The Dandy Lahma Travels: January 2014

2013

I think it's about time I should do a summary of 2013 before starting this years blogs properly. Managed to fit all the excitement of the year since late July nicely into a neat 100 posts. I'm sure all going to plan 2014 will beat that number even by much more.

So 2013. How was it? It was an odd, very life changing but exciting year. Although it did not start of too great with having to say goodbye to what was my life for years up to that point to being given the opportunity to try find a new path and see where it would lead. It was sad to see that part of me end but I have no regrets, it was an amazing time in my life and I'm glad I experienced it and still know it was for the best to move on.

So from that slight downer on the start of a year I pushed forward and focused my mind elsewhere trying my upmost to achieve as best I could in my studies. I guess perseverance and hard work paid off as I managed to resurrect a fairly average year of work into almost 100% distinction quality results in all areas (except one that got away, a little more time and maybe it would have been saved but still happy with the results)

Enjoy the following extract from my work, probably my proudest work so far in media, my short film 'Smile and Say Bananas', which I wrote, produced, assisted with filming and editing. I was also assisted with this project by two of the best people I've worked with yet and hope very much to work with again, Gavin Johnston Smith and Sean Fitzgerald. The film also starred three great actors, Claire Blennerhassett, Ali Ryan and Alan Buckley. All these guys were amazing to work with and also would love to work with them again.

I couldn't spend all my time working. And the perks of the new life lead naturally sooner or later to dating once again. A very odd concept after so long. Clearly though I wasn't half bad at it, as when I met Katherine for the first time, whom I'm sure anyone who has looked at the blog is very familiar with, we managed to visit 3 pubs, go on a ghost tour of Dublin, go cinema, eat Mexican food, and have the most memorable first date I could ever have imagined. Unfortunately at the time she was leaving to travel Asia and Australia, but we said we'd keep in touch. Clearly doing so has paid off, and the rest they say is geography.

So amidst all the college work, I continued slaving away at my crappy dead end job in Dunnes Stores. Fortunately an end was in sight as my own plans to travel were hatching. My very good and close friend Laura had similar plans which made organizing everything so much easier as we would help each other through all the various processes. We literally counted the days to quitting which couldn't come too soon.

College ended with a great showreel night. Everyone's work was displayed and across the whole year we seemed to have collectably proven ourselves as talented writers, producers, directors, videographers, editors etc. Great final result for myself also I might add.

So the summer was now dedicated to organizing and saving for my travels. I knew I couldn't save enough without staying in Dunnes Stores longer than necessary so aimed to save enough to go then work in a nice country (i.e. Australia) in a few different jobs to save and travel around from there as a jumping point to places like New Zealand and south east Asia. I did however most definitely want to see a lot of Oz, which as can be seen in the blog, I think I managed quite well.

Next came the big goodbye, had final day together with my best friend Brona, followed by drinks with all my work people and a few others. Spent my final night in Ireland with the lads. And once again thank you all for making the time to come say goodbye. On my last day I managed to squeeze in a few minutes to say goodbye to my very good friend Jane who came down to Kildare specially to do so which I really appreciate as I didn't think we'd have the chance to do so. Then time to hit the airport where I met Laura, said our last goodbye's to the families and flew 26 hours from Dublin to Brisbane.

The next few months have been very well documented so to spare the boring repeats I'll give a quick summary. Followed by a few highlights and neglected facts.

So from Landing in Brisbane in late July, to writing this now in early January I did/had;

Flights; 5

Hostels; 5

Hotels/BnB; 3

Camp Grounds: 10

Couch Surf; 3

Homes; 2

Jobs; 3
Pubs; 19

Books; 3

Films in Cinema; 10

Roadtrips; 2

States of Australia; 4

Km on land; 4000

The books I read/currently reading are;

The Great Shark Hunt The Gargoyle How to Make a Zombie

Hunter S. Thompson Andrew Davidson Frank Swain

And out of new films in the cinema, These 3 deserve recognition as some of the best and most enjoyable I've seen in a long time;

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty The Way Way Back Gravity .

To summarize, 2013 has been a strange but at the same time amazing year. I've made so many new great friends as well as reconnecting with some old ones, all of whom I'll do my best to mention, but without them this year wouldn't have been the same. So a big thank you to Katie, Jen, Orla, Steph, Emily, Eimear, Laura M., Joe, Ceol, Adeline, Grainne, Dave, Caris, Christine, Ryhs, Tom, Chris, Katie W., Elliot, Caoimhe, Emma, Nick, Andy, Andrew, Laura, Jonas everyone else I met and spoke even briefly, like the guy who taught us about Jack Fruit, Bret the tour guide, The old man I'd a nice conversation with on a train to work, anyone else I may have forgotten, all the support from friends and family at home, Mam and Dad, Ali and Lucy, Nana O'Brien, And of course the year would have never been the same without having met Katherine and everything we've done together since.

That's been my year. Now to do even better in 2014. Wish me luck.