Growing Up....

I feel rather upset/emotional today. But in an extremely good way, if you know what I mean?

While at college, I formed friendships wiht a lovely group of people. We all remain extremely close several years later after graduating. We have all had our respective boyfriends and girlfriends and ups and downs through the years. The usual frienship stuff. Nothing too serious. Just a lot of laughs and hugs!

Well today I got a phone call from a female friend of mine. I'm closer to her than anyone else in the group for some reason. Anyway, she said she had news for me and asked to meet up. Two things ran through my mind. We met up and she told me she was pregnant. She has been going out with her boyfriend for near on ten years so I was delighted for her. Ecstatic in fact. So happy for her.

But then I felt such an overwhelming rush of emotions. I couldn't help but start crying. I just felt that she was the first of us to "grow up". And she is so little and cute and she is going to have this baby. I just wanted to help and protect her but didn't know how. I just want to mind her. I know her boyfriend will but I just feel so overwhelmed by it all. I can't believe it. I can't believe she is growing up so fast and having a baby!

It truly is great. I can't wait for her to give birth. It's going to be great.

Working 9 to 5, What A Way To Make A Living! Or Not, In My Case!

As of the 21st of August I am officially unemployed with seven months! The time has really flown by. In the beginning I spent most of the day trawling through recruitment websites desperately searching for a suitable job. It turned into an obsession. I felt I had to find a job and find a job fast. After two months of unemployment, in a cold, damp and dark two months I may add, I decided that I needed to get away on a cheapo holiday! Cheap as chips was the motto. And it was. But it was ideal. Just what I needed. It gave me time to think and with having no internet connection I was cut off from the world and unable to search for a job. Bliss.

So when I came back I didn't bother looking for another job for a couple of weeks. I had enough of the searching. I'd have a look every few days. Just a quick look really. Spend 10 or 15 minutes looking at the various recruitment sites. I found other ways to occupy myself.

I would meet friends more regularly. Babysit my baby niece. Visit my heavily pregnant cousin and help her out. Visit my grand parents. Prepare lovely meals. Gardening. Things like that.

So in effect, I was fine from April onwards. I was busy and enjoying the Spring/Summer and the long bright nights and more importantly, the warmth! Around the end of July I started to dread the Autumn coming. The nights would be drawing in. Weather would be getting colder and wetter (if that's possible). This really started to bother me. I couldn't face a long cold Winter stuck in the house.

A light bulb went off in my head one morning. I decided I was going to do some voluntary work. At first I was thinking of doing some work with a charity of some sort. I'd have a big interest in counselling/psychology/addiction studies, which is not even my field but I was still trying to think of places where I could work voluntarily. Then I thought why not do something to add to my work experience and do something within my own field, being finance.

Sent out a few emails and I started today for 1.5 days per week until January. I'm working in the Finance Department of a large organisation on a voluntary basis. They don't even like having me there voluntarily as they don't think it's fair that I do not get paid but they want to give me some experience that I can use on my CV. I am truly grateful to them for taking me on. It's great to be finally back in the workforce and talking to people and to just be in an office environment again.

I'm chuffed with myself for having had the idea in the first place. Ha.

Now let's all hope one of the nice ladies that I will be working with will get pregnant and I can get a maternity cover job!

There Is Nothing In A Catterpillar That Tells You It's Going To Be A Butterfly

OK. I fear I may be getting old. I just watched the below video and I can't help but feel I am growing more mature and appreciating the finer things in life! Maybe it's part of the maturing process I have been experiencing lately.......I will blog about this at a later date. Maybe my next post!

Anyway, this is a video with a very nice piece of music and there are "smoke signals" synched to the beat of the music. Watch out for when the strings start to play. Wow! Very pretty indeed.

Enjoy folks.

let yourself feel. from Esteban Diácono on Vimeo.

The Builders Are In!

We are building on a very small extension onto the house at the moment. Its near finished, after four weeks of work so far. The builders themselves are extremely neat and the mess is all contained in the immediate area where the building work is taking place. Unlike most builders who would just throw rubble and dirt all over the house and garden so I am very impressed with these builders!

However. I hate having anything done in the house. Does anybody else find that no matter what is going on the house itself, every single room in the house is disrupted? It drives me mad. I like everything just so and then there is turmoil in all my rooms.

It's so stressful. Now that the builders are nearly finished, probably in the next day or two, I'll have to wait for tilers, carpet layers, etc. So this disruption can go on for another week or two yet!

Does anybody else feel like this? Or is it just mean being a freak as usual? :)

The Weekly Trip To The Post Office!

Every Tuesday I diligently scamper off to the local post office. All happy and excited about getting "paid" for the week. I really do enjoy the build up to going to the post office. As much as I would love to be working, there is nothing like getting money for nothing!

