Vernon

Got out of here pretty early on friday since some of us weren't working, which was nice. In the old days we used to head out at 5 or 6 and not arrive till past midnight. That was still fun though, people were often still up and would hang out a bit... people seem more serious and focussed on their sleep these days. A bunch of others arrived soon after us, and a couple joined us for a drink. Somehow as soon as we went to that pub, I felt nauseus. After a while of thinking about barfing, I left and felt better right away. Odd.

Saturday we had two 200m, one 500m, and a 1000m. Got second best time on the 200 metres. 500m went well. Was disappointed in the 1000m though, we got passed. Sure it was by top teams, but WE're supposed to be the ones passing others! Weather was quite hot and sunny. After the races, I should have gone straight back to the hotel, but hung out at the beer gardens with some people for a bit, which kindof sucked. Would have liked to have sat by the hotel pool with people instead, but ended up not having time, as I bought some bananas and gatorade. Headed to kelowna for dinner with the team, but showed up late cause of waiting for people, and were sitting sortof away from the group I wanted to be with. Was glad people wanted to go to scandia afterwards, was fun playing minigolf, but was more fun a couple years ago with the more silly group. Closed the place down and headed back to the hotel for sleep. Still quite a good saturday night, but just hanging out with people would have been good also.

Sunday was two 500m races. In the first, we pulled ahead of CRC and they lost control, leaving us as the only Calgary team in the finals. (CRC then easily won division B). Had some crazy storm pass through as we were warming up and getting motivational speech from Roneel. The final went well, and we were unofficially announced as coming third! However, when the final results were given, we had just missed it, coming fourth. Kindof disappointed, it's actually been a while since I've got a medal. The waterskiier pull was cancelled due to bad weather, so no free entry for next year. We might not have done it anyways, it seemed so many people this year wanted to leave as soon as possible, skipping the waterskiier and even the last race if we hadn't made it to the final. Seemed pretty lame to me.

The drive home was the worst I've seen. Windy mountain roads in the dark with big trucks isn't too bad, but add some water (which pools on BC roads making you hydroplane, and also makes lane markings more difficult to see) and patches of thick fog, and it really slows you down. Our driver got super uncomfortable and had me take over driving, despite earlier claims that she'd never let a man drive her car. Got back to calgary about 1:30.

Schiznik

Steve's last day today, kindof sad, he's the person I'd least like to see leave. One of my "heroes" perhaps. Was just finishing his internship when I started, then after school he returned to intermap, as did I, then went off to japan for a year, which was my dream/goal that I came extremely close to actually doing. He was one of the few "cool" people who'd always say to the end of the christmas party, come out for a drink after work, etc. So even though I'm not in the office, it's kindof unfortunate.

Officially there was no thank you and farewell party. There were a couple confusing emails, but it turns out an official order came down from Denver that we are not to have ice cream or whatever when people leave anymore. They're trying to hide the fact that several people have recently left instead of acknowledging them and thanking them. And it's that kind of attitude throughout upper management that is somewhat representative of why people keep leaving.

What am I, an idiot?

Got a buzz at my condo about 22:45. Says he's locked his keys in his car, could I come out and do him a favour. Huh? I asked him to repeat himself, still wasn't clear so I asked what he wanted from me... overall story: supposedly from unit 206, locked his keys in his car, his wife's in banff, called a locksmith, but can't afford it cause the machine in the safeway ate his card, wants to borrow some money. Um yeah. Told him I haven't got any, just like credit card. He said something about coming out and going over to safeway. Told him I'm just not comfortable with that. No response, no "ok i understand" or "come on man!" or anything.

Wanted to go out the back door and walk inconspicuously around the block, but decided it was better just to stay inside. Listened carefully and glanced out the windows for a while to see if anyone else got buzzed or if anyone came in. Tomorrow I'll look if there's even a car in unit 206's spot, or maybe go knock on 206.

It does remind me though, when I was just moving in here, I had a plan to make cookies or something and go around and visit all the other units to introduce myself. But I never did. Maybe it would be a good idea to do so afterall.

Nonsense

I saw this on A-channel a few days ago, it's kindof old, but I looked it up on youtube and simply couldn't stop laughing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

Home again

I think 5 days was the right amount of time to remain in ireland after work. Though there are a few things I would have liked to have seen. Would have been cool to watch a hurling game. Also would have liked to have seen the northern part of the republic, up by Donegal. The thing I liked most about ireland? Not sure, probably the music (though sometimes hard to find) and the accent. Thing I hated most, definitely the taps. Having exclusively scalding and icy water is maddening! If I ever go there again, I'm going to construct some tubing with elastic ends that I can stick over the two faucets to combine into one output. Areas I liked most and least, hard to say without having spent that much time, but I would say Dublin seems to be the least irish part of ireland.

