Library

I walked over to the library last night and it was kind of a long walk, but it was fun. It's on Rathmines Road, which I'd never seen before. It was a pretty busy street with lots of restaurants, a few pubs and even a few big shops on it. There's a Tesco, which is the closest thing to Walmart or Target here, and Dunnes, which is a department and grocery store. I also saw a pretty big park that was filled with people enjoying the late sunlight. I'll walk back over there this weekend to investigate the area further. I had quick and simple success in getting a library card, which was shocking to me since nothing else like that has been easy. I checked out three travel books and walked home with a heavy purse and a big smile on my face. The walk made me wonder what other great neighborhoods I haven't seen in Dublin. It's a good thing we have *another* holiday on Monday - three days off to explore unseen sights!

It figures!

So, I've been waiting a couple of weeks for my landlord to come and fix the downstairs toilet and fireplace, and he didn't show up and didn't show up... and over the weekend I did tons of laundry and the last load (late Sunday night) was - um - delicates. So I hung my delicates in the kitchen on the drying rack and left them this morning because they were still a little damp. Not surprisingly, I had a note from the landlord on the coffee table when I got home. IT FIGURES!!! I am so embarrassed. I hope I never have to see him again. I'd ask "Can you believe that?" but I know you can. It's me!

Photos from last weekend, since this weekend was boring

Sunday Morning

It is bright and beautiful outside right now... I just checked weather.com and it forecasted rain all day, so we'll see how long the sunshine lasts. It has been warmer. I didn't really need the heat on last night. I spent the whole day in yesterday catching up on laundry, as I had strayed a bit from my every-other-day schedule. This week I'll get back in the routine.
On Friday I went to an Australian pub called the Wool Shed (Sports Baa and Grill) on Parnell Street with some folks from work. We were there for ANZAC Day with one of our Australian co-workers. Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. The acronym, ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose soldiers were known as Anzacs. About half an hour after we got there, they asked for silence while the national anthems were sung and poems about remembering the lives lost in that battle were read. Afterward there was a long moment of silence. It was pretty moving, and I saw some misty eyes in the place. When the silence ended, some Australians rolled out a mat and began placing bets on coin tosses, which is a traditional game on Anzac Day. It's said to be one of the most important days for Aussies and New Zealanders alike. We all had fun at the baa. I was glad to have shared the evening with many Australians and New Zealanders. It was nice to see how seriously they take the day.
I've been looking into traveling a bit, but it's so expensive. Looks like a trip will run me about €500 for a flight and hotel for 3 or 4 nights. I looked at Rome and Salzburg - both look like gorgeous places rich with history. I am having trouble deciding! I had hoped to take a trip sometime in May since our go-live date was postponed to June 1. It would be a good time since the temperatures won't have risen too high for my comfort level. I will be deciding within the next few days and will include an update in the blog.
That's all for now. Enjoy the week!

Freaky Updates

Brace yourselves - these are pretty entertaining.

1. I woke up last night with my hair tickling my face. It was tickling so much and I couldn't make it stop so I got up and looked in the mirror to find a spider in it. I calmly swept him into the sink and washed him down the drain.
2. I got on the bus this afternoon and pulled out my ipod, only to realize I'd left it on all day and killed the battery.
3. I got home from work and saw that I'd left the refrigerator door open all day when I got my lunch out this morning.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Guy on the bus

So, this morning we were cruising along on the free shuttle bus when we made a stop to pick someone up and I heard the bus driver yelling "This is a private bus, off you go!" I looked up to see a VERY dirty, VERY drunk old man ambling down the aisle. The bus driver carried on, I guess not knowing what else to do. The man started doing something that sounded like preaching, standing in the aisle about 2 seats up from me. I heard "kids" and "teach" and that's about all I could understand. I could smell the alcohol on him. Then he began to sing - again, I couldn't understand, but every few verses he would yell "PATRICK!" and "in the name of Jesus Christ." Not that I didn't feel very sad for this man, but my main concern was that I hoped he wouldn't throw up on me. A few minutes later, as everybody stayed very focused on their ipods and newspapers, he rang the bell for the bus to stop. The whole thing was very disturbing. I kept thinking about getting off the bus, but he was blocking the aisle. It's never happened before since I've been here and I hope it doesn't happen again. Not much that can be done to control it, I suppose. I feel sorry for the guy he got on with! If he gets on again tomorrow, I will probably NEVER sit downstairs on a bus again. I guess things like that can happen in big cities. The only other scary thing I've seen was a lady wandering the street calling out random names really loud. One of the names was "ANGINA!!!!!!!!!!" That was weird too. Oh, and one time I saw a boy riding a galloping horse down a regular street. At least it's not boring!

