To do: My first hour long live radio show...alone...as gaeilge!!

Last week, I did a show on Athlone Community Radio (athlonecommunityradio.ie) with a fella called Eugene called Inniu Inné Amárach. This week, Eugene isn't able to do the show, so I got the gig!
I'm scared s**tless, but I will do it and I will be happy I've done it! I'll post my script after the show.
Wish me luck!

To do: continue driving lessons and be legal about it.

Well I've done my second driving lesson. It was scary as hell but I survived the worst bridge junction in the history of time, a really confusing set of traffic lights and a big massive roundabout. Result.
I am also now insured on Mammerific's '09 Yaris so I can practice (under her supervision as she clings to the passenger door for dear life) to my heart's content.

To Do: Make cookies from scratch for the first time

Inspired by Jamie Oliver and the contents of my kitchen press, I decided today to make cookies. I followed Jamie's recipe from The Ministry of Food and this is what I did.

First I gathered my ingredients (above minus egg!):
 125g Butter
100g Caster Sugar
1 Large egg
100g Plain flour
25g Pinhead porridge oats
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 packets of white buttons :)

Method:
Mix butter and sugar in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon until thick and creamy. I found this hard and put the bowl in the microwave for 10secs to help it along!
Beat egg seperately, then mix well with butter and sugar.

Seive flour into the mix along with oats, baking powder and salt. Mix until smooth.
Here, I added my Buttons (quatered) and mixed in well.
As per Jamie's recipe, spoon mix onto cling film and roll into a sausage with diameter 7cm, and put into the freezer for 30 mins.

Preheat oven to 190deg.
When the 30 mins freezer time is up, unroll and cut 1cm slices of the sausage. Place faaaaaaar apart from each other on 2 baking trays and bake for 10-12 mins until a golden brown on the edge. Leave to cool for  five minutes and then keave for a further ten on a wire rack.

Et Voila! The finished product. They may look like slices of bread but they taste like little pieces of yumminess.

To do: maintain a beauty regime for at least 14 days...

After six days of overindulgence due to the presence of my favourite lebanese cousin, my skin is in bits. A synopsis of our bold habits could include Mexican food, chinese food, turkish food, spanish food, and a mixture of numerous nationalities of alcohol.
So on my To Do list at this moment in time is to, for once, and hopefuly for longer, keep a beauty regime for at least a fortnight starting today.
My regimen is as follows
Morning:
Neutrogena Pink Grapefruit cleansing gel
Oil of Olay Moisterising lotion
Night:
Neutrogena Pink Grapefruit Face Scrub
Oil of Olay Moisterising lotion
Johnsons two tone eye make-up remover
Clinique Acne Solutions Spot healing gel

I can only imagine that the most promising part of my new regime will be the Clinique above..If only because it cost three time the price of the others!
Day one: over.
Let's hope day two to fourteen are just as successful :)

To do: attain Master's Degree and do first Driving Lesson all in one day...DONE

I knew there was a reason that my body woke me at 5.15am this morning and refused to allow me back to dreamland until normal people were well on their ways to work. Yes. Today was officially my most grown-up day to date. Oh how my body can tell the future.
I was woken by a call from my mother circa eleven o'clock from the depths of below asking if I was alive. This was followed by a call, "Will I bring up your post", she asked. "Yes please", I groaned as I turned over and tried to comfort my sore, swollen freshly pierced ear. As I opened the non-descript white envelope I saw a small, but definite NUI Galway Logo pop out. It couldn't be, could it? Yes, yes it was. It was my result. The result of the Masters I'd all but forgotten about. 66.0. Second Class honours Grade one. Yesssssssss. 
I swiftly jumped up, ran downstairs, hugged by parents, skyped my sisters and rang my boyfriend. And all before twelve, a productive day so far, yes.
Then I toddled into town, looked about and took the next step of the day. My first driving lesson. It was fun, and exciting and a little bit scary when a bus stopped and I though I wouldn't get passed it, but I survived. Not only did I survive, but I am more determined than ever now that I've finally driven on a real road with real people.
Some day, eh?
Done and done!

