This week was a little dull, Jan was away on business, I did housey stuff at nights and tried to complete the circle journals I want to post off before Guadec. I was a little bit sick so was happy enough getting extra sleep all week long. Friday night I enjoyed a few beers with my workmates, they are fun. I’ve made the effort to have lunch with a few of the guys too, I’m pretty used to sitting by myself with my home packed lunch, but I really enjoyed the company lately. One day I went with a couple of guys to a lovely deli that puts together fresh sandwiches with the most delicious bread and best of all they have Spanish Seranno ham and Chorizo plus great mozzerella and many more great ingredients that it will probably take me all year to try. One rare sunny day I spotted a group of workmates playing soccer outside too, apparently getting the ball through the wall is one point and if you hit the pole it’s two. Talking about Euro 2008 and ultimate teams is all the rage at the moment too.
The main focus of my week was finally reading ‘Getting Things Done’ I had read reviews and heard of peoples successes with it so was curious enough to give it a go after Rafal at work recommended the system. I was pretty skeptical at first because I’m already the most organised person I know. It turns out the system is good for me and I have added some of the tips to my life alreday, I have felt like I’m not as goal oriented since I left Australia, I love the idea of getting even more things out of my head and turning everything into a clear project. Turns out I have 35 open projects and a lot more waiting around until I can give them more thought. Anyway hopefully I can comment more on this in a few months after I’ve used it for longer.
Today Jan arrived home with many gifts for me from his travels, YAY. Scrapbooking supplies including a cropodile kit(FINALLY), two albums and some embellishments. He also brought me some DVDs including the new Futurama movie, some makeup stuff and chocolate mmmm.
This afternoon we went into town for a Viking Festival set in some gardens at Wood Quay. The idea was to explore Irelands Viking heritage and celebrate the departure of the largest viking ship reconstruction on a voyage to Roskilde. There were markets stalls set up, there was one where a whole pig was roasting away. Further along there was a viking village was set up with plenty of people in costume and living history displays. We arrived just in time to catch the end of some battle reenactments.
Nearby some artists were making a mural by laying stones including some gorgeous shiny amethysts.
After the festival Jan and I did some shopping, I bought a more summery outfit ready for going to Turkey on Friday. Finally I cooked us all some pepper steak and vege for dinner.
I wanted to write a whole post about making the rubik’s cube card for wims birthday but I’m not going to, it’s like the design for business card cubes then coloured paper tucked around the outside and a same sized card glued between two layers, photos for it are: Rubik’s cube card. We did our own measurements, I think it was 156 1″ by 1″3/4 rectangles making 26 folded cubes then nine of six different colours tucked into the outsides. Plus the card shape glued onto the middle to make it into a card.
Jan’s brother Halley got back to Ireland on Monday June 16th after his trip to the UK. We got to catch up and watched our new favourite show ‘The West Wing’.
Wednesday night work took us out to the horse races at Leopardstown Racecourse. We had a really fun night with a bit of gambling involved. I got to know some of my workmates a bit better. The weather was pretty aweful too which kept us indoors most of the time, we went out into the stands to watch a couple of the races (well the ones I had bets on anyway, I didn’t win). It was very funny listening to everyones theories about who would win and what tips they had. I did end up learning a lot about horse racing and betting. I end up laughing so hard with everyone from work, so many funny stories and much silliness. We tried to make it back in time to get public transport home but we missed it so a group of us continued on at ‘The Village’ where a band was playing some country/folk style music.
Thursday night was the FireFox 3 Launch party at the Parnell street cinemas as part of the IOTC conference held in town. Jan, Luis and I went along but kept to ourselves pretty much. We did have a very silly photo taken of us by one of the sponsoring companies. We had dinner and a few laughs at an Italian restaurant up the road from the cinemas.
Friday night we stayed in. Jan packed ready for his business trip to the US and I packed ready for my scrapbooking event. I’m pretty excited as Jan is picking me up some scrapbooking goodies in the US too.
