I mention this place alot, so I may as well dedicate a post to it.

Simply put, it is the best coffee shop in Cork city. It has beautifully eccentric decor, friendly staff, amazing coffee and at reasonable prices.

I could spend hours, wait I do that already. No, I could spend days in there.

I bring it up now, as yesterday it won first prize in the café/restaurant category of the Cork Better Building Awards.

I happened to come across this website >> http://lifestyle.cometocork.ie/index.php/awards/better-building-awards/
and downloaded the Power Point presentation that was shown at the awards ceremony. And lo and behold, when I came to the slide for Cork Coffee Roasters we are there, sitting inside behind the guys at the window.

Not much of a surprise considering the amount of time we spend in there.

And fair fock's to them for winning that award. 'Tis well deserved.

An unusual combination I hear you think.

Last night, as I retired to bed I got a text from a number I didn't know just saying a friendly 'hello how are you'. After a few texts I realised it was a best friend's cousin. One night, my friends and I decided to text randomers and just say 'I love you.' I text this guy and he was really curious as to who I was. I had completely forgotten all about it and then last night we exchanged first names.

Today, I was walking over a bridge in town en route to Cork Coffee Roasters with two friends, one of whom is my 'I love you' guy's cousin. It was a cold enough day, but the sky was clear and there was a really good buzz around town. There was a flash mob dance thing as part of a protest against cuts in Arts funding and Cork looked like a cool place to be. The people looked good and everything seemed so nice.

So as we walked across this bridge and along the quays we commented on how this situation would unfold itself if we were living in a film. It would be something like this. We would keep texting for a while and then either happen upon each other and fall in love, subsequently finding out we had been texting each other all along. Or we would decide to meet up and then fall in love. The first option is by far the more commercial option but the second is a little (but not much) more realistic.

We'd get married and his cousin/my friend would be bridesmaid. And the cute/ironic/cheesy thing about the whole story would be the fact that the very first time we communicated it was to say 'I love you.' Altogether now : Awww.

When I came home from town my mum made my brother and I go to mass with her. This story is slightly different from the first, in that it's not as stylish or classy, but a nice idea nonetheless. When I go to mass my mind wanders and I think about all sorts of things. Today I found myself being distracted by a nice young man sitting in the next block of seats. I am fully aware the seats in a church are called pews, but these were not pews. The old little country church is being refurbished so mass is now held in the GAA hall. And we sit on plastic grey chairs. How glamorous.

As the priest droned on I took sideways glances at my newfound interest. He was about 17 and was tall and slim. He was wearing jeans, a grey t-shirt and a black jumper, and had spiky-ish black hair. He looked cool. At one stage we made eye-contact. Big whoop I know but it was the best I could do considering we were at mass. And then I caught him looking at me. Nothing too maajor, but a nice way to while away mass all the same.

Inevitably as I was walking out he was right next to me/in front of me, but unfortunately my mother was too. She's always in the way at the worst times. He had his phone in his hand. If this was a movie I'd have taken his phone out of his hand and put my number in his phonebook. But life's not a movie, especially not in a small-ish country-ish but still near the city parish. And there was the obstacle of my mother. But it was a nice thought anyway.

My mother was smirking away to herself, not realising she looked like a frumpy dope in her jeans-and-runners combo which I have rarely seen her leaving the house in before. She was, of course, smirking at the 'nice young boy'. As soon as I closed the car door after me she started. 'There was one nice lad in the whole church. Did you see him?' and she proceeded to give me a detailed description of what he was wearing. My brother threw in the fact that he was wearing Converse. How could I not like him?! Then Mumsie told me how she saw him taking a good glance of me as we were walking out of the GAA hall-come-church. Ah lovely! How convenient. Shall I marry him, mother? Then she tried to find him and point him out to me as we were driving out of the church. Does she think I am that blind?

It would be nice to get to know him though. I mean he obviously lives near me and I wouldn't mind at all at all having a friend from round these parts. Now I have to go to mass next week though. Feckin' dose, and knowing my luck he won't even be there. Christmas fair would be a good time to strike up a conversation, but if I had to stay at that jumble/cake sale that they consider to be a Christmas fair, I might just go mad.

All in the name of love though.

I physically cannot bring myself to do any homework. At all. I'm sitting here with this feckin' laptop glued to my lap and wasting my evening away. I was in town until half 5 and when I got home I had absolutely no desire whatsoever to take out a book. Disaster. I was so much better back in the good ol' JC days.

