I was so close I could almost TOUCH him!!

Dave Matthews, that is. Sorry to any of you who got random texts on Monday night to that effect, but I was excited and sent a text to anyone who knew who he was (which eliminates most of the numbers over this side of the pond). The show was amazing.

Dave played with Tim Reynolds, which I was hoping for and was excited to see. I'd never seen one of his acoustical shows and they're WAY more mellow. It was like he was playing in a big coffee house. Everyone stayed seated and you could walk up the isles to take photos. I was seriously 10 feet away from him. He's a good entertainer. He had the whole crowd laughing and talked to people in between songs.

He played some new stuff and lots of old stuff. Satellite, Crash, #41, Some Devil. The encore alone was 5 songs long! Well worth the money and the trip to Dublin and now I'm SO psyched to see him play with the rest of the band at The Point in May. Sorry I've got to keep this short - it's been kind of busy at work this week but should chill out a bit tomorrow. Hope you're having a good week. Happy Hump Day!!! ;-)

Kick Off is at 5.30

The big game is Saturday. Well, I suppose there's a 'big game' on in Ireland pretty much every weekend depending on who you're talking to, but it's 6 Nations season for rugby and Ireland is taking on England tomorrow at 5.30. That makes it the biggest game in a while and people have been looking forward to being at a pub to see it. I'm heading out with a few of the ladies late in the afternoon to join in the festivities. It should be a good time.

To give you an idea of how big this game is, I know of a pair of standing room tickets that were originally (and by a great stroke of luck) purchased for €80/pair. They were being dropped off in Dublin today to a man who bought them for €2300/pair. There's some profit. I didn't even make half that for my Yankees/Red Sox tickets in the first row of the Green Monster the year it first opened. BIG game. I've seen them selling for as much as €3000 each for good seats.

It's also a big game because of the location and history of the match. The usual rugby stadium (Lansdowne Road Stadium) is being torn up and redeveloped, so it's been agreed after MUCH debate that the 6 nations tournament could be played at Croke Park. This is the national home of all things Gaelic, meaning Football and Hurling. Not rugby, not soccer, and most certainly not the English. The singing of the English national anthem has become quite the topic of pub debate and radio talk shows.

There's good reason for the hatred and arguing in this case. During a match at the park on the 21st of November 1920, British tanks rolled into the park and opened fire on the crowds, killing 12 spectators and 1 player. The scene is depicted in a few historical Irish movies and the whole thing would make you drop your jaw in disbelief. The day became known as 'Bloody Sunday' and it's one of the many reasons Irish attitudes toward the British tend to be so hostile. People aren't thrilled at the idea of so many English being in the stadium, let alone singing 'God Save the Queen' while they're there.

It will be interesting to see how it all turns out. As another little bit of added history, I did manage to find the only other two non-Gaelic game played before this year in Croke Park. I think most of you will find the teams familiar:

2nd November 1996: Notre Dame v. Navy (54-27)

27th July 1997: Pittsburgh Steelers v. Chicago Bears (30-17)

Crazy, huh? I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes. I'm heading out soon to get ready for dinner. I'm going out to a nice seafood dinner to celebrate passing my driving test and finding a fantastic new apartment in Arklow (more on that next week). Have a great weekend. ;-)

Yippeeeeee!

I passed my Irish driving test!!!! This is a very exciting matter here. The national pass rate on this test is 53.6% and the town I took it in has a pass rate of 48.7% so to pass this test on the first try is HIGHLY unusual. Talk about being nervous! The photo is a play on the 'L' sticker you have (or are supposed to) drive around with in your front and rear windows until you pass the test. It's usually a relief for people to be able to take them off.

I started getting really worried about it over the weekend so I looked online and scheduled a lesson for last night with an English guy named Martin. he laughed when I told him I wanted a lesson last night and that my test was today. I met up with him last night and after I drove around for a while and he showed me some places they might bring me, he announced that I didn't have any bad habits and I should be grand so long as I relax and take my time.

So I was feeling a bit more confident this morning, until I actually left work to drive to the test. It was then that I started getting little butterflies in my tummy. I stopped and washed my car on the way to the test because I figured presentation couldn't hurt and then I got there nice and early, as it suggests in the letter they send you. I had to sit in the waiting area for a bit but at my scheduled time of 11am, the guy came out of the office and called me in.

He filled out some information and had me sign off that my car was in good condition and then he started the verbal test. I easily answered all of the questions and then it was on to road signs. He pointed out different signs and I knew them all, thanks to my instructor last night. I probably wouldn't have known 'contra bus lane' if he hadn't pointed out that they ask that one a lot. I'm still not 100% clear what it is but I think it's kind of like the lanes near Boston where they switch the HOV from one side to the other depending on traffic. At any rate, I managed to get through the verbal with no incidents.

Then onto the car, which was where I got really nervous for some reason and after lifting the hood (or 'bonnet' as they call it here) I managed to point out all of the fluids and parts he asked about. I then got into the car to demonstrate the turn signals and brake lights. Good stuff. So he finally got in the car and we're ready to go - everybody buckle up!!!

