Anyway, April started, as it always does, on April Fool's Day, when I - for the first time ever - played a (small) prank on Maia!
I won't say exactly what it was, though, because it was about a weird sibling thing that wouldn't make sense to basically anybody else -- but I will say that it was something I made in PowerPoint.
Also, my ears were still giving me trouble.
Also, it's been Autism Awareness Month this past month.
Please be aware of me.
what else am I supposed to say lol
On Saturday, the 6th, I took the train to Guildford with Mum for a day out!
We had lunch at Five Guys, where she's been trying to get me to eat for a very long time. It was all right -- not really anything to write home about, if I'm honest - even the chips that I've heard people raving about - but the milkshake I had was actually really nice!
We didn't do an awful lot after that, and we went back after spending only a couple of hours there. When we got back, instead of going straight home, we decided to stop by an ice cream place we'd been meaning to try for a while, and we each had an ice cream there!
On the 7th, I (with the help of other real-life people, of course) fought, and won, against Meganium the Unrivalled in Pokémon Scarlet!
That makes twelve Pokémon with the Mightiest Mark (indicating it was caught in one of those super-hard battle events) that I have now.
A couple of days later, on the 9th, I completed that Pokémon ROM hack I talked about last month, too!
On Thursday the 11th, I got my hair cut in preparation for our Ireland trip! Mum said it looked nice on me - though, to be fair, she says that about every haircut I get (except for one I got during lockdown, but we don't talk about that haircut.)
Then, on the next Thursday, the 18th, it was finally time for us to go to Ireland! Nearly seven hours of driving led us to Holyhead, where we spent the night in a Premier Inn that opened some time after last time we went to Ireland, nearly six years ago.
Dinner was nice, too - I had steak, eggs and chips!
The next day, it was up at the crack of dawn (by which I mean I woke up at 5.45 am) and onto the ferry for about 7.45 am. The ferry actually set off about 15 minutes early, which was nice, and Maia gave Dad and I each a hyoscine tablet (though I'm not sure exactly how much I needed mine) which, combined with the smooth crossing, meant that nobody felt sick at all! Hurray!
During the ferry journey, I went out to the back a couple of times, once with Maia and then once again with Mum. I got some good photos there!
That night, after arriving at Brenda & Eugene's house, I played a game of Mario Party with the girls, and everybody had fun! (Except for the fact that one of the controllers I brought with us didn't work, so each game could only have three players instead of four.)
The next day, because the café we wanted to eat at had shut down over COVID, we had lunch at Supermac's again instead - and I think I might've got even more ice cream this time?
After dinner, another Mario Party game was started, although with Maia and Isabelle playing instead of me. It wasn't completed in time for bed, but we were able to save the progress so it could be picked up again later!
Also, my hands were becoming painfully dry, to the point where I actually deliberately spilt water onto them in some desperate attempt to alleviate things -- funnily enough, it didn't last. I think it has something to do with the Irish water, to be honest.
Anyway, the next day was Sunday -- which meant it was my cousin Gráinne's confirmation! We went to church for the ceremony itself, then went back to Brenda & Eugene's for a big family celebration.
Later, Saturday's Mario Party game was completed -- then, since it was time for Isabelle to go to bed, Maia handed over the controller to me, and I played some minigames with Gráinne and Molly until it was time for them to go to bed, too.
They REALLY like the game Look Away!
And no time spent around cats can be considered "complete" without a photograph, right? Here's Brenda & Eugene's pet cat, Minnie!
She mostly does her own thing, but I managed to catch her sleeping on "my" bed on Saturday and the photo opportunity was just too cute to pass up!
The next day, we all drove up to Newbridge for a shopping trip, and Gráinne was excited to spend some of the money she'd got for her confirmation.
Fun fact: Newbridge's Irish-language name, "An Droichead Nua", literally means "The New Bridge".
I wonder what bridge it's referring to, and when it was new?
At one point, Dad pointed out to me how he'd seen the game Super Mario 3D All-Stars being sold for €120! That's because they created artificial scarcity by only selling it for a six-month period, from September 2020 to March 2021. It actually gave rise to an internet meme that I referenced myself when playing Minecraft one time:
It turns out "Milano" is the name of Pizza Express in Ireland. I had a pizza with ham there:
Shortly afterwards, our families split up -- while Brenda, Eugene, and the girls returned home, we went to Newbridge Silverware so that Mum could find a gold claddagh ring as a present for Maia's graduation from last year.
She didn't find anything, but I found a funny cat-themed birthday card that I bought, because Mum's birthday was the very next day!
We then went to a garden centre and bought a few plants for more stuff the next day, and then we visited a few other places -- like a memorial to the 1798 rebellion and the first-ever house Mum lived in as a baby, which we also visited last time; since Mum moved out, though, it's sadly fallen into ruin.
Also, by this point, I'd been given some moisturising cream that Dad happened to have with him, so my hands were much improved compared to a couple of days earlier.
Then, it finally came time for Mum's birthday - the first one she's spent at home in Ireland in forever!
After a quick morning gift exchange, we set off to the shops, so that we could buy lots of Irish food to take back home with us. Then, it was off to my grandparents' grave, and we cleaned it up (by which I mean everybody else cleaned it up and I just awkwardly poured water onto the plants because I didn't want to get my hands dirty just before lunch.)
Then, we headed to a community-run café with good reviews for lunch, and I chose to have the breakfast bap!
It was SO GOOD!
Then, it was off to see all the aunts and uncles -- and there was more lunch THERE for us, too, which we weren't expecting!
I had a couple of sandwiches and sausage rolls, and then when it came time for dessert, I had a couple of ice-cream sandwiches!
So we bought eight packs. I'm limiting myself to only one pack a week so that they last longer.
Anyway, it was up at 4.30 am the next day, since we had a ferry to catch over in Dublin!
We got there without issue, and the crossing was smooth again. Maia left her phone behind when we went back down to the car upon arriving in Holyhead, but very thankfully, someone who'd been sitting next to us realised and kept it safe until Maia could rush back upstairs to grab it back, so crisis averted!
After lunch at Morrisons, it took five-and-a-half hours of driving to get home -- and it was nice to be back in our own beds again!
…Although I can't sprawl out like I could in Ireland, because I was given a double mattress there but i only have a single bed back home.
And that brings us pretty much to the end of what's happened to me this month -- I haven't really done anything exciting since we got back. I did have a particularly nasty cold - the second in a month - that reared its head when we got back, the first sign of which I noticed being a sore throat on the ferry, but everybody dismissed it then. Thankfully, I seem to be more-or-less cold-free, and this time didn't play havoc with my Eustachian tubes, either! Miracles never cease.
Anyway, that's all from me for this month -- so I'll see you again at the end of next month!
Bye for now!