Waves

Feeling a little peculiar again today. I had a blazing migraine last night and couldn't settle in bed at all. It wasn't until waves of nausea swept over me at about 3.30 in the morning and I actually threw up (sorry for the overshare) that I was able to drift of into sleep.

I'm still not right. A little light-headed and very tense around my neck and shoulders. This would be the stress of my laptop breaking down when my lady is so far away. Thank God for Internet Cafés, one of which I'm in at the moment. The patop is in for a quote for repair but I fear that it might actually work out cheaper to buy a new one as that'll come with a warranty.

So I'll get my shopping home and put away and then, after making a phone call to an insurance company, maybe have a doze. Certainly a little light music and a few pages of my book, at least, and I'll take it from there.

A bright note is that one of the Tescos around the city has started stocking their not-from-concentrate Pineapple Juice that I've been missing so much while I've been over here. That's going straight into the fridge when I get home and I wouldn't be surprised if I've necked the lot by the morning.

Okay, I'm getting charged by the minute here, so that's it until I feel the pressing need to blog again.

Trauma

Nightmare. My computer finally chooses to breathe it's last while my Lady is on the other side of the world and our only easy form of contact (that isn't going to break the bank) is Skype. Yes, I have this small, pink netbook I'm typing this from but I can't use it at the house as my wireless dongle isn't compatible with it's Linux operating system and neither is Skype.

So I have the option of Internet Cafes, which I'm doing tonight, or replacing the computer. I know just enough about laptops to understand that to get it fixed (parts and labour) is going to cost me almost as much as buying a brand new one with a 3-year guarantee. Now to go speak nicely to financial institutions...

Unadventurous

Today, being Monday, was the first weekday of my week off. I didn't leave the house. I pottered around, did a little housework, a little laundry, you know the kind of stuff.

I'm going to go for a walk tomorrow. Nowhere in particular, just out for a walk. The only restriction I'm putting on it is that I'm not going anywhere that might involve spending money. I'm not actually skint yet but payday is looking quite a distance away at the moment and I don't want to run out of money before I get there. Besides little luxuries like food, I have to consider bus-fares as well, which is why time off is doubly welcome.

Having said that, I may pop up to my desk one day this week, early before anyone else is around, just to check over the emails to ensure that I don't find myself with hundreds needing my attention next Monday, and of course to see if there's any news on the job front, although if there was anything urgent I think I'd have got a phone call.

I've spent most of today immersed in Led Zeppelin. I'm not the biggest fan in the world but every now and then I feel like listening to some. Today was one of those days.

What tomorrow brings, who knows?

D'Yer Mak' 'Er?

It's a little ironic. Almost a year to the day since I arrived in Cork, my reason for reason flew out to Jamaica for a month, on work business.

Yes, I miss her horribly but we have Skype and have chatted a fair bit already. I'm more worried about her than myself. It's an awful long way from home to be, by oneself. If there had been any way at all for me to raise the fare then I'd have gone over too, so we could have bitched and moaned about the heat together. I know that she'll be fine - she's a smart, strong lady and I'm very, very proud of her, but everyone needs a hug now and again and she and I have got used to being able to turn to each other whenever we need (almost).

This is why July will be a long month. Unless the lottery ticket I have in my wallet is a winner, in which case there'll be a frantic scramble to cash it and book seats on the soonest possible flight out there.

It's getting a little late for this. I have all next week off work but I'm wilting a little now, so I think that is all for tonight.

Anniversary

As I have an important interview in the morning, this won't be a long one but I couldn't not post something.

July 8th 2009 I arrived in Cork. In the year since then I have been the most loved, best looked after man in the world. The future is bright, alhough July this year is going to be a loooong month.

Whoever said...

...that there was anything remotely easy about Sunday morning?

Unpaid.

So I'm sat at work on one of my days off. That's grand, though. I've come up to meet the most beautiful girl in the world out of work and she's just finishing off one or two things before we leave. She's nomming a choccie bar while working and has just giggled at my current Facebook status so I figure I have time to blog quickly, while glancing surreptitiously at her so as not to disturb further. She really does take my breath away.

I can't believe I have so much holiday time to take in the next couple of months. I guess that's because in the 11 months or so that I've been working here, I really haven't taken much time off at all. If I could find a way to raise the cash I would so be jetting off with my Lady somewhere.

We went to see Deep Purple Live At The The Marquee, in Cork last Wednesday night. Thoroughly enjoyable. If anyone is remotely interested, my review can be found here. There always seem to be some good stuff on there - last year saw both Chickenfoot and Anastacia playing, both of whom I'd have shelled out for tickets for but they were about a month before I arrived. This year has had Paul Weller and Blondie amongst others, but I didn't really have the financial muscle to manage more than one and that just had to be Purple. Can't wait to see what next year brings!