Saturday 21st June - Today I made two mini albums as part of the ‘MIDSUMMER MEGASCRAP’ run by TheScrapbookStore.
Donnas class materials before we started
The first class was with Donna Downey, we made an album using fabrics, it is just gorgeous, all the textures. I’m feeling inspired to use different materials in my works now. I am a bit mad at myself for not buying Donnas book about her techniques, I had a flip through and there as so many wonderful projects in there. I don’t know what photos I will put in it yet. We also used acrylic paint in the album, which is what inspired me to buy my acrylic book and art supplies recently, The paint is so fun and easy to work with and I think I’ll attempt some little works to start with soon. I have one project in mind….. :D will see how I go.
Pictures of what I’ve done so far and the pack of stuff left to complete the album.
The second class was with Lance Anderson, the owner of Rusty Pickle. With him we created an album that is more my style, dark bright colours and lots of popups and folding and such. We concentrated on making a popup ball that lives in the envelope at the back of the album. When the ball is released it pops up covered in photos and decorations and can be spun around. It really is fantastic and was quite a challenge to put it all together. I am thinking I might use the album for Guadec but not sure yet. I can’t wait to continue my work on it though, it’s so much fun. There were also some prize draws through the day and I won some letter stickers, I love letters at the moment so this was perfect for me.
also has a lot left to be done and there’s a big stack of stuff left to add to it in the kit.
I collapsed into bed after some housework on Saturday night, I’d soaked in too much information and techniques. There were also a lot of jokes and stories told and it was so much fun as always to hang out with fellow scrappers. I would love to go to another all weekend paper event some time soon.
Sunday June 22nd - I won tickets to see Narnia Prince Caspian this morning so Halley and I headed into town. The weather was amazingly bad. The house was rattling and shaking before we left but we braved it and took a slow walk with the rain and wind pushing us away. It was worth the effort though as the movie was a lot of fun. As it was the premier Disney gave everyone a little snack pack and a poster, there were also prizes. The movie itself was really good, the story continued on very well and everything was put together just right with little jokes here and there to stop you getting too bored or worried about the war being shown to us. This was a great way to escape into the morning.
This evening Halley and I saw the new indiana jones it was good fun and made us laugh a few times and kept me entertained most of the way through. I thought the movie could have used more laughs and slapstick and less wacky plot. But it was much better than I expected and I loved the old style.
Tuesday 10th - We went to see the new ‘The Incredible Hulk’ movie premier at the Savoy. The unusual thing this time was they made us all give our mobile phones over at the front so we wouldn’t video the movie. I wouldn’t subject anyone else to this aweful movie so I guess I’m thankful for their precaution. The one bit I did like was the scenery in Brazil, that was amazing, I wish I could travel all the time.
The Week I got my work permit and sorted out tax stuff, This week was about the Lisbon Treaty, I tried to learn about what it was but I didn’t succeed to grasp any exact details just some vague maybes of what may or may not happen if it a yes vote happened. The irish people voted No. What surprised me the most was that only 50ish% of people voted, this is quite unusual because in Australia everyone is supposed to vote. I over heard one guy saying (jokingly) he didn’t vote because he didn’t believe in democracy.
Friday 13th - Jan and I went for Sushi again, this time at Yamamori on Lower Ormond Quay. This wasn’t as good as the South George one. The menus are nearly identical but the ingredients weren’t. We chatted about some invention ideas using LCD panels, it’s a bit sad that Jan isn’t inventing cool electronic stuff all day long.
Afterwards we wandered around Temple bar and watched a bit of the football Euro 2008 in a pub window. We made our way to Dublin Castle where the Street Performers World Championships (http://www.spwc.ie/) were on. The performers were just fantastic and the location was very cool. I guess the thing that made most of the acts was audience participation. The first guy was getting people to come on stage then using them in mime. Next up was Aussie Mr Spin, who you guessed it, spun stuff. He balanced a ball on his head while juggling 5 balls and spun a hoop around his foot. impressive.
