An Apartment on Emmet St.

That's right...I have an apartment! And it is fabulous!

Celia and I met with Colin, the agent from the real estate company that runs the building, yesterday just after 2pm. It was really good of him to help us out like that; it's a holiday weekend here (today was a bank holiday) and he gave up some free time to help us out. In any case, we met briefly, made a deposit, signed the lease, got our keys and we were off!

Celia and I waited for Colin's footsteps to receed before starting to jump around gleefully...very discreet. Then we ran around testing everything: the oven, the stove, the toaster, the kettle, the microwave, the iron, the toilet, the taps, the shower (which gave us some trouble--it turns out that you need to flip a switch outside the bathroom for it to run), the lights...everything! Then we went shopping.

Although the apartment does include a lot (cutlery, a knife block set, some dishes, 3 saucepans and a nonstick skillet, a set of utensils, and more), there were a few items we needed right away, including bed linens and cleaning products and some food to put in the cupboards. We were fairly restrained, I thought, but barely made it back to the hostel with all of our stuff, and had to order a van taxi to take us to our new place.

We spent all night cleaning and unpacking, settling in and getting to know each other better. (I will write a Celia profile soon; until then, she's from Australia, she was the first person that I met in Dublin, she too likes dogs, she works in a pub in Temple Bar, and we are getting on very well.)

This morning was wonderful. No one rushed me out of bed, I could use the bathroom whenever I wanted (and the shower is great, if tiny--really tiny), everything was clean, I didn't have to dig through a suitcase for anything...heavenly! I ran some errands this afternoon, a bit of a mistake since there was some sort of mini-marathon in the city centre and the place was complete packed with running groups and men wearing dresses, wigs and makeup (I think it was a women's marathong...or something). I bought a duvet, and had a very hard time making my way through the crowd with all my packages! But it's great to feel so settled, though I'm trying to restrain my nesting instincts, usually by chanting: "It's only 6 months. It's only 6 months. You don't need decorative pillows. It's only 6 months. It's only 6 months. You don't need extra shelves. It's only 6 months. It's only 6 months. You don't need fancy planting containers." And so on, and so forth.

I will post pictures of the apartment soon, once we are a little more set up there (though it's already pretty good) and I've put some things up on the walls. Which is what I'm going HOME to do now!