Links

• Bray Wanderers
• Linux with Guinness

:: Wibble ::

The Wurblings from Wibble

Sunday, November 03, 2002

Time for some thoughts I suppose... the last few months have left this blog in dire need of an update. So much has happened, it's hard to know where to start.

In July, I travelled to Toronto to take part in the World Youth Day 2002 celebrations. As part of it, I carried the WYD cross in the stations of the cross. It was an awesome moment - I felt so privileged.... and so lucky. But that wasn't the highlight of the week - that came on the Sunday when I got to meet the Pope in person. I was completely overwhelmed - and frankly I fluffed it. Beyond getting his blessing and kissing his ring, I didn't do much.

Work has been busy too - we've finally been freed from the collective, and thank god for that I say! Independence means that decisions are now been taken in the building, and I even get to make a constructive contribution in the knowledge it will be taken on board.

I've also met someone. This is horribly complex right now - its hard to know what to write.

I was going to post a rant on the subject of appalling treatment of staff, but thought better of it.

Instead of which I'm simply going to confine myself to saying "thank god I go to England for a long weekend this week". It'll be nice to get away from the stress of the office - and just go away to relax and enjoy myself.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

An appropriate end to the game against Germany - justice meant Ireland deserved at least a draw. And at amid all the controversy about the absence of R Keane, it was appropriate that R Keane got us the last minute equaliser that led to grown men jumping up and down and hugging other grown men who were complete strangers. Of course it was Robbie, rather than Roy, that did the business but it was still sweet.

I have to wonder about Sky News though - they showed a scene from a Dublin pub with the reaction to the goal - it didn't look very genuine - arms in the air and clapping - but none of the dancing, screaming and hugging that marked the scene where I was. You are left wondering if the people concerned were really Irish :)

I just learned that Deputy Dick Roche, who I worked for during the election campaign, has been made Minister of State for European Affairs with a cabinet position. That's a pretty Nice job!

Life in Ireland can be full of contradictions - like me.

I claim to be Irish in the way I think - and that my Englishness is a factor of my ancestry and birthplace rather than my upbringing. These two aspects of me collide regularly - but none more so than on the last two Sundays.

Two weeks ago, I was asked to play cricket. In order to be able to play and get to Mass, I had to go to the 9:30 Mass in my parish church - which is in Irish.
Yesterday was the same - only this time the motivation for going to the Irish Mass was to get back in time to watch the England World Cup game. Mind you, what was really funny about that was the look on my flatmates face at the little dance I did when England scored.

Now I'm depressed.

A couple of years ago, a manager from work told me and a friend from the Reading office, "this company needs to keep its good technical people - like you two". One of us is desperately trying to find the key to the door, and the other one is about to have the door opened for him.

On a more positive note, I've just finished campaigning and canvassing during the Irish elections - did my final deed by casting the vote this morning. It's amazing really - all I did was walk into a building, get a piece of paper and write some numbers on it. I then left the building, less than five minutes after I left, to go to work. And yet the ability to be able to that, free of harassment and fear, that people in countries like Burma and China can only dream. I raise my glass to Irish democracy - despite the scandals of past years, at least we have the freedom of choice to select our government.

Its been a while coming really :)

Life here has been pretty quiet on the whole - the football season has sort of stuttered to an end. I did have a long trip to London for St. Patrick's weekend - I left Bray on principle as they weren't holding a parade this year. Had a pretty good time - met an old schoolfriend, did a fair bit of drinking.

Been to a couple of oval ball games. The victory over Italy wasn't that impressive, but a win is a win. The gloss did rather get taken off by The Evil Moonie sending me an SMS gloating about Middlesbrough's win over Man United at Old Trafford.

So thats about it really - I have my tickets booked for the trip to Denver so here's to next month!

what a week it's been. First up was the small matter of the FAI Cup Quarter Final Replay against the Forces of Darkness, aka Bohemians FC. Bray were creating chances, pushing forward, in front of their largest crowd in a long time. And what do they do? They keep giving the ball away at the back to the likes of Glen Crowe, so we got stuffed 4-0. Frankly, if we never play Bohs in the cup again it'll be too soon. And we can't even blame the ref this year.

Then on Thursday I have the mad idea of doing some leafletting for a local TD. On some new estates in the town. Where the house could cost as much as €500,000 (or is that punts?). So of course they are badly lit, I take a fall at the first house and end up twisting my ankle. On the plus side, I got a very interesting viewpoint on one of the main political stories of the week.

I did get organised enough to send off my deposit cheque for the World Youth Day in Toronto. I'm really looking forward to it. And as its Lent, now is a good time to start focussing on important things - like prayer. A very good point was made at Mass today - namely that whatever we do during Lent should carry through to Easter (though I'm sure I've heard that before on reflection).

Not much else to report - this'll do for the moment.

So I've not written much for a while. Big deal. So shoot me.

Its been an interesting three months. I've settled down in the new flat. I found a flatmate (from the Ukraine). We got on well, then he loses his job and has to go home. So I find another flatmate. After the tantalising possibility of a young, female, Aussie recruitment agent, I end up with a really nice Indian guy. Who likes cricket. Which is a pain in the backside when England are 180 for 5 and rather nice when they recover to be all out for 407.

Apart from that theres not much to report. Life is progressing quietly - Paul Keegan returned to the Wanderers and we promptly won 5-1 two games running, then ran into a sticky patch which we seem to be pulling out of (on the other hand we've Pats in the Cup and Bohs in the league before Christmas). I've been out a few times with the people I met in Rome over the summer, and I'm starting to organise to go to Toronto next summer. And hopefully Denver in April.