Was heading into town after school today for a meeting at 4pm. Didn't have to get the bus in because Aisling's mum came and gave us a lift seeing as she thought it was going to be raining. Off to a good start!

Then had an hour or so to kill before Caroline came in so I went to BTs and changed out of my uniform; looked around Oasis, A|wear, H&M, Penneys, Topshop, Debenhams and so on, and then headed up to Cork Coffee Roasters to meet Caroline.

Being the absolute retard that I am, I left my phone at home today so I had no way of contacting anyone and it just about nearly killed me. I couldn't tell my parents when or where to meet me, or get in touch with Lorna to see was she coming up from Tralee for the meeting, or text Caroline to arrange somewhere to meet. Ugh. NEVER leaving the house without it again.

After having the good ol' cup of coffee, we walked through the lashing rain to Civic Trust House. I was involved with this youth theatre project as part of Cork Midsummer Festival this past year and the meeting today was regarding the future of the project. Seems verrry exciting altogether. If I get to do it and it goes ahead etc, then we'd be going to Scotland, Helsinki, London, Belgium, Holland, Dublin, Belfast, and last but not least, Cork. And everything's paid for.

Lorna offered to give me a lift home, so we walked in the rain to Paul Street, me falling en route and ripping my tights, and then had a wander around a few floors of the carpark before we found the car. Traffic was deadly, but we had a nice chat. Need to sort some form of a fake ID actually...

But I've done nothing since them, except eating food. Think I might go to bed now and read. I should really have had a shower coz my hair is severely curly after the rain but I kinda ran out of time. Tomorrow; tomorrow shall be productive.

Hopefully.

(Photo taken from http://golez.net - Check it!)

Some Wednesdays are absolutely horrific. Despite the fact that we get a half day, it's not a whole lot of good to me seeing as I can't get a lift home for an hour and a half after I finish. Which just isn't good.

Today though, today was nice. Non-uniform day at school for a start, although it proved to be quite annoying due to my too-big jeans. My friend, Aisling (although I don't call her this. I call her Botch. She calls me Botch.), was going to town so I said I'd join her. After a little spot of embarrassing running between bus stops either side of my school I managed to get on the bus, albeit slightly out of breath. Not to worry. Although I was worrying about the fact that the bus was packed and every window was closed. Anyway..

The two of us went to tkmaxx first to go to the bathroom for make-up-putting-on purposes and whatnot. The bathrooms are pretty nice and big enough with shiny black tiles and circular mirrors. But we went down the steps, and to our horror, discovered that you now have to pay 20c to use the bathrooms!!! We just stood there, stunned, going ohmygod ohmygod when a man came over and put the 20c in for us. Weird, in the creepy way. Not good.

We had a little stroll around and Botch bought some nice blue tights, we passed the cute guy from O2, she then got some credit, we passed Rich singing Heyday, and finally got to Cork Coffee Roasters. Free coffee for me with my loyalty card (YaY!) and a scone. Nice chat. Bus home (and not on my own). Nice dinner. My Nana brought cakes over. Not a bad day.

And now that Wednesday is over we're on the home straight for the weekend. Just two more days left. I have an interview for School Bank Manager tomorrow though. It's only going to take about 5 minutes but ugh. I kinda have enough on my plate so I'm contemplating coming across seriously incompetent tomorrow. Maybe, maybe not.

I'll finish up now before you fall asleep and sue me for damage to your keyboard from your head falling on it.

Slán.

So our mini-summer has been and gone. When we left school on that joyous Friday after a horrific Maths test, it was but merely autumn. We return to its doors having walked through winter winds. Only 6 weeks now 'til Christmas exams and then the whole holidays thing will start again.

Mid-term really did surpass many expectations. I went out a good bit, and didn't spend EVERY waking second with the exact same people. We spent sleeping seconds together too! Nah, it really was a good week, and Christ did I need the break. I had my plans to do my homework the first weekend and then a little bit of study each day, but we only make plans so we can go against them and then feel like we've actually done something worthwhile.

I've my written homework that's due tomorrow done, but haven't even begun learning those stoopid quotes from Hamlet. May as well learn the whole play the amount we're getting. I'm not going to freak out about school anymore; I'll survive.