This is where the nerves got me. I backed up in my space and put my signal on to pull out and some cars came by so I was sure to pay loads of attention and make sure I was obvious about checking my mirrors. Then I pulled out. Except I didn't pull out. did anybody notice a step missing there? How about shifting into first? Oops!! I went backwards instead of pulling forward. The poor guy must have been wondering what he was getting himself into. Not exactly the best way to start the practical part off. He was nice though and told me to take a deep breath and just relax. So I did and on we went without another hitch (well, maybe a small one when he asked about hand signals because I could have sworn one was different from back home but apparently not).

So we got back to the office where I got the good news that I managed to pass the test with flying colors!! Yippee again!! It's such a process to get a license. It's no wonder everybody drives around on their permit/provisional license. Totally illegal but nobody seems to care.

Enough from me. I've got to get back to work on some meeting minutes for work. The end of the day is nearing and then it's off to training for me! More tomorrow!! ;-)

Blast From the Past

I just had to hop on and write a quick bit about this pen. Yes, a pen. As in the writing instrument. Like the one in the photo. Have you ever seen one of those before? I want to laugh every time I go into a meeting with the engineers where I work because I remember those pens from when I was about 5. Yeah - as in over 20 years ago! Grandma used to get them for us from school to play with and we (or at least I) thought they were the coolest thing ever. One pen with four colors!! Way cool! I honestly haven't seen them since my first few years of elementary school though and so every time I go into a meeting and see all of the big, grown up engineers using them, it serves as a reminder of just how behind the times some things are over here. I can't help it - I associate those pens with the 80's and playing with Barbies!! Just my quick little thought for the day! ;-)

Mush

Mush is what my head is today. It's overworked and starting to melt. My desk looks like a tornado hit it and I hate when my desk is a mess but I seriously needed a break from work, even if it is a 5 minute blogging break. I'd normally get up and go walk around outside but I'm really not in the humor to be completely rain-soaked.

I did a very funny/stupid thing today. I was all psyched up for the Dave Matthews concert tonight and realized, none to late, that it is NEXT Monday. Ooops. that works out alright though because I've got training Tuesday and Thursday, a driving lesson on Wednesday, and my driving test on Thursday. I like the idea that I'll be able to breath (and maybe do a little housework) before the weekend.

I was too exhausted to do anything by the time I got home last night. I had a soccer match in the morning and then training as soon as I came back for Gaelic football. I was so tired by the time last night rolled around that I could barely manage to hold the pages open as I finished 'The Devil Wears Prada'. Good book, by the way. I moved the movie way up on my Screenclick list today. It's at #2. mostly because the 'queue' wouldn't let me put it at #1 for some reason.

We lost the soccer match, by the way. I think we're hopeless. We were up by 2 points and still managed to lose 3-2. It was a good run anyhow. There will be some serious celebrating when we finally win a game.

Agh! Just got a call from the office. The big boss man wants his concrete moisture reader. I'd better run (literally if i plan to stay dry!). See you tomorrow! ;-)

Miss me?

Oops. I didn't get around to my blog on Wednesday but I might have made a little more effort if I ad remembered I would be down at the main office without computer access yesterday. I have to head back down there again for a meeting at noon (lunch is at 1pm, remember) and I'm not sure if I'll be back up here in the afternoon or not.

My new thing is going to be working between here and the main office. I'll be doing some scheduling in the main office while still doing what I do up here. The problem is that there hasn't really been a schedule worked out for it all so it's a bit helter skelter at the moment. I only found out about this meeting 2 hours ago, so I've been working stuff around being down at the main office. It's a bit of a pain because I'll have to bring everything with me in case I don't make it up but then I'll have to bring it all back if I DO end up back here. Not a big deal if it weren't a 3/4 mile walk up a very large hill!

I had training for Gaelic Tuesday night and last night. I was tired but not sore after Tuesday but I think I might cut my legs off because it would hurt less today. It must be from sprinting. It's the only thing we changed up last night. Or it might be because the pitch was so soft/wet. Talk about soggy ground! I could have done without the sprinting anyhow. We can fully thank our keeper for that. She was bitching and moaning about running and said she'd rather do sprints, so we did the running and then sprints on TOP of it. I suppose it's all well and good though because it's only been 4 sessions and my clothes already fit better.

I'll be sleeping well on Sunday too - e let us know we'd be training for an hour on Sunday afternoon after we finish our soccer match and get back to town. Yikes! It should be a fun session though - looks to be more set drills, shooting, and maybe a scrimmage. I really like the new coach. He works to plan training and does a good job at it. He's learning our strengths and weaknesses pretty quickly and working around them to make us better. I've been impressed so far!

Not much else has gone on this week. I've watch a few movies (Mission Impossible 3, Armageddon, You've Got Mail). Between that and training I haven't had time for much else. I'd love to get in a little more reading. I've barely started 'The Devil Wears Prada' but it's meant to be a good book and I'd love to read it before I watch the movie.

I should get going if I'm going to get to the office in time. I'll try to get on again this afternoon or during the weekend. Sorry for the delay. Have a great weekend if I don't manage!! ;-)

I'm a Slacker

I didn't manage to get those photos off my camera and onto a disk yesterday. Sorry about that - I like spicing up my blog with photos every now and again. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday. I've got training tonight so I'll have to see how tired I am. He was mumbling about increasing everything by 5 and my body may object to that.