This excited feeling that I experience doesn't last long. It usually turns into anger the moment I set foot inside the post office itself. Why? I hear you cry! Well when I get to the door of the post office there is usually one person, sometimes two, in front of me in the queue. That's not bad! I hear you say. Well actually it is.

You see, today I entered the post office at around 12.10pm and there was a middle aged lady at the counter.

He lost his card and it's from some new system that Royal Liver are putting in. I have an account number. She said.

I'll try that and see if it works. It didn't.

What am I going to do? I really should ring the comany and get a new one sent out.

Yes, you should. Otherwise we can't make your payment for you.

Now I dont usually make this payment at all. It's for my uncle. Is it made up of two payments? €7 and €15?

No it's one single payment of €22 per week.

It has to amount to €22 per week. It must be €7 and €15.

At this point the girl behing the counter was just bewildered and beaten down by this woman.

Erm...7 and 15 is 22.

Oh right. I see. So will I ring the company and get a new card?

I'd say that would be the best to do as otherwise we can't make the payment for you.

I'll do that later on. I have to go into town and look at some curtains in the sale.

I'm sure the post office teller was bothered about the woman's curtains!

Now, the pension book is done in a post office in the city and I want to get it changed to here. Can you give me the form?

There isn't a form. You fill in the back of the book itself and send it back and then they send it back to here for you.

That doesn't make sense. Sure, I won't be able to get the pension then for a few weeks when all that is going to and fro in the post!

This went on for another few minutes. I looked at my watch. It was now 12.25pm. 15 mins of this. Meanwhile a hefty queue was building up behind me. She eventually cleared off into town to get her curtains. I went up the desk and what was sitting there on the counter? Only her keys! 15 seconds later I was done and out the door quicker than shite off a shovel.

As I walked out the door, in she comes saying, Oh I forgot me keys. I won't get far without them!

I got into my car and then she got into hers. I was pulling out of my space and next minute she whizzes out of her space opposite mine and she barely missed me. She should come with a warning sign on her.

I was traumatised after my visit to the post office today. Worse thing is, its like this most Tuesdays. Grrrr.

I am sitting here now laughing away. Do you wonder why? Its because I am imaging her in the curtain shop as we speak...God Help Them!

Getting Life In Order

This weekend has been a very strange one indeed. It started on Thursday night and I was in a shop where I saw an item my sister was looking for so I phoned her to see if she still wanted it. Now my sister is the type of person that once they start talking they don't shut up. So here I was in a very busy store and my sister blabbing on about nothing really. Now, my sister and brother in law have an 11 month old baby and the three of them were heading to the UK for the weekend on Friday. It was kind of a trial run to see how the baby would get on in the plane.

Out of the blue my sister starts telling me how scared she was of flying with her baby. My sister is well used to travelling but this was different. She was thinking what if the plane crashes and the poor little baby only starting her life and then it'd be over. Stuff like that. Here am I in a crowded shop and my sister talking like this on the phone. I just said to her that the baby would probably survive as they kinda bounce. Strangely, that reassured her a little bit. THEN she said something which stuck me to the ground. She told me that if anything were to happen to them that I was to look after the baby. I had never even thought about it before. I suppose it'd make sense. I'd be delighted to raise the baby in that unfortunate circumstance which I hope never happens.

I was 20 mins on the phone to her in the shop. People must have thought that I was mad.

I came home and told my mother. She said she had been speaking to my sister aswell and she was told that in the even of an accident that we were to go to my sisters house and remove all items before my brother in law's family got there. As if that would be the first thing on our minds but anyway.

They came home from the UK yesterday and the baby was brilliant on the plane. Not a sound out of her. So all is well there.

Then yesterday morning I was in my grandmothers house. We aren't a huge family but its mainly my parents and my sister and I who visit my grandmother and who do most of the work for her. My grandmother called my father. She told him she is putting €1,000 in an envelope with his name on it and that we will find it when she passes on. He just laughed at her and told her not to be stupid.

What do you say in a situation like that? Thanks very much. That'll be great.

My other grandfather done something similar a few years ago. We are his only grandchildren and at Christmas he gave us an envelope which we thought was the usual Christmas card but it turned out to have €5,000 each in it. Again, he wanted to thank us for all we did for him before he died.

I hate the morbidity of this weekend. I know its inevitable but I really don't like dealing with things like that.

It certainly makes you wonder, what exactly it must be like for elderly people as they get older. What goes through their mind etc. It must be frightening.

There seems to be a lot of talk of death the last few months. Probably since my grandfather died in May of this year.

I hope things are starting to brigthen up now though. Since my grandfather died I have only ever seen one magpie. This happened on a daily basis. One little magpie sitting in the garden. Until Saturday afternoon. I looked out and saw one magpie. I then moved over a bit and saw another one. Two magpies. I have never been so glad to see two magpies in all my life!

