Assume, a colleague has no place to stay. Well, she did, but she chose to rent part of a room from me, as temporary accommodation and agrees to pay (part of) rent and bills.

Now, guess what happend after said colleague moves out and is presented with the bill. A bill, I might add, does not reflect what she really owes. Being the nice guy I am, I took money off the amount she owed…..

Shame really. When I was still useful to her, we actually had quite a bit of fun.

p.s. To the person (we both know who you are) searching through Dutch google: when searching, please spell Shannon correctly (two n’s not one). I mean, how hard can it be, you’ve lived here for nearly 6 months.

(updated 18th February 2012)

After a bit of deliberation, I knew what I should do. Introduce the New Year’s Dive (being done by thousands of people, over the last few years) to Ireland. So, off in the car and to Lehinch Beach (of surfing fame). Swimming trunks were donned at home already. We arrived with 2 brave people, 1 wuss and 1 slightly hungover person. Despite calling the wuss a chicken and trying to persuade the hungover person that a dive would cure anything from man0-flu to hangovers, it was down to me and Cynthia to brave the waves. Clothes off, just swimming gear and run into the water. We noticed a few people looking at us with some derision and slight amusement. Odd that.

Bloody hell, it was cold. I have to admit not dropping myself in the water, Cynthia did and kudos to her. I did get wet thoroughly though.

We ran back to the car at a slightly faster pace than when we went in. The 2 none-divers stood at the ready with towels. On the way back from the beach to the car, I couldn’t even feel the bottom of my feet. Quickly into the car, heating up and struggling to get back into my clothes. Once that was done, we went to the local cafe for a well deserved (well two persons deserved it) hot chocolate.

I may very well do it again next year

To be honest, I didn’t try standing up this time just yet. First few times just laying on the board and get a feel for the waves. Later I even managed to catch a few waves while on my knees on the board. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite see how the others were doing (don’t have a lot of vision without my glasses. I have noticed I need to get a bit more upper-body strength to get good speed in order to catch waves properly.

All in all I was in the water for about 2,5 hours (excluding breaks), but it felt a lot shorter. Had quite a bit of fun and I will most certainly do it again.

Unfortunately, the waves were too close to the boulders on the beach and the guy renting out the boards and suits advised against it, he didn’t want to rent today. Probably a sound business decision, seeing as business revolves around repeat visits

Webcam

Instead we went to Galway, as we were already halfway. A few small country roads which scared Carina in the back (again, sorry), while Axel didn’t bat an eyelid…
Instead of surfing, we went shopping. Well, both start with an s, so close enough. Bought some shoes (old ones were about 4 years old and started leaking) and a frying pan with lid.

Surfing to be tried again next week. We’ll set off from here at about 09.30, be in the water about an hour later at which point comedy should ensue….

Set off at about 14.30 First bit of the ride is Motorway, after that a mix of 2 and 4-lane N-roads through the rolling landscape that is Ireland. Arrived at about 15.45.
Obviously I went there to kiss the Blarney-stone. But, it’s not just the castle. There’s also a mansion and quite a bit of forest. Went into the castle and the climb was a feat in itself. Very, very narrow staircase. Great views from the windows and various holes in the castle of the surrounding area.
After the kiss, I did the woodland-walk and lap around the lake. It said on the signs, it would take about 1 hour and 50 minutes (1 h30m and 0h20m), but that’s probably measured with stumpy Irish legs. I was done in an hour or so.

It’s well worth a visit and I will certainly be back sometime in summer.

As we were close by, we decided to check out the Lachin Aquarium as well. All I can say is, that it is an aquarium and that’s about it. What a disappointment. Looked like they dragged a net through the Atlantic for a couple of hours, built a few fish-tanks and plopped the caught fish in there. Some fish and crustaceans had barely any room to move. Ah wel, at least I’ve seen it.

Quite weird, being back in good ole’ Ireland, but somehow it felt like a warm blanket. I felt at home immediately. Maybe I’m just meant to be here.