I never did get to go see Dirty Dancing this weekend. The only shows were late and I had a 65th birthday party to go to so Music and Lyrics won out. It's the new Hugh Grant/Drew Barrymore flick. It wasn't bad. It's pretty much what you'd expect from a Hugh Grant/Drew Barrymore flick. Not a cinematic work of art by any means.

I'm waiting for my next tow movies to come from screenclick.com. On the website it says they've mailed out Superman Returns and Mission Impossible 3. It's funny how they do that. I have them all mixed up on my list so I'd get a chick-flick here and an action movie there and a serious drama over there. They always all come straight in a row. Like Madagascar and Ice Age 2. Good thing I'm always in the mood for some cartoon laughs.

Okay - I'm going to go eat my leftover stuffed peppers for lunch. They came out alright last night. I can't wait until it's warm and light again so I can grill and then it's grilled chicken sandwiches and leftover grilled veggies for lunch. Yummy! Tummy's rumbling... See you tomorrow! ;-)

Sporting Weekend

Yesterday was a day of 6 Nations sadness here in Ireland. Ireland played France at 3pm yesterday and after a not-so-stellar start managed to hang in there and really give it a go the second half. They were up by a few points with only a few minutes to go when France scored this miraculously depressing final try to win the match. I've never heard a packed pub so quiet. Nobody knew what to say - they were all just standing there with their heads in their hands...

It was a agreed by all that at least it was a good match. Nothing like watching the football (soccer) team play this year. THEY were almost beat by a team who has only won a single match in their last 300+ games. Yep. A guy named Ireland (yes,his name is Ireland and he plays on the Irish team)saved them from utter humiliation by scoring a last minute goal to make it 2-1. The team they were playing was San Marino - I don't think they've even managed to TIE anyone in the last 5 years. Sad, sad, sad. Everyone's looking to hang the manager (not literally). Poor Steve Staunton. I wouldn't want to be him - that's for sure.

My weekend was a fairly quiet one. Training on Thursday didn't hurt at all the rest of the week. Surprising. Don't get me wrong - I was exhausted. At least I wasn't in pain though! Our match was cancelled yesterday because the other team couldn't field enough players, so I didn't get in the run around I was hoping for. I'm sure Paul will make up for it at training tomorrow night though.

I'm meant to play indoor tonight for 45 minutes, but it takes longer than that to drive up and back and it's really not that great of a workout, so instead I think I'll spend that time looking at places to live in Arklow so I can avoid that whole driving problem. I feel like all I do is drive. I can't even meet my friends out for a drink or two because then I'd have to drive. Any of you who know me know that if I'm driving, I don't drink at all. Not unless I have one with dinner when I know I'm going to be out for a few hours. It's way to much hassle to go out and NOT drink here. People harass you and order drinks for you and then get offended when you don't drink them. I'm not being rude - just safe.

On a good note - Iced Tea is invading Ireland! I love it! I'm seeing it in more and more stores and now they have it at the local grocery store. They still don't have mixes and I can't get Crystal Light, but being able to pick up a bottle of Nestea iced tea with lemon at the checkout is a nice change of pace. I don't have to drive out to that one store anymore!! Who knows? Maybe Crystal Light will eventually make it's way over here. Probably not, but anything's possible!

I hope you all had a great weekend. I'm hoping to have a few photos to put up tomorrow, just to show how packed an Irish pub can be on a Sunday. Very few sports bars at home rival it on Sundays during NFL season... ;-)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

That was the theme song here yesterday... It snowed for about 8 hours, which is a LOT of snow for Ireland. I think we had about 2" of really wet snow. The kind that turns into instant slush and makes really good ice-balls. It was pretty though. It's just starting to melt now that the sun came out. It's melting fast too. It looks like New England on a warm spring day (back when they used to get snow in that part of the world). I was hoping to get some photos after work today but it looks like the snow will be gone before I get a chance. It was too dark by the time I got out yesterday. Sorry!

On a fun and time-wasting note: Check this out. It helps to bring out my childish side. Don't get me wrong - I'm a responsible grown-up most of the time. Sometimes I just don't WANT to be. A case of the Peter Pans, if you will. Maybe that's why I like the peanut butter so much. Or maybe they put something in the peanut butter and that's why I like being a kid so much. I'll leave that to the conspiracy theorists...

I have this pic I took the other day on my way home from Dublin. It was after I met Axel for lunch and was on my way home. I missed my turn to get to the highway and decided to drive along the coast road for a while. I figured that as long as the ocean was on my left I was heading in the right direction and would eventually get home. It's fun to get lost sometimes, but only when I do it on purpose. Anyhow, about 10 minutes outside the city center I came to this really steep and windy part of the road and it led me past some GORGEOUS houses (they were almost like mini castles) sitting on a cliff overlooking the sea. This is the view from that road:

The photo doesn't even do it justice. There's a spot a little further ahead with benches along the edge of the road. I could sit on those for hours looking at that view. It was SO pretty.

In other fun news: They're playing Dirty Dancing at the movie theaters this week!! I'm SO hoping I make it up to Dublin to see it. It's one of my favorite movies ever. I've seen it enough times that I could probably just close my eyes and watch the whole thing in my head but it would be WAY more fun to watch in on the big screen. I loved that movie so much that when I was little my mom got me a tape called 'Swayze Dancing' where he teaches you some of the moves. Did you know his mom owns a dance studio down south and that's where he learned to dance? There's a little piece of trivia for you. I don't know who thought up the idea of playing it in cinemas, but I love that person right now!!!

