Week 2 - Working from home in Budapest

So I couldn't get another week off, so I had to compromise and work remotely from Budapest, which is fine as the WIFI has been great so far and I have managed to do my work.

On Monday, I just worked and caught up with all my colleagues as to what they have been doing and what I have been doing, went through my e-mails which weren't as bad as I thought they would be.  It was so hot on Monday, the mercury topped 40 degrees, I took at least 4 cold showers while working.   I was hoping to go out on Monday night, but D and Em had been at the baths on Margret Island and only got home after 8, by the time we ate dinner it was past 9, so no point in really going anywhere.

Tuesday I managed to get through quite a number of compliance tests, chatted to colleagues, cancelled a meeting with my boss in Dublin and managed to leave early, although it wasn't really early as I have been working an hour ahead of Ireland and putting in extra hours.  So I turned off my computer at 5:45 Hungarian time. 

We ambled over the road to the Market stalls and then found a small Market but the guys followed you around, I don't think they were Hungarian probably, the looked more Eastern and were willing to haggle, I am not into that and prefer the Hungarian way, this is the price if you don't like it - then tough.  It's just not in my nature to haggle, if I think it's too expensive I won't buy it.

Wednesday - well today hasn't started off too well, I intended getting up early and going off to the "Market" , they open at 6 in the morning and close at 18:00 and because I have to work until 19:00, I thought I could get up and be there by 7:00 which would give me a couple of hours to browse and then walk back and start working, but of course I woke up late.   Then when I get on-line, I see loads of people in Dublin have their status set to "Green" on-line as well as in the States where it is early hours of the morning there.  This annoys me as it looks like they are working, but they aren't - there really should be a Skype eticate mail sent out to all employees! 

Okay so that is my beef for today, maybe we will go for a walk tonight and I can get some air and not have cabin fever by the end of the day!

We ended up going for a walk and getting ice-creams at the wonderful little place that makes them in the shape of a Rose.

Thursday 1st of August - I managed to get through a lot of stuff today and meetings, so had a shower at about 3 o'clock as I had been working since 7 a.m., got dressed when Em & D got back from their day out and we all went out for Dinner at Spinoza Cafe again, our last night in Budapest - Derrick and I had a Goose leg with Red Cabbage and Potato Gratin, which was really nice.  

Work ... work ... and play ...

Okay so let me start at the begining, I had just got back from SA and on my 6 month anniversary with the company, my boss who I have never met in person said to me that everone including our new QA person from Toronto was going to be in Pleasanton the following week.  So I went on line and found a good air deal, so I told her and she told me to book - within 5 days of booking I was on the plane.

Sunday 09/26

We had a braai the night before with good friends, who left round 9pm, so I had to madly rush and finish packing - I was then up at 3:30 a.m. so D could take me to the airport for my flight to Paris, then an hour wait and the flight to SFO.  Wow, it was long - luckily I sat upstairs where there weren't that many people and I had two empty seats next to me for most of the flight.  Well with an additional 8 hours daylight by the time I arrived in SFO, I had been awake for like 20 hours.

Monday 09/27 (HOT)

My dear collegue T who came over to Ireland for 3 months to mentor me came to fetch me in the morning, it was so cool to see her again so soon and I met my boss for the first time and the new guy from Toronto - Monday was a short day as we left the office at midday for a team outing at Wente Vineyards in Livermore, it was loads of fun and great way to meet all the people from my team.  Ended up playing pictionary with the guys what a laugh. 

After T dropped me back at the hotel, I was chatting to the rest of the guys who were here from Dubln, so we ended up going out for dinner to the Cheese Cake Factory at Stoneridge Mall - it was great to have other people from the Dublin office here else I would have been all on my own.

Tuesday 09/28

A busy day at work and uneventful, then ended up going out with the gang again, this time we went downtown pleasanton and had dinner at a mexican restaurant called Blue Algarve Club I can't find a website but there is a link to facebook, we then had a night cap back at the Marriott.

Wednesday 09/29

Well today was another busy day and a last minute invitation to a team dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory at 5:30 - at 3:15 the alarm goes off in the building and we have to evacuate, well it took them at least 20 minutes to evacuate the building, by which time we could have all been burnt to death - I still had time to go back and get my sun glasses and a visit to the rest room and I was still in the same queue. 

Dinner at the cheescake factory was nice and it was nice to be out with all the team, reminded me of my days in SA when we used to go out for lunch / dinner.

Thursday 09/30 (HOT)

Well Thursday was another short day at the office, it was the company meeting out at the Marriot in San Ramon seems like a good place to stay to explore the Napa valley wine region.  Anyway the meeting was good, I couldn't believe how much people in America drink and drive though, reminded me of days back in SA.  

After the meeting and getting our T-shirts we all headed over to The Firehouse No. 37 in San Ramon which was a great night, but I wasn't in the mood to drink, so couldn't wait to get back to the hotel.

