Apologies for vanishing without a trace again – I have been displaying syndrome of early-winter depression again. This happens on a yearly basis and I absolutely hate it! Over the past two weeks the weather have been utterly horrible – with strong winds, snow and hailstorm across the UK. I am absolutely not ready for it! Winters in Fresno starts in the middle of November, and even then it is not this cold. With the changing of daylight saving time as well last weekend, all this week I have been having some sort of jetlag. No doubt its only an hour, but I can’t sleep long enough even though I am absolutely tired!

Before the snowstorm hit, I took one last look at the sunflowers in my garden. This year was another chilly summer, and my sunflowers did not actually bloom until the cold hit again

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Dewdrops on the petals. No, I actually sprinkled water there.hehe.

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Using my macro lenses, this did not come out as nice as I wanted it to due to the wind – and the fact that it was 7 ft high and I could not reach it!

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Double bees

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One of the good things about having a DSLR is that my pussy actually looks good in it – you do not know how hard it is to photograph a black cat!

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Roarrr..

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I love this sunflower selection – looks like an angry flaming sun

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This was one of my smallest sunflower due to the fact that I grew it in a pot, smaller than my palm. It looks so dreamy don’t it??

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Sunflowers always makes me happy – and it reminds me of my good friend magges who loves it:)

Just a short one today – I should have a ’surprise’ blog about something more substantial in the next few days. Just awaiting delivery!

And stay safe trick or treating!

Trip did not start out too good, with my two hour delay at Manchester airport. I nearly did not make it into work – which then turned into the fact that my 2 hour delay had caused me missing meetings and work. This then contributed to me staying at work late….and only manage to check in with 30 mins to spare before sunset.

BUT, as promised – picture of the hotel:)

The Bunratty Castle Hotel

Don’t know why they painted it yellow

My super huge room.

With sitting area and all..

Quite sad for only one person!

I literally ran out to the pub. It looked like it was going to piss it down something bad, so I thought I should get my pint in before it pisses it down

Right across the road from the hotel, lies the Bunratty Castle. Umm…yeah, very uinspiring

And next to it, Durty Nelly’s

And exhaleee….For some reason Guinness in Ireland always tastes better. It is not bitter but creamy, thick and absolutely delicious.

I gulped down my drink on the double (high stress levels coupled with dark skies) and headed back to the hotel. I was not anywhere near town, and the really grey skies is really uninspiring.

On my way back to the hotel, spotted this really cute milk van outside of the Creamery Pub.

The Blarney Wollen Mills. This is where the American tourists go shopping. This area was heaving with them. Bloody woke me up at 6.30 as they stood chatting waiting for their tourist dining room to open up for breakfast.

Everything’s so expensive in Ireland. I tried looking around for food, but everything looked to be similarly price – EXPENSIVE. I end up doing room service, as by the time I looked eveywhere I really fancied chicken. I am really upset that no one seemed to do Irish Stew, which I absolutely love. All the restaurants did were steaks, pastas and other assortment of burgers. It really must be the American tourists that come in the hoard..

Can you imagine this sad looking thing is EU17??Plus EU5 room service charge = EU22. Seriously, wtf…I feel so sorry for myself even though I am eating on company expense!!!

The Library – breakfast room for business customers. Aherm

Breakfast. Scrambled egg feels like jelly. Black blob next to ketchup is black pudding – apparently a sausage made out of clotted pork’s blood with cereal. I always have that with hotel breakfasts.

This meal at the airport cost me EU9.80. I got nearly the same selection at Manchester airport for £3.50. OUTRAGEOUS.

Just to get a feel of how expensive stuff are, here are their BodyShop range…it is nearly 3 times more expensive than what I pay for in the UK!

And goodbye Shannon!

Taken at Gravity, the sky bar at Guinness Storehouse, Dublin – July 2008

From all the places in the world – I am off to the Emerald Isles on work. Ireland to the rest of you! Due to the dangerously high levels of the Euros, my trip earlier this year to Dublin was marred by the fact that everything seems to be twice as expensive as the UK – and some of the food that I had there was of dubious origins and was absolutely disgusting. Coupled by the fact that we were given wrong directions by everyone (including the tourist office!) I was less than pleased and vowed never to return.

Unfortunately, bacon won’t be coming with me to enjoy a tall cool guinness

Well – this is fate.

Not sure how much of the country I will actually see this time as my days are now jampacked with early and late meetings – if lucky, I might get a picture of the hotel. However, I AM off to the land of Guinness, so will definately get a pint or two in. I have definately developed an appreciation of the Irish-pulled Guinness…it is true what they say, it IS better here!

If only I can spend the next few days doing this instead of hard graft…

Spotted at Leeds City Centre, on Leeds Fashion Week:

Measuring a massive 16 ft 5 inches tall and a whopping 11 ft 5 inches wide, the enormous box of Thornton’s chocolates is filled with a mouthwatering selection of treats weighing in at around 1,500kg. In my picture the 175,000 individually wrapped Thorntons Moments are actually scattered on the floor – no idea why. I heart Thornton’s

Yes, I know its way too early for Christmas shopping. But being the organised person I am, I have already decided that this Christmas, I will be making a difference. You have probably seen the support handmade badge on the sidebar of this blog. It is, however, fairly difficult to completely buy christmas pressie that is *all* handmade – there are only so many pairs of handmade earrings or knitted beanies one can have!

So, as far as it is humanly possible, this christmas I will be buying gifts that are either handmade or supports charity. Of course this does not mean I am going to knit bacon a tv (yes, I reckon he’s getting a tv this year!). This is why I said ‘as far as possible’.

My first step starts today, when I wiped my local Aldo free of the Grottaminarda cuff. Not that they had much left, only three! So I now have to go back for more.

100% of the proceeds goes to funding YouthAIDS programs worldwide.

Inspire Change. Start now.

Available in gold tone and silver tone. I am keeping both for myself – and getting one of all of those in my list that is under the age of 30.

So why don’t you? Make a difference this Christmas with your shopping. Christmas does not have to represent the usual chaotic consumerism, only to have gifts end up in ebay before the New Year.This is a good way as any to start inspiring change – I think the cuffs are absolutely fab!

Find out more here