I survived another training last night. No big plans for the weekend. Just a soccer match in New Ross and hopefully a trip to Dublin to see Dirty Dancing in theaters! Have a great weekend and I'll see you next week! ;-)

Wow.

That's a one word description of how I feel about the amount of running I did at training last night. On the downside, if I sit still for too long I fear I may never be able to move again. On the upside, I'm going to be smokin' in my swimwear if I keep this up every week. We ran for two hours straight. There were one minute breaks on occasion to let us try to catch our breath a bit and occasionally get a drink of water, but mostly running. At least he switched it up so we weren't bored running in circles all night.

I think it's going to be a good season. Our new trainer's name is Paul and he's fairly serious but isn't lacking a sense of humor. You wouldn't survive training thirty women without some sort of sense of humor. I like that he doesn't let anyone slack and if somebody is trailing, he hops in and runs with them to encourage them. He even took us all inside and did a quick explanation of field positions at the end of training. I've been trying to get somebody to do that for 6 months now. Fair play to him. (That means 'great job' or 'good for him' over here.)

I added some photos yesterday from the Hunt Ball on Friday night. I didn't include any from Saturday but I figured I'd do that today. There are some amusing things that almost all Irish parties where dance is involved have in common. Kind of like at American weddings you see a lot of the YMCA and the Chicken Dance. Here, the songs of choice are 'Is This the Way to Amarillo'. I found a site that plays it when you click on the site. Ignore the rest and just listen if you go there. The other song is 'Rock the Boat', which I'm sure most of you have heard before.

During 'Is This the Way to Amarillo' people usually just get up and dance, no special moves or anything. It's just one of those songs where everyone in the place is expected to be on the dance floor and everyone sings along. There are a couple of clapping spots in the chorus, but nothing crazy.

'Rock the Boat' is the same version I've heard in the States (oldies song of sorts) but here they have a whole thing that goes along with it. Everyone sits on the floor in two rows, one behind the other, and waves their hands side to side. The 'boat' that rocks the hardest wins. It's strange and it looks something like this:

It's good fun. Just different. There aren't too many other dances over here that make it to every party. I've never seen them do the Chicken Dance and I think I may have seen the YMCA once. Just a bit of Irish party culture for you. And one more photo of the 'American Contingent' on the Gaelic Squad. This is Noush (from near Atlanta) and myself and the dance:

That's about it from the parties this past weekend. I'm going to try to keep taking loads of photos at Gaelic events so we can try to get a 'social section' on the photo wall at next year's dinner dance so keep a look out for the crazy ladies on my team! ;-)

Weekend Recap

I probably should have done this yesterday but I was hoping to find some interesting pics when I emptied my camera last night (which ended up being early this morning because I forgot to do it last night). Nothing too exciting on the camera, but the weekend was good anyhow.

Friday I managed to get my shoes fixed and get my hair done in good time after work. The hair looked really cool (but mostly from the back so it's kind of hard to see in any of my pics) and I was glad my shoes were in good working order (even though I kicked them off to dance for the last few hours of the night). The ball was okay - the band during dinner was an old jazz band and they were great but the band after dinner was less than stellar. The dance floor didn't really get fun until they stopped playing and the DJ went on. That's when I lost my shoes and gained my new dance partners, Richard and Trevor. Kudos to them for knowing all of the words and being able to lip-sync the Grease re-mix back and forth with me! The dj didn't stop playing until about 4.30am and it was close to 5.30am before we managed a taxi to the after party. It was a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG night.

This is my friend Billy who is visiting from Singapore for a few weeks. He's originally from around here. I met him about a year and a half ago.

This is Susan - my very fun and very cute partner in crime on the dance floor.

This IS the dance floor! Well, part of it.

THIS is what the dance floor can do to you!

I ended up sleeping away most of Saturday, trying to catch up before my football dinner dance that night. I made it without a hangover or being tired (even though the dancing went on until 4.30am, the bar closed at 2am, so that probably helped. The dinner dance was fun. It's always interesting to see the girls dressed up when all they ever wear when we're together are gym clothes. They all looked fabulous! They were breaking up the dance floor with some moves I've never seen before and doubt I will ever see again. Very interesting... Our new trainer was there and I'm guessing all he could think was 'WHAT am I thinking taking on this team????'

It was a fairly mild night as far as partying went. A good time though. I managed to get home and into bed by 3.30am, which allowed for about 8 hours of good sleep before I had to get up for my soccer match. What a group on that field! I'm surprised they managed to kick the ball because I'm pretty sure some of them were seeing 3 or 4 balls at a time. It's something to blame the 2-1 loss on anyhow. Seriously though- we didn't play badly. Our record makes us come across as the worst team on the planet but it's really not that bad.

After the game it was in to Kitty's for free soup and sandwiches and then home to collapse on the couch in an anti-mobile state. I had the WORST knot in my leg from the match (had to come out for the last 15 minutes because of it) and spent most of the evening trying to stretch/work that out. Oh - and I watched Eight Below - the story about the sled dogs that get left and have to be rescued in Antarctica. Cute movie.