Overall quite happy to be back in calgary. It's warmer here than it was the whole time in Ireland. Even as we walked to the plane from the terminal, the chill wind was almost pushing us over as a final reminder and farewell (the rain said goodbye the previous afternoon). I already went out on the reservoir a couple hours after getting back, I got some catching up to do. Just joined some other team that was practicing. That was pretty fun even though it was about 3 AM on my biological clock. Saw Arnold, he didn't recognize me at first. Saw Jay, he tried to make fun of me. Guess it's time to start shaving again. I'd been a bit nervous about driving here again, switching back to this side of the road, but not really cause we have such enormously wide lanes here, and I've been driving this way for many years as opposed to the opposite way being brand new. I found myself drifting right a bit, and I sometimes reached for the gear shift with my left hand and hit the door, but actually the biggest shock I had was that my spec-v performs like a freakin' ferrari compared to what I was driving the last week in ireland! I think that car had a 1.2 litre engine, a very soft clutch and a fairly upright sitting position. My car threw me back in the seat when I tried to pull out from the parking lot, I was shocked. On the way back from dragonboat saw a nice sunset which you don't really see in ireland, and saw some lightning which I also didn't see in ireland despite the rain. Got temple stuff this weekend, and more dragonboat. Right back into the swing of things. Maybe I'll even get out to the mountains sometime.

An irish accent (5)

Ok, so a couple months ago I mentioned that an american thought I had an irish accent. Well it happened again. Except this time I was actually in Ireland at the time, and it was an Australian who thought so. Very peculiar. Had some work today, I'd held onto our car navigation system to get around but I needed to eventually get it back to germany and this was the best opportunity. Searched Shannon for the fedex. I will miss Jane but I gotta navigate by myself now. Drove a long time to the Hill of Tara, was starting to get stressed feeling lost near the end. That wasn't too interesting, but it was easier to see on a map than my primary destination of newgrange which is a large tomb much older than egypts pyramids and such. But we phoned newgrange from tara and found that all the tours were sold out for the day, which was a major disappointment and defeated the whole purpose of heading to that area. It was also overcast all day and poured on us while walking around the hill. Looked in the visitor centre at Newgrange anyways. Was a pain in the butt finding the hostel as directions were unclear and it had moved. Was also a lower class hostel, oh well. Didn't feel like doing much, but I went out for some pub food as my last dinner in ireland, but after searching all around, even following people's suggestions, I couldn't even find a place that could give me that! Ended up just hitting a burger classic diner type place. There was a jukebox that let me select songs, first chose Abba's SOS, then I saw "pretty little angel eyes". After a few random songs, the radio played the "Sloop John B" which is always a good end-of-work-rotation song. There was a statue outside of a boxer, elevated a bit, would have been perfect to get a photo of me giving him a "cock punch to the soul" (haven't heard that for 2 years, don't know why it popped up in my mind). Yeah I was feeling immature and silly, and if there'd been somewhere to rest my camera on timer I would have done it. Now with spirits back up a bit, I first hit an internet cafe to find out about VAT refunds since I'd heard of such a thing but didn't know anything about them... learned it's only on goods, not services like hotel, too bad, 21% of a couple thousand bucks would have been sweet. Returned to the hostel, watched some CSI and made fun of it then showered and headed to bed. Going home tomorrow morning

"More mead! More mead!" ... not for me! (4)

Headed to Bunratty first thing in the morning to see the castle and the folk park. The castle was neat, but the village didn't really interest me. Then drove to cliffs of mohr which are pretty famous, it was 8 euro to park and would have been 4 more to see the exhibition, which is rather expensive. Didn't even get to walk that far, it was mostly private property, though people were trespassing anyways (I did a bit but turned back fast). The cliffs overall were pretty impressive though. Then drove around the countryside cause that area has it's own special name, was interestingly rocky, but nothing too spectacular. Listening to some talk radio, glad to hear people who text/phone in in ireland are just as stupid as back home. The government's proposing dropping the minimum wage by a euro to stimulate the economy, of course people are pretty upset about it. "If someone's working two minimum wage jobs and the rate is reduced by $1/hr, they will be making $2/hr less!" Ummmmm... Headed back to Bunratty castle for a "medieval banquet" around 8:30. It was neat, the staff in costume, music playing, then went to the dining hall, a king/queen crowned, funny speeches and acts before each dish was served, etc. I wouldn't say it's a must see, but it was pretty entertaining. The meal itself was very good and made things worthwhile. Sat with some slovakians who normally work there, and a texan. So, some ok company, but friends would have been much more fun. It wasn't as rowdy as expected, and of course I didn't like the wine/mead. It was dark on the way out, if a friend had been there it would be cool to sneak off into the darkness.