The compere rode a unicycle then got a small girl from the audience to ‘ride a unicycle’ then surprised us because what he really meant is that she’d ride on his back while he rode the cycle. 
Angel spun hoolah hoops but also was a contortionist and a comedian. 
Next an act from Japan the man balanced on some crazy structures then the girl joined him in some funky balancing acts, all choreographed to music. 
There was much more.
The finale was the compere singing ‘We are the champions’ he got the whole audience singing along then leapt onto the crowd and crowd surfed around the stage.. very funny. This was a fantastic show and it was free, they passed around hats at the end for donations, street performer style.
About half way through a friend of a friend of mine from uni, mattC came to hang out with us. She is originally from Italy but went to Australia for a while and met Matt. We had a beer there at the performance then another at the porterhouse.
This weekend I’ve been editing pictures and trying to catch up on tasks from the week, I’ve been struggling with my laptop that is having it’s last days, it is so slow now, the screen doesn’t work and I have to use a spanish keyboard which is very very frustrating, I can’t find any of the right keys.
Tuesday 3rd - I walked to St Stephens green after work to do some craft and window shopping. I bought a book about acrylic painting and a little guide to Istanbul, the trip is coming up very soon now.
Wednesday 4th - I bought some acrylic painting stuff, paper, paint, matt medium, throw away pallettes, I can’t wait to give it a go. I had to walk a fair distance in the rain to get these items too, I was soaked through by the time I got back to work.
Thursday 5th - I met Jan on Great South George Street for Sushi at Yamamori Noodles. It was delicious but expensive, I’m always a bit frightened to eat out here we try and be careful but it always ends up way more than we can afford. This night we had tickets for Billy Connelly at the Olympia Theatre. This theatre is quite old and seems to have been made for a shorter population, we were all squished into cinema style seats but the row infront was so close I was really jammed in. This was one big row too which meant any time someone went to the bathroom everyone in the row had to stand up and get out of the row for them to pass. This movement happened all the way through the show and was fairly disruptive to us and the performer. I guess we had high expectations because we’d paid so much to attend and then the theater and our seating were disappointing.
Billy Connellys show was good, interesting and funny. At one stage he picked on an audience member which had us in laughing with shock. He seemed to mostly talk about events in his life and talked about Galway, the US and his previous trips to Ireland. Billy swears a lot but we knew this before we went along.
Friday 6th, One of the workmates I’d met at last weeks drinks had his leaving party at the Barge, I ended up staying pretty late and laughing so hard chatting with everyone. It was a great night and a beer tab meant I drank too much. I had a frustrating time trying to find my way home, none of Jan’s phone numbers would answer so I grabbed a bus then the last train of the night. Jan called me as I got on the train and we chatted my whole journey home about our days. He came to meet me at the station too with a pair of flat shoes to replace my high heeled boots.
Saturday 7th, We got some groceries home delivered from tesco.ie This has to be the worst online grocery site I’ve ever used, their interface is rediculously bad, No way to sort no way to search properly, it barely brings up the things you’re looking for. I struggled through though and it took over an hour to order 40 items. there’s no way it’s more convenient than really shopping which doesn’t even make sense. I hate grocery shopping. Another bad part of it is you have to pick a two hour delivery time, in two hours I could have gone and gotten my groceries up the road rather than wait around for someone. hehe. Oh yeah and I was hungover.
That evening I was feeling pretty lazy and nearly convinced us not to go to the Bon Jovi concert at Punchestown. I glad I didn’t and we went into the city did a little shopping (including some paint brushes for me to try some acrylic painting soon) and then caught the bus 1.5 hours to the race course. The concert was held in this field in the country side. We arrived fairly early and I napped on the long soft grass in the sun. The weather was just gorgeous. Jan and I shared some mexican food and cold icecream while some bands played off in the distance. When Bon Jovi was about to start Jan and I tried to make our way towards the front of the crowd. I had bought inner circle tickets but I had no idea how to get there, I couldn’t even see a special area. We were still about 20 people back from what might’ve been the barrier when we met another couple pushing their way out and together we made our way to the side gate which let us in infront of the stage. The huge stage was amazing, it had screens made of strips that could move up and down the stage to form differently shaped and positioned displays. There were strings of light balls covering the whole back drop which could also display images or make multiple patterns.