Friday 09/31 (COOL very COOL)

Another busy day in the office, T came back to the hotel with me to unload the Computer and stuff, we then walked over to the Marriott to wait for Stu and then got our favourite driver from the hotel to take us to downtown Pleasanton, once there we got some wine from the wine shop and went to Strizzi's for dinner which was good, then we had to wait for our driver, but it was great we had a good view of the "Blue Moon".  Once back at the hotel, I said my goodbye's to Stu who was heading off the next morning to the Yosemite (which looks absolutely awesome)  and T who was going off to Oregon, I was still going to see Mustafa in the morning before he headed off to Vegas - I was being left in Pleasanton all on my own.
 

There is a God

I never blogged about the most important thing that happened to me this year.  Well I have to go back to when I was unemployed and looking for a job, which is not easy when you are a foreigner in a recession hit Ireland.  Anyway I got a job with the company  I was previously contracting to, but a much junior position but hey it was a job.

Anyway my new "boss" found it in her to use me as her protégé, I don't think she had much experience managing adults before because we immediately had a personality clash, I am not going to go into the whole story, just that I was unhappy for over a year - which caused a lot of stress in my life.  But at the end of June she was moved to a different section, and life became wonderful ... all I am hoping for is that it lasts, I mean after all you spend most of your awake life at work.

I think my friends also got tired of me wining on about her, but I think they must have all prayed very hard for me, because I realised there is a god out there after all.

Do we work to Live or Live to work?

Funny thing, being in Ireland for 10 years now makes me think that when we were living in the rat race, we were always working and life really revolved around work, whereas the Irish have it right, they work to live!  Nobody rushes in to get the work done, because whether you rush or get there when you have to the work will still be there, nobody worries if you are a few minutes late in the morning, because sometimes you just have to stay that few minutes extra in the evening.

And what happens when it is a sunny beautiful day, well most Irish people take the day off - who wants to be stuck in doors on a beautiful day.  Week-ends well if the sun is shining, forget about the housework, it can always be done another day, get out and enjoy the sunshine!

I think I could get used to this, although they say the Aussies are very similar and I think I would prefer the weather.

Blue Monday

So yesterday the 17th of January 2011 was declared Blue Monday, I only heard that on the news this morning and truly it was for me anyway.

I headed to the dentist for my 9 a.m. appointment, luckily left home at 8 as I was stuck in traffic for 45 minutes, then when I got in they told me the suction machine was broken and if I wanted a proper check up and clean I could come back at 6 p.m. which I did, got there at 5:50 in fact only to be told that there are 2 emergencies and would have to wait, eventually got seen at 7:30 so by the time I got home, Emily was sleeping.  To top it I need a Root Canal and about 4 fillings ... luffely !

Em had a fall at school yesterday and long story short she was in trouble with dad and when she complained about a saw arm he dismissed it, however this morning it was still swollen so off to the clinic and x-rays and doctor she came out with a plaster cast and a broken radius.

Plus I had an absolutely cr@p day at work .... so I do believe in that one blue Monday a year and next year I am staying at home on that day!

Week 2, 2011

The only good thing about the weeks going quickly is knowing that our big trip is only 12 & 13 weeks away, in the meantime I went to the dentist on Monday and turns out I will probably have to have a root canal on a top molar which will cost 825 Euro, so this is going to be put away for another time.  I got plenty of anti biotics and pain killers which I only really needed for the first 2 days.

Oh yes, this week I had to do the late shift so was working 9 to 18:30 which I didn't mind because there were hardly any calls and on 2 occasions I was told to go home, which unlike when you are doing the 8 a.m. shift doesn't seem to happen.  So getting to aerobics on time on Wednesday was brilliant, because I had sent a complaint to the Gym about the instructors always being 15 minutes late and uninterested in giving the class, so I worked extra hard and used muscles I never knew I had especially those in the tummy area but Thursday and Friday I suffered ... oh the pain ... but well worth it.

I am hoping to now go back to my normal schedule of Aerobics on Mondays and Wednesdays and Gym on Wednesdays as well. Also the great thing about the gym is since it was bought over by Energie Gyms it has had a face lift, so clean and they have got a finger print scanner to let you in, which has gotten rid of all the riff raff.

Friday was a horrific day, clients with all kinds of obscure problems, I could not wait for the bell at 17:30 and I was out of there, 13 weeks on Friday and I would have been at my destination already!

Oh yes my friend Lisa got her new fancy car this week as well, Red Peugeot 206 with Black leather seats, makes me feel like I need a new car.  Hopefully she will be coming to show it off to us today, and I had better see if Joe & Carla are coming round for pancakes.

Later ... have an awesome next week all of you!!!!

Quote of the week:  "Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life."

- Bertolt Brecht

London Calling

Woo Who, our Christmas party is finally being organised, yes we were supposed to go away the 2nd week-end in December but unfortunately the Support & Development departments had to work (which is half the company), so it was postponed to the last week-end in January.

January is our busiest month of the year and we are open from 8 to 6:30 each day for support as it is the start of the new tax year and all the budget changes have gone out.  This was my first week back and doing 8 to 5:30 shift so I am totally whacked.  Anyway good news is the company event away, we are leaving on the Friday evening, fly to London, party, party, party ... then Saturday "Dirty Dancing" the show at the West End, Saturday night dinner and party and then Sunday midday fly back to Dublin.

Should be pretty fun because all the fun people are going with, don't know how we are going to cope on the Monday but we will just take it as it comes.