Tonight is the first night of training for football, so we'll get to see how our new trainer is. General consensus among the ladies is that they are looking forward to starting up the season but dreading the work it's going to take to get back into shape. Did you ever notice how it only takes a small fraction of the time to get back OUT of shape? ;-)

Welcome Back

Welcome back to the start of the workweek. I'm kind of tired and a bit sore so it's another slow start to the work week. I'm going to hold off going into much detail about the weekend until I get some of my photos off of my camera. A story is always much more interesting when there is a picture to go along with it.

It was a long weekend with lots of dancing and a little bit of soccer and a lot of lack of sleep. I caught up on some last night but I'm looking forward to my comfy bed (and new pillow that I treated myself to yesterday) when I get home tonight. I'm skipping out on 45 minutes of indoor tonight because I have one hell of a knot in my right calf and I would rather miss tonight and be in good form tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the start of the Gaelic football season. I'm looking forward to it because I need to get back in shape and from the sounds of things our new trainer is intent on getting us there. At the same time I'm dreading it because I need to get back in shape... which means I'm not... which means the first few training sessions will probably be a bit painful. My only comfort is in knowing that most of the other girls on the team are at least as out of shape as I am. I've been in worse shape, but I've certainly been in better!

I've actually got a couple of topics to touch on this week: the Celtic Tiger, the Irish housing/land market, cross country running in Ireland, and turf. In the meantime, wish me good luck in getting a lovely long night's sleep! ;-)

5.30

I woke up to a rather disturbing tale this morning. Apparently there was a fight at popular late night hangout in Arklow last night and the bouncers were forced to 'remove' the gentlemen involved. I guess two of the lads owed money to the third who was there on behalf of a Dublin drug dealer. So the dealer went and got his car and came back and ran up onto the sidewalk, killing one and injuring the other. Who does that?? The victim was in his early 20's - just a boy really. It's something you'd expect to see on some crazy police show or in a big city environment maybe - but not small town Ireland. I'll have to keep you posted because as of now all of my info has been gotten by way most Arklow late-breaking news is: word of mouth.

It's kind of scary how many people could have been hurt by that car. The street outside of that particular nightclub is so packed late at night that it's hard to drive through slowly and sober without hitting a drunk kid stumbling along. The fact that only 2 pedestrians were involved is a pure miracle. I'll touch on the topic of streets crowed with kids late night sometime next week. It's a hot topic over here but I'm not in the humor - it's Friday.

I'd much rather discuss something unimportant - like my hair! After much calling around I finally managed to get an appointment to have my hair put up in an up-do for tonight's ball. I figure, it's a ball and it's Friday and I don't have the time or patience to do my hair myself. This is were my friend Heather always came in handy in college. She was SO good at doing cool things with my hair. Plus, she's an awesome person and we'd get to hang out and have a few drinks while she made me look fantastic. Anyhow, what an ordeal!!

All I wanted was a simple up-do. I don't really care WHAT they do with it- just as long as it doesn't involve scissors or dye. I just want it off my neck and shoulders and out of the way. You know - the kind they use 10 cans of hairspray on but it doesn't LOOK like they did. Ugh. Every other place I called insisted on doing a consultation visit first. a.) I'm not getting married b.) I need my hair done for tonight. I finally found a place who is squeezing me in at 5.30 but that's going to require some SERIOUS dashing home to shower and blow dry my hair since it has to be clean and I have to shower anyhow.

I'm also going to squeeze in getting my shoes fixed (keep your fingers crossed). The one place I went to last night looks like it hasn't been open since the 1800's and the place in Gorey shuts at 5.30. Lots of things revolving around 5.30 today. I'm hoping to make it all work.

Anyhow - I've got to get to work so I'm not stuck here any later than I have to be. have a fun weekend and you'll probably hear from me on Monday. I should have some good tales - a friend from the States is back in the country and my friend Billy (originally form Arklow/Gorey) is back in town from Singapore and will be out tonight. Should be a good weekend. Have a fun one! ;-)

High Heels & Peanut Butter

High heels and peanut butter. You might be wondering what they have to do with each other. Absolutely nothing. They're both on my mind today though. I'll start with high heels.

I'm tall. I'm not so tall that I stand out like a sore thumb (I'm 5'-10") but it's a bit more obvious here than at home. I have a few wonderfully tall friends in my mix at home but here it's safe to say that I only know one woman taller than me. I don't really know her - I know her to see her. Not that it stops me from wearing high heels.

I love high heels. I don't love them so much that I have a 'Sex in the City' style collection but I've got my fair share of 3-5" heels hanging around. It's seldom I'm seen out on a weekend night without a towering pair of heels on. With all of that wear, they eventually start to wear down, get worn out, and/or just need a little bit of TLC. What can I say? I love my heels but it's a bit of a 'tough love'.

So my task for the day is finding a cobbler or shoe repair guy who is able to take care of my favorite heels. This wouldn't be a problem at home because I'd look it up in the yellow pages and they'd list every shoe repair place in the area. Not so here. I opened the 'Golden Pages' for the first time today and for the whole of Ireland (because the Golden pages cover the entire country) they listed four shoe repair places. I know I've seen more than four places in the few towns I'm in on a regular basis and none of those towns were even listed. Go figure. Try the internet maybe? No luck there either. Ireland may be growing and coming up to speed but businesses (especially smaller ones) haven't quite copped onto the idea of websites.