Bon Jovi was full of energy and played for around three hours including two encores. He did all the old favourites and some from his latest album plus a few covers. There was this special section right up next to the stage that people who had bought a fancy ticket could stand for 10 minutes during the gig. One girl used her chance to leap over the boundary and crawl up the stage to Jovi and grabbed hold of him. Security made it over but she had a tight grip and tried to kiss him. She finally managed and then released herself from Jon. and flopped down into the security guys with a satisfied look, her life was complete. The crowd went wild.
During the encores we moved back into the main part of the crowds and danced, there were so many people there maybe 30,000 and everyone was going crazy, dancing, singing, having a good time. There was a great energy. I did feel inspired after the concert and was thinking about my acrylic painting and was being a little sad that I don’t play music any more. We caught a packed noisy bus back to the city, there were lines of yellow double decker dublin buses waiting all with ‘Bon Jovi’ in lights on the front.
I like this quote found on Overheard in Dublin
Bon Jovi inspiration
Was at the Bon Jovi gig on Sat night and right in the middle of one of the songs, completely out of the blue, the guy in front of me turns to his mate and says “Right, that’s it, first thing Monday morning I’m looking for a job”
Sunday 8th - Jan and I chilled out and made a birthday card for Wim while watching The West Wing season 1.
I had dreams of being more adventurous and getting out and seeing the city after work and attending many festivals and activities all around. My week was more exhausting and I rushed home each night and slept early after some housework and dinner. Monday and Tuesday Mum and Tony were still here and mum made a big pot of curry stew that fed us both days. The Monday night we also got to enjoy the fancy Tarts we’d bought at the Galway bakery for desert. Tuesday we relaxed together with the projector playing an episode of Grey’s anatomy. Wednesday Mum and Tony left for Amsterdam and their cruise around this area of the world.
Thursday I caught a bus directly from work to AnnaMaries scrapbooking class, we made a heritage page which is meant to also have headings and an old photograph, not sure what I’ll use it for yet. It was great to catch up with all the girls again and I’ll next be seeing them later in June for the big scrapbooking workshop with american tutors.
My week at work was busy, one problem took me quite a while though I had it solved by Friday. Looking at travel websites all week is only making my desire to travel stronger, I’ve had fantasies of New York, Prague, Paris, pretty much everywhere if I was honest :). Traveling back and forth has kept me up to date with the news atleast with the morning papers, the trip makes me feel like we’re all hot sardines with large newspapers though. The weather was miserable all week. I got to know the guys a bit better during our breaks at lunch.
On Friday around 4pm icecreams were handed out because our main site had made it’s ten millionth booking! very cool. It was a gorgeous afternoon and we also had beers and then more drinks in the beer garden together after work. This was a great chance to get to know my workmates better and after quite a few rounds we were having a fun night together. A nice end to my second week. I got home pretty late and Jan ordered pizza then I stumbled to bed.
The weather has been just gorgeous this long weekend, blue skies, warm days everyone is out and about and having great times. We had no plans exactly except for a huge todo list of errands and tasks to organise us for June. We made a few calls home to catch up with family and have enjoyed the perks of Skype as well to chat to a few more people. We went to see the Sex and the City movie which was fun on Sunday. Otherwise we’ve been working on personal projects for me this meant scrapbooking. We also made yummy banana splits with the lot including a cherrie on top :D.
I’m a bit sick of seeing the inside of our house and want to get out more and do things and take photographs, have experiences. I hope I’ll have more energy during the week plus after my first paycheck things should be better.
