Friday/tired

Ah well. Office is cold. I have a cold. Head hurts. No coffee. Headset broken, new, stolen headset uncomfortable. Slept to long, breakfast at work.

Tired of christmas ornaments all over my computer.

One call in one hour. My least favourite kind of call. Can't get in to mailserver. Nothing to do. But it's ok.

Saw a bad movie last night. The Bridge to Terrabithia. Really lousy film. Indescribably worthless. But with a couple of pretty cool effects.

Want... coffee...

Tonight I'm gonna buy some stuff, and then movies at Dave's.

Happy holidays

I see my own distorted reflection in a thousand brightly coloured spheres. Lights are constantly flashing around me, changing colours, moving, making me feel slightly nauseous. The soothing darkness is pierced by the faint shine from metre upon metre of tinsel in every imaginable colour.

Having a hangover at christmas is very bad. I think the only solution is to keep drinking.

Tell me what you see

No actionmovie yesterday, horrormovie instead. The second movie I've seen since I came here, almost a month ago. Black Christmas. One of the worst movies I have ever seen. In my life. No plot, no nothing, not even nakednes enough to make up for it, even though all of the characters where sororitygirls. Don't see it, see Texas Chainsaw instead, if you need blood and gore. Texas Chainsaw is a good film.

The traffic system in this city is completely insane, bordering to anarchistic. When they designed the infrastructure here they tried to make it difficult to drive here so that people would'nt. But they do anyways. The big street in the citycenter, Patrick (wich is, of course, short for St. Patrick's street) is a big, heavily trafficated three lane road, arcing trough the city like a big poisonous snake. The only way to get anywhere is to run, death defyingly, across large streets full of swiftly moving cars. If you're lucky, you'll live.

Im slowly learning to drink the water, but only if I hold my breath and think of something else. There was quite a lot of lemons left after the party on friday, and with lots of lemon and ice the water is drinkable. Otherwise I mostly drink the water from the watercoolers at work, or I buy water, even though it's expensive. I just hate the chlorine taste. I don't even like brushing my teeth in it. I can smell it when I'm showering and when I do the dishes. It smells poisonous and sharp. In Sweden I did'nt even like swimming in pools.

Since it's almost christmas, they feed us sweets every day. It's insane. I am so full all the time.

Our pay is late. It should have come in today, but it did'nt.

Just keep swimming

Some days are just about keeping your head above the surface and closing down you mind and your heart.

Some days are great, most days are. But some days you just have to take a deep breath and get through it. You just focus on the outside world and you stop feeling.

Anyhow; catholic schoolgirls rule.

Yesterday we got presents! A big basket of wine, chocolates and other goodies! And giftvouchers worth 50 euros. Nice.

Tonight, actionmovie at home.

Survivor

So this weekend was a bit chaos and mayhem. But I'm ok. The party on friday was wild, crazy and lasted for about sixteen hours. On saturday I had the greatest hangover-day ever, with apple pie, pizza, youtube and nice people. On sunday, shopping. Nice. Bought a well-needed sweater.

Iv'e stayed out of the house most of the weekend, and when I came home on sunday evening the livingroom and kitchen was tidy again. Wich was nice. And later on Gaël came back from his trip to Dublin with a blender, wich was also nice.

The most amazing part of all this was that I actually wasn't extremely hungover on saturday. I was hungover, but not tequila-shots-from-a-mug kind of hungover.

Well, monday is over and I have to go to the postoffice.

Strange dreams... and also: weekend again.

So, last night was first very warm, because I turned up the heater to much, and after only half-waking and turning it off completely for some reason, very cold. So I woke up from a strange and very real nightmare with a very sore throat and a devilish headache (I always believe in that one beer, but there's allways at least three. At least when you go out with Louis).

In the dream (in the end of the dream) I was attacked by a small old lady, she grabbed my bike and I knew that she was going to kill me. I hit her with my elbow in her face, but she only got stronger, her face wrinkled wierdly and her teeth got sharp and pointy. She tried to grab my arm but I managed to get free, but I had to keep hitting her to keep her teeth away from me. I just wanted to punch her face in, break her nose, but she just kept mutating, babbling, and suddenly I was able to make out a few words from her insane ranting. I turned around and shouted to my friend (or possibly girlfriend) "Make a light!" She looked at me without comprehenshion, I kept shouting, now using all my attention to fight off the old lady who had almost trasformed completely into a tree-like monster with long, sharp teeth and fingers like sharp, spiky twigs. At some point the girl understood that she had some kind of power to help me, and between me and the tree-monster-lady a sharp, white, cold light appeared, like a silent and slow explosion, and then I woke up.

