Sovereign state (n.)
"A state with a defined territory that administers its own government and is not subject to or dependent on another power." [1]
…yep, I'd say that does a fairly good job of describing Ireland. Let's begin!
We begin our tale… actually rather late (compared to last blog post) in August, 'cause nothing really happened for the first week or so. SO it's now Thursday, the 9th!
We set out for Ireland a day early, staying overnight in a hotel near Holyhead. We got there really late - half past 11, to be precise! - but still checked in fine. We had a choice of two rooms; room 5, upstairs at the front; or room 10, downstairs at the back. They both had two beds, so we agreed that Mum & Dad would sleep in one room, whilst me and Maia would sleep in the other.
Me and Maia chose room 5 - and it was pretty amazing, I must say! We even managed to get a fan in for me - I can't sleep without the noise (and in this case the cool air, too) - though we managed to get into a misunderstanding with the shower. Four cord (not an alarm as was thought) pulls later and we were showered and ready for bed! 😁
The next morning, Maia's alarm went off as expected at 6.15. We got up, dressed and came down for breakfast at 7! I had scrambled eggs, toast and sausages. The toast was thicker than I expected, so I had to give myself extra insulin (and it was also wider than expected, but me being the beacon of intelligence I am, I didn't actually factor THAT in.)
We headed off to the ferry, getting there at about 8.15. It set off just before 8.30, sailing smoothly the whole way and getting us to Dublin for 11.30. We then had about a 40-mile drive to my relatives - my aunt Brenda, uncle Eugene and cousins Gráinne, Molly and Isabelle - who we stayed with for the rest of the week.
We met Isabelle - my newest cousin - and played with Gráinne and Molly on a bouncy castle that Brenda and Eugene had rented for Gráinne's 7th birthday party.
The net day - Saturday - we went shopping in a nearby city and even had lunch out! I had sausages and chips - the sausages are one of my favourites, so I feel it's a shame I only have them once every two years - and then went back.
On Sunday, a lot of us went over to the house of one of my mum's aunts for lunch… not exactly the most socially comfortable I've ever felt, shall we say.
Then on Monday, we went to another of my mum's aunts, and after visiting her, went to the beach! I saw my first jellyfish (well, not my FIRST, but the first not on TV or the internet.)
We set out for Ireland a day early, staying overnight in a hotel near Holyhead. We got there really late - half past 11, to be precise! - but still checked in fine. We had a choice of two rooms; room 5, upstairs at the front; or room 10, downstairs at the back. They both had two beds, so we agreed that Mum & Dad would sleep in one room, whilst me and Maia would sleep in the other.
Me and Maia chose room 5 - and it was pretty amazing, I must say! We even managed to get a fan in for me - I can't sleep without the noise (and in this case the cool air, too) - though we managed to get into a misunderstanding with the shower. Four cord (not an alarm as was thought) pulls later and we were showered and ready for bed! 😁
The next morning, Maia's alarm went off as expected at 6.15. We got up, dressed and came down for breakfast at 7! I had scrambled eggs, toast and sausages. The toast was thicker than I expected, so I had to give myself extra insulin (and it was also wider than expected, but me being the beacon of intelligence I am, I didn't actually factor THAT in.)
We headed off to the ferry, getting there at about 8.15. It set off just before 8.30, sailing smoothly the whole way and getting us to Dublin for 11.30. We then had about a 40-mile drive to my relatives - my aunt Brenda, uncle Eugene and cousins Gráinne, Molly and Isabelle - who we stayed with for the rest of the week.
We met Isabelle - my newest cousin - and played with Gráinne and Molly on a bouncy castle that Brenda and Eugene had rented for Gráinne's 7th birthday party.
The net day - Saturday - we went shopping in a nearby city and even had lunch out! I had sausages and chips - the sausages are one of my favourites, so I feel it's a shame I only have them once every two years - and then went back.
On Sunday, a lot of us went over to the house of one of my mum's aunts for lunch… not exactly the most socially comfortable I've ever felt, shall we say.
Then on Monday, we went to another of my mum's aunts, and after visiting her, went to the beach! I saw my first jellyfish (well, not my FIRST, but the first not on TV or the internet.)
 |
| It wobbled like jelly. …what else did you expect it to do? 😐 |
Their chicken is a LOT lower-carb than I expected, and I ended up having so much (as I thought they were small… they weren't!) that I felt really full afterwards.
It's really a shame they're not over here in the UK yet… they've tried, but McDonald's keep rejecting them based on Supermac's being too similar.
Despite the fact they've been trading together in Ireland.
Completely fine.
With no confusion.
For the last forty years.
 |
| Here are the chicken tenders. OH MY GOD THEY ARE DELICIOUS |
…ahem. On Wednesday, we went into town and found a few shops open, so we poked around and found a few things we liked.
…well, by 'we' I mean 'almost exclusively Mum'.
For lunch, we went up to see a few of Mum's aunts and uncles, including Mary, who's been living in London for quite a while but has returned home for a while (next month, she's off to Kenya for nine months!) Lunch was fantastic, and Gráinne and Molly also had a couple of races in the garden - even managing to rope in a few of the adults!
Gráinne won every single one of them - much to her delight!
On Thursday, we went shopping for things to take home, like Tayto crisps, flour, tea, Club Orange (an orange-flavoured fizzy drink), cards, the ever-ubiquitous potatoes, clothes, and for Maia, Kinder Pingui (chocolate with a kind of ice-creamy milky fluffy… stuff between it.)