Friday 23rd - Jan and I met after work and took a bus to Galway. The trip was pleasant, there were spring lambs and calfs in the pretty stone walled paddocks. The towns were cute as we crossed the country too, ivy covered walls and little potted baskets on door frames. As we got closer to the west a mist covered the fields. Daylight here in Ireland is unusual for me, it will still be light as it gets to 11pm, this has made it hard for me to have early nights during my first week of work.
On the bus we had a little picnic, discussed our weeks at work, watched the road via a large screen displaying the dizzying view from the roof and read books until we met Mum and Tony at the other end, Galway. We went to a pub for a drink together. There was a group of musicians sitting near the door playing their traditional instruments as we walked in. We made our way to the back and once we had drinks we chatted and a singer got up and sang a song about being in Australia missing his lover in Ireland. We though this was a nice touch.
Afterwards Tony drove us to our B&B in Oughterard. This is a cute little village about 30kms North of Galway City. We stayed at ‘River Walk House’ which had four cats and a dog and some pretty large garden areas. We very noisily made our way inside as each of us attempted, while clanging keys and handles, to lock the doors behind us. Our rooms were upstairs. Jan and my room was all purple with butterflies sewn on our quilt cover, there was a view of the back yard and down across to the riverside walk into town.
Saturday 24th - We met my parents down in the conservatory for a late breakfast. Ann the owner cooked us traditional Irish breakfasts, my parents are vegan but were happy with some baked beans, tomatos and mushrooms, Jan and my breakfasts included black and white pudding yum.
The plan for today was to explore Connemara. We first drove to Lough Corrib which is a large lake with 360 islands inside it. Originally I’d hoped to have spent a morning out on the lake fishing, it is May Fly season and I imagined a gorgeous day on a boat catching Trout and Salmon for lunch mmm. I’m happy we didn’t do that though because the water was very rough and no one was out.
We found some gorgeous viewing spots as we continued along the lake side hoping eventually to arrive in another town. We hopped out at the end of the road to take photographs and spend some time with the strange sheep of the area. The sheep have black heads and feet and long shaggy wool coming down like it’s just a blanket laid over them and hanging towards the ground.
Mum and Tony brought along their SatNav which they call Leah and he did most of the navigating for us. Leah took us back along the pretty lake road and onto the highway where we headed towards the Atlantic ocean. The drive wasn’t boring, there were gorgeous water ways to either side of the highway with either bog land, lakes or bald grey mountains. We were very lucky this trip as there was pretty much no traffic where we went. We did see a couple of tractors and horse floats on the roads which were a little worrisome because of how narrow the roads are and are usually sided by hedges. We stopped on a crossway, Maamcross, where there were markets set up and locals wandering back and forward across the roads to the stalls. Mum and I weren’t too impressed with the selection but the boys enjoyed the power tools and the odds and ends that were for sale.
Eventually we found ourselves in Recess where there is a large craft store filled with typical Irish goodies including Green marble tiles and woolen clothes. The staff were fun too giving us tips and stories about the items we were interested in. I tried on some lovely woolen shawls, the clerk showed me how to dramatically toss the ends over my shoulders with attitude. Maybe I can get one next winter. Across the road was a statue of a crouched Connemara with a plaque stating it was built ‘for no apparent reason’ in 1999. Jan commented that it was a shame he was built out of concrete and there were already signs of him melting away.
At lunch time we arrived in Clifden and rushed into the first pub where we had salty meals with Guinness. Afterwards we had a little wander around Clifden and we saw the nearly empty River Owenglin far down from the tops of the car park walls.
After a short stop to visit this horse 
we started on the Sky Road which took us along some amazing coastal scenery. 
By now unfortunately we were all exhausted so we took the most direct route home to have a nap. We stopped half way for scones and tea (oh yum) but I’m left wishing we would have continued on a little slightly north to really see the twelve bens and Kylemore abbey. However I was the first to sleep and I woke up many hours later at dinner time. I remember as I drifted off hearing Jan talking to B&B owners outside about the cats of the house.
