Almost

It must be colder than I thought tonight. I turned the shower on and was just letting it run for a minute or two when the water flow spluttered and nearly quit. I've seen that before - the water was frozen in the pipe.

Or rather, nearly frozen. The water just about managed to get going again. Another five minutes may have been too late. I knew that it was frosty outside but didn't realise that things were quite that far below zero. I'm very pleased that I'm not having to walk for a bus in the morning.

I hope that I sleep a little better tonight than I did last night. For whatever reason, I was awake for a fair proportion of the night. There weren't bad dreams or anything like that, I just couldn't settle. The only thing that I can put it down to is that Saturday evening I suddenly had to change my behaviour due to someone unexpected walking through a shop doorway. And I'll go no further than that.

Having had an unsettled night, I should probably be turning in as I'm back to work tomorrow. So for tonight, that is all!

Caught!

I thought of an analogy today.

My first two weeks in the job have made me feel like a cricketer, with chunks of information flying over my head. I've managed to catch some of them...

...and as for the rest, if I can continue with the cricketing theme, I may not have caught those balls but I know where they went and I can get them if and when I need them!

I have a Team Night Out with my new team this evening. I don't know what any of the rest of them have planned but after the whiskey-fuelled debacle of the other weekend I will be keeping things lightweight. I have to be back at work and compos mentis tomorrow!

Coded

For a Monday, today was a good day.

I learned just how rusty my html coding is but through sheer bloody-mindedness I was able to get through what I was meant to. I sit next to my new manager and she admitted that she was "throwing everything at Greg" this afternoon. That's okay too. I guess she's after finding out what I can handle.

I also learned that Polly and I have tickets for the "Post-Peak Party", to be held at one of Cork's swankier hotels in just under two weeks. It's a slightly themed party and I may be going out to try to hire what our American cousins would call a tuxedo. In which case there may be photographs!

Enough about work. I'm dangerously close to the edge of my self-imposed prohibition on posting about my job. So what else? I'm still off the cigarettes and at the risk of jinxing it, I'm not suffering too much. I even wandered over to my local yesterday afternoon to watch a rugby game and didn't feel any kind of compulsion to try to scrounge a smoke from anyone. This is a good thing.

I've adjusted the time of day that I apply a new nicotine patch, which seems to help with any difficult urges late at night. Or at least, tobacco-related urges! As this is a family show, I should probably stop there.

So I'm still at work at the moment. Not working myself (as you can tell) but just waiting for the prettiest girl in the world to finish what she needs to finish before we leave. I'm perfectly content sat here with her. Beats the Hell out of gazing blankly at a TV!

Good Signs and Positivity

This has got to be a good sign. It's now... what?.. just after half past midday and I only just realised that I haven't put a fresh nicotine patch on yet today. Although I'm still having the occasional awkward moment with it, I really do think that I'm kinda done with the cigarettes. Yay me!

Of course just typing that meant that I wanted one. I now have a new patch on my arm. I'm getting there.

So my first week in the new job went as well as I might have hoped. Parts of it I already have a bit of an idea about and other parts I think I'll pick up fairly quickly. Without going into unnecessary detail there are parts that I think I'll struggle with a little initially but there are people there to help me and everyone has to learn a new job when they go into it, right? I'll be "grand" as the locals would say. I know who to reach out to for help if I need it and I think I know in what areas I won't need any.

It's like an early spring day in Cork today. After about four days of constant rain, day and night, the sun has come out. Everything smells fresh, rejuvenated, new. I can't wait for spring. This is going to be a year of positive progress, I just know it. I can feel it in my bones, I can taste it in the air. I shall be looking around for a new place to live when summer gets here, which is without the little quirks that this place has. Don't get me wrong, this place has some immensely happy memories but the constant leaks when the rain falls are getting to be an annoyance and the stone floors mean that it's very cold in winter. A spare room would be nice, as would better heating and a newer kitchen We'll see what I can find.

This is kind of funny. I have the internal company "chat" facility open and am "in a call" with my Pretty Lady. We're not actually talking though. It's the equivalent of a comfortable silence between us. I can hear her typing and she can probably hear my typing and the music in the background. It's just nice to have the connection and to know that there's this something bringing us even closer.

As the weather is a little kinder today I shall venture out later. I may have a little walk and as Munster have an important rugby game this afternoon, I may even drop into the local pub to watch it in the company of manic Munster fans! Then a relaxed evening and possible an early night to get ready for tomorrow morning.

No Fire

The not smoking thing is going quite well. Just.

I just had a close shave with the whole tobacco thing. Close but no cigarette, if you'll pardon the expression. The urge has just come back even stronger so it's a good thing that I called it out already on Facebook or I'd probably be lighting up now. As it is I'm now getting the nibbles. I might be 16 stones by the time this is over!

And about an hour and a half later and I'm awake again. Just terrific. Quick stroll down to the bathroom, lights out again and try to relax...

Café Olé

Right. Yes. So. Blogging before midnight. Just. Starting anyway.

It's now rained for long enough and hard enough that I've had to give up on soaking up the drips from the leak over the bedroom window with towels and have had to put a bucket in place to catch them. The constant sound of "plop" is driving me crazy! I should maybe get in touch with the landlord and landlady. I'm not honestly sure why I haven't. One of the reasons is that whenever I've had any reason to ask them to get something fixed before, it's been treated with a certain amount of "fuss about nothing" and the work, when it's finally been done, hasn't been to the highest standard. I'll think about it.

Slightly random jump here but I was thinking about Jellyfish today. Not specifically for any reason - just about about what strange, beautiful creatures they are.