Oh yes, I think the boss has organised our own capsule with Champagne on the London Eye, should go down a treat - hope we are getting some pounds to spend too.  My dear friend "M" will be home from SA and hopefully I might get to see her!

Can't wait, so now have 2 trips to look forward to in the first half of the year!

Oh yes and have to organise post Christmas lunch with all my ex Building Society mates, so many Christmas arrangements cancelled because of the snow, but with all this happening, I guess January won't be a long month after all, but may still be cold only minus 5 at the moment, so I am off to my nice warm bed with my nice warm electric blanket waiting for me.

Nightie Night!

End of the Week

So what do we do at the end of a cr@p week , hell yes go out and party ... I am still suffering with a hangover, so as soon as I have rested I will tell all.  Oh my word what a "Jol" and I never even took my camera with!

Today ...

Today was dragging so badly that I decided to note things that happened in my day of any significance and blog about them this evening.

08:30  Firstly my day started off by me flying into work on the M50 doing 120 in a 100 zone, when some idiot cut in front of me who was only doing 100, so I swore at him and flashed my lights brightly - I mean really what idiot does that kind of thing, so as I always do when I eventually get past that person I glare at them, except this time as I was passing I recognised the Rumpelstiltskin red beard.  Oh, oh thank goodness he did not look back, so eyes in front I continued to speed off.  I mean, how was I supposed to know it was my boss, firstly he was not driving his own car but an old banger!  I got to work and 10 minutes later he arrived, not knowing whether he had seen me or not, I thought I had better say something and make light of the situation ... so I proceeded to say, do you like cutting in front of me on the highway, he had NO idea what I was talking about so explained what happened and we both had a good laugh.    But later just before going home time, the director was sitting near my desk and they were talking about the old banger my boss was driving and what had happened to his car and he proceeds to tell the director how I was throwing zap signs at him while I was overtaking him - lol :) gross exaggeration and of course I said now I didn't all i did was flash you, well I should have just kept quiet!

10:30  Looked at my clock on my PC and could not believe I had only been working for an hour and a half, surely 4 hours should have past already.

10:35 Email Dianne and tell her the day is dragging ... I know she sits next to me but there is a partition between us, and there are somethings you just don't want other people to hear.

11:15  Time for a 2nd cappuccino just to waste some time.

12:00  Got irritated again, why do people who sit one desk away from each other phone each other?  I mean I can hear both sides of the conversation, surely they could just get up and walk over to that persons desk??? Can't believe it!  If you don't want people to know you are talking to each other then email each other!

12:56  Only 4 minutes to go before going to lunch with Dianne

13:00  Quickest time I have ever got out of the office at lunch time, jump in Dianne's car and off we go.

13:05  Dianne decides to take the scenic route thereby losing valuable time, but hey what do I know - not my turf.

13:15  Park the car and walk over to the Martello Bar opposite the beach front in Bray - how stunning, sitting outside and it is hot, very very hot.  Order a quick panini and diet coke.

13:30  Food Arrives, have a natter and enjoy food ... gossip about work

13:55  Got to rush back to work, leave the stunning scenery and return to the salt mine.

14:05  Walk back into work, oh dear 5 minutes late and everyone is dead quiet working away, hope no one noticed but just get down to work.

14:15  It's damn hot in the office but noone seems to notice

14:30  Boss comes over to explain something on the system to me.

14:45  Boss says it's hot and proceeds to go and put the air conditioner on higher - thank you Boss, here I am thinking I am having menopause!

15:00  Boss says he has to go and get his car and will see me later.

15:15  Oskar phones, now Oskar is the spanish dude who is a taller version of Manuel from Fawlty towers, werid how he works for the company yet lives in Spain, near Balboa and yet his on the same switchboard,  the technology of today is just marvelous.  So O phones re a bug I registered on fogbugz and wants me to run a script on the sql database, but O speaks with a "Manuel" accent so I have to listen very carefully.  Thank goodness I am always trying to mock accents (not really) so I soon realise that ggg say it like in Afrikaans ggghhh that hard German way, but with a softer tone Ghappy is an "h" or you ggghappy (happy).   Praaaawns are programs, check the praaaawns to see if they are working.  Boooootin is the button so if you click on the boootin the praaawn for the recruitment system on vucansees (vacancies) it should work and you will be ghappy, because ghopefully that will work!!!  Yes it does okay Oskar even though you can't pronounce half the stuff I understood you!

15:30  Another cappuccino - laugh to myself about O and tell someone about my conversation.

16:00  Tested stuff the boss asked me to test and while check my hotmail, boss has come back and sneaked up on me to find out how it is going .... F *&ck need to get a desk at the back!  So fumble over everything, but I actually found a bug that nobody else had, show this to the boss and he is quite impressed, u see you didn't hire me for my looks only!

16:30 How much longer can this day actually go on .... drag drag drag drag

17:30 YAY going home, in the car and off we go - lot more traffic tonight than normal - Highlight of the day, lunch on Bray beach.

17:55  Take the off ramp - loads of traffic, those stupid traffic people have changed the sequence of the robots (traffic lights) and now we are inching forward.