Moment of Triumph

This is me, crossing back over the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. What an amazing moment!

What a weekend!

The update is a bit late this weekend because I've been very busy. If I was missing driving, I sure got my fill yesterday! A trip to Belfast and 'the North Coast' was plenty of driving to last me a while. I met Paul (from Jax, here with ML also) at Starbuck's and we took a taxi to Enterprise. We got there at 9 AM on the dot, and were the first customers in the place. We got the car and headed to the M1, toward the north. After a few stops for photos and a few unintentional detours, we arrived on the Coastal Causeway. We approached a hill and I knew when we got to the top we'd see a beautiful sight. I wasn't disappointed. We began the coastal tour at White Rocks, which was literally huge white rocks on the water. Too gorgeous for words. Then we went to Dunluce Castle, where I spent way too much time taking what undoubtedly seemed to Paul like a million pictures of the ruins. As some of you know, ruins are my thing! After that, we went along to Giant's Causeway, which you can read about here: http://www.northantrim.com/Causewayguide.htm. This tells the story - fact and legend - of how the causeway was formed. When we got back up to the information center, I asked what time the rope bridge closed. I was told the last tickets were sold to cross the bridge at 5:15. It was 5:05, and it was about a 20-minute drive. Feeling defeated, we got back on the road and stopped for photos of more ruins and gorgeous coastal views, knowing we probably wouldn't make the bridge on time. I was so frustrated because that was going to be one of the highlights of the trip. We decided to pull in anyway, just to see if we could take some pictures at least. We parked the car and headed toward the bridge, past the ticket office, which was closed. This was a mostly uphill hike which I thought might kill me or at least render my knee useless for the rest of the day, but I made it (and quickly, I might add) because we got the idea since we saw other people a bit ahead of us that we MIGHT be able to get on the bridge. We approached the man standing guard at the gate and he asked if we had tickets. Thinking fast I said, "We did, but they blew away when we were taking some pictures." Okay, okay - I told a little white lie, but when would I be back up there?? This was my chance and I was giving it everything I had. He begrudgingly let us cross. So, I walked across the bridge and was scared out of my mind because the bridge was swaying in the strong wind. There IS a photo, but Paul took it with his camera, so I'll have to post it later. It was amazing, and definitely the coolest thing I've ever done.

We stopped a few more times for photo opportunities and then drove on toward Belfast to hit the IKEA, which luckily was open until midnight for their 21st anniversary. We arrived at about 10 PM, and the store was still pretty mobbed, but we found everything we wanted (and more!) and waited in the checkout line for about half an hour. Conveniently, since we were both starving, there was a little cafe with hot dogs and chips (fries) on the way out. We were so grossed out by the hot dogs - they were nasty - but I ate most of mine anyway because I was so hungry and knew there wasn't going to be anything open at midnight on the way home.

We got back on the M1 toward Dublin and found that it was closed for road works between Junctions 2 and 6. This proved to be disastrous, because there's no directions on any signs that say north or south, they all say the name of the road and the towns you will head to if you take it. Like, it would say A55 Newcastle going one way and A55 Highlands going the other way, for example. In addition, you have to make a split-second decision which way to go while joining insane Irish drivers on a roundabout going about 40 miles an hour. And this was a pretty big issue when we didn't know which towns were in which direction and couldn't find them on the map. Yikes! Paul was navigating and I was driving, so I kept saying, "I don't think we're going south because the moon is on the right of us, which means we're going north." And he kept cursing at the road signs, which I learned before were nearly worthless from my trip last year. I guess we were lost for a fairly long time, because we didn't get back into Dublin City Centre until about 2:30 AM. Then we had to figure out how to drive the streets we've been walking since we arrived. It doesn't help that you can walk whatever way you want on a one-way street, so we had to turn around and drive around blocks quite a few times. AND we were running out of gas in the car, which forced us to be on the lookout for a gas station. Guess how many gas stations are in the city centre? Not very many! An additional complication was the surprisingly huge amount of people on the streets at that unholy hour!!! I was afraid I was going to hit someone while they tried to hail me (apparently every car looks like a cab to a drunk person). We ended up near my house, so we stopped by to unload my stuff. Then I took Paul back to his place and helped him unload his stuff. By the time I got home it was 4 in the morning - 22 hours after I woke up that morning. I fell into bed and fast asleep.

