dublin « tonskudaigle.info

27Sep/100

My blank memory

It's time to update some stuff again and I swear, I had so many things to mention here and yet every time I think of typing those things down on a note or to my phone, I just forget or am too lazy to do it. Now I'm just sitting here thinking what I was supposed to write about. How stupid is that...

So anyway, work's good. I'm not going much into details as there's not much new to tell. I started working on last Tuesday with the other Finnish guys and we get a taxi every morning paid by the company from in front of our doors. It picks all three of us around 5:30am and we're always about 15 minutes early. Which reminds me that today we actually didn't have a taxi. I went outside at 5:20 as the taxi is usually in front at that time and I waited around 10 mins until I noticed that we're supposed to be picking the second guy already so there must be something wrong. So I called the local taxi company without knowing who actually takes us to work. Turned out that the company I called to doesn't even usually take us to work and instead it's some other company. Well anyway, this local company takes us to work for 5 euros so it's no problem, but since I didn't have the 2nd guy's phone number, I just called the 3rd guy and told him that we'd pick him up. I tried to persuade the taxi driver to pick the 2nd guy as well, but he didn't want to go and "just stand in front of the house in case he's not there at all". So we didn't pick him up at all. But we got to work and due to our poor financial status (pay day in 1,5 weeks), I had to pay the whole 7 euros for the taxi. The company better pay me back... with interest :P

Oh oh oh! I got to tell you about this though... I went to Dublin city center on Saturday with a couple of my Finnish co-workers. We got stood up by the 4th guy, but that didn't really matter. We went to this place called Woolshed and oh man I got to tell you, it's awesome! It's a sports bar so you can imagine that they show sports. But they are something else to what I'm used to :P
There's like a 200 inch screen on the wall in the middle of the place and unless you're blocked by the poles around the place, you can see it. Also next to it is a somewhat 120 inch screen as well which on Saturday showed a different event compared to the big one. Oh and if you're blocked to see the game, no worries. There are... let me refresh my photographic memory... 8 LCD TV's around the two floor bar. And they also offer food, to my observation until around 10pm!
So you know... I was just thinking and also checking out already. What if I had a Saturday off, the English Premier League had games on that day, Liverpool was playing and I felt like "having a few"... You get where I'm going with this? ;) I was thinking of going to Woolshed on 20th of November. I think the games in EPL were Man City - Arsenal at 12:45, then some other game, I don't care, then Liverpool a game and after that it's already around 8pm. I like it :D
Definitely something worth trying some day! And you know me, I rarely turn down football and beer together if there's also food available :)

Also I didn't manage to sell my desktop so I'm trying to have it shipped over here as my laptop is already pretty much overdue with its lifeline. The screen is flickering every now and then plus there are some weird things happening as if the graphic adapter was giving up. But hopefully I'll get the desktop here soon so I just need to get a monitor and a desk for it all. Problem is that the shipping costs are huge and I'm talking like 120 euros. Plus I'm a bit afraid the whole thing will be broken once it gets here. I've heard some horror stories about computers being shipped over and them arriving in smaller sizes due to whatnot being crushed and becoming useless :(
Also am hoping to get my xbox360 here as I just had my Madden 11 three days before coming to Ireland. So am kind of gutted not having been able to play it. But as I get my tax returns in December, I might be getting a TV here (I don't have one at the moment). Will do wonders for my house to have something more than myself and a laptop here :D I had a Norwegian co-worker stopping by on Friday for a couple of beers and since I've nothing to do here, we just sat in the living room for a good 45mins. Sure girls do that every now and then and I didn't mind that as we talked about stuff. But you know a TV, music or something would be nice to have in case of visitors! :D
So I have my eye on this offer at Curry's for a 37" Samsung Full HD TV with a very nice TV stand included for about 600 euros.

So what else... I should start writing down on these things I should write about. Maybe it's just the 6-15 working hours that are drinking the juice out of me. I now there are shitloads of things to tell about, but I think this update already reached its peak and "maximum" length.

But I'll write something more later this week, I promise. I'll make that list even just to motivate me :D

Filed under: Life In Motion No Comments

22Aug/100

Back on the track

I suppose if ever, now is the time to bring back my beloved blog. I went through some old posts from my kneecrackin' days (use the search to find it) and with the latest development in my life, I might even be motivated to update my blog. Now I know Twitter and Facebook are "the thing" when talking about Web2.0 shit, but for reasons beyond explanation possibilities, I've grown fond of my blog and I find this more personalized than the other two.

So a quick recap of what's going on in my life:
1) Graduated in December 2009 as you already surely know
2) Went to St. Pete, FL for over a month to enjoy myself and celebrate my graduation. Time well spent, that's all I can say.
3) Was unemployed for about a month after returning until I got a job offer from Sweden, but that went all wrong and this blog isn't the place to discuss that.
4) Summer came and I was unemployed so I "moved" (basically took my laptop and some clothes with me) to my parents in Tornio to hang around with my old mates. So tennis and football was played this summer for sure. Too bad my knee couldn't handle it and eventually I had to retire for the summer.
5) Sent tons of job applications all over the world. Got tired of it a bit at one point and I remember one application having an open message attached to it that went something like this:

"Hi there,

Are you serious that a nice, professional, organized and otherwise cool guy can't get a job from anywhere nowadays? Take a chance and consider me. Seriously.

Thank you, Toni"

I know, not professional, but with the frustration it came out naturally like I was in a trance.
6) Got a call one early afternoon from Bratislava and Dell if I was interested in a job I applied to. Now I was a bit fuzzy as I was still sleeping when they called so I didn't first hear who they were. But when they asked me if I was interested, I said sure thing. So after talking a while and after understanding what the job was about they asked me if I'd be willing to come to an interview in Bratislava. And so I did... Problem was that the job was actually Swedish-Norwegian Order Processing Analyst which requires really good Swedish skills, which I don't have. But I knew that before I booked the flights so no need to tell me that I'm an idiot for not listening at the beginning. So I didn't get the job, but I did go to Bratislava and it was awesome after 2 years away.
7) The next day after Bratislava called and I had booked the flights to Bratislava, I got an e-mail from CPL asking if I'd be interested to move to Ireland in Dublin. Damn sure! So we figured things out, I did a test, passed it, got a call interview while in Bratislava, passed it and by the time I was back in Finland I check my e-mail the next morning and noticed that I had received a job offer from CPL.

So now I've been pretty much preparing myself for a move to Leixlip/Celbridge (not sure which one I'm getting a flat from) in Co. Kildare, Ireland. Flights are scheduled for 24th of August which is two nights away and work starts on 30th of August. Despite all the worrying about adapting to a new country and how I will like the job (Finnish call center at HP support), I'm damn enthusiastic about moving there and practically starting a new life since I've no one I know over there and the funny thing is, I just understood that now. I really don't know anyone there. Oh wait, I do know Pekka but he's working at IBM and about 10km away. But still... Exciting :P

What I hate about all this is the people I'm leaving behind. Some friends are just too good to be replaced and despite being the IT nerd of the friends, I still do feel close to every single one of my friends and it hurts to move away and realizing that I've no idea when I will see them again.

But anyway, that's it for now. I surely hope I will post more stuff in the coming days and weeks as my life begins to change becoming more and more Irish :D

Here's a word I love from the UK:
Arse (means ass as in butt/stupid).