There's a big part of me that's struggling to take it what's happened. This is dreadful. Unimaginable. So unimaginable that apparently the New York Port Authority's insurance only covered one tower - there was no way both could go down. But down they went. According to figures the death toll is as high as maybe 5,000 or more.

The real trauma is in seeing some of the pictures. A friend forwarded me a collection of photos of the scene - there are some horrendous pictures of people falling from the building. I hate heights, which makes the pictures even more frightening.

It seems that the US Leadership is behaving with an amazing amount of restraint - they are talking about retaliation, but actually consulting their NATO allies and others before doing it. Hopefully this will make the current administration realise that on the whole, Europe is on their side in defence matters.

There is other news. Talking to people. Apartment. The pub last night. But it just seems so trivial. I can't watch the news any more. There's a part of me that needs to keep my mind occupied, or I know I am going to end up crying over what happened. To the people of America, you are in my prayers and my thoughts. George Bush has said "God Bless America". Right now, America needs all the blessing and grace that God can give them.

Five days since the move. Four days since one of the best soccer watching days I've ever had. And last night I decided to join the Choral Society. I need to be auditioned, which will happen in the next couple of weeks, but if I get in, I'll be singing Mendelsson's Elijah in March. And yes I know I've probably misspelt that.

I'm still looking for someone for the apartment. It's a bit of a struggle - I've had two people over to look at it - one decided Bray was too far from the centre of Dublin (probably a good call) and the other hasn't actually got back to me. We'll see how it goes - I'm confident I can get someone if I just wait a few days.

Heard some disturbing rumours about work. Apparently it is felt there is a Foot-in-Mouth infection amongst some managers, and a cull is due to follow. Rumour has it the Vets are going in Friday. Not that I'm a manager, but change is always disturbing and we've had a solid year of that.

Move is all set for tomorrow. Starting at nine, could well be settled in by twelve. Which is nice.

Even nicer is that I don't have to work. Nicer still would be to find a flat mate - though there is this chap that is coming to take a look tomorrow. Its all set to be a good weekend - I've a ticket for the Ireland Holland game and then there's the clash of the Titans in Germany. A chance for that nice Swedish chap to become a national hero.

On the sadder side of things, it appears that things in the UK have reached a point where one of the guys is calling it a day. He will be missed.

So there's good news and there's bad news.

Good news is - I've sorted out some boxes for the flat move this weekend. And I am in fact moving to the flat - confirmation today from the agency. All I need do now is organise the cable TV people. Oh yes and the van. That's the bad news. I organised a van last week (I was either moving to the apartment or to my folks) and he rang this morning to leave a message saying the van was in for its DOE on Friday. Which isn't much good really. More bad news - DAFT.ie took ages to add my ad to their site. So it could be a while before I find someone to share. Hopefully not though.

I've just been reading about the Ireland Offline Forum to be held tomorrow night. They are charging £10 a head to cover costs (£20) for non members. Much as I agree with their campaign, this does seem a little OTT to me.

That was interesting. I posted my earlier thoughts about the cost of the meeting to the Irish Linux Users Group and got a mail back from their Chairman explaining the costing. Most of it is down to the fact that it's in the Conrad.

Personally, and I regret to say this - I don't think they can achieve much. It's very frustrating for me to have to listen to people in the UK saying "cool - I've got broadband" when I'm about to go back to metered 56k connectivity. There's no votes in it - and I don't really buy into the "we need broadband at home if we're to be a serious E-Commerce hub" argument.

Hopefully I'm wrong though.

---

So its Monday. Its a bank holiday in the UK, which means that most of my colleagues are somewhere else. Which is rather clever of them really - and makes me jealous. Doesn't seem to have stopped our blasted support department from sending silly requests over though. Mind you, this is the department that rang me at three o'clock in the morning last week to have this conversation.

"We're dialling up and getting an engaged tone!"

"What are number are you dialling?"

"+353 xxxxxxx"

"Try dialling the correct number"

"Cool, that works".

I'd be more upset about this incompetence if it wasn't for the fact that the company has to pay me for this. Not that the money means much to me personally, but if they go on doing this it does mean our finance people might start getting up set.

Generally though - today is reasonably quiet. Even though the person who usually deals with the aforementioned s.d. is out sick. This is good, as it gives me time to play with some new toys, get some documents completed and maybe sort out the new flat. The weekend will soon be upon us. With any luck, Holland and Germany will be united in misery on Saturday evening. Though with Mick McCarthy's "tactics" you can never be too sure.

I've just got off the phone after two very different calls. Both were personal calls.

One was from the bank - doing a marketing survey. So I answer lots of questions - not because I particularly care for the questions but because they send me a letter a few weeks saying if I did they'd give money to charity. So I decided to be a sucker and let them pay the St Vincent de Paul Society a few bob. Hopefully the money will make more of a difference to someone than the survery answers will to the bank.

The other was from the agency who showed me a really nice flat last week. They want employer's references. Problem is, they have to come from the UK, and as I mentioned earlier, the UK are on a holiday today. They did mail HR on Friday - but bearing in mind I work for a company where the efficency of the German operation is more akin to the stereo type of Italians (at least according to Mr Moon) I'd be surprised if they get anything tomorrow. The good news is my own boss is back tomorrow from a couple of weeks holiday - so I'll spoil his return by asking him to chase this with some urgency. Once the lease is signed, I can order NTL and sort out a flat mate. Maybe.

---

Other Blogs

• Hunger Moon