Today I took the car to Dundrum Town Centre to pick up a few more things I didn't want to take on the LUAS or walk the streets with. I wanted to take full advantage of the car while I still had it. Now I'm just about to put together the table I got at IKEA last night. Hopefully it will be easier than driving home last night!!! Worth mentioning: the forecast for Saturday had been for rain, but all day long - ALL DAY - we were blessed with perfect weather. Sometimes I wonder if things are turning around for me in the way of luck...

Take care of yourselves -

jlw

A Trip Up North

I'm heading up to Belfast and County Antrim this weekend. I'll be stopping at the new IKEA in Belfast and then traveling even further north to County Antrim to see the Giants Causeway (http://www.northantrim.com/giantscauseway.htm), the Carrick-a-redes rope bridge (http://www.northantrim.com/carrick_a_rede.htm) and Dunluce Castle (http://www.northantrim.com/dunlucecastle.htm). I am so excited to see the beauty of Ireland again. Dublin is fun, but a getaway to the country is always welcome! I will be posting photos when I return. Wish me luck on the bridge. Although I'm sure I'll be very frightened, I will give it a try anyway. Fingers crossed for low winds on Saturday!

ANOTHER birthday shout-out!

Happy Birthday to Karen! She's only 25!!! :) Go girl!

Day Trip to Blackrock

I rode a bus and a train to Blackrock today. These photos were the highlight of the trip. Final assessment: The City Centre and Ranelagh are better than Blackrock. No need to return.

Television Update

Turns out I won't need to buy a TV. I found a little one in one of the upstairs closets. Did I mention it was little? It's probably 15", if that. I put the Phase 10 cards on top of it so you can really tell how small it is.

I could have either bought a new TV, or had a trip to Greece or Spain or Italy... which would you choose?

Birthday Shout-outs

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!
... to George (4/10) and Bryson (4/11)!

The Week in Review

This week has been topsy-turvy, to say the least. I moved from the temporary place to my new place on Tuesday. My two huge boxes from Jacksonville were moved in on Saturday. In order to get the remaining stuff out of the temp place, I had to move two big suitcases packed to the brim and my laptop. I am proud to say that I didn't take any cabs during this process. There were two trips - one on Monday night and one on Tuesday morning. Toward the end of each trip I thought I might die. It was kind of a long way to drag a suitcase, and my LUAS (tram) stop is upstairs! I was trying to accomplish two things by avoiding cabs - 1) saving money and 2) proving to myself I had the stamina to do it. On Tuesday night, when my knee was shot, I realized I should have probably taken the cabs. My knee is feeling back to normal now, but for a few days I was really in pain. The bad thing about being without a car is that if your knee hurts, your choices are either get through it or stay home and do nothing. I chose to get through it. I had a couple of shopping trips to get stuff for the house on Wednesday at lunch and in the evening after work, but Thursday I took it easy. It helped to relax that night I think.