And speaking of strange and beautiful creatures, a quick word about Geminis. Those of us who know and love one understand that their moods may swing suddenly from one pole to the other. This is never going to stop us being worried when they're miserable / upset / unhappy. Just sayin'...

Starting Over

Day one of the new job went fairly well I think.

It's not like I actually "did" very much. Obviously there's training to be had and permissions to be sorted out. As the days go by and I get more into the job I kind of think I'll enjoy it more and more. The people I'm going to be working with are a nice crowd and they're not strangers to me, which is nice.

I'm actually a little concerned that I may have cracked the crown on my front tooth. Quite honestly, I don't need the expense of getting it repaired/replaced so I hope I'm mistaken. I'll keep a eye on it, as much as that's possible with one's own teeth and hopefully it'll prove to be nothing to worry about. At least until the new job filters through to the pay-slip.

And now to bed, I think. It's a little later than I wanted to be up but I wanted to jot a few things down here. Note to self: blog earlier in the evening. Preferably before midnight!

Over-hanging

I was reclining here watching a DVD when I became aware of a strange roaring sound. It took a couple of seconds before I realised that it was the sound of rain on the roof. I'm very, very pleased that I don't have to get up horribly early to walk down into the the city to get a bus. My Pretty Lady has offered to come and pick me up in the morning...for the first day of my new job!

I remembered some thing over this weekend. I remembered how thoroughly, how whole-heartedly and how deeply I hate to have a hangover. On Friday night my Pretty Lady and I went out to a moderately swanky hotel hotel for a meal with a good friend of ours. We had wine with the meal and then repaired to the bar. I would only be guessing at the time we left the bar. From there we went back to our friend's placxe and kept drinking and singing and playing guitars and drinking. All apparently without waking her husband. What time we called it a night and went our ways to bed is as much of a mystery to me as are Quadratic Equations. All I know is that I woke, about 4.30 on Saturday afternoon, with a mouth as dry as the Mojavé Desert and very, very wobbly on my feet. A few hours later and I only just managed to get out of a car before, well, I guess "blowing cookies" is rather a distasteful expression.

So I think I may be done with the heavy drinking. The word "hangover" doesn't even begin to hint at the total breakdown of capabilities and functions. Next time we go out, I think I may stop after three or four drinks and go onto fruit juice or tea or something that won't make my brain dribble out of my ears.

Before I turn in for the night, can I just mention here that I haven't had a cigarette since last Thursday. I would have liked one tonight but managed to resist. Yay me!

Can't sleep...

...which isn't good. The cold doesn't help but I think the biggest problem is that when I get home in the afternoon I doze off. Having to get up so early to get the bus takes it's toll as the day goes on. I won't be sorry to see the back of starting at 7 o'clock.

Conjuration

Here's a New Year's Resolution - I'm not going to come down with something flu-like again. At least not in the foreseeable future.

I've had the tickle at the back of the throat going on all day and have been alternately too hot and too cold. I'm dosing myself with paracetamol/decongestant and will kill off this SOB with a positive mental attitude. I'm just not having it. I felt ill enough in the week before Christmas to last me a couple of months, thank you very much.

This is my last week in my current job. My schedule was perfect, in that I was meant to be working Sunday to Thursday and then have a long weekend before starting my new role. This has now been changed to Sunday to wednesday, then Saturday, before starting the new job on Monday the 10th. I'm not best impressed by this but I guess I'll have to roll with the punches. I'll see what I can do about it tomorrow.

"Tomorrow". There's a word to conjure with. While all seems to have been doom and gloom in 2010, I seemed to get on fairly well. Aside from having a cold, 2011 seems to be starting quite well too. Despite all the woe forecast for the next 12 months things look fairly rosy on my horizon. Obviously no-one can predict what's around the corner with any accuracy but I seem to have every reason for optimism, which seems to be becoming my default setting, more and more. My promotion has come at a good time, I'm looking to move somewhere a little more comfortable at some point over the summer, and the fact that I'm paying sizeable chunks of money into a pension scheme every month leads me to believe that I may be comfortable, at least, in the more distant future. I have plans, hopes and dreams. At the moment, I have no reason to assume that any of them are beyond me. Yay!

Happy New Year

2011. It doesn't seem possible. I remember all the years growing up that I used to think to myself "When it's the year 2000 I'll be 34!"

The thought that we're now 11 years past that blows my mind a little.

So as the first day of the New Year draws to a close, I hope that it's been good to all of you. I haven't exchanged a word with a single person today, unless one counts text messages (or soft toys!) and that's okay too. I was up until the wee small hours of the morning so was quite happy to have a relaxing day, just chilling.

Don't get the impression that I was out carousing till all hours, though. I went for a couple of sociable pints after work and was back in the house by 10 o'clock, I guess. Any more than three or four pints and it takes more than one day to get over it, which wasn't going to be practical as my last week of starting work at stupid o'clock commences tomorrow.

A new year is a time for new beginnings - resolutions and all that. I haven't made any resolutions at all but I do have a new beginning on the horizon. Monday the 10th I start my new job as a Project Specialist and I can't wait. I've been working with a very cool bunch of people and it'll seem odd not to be, but I'll still be in the same buiding. I'm  ready for the new challenge and am itching to get at it. There's only one thing that I want more than the new job and you all know what that is.

New horizons in front of me and the love of the most beautiful girl in the world. Who knows what the next 12 months might hold? Not I, that's for sure. As an immediate wish, I'd kind of like it if the ringing in my ears from my fall would go away. I know that I was lucky but if I could push that luck just a little, the ringing is starting to bug me and my head is still a little tender. Enough, please!

I hope that 2011 brings happiness and joy to you all. May your dreams come true and may your problems all be itty-bitty ones!