Whiskey in the jar (3)

Wasn't really anything to do at the hostel or in the area, so I just looked around a bit then headed west. The Rock of Cashel near Tipperary was quite interesting, and the tour guide is quite valuable. Hit a fancy hotel's parking lot to get some free wireless internet to make some quick work emails, then proceeded on to the hostel in sixmilebridge, near Limerick/Shannon. Visited craggaunowen which is a recreation of an ancient village, some parts were really neat like the "Crannog" artificial island with thatch roof cottages. And another small castle, little castles and big stone churches (mostly abandoned or falling apart) are all over the place in ireland. Went to Ennis and wandered around looking for live music, though it was too early. I got myself lost so by the time I was back to the car it was music time, and found a few people playing in a pub. Here instead of a band performance with big speakers and stuff like I saw in kilkenny, it was just some people around a table, like a jam session. One person would lead and sometimes it seemed the others wouldn't even know the song but would play along anyways. More people randomly showed up and pulled up a seat and joined in as the evening went by. I was thinking about requesting "whiskey in the jar" and guess what? They started playing some song I didn't recognize. But after that I told myself I really should request it, and they started playing again and this time it was my song! Telepathic messages are cool. Had a ways to drive back to the hostel so I headed off a bit early.

Does your bedroom have an arrow slit? (2)

Was up quite early considering the night before (9 am), bought some milk/cereal and went for walk through an artillery range. No firing that day, and the trail was pretty reliably free of unexploded munitions. Wonderful non-irish weather that morning. Met a canadian family and walked with them. I actually was suspicious that they were actually not canadians because of the extent of canadiana on them. Seriously, every piece of clothing on every one of them had canadian flags or the word canada on it. I thought it was really tacky and was kindof ashamed. But they were generally nice people and the kids were fun. Went back to the hostel to pay then headed south. On the road, feeling a bit sad, want to return to last night. Near Kilkenny, went to dunmore caves, it was okay but not actually that impressive. Went to Castle Kilkenny, it was also not that special and the tour felt quite rushed, but the guide had interesting stories. Went to a pub in town for some loud live music (I already listen to this kind of music back home so of course I want to hear it while in Ireland!), it ended surprisingly early (8pm) but was quite good. Went to the hostel which was a small castle, or an outpost at least, and the room I slept in was right at the top of an exceptionally long narrow spiral staircase. It was pretty awesome staying in a castle, but I didn't meet anyone, and there wasn't even any notes about the background of the castle and the hostel's receptionist seemed to be hiding away. Tried to go to sleep early since I didn't sleep much the previous night and still need to be alert for driving.

Truer Ireland (1)

With work all over, I headed out on my own. First picked up my own car, it was surprisingly cheap, though it was bottom of the line of course. I drove it very gently to be fuel efficient, it's ~65% more expensive there. Headed first to the dublin zoo, it was a bit expensive and raining so I considered not going in, but then I remembered I really like zoos so I paid. It made me very happy, I mean actual real happiness. Spent some hours there, could have stayed all day despite the periodic drizzle, but figured I should move on. Drove through Dublin and out towards Glendalough, cause I wasn't quite sure where the other hostels were. There was no room in that hostel, but one at nearby Ballinclea had space. Before heading to that one, I walked a forest/"mountain" path for a couple hours, was beautiful, the sun reflecting off a lake. Hadn't really done anything resembling hiking up to that point, it felt really good. Went to Ballinclea hostel which was a bit off the beaten path. A few british girls fed me, then we played Uno which was quite pleasant. Lent them my laptop while I headed outside where the hostel's operator's mountain search and rescue group were having a BBQ. That's where I realized how lucky I was that the first "touristy" hostel had been full, this evening turned out to be the best experience of the whole trip. Hanging out with actual irish people by the campfire, some chatting and a lot of singing, can't picture that happening here. Started with irish folk songs but eventually moved on to various others. Forced to sing a bit of some myself, but mind was blanking, wish I knew more complete lyrics so I could join in more, and also wish I didn't sound so awful singing. It was pretty damn cold there, it wasn't just me saying so, we really needed that campfire. Part of that was the exceptionally clear night, didn't think I'd ever see that many stars from ireland. Around 4 AM they started BBQing some more food, conversation etc had mostly died out and I decided to finally go to bed. But it was definitely the best experience, and I'd say the most true irish experience.