I'm only at work for about two days over the next three weeks so I must make sure that my Manager/Team Leads have my contact details to hand, should I be called for an interview for any of the jobs that I've applied for internally. Two of them are "interim posts" which would be cool but for a limited period of time. The other one is a permanent position involving a lot of writing, which sounds right up my street...

Fingers crossed.

Electrickery

There's something going on with the electrical appliances. Watch yourselves - their day may have come!

I could put the way my phone startled me down to circumstance. It very rarely rings. When it does ring it's usually my lovely Lady. This evening I'd just got out of her car and knew that she wouldn't be calling for 15 minutes or so. When the phone rang in my pocket I think I actually left the pavement! Accidental dial - she was trying to call someone else and accidentally pressed the "dial" button and called me. Stoopid phone.

When she rang me intentionally a little while later, I learned that their TV has lost it's picture. And this only a day after her laptop bit the dust. Hmmm. All coincidental, you may say. As my laptop has been acting the bollox anyway, then you could possibly stretch that point to include my first ever "blue screen of death". Fair enough. I've been running Windows PCs for years and this is the first time I've ever seen one.

It's surely not concidental, though, that further attempts were made on me when I got home. I went turn on the lights in the kitchen and was met with a BANG as one of the bulbs blew and threw the circuit breaker. Heart racing, I took out the bulb and reset the circuit. Then my shower unit steadfastly refused to switch on for a good 10 attempts.

There's something going on and it's more than mutiny. Rebellion is in the air, I tell you.

Back again

I should maybe be making more of an effort to blog regularly. In my defence, I've been filling another commission for articles for the website I sometimes write for. That's not much of an excuse because I've been leaving it until the last thing for the last two weeks to get the articles in just before the deadlines - I've had ideas brewing and initial drafts in process but it's been a rush to get the articles completed.

It's been kind of busy at work as well. Besides the hours-per-day, I've been keeping some anti-social hours to try to support a Lady who has been working horribly hard with very little acknowledgement. 

It's also been rather unpleasant here weather-wise. I have no problems at all with rain but the recent spell of hot, muggy weather has had me wilting completely. I'm exhausted through the days, battling headaches and sleeping less well than usual through the sticky nights. Seriously, though, how bad? I need to get over it and get on with things. There's worse things than the weather, right?

So I have this week off work, although I'll be popping in on Wednesday for another interview for an interim post and then off to see Deep Purple Live at the Marquee in Cork with my Lady. It's a little strange being off work. Since I started there I've had so little time off that I'm at a little bit of a loose end. Yes, I could take some day trips but I don't really want to be spending lots of money because I'm off work. I think it's maybe a week for just chilling and catching up on some reading and some housework and taking opportunities to see my lady whenever its convenient. It's nice not to be ruled by the clock for a week, though.

Vagueness

I tend to fight shy of blogging about work but here I sit blogging from work! I'm not being too much of a bad guy - I am now well outside my working hours and am just hanging around waiting for my lovely Lady and using the company's electricity rather than my own.

I'm not breaking too much of my self-imposed restriction when I say that I'm very excited about tomorrow as I have an interview for an interim post, doing more the sort of thing that I'd like to be doing. I'll keep you posted, albeit in a vague, cryptic manner.

For now, that is all...

And counting...

This won't be a long post as I've got to be up in just over 4 hours to go to work. Stupid boy to be up this late.

I've got to be honest, these 1-day weekends are starting to get a little old. I know that it's my own fault if I choose to work overtime but even so I think it's be nice to have a little time off. I know I've got some holidays coming up soon and it'll just be nice to have a few days off in a row.

That reminds me, I must try to "fine-tune" my holidays a little tomorrow. So I guess I should go to sleep.

Bank Holiday

It's been a Bank Holiday in Ireland today. Coupled with my having a day off work, it's made the day feel very like a Sunday so forgive me if I get confused about days, okay? I don't have a set theme in mind for this post so it might feel like a bunch of bullet point stiched together loosely.

Last week was (I nearly typed "this week has been") a very strange week in lots of ways. There were so many niggles and irritations going on that either my Lady or I were soothing one another's frayed nerves nearly every day. The weather was very hot and sultry too, which didn't make it any easier. I learned (or rediscovered) that even under the kind of stress that was going on I was more than capable of doing my job...and more. This bodes well for the future, more of which in a later entry, I hope.

I've been searching for somewhile for some free calendar software that meets my needs. I'd tried Outlook at home (works reasonably well but is too much or a resource hog - I don't need all those features), Thunderbird, with the "Lightning" calendar add-on (very disappointing - lots of issues with Thunderbird itself), Sunbird (which is effectively a stand-alone version of the aforementioned add-on) which is where I thought I'd settled but I've recently been very happy with the "ReminderFox" add-on for Firefox. I have it installed on Firefox both at home and at work, which is a good sign. I'll keep you posted.