To do: Be a Fully Licensed driver by February.

Yes. It is true that I've had my provisional over a year and have never been insured or driven on a real life road. But I can and will do it. If Homer Simpson can drive, yes sireeeee so can I!

To do: Lebanon.

Today I've decided to put my second plan of my year off in motion. My first was executed with ease with help from the lovely boyf. It was an interrailing trip from Stockholm to Paris via Copenhagen and Amsterdam and was most definitely the best start to my year (i.e. September to September!). This second plan will take far more thinking and organisation on my part. It will be a fortnight visit to my relations in Lebanon.

I've only once travelled alone on an airplane (and that was Heathrow to Dublin, hardly challenging!) and I've never been outside Europe. I'm excited and very nervous. I'm not nervous about the destination, no, my cousins will certainly look after me, I'm nervous about the fact that I'm actually doing something I've been talking about doing for years. Literally years! 

I'm a serial procrastinator when it comes to all aspects of my life and I usually end up sticking to the normal route and not straying. This is going to be a great experience, for certain. It will open my eyes to a world I've only read about in papers and seen on telly.

I can't wait. This is it. This is me finally realising my potential and living up to the grand high expectations I set for myself as a teenager to be different and to experience everything. 

Some people may think that I am overreacting, but I think I'm on my way. If I only have one year to make myself the person I should be, then every experience and opportunity can and will help me do that. 

Two weeks can change a life, I'm hoping it will help shape mine.  

Visiting the Big Schmoke.

There was a time when no planning went into my visiting people, I threw however many outfits into a bag, make up wipes, make up, phone charger and off. Now that I'm a big girl and have a severe amount of time on my hands however, this has changed. My current impending trip to visit the Boyf in Dublin is taking far too long to pack for. Things are not as simple as they were.
My Student Travel Card no longer lives in my purse, for one, it seems, and this has lead to over two hours of searching. And to no avail. I can't get another because, alas, I am no longer a student. Sad face. I uprooted the big black sack in my room (full of 'clean' rubbish - old bits and bobs not fit for charity and that cannot be recycled- after Project clean away five years of College) and emptied it into another black sack. I found a fiver, but no travel card. Happy face, followed by Super duper sad face.
Also, the fact that my wardrobe is more extensive than ever has lead to the dilemma of what to bring. Boots are a must, because of the rain. Therefore clothes that go into the boots are staple.
So with clothes half sorted, and cleanser, toner, moisteriser, make up (including new No7 Exceptional Definition Mascara that was only €9 with my €7.50 voucher plus free eye shadow palette which I love - green, gold, dark shimmering brown and purple) and all things beauty related organised, I get a call from the Boyf saying his friend and his Girlf are cooking us dinner Saturday night. Eeeek. I've never met this particular friend before, nor his Girlf...and now they're cooking for us!
This is something I wouldn't think twice about springing on Himself, but it's totally different the other way around. Four years ago in this situation I would not have panicked because I wouldn't have had time to. Not that I'm panicking, really, just wondering how it will go, will they like me, what will I wear, etc. The usual wonderings in a situation like this.
And then a thought hits me. Yes, right now, a thought has just hit me. I will wear my fabulous, bargaintastic new clogs with heels, purchased today for €30 in Topshop (I had a €20 voucher so they were a tenner - cha-ching!).

So now I'm delighted. I'm not only looking forward to seeing my beloved, but also to wearing my favourite new shoes. Result.

Hello

For the first time in five years (i.e. since school) I'm not employed and I'm not in college. Five years of studying later, I'm still a nothing, well, a master and a bachelor, but no specific employable title. I've decided to use this year to do the things I didn't do during the five summers since school because realistically I'm going to have to become a real person soon and all the crazy things you can do during college can't be fit into a grown up life. I didn't go work abroad, or go on mental backpacking holidays. Now's my chance. I'm going to travel, write like I've never written before (about everything) and relax my brain after all the learning. There will be many a time where stream of concsiousness-esque posts will be unreadable, and more than likely not interesting to those not in my head, but for the most part, I hope anyone who reads my journey will enjoy it and take something from it.