Today has been kind of slow. Or, I have been slow, there's been quite a lot of calls. 32 so far, wich really isn't much compared to, for example, Sara, who sits across the desk from me. She has maybe 60 calls per day. But since I'm new I'm on low priority, and so far I've had around 20 calls per day. Alright, I know this is not very interesting. But the point was that I have been very tired all day, but it's better now, only one hour left untill the weekend actually begins. The week has been insanely short. Tonight we party. Tomorrow I'm taking the longest bath ever.

I'm dreaming of a white christmas...tree

Today the french guys told me that they found a white christmastree! They are the sweetest people ever to come out of France, I'm sure.

And the money I've been waiting for turned up... In someone elses account. Luckily, this someone turned out to be my desk-neighbour and housebuddy Nikolaj! (That's the danish one.) What are the odds?

And tomorrow, the official house warming party!

So yes, life is good, very good, but there's a shadow behind it all, of course, as usual. There has to be I guess.

Talking to Maia and Emilia is always good.

It's official

Christmas. It's here. Like a bad hollywood filmtriology, only it's not a triology, it goes on for ever. It's here again, with basically the same plot, setting, soundtrack and characters as every year.

Well, this year it's different. Exept for the soundtrack that is. But anyhow, it started for real yesterday. I ate the first gingerbread dough of the year. We made lussekatts, peppercookies and knäck. (I don't want to translate it better. It feels wrong.) I even had some glögg! It was great. Today we will Lussa at work, as soon as Sara finds some tinsel.

Days fly by...

A few days without hot water or heating in the house has passed, and we can once again remain indoors without wearing jackets. It was very frustrating. Especially at night.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape at Tesco (but the french say it's a bad year). The beggars on the bridges (some change, please). Bureaucracy (bureaucrazy). Money. Rain.

Two birds passed over my head the other day. A crane, I think, and a crow.

I dream a lot but I don't remember anything.

Actually working

Kind of. I'm on the line, at least. Not much calls though. I've answered two mails and five calls. Feels alright. Not to tricky. Not to boring.

Well, the weekend seems more interesting. Friday was a bit crazy. Shelbourne after work, after that a spontaneous party at our house. Loads of people just kept showing up somehow. Pizza, beer and intrigues. Eventually I went to bed, very happy to live on the third floor, far away from the festivities.

Saturday was great, starting with a loooong bath. Oh, did I mention, jacuzzi? Absolutely wonderful. Because good things come in plural, I was then given a cover and a pillow for my bed by a particularly sweet co-worker, followed by subway eating, shoe shopping and coffee drinking. A very good day. Then I went home to groom myself for the big night.

On the way to the bus one of the buttons fell out of my dress. This could have ruined the whole night, but fortunately Louis found a shop that actually sold small sewing kits, and he bought me one. That really made him the hero of the day. (Or the second hero maybe. Giving me a cover wins the competition.) We arrived by bus to the hotel and were welcomed with something called "mulled wine", wich was heated red wine with orange, lemon, spices and salt. Completely discusting. Dinner was better, the red wine was very good. The first course was tomato soup, wich was quite boring. The mail course was in my case a sirloin steak, supposedly cooked "medium", wich turned out to be very well done. (Well done as in very dry.) Dessert was christmas pudding, of course, wich was awful. All in all I enjoyed the meal very much.

Well, music, dancing and beer followed. And a certain amount of get-a-roomyness. it was all very amusing and nice. The party was, of course, followed by a afterparty, but I retired quite early.

Sunday was spent in very good company, watching Dead Man, the Jarmusch film from '95 starring Johnny Depp. It was very good. I really liked the photo, and the Neil Young soundtrack was great.

So after an early night I was more than prepared for my first day on the line. And here I am. Working. Kind of.

At the dark end of the week

The weeks are bridges between weekends. The last weekend was crazy, but it is now far away. It is very soon weekend again. A lady in the scandinavian team quits today, and she's brought lots of candy and stuff, wich is nice. Tonight there will be some going away-beer at Shelbournes. (I think I mentioned it, but Shelbournes is the pub where Siemens staff gets a discount on fridays.) After that; kareoke.