18:10  Eventually pull into the driveway at home, greeted at the door by daughter and hubby to hear all the days antics - D had the day off because Emily finished school for the next 9 weeks!!!

18:15 - 22:00  Skyped in-laws, had dinner, put Em to bed, read her a story from "I Carley" ...

22:26  Finishing this post and going to bed ... G'night!

Bray Beach Front

Martello Bar

The Circle of Life

Week 3 of new Job, wow I can't believe I have been working for 3 weeks already it just doesn't seem possible. We are trying to get ourselves into a type of routine, but don't know how long it will last - the nights just seem to be so short.  As it is, it is now 22:36 and I know I should go to bed because else tomorrow I am going to be tired, oh well it's Friday and maybe it will be quiet, but maybe not.

Up at 6:15, shower, dress and in the kitchen by 7:00 in between fighting with Em to get up and get dressed, go down stairs, make coffee for D, get breakfast plates out, cereal for 2, porridge for me, call to Em to hurry up, fight with her to finish getting dressed, 7:30 nag her to get to the car, so endless nagging from 6:30 ish till 7:30 ish.  Once D & Em have left get my lunch ready for work, do odds and ends, check the mail on the computer, out the door by 8:15.

Arrive at work 28km's later at 8:40 work, work, work, work, work, work, work, lunch, work, work, coffee, work, work, work, work - leave @ 5:30 - so Monday & Wednesday off to the Gym and other days straight home to get dinner on the go.  Arrive home @ 5:55 dump bag and belongings, straight to kitchen to sort out dinner.  6:30 D and Em arrive home, homework, bath, dinner, bed - 9:00 pm ME TIME - Blog, read blogs, read mail, facebook, blog, surf, bed @ 11:00 or 12:00 - beep, beep beep, beep beep beep that damn alarm goes off for the next morning - and so the circle of life begins once more :)

I owe, I owe it's off to work I go ...

So from working half day for the past 2 years, I have suddenly been given a rude awakening into a full day job - with less money than I was earning 9 years ago - but hey I guess sometimes you just have to start at the bottom again!  So yes I am feeling a bit sorry for myself at the moment, but that's life and sometimes life sucks big time!  Now if only I could win the lotto!!!

We woke up to really thick fog this morning, made me think of the John Carpenters movie "The Fog", driving down the M50 onto the N11 at times it was so thick you could barely see 100 meters in front of you.  It was pretty eerie seeing this thick fog amongst the beautiful greenery and not seeing the beautiful view of the beach that I would normally see on my journey.   By lunch time it had slightly lifted, and even driving home this evening at 6:00 PM it was still hanging around, maybe it will be gone tomorrow.

So to get back to work, I pulled out all the stops and wore my best interview dress for first day on the job, and I should have known - I looked a bit out of place.  My boss was wearing Combat pants, a T-shirt and docs, but now you have to picture this (I wanted to take a picture of him with my mobile but thought I better not).  I have known "G" for a while now, when I first met him I was working alongside him on a project, he is a red head the viking red and had a bit of a bok baard.  As the months rolled on the bok got longer and longer - "G" is probably about 6ft5" so here I am all dressed up to the nines for my first day at work reporting to a Giant viking Rumpelstiltskin - his head is shaved, but his red / grey beard is now about a foot long and I am not lying it could be longer than a foot - So put the picture in your head, Tall, Skinny, shaved head, foot long red / grey beard, combat pants, T-shirt and docs and this is my boss!  My contract says and I quote : "We pride ourselves on being a professional company and therefore require you to carry this through to a neat dress code at all times, thereby mirroring our professionalism in all areas"  

There ain't nothing neat about the way he was dressed!  So I reckon I can get away with wearing Jeans to work every day of my life without a problem, because the minute they say something about my dress I may just have to say something about theirs!

I spent the morning in a training session with Rumple Rambo (wait I think he is actually doing a "ZZ Top" impersonation - because his beard looks exactly like this) and then the afternoon going through the system on my own and by 4 o'clock I was bored, not sure if that is a good thing.  I was waiting for 05:30 to leave and it seemed to stay 4:29 for a very very long time.

I rushed off to the Gym to do aqua aerobics only to find I had the wrong day, enjoyed the swim and sauna anyway.

I got a job!

So the news is I got a job, in a way it is very strange how this job came about.  When I finished up with the company I was contracting for in Feb, the MD actually offered me this job, but at a very junior level and my words to him were, "if I am desperate, I might take it".

So for the next three months I tried to get something off the ground with contracting, but nothing was biting so I applied for tons of job, went for a few interviews. A couple of times I wanted to pick up the phone and phone the MD and say, if the job is still going I will take it - but I just couldn't get to put my pride in my pocket and do it.   Then about two weeks ago, I saw that the company advertising, so I sent my CV in just on the chance.  My immediate reaction was, I know I am not going to get the job because the MD had already offered it to me and I had turned it down and also now they probably had hundreds of applicants and I would not make the cut.