We took a walk in to town at dinner time along the river walk. It was a pretty river and it was a lovely night. We had dinner with many visiting anglers and the locals at Breathnachs Bar. I had and shared some yummy mussels with creamy white wine sauce with buttered wheaten bread, mmm. Then roasted Atlantic Sea Bass on mash and a pint of guinness, it was a great evening meal together, just what I wanted. Well second to catching my own fish in the lake. That evening before bed Jan and I sat in the pretty lounge area of the B&B and watched TV for quite a few hours.
Connemara is a Gaeltacht region meaning it’s Irish speaking and is also the setting of the Irish Language learning TV show Jan and I watched recently “In the name of the Fada” where the main lesson we learnt was to emphasise the blas’s and so we practiced that a fair bit on this trip. Spitting a lot as we did so.
Sunday 25th - After our yummy big breakfasts we packed the car ready for the day. Ann came out to make sure Jan hadn’t kidnapped any of the houses animals then we headed south towards Galway. On the way we stopped at Aughnanure Castle which was the home to the O’Flahertys once feared in Galway for hundreds of years.
This picture has Mum,Tony and Jan in it hehe, I’ll have to blow it up pretty big for my album. Inside the tower we made our way up the tight spiral staircase and enjoyed reading the history and facts of the location. Once I braved my way to the top I didn’t like to read about the bats that were roosting in the roof, we could hear them outside. Jan climbed one further and recited some Shakespeare from the internal balcony. The word ‘Aughnanure’ in the gaelic form means field of the yew trees and only one of these trees still remains on the site just outside the gates. We visited this tree then made our way along the river and caves that make up the base of the castle.
We drove next to Galway and parked near the Galway Cathedral:
then we walked across the Salmon Weir Bridge and we were drawn to a stop watching a fly fisherman in the heavy rushing waters. 
I don’t think any of us were expecting such a huge river, after the water smashed down the weir it split into two areas 
. We watched the fisherman struggle with his line for quite a while before a fish got away and he was able to flick it up again and recast for another try. The whole scene reminded me of how bears line up in the rivers to catch salmon as they make their way to the sea.
We took a walking tour through the main streets of Galway, there was a lot of activity and plenty of street performers the best of which was this group of mechanical puppets playing a haunting tune:
We found some street markets near the Collegiate Church with it’s pyramid spire, dating back to 1320. We explored the stalls for a while. Mum bought herself a pretty little wooden box. Back on the main streets I stopped off at The Kings head to go to the bathroom and found it was what they call a superpub, continuing on through the whole block and up many floors. It was built from a 17th century stone house too so that was an adventure. 
.
We found ourselves down at the Quays near the Spanish Arch which is part of the old city walls
We enjoyed standing here in the sun though were distracted when a couple of young guys started fighting
By now it was lunch time and we made our way through town stopping briefly at a gorgeous cake shop where we bought a package of Tarts to take back to Dublin for later in the week. We had lunch just off Eyre Squre at another SuperPub The Skeff in the Skeffington Arms Hotel. The food was great here fish and salads. The bars decore was fantastic too, huge bay windows looking out over the square where an Africa festival was on.
Everything was skirtings and moldings, the furniture was of dark wood and richly Upholstered. The roof was carved wood with grand chandeliers. The place was huge but broken into nooks and crannies and below us the platform seating area between a couple of the floors was decorated with large old portrait paintings and insets with busts. Even the bathrooms were extravagantly furnished. I think it was a good find.
We did a little exploring on our way back to the car from Eyre Squre and a little bit of shopping too. We set Leah (the sat nav) and Tony to take us to Clonmacnoise in County Offaly and Jan and I fell straight asleep for the journey. As we woke up we were passing through Shannon Bridge which was perfect timing as we saw the massive and awesome fortifications that were built incase Napolean ever came there then we crossed the 16 span narrow bridge. The lonely planet states that it’s ‘a sleepy village with just one main street and two pubs’ I love it.
