In the last couple of weeks the blog has suffered some sheer neglect but with all the things going on and the good weather that we've been having in Dublin I found it difficult to spend any extra time inside and blog.

For starters last week I've been on my first duty travel visit back to my home country. I went to train my ex-colleagues in the company I used to work for until 3 months ago, and it was a good feeling returning back there in an empowered stately position. The trip went well, and during a day traveling and two days working hard I managed to find some time to catch up with family and friends, celebrate my friend's birthday, and take my first (and probably last) swim of the year. Not that much has been going on in the country but it still was a nice short visit. I'm due to go back again in a month's time for 2 weddings.

The previous weekend I've been to Kilkenny, but since this can be classified as a travel post I'll write about it in travel section soon. (See here)

The previous two weeks were mostly spent in the office coding and preparing for my visit abroad. I also made two important purchases though. At last I got a bicycle and a camera. Both were very hard decisions to choose from but at last I ended up with a Ridgeback velocity bike and a Canon S2 IS camera. The bicycle dilemma was whether I'd buy a racing bike or a commuter bike but since I was advised several times that a racing bike is much more fragile and not as comfortable I decide to head advice and go for the commuter bike. I'm now cycling to work which saves lots of time waiting for buses and serves as some needed training. It takes only about 20 minutes to get to work which is usually less than the time I used to spend waiting and standing in traffic on the bus. The camera choice almost solved itself after a new canon model was released to supercede the S2 IS which caused the price of the camera to fall by about 200 Euros. I found a good bargain on pixmania and got the camera for 460 with a bag and 1GB card. The service by pixmania was great and the camera got delivered by DHL in 3 days.

The shopping mania has taken over me quite a bit and HMV in particular is tempting me too much recently. Yesterday I fell for a special edition of In Flames latest album Come Clarity including a concert DVD. Having watched the band perform live on their album tour I felt the need of owning the album. I've always had a soft spot for special editions and digi packs and now I'm trying to buy only these versions. Another CD for the collection was Satyricon's tenth anniversary box set called Ten horns, Ten Diadems which is a best of collection with an unreleased track and photos.