Strange.

Hello! Is There Anybody Out There? Just Nod If You Can Hear Me!

What will they think of next?

I stumbled across a website this morning. It's a little bit out there!

But for the heck of it I said I'd let ye have a laugh with it. You can send text messages to the nearest planet to Earth! Total madness. But fun. I imagine a little green alien with all the old Nokia 5110's that the Jack and Jill Foundation get and he laughing his little alien ass off at all the mad texts he is receiving. Of course, he'd be on the Meteor network. Naturally.

http://www.hellofromearth.net/

(Jack and Jill Foundation are a great chairty and should be supported)

I Would Walk 500 Miles

A few weeks ago I decided to get my bloods checked at the doctors. Purely just to check everything was OK. A few days later the nurse called from the doctors surgery and she told me that my cholesterol had risen to 6.7. I was so extremely shocked. I am gone so much more healthy in the last two years that I thought the cholesterol would have dropped! Not the case.

I went rooting about in my files and found my results from the last time I had my bloods checked. That was in late 2007 and my cholesterol was 4.9 then. Which was very good. At that time, I wasn't the healthiest eater. And yet my cholesterol was fine. Two years on, I am a very healthy eater and I always go for the healthier option and rarely eat take away food. What the hell is after happening my body?

The nurse told me that I have to do 30 mins exercise five times a week. And not just a leisurely stroll around the place but harsh exercise....to get my heart pumping and bust that cholesterol out of my body. Now I do admit, that although I eat very healthy, I do very little exercise at all. So it must be the exercise, right?

In the area where I live the council have closed off most of the roads due to the construction of a new by pass. Its now near impossible to even go for a walk near my house as most the roads are dead ends and I don't particularly want to walk on a motor way! Plus the weather in Ireland makes it hard to go for a walk as most of the time its sunny for 10 mins and rains for 20 mins or at least the weather would make it hard to fit in five days of exercise a week.

So I bought a treadmill. I used go to the gym a few years ago and I loved the treadmill. I looked into buying them in Ireland and found a supplier in my local city. €800 including delivery. Then I found a supplier in Cork and they were €600 including delivery for the same treadmill! In the end I bought if from an English website for €630. Delivery was free and I also got a free protector mat which was worth between €70-€100. Pays to shop around I tell ya.

Treadmill arrived three weeks ago. It took two hours to assemble and it was more awkward than hard. Instructions were very good. Surprisingly.

I've been using it the past three weeks since its delivery. I feel much better. More awake. I don't use it weekends. Monday - Friday is all that I'd use it for. This morning though, before I got ready to go on the treadmill, I thought to myself "Eugh, do I really have to go on this thing today?." Oh I hope its not the start of me being lazy and not using it. I need to.

By the way, that's me in the pic above running on my treadmill this morning. Running? Are you serious? I'd collapse.

The Celtic Tiger

I was having a little clear out today and I stumbled across something which really made me think. You see, I was bored this evening and avoiding doing something more meaningful so I decided to have a little root through some old letters etc. which have been lying around the place for years.

I found an envelope with my name on it and "private and confidential" written across the top of it. The envelope was bulging. I first thought that I had put a couple of grand into an envelope and forgotten about it. But then I realised I never had a couple of grand to forget about. So I opened it up and pulled out the contents. What was in it? All my payslips from my very first job.

I looked at the date on top of the first pay slip. 14th October 2000. So it was nearly nine years ago when I started my first job. I was a bit of a nerd back then and kept things like pay slips and bank statements etc. Don't ask me why. I still keep stuff like that today but to a lesser extent.

Anyway, I looked at the final pay on the pay slip. I was shocked at how little it was. Then I looked at the hours worked. I was even more shocked at the large number of hours I had worked to receive such a paltry wage. So out came the calculator on my phone and I worked out that back then, in October 2000, I was working for IR£4.44 (€5.64) per hour. And if I remember correctly that company paid a little bit above the minimum wage!

I worked with that company for seven years and I loved every minute of it. When leaving in the summer of 2007, I was earning €12.50 per hour. In the space of seven years my wages had increased by €6.86 per hour. That's such a huge increase. It really shocked me. I didn't notice it increase while working. I suppose the hourly rate just crept up and up in line with the national wage agreements.

I do wonder if the minimum wage was to decrease would it be better for companies who are trying to struggle? We all survived on a lot less wages in 2000. So why not survive on it now? Of course, the cost of living would also have to decrease in order for folk to live as they want to. Dare I say it? Are we, as a nation, getting over paid? Is it not just the fat cat bank officials et al who are earning above and beyond? Controversial I know.

He Drives, She Dies!

Did anyone hear the new advert played on the national radio stations over the last few weeks? Basically its an ad where you hear two women "discussing" male driving habits. They are bitching about how men cause the most accidents on the roads.

