Keeping the people of County Wicklow in the dark..

This is Countywise - a "Newsletter of Wicklow Local Authorities". It was delivered today, 30th November 2009. (Btw, you can see larger versions of all these photos on this page, where you can actually read the text..)


Can you vote in the next election? No? Oh.. Well, if you'd received this newsletter even a few days earlier, you could have applied to have your name included on the Register of Electors, and on the Postal or Special Voters Lists. However, the last return date for all those applications, was five days ago, so you won't be voting in the near future..


Sorry, you've been socially excluded from taking part in the Social Inclusion Week events, last month, but you can read about it now that it's all over..


Please, do have your say in the future of Bray Town Development Plan! The initial consultation period of 8 weeks, ended nearly five months ago. Some 29 submissions were received, so some people must have accidentally heard about it in time to actually have their say.. (Note to local authorities: don't let this mistake happen again! After all, you don't really want anyone to have a say, do you?)
BUT! See the last bit; A copy of the Draft Development Plan will go on public display in February 2010, followed by a 10 week consultation period, so if you write that down now, in your 2010 calendars, you could still have a change to make a submission - don't forget it now as they probably won't mention it again until later in 2010, when the last submission date is safely gone..


Oh, this is my favourite.. About a Quality Bus Corridor plan for Bray.. If you wanted to submit a comment or observation in relation to the plan, you should have done it before 4:30pm today. When I got my hands on this newsletter, it was 5pm. Not that I personally had any comments or observations to submit, but the point is, it would have been irrelevant, anyway as it was already too late.. And, had I wanted to attend the public information evening, too bad.. It took place a week ago.


Here's something interesting, though! You CAN still see the Draft County Development Plan 2010-2016, and associated documents, until Wednesday 23rd December! :O That will also be the last day of making submissions, so you have about three weeks.. Oh, and you already missed the Public Information Days in Wicklow Town and Greystones, but there's one last chance tomorrow, in Baltinglass..


There's no need to watch Val Falvey TD - just observe the reality.. Just as entertaining, if not more!

Christmas decorations

Stepaside snaps

Meara is blending in to the cushions =)


Meara's cute kitty toy..


Meara and toy were on Facebook..


Nice Christmas tree..


Yummy food =P~~~

Triple-hammered pork in Stepaside, etc.

We were at J&E's in Stepaside, yesterday. They'd cooked Finnish style food, and as we tried to figure out how to translate it, we ended up with "triple-hammered pork".. Now that I think of it, though.. I think we left out the final hammering, when the boneless cutlet is hammered thin :o Use your imagination for the rest of it!

There was a fine natural light show, in the form of thunder and lightning. It was not much, but it was one of the biggest I've seen in Ireland. Proper thunder is one of the things I miss from Finland. The kind that hovers around the area for a few days, and then arrives, sounding like a few World Wars and heavy metal festivals rolled together, splitting huge trees, etc.. Awesome.

We went to the Step Inn for one drink, but the place was horribly packed and noisy.. I'm too old for that stuff!! :O

As soon as we got home (via Cornelscourt), we watched a comedy, which turned out to be quite disappointing - Love Guru. It had its moments, but in general, not nearly as good as we'd expected, with that cast..

Then, I got the Christmas decorations from the attic, cleaned the living room window sill, and put the lights and decorations up. (I'll upload the photos, later today..) I was done at around 5am, but I needed my online fix, so I'm still up, but not for long..

I'm on the vino.. =P

I met a net friend tonight, for the first time - she's Finnish as well, and lives in Bray, not too far from us =P We had a few drinks at the Harbour Bar, and then came to our place and watched most of the Late Late Toy Show (with more vino, obviously). It's a small world - she's a nurse, and remembers my dad, who was in the very same hospital (in Finland) where she used to work.. :o

Evening spin, earlier on..

Bray Christmas lights (last night)

Here's a video of Main Street and Quinsboro Road (last night), with the Christmas lights..

My first outing in about two weeks

I recently had a chest infection and nasty cough, so I haven't left the house in ages, until last night.


It was a rainy and cold evening.. Bleh..


You can almost see some of the swans, above.. Lol.. One of them was right next to our car, and it was so beautiful..


A few snaps from the Harbour Bar..

Wanna see me box?

Hehe.. I covered a cardboard box with scrapbooking papers =P

Almost back to normal

My killer cough is almost gone (sooner than I expected!), and my neck is better as well, so I was able to wash my hair, last night. Woohoo! Feeling kinda normal again =) And, I finally got to wear the comfy new top my mam sent me recently. In that rather religious webcam snap (above, freshly enlightened by the attic lights..), I'm also wearing my winter jacket as it's so cold in the attic. (Stello goes fashion blogging.. LMAO)

Freezing in the attic

I haven't played World Adventures today (these screenshots are from yesterday), because I've been too frozen! Instead, I've been watching telly, and more Dollhouse episodes online.


Virtual China looks nice, doesn't it?

Awesome World Adventures!

D50 got me The Sims 3: World Adventures (EP), yesterday. Before installing, I removed my pixelation killer (which I need to replace, btw, but before I do, I need to check if I can use that same one, or if there's a new one for World Adventures..), replacing it with the original game file, and downloaded the update patch, which could not be downloaded while the pixelation killer was being used.. I'd read about a saved game glitch with World Adventures, but by the time I'd installed it, they'd already made a patch for it, so I downloaded that as well, and had no trouble running the game.


I'm currently playing a single sim called Tanya (she was a part of my "shallow couple", but they're now separated as the husband was an abusive criminal), and her first holiday destination was France. She's actually made two trips there already, because she wanted to finish the second Adventure she started, on her first trip..


Here she's checking out Adventures, at the Base Camp..


I love the look of the French village.. It also reminds me of Broken Sword games, in a way.. (I love them!)


It's not wine, it's nectar.. LOL


Today, I'll be playing China..


Here's a scooter video =D