Initially, my relocation service contact set up a cable TV appointment for Friday (the 11th) and informed me that I wouldn't be able to get internet for 10 business days. Then some of the supervisors on my team told me I could get internet through Vodafone. They offer a little broadband modem that works right when you plug it in. So of course, this is what I started looking into. My first trip to the Vodafone store was a bomb. They told me I needed identification (had it) and proof of address. Now, the proof of address required very specific formats - none of which I had or could get quickly. But I remembered the bank had sent me a letter, so I brought it to the store the next day. The same girl told me I needed a bank statement. I started getting testy at this point, not understanding what the difference was. I thought she was only being difficult, so that night, I took the same letter to a different Vodafone store. Rejected again, but the guy explained why and the explanation was reasonable so I was less irritated. On Friday, after I got my cable hooked up I took the bus to O'Connell Street to pick up some things from Penney's for the house. Noticing a Vodafone store, I thought a cable hook up receipt might get me what I wanted. No dice. They again told me I'd need a bank statement. Rejected again, I headed down the street. A few doors down, I noticed a bank branch, so I went in and requested a statement. They couldn't give me one right then, because apparently the statement printing is outsourced. Seven days until they could get it to me via mail (which they call post here). Feeling sorry for me, the bank teller gave me a statement he printed from his computer and stamped it, hoping that would work instead. So I marched back over to the Vodafone store and gave them the screen print. It didn't work, since it didn't have my address on it. However, the guy told me they would definitely accept a letter from the bank saying I was a customer and my address. So I walked back over to the bank, which was very busy now. The lady was super-snippy with me at first, saying there was no way she could do it because it was way too busy and I'd just have to wait. When I explained my situation, she was nicer to me and gave me a letter finally. Well, Vodafone accepted the letter, although begrudgingly, and finally sold me a modem. Persistence paid off! However, if I don't bring the statement that is coming to me in the 'post,' they will cut off my service. I'm not worried - I'll bring it as soon as it's in my hands. So that's my long story about internet service.
In other news, it SNOWED several times this week! On the bus on Monday, we could see snow piled on the cars on the road, and it snowed during work on Wednesday. On Friday morning, we had big fat fluffy snowflakes, and lots of them. You could actually see snow sitting on the tops of the mountains! I thought it was very cool.
Tonight I went to my first rugby game. It was lots of fun, and a pretty big match. It was exciting and very interesting to see the Irish at a sporting event. When the teams try to kick the ball through the goal, everyone in the stadium is dead silent - like golf silent - and at one point this little kid who couldn't have been more than six yelled out "GOOOOOOOOOOOO LEINSTERRRRRRRRRR!" It was hilarious.
Well, I guess that wraps up the week as far as noteworthy items. If I recall something I need to report, I will post again.

I'm back!

I am now happily technologized in the new place - back on internet and cable TV. I will have more updates shortly.

Internet Vacation

This just in: no internet for at least a couple of weeks. I'm trying to be all 'silver lining' here - a chance to explore my new neighborhood?? A chance to do some serious reading?? We shall see... Cross your fingers I survive this without having a mental break. I will blog offline and post when it's over!!!

More photos of the new place

Inside my new place...

I am moved in to my new place. I have decided to stay at the temp place until they kick me out because there is no cable or internet at my new place yet. But all my stuff is where it belongs and I will be moving in permanently on Tuesday night. I am really happy with the location, and can't wait to settle. The hard part is over now. I marched up and down those stairs about 30 times today, and my legs are ready to fall off.

We got hailed on AND snowed on today. Well, we think it was snow. It was softer than hail. It was really coming down out there! Fish n' chips for lunch at a restaurant that's really close to home. It was delicious and I will most definitely be back. Anyway, not much more to add for now. Very very tired...

Busy Busy

This week is soooooooooooo busy... between work and trying to move, I can barely keep up. The landlords here are a different breed. They want all my money and they want it NOW. Tomorrow I pick up the keys and most of my stuff is moving on Saturday, but I may live at the temp place until time is up. Internet access is iffy at the new place, and I want to stay in touch as long as possible. And I get the distinct priviledge of purchasing a television here, which is completely irritating since I will not be able to take it back to Jax with me at the end of my Irish time. Surprise, surprise, tvs are not cheap here! I may be joining the pan-handlers on the streets. Or maybe I will see about getting a television from the gypsies. Now there's an idea!

Anyway, despite the chaos of the week, I am still very happy. I am sure by the end of next week I will be feeling much more relaxed. I will be hanging out in my back "yard" at the new place, sipping wine and enjoying the sunshine (hopefully there will be no hail for a while). I will post photos as soon as possible.

Until then, I will bid you goodbye as the Irish do at the end of a phone call... bye! bye! bye! bye!