However, the lady that was interviewing for the position phoned me and said they were doing first round interviews and because they knew me, they would not ask me to come in for a first interview but would automatically put me in for the second round interviews.  In the meantime I was applying for other jobs as well.  So on Monday the lady phoned me and asked me to come in on the Tuesday, I did not even mention to D I was going for the interview as I just did not want us both to be disappointed, so off I went and when I got there all the guys I used to work with were close to the kitchen / reception area and thought I had just popped in to visit, but I had to be all professional.  It was so cool to see how happy they were to see me.  Anyway I went in for the interview and it went well, they told me they would let me know either way by next Monday.  I didn't really hold too much hope.

Then on Wednesday I had another interview with a personnel agency and Friday another one, but on Thursday night they phoned and offered me the job and their words were, now it is not because the MD has spoken so highly of you, it really is because you have the most experience and you will fit in so well with the team.  I slept on the offer and phoned her back the next day to say I will take the job.

But yet I feel apprehensive and I know it's because our lives are going to change so much now.  Em will be going off to an after school centre, and I won't have the flexibility to pick her up from school and spend the afternoons with her, so I am sad and especially as she is growing up so quickly before my eyes.  I also wish that I could have the summer off to spend with Emily, I was just thinking the other day that if I don't have a job offer soon I am just going to leave it until September.  Then I was thinking about how I could spend the days with Em, but I guess I no longer have to worry about that.

I guess at this point I have to be grateful that I have been offered a job especially with a company I love working for.

The road is long, with many a winding turn ...

So fact I have been at home since the middle of Feb now and slowly going out of my mind, so sick to death of people asking me "how the job hunting is going", I probably know how Malcolm feels now because I ask him the same.  I could possibly write a book about the Job market in Dublin at the moment.

Well I have been thinking about joining a Gym since the beginning of the year and even went so far as to do some research on line and go and have a look at one, but did not tickle my interest.  Then on Thursday I was at the shopping center and some guy was handing out free passes to the Gym across the road, which I had been into once before, only to use the loo and thought it was really nice.

 So on Friday the salesman gave me a call and normal sales talk if you don't take up the offer today, it won't happen again.  So after fetching Em from school on Friday, I went round to see them and ended up joining for a year - really good deal (if I use it regularly) and Emily gets to use the Swimming facilities for only an extra €4.50 a month.

Today I went for my assessment as part of the deal to sign up was you get a free personal trainer.  The personal trainer I was supposed to have wasn't there so Laura ended up doing my assessment and taking me for my first workout, she was great and the wonderful thing about her was she did not look like twiggy, and 90% of the other people in the gym did not look like Twiggy either, so I felt good!  I ended up doing about a 35 minute workout, and then spend about 45 minutes in the pool, heaven - I haven't swum since we were in Tahiti last year so it was so nice to be able to do 8 - 10 laps in the pool.

However, I had a shower and got dressed at the Gym and headed home but felt so exhausted like I was going to fall asleep behind the wheel, but I must say it was really good and I am going to try and keep up the routine now at least until I get a job and then I will have to change from going during the day to either 6 in the morning or last thing in the evening, unless of course I win the Lotto and then I won't have to work at all.

Next Stop ...

Well my three month contract is coming to an end on Thursday, which means I would have been there for six months. It's funny I think I felt more part of this company than I ever felt with any company that I worked for on a permanent basis before, the longest I worked for a company was over seven years and I never ever felt like that.


It was possibly due to the fact that it was a small company with no more than 25 staff members including the two directors. From the time I started I was made to feel like one of the family, everyone was just so nice to me and I was even invited to the Christmas party event in the country. I have loved each minute I have been there and even though it was only 6 months I feel like I have been with them for years.

I would have probably stayed on, had the company got another big contract, but at the moment there is nothing on the cards and other companies are not spending money. But the director did say that if anything came up I would be the first person they would phone, and of course I know he will give me a good reference should I need it.

One thing I do know is that I have made some really really good friends in the short space of time I have been there, and have already been invited on their next night out for drinks. Dianne gets back from South Africa the last week-end in Feb and has already said we must get together, and Yvonne is going to meet me at Dundrum for coffee on the odd occasion and of course I will pop into the office.

So what to do, well I decided I am going to take a few weeks out for me (with hubbies permission of course), I have a few ideas I want to get off the ground and also market my company (which is me) and get a web site going as well, so I am going to be busy busy busy with lots of positive things. And of course since telling everyone that I am finishing up on Thursday I have been inundated with lunch dates.  Some of my friends I have not seen since before Christmas and some new friends I have made.  I am also meeting the HR director from the last company I contracted for, to do a catch up with her, they have something going down in the Camens at the moment, so need to find out what it is, maybe I can get an assignment there - as Em says PLLLLLLEEZE do you think hubby would let me go, I don't think so!

If I had the money I would love to go to South Africa for Easter but it's not going to happen, so I guess I will just have to enjoy spending the time with Em here seeing as she is off for two weeks at Easter.

I have tried to be really positive since the beginning of the year and it is paying off. The other day a friend who moved away, tried hard to bring back negative thoughts and anger about some people, and it worked for a while and then I thought to myself – I don’t want to go there anymore – I have so much left to do and give in life that negativity is just going to get in the way of that, so from now on I am just going to lay low with people who are trying to rub their negativity off on me.

So here’s to my future whatever may happen!