Found a cheap flat last week. The building itself (and the surrounding buildings) can best be described as Eastern-German council-flats. It’s not much, but it’ll have to do for the next 6 months at least. I will look for a proper place to live from about 5 months from now. Broadband has been ordered and will be installed this Friday-afternoon. After this, I will order Sky-TV (phone line needs to be present, otherwise Sky will charge a 37.50 installation fee), for now, the free channels will have to do.

Work is going to be less technical than I at first thought or hoped, but there are, I think, opportunities to progress. In my team, this would be trainer/coach. Outside my team, there would be 2nd line, CRO, etc. But let’s not get ahead of myself….

What I deal with are people who have bought a Sony VAIO or Sone S- and P-series tablets (with Android).

I have a nice rapport going with our current trainer/coach Davy (Belgian guy). I like Mac’s, he claims he doesn’t (but we all know better, he tries just too hard).

We are mainly in training the first 3 weeks of our employment.
This means:
We need to get to grips with all Sony VAIO laptops and the Sony tablets.

• Learn all the tools we need to use to log the calls
• Order replacement parts and organise in-warranty and out-of-warranty repairs

Apart from training and induction, we are going to listen-in to calls. I’ve already heard a fair few calls. I don’t think I will struggle too much with the technical part, maybe a bit more initially with the tools we have to use, takes a bit of getting used to. In the meantime, I’ve volunteered to check the database of templates for errors and spelling mistakes; I need to feel useful. I will probably be put on the mail-queue next week. After that it’s the trenches (phone-queue).

Of course, it’s not all work…there’s also play. The weekends (nights anyway) are spent with colleagues and/or pub(s). So far I’ve only been to the Shannon Knights. Nice modern pub, where the majority of Shannon appears to go. Chances of meeting colleagues is rather large as about 1% of the population works at Sykes.
I’m already looking for clay-pigeon shooting clubs and am awaiting replies to mails I sent. I will also see if there are people interested in playing squash. I brought my racket after all…

I haven’t done much exploring yet. Went to Limerick last Saturday and walked around with a few of the newbies. Depending on weather, I will probably do the ‘Ring of Kerry’ next Saturday; maybe combine it with Blarney Castle.

I will put up some pictures next week or so, after I have ‘proper’ broadband; I’m now on USB-stick 3G internet. This works quite well, but there’s a 5 Gb cap, whereas normal broadband has a 500 Gb cap.

More later….

Before I left, I thought it would be nice to see my niece for the last time in a while. My God, she’s grown. Once the shyness left, she even started to talk. I left Oss at about 11.15

The drive to and through France was rather unassuming. Stick to the speed limit and take my time. A few breaks later and I was an hour early at the ferry. Going onto the ferry was a challenge with a heavy car and a 2.6 litre engine. I had to rev it to get up the two ramps and I’m sure i’ve left quite a bit of rubber… Ah well…

More later….

I applied for a job in Ireland on the 25th of August. Telephone interview, subsequent Skype interview were quickly dispatched and less than a week later I had a permanent contract. Go me, Failte go hEireann.
(Dutch employers, take note: that’s how you hire someone…have the decency to respond to applications and follow up)

Before getting all excited, I need to move/sell/shift stuff. All that I will be left with, has to fit in the Audi, everything else will either be sold or goes to the skip. I’ve managed to sell most of the valuable stuff already, what remains will be cleared up by people-who-clear-houses-for-a-living. I’ve arranged for someone to come in and shift and clean/clear everything for 400 euros and two teak-tables.

So far, I have done around 200 job applications in about a year or so. Apart from the odd automatic replies you seem to get, around 90 – 95% of companies I have approached never sent me a (more or less personal) reply.

Of course, I can call after a week of sending the application, but do I really want to work for a company that doesn’t seem to want to adhere to basic common decency? I mean, first impressions go both ways, don’t they? I have to present myself in the best way possible; is it too much to ask from me to be treated in kind?

TBC……