I finally fell back on the old standby and did a bit of asking around. So now I know that there's a place 'by the round-about' but nobody knows the name of it. No help. Directory assistance here can't look something up unless you know the exact name and location of the place. Fantastic. My guess would be they close at 5.30 or 6pm. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that it's 6pm and scoot out a few minutes early. I'm then going to keep my fingers crossed that they're not busy because I need these heels for tomorrow. Doh! Yes, I know. Last minute. I deserve to walk around in worn down heels for waiting so long.

So - on to peanut butter. The Irish aren't big fans of peanut butter. I've had their peanut butter and I understand why they aren't big fans. It's bland. I would hardly recognize it as peanut butter in a blind taste test. Yuck. Lucky for me, I have awesome relations who sent over Peter Pan peanut butter for Christmas. Thank you Mom and Aunt Sharon! The reason it was on my mind was because I've been eating wholewheat toast with yummy peanut butter at tea break (10am) every morning. This morning I realized I'm running out. Oh no!! And as if to rub it in my own face, I somehow managed to drop my toast when I went to take a bite and it landed PB side down on my desk. Ugh! Poor Peter Pan. It's my new room and board fee for visitors. Right along with Kraft mac and cheese. It will also be a birthday package request. Hey - at least I'm easy to buy for, right? ;-)

Textbook or Novel?

Today I've spent a good portion of my day reading at work. It's a nice change of pace, though I don't know where I'm supposed to bill the hours to. I suppose I'll find someplace to bill them. I had to stop by the main office last night to pick up a book from my boss. He has somehow hand-picked me to become one of his new scheduling gurus. Later this month I'm heading to an advanced course dealing with Microsoft Project. It's a 2-day ordeal up in Dublin (the traffic ought to be fun to battle).

Anyhow - I was expecting the book to be a textbook style thing, but it's really written more like a novel with a storyline. It makes it a bit more interesting because it flows a bit more smoothly and it tells the story and explains the logic from the viewpoints of a few different characters. I suppose there are worse things I could have to do for work!

I'm INSANELY tired today. Like delusionally tired. I've been awake since 3am and I mean WIDE awake - not even that drifting in and out of sleep where you don't get a great night's sleep but at least you get something. I had a bad dream about something (I don't even remember what) and was just straight awake until I got up to come to work. I tried getting a drink, walking around a little, turning off the heat (it's only on for half an hour on timer during the night anyhow) but nothing worked. Guess I'll make up for it and sleep well tonight.

I really want to skip training and go sleep, but I also feel a bit more fit lately and my jeans seem to button a little more easily, which is always a good motivator to keep going. Besides, I'm in charge of texting everyone to make sure they show up so I kind of feel like I should set an example. So off to training it is. Here's to hoping I don't pass out in the middle of the pitch! ;-)

The Weekend

The weekend was a pretty good one. Nothing too exciting, but nice all the same. Friday night I had soccer training on the astroturf at 9pm. It's a weird time for training but the astroturf books up pretty quickly so we take what we can get. It pretty much eats up your whole evening though - so that was it for Friday.

Saturday I got up and went for a run. It was kind of warm and not raining so I wanted to take advantage of it while I had the chance. It's not often I'm home while it's light out and I can run the road without fearing for my life... Then it was off to Dun Laoghaire for lunch and shopping. I met up with Axel, a friend of my cousin Alex (no - that's not dyslexia), for lunch and we walked around a bit until we found a nice little pub with a fire and the games playing on TV and nice seat next to the window. Lunch lasted almost 2 hours and it's always fun to get another American's perspective on life in Ireland. He's over here for a month doing some work and lounging around a bit - living as a local of sorts in Dublin city. Cool guy - I'm glad I got to meet up with him while he's over.

After lunch I was off to the homestore for that wedding gift I've been too pressed for time to buy. I couldn't help it. I had this one perfect bowl in mind and I was SO glad they still had it. That taken care of, I took the time to grab a vanilla latte on the way out. There's a coffee chain called Insomnia that's very Starbucks like. I can say that one thing the Irish don't excel at is making coffee. I can see why they stick to tea. Insomnia pulls it off pretty well though.

Then home for a quiet night of watching movies and drinking wine. Well, I ended up watching the Discovery Channel, really. They were featuring my old company on Construction Kings. then The Deadliest Catch was on and I've become strangely hooked on that as well. Go figure. Maybe it has something to do with being on an island... all the water surrounding me... I don't know.

Sunday I was up early to head to my soccer match. Well, not really early. The match was at 11 and it takes about an hour to get to where we played so I only had to get up at 9.30am. It was late enough that I didn't feel as though I were robbed from sleeping in on the weekend. Our Wexford matches are about the only time living as far south as I do pays off. It puts me about 30 minutes closer than everyone else and I can sleep in.

We lost. We do that a lot. We aren't as bad as that makes us sound though. We're great at getting the ball up the field. Shooting isn't one of our strong points though. It's good fun and we have a few laughs and it's something to keep us all a little more fit. I'm feeling the 90 minutes of running around today though. I feel more like I was in a rugby match than soccer... When did I get so old???