A Christmas party to top all Christmas parties

I have not had the time to sit down and write about my wonderful week-end until now.  Wow, what a week-end is all I can say, the company I am currently working for do not do things in half measures.

The last week of November I was at the office and of course the talk was about the Christmas party, I had arranged with one of the ladies from work to get a lift down with her and then D & Em would be coming down to Thomastown on the Saturday night and I would get a lift back with them on Sunday.  So everything was organised until Thursday when my boss called me and said that I am needed at the client on the Friday, which really put a spanner in the works, anyway it turned out that D & Em would go down with our friends Paddy & Teresa and Isabel and I would drive myself down on Friday night and then we all come back together in my car on Sunday, all's fine except I have not driven myself anywhere off the beaten track in Ireland before.

So armed with my Sat Nav, I packed the car on Friday morning and headed off to the client with all intentions of leaving Dublin about 3 which meant that I would get to Thomastown at about 4:30.  As we all know nothing works to plan, I headed out of Dublin at 3 ish but got stuck in mad Friday afternoon traffice and by the time I hit the N7 it was already 4:30, I knew that part of the road as I had driven down to Kildaire Village twice and once pretty recently.  The only problem was 4:30 December it is dark, the road was fine until I had to turn off towards Kilkenny and to top it all it started raining and the road narrowed to a country lane and it was PITCH dark, I have never ever driven in blackness like it before in my life. 

To cut a long story short I ended up on the new motorway near Carlow which my sat nav didn't recognise and kept telling me to turn back which I eventually did, but in actually fact I wasted half an hour because I didn not need to turn back, and then by the time I got down to Thomastown the road and the River were flooded.

I finally reached my destination at about 6:30.  Got to the reception and checked in and the porter drove in front of me to the cottage I was staying in.  In the rain you couldn't see much, but we got to the cottage and he took my bags in, wow as you came in there were stairs going up and at the top was a huge passage and reception area, going off the reception area was two en-suite bedrooms and then a huge lounge with a fire place and two balconies, then a dining room off to the side and a kitchen - awesome.

The porter lit the fire for me, I was going to go and have a shower but decided just to relax after my hectic drive and have a glass of wine.  Slowly one by one everyone arrived, I was sharing a room with Elaine and the other room was reserved for Dermott who was only arriving on the Saturday night.  Eventually after everyone arrived we went down to the Club house for dinner, I had a bottle of wine to myself as no one else wanted white wine, oh yes not everyone came to dinner there were those that decided the pub in town sounded like a better bet, but most of us stayed behind - after Dinner we went through to the bar to finish our drink and then at about 1 a.m. decided it was probably time to retire.

However, this was not to be as when we walked past Kieran's cottage it looked like they were having a party so we knocked on the window and were all invited in, needless to say by that stage everyone was well toasted, so that was the start of the rest of the evening which ended with people peeling off to bed slowly, I remember leaving with Dianne at about 4:30 and then getting to bed at about 4:45 only to be up at 9:00 to have a shower and go with some of the girls for breakfast. 

We had breakfast and then most of the girls left to go into town while I sat with Justyna while she ate breakfast and then slowly the late revellers from the previous night came into breakfast, it was quite funny seeing them look really awful, and I actually didn't have a hangover at all.  I think we eventually left the dining room at about 11:30 only to have to be back in the clubhouse for 12:00 to go Clay pigeon shooting and Archery.

The driver took us to the fields for the Shooting and Archery and we were split into two teams of 7 oh yes there were 19 of us, but one had to rush back to Dublin to catch a flight, 2 were playing golf and 2 were sleeping away their hangovers.  So in the fine misty rain we get to do the shooting first, it was fun but I had never really hed a gun in before let alone a shotgun, there were various different shots we had to do and I hit nothing.  We moved to a different place where the clay pigeons basically rolled on the ground and you had to shoot at them, I still got nothing.  We went back to the first place and had to do a double shot one straight ahead and one up in the air and guess what I got 2.  So out of 25 shots I hit 2 - whopee.

Once that was over we headed down to the archery, once the instructor showed us what to do we had some practice rounds, and guess what I got a bulls eye, not only that I managed to hit every circle on the board - so I guess it turns out I can hit stationary targets but not moving ones.  So give me a gun or a box and arrow and I am likely to kill you so long as you don't run from me ;).  We never got to do too much of the archery and just as I was getting into it, the rain just started coming down heavier and heavier, so off we went cold and wet back to the clubhouse.

It was so nice to be inside by a warm fireplace and a hot Mexican coffee, after the best Seafood chowder I had tasted I headed back to the cottage.  I put on some dry clothes and lit the fire and put on a movie, which happened to be a James Bond movie, the irony was that our Christmas Dinner that night was a James bond theme.  Elaine came back but then went off to the other girls to have champagne, I did not feel like going out in the cold again so I went and had a nice hot shower and got ready for the evening.