I played alot of guitar over the past week, which was nice. It's been a while since I've learned new songs and it's a damn good feeling. Bought a new capo too which is easier to change, and is ten times better seeing as it raises the pitch evenly instead of having everything all over the place. I'm still using the first pick that I got with the guitar. It's a nice soft, pale grey Dunlop one with little bits of dents in it from being used so much. I have others, but they're alot harder, more for the ol' electric when I'm jamming on a Sunday with the band. =P

I wish I didn't have to go back to that place tomorrow. It has been SO good to just be able to forget about it for a week and not have to wear that uniform, or sit in those horrible hospital-coloured classrooms and count down the hours 'til I can leave. And now we return to results from those tests last Friday and "back into the swing of things" again.

I cannot wait for Saturday when I will go for coffee in Cork Coffee Roasters and get a free coffee with my full loyalty card. Or perhaps Friday afternoon.

It's going to be a long week.

What a weekend.

What I hate about this though is that I really can't expand on that statement too much for my own safety and livelihood. So maybe that means I shouldn't be a 'blogger'. This is too public now though. It's up on irishstudentblogs.com with my name so it's not such a good idea to be blabbing on about stuff.

'Twas the jazz weekend down here anyway. I did get a good bit of live music, but not all jazz. Went to see the Coronas in Cyprus Avenue on Saturday. Good enough gig once we managed to get in after the doors opened an hour later than stated. (Not cool Cyprus - although I do know there's always issues with opening on time.) I didn't do the whole getting stuck into the middle of the crowd and jumping around thing this time round. Kinda weird, but I was just back in the bar part with another friend for a good bit. It was everyone else that missed out...that barman was HOT. After the gig we went and sat in the back while trying to change the date on Heather's swipe card using tipp-ex and a marker. Complete and utter fail, not that we actually needed it in the end. We were probably the only people in the place not pushing their way up to the table where the Coronas were and screaming for autographs and hugs and pictures. It was amusing to watch. The lead singer dude was staring at us for a while, probably in awe of the fact that we were managing to restrain ourselves, something he's probably not used to. I had a nice chat with the hot one, Dave, though. he's nice.

Aisling had a semi-free gaff that night so she said we could all stay at hers after the gig. By semi-free gaff, I mean that her parents were gone but she was supposed to be minding her sister. She left town earlier to go pick her sister up, and after a quick trip to Centra the rest of us got the 14 back to Togher bai and climbed the hill to her gaff, passing some drug dealers en route. All in a day. It was a calm enough night, and I scrubbed the place at about 1am with orange-scented washing-up liquid, domestic goddess that I am.

Sunday involved two drooping eyelids, so I went to bed at like half 3, got up for dinner, and then went back to bed again. Sign of a good night right?!

Yesterday was probably the best day of the bank holiday weekend. It began with a nice trip to town during the day, and some damn good coffee in Cork Coffee Roasters. A nice chat there for over an hour, from where we headed on the Jazz Fest Club in the Metropole. Brought back memories of last year, but I havta say this year was a tad better. After I went home for dinner, it was back out again to Liam's FG for a little gathering, which involved his sister's assistance, a pack of cards and copious amounts of tea at half 10. Fun times. Sadly though, the tea (Which I made. Told you I was a domestic goddess.) and water did not have enough effect on Aisling and her mommy was not too happy with her. All will be revealed when we go for coffee later.

Those aunts of mine are actually coming down today, in like an hour, so I need to go have a shower and perhaps get a start on my homework. Then town for an analysis of yesterday.

So long folks! And well done if you managed to get this far!

Surprisingly enough I have actually become quite excited about tonight! I mean, it's a hell of alot better than staying at home come to think of it. And now that we have the present, and I've my clothes sorted and nails done etc it doesn't seem so bad.

Hannah's coming over soon for the 'getting ready' ritual. Haha. But it should be fun. My mother told me she was talking to the birthday boy in town today. She then went on to tell me how lovely he is. I hope she doesn't think I fancy him or anything, coz it's really not like that.

Town was so busy today despite the murky misty rain. After searching high and low for a present we went to Cork Coffee Roasters for a cuppa. Cuppa coffee for myself and cuppa tea for yer wan. It was so nice and cute and cosy in there. And the staff are really nice..the guy who made my Americano remembered that I'd been doing a gig last week and asked me how it went.

People like that make me happy.