September 2025: Highly Composite

I just randomly thought of a joke based off of highly composite numbers the other night.
Before that, it was going to be "Ninteen Twenty-Four", based off a particular Spongebob episode.
Which I can't find on Youtube for some reason.

On Monday the 1^st, we all went to Guildford to listen to Professor Alice Roberts give a talk, called "Domination", about how Christianity spread across Europe, which was accompanied by a book of the same name. We didn't buy the book, but it was still a very interesting talk, going over details like the church of St Illtud in Wales and the appearance of Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea.
I'd recommend going to one of her talks if ever you get the chance.

And then, two days later, it was time for me to go on a plane for the first time in seventeen years, because I hadn't actually flown anywhere since we came back from Malta in 2008. That was ALSO the last time I left the British Isles, but… well, let's move on.
On Wednesday the 3^rd, we flew out of Heathrow at about 2.35pm, which was roughly an hour later than we were SUPPOSED to because of weather-based delays (it was raining a lot.)

Maia and I got into a joke argument over whether we were riding to Heathrow on a coach (her view) or a bus (my view.)
OBVIOUSLY, I was right. Why ELSE would it say "busses", after all? :p

I took this photo when we got to the airport.
I'm censoring Maia for the sake of her privacy, though.

I never stopped to think about how shade is just clouds casting shadows.
Until I saw the shadows on the sea, that is.

Don't ask me why the ice cream of a particular fast-food chain is one of the things I look forward to most when I visit Ireland.
My brain isn't exactly one to make sense, now is it?

Once we landed in Dublin, we left our bags at the hotel and made our way to Trinity College Dublin to see the Book of Kells. I don't have a photo, though, because they don't let you photograph the book.
But we saw an ogham stone and a projection of the Earth too, among other things!

The language written on that stone is the one spoken by my ancestors from around 1750 years ago.
Funny how that works out.

I wish I could remember more about the installation - even its name - but apparently I didn't write that in my diary.

I have no idea what that type of building is called. I think it's a pavilion? Possibly?
Looks nice, though.

The next morning, Maia and I made our way across the River Liffey (which was a thing we did a LOT during our short time in Dublin, because we were on ONE side and everything we wanted to do was on the OTHER side) to have a full Irish breakfast!

The less we talk about me accidentally getting in a woman's way when taking this photograph, the better.
I DIDN'T SEE HER OKAY???

So it turns out that dusting croissants with sugar actually works.
Like the time I only realised croissants are sweet when I put bacon in one.

After that, we took the Luas (tram system - REAL trams that go on the roads, unlike London's Tramlink, which is more of a light rail system) to a tour of Kilmainham Gaol. The museum at the end had a scale model of the building, and also a framed copy of Ireland's declaration of independence.
It was really interesting - so there's another Recommendation™ from me!

I thought the scale model was nice. I'm not sure where we were on that model, though.

It was almost certainly enlarged, because WOW that's big.
But I can't be ABSOLUTELY certain.

We went to the Jervis Shopping Centre afterwards. I liked how the Tesco had signs with Irish words on them.
But of COURSE I couldn't figure out where in this blog post to put this photo, so it's going here

Once we got back to the city centre, Maia & I headed to Dublin Castle, where we got tickets for a "self-guided" tour around most of what's open to the public.
Half the reason we got those tickets is because they were cheaper. The OTHER half of the reason is because we would have had to wait like half an hour for another guided tour.

Just before we left, Maia overheard and saw a pair of Americans in awe of the rain.
They even PHOTOGRAPHED it, I'm told.

It turns out my photography skills leave a lot to be desired.
If you zoom in, this photo is VERY blurry.

And the last thing on the list for Thursday was to visit the National Gallery of Ireland.
It was free to get in, and the art was nice!
It turns out Colette knew what she was talking about when she recommended I go to the V&A.

Oh no the R is gone, now we have to say "photog aphy"

This was probably my favourite painting in the whole gallery.
Funnily enough, that was at the very beginning, and we wound up spending like an hour there, I think.

On Friday the 9^th, we visited EPIC The Irish Immigration Museum (yes that's its actual name) - but I didn't take any good photographs there, so… sorry, I guess. I was more focussed on keeping my hands (and Maia's) sanitised to stop us from catching who-knows-what diseases from the worldwide general public.
After that, we grabbed our already-packed bags from the hotel and made our way to Dublin Airport to take the plane back to Britain.
Please ignore the fact that I forgot to empty my water bottle before going through security, at least the guy was understanding and emptied it for me

We had to go west at first and then do a U-turn.
Can't remember why.

I believe that is, as they say in Germany, "der See".
("the sea")

It London

We got back safe and sound, and returned to our own beds at last. But it was a nice trip - I enjoyed it!
Then Sunday the 7^th came by, and I tried to muffle the emergency alert sound by stuffing my phone beneath my mattress.
Actually, it just made the whole bedframe vibrate. Not my brightest idea, I'll admit.

Dad changed the lock on the font door while we were in Ireland, so I got my new key on Monday. The old one now lives with my even-older key on my bedside table, for posterity I guess.
Meanwhile, they revealed Mega Malamar for Pokémon Legends: Z-A on Wednesday the 10^th, and then there was a whole Nintendo Direct on Friday the 12^th!
I'm looking forward most of all to Pokémon Pokopia, which feels to me like the result of a high speed collision between Pokémon and Animal Crossing, and I'm eager to find out more about the game.

Saturday the 13^th was, of course, my birthday! I'm now 24 even though I wasn't used to calling myself 23 yet.
I have a new external hard drive for backing up my computer onto, and the one I USED to use now holds screenshots and videos from my Switch. That's 625 gigabytes of data amassed over the last eight years.
On Sunday the 24^th, we headed up to see my grandparents and celebrate their 60^th wedding anniversary by everybody having dinner out - all ten of us!
I had a burger and chips for my meal. The chips were REALLY good, and I liked the bacon on the burger too.

I also had a cake for dessert. It was all right - though I'm not really a cake person, so that'll naturally influence my opinion of it.
The white sections were vanilla-flavoured, but I don't remember what the pink section was.

I somehow BROKE MY COMPUTER after we got home - that'll teach me to stick my hands inside a computer's internal workings - but it was thankfully fixed the next day.
The day after that - Tuesday the 16^th - was when I updated my phone. All I can say is that I IMMEDIATELY clocked the "Liquid Glass" thing as something that would cut through my battery life like a hot knife through butter. Funnily enough, I was absolutely right when it came to that.
The day after THAT, Maia took me to Reading, where I had more "double lunch" at IKEA - but that's the last time I'm having it, because Maia finds it too expensive.
Also, the plates and bowls are amde of paper now. Why not.

Of course, I had ice cream when we got to the end, just as usual.

And when we looked around the town centre afterwards, I was met with a rather off-kilter sign at Primark:

I tuned into the 10^th anniversary stream for Undertale across two late nights after that, which was filled with bizarre jokes (like the sentence 'Clairevoire drew dog food' being repeated over and over) and new content not actually in the game that served to expand things.
Like a certain door that drove the live chat COMPLETELY INSANE when they walked past it and didn't acknowledge it. Good times.

On Tuesday the 23^rd, I got a phone call while in town with Maia - I got a job interview arranged for Sunday the 28^th! I attended it, and I thought I did well, but I'm sure I won't get the job. I never do.
Actually, I'm set to find out tomorrow whether or not I've got the job. But like I said, I'm sure I haven't. I'll just have to get feedback from this interview and keep trying, I suppose.

But that's all from me for this month, so I suppose I'll see you next month, at Weenohal - until then, bye!