We all looked really smart heading over to the Main hotel for our Christmas Dinner and Casino night, we first all met in the lounge for pre dinner drinks and then went through to a privat dining room for a silver service dinner that was absolutely awesome.  After dinner we were taken through to the same loung which had now been done out as a casino.  We were all given chips and Martini's, and could play on the Black Jack or Roulette tables, I was now starting to feel really tired from the night before and once I had lost my chips, settled into a nice comfy chair chatting to the girls for the evening.  I eventually headed up to the cottage at about 1 leaving my room mates behind, it was actually nice because I basically had the cottage all to myself for most of the week-end, by the time I put out the light at 2 a.m. they were still not back, but I was warm and snug in my bed.

Sunday morning and down for Breakfast, I hung around waiting for D & Em to arrive and was quite anxious as I had missed them, not having seen them both since Friday morning.  They eventually arrived at Midday with Teresa, Paddy and Isabel, we then headed back to the clubhouse for some lunch and then over to P & T's new house in Thomastown. 

It's a really old house that they are renovating and doing up, Teresa being an architect has drawn up the plans how they want it.  There is loads of glass which does so much justice to the house because the views are absolutely incredible, can't wait to see it when it is finished, I said we would come down round April - have to do a week-end with D at Mount Juliet even if it is just to do the archery and maybe a facial.

Talking of the Shooting and archery I had the biggest bruise on my arm, which is still slightly there that I have ever seen from the kickback on the shotgun, and my arms are still aching, but it was so much fun and I hope I would do it again one day, I also hope that the company keep me on so I can experience some more Christmas parties, I had a look on their intranet and they have had one in Florence, France, Galway, Westport and some other places I don't remember so who knows where 2010 will be.

The Big "C" party ...

"As I drove to work, the sun was rising in the distance, above the  clouds that were so low they covered the sea like a white fluffy duvet" ...

Okay that is not what this post is about, but in my head on Monday morning I came up with this, because it's exactly what it looked like, driving down the highway to where the M50 meets the N11, the sun was rising in the east, and I could see the sea, but lying on top of the sea were all these clouds, it was absolutely awesome, at these times I so wish I had a decent camera on me and I could just stop on the side of the motor way and take photos!

Okay this was to tell you, me or whoever reads my blog, "I've been invited".... yay an email went out on Monday night about the Christmas party and it is down in Kilkenny at Mount Juliet, absolutely stunning - check out the link, it's over 2 days a Friday and Saturday and on the Saturday we get to do one activity, either play golf, Clay pigeon shooting or Archery - I have no idea what to do but opted for the Clay Pigeon shooting as I have attempted this before but with real birds, however I looked at the Spa and may find out if I could rather spend the day at the spa having a facial and body wrap or something equally as pampering.

Then Saturday night is the official ‘do’. We have a private dining room all to ourselves. Once dinner is over, our croupier awaits us in our private bar for our Casino Royale experience. Sounds like fun, although I hope they are giving us money to gamble with!  It's also a team building week-end so therefore no partners, but sounds like a fun, so I really am looking forward to it.  Oh and we are staying in the Rose Garden Lodge, quite aptly named don't you think?

A whole new "World"

I don't know how to blog this without sounding like well a snob I suppose in one way, my project takes me to my client who is on the "North Side", now in Dublin the north side is anything North of the Liffey. Although I have been working on the North side since last September, this is the first time I have actually come face to face with real northsiders. Luckily I don't see too many in the morning when I am rushing in to the client, but happen to bump into them on my way back at 2:00 PM in the afternoon.

I am gob smacked regularly, where are where are the fashion police, yesterday while walking down to my car which I park at the Parnell street Car park, there was a woman who must have been close to 60, twiggy build, dark hair, weathered face from cigarettes and drink wearing Silver high heeled mini boots, black tights with a mini skirt and a Silver and black sergeant pepper style jacket.

It gets quite scary because I often think I must stand out because I am dressed like a normal person, do I look like a “South sider”? Then today walking past the new Tesco in Parnell street, a rather largish lady was walking in front of me, again she must have been in her 50’s or 60’s and she was wearing glittery, lycra tights, with a short jumper, which just met the tights and runners, of course the tights left nothing to the imagination.

Do these people not own a mirror? I practically run to my car each afternoon, and when my boss tells me I don’t have to go to the client, it is like heaven to my ears! Then I wonder how D has managed to work round there for the last 8 years, leave me on the South side please.

D asked me if I had seen the ladies walking around in their night gowns yet, now I must say I actually saw that on the southside once ...  I have never proffesed to be the best dressed woman in the world, but I could probably quite easily make a living teaching northsiders how to dress, help Trinny and Suzanne we need a "What NOT to wear" event staged around Parnell street.

In Dublin's Fair City ...

I guess I have been really luck, things just seem to have a way of working themselves out. I finished work at the end of June last year, just before I did there was a company looking at buying an HR system and they came to the company I was working for so I could give them a demo.

I told the guy I was leaving and gave him my number. So as luck would have it, while I was on holiday in Croatia he phoned me and asked me if I was interested in coming to work for them. The contract was only supposed to be for 3 months, but I have been there on and off now for almost a year.

The best thing about the company is they are multi national, so no favouritism or nepotism that you find in a lot of Irish owned companies. I sit in my office and hear different accents every day, our ex Country manager who is still on our floor is from Belgium, and he has this wonderful Flemish accent. Yesterday there were a whole lot of French guys on the floor, the day before the guys from Holland where there. I must say the dutch accent makes me a bit sad because when I hear them speaking it reminds me of my mom's family, who have mostly all passed away now. But the accent is so similar.