The part of County Offaly we were driving through is famous for it’s bog, I’m not really sure I’m looking at bog when I see it, sure there’s lots of flat grassy land, and wild looking plants. I guess that’s what it is?
We saw an amazing ruined castle in a field and were convinced we’d found Clonmacnoise, I was nearly disappointed to find the 13th century castle wasn’t part of the monastry and was discribed as ‘the oddly shaped ruins’ with no other stories. Clonmacnoise was a monastic city first settled in AD548 and is in a large walled field surrounded by gorgeous marsh area. We started our visit in the museum and watched a movie about the area. I liked the decorated stone slabs 
The old foundations of the temples were interesting to walk around and hide among from the strong winds outside. One of the temples is reputed for having the founder of the site St Ciaran buried beneath it and it has ben custom to take a handful of clay to protect crops and cattle by putting a bit in each corner of the field. This still happens today but from just outside it.
We stopped for tea and cake at the museum’s cafe before taking some pictures of the funky castle ruins outside the gates.
We made our way back to dublin following SatNav Leah’s advice, this did take us onto some very crazy tiny hedge roads and he paniced a couple of times telling us to take lefts into fields or to do Uturns on freeways. We got stuck in traffic a couple of times so entertained ourselves with traditional irish music on the radio. We made it home at a decent hour and had dinner from the pantry and freezer before heading to bed exhausted. What a huge couple of days.
Sunday 18th - our friend Alberto surprised us by being in town, he was meant to be spending three months in the Canary Islands but came back for a quick visit. He brought his new flatmates over to ours for a little fiesta. We played some cards and had a few laughs. I felt good that I’d prepared my clothes etc. for work the next day in time to have a stress free night with friends.
Monday 19th - My first day of work - I had a bit of an introduction then jumped straight into some tasks, I had to ask a lot of questions and be shown things but I think I picked things up pretty quick.
Tuesday 20th - I met my mum, Tony and Jan in the city and we went to Cornucopia restaurant, which is a vegetarian place with lots of fancy salads, we had a good meal there sharing off each others plates. We finished the evening off with a walk around Temple Bar and a loopy drive home in my parents rental car that took us past many of the cities attractions. The city is between work and home so it’s quite easy to meet people there now, I hope we end up going there atleast once a week for dinner and other things, I love going to museums and concerts and whatever is on.
Wednesday 21st - Jan and I met and had crepes then went to the science museum at Trinity College. We took a short cut through Trinity college and this was the first time we’d really explored the place, and it was Fantastic, like stepping into another world. We took our time enjoying the gardens and old buildings and the university atmosphere around us. The Science museum had a special exhibition on called TechnoThreads and even more they had interactive demonstrations and people to ask questions to. The exhibition is about when technology and fashion collide. There were massaging shirts, electronic shirts with displays and lights. There was stab proof hoodies, bullet proof outfits, rubber outfits, clothes full of air. It was cool and we asked different questions and checked everything out. Afterwards we had a few pints with Jan’s workmates and his boss from Germany at Toners, the football was on the TV.
Thursday 22nd - I stayed back at work to finish writing up a plan for the next weeks tasks, I think I’ve been doing well, getting plenty of things done and exploring much of the system. I’ve gotten into a rhythm already with traveling to and from work, it takes an hour each way which is a bit much but I can read. This means about 3 hours of reading a day now. I’ve been reading the metro newspaper which is fun and full of silly facts and the news of the day otherwise I’m making my way through the The Dresden File books.
Friday 23rd - I feel like I had a successful and productive first week of work, I was moving well through the tasks given to me and I got to know the office and surroundings pretty well and at lunch times I would sit with some of the guys and get to know them too.
Tonight night we meet mum in Galway for the weekend. Finally a chance to take some pictures.