The weekend was capped off with watching 'My Super Ex-Girlfriend'. Not the best movie by any stretch of the imagination but I nearly spit my ice cream out when Uma Therman (the superhero, G-Girl) threw a shark through the window and it chased the ex-boyfriend all over the apartment. I was laughing so hard. Gotta love mindless Sunday evening fun.

Oh!! I almost forgot to tell you about my favorite part of the weekend. As I was watching The Deadliest Catch on Saturday night, a bit before midnight my mobile rang and I looked down to find my old roommate Sion's name on the screen. Very strange. So I answer it and it's Sion. Wasted. Hilarious. He had just gotten off the phone with our other old roommate Shane, who now lives in Australia (the phone bill ought to sober him up, if nothing else). Anyhow, Sion (pronounced Shawn) lives in London and was calling to check in and say 'Rach, I'm so F*&KED!!!!' over and over again, in between begging me to come over and bribing me with 6 Nations rugby tickets. I lost my breath I was laughing so hard. He was always so much fun as a roommate. I'm going to make a serious effort to get over there in the next 2 months. He's got a great St. Patty's day weekend planned. Plus, I met his girlfriend when they were over in the fall and she was good fun as well. The more fun the better, right?

Now back to another Monday at work. Is it Friday yet? ;-)

Sometimes...

Sometimes it's nice to be the only one in my office - it means on days like today, when spreadsheets and paperwork are wrecking my head, I can sign into Launch and sing along with all of the country songs as I type and file. I will admit it. I LOVE COUNTRY MUSIC. It's one of those genres where all of my memories listening to it are good ones. Don't get me wrong - the sappy ones still bring tears to my eyes but usually because they bring back some bittersweet memory of good times had.

Sometimes it's also nice to have a weekend full of NOTHING to look forward to. I did just make a few plans for tomorrow, but certainly nothing high-paced or crazy. I'm planning on heading up towards Dublin to a town called Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leer-ee) to do a little shopping and meet up with somebody for lunch.

The shopping is for the wedding gift I was supposed to have for the wedding last weekend. It was short notice on the invite though and I wasn't able to get up to the store in Dun Laoghaire to get the serving bowls I wanted. The store is Meadows & Byrne and it's kind of like an Irish Pier 1, but they have this section of handcrafted Irish pottery and I LOVE the funky serving bowls for gifts. Anyone who has a kitchen can use serving bowls (even if it's to dump take-out into so it LOOKS like you cook). These are all individual designs so she's guaranteed not to have the same one and she's got a fun, funky side to her personality that says she'll like them.

The lunch is with one of my cousin's friends. He's over here on an extended vacation in Dublin and we've been writing back and forth by e-mail so I thought it would be fun to meet up while he's over here. He was over to run the Dublin marathon while I was home in October so we might have waved at each other as our planes crossed path, but that was about it. It's always fun to see what people from home think of Ireland and to catch up with an American every now and again.

And that's it. Those are all of my plans for the weekend. I think there's a soccer match on Sunday morning, so that will fill a little bit of time and I'm going to training tonight, so there's another hour filled. Next weekend is going to be a busy one (two dinner dances - one black tie) so I'm going to do my darnedest to catch up on sleep beforehand. I'm off to sing a little more and finish up a bit more paperwork before the end of the day (only and hour left!!) ;-)

Family First

Just to give you an example of how important the core family is to Irish life and culture, let me show you a small part of company policy (national law) regarding maternity leave:

'The leave must commence 2 weeks before the end of the expected week of confinement (due date - this must be medically certified) and the employee may not return back to work any earlier than 4 weeks after the end of the expected week of confinement.'

That's crazy! They MAKE you take 6 weeks off and then the allowance is even more crazy. any guesses on how long you can take off with no fear of penalty? Well, it's only 22 weeks at the moment but that will change to 26 in March. and you get a payment through a special government program, so you don't quite lose out on money either. Madness.

Other than that the policies seem to match up pretty well with companies from home. I read through it once before (when I was hired in August) but they just re-issued it and you have to sign that you accept it and send the signed sheet back to the head office. Much like home.

Wait. I kept reading. After the 6 months, if you're still breastfeeding, you can take an hour of paid leave every day to go home and feed the baby. There's still no paternity leave, but it looks like this company lets you use 'parental leave' for the same purpose. Very cool.

You may be wondering what's with all the talk about babies? I ASSURE you it's not because the thought of having my own has even entered my mind. I'm just boggled because I know professional women who have put off having children or who wish they had more time to spend after their child's birth who would LOVE this policy. It boggles me how much they push family values and children to the forefront over here. Again - very cool.

That's about the extent of it. The other highlight was the 21 days paid leave, although they prefer you don't take more than 2 weeks at a time except for special circumstances. Billy and Dianne (the couple from the wedding) took 3 weeks for their wedding. Most couples take about a month when they get married. Most couple at home I know are lucky to get a day or two beforehand off.

Alrighty - back to work. Just thought I'd ramble about that for a bit... Hope everyone's having a great Thursday and looking forward to Friday!! ;-)

Photos!!