A lot of my mom's family would speak what they called "High Dutch" and the NG Kerk and their bible were all in Dutch. Anyway I am getting away from the point of this post.

So, I have two weeks left at this company and it has been absolutely wonderful working there, their offices are based at Spencer dock, now back in 2001 when we arrived in Dublin, the dock areas were full of old dingy warehouses and it was dark and dangerous. Since then it has been revived, most of the old warehouses have been knocked down to make way for new office blocks and apartments.

The Liffy runs right past my work and yesterday there were people yachting. I am sure going to miss working there, but I have a funny feeling I will be back in that area.

It's all go, go, go ...

It seems that in the run up to Christmas, the weeks are just flying past, we have had something on every week-end for the last few week-ends and this week-end was no exception, except for today - a day to relax and do absolutely nothing, catch up on my blogging and then study!
The week started off pretty slow, I took the morning off on Tuesday as I had to go and sort stuff out at the bank so I could get paid, that took quicker than I expected, so I went off to Dundrum did a bit of browsing round the shops, the weather was absolutely awful. I then picked up Trish from her office and we went through to Coffee to Go for some lunch, then picked up Em and came home.

Wednesday was college but I ended up with a Migraine before I was supposed to leave so went to bed instead, so probably missed out on some crucial information, but I will go in early next week and see what I missed.

Thursday was swimming and then Em and I went off to Dundrum, home and I got ready for my dinner date with all my ex work buddies, we went to "The Winding Stair", which is just next to the woollen mills on the quays across from the Liffey. The food was wonderful, but I will not be going back, the service was rushed, rude and it was really expensive and to top it all at 8:30 the waitress brought our bags and coats to the table, even though we had not finished our drinks and said Thank you, have a nice evening, Goodbye! And gave us all dirty looks, what a RUDE cow! Hopefully Bob phoned and complained, a few people have already asked me how the restaurant was and there is nothing like word of mouth criticism.

Friday I had my presentation in front of the managers, I had never met most of the managers that came to the presentation so it was a bit never racking, however the presentation seem to go off well there were probably about 20 managers and then the HR team which was 5. The only thing was nobody really asked questions, the only questions I got was about the module I had never worked on before, so I guess I am going to have to educate myself on that one. So all dressed up to the nines high heel shoes, I had been standing since 9 o'clock, then I had to run a work shop with the HR team from 11 to 1. We over ran the 1 o'clock finish and still have loads of work to do, so I guess next week it is back to the drawing board.

I rushed out of the office to meet Emily's school mates mom as I was taking the kids to movies at Dundrum, it took a wee bit of time to get the car seat fitted, get them changed and then get them off to Dundrum, I still had to meet Mandy, Dana and Aron has they were all coming with to the movies as well but we managed to make it before the movie started. We saw Igor which has just been released and is all about a mad scientist. The movie finished at 4:30, I then rushed home to bath Em and change beds in her room and the spare room (long story). Start the washing get dinner on, Mandy and the kids arrived we sat chatting till about 7 and then still had everything to do. We managed to get everything done without a problem!





Saturday is another early day as D takes Em to Ballet and Drama, and Ballet was a bit of a Drama again, Emily not wanting to co-operate (it's the subborness from her father's side). In the meantime, I had to rush off to the post office in Edmondstown to collect a parcel, which is a whole nother story as well, off to the shops to get milk and veggies and then home, unpack and into town on the LUAS to meet K, D & E for lunch and then the Ballet as the Gaiety which was Swan Lake.

I parked the car near the Milltown LUAS station which is really good, because you only have to pay up till 1 and then it is free, can you believe I left the car unlocked! Anyway bumped into one of Em's old creche buddies and her parents, jumped on the LUAS and off into town, I had a bit of shopping to do before meeting them so managed to get that all done. Got myself a really nice pair of shoes from M&S, their shoes this season are really nice and so reasonably priced.

When I arrived at St. Stephens Green there was a huge crowd at the top of more than a hundred people and I got quite irritated because I had to fight my way through the crowd, but then I heard the buskers it was a group of them doing Irish dancing, playing the fiddle and OMW really really good. So I had to stop and listen for a while, I thought I would watch them when I came back from the shops but by then they had dispersed.

So we all met at the front of St. Stephens green shopping centre and then headed down to "Pasta Fresca" I think it was called, and had lunch, it was a nice treat. We finished at about 2:30 and headed off to the Gaiety, got our program and then in we went, we had a box which was really nice and the view was brilliant. The show was awesome and really worth the effort!

I had seen Swan Lake before when I was in standard 8 at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg, in fact I think I saw it twice and we even went backstage and got autographs from the ballerinas, but I had forgotten the story, so K quickly refreshed my memory. Swan Lake is long and I think Em got a bit restless after a while, but all in all it was a wonderful day.

Now it is Sunday and time to breath again, except there is too much to do! Have a great week everyone! Next week-end is K's birthday at Diep which we are all looking forward too and then just another week for the BIG Halloween housewarming birthday bash!