Sep
8
Rah Rah Rah!
Filed Under Daily
I wish time goes faster. I am so impatient to be in Manchester and start something new. That’s the first lesson from this “life change operation”, it takes time! There is nothing to do here but swimming and this continuous rain is really annoying! There is no more good and new movies to watch. I think I have seen all the good movies the last 5 years!
I am waiting for the Australian Superannuation check to come next week and I hope it will be here! I am moving three days earlier than expected just so that I only pay half of the rent here. Therefor I had to request three days early arrival to my hall and it has been accepted. It was cheap anyways, only 10 GBP per extra night. I am also looking for a part time job in Manchester.
Sep
7
Big Mouth!
Filed Under Daily
I am known as a “big mouth” person when it comes to social relationship. Today, when the owner of the apartment came to talk about the bond and the conditions of my departure, her husband, herself and one of my flatmate could “enjoy” my simplistic and direct way of speaking. The tone of the conversation became immediately colder after my very first sentence: “The room is overpriced and we could not find a suitable candidate to take it”. I hate to explain to stupid people the gap between their perception and the reality. Anyways, I let my flatmate do the politically correct talking. I doubt they like me even after the explanations but none of them could contradict me…same for my flatmate who had the pleasure of witnessing my “true” nature. I bet he did not expect me to be that direct. He had a handicap, he was not saying the whole truth whereas I was simply telling the facts!
All the same to me as long as I get my 250 Euros back :). I wonder why people lie all the time even when it’s not worth anything? It is like an exercise. The more they practice the better they are! Consequently, I am not very good at it since I rarely practice this “social” game!
Sep
6
It feels Good!
Filed Under Daily
To be able to shave normally again! Bye Bye Painful Blisters! Friday relaxing evening for me. The room is clean, the drawers are empty, the box is made, and finally the transition promises to be smooth. I also sent a SMS to the owner asking for my bond. This is always something tricky to recover…we shall see. I do not mind loosing 250 Euros but I think I can have 4 or 5 nice dinners in Manchester with that money if I ever manage to recover it.
I am also exhausted because of the intense swimming workout. I do swim 36 kms a week and if I am racing the team squad like I did last week, my arms an shoulders are completely dead by the end of the week. Luckily I do not swim on Saturday, too crowded!
I cannot wait to leave Ireland. I really really hope it will not rain that much in Manchester! I know that the UK is like Ireland concerning the weather. I will see it by myself in 10 days anyways. They do have a nice high tech swimming pool there too :). That was one reason why I chose Manchester!
Sep
5
So Much Trash!
Filed Under Daily
I cannot believe I could accumulate so much trash only in 5 months and half. Nothing dramatic and nothing I will regret later though. Looks like everything fits nicely in the luggage and one box to be sent by mail next week. Let’s hope the move will be smooth. It is not hard to fly back to Dublin from Manchester. What worries me is the check from my Australian Superannuation. It has been processed since I can no longer log into my account. Will it arrive before I leave…?
The current collocation has been quite smooth like my last one in Australia with Nils. Maybe things will be better at Manchester. I chose the luxury student apartment in the city center. It consists of 4 rooms with their own bathroom and a common kitchen/living room. Maybe I can find a part time job in Manchester to prepare the next move which will fatally happen at the end.
The first thing I did yesterday after registering for my IT account at Manchester was to activate my internet connection in my future room. The best transition would be me moving there and having internet access the SAME day! This time I will have a nice cold Heineken and a huge steak in a fancy restaurant as soon as I arrive. Since it will be 5 min walk from the city center, it should be feasible!
Sep
4
How much does your life weigh?
Filed Under Daily
About 40 kg is mine. I should find a place to store my pictures. Loosing my data is my biggest worry. I can replace almost everything else but my pictures.
I was so tired today after yesterday’s swimming performance. If I was drilling the water the day before, today I was hammering it hard! It’s getting crowded with the kids back to school! Very annoying, I wish they return after I leave.
One chick at the CS hiking event took some of my pictures and put them on her web page. It is a nice compliment. I was happy she chose the one with the bridge in it, I also liked it very much. Her pictures are rather common and their quality is quite bad compared to Nikon d200’s performance. As soon as I get more cash, I will buy the Nikon d700.
Sep
3
Packing time!
