror-y elements was really great. The kids were good too - still not as good as the Stranger Things kids, but but good kids with a good script. Looking forward to part 2.

Almost finished Don't Close Your Eyes by Holly Seddon. Was expecting it to be much more of a thriller, but really enjoying it regardless. Good character-driven novel.

Yeah I have to admit, I'm tempted to change banks but I'm pretty sure the other main one here is doing the same thing. Might look into Ulster bank maybe. I also never heard back from my bank about the overdraft. Just never got a phone call. My savings will move to my current account tomorrow night anyway, so at this stage I'll just pay the deposit tomorrow night and hopefully be set up Monday. My 'Paint By Numbers' sets also arrived this morning - been seeing a lot of them advertised on Facebook, very detailed paint-by-numbers which are done with acrylics on canvas and look like really cool, slightly abstract paintings when done. Lots of different companies doing them, I saw one offering them half price and they seemed legit so I purchased four of them. Arrived today - huge good quality canvases, clear printing, all the paints, brushes and palettes I need, and even little hooks to hang them on the wall! I could have opted for frames as well, but too expensive. Cannot WAIT to get going with them!

The concept behind the self-service tills is pretty straight forward - scan an item, put it in the bagging area, scan the next one and so on. Select payment type, put in card or cash, and then frantically bag your items in a state of panic while the till shouts PLEASE TAKE YOUR ITEMS. THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING AT TESCO. PLEASE TAKE YOUR ITEMS. But somehow, something always goes wrong Well, I emailed my course co-ordinator anyway and she was lovely, she said she'll get the lecturers to email me the lectures (it's a fully online course) to my personal email this week while waiting to get set up, which is fantastic because I won't fall behind. The 1 week notice thing is just an element of the type of saving account I have and the bank it's with. I know at least one other bank doesn't have the same limitation on their online savings. Mostly, it works for me, as the 1 week notice prevents me from skimming small amounts off my savings. But in this instance, it's a pain. I really thought getting an overdraft would be a case of walking into the bank, talking to someone for 15 minutes, and being told whether it would be approved or not, and when it would be activated. That's how it worked 10 years ago!!! It'll all work out, I'm just impatient!

That often happens in September. This is probably the coolest September I can remember in recent years - we'd often get temperatures up to and into the twenties in September, sometimes early October. May happen yet I suppose!

I finished Evil Games by Angela Marsons. Enjoyed it, and am warming to the main character a bit, although she's still unrealistically intuitive and occasionally annoying. Also read Lies by T M Logan. Don't really even remember buying it, it might have been on offer on Kindle. It was pretty good, definitely enjoyable to read. Fairly average psych thriller. For once, though, I actually guessed the twist very early on! I immediately dismissed it, because I'm never right, but this time I was Now reading Don't Close Your Eyes by Holly Seddon and really enjoying it so far.

Our house is quite cold now, putting the heating on for much longer periods in the evenings. But it's still frequently quite warm in the afternoons outside. It rarely drops below 14-16 degrees over the course of the day. Which to me, is not cold. it's not cold until it's in single digits. Today it's very cloudy, but dry, and there are patches of blue sky. I don't think it will rain, though the forecast says it might, later.

I'm up to 60, and 7 ahead of schedule, so very pleased. I'm tearing through them because I've found a couple of police thriller series I'm really enjoying.

We need that rule in Ireland, no early buses. In Summer I was leaving my house at 8:05 to catch a bus usually around 8:14, which wasn't due until 8:24. It then arrived in town and sat at a city centre stop for 10-15 mins until it caught up with its own timetable. Now, that same bus doesn't reach my stop until 8:40 or 8:45, and today it got stuck in traffic. I got to work at half 9, instead of 9. Typically, the earlier bus goes before the traffic, so it's still always early, due at 8:05 but leaving sometimes before 7:55. It's bonkers. And I'm the same with the self-service checkouts, they always beep at me and give out to me about unknown items in the bagging area. Or things don't scan, so I've to stand there like a knob waiting for someone with a card to come over and put in a code. I've often seen in Tesco particularly, or Dealz (a pound shop) that they have one or two staff on the self service and nobody on actual tills. And there might be a queue at the self-service, but still nobody goes on the tills. Wrecks my head.