And tomorrow! Everyone is talking about what to wear. "So what are you wearing tomorrow?" asks my friend. "A dress" says I. Her boyfriend comes along. "So what are you wearing tomorrow?" he asks. Please.

Well, the house. It's great, everything has worked out good, we're having fun. From my room I see the Murphy's and Heineken brewery, we have nice kiwi neighbours, the french like to cook... And clean. I'm liking it.

And the job is nice. Friendly atmosphere. I got my place today, my computer. Later this afternoon I will have IP telephone training.

Montage

Training montage: a group of young, confused foreigners, scattered in a room filled with combuters. As the days pass they learn about techsupport. About telephones. Cordlesss telephones. They become good friends.

Okay, its a boring montage, but training is finally finished. Tomorrow we start working for real. I think. (Or we might be sitting by another agent, listening in to calls.)

The talk of the town (okay, the company) is the big christmas party saturday. I'm looking forward to it. So is eveyone else.

Today we move - I hope. The people, the company or whatever they are, are driving us mad. They have given number ten to someone else. The builders did it obviously for some reason. So we could have number nine or number eleven, wich one did we prefer? And could we please send in more info? (Phone numbers, pps numbers and such.) Well, number eleven then. And we will send it later this afternoon. Ok?
No. Number eleven is not available. Will number nine be okay? And can we come into the office by four?
No, its not, but we don't have much choise, do we? And no, we cant, we work untill five.
So now I'm waiting for her reply. And I'm irritated. But we really have to move today, so what can I do?

Good news anyhow; I don't have to unlock my phone for Irish sim cards. It works anyways. Joy! So today I'm getting an Irish number.

Thanks Dad for your support. (& Mom for informing me that I actually have been to San Fransisco.)

brainfry

Today is not my best day. I'm extremely tired and confused and forgetful. My eyes and throat hurt, I hope it's the bad airconditioning and not a sneaky cold.

But a good thing is that I got my passcard, so that I can get in through doors around here instead of standing around in the hallway waiting for someone to pass through the door I want to get through. I also got my pps number, wich means I don't have to pay as much tax.

Bad news is I can't get my relocationmoney untill the next paycheck, wich is due to the twentieth. I need to pay my rent tomorrow. So I'm starting to feel worried.

Tonight I will make Swedish gingersnaps with the Swedish girls. (But I want to call them peppercookies. It sounds more right.)

San Fransisco?

No. Not at all. But I think of it, walking up and down the steep hills of Cork. Iv'e never been to San Fransisco though. But Cork is a city sinking down into a march, and you're constantly climbing stairs and slopes. In the beginning my legs hurt, I was starting to use muscles that were not used to being used.



Swedish word of the week: Inredningstidningsbadrum.

Home is where the house is

Sunday evening. The weekend has been very strange. Friday was crazy. We went to the office of the people who we are renting the house from to give them papers and stuff, and to tell them we wanted house number ten. The guy told us to meet him in fifteen minutes to look at number nine, and we all walked over there. After half an hour in the rain we called him and asked where he was, and he apologized and told us that he was on his way but we could go over to the pub and have a beer for a while and he would hurry, ok? Sure. One beer later we went back and found some builders who let us in to the yard. We waited outside the door for a while, and our future neighbours came out to greet us. They gave us some beer. It started raining so we went into their livingroom to wait for the guy, who actually showed up a while later, only about one and a half hour late. He made up for it by offering us house number ten. That (and maybe the two beers) made us happy.

So to celebrate; more beer at one of our favourite pubs, Sin-e. There we met Axelle, who took us to the next place, Fred Zepelin. Then An Brog. Then hamburgers I think. It's a bit unclear.

Saturday I spent sleeping, mostly, and not feeling to well. We went out again but I went home early. Sunday I have been chilling and soon I am going to grab a bite to eat, and tonight I am thinking about watching I Robot an tv.

We are going to have a white chistmas tree! With pink and blue ornaments.

Next weekend will probably even more crazy, on friday kareoke at the place where Siemen's staff gets a discount on fridays... So yeah, that might be fun, and on saturday is the big christmas party! Big dinner and two free drinks! Highly anticipated. And the weekend after that we are planning on having a housewarming party for all our friends... All four of them. No, honestly, I have made friends here quicker than I could imagine. The atmosphere is great. People are kind and happy.

And we are all looking forward to christmas! None of us will be going home, so it could be great.

Photos from London are up on Facebook.