An update on yesterday - found 4 of the research papers I am critiquing for my literature review - hooray! I also had a very successful meeting with the director of my college, who told me not to worry about the fees I owe. They will wait until I have the money and will just hold off on awarding me the diploma until then! What a relief...

I woke this morning to sunshine streaming in the window and lay there marveling at it for an hour, wondering where the hail, sleet & snow we were promised was hiding. A birthday present
of the best boots on the planet from Glenn (fiveten's with super cool stealth rubber soles to keep my feet on the pedals!) encouraged me out of bed and on the road with my bike strapped to the back of the car.

Almost 2 hours of riding later, I was covered in muck, snow and sweat - a pretty sight indeed. I arrived at Ballinastoe mountain bike trail before anyone else and had the mountain to myself, for a short while at least. Snow must have been falling for a few days, there was at least 3 inches in places...so so beautiful, but my word, hard to cycle on; especially with my novice skills! I slipped and skidded around the 14km of trails, but had loads of fun. Winter Wonderland doesn't describe it, such unexpected sparkly gorgeousness, I had to take some photos.
A few hours later I was surrounded by girlfriends in Powerscourt House having the most delicious lunch - pea & mint soup; gorgeous texture and minty flavour and lovely fresh wholefood salads. The soup came with a multiseed bread, a specialty of Avoca who run the cafe there, in hindsight I should have bought a whole loaf! Home again, with a cup of steaming hot Butlers chocolate (another gift from Glenn) and a very tired achey body. Happy birthday to me!