Table for one

A few things I wanted to write about over the past few days, but then didn't get around to it and now I mostly forget...

Few days ago, said farewell to coworker. Too bad work wasn't a couple days shorter or my coworker able to stay a couple days longer. It would feel so much better when you start an "adventure" together to finish together. Sure this wasn't an adventure, it's a work project, and a kindof sucky one at that, but even then you've been complaining and joking about it and can't really do that with someone new for a couple days. Anyways, contractor was okay. Scary driver though, sometimes tailgating so close I could almost reach out the window and touch the car in front. And felt kindof sick cause there was no steady speed, it was always accelerate or slow down, even when you're stuck behind someone. Didn't touch 5th gear despite going 120 (I normally went into 5th around 80-90). So I was kindof glad to finish with him.

Yesterday was doing inventory in the back of the SUV, with the hatch up acting as an umbrella from the light rain. Then it started pouring heavily, with wind so it was wetting me and the equipment, so instead of running through the rain to the hotel, I just hopped up into the back of the SUV (though it was cramped with equipment) and closed the hatch behind me. I was quite amused with the situation. The rain eased after a bit, at which point I discovered I couldn't open the hatch from inside. Was super awkward and even more amusing rolling and climbing over the equipment into the back seat. That was my fun.

Also yesterday I headed into downtown for the evening, it was kindof neat there. Found a Japanese restaurant and had some pretty good food, might have been my most expensive meal so far. Felt kindof lame by myself there. I've sat alone at restaurants far too often.

Have been getting myself stressed trying to figure out what I should do regarding returning and picking up vehicles, where to spend nights, etc. Too scatter brained to put together a plan. But I think I have one now. Guess I'll write about it after it happens/changes. Tomorrow I begin my time-off, for 5 days of... fun? lets hope so.

Sakura

Was so excited to see a japanese named restaurant. When I got inside, I heard the staff all speaking cantonese (except for the girl from Wisconsin). I demanded an explanation. Simple, the founder likes cherry blossoms.

More days

There was a "Lady of the Moy" event here, it was a beauty contest / fashion contest / talent show apparently. I dunno, I just saw lots of young ladies in nice evening gowns. One was actually pretty cute, but that was it so I decided not to get a ticket. Sounded like it became quite a party though, maybe it would have been fun to attend.

The latest sequel of road writing, after "SLOW" and "VERY SLOW" comes "DEAD SLOW". It was especially oxymoronic to see "DEAD SLOW" written on the road with a "100 km/h" sign post beside it. My favorite road-writing was on our route near waterford, where it said "SLÁN"!

There's a spuds mackenzie type dog here, he's cool and has a big yellow ball to play with.

People in ireland carry lasers.

And there's a parking meter spook in Ballina.

Miscellaneous update

In a gas station on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere, Ireland, found a Tim Horton's coffee/donut station. "somehow made me feel a little less far from home..." . Maybe I can be in a commercial.

One thing that continues to annoy me about ireland is how the technology that combines hot- and cold-water pipes into one output faucet has not yet made its way through Ireland. Really annoying. Doesn't seem that complicated.

People here say times like 9:30 as "Half-nine."

Somehow think there's still something I've been meaning to write here for several days but keep forgetting.

At the hotel breakfast restaurant, I was placed in the "corner of shame." It was 'wait to be seated', and they took me all the way across the room to the far corner to a table that was partly obscured by a barrier and partly by a plant and lamp and sat me on the far side of the table. It was totally the corner of shame. But at least the breakfast had pancakes, something I'd been craving. Unfortunately, no maple syrup so it didn't quite satisfy.

In Cork, both times I went to eat restaurant meals I ended up at Thai restaurants I randomly found. There were apparently three Thai restaurants in Cork. No Japanese or Vietnamese. Seemed strange.

Overall, work hasn't felt as bad the past few days as it did the first several. Still would be better to have stayed home. Even health-wise. Not sure yet if I'll stay longer when work finishes or if I'll go home ASAP. Or if I'll even have that choice, they may need me for an emergency in Germany or something.

Getting pretty used to driving. Still have to concentrate though which gets tiring.