Filed Under Daily
I will try this time not to throw away 90% of my clothes. Thanks to the “discount courier service” I might be able to ship the extra kilograms in one box. Only 12 days before I leave Dublin. Dublin and Ireland in general has made it to the bottom of my list of big cities. I was not impressed by Dublin. If it was not for the awesome high tech swimming pool, I would probably move away earlier. The rain, The rain the rain! It kills your mood. The coasts have their unique charm but it is not exceptional compared to other coastal cities.
List of cities from the best to the worse:
1. Lyon (best city to live in: the two happiest years of my entire life)
2. San Francisco (very pretty)
3. Chicago (windy but nice pier)
4. Brisbane (very good weather but extremely poor architecture and very noisy: birds + bad electrical converters)
5. Versailles (I had very good impressions)
6. Melbourne (I would not mind living there longer)
7. Sydney ( I like this smaller version of New York)
8. Paris (so so but I never really had the chance to live in Paris)
9. New York (too extreme: poor, rich, dirty, pretty, noisy, scary, crowded)
10. Dublin (bad weather ALL THE TIME)
11. Saigon ( too young to remember anything about it but it cannot be worse than South Bend)
12. South Bend (very shitty there can NOT be anything worse than this shit hole)
Sep
2
A moment like this!
Filed Under Daily
I’ve been waiting for this day for a very long time. Today was THE DAY. The fastest member of the team squad started to eat meter by meter the gap that separated us. I expected him to pass me with every lap that went by. This moment never came and we swam for 3 kms. After the first kilometer, I started to gain speed over the other members who were slower. After 2 km, I was faster than the girl and the polish guy. At 3 km , the fastest guy stopped as I continued my lengthy workout all by myself: 6kms. I know they saw my speed and they probably wondered about the Tech Toc I wore!
It did take me 2 full years of training! Such a good feeling! I never stressed out and never broke up the perfect rhythm given by the Tech Toc. Extremely smooth and long arm moves! I loved it!
A DRILL: I never understood the meaning of this word in swimming techniques before. How can one drill the water like a screw would drill a piece of wood? Today I fully understood its meaning as I drilled the water myself!
Sep
1
Since 1999, the year I arrived in the US, I have discovered for the best and the worse the usage of the World Wide Web: INTERNET. I’ve become extremely good at surfing the internet and finding everything I wanted. Even though I have not found happiness using it, I have found ersatz to my social life. Everything is “easier” on internet, you can say whatever and be whoever you want. Most of the time I stay very sincere to myself, maybe too much sometimes! There is a risk of disconnection with reality and it has become a real burden to me. Staring at two dark screens all day long is not very healthy. I would like to be less dependent of internet. Social life might not be as fun most of the time for me, but I should deal with it in different ways than trying to escape or ignore it completely.
In the end, I went to the CS Hiking event on Saturday. I had a very good time meeting new people and walking for a whole day. I took a lot of pictures and I posted them on Flickr. I did not have many pictures of myself though :(. I need to meet people with fancy SLR cameras and also someone who would take my own pictures. We went to a restaurant/bar in Dublin after the walk and I had my very first GUINESS. It was not bad but I prefer a Heineken.
Aug
30
My current mood!
Filed Under Daily
This nice song describes very well how I feel now: Fairytale Gone Bad by Sunrise Avenue…I kept on playing it on my winamp. Funny, I went to look for the video on youtube and I discovered the singer’s face for the very first time. I would never picture such a young face based on the strange old voice in the song.
note: This video has been seen more than 6 million times!!!
Aug
30
The herpes crisis is finally over, only faded red spots are visible. I am so happy….a real pain in the ass! I managed to cook enough food i think for at last 5 meals, all I have to do is to prepare the salad to go with the meals. I wanted to dedicate more time learning about Softimage. It is very interesting! I am trying to convince myself to attend the hiking event organized by one CS member here in Dublin tomorrow….7-8 hours is a bit too much, besides the weather here is so unpredictable. It could be hell on earth if it rains.
We had a dude who came to check the place and he seemed keen to take over but my flatmate didn’t trust him: potentially dirty and noisy person. He was fat with dirty teeth and a strong smell. Not a very good general impression at first sight, I’d say! I no longer worry about this flatmate hunt. My current flatmates had really bad experiences before, consequently, they are a bit paranoid since. We do not have many replies so far, I doubt they really have the choice. Maybe bad timing due to the summer holidays! Soon it won’t be my business anymore. It is so hard to find a really good person though, in the end, other priorities will force them to accept whether they want/like the person or not.
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