Notes and Jottings

Back in Ireland (woooooo! I see clouds!) Tired from my two week stint away in Sardinia, but I did get a weekend in Rome–photos going up soon.

And it does look like I’ll be going to Cupertino again in just under two weeks, and staying there for three weeks. That’s the current plan anyway. So hello to those people who I may be seeing again shortly I have to work out where to stay. Courtyard in Cupertino is in the middle of nowhere (I don’t drive), so I’d really like to get a hotel on the Caltrain line. I guess Lawrence and Santa Clara are the closest stops. Pros and cons: there’s a shuttle service from HP to Lawrence every morning and evening. But I sort of doubt there’s a reasonable hotel around there–would need to look. Santa Clara might have a hotel nearby, but then I may need to get a taxi for work. Well I guess I could just take one hop on Caltrain and get the aforementioned shuttle. This is an awful lot of effort. But I don’t want to be stuck at night looking for a taxi to get back to the hotel, and that’s what I think a hotel in Cupertino means for me.

Well I won’t be posting much here for a while–I’m currently basking in the sun in Sardinia. Exaggeration–it’s a trip to do stuff for work, so I haven’t been outside too much yet. But I won’t be back until tomorrow week, maybe I’ll get to enjoy the sun at the weekend. Plenty of photo ops too, I’ve brought my camera along.

Perfectly timed exit; left just before 5am as the last song finished; grabbed a taxi; back home in a tick
The night as a whole went thusly: dinner and drinks with “Mal”:http://www.illyana.com/ and “Davida”:http://www.diddles.net/. Drinks with Linda, Dan, Dawn, Greg, Andrew, Sheila (the usual gang from my year in CS). Then came the ball; met “Dermot”:http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dfrost/, “Stella”:http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~snpower/ and “Elaina”:http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~laina/ (who left for the call of free drink, can’t blame them). Met “Vlad”:http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~villiros/, “Ash”:http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~ashj/, “John”:http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~jgilbert/, “Nithin”:http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~dude/, “Conall”:http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~conall/, “Anya”:http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~anya/, “Annie”:http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~abedford/, “Paul”:http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~paul/ and others (whose names I can’t remember) from current CS. Met Claire from Medicine (still an E.R. fan). Met pretty much the whole skitrip gang, and hung around with them for most of the night; “Juan”:http://www.seqn.net/, Annette, Laura, Clare, Sharon, Brian, Daire, Kate. Mad dancing group, meaning good fun at something like the Trinity Ball. And “Kevin”:http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~moroneyk/ popped his head in, but didn’t see much of him over the whole night.

All in all, another good night at the Trinity Ball–dance-filled and search-for-people-filled. Which is as it should be.

Thanks to all who helped make the night all it was. *sniff*

*Update:* “Photos available here”:http://www.lyranthe.org/gallery/trinityball2004/ for the photos taken with my (brother’s) camera during the evening.

Tonight’s forecasted weather: Dry and clear tonight. Low 4 C.

So–no umbrella, and I’ll be bringing my brother’s camera (yay, brothers are cool!). See youse who are going later on.

“The Juries Act, 1976″:http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA4Y1976.html. Yes, I’m off on jury service tomorrow. Haven’t a clue what trial I could be assigned to (if any). It should all be interesting anyway. Obviously, my role will be to apply the laws of the land to the case at hand, and abide by the directions of the judge as to how to apply the evidence. Criminal and civil cases may require different levels of proof.

Going to the courts at Chancery Place. I would assume that that is the Four Courts, but just to make sure, there’s always the “DTO Journey Planner”:http://www.dto-journeyplanner.ie/dtojp/jsp/content/start.do, which really is the best Mapquest-lookalike that I’ve seen so far for Dublin!

If you happen to be in the area of the Law Courts/Digital Depot during the week, give me a shout and we can go for a few drinks in the evening (hey, “Tim”:http://www.mothy.net/mothblog/, “Diego”:http://www.dynamicobjects.com/d2r/).

There always seems to be something magical about leaving a party in the early morning when the sky is brightening and the next day has arrived. The first time that happened for me was at the 18th birthday party of Paul and Susan. Very few others over time, except one Trinity Ball event (almost) every year. The Trinity Ball usually finishes at a bit before 5am, with the sky lightening midway during the last act. It’s a sign of summer, it’s a sign of the end of a marvellous night, it’s a sign to wake up and smell the coffee (if you can find an open coffee shop at 5 in the morning).

This morning was “just” another party, Serena’s moving in, Liam’s birthday and Ian’s birthday! And somehow, everybody else in Terry/Serena’s house seemed to consider it a time to gather as well. Overall, many people from different colleges and different disciplines ended up chatting together, resulting in quite a satisfactory night–and a great party. Anyway, I’m home now, and the sky is brightening in quite a satisfactory manner. Bonne nuit!

The “Trinity Ball”:http://www.trinity-ball.tcd.ie/ takes place on Friday 7 May, in the environs of Trinity College Dublin. Once again many women don high heels and risk life and limb on those fabled cobblestones. Am I going? Depends on how many people I know who are going. I think I know enough people going… if I include the definites and the maybes. Definitely more maybes at the moment! The Divine Comedy are good, I’m sure they won’t say no in the end!

Aaagh–what am I going to do? I sold my camera! No fabulous photos of the night. Though, thinking about it, maybe it’s for the best. How my camera never got stolen or destroyed on previous nights out is a complete mystery…

A man was passing with a huge selection of red balloons. A woman said “Oooh I want one.” Another guy said (almost under his breath), “Burst them all.” Interesting difference in perspective there…

Anyway, it is the end of the night here, as Valentine’s Nights go, it… wasn’t so bad I’m happy.

I’ll be arriving in California (San Jos�) on 20 January. Training on 21-22 January in Cupertino, and a flight home on Monday 26 January. Yes, that’s three days to do whatever I want—yay! Cool or what?! Hey, guys

!http://www.lyranthe.org/gallery/main.php/download/1846-2/Arinsal_2003.jpg(Snowy Day in Arinsal over Christmas 2003)!