I don’t know, this month is very strange. There has been a fair bit of preperation for me to start work during this month. I haven’t taken any photos, I haven’t had a lot to write home about actually. I had a scrapbooking class with lots of chatter on May 10th and the next weekend we booked ourselves in for the Edinburgh fringe festival and went to the movies and saw ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’. I was working hard on getting some work done for my dad most spare minutes I had and I also submitted my work permit application too.
I felt quite poetic sometimes, when the sky was grey and the trees had new growth so light it was more grey and white than green, blossoms would blow down the roads infront of me as I walked around.
Jan and I bought a wii fit, with the expectation that I would have a lot of time to fill so could do that everyday, I did use it quite a bit but I don’t have time.
Knowing I had a job coming up helped a lot it lets us look to the future and do some planning, We both can see a positive future full of fun and adventures again, that is what I need.
We started early entertaining ourselves this May Long Weekend. Jan’s work had a Trivia night for charity, and we went along to ‘The Vaults’ under Conolley station to join in. The venue is pretty cool it’s a bit like a set of underground caves and I hope to go back sometime when it’s a night club.
Our team did pretty well and I think trivia nights are great way to meet new people, the questions fill in the gaps in conversations. We enjoyed the night and a few beers too.
Saturday was the big day of our weekend, I won tickets to the Irish Premier of ‘Speed Racer’. This was shown in the lovely main Savoy theatre on O’Connel street. This film is so bright and colourful and has kept a lot of the cartoon feel to the movie. I did get a little bored during the heart felt speech moments but the action and car racing was very cool.
We continued our day by watching another movie ‘Iron Man’ that Jan had been looking forward to for ages. I think he’d seen the trailers thousands of times. We really enjoyed this movie too. There were heaps of great effects and all the things Jan loves best, robots, electronics, computers, programming, special effects, comic themes, super heros.
After a few hours shopping we met our friends Callum and Julie at the Laughter Lounge for a great night of fun. We laughed very hard at the comedians jokes and enjoyed a few drinks together. Some of the material was a bit specific to life in Ireland that we don’t know so much about yet, but luckily it was balanced. We enjoyed the range of accents as well.
This is a long weekend and I think we’ll probably be just bumming around at home for the rest of it. I have lost my creative side at the moment, I would love to spend this time with my paper crafting but I don’t feel like it, sad.
From April 14th I got very serious about hunting for my new career. I spent every morning looking through job websites and applying for positions that interested me. My goal was to find a full time job in Dublin that I’d enjoy, ideally somewhere I could be challenged as well. I focused mainly on PHP development positions. The process was very frustrating and I hope I can relieve myself of some of this stress here and now.
Over the first week and a half I probably had twenty recruiters call and attempt to help me. I had one guy call and say “I don’t know anything about computers, which of the following would be best for you ‘web developer’ ‘web applications engineer’ ‘web programmer’. It turned out they all were ASP or Java jobs. Another problem I had was I had no idea if my resume made it to the companies they were representing, I didn’t know why they wouldn’t my skills and experience matched up pretty much perfectly for most.
In the end I asked a random recruiter to make sure my CV had gotten through to a company I was very interested in, I was sure I’d applied multiple times for it. and he got back to say it hadn’t. He put it through and I got an interview. Another company called to offer me an interview based on my resume that he’d found on monster. This was also a position I’d applied for more than once, I was pretty sure, recruitment companies represent jobs by rewording the initial spec with vague wording that makes it sound like a completely different job. In this case though I’d heard the company name and I had applied before.
Anyway thankfully I got a range of interviews in my third week of hunting, the last week of April. My first ‘interview’ turned out to be a technical test, the first part on paper and the second was programming. I was called back for a second interview a couple of days later. I enjoyed the interview parts much more than applying for them, I was so sick of putting in effort to apply then having my work fly off via a web form for me never to get any feedback about them.
Here is a picture of me during the job hunting process, I was pretty stressed out.
Before April was over I was offered a PHP/MySQL development job and I’ve accepted. I’m now in the process of sorting out my Work Permit paperwork and hopefully I’ll be starting in June. Starting at the new company will be very exciting. and — PHEW :).