Dreary Galway

So right now I should be working. It is 10 am and only Wednesday, but I am feeling terribly un-motivated already. Which is unfortunate seeing as I have two weeks to make another draft of the paper that I am supposed to be getting published and apparently needs a lot of work and a good spin because my actual work is just not that interesting (so says a certain deprecating, disparaging supervisor whom I hope never comes across such a comment). Not only that but I have a presentation to prepare for my first conference which I am sure will also not be good enough for the aforementioned supervisor, but on the bright side by the time she returns from maternity leave it will be far too late to protest, in fact it will probably be completely forgotten, so I should just not worry too much and say whatever I please. Another significant positive note is that I get to go to Belgium to to some work for a couple of weeks in August. Maybe it will be sunny there. Because it certainly is not here. It was nice-ish on Saturday. That's probabaly it for July. Now it is overcast, which is somehow very de-motivational. Of course if it was sunny I would also rather not be working. So I will get my procrastination out of my system now and then try to get some work done.

The disappointing thing about being back in Galway is the lack of shops. There are of course shops here but not enough and they are too crowded and I have no money to spend anyway so shopping is difficult. But even basic things are so hard to find sometimes. I need headphones which you think would be easy to come by but no, there is very little to choose from. I was making cupcakes last week and they needed to be frosted but you know, there was no icing sugar at the biggest supermarket. Luckily they have it at a smaller one but still, you would think that the only really large supermarket here would have something so obvious as icing sugar. Everything is on sale at the moment but the shops are so crowded and current fashion is a little overated, not to mention overpriced, so I have been sewing instead. Of course there is only one fabric store here, it is not cheap and the selection is vastly limited. So lately I have not been making new clothes but changing old clothes. I fixed two dresses, turned an old skirt into a top and I have a pair of jeans that don't fit but might make a nice skirt. Plus I am teaching friends how to sew because it is the new thing, everyone wants to be doing it. Unfortunately my penchant for clothing is not always a good thing. I probably have too many clothes, seeing as the bottom of one of my drawers broke as I was trying to press my things down enough to make it fit into the dresser.

Wandering through the shopping centre that is near where I live I am continiously surprised by the presence of two new foot-spa clinics - the type that you have maybe seen on the news that involve pools of tiny fish that eat all the dead skin from your feet. What is with all those people, why do they want little fish eating their skin? And there are two of them! In this tiny city with the bare minimum of decent shops there is suddenly a thriving niche for fish pedicures? I must admit, the one thing about Galway is that there are always new businesses starting up, you would think it is a good location for entrepreneurs - loads of new cafes right now. Of course they don't generally last very long. So I wonder how long will the toe-eating fish fad last? Hopefully not too long because it's really quite gross and surely not at all hygenic. Besides, think of the poor fish, what a life!