So I finally managed to get my photos off my camera and onto my computer from this past weekend. Here are a few to check out:

This is the happy couple on their way out of the church:

This is the VERY cool castle (Kinnitty) the reception was held at:

This is the entrance to the castle. I liked the knights keeping watch at the top of the stairs:

Above is a pic of the boys looking handsome in their tuxes (Simon, Emmitt, Baz, Anto)

And finally after much eating and drinking - the GIANT beds:

That was the crazy castle with the crazy wedding full of crazy people. It was a great time and the photos hardly do it justice. I've got a link to more photos on my Shutterfly account. Comment if you want the link! ;-)

Music, Knights, and Pulled Muscles

I suppose it's all in a day's work as far as Irish weddings are concerned. Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday but I thought I'd have photos if I waited until today. Unfortunately, I got a bit stuck at work last night so I decided I'd wait until tonight to do photos so you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see them!

The wedding was great fun! Everything was about as perfect as a bride could ever hope it would be. Dianne (the aforementioned bride) looked stunning in a long ivory dress with a long sleeved lace jacket of sorts and her hair pulled back just right. She always wears her hair down so it looked particularly dressy on her. Billy, the groom, wore a long tux jacket with pinstriped pants and even appeared to have comber his hair for the occasion (a long running pub conversation the week before had suggested that he may not). The flowers were just enough without being too much and the bridesmaids looked perfect in their two-piece black gowns. The program at the small catholic church in the village (with it's bright stained glass windows and hardwood panel ceilings) was a rolled scroll on creamy old fashioned parchment.

They had hired two local singer (a young man and woman, though not a couple) to sing during the ceremony and the two of them had voices like angels. He gave the guests goosebumps with his performance of Ave Maria. The bride's sister (also a bridesmaid) sang as well and sounded great. You always have to wonder how bad it's going to be when a relative gets up to sing but she really sounded lovely. The priest was fantastic. He really put the couple at ease and had a great sense of humor throughout the ceremony, bringing the perfect balance of serious commitment and fun to the entire thing. Billy and Dianne are known for being fun so it suited the ceremony well.

After the ceremony everyone headed to the pub across the way for a drink or two while photos were being taken and then the crowd made there way to Kinnitty Castle, just a mile or so down the road. It's breathtaking when you come up to it, and there's no mistaking it's a castle. The entrance way was fantastic with it's deep red carpet leading up the stairs and two suits of armor overlooking the stairwell. The pre-dinner spot was the Dungeon. It's an actual bar downstairs in the castle and the walls are the original stone and everything is kept lit with candlelight. There was mulled wine and campaign (I should have stuck to the mulled wine as the campaign bubbles did not agree well with my stomach later on at dinner) and open bar for anyone who preferred a Guinness or other type of drink.

From the dungeon we were led up through the castle and the courtyard (where they had a bagpiper playing gorgeous Celtic music) and into the medieval banquet hall. They seated all of the cousins and younger guests up on the balcony which meant it was sometimes hard to hear, but the view of everything was great. Dinner was salmon, chicken, or steak. My only complaint was that the steak was SO well done but I should have known better since that is generally the way the Irish cook all of their meat. People look at me like I have three heads when I order my steak medium rare. The wine flowed freely throughout dinner (although those campaign bubbles deterred me from eating or drinking as much as I liked and I actually had to go for a walk to calm my stomach before desert was served). The speeches seemed to last forever (1 hour and 20 minutes) but included some really funny stories and jokes and even included a slide show, featuring a photo of when the bride was only 13 and the groom was 28. She's 23 now and they've known each other all their lives and really are perfect together but the best man (and groom's brother) couldn't help himself from pointing out the 'yuck' factor that existed back then! It was pretty funny and did get a pretty good laugh out of the crowd since most of them have known them their entire lives and could recall them at those ages.

Anyhow, after dinner the tables at the front of the hall were cleared and the band set up and there was dancing. Lots and lots of dancing. The band played until about 1am. They're a local band called 'The Groove' and they really are quite good. They kept things fun and moving until they packed up and by then the DJ had already set up so the music just kept on going. The bride was barefoot and dancing the night away with everyone in the place and the groom was right by her side joining in the fun. That was also where my pulled muscle came into account. I absolutely adore dancing with my friend Simon and I think I must have pulled it during one of the dips but I didn't really notice until after the song ended and I was walking to the bar for another drink. The fun was well worth the pulled quad though! The DJ was on until about 3am and then we all went back to the Dungeon (the bar there doesn't close which was a key selling point for the groom!). To everyone's surprise and delight there were about 5 or 6 musicians set up in the corner playing traditional Irish music and having a sing-song. The bride and her sister sang to the groom and everyone had a good time singing and dancing along until about 4 or 4.30am when things finally started to settle down and people started to leave. Madness.

So that's the story of my Irish wedding encounter. I was back at the castle the following day to catch up with everyone before heading home and find out what I missed. There was some additional drinking into the morning hours but everyone retired not long after. I was able to take a mini tour of the castle and the rooms were great. They had two double beds put together and they were so big you could sleep 5 people in them and not even touch the person next to you. I know this because five of the lads were still in bed when I went up and they looked totally comfy and spread out! They were 4 poster with velvet canopies and old stone walls. Gorgeous. I would have loved to see the bridal suite but they hadn't come down yet. The halls and staircases and everything were all so awesome. I'm looking forward to seeing the professional wedding photos. I'm sure there are some great ones.

Anyhow - I've already written through my tea break and then again through my lunch break so I had better get back to work. Photos to follow! ;-)