It's starting to sink in that i'm actually leaving Ireland. Matt and i posted a bunch of our stuff for sale up on the Gumtree and People's Republic of Cork and managed to sell the desk, chair, printer and DVD player within minutes to his colleagues. Then after a night of drinking we managed against our true desires to wake up at 9am on Saturday and after some showering and food make it to a car boot sale in Rathcormac. Car boot sales = garage sales. Except to a higher level not really possible to describe. We arrived and got our nifty trader sticker and started to unload our stuff (plus Dan's TV) in front of the trunk nicely displayed on plastic crates. Well suddenly it was a freaking feeding frenzy. People must have thought--"Ooh let's get their stuff while they're still may be bargains". I'd say in the first 5 minutes we got rid of 60% of our stuff. There were definitely some characters at the sale tho...the word Pikey comes to mind--And not necessarily in a good way. In any event after a mere 2 hours there we were left with our tent about 5 books and Matt's spare motorcycle helmet. It cleared a nice corner to put stuff in inside our flat. But what really caused some nostalgia was packing up the desk. Matt's desk and chair which sat in the corner where we played on our computers side by side are now all packed up ready to go to their new owners tonight. In the meantime Matt's hijacked the kitchen table to have his computer on, my laptop is living on the wooden case that the turntables are stored in and there's 2 semi empty boxes living in the center of the room (kitchen) where the table was. Starting to pack stuff up tho really made it start to sink in for me. We're leaving. We're really leaving Ireland. As excited as i am, i'm not sure i'm able to fully grasp the magnitude of our trip yet. It's huge. Our move to New Zealand is huge and we're doing it.

I've been wondering if perhaps i didn't give Ireland enough of a chance. I think being out of work the last 3 months has weighed on me and has jaded my opinion of the place. It is beautiful here. There's nice people. I'll still say the weather sucks. But it's been my home for the last 10 months straight--which seems like a longer stint that i've done anywhere..even in Bloomington (the longest i stayed in London was 8 months straight). So in my last 2 weeks here i'm going to try to truly enjoy Cork as a tourist. With Thom coming to visit i think i might be motivated to do a bit more than usual.

So here's to a final taste before a big gulp and on to the next one....