On Friday, we all woke up at 5am!
Yay.
We left Brenda and Eugene's - with tears galore - at about 5:40, getting to Dublin Port at 7am, then boarding the ferry to Holyhead at about 7:50. We then spotted the furthest tip of Anglesey at about 10:45, disembarking at 11:30.
…well, by 'we' I mean 'almost exclusively Mum'.
For lunch, we went up to see a few of Mum's aunts and uncles, including Mary, who's been living in London for quite a while but has returned home for a while (next month, she's off to Kenya for nine months!) Lunch was fantastic, and Gráinne and Molly also had a couple of races in the garden - even managing to rope in a few of the adults!
Gráinne won every single one of them - much to her delight!
On Thursday, we went shopping for things to take home, like Tayto crisps, flour, tea, Club Orange (an orange-flavoured fizzy drink), cards, the ever-ubiquitous potatoes, clothes, and for Maia, Kinder Pingui (chocolate with a kind of ice-creamy milky fluffy… stuff between it.)
On Friday, we all woke up at 5am!
Yay.
We left Brenda and Eugene's - with tears galore - at about 5:40, getting to Dublin Port at 7am, then boarding the ferry to Holyhead at about 7:50. We then spotted the furthest tip of Anglesey at about 10:45, disembarking at 11:30.
 |
| Say 'hello' to everyone's favourite Irish Sea! wait it's the only Irish Sea noooooo |
We had lunch at the Morrison's, then set off for home, stopping off to stretch our legs at the IKEA in Birmingham, eventually reaching home at 7pm. We had fish and chips for dinner, I relaxed in bed, everything was going great!
And then I had a massive argument with my parents.
WHAT A WONDERFUL THING THAT WAS.
And then I had a massive argument with my parents.
WHAT A WONDERFUL THING THAT WAS.
...either way, not much happened for the next six days; it was mainly just back to the regular routine of relaxing and playing games.
Though on Saturday, dinner was fish nuggets - one of Brenda's suggestions - and they tasted really good! The only problem is that there were a lot of bones - but that's less a problem with the suggestion and more a problem with the specific fish we bought.
Should we be blamed for expecting our fish to be boneless by default? Who knows. 😕
THEN ON THURSDAY
It was GCSE results day on Thursday.
I had previously given my number so I could be called with my results. We were told that it would be be between 8:30 and 9:30, and sure enough, at 8:40, my phone began to ring! On the other side was Sherie, with whom I had a little chat, before she told me my results:
In Science, I got a 7 and an 8; Sherie said they would have been an A* and an A in the old system!
In Maths, I got a 5; since I was doing the Foundation-level paper, that was the highest grade I could get!*
In English, I got a 4; just enough to pass, thank God for that! I also passed the Spoken Language thingy we did a few months before.
In Geography, I got a 3; not too surprising, especially considering how I found the tests. I've never been great at it!
In PE, I got a 2; anything higher and I would have been REALLY shocked. It's always been my least favourite subject, so I never expected to get anything much in it.
*There is no way in hell I'd do the Higher paper, not after '10/sqrt(5)' appeared on the mock paper, with me having to give the answer as a square root. (The answer? I looked it up later, and it turned out to be the square root of 20. How the hell was I supposed to figure that out?)
*There is no way in hell I'd do the Higher paper, not after '10/sqrt(5)' appeared on the mock paper, with me having to give the answer as a square root. (The answer? I looked it up later, and it turned out to be the square root of 20. How the hell was I supposed to figure that out?)
I thought I would fail badly?
 |
| seriously nope yay :D |
Overall, I did much better than I was expecting! Between Science, Maths, Art and English, I have the five GCSE grades at 4 or above that I needed to get into college and study Applied Science -- so here's to working toward my dream!
You know, my dream!
The generic...ish one.
...the actually-grounded-in-reality one?
THE LAB TECH ONE.
...yeah, that one. 😐
Anyway, the Wednesday after that - the 29th - was what college called joining day.
I went in - with Maia following behind to ease my worries - at 9.30. Soon after she left, I realised that I had in fact forgotten the form I was supposed to bring in.
Oops.
They ended up printing off another, which I filled in without many problems (apart from not being able to fill in a couple of fields.)
After that, we went on a quick tour of the college, seeing places like the café and an outside plaza-like area with lots of plants!
We then went to have our pictures taken for our student IDs, leaving afterwards.
It seems that I've reached the end of everything that's happened this month - so look forward to next month's blog post, which'll be filled with tales of college life, new PCs and seventeen...ness...
...where exactly was I going with that?
I wouldn't exactly call 'seventeen-ness' grammatically correct.
Anyway, the Wednesday after that - the 29th - was what college called joining day.
I went in - with Maia following behind to ease my worries - at 9.30. Soon after she left, I realised that I had in fact forgotten the form I was supposed to bring in.
Oops.
They ended up printing off another, which I filled in without many problems (apart from not being able to fill in a couple of fields.)
After that, we went on a quick tour of the college, seeing places like the café and an outside plaza-like area with lots of plants!
We then went to have our pictures taken for our student IDs, leaving afterwards.
It seems that I've reached the end of everything that's happened this month - so look forward to next month's blog post, which'll be filled with tales of college life, new PCs and seventeen...ness...
...where exactly was I going with that?
I wouldn't exactly call 'seventeen-ness' grammatically correct.