I was supposed to be off work tomorrow as well but agreed to do a day's overtime. It'll help the old bank balance next month and it never hurts to show willing.

July will be a long month, I fear.

So if I'm at work tomorrow, I should go. I don't have to get up as early as I might, thanks to a beautiful lady offering to  pick me up but I do still have to remake the bed before I can climb into it.

Goodnight all.

Me 1 Monday 0

I've been sat here for most of the evening listening to the rain rumbling on the roof. After a few days of sunshine, someone has really decided to empty the watering can.

It's been an interesting day. For some reason I've been rather confrontational today. Not with any particular person, nor with people in general - more with the day itself. Quite why I decided that Monday might have it in for me, I don't know and it's certainly not like me to get my retaliation in first but that's how it happened. I got up, kind of launched myself at Monday and grabbed it by the throat.

Whether or not it was necessary, I'm not sure. Whether the day would have turned out any better or worse if I hadn't seen it as an adversary to be overcome, I don't know. It's some distance outside my usual perspective though and took a fair amount of energy to maintain.

So how do I meet Tuesday? Do I stroll up to it with a grin and offer it "five" or do I kick its lily-white ass as soon as I set eyes on it?

*sigh* Life is very confusing.

Event Horizon

So as it's now early Monday morning does this still count as the weekend?

I haven't forgotten about "Twirling" but I seem to have been crowded for time recently. I've been playing a fair amount of chess again, which can easily take up a whole evening if I get the right frame of mind. And of course, I've been spending as much time as possible with my lovely Lady.

Every time we have to go our own ways for a little while it gets a little more difficult. I think that we're getting closer to an Event Horizon; reaching Critical Mass. Every day is a day nearer being together all the time.

And today she bought me the coolest rainbow shoelaces!

Remember me?

Er...hello.

Sorry. It's been ages. And it's very late now.

I have two whole days off work at the weekend, so there'll be something here then, 'kay?

Promise.

Denial

I never have nightmares. Especially not the kind that wake me up in the dead of night, dry-mouthed, heart racing and screams echoing in my head.

So there's no need for me to have turned on the light and to be sat here cuddling a small, fluffy dinosaur, jumping at every car that drives by, flinching at every gust of wind, with the bitterness of unshed tears cluching at my throat with fingers as dry as the grave.

Just sayin'.

Ponderous

Over the years I've grown pretty good at hiding things. Personal things. Like when I've had my feelings hurt. I guess being shy and sensitive (and if anyone laughs I'm leaving) can only be hidden so much.

One person knows very well when there's something wrong. That sentence should probably start "only one person...". I've got very good at bottling stuff up and keeping a "shiny side out". It's the little stuff that creeps through - rudeness in those I wouldn't think it of; thoughtlessness; cliques; people who are the life and soul of the party with most people but make no effort to diguise their disdain for others, without getting to know them.

Of course, a solution to this would be to stop my mind from churning over things again and again. I used to be able to stop it with sizeable amounts of alcohol and the like but I'm getting too old for that shit now. Anything more than about 4 pints is going to leave me fit for absolutely nothing the following morning.

We all have our little psychoses to carry, I guess. Somedays theyre heavier than others. And with sharp edges.

The Sky's The Limit

It' getting kinda late but it struck me that I hadn't been around for a few days.

It's still a little bit up in the air as my manager is on holiday until Thursday but let's just say that the "issue" at work appears to have been sorted out. I needed to nail it and I did. Cometh the hour, cometh the man and all that jazz!

Hopefully things will now start to mellow out a little bit and I can start to properly kick some ass. It's comin', you mothers. Watch me fly...

Falling stars, shooting stars, seeing stars

I don't really know what I'm doing blogging tonight. There's something that's weighing really heavily on me but I can't mention it here. The only form of self-censorship I impose is about work so lets just say that I might be looking for "other opportunities" soon.

In complete contrast, a certain lovely Lady is doing very well and will be representing her company abroad, for three weeks, in a rather exotic location. I'm so proud of her I may actually burst. Yes, I'll miss her horribly but it's a good thing for her career and I'm sure she'll have a fabulous time. She deserves it.

Closer to home, I just gave my head a terrific crack on an overhang above the stairs. I'm seeing a few stars here so I'm going to close my eyes and see if they go away.

Sir Realism

I'm sat at work, waiting for my Lady. I've played on Facebook as much as I dare, considering it's strictly verboten and I'm kinda bored. I'm also feeling a little sick. This is about 50% being poorly and about 50% the day I've had. Ah well.

So I need to find a way to shake off these Friday blues and remember that I have the company of a beautiful, intelligent woman to look forward to and a day off work tomorrow. I'm not wasting any of this evening or tomorrow being miserable - Sunday will soon roll around and I'll have loads of time for that then.