Now I am aware of the statistics where the majority of female road deaths are caused by male drivers as can be seen in an Irish Times article from June 2008. But according to this advert, "if he drives, she dies". Fuck Off!

Clearly men are going to be the ones causing the most accidents as there are more men driving than women driving on the roads. And why is that? Cos if women were good at driving then they'd drive themselves but instead they leave it to the men to drive. I think its safe to say that if women were actually doing more of the driving, then all the males in Ireland would have been killed in a car crash already or had a couple of near misses at least.

I have an idea for a new advert and the punch line of it will be, "if she drives, you're all fucked"

La Crise

Like so many people in Ireland I am really pissed off with hearing about the "R word", I have elected to use the French version, La Crise, which sounds much much nicer. I feel victim to la crise in January 2009 and have had little luck getting any sort of a job. Would you believe I haven't even had one interview to date? Eight months now and not one interview. I choose not to think about it. I put it to the back of mind so it's not really happening you see.

Except it is. I'm skint. Skint beyond skint. Just about scraping by but I am keeping my head above water and I know there are many others who are even in a worse situation that I am so I am not going to be whining about it here.

Last March I went on a weeks holiday with family to Spain. It was so damn nice to get away from Ireland and its stink weather. But what was even more nicer than the weather was having a week free from hearing that whore of a word, that up until the Summer of 2008, I hadn't ever really heard much of before. Nowhere in Spain did they mention "la crise". No newspapers spoke about it. The apartments, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, airports, taxi's, etc were all thriving. I didn't notice much difference in the numbers on holiday.

Since then I have been wondering is Ireland talking itself into "la crise"? I recall one sunny morning last July or August and I was merrily driving along to work looking forward to the day ahead and on came the news. Some bright spark, someone like George Lee I assume, had declared that Ireland was in "la crise". And its true what they say, "from little acorns, huge oak trees grow". Well that morning was the first mention of "la crise" that I had heard and ever since then I have heard it at least a million times a day. I think its safe to say that its the biggest mother fucking oak tree ever that grew from a little acorn.

So anyway, last week I was listening to the radio in my bedroom, as I have nothing else to do these days except scratch myself and listen to the radio, and on comes the news. The newsreader said that Ireland is coming out of recession albeit at a snails pace and will take longer to recover than other European countries. Hooray! Finally!

I don't think so. I only heard that once. Ireland, being its usual doom and gloom, is still focusing on "la crise".

Why the hell can't we focus on the good news for a change? Why can't we make the biggest mother fucking oak tree ever out of the confirmation that its all about to get better? We can't. We can't because the Irish are the biggest bunch of self loathing, pessimistic, begrudging, assholes which ever lived.

But I love Ireland. It just needs a kick up the ass.

The Hidden Costs

Yesterday evening, after a few days of searching and debating over dates, I booked some flights to Spain. I tend to go away quiet regularly but its been a while since I booked flights and accommodation separately. The last time I was away it was with a package holiday and the time previous to that I was going to the US.

Anyway, this time Ryanair were the cheapest airline and the flight times really suited me. It took a while to agree on dates with my friend and get time off from work sorted etc. All along I had been pricing the flights for one person as we'd be paying separately. I finally got the go ahead to book the flights yesterday evening and the price of the flights had actually gone down since the day before.

So I put in the details for me and my friend. Added on €20 each for bags. €10 each for web check in. No travel insurance required. Filled in the address details and the other standard info. Then I got to the payment section. This is where I got annoyed. As I said, all along I had been pricing the fligths for one person, so when I was pricing them I added on €10 for credit charge fee. However, this time the increase was €20 for the handling fee. Now I can understand the €10 charge as most places add that on but I think €10 each is a bit much.

Therefore if ten people were flying on the one booking the handling fee would be €100. Correct me if I'm wrong. Even if ten people were booking the payment is still being taken from the one credit card so why then is it €10 each? It really doesn't make sense to me.

Don't get me wrong. I think Ryanair are a fantastic company. They changed the whole airline industry for the better. They brought competition to an otherwise stagnant market. They made air travel extremely affordable by stripping things down bit by bit. Michael O'Leary is one the most innovative people in business today. But by doing things like enforcing a credit card handling fee on a per person basis are Ryanair going to bring the cost of air travel back up?

Welcome to me!

Hello and welcome to you all!

This is my first stab at blogging. Its been on my mind a while now to get this off the ground so today I decided to set the ball rolling.

I am not sure yet what direction this blog is going to take. Its sort of just going to make its way along and find its own little place in cyberspace. It could be a ranting platform for me to vent. It could be a perverted, dark and twisted corner of inter web. Or it could well be a happy, informative, friendly little place.

The future remains to be seen.

Que sera, sera!