/travel/ireland/Comp Day
Today was a comp day — a day off in exchange for a weekend oncall. I went to the Garda station to get my Garda card, wrapping up my immigration troubles for the next 6 months. I went to the Canadian Embassy, but they're only open 9-12, so I can't get passport documents. I did a bit of shopping.
I saw Stephen (I don't know Stephen, but he shouted loudly into his cell phone that "this is Stephen." Or perhaps it's Steven.) Where was I? Oh yes, I saw Stephen, running with a bunch of flowers, making an urgent phone call. I saw a taxi driver yelling at a lorry driver that he was "just sittin' there and you bloody ran into me!" while the lorry driver pointed out that the taxi drivers was making a bloody left turn across two lanes, and was invisible to the lorry driver. I saw a lot of pedestrians doing carefully timed sprints across the road. I did some of those myself. I rode the wrong way on a lot of one-way streets, and survived.
I saw a lot of immigrants in the Garda National Immigration Bureau, and got friendly treatment from behind the glass that seemed to be relieved that I spoke fluent English. I sat waiting for nearly three hours. I estimated that they served one person every two minutes. They were serving around 140 when I got in, and I was 228.
I went to visit a ("my"?) financial consultant at Allied Irish Banks. I didn't like the meeting very much. I don't like being sold funds. I don't like that they didn't have ethical funds. I'll have to find out who does, 'cause investing in Exxon just doesn't really fit my groove.
Last week I had the culmination of my dispute with my former landlord over the "missing" rent and withheld deposit, in the form of a face-to-face adjudication at a large round wooden table — big enough that the disputees didn't have to sit too close together. I think it went quite well. I don't know which way the decision will come down (or whether they're allowed to slice down the middle) but I'm glad I pursued it. The adjudicator was friendly, extremely neutral and professional, and barely gave away a hint of what he was thinking; the only such indication was that he seemed displeased with the landlord's poor maintenance of my rentbook.
I had a wee dinner party on the weekend, and I think it went quite well.
I'm trying to work less. Or rather, I'm trying to spend less time at work, but work about the same amount. I think it's working a bit. Work is otherwise good. I'm a "Team Lead" now, and got my first n00b yesterday. I'm also down from splitting my time between 4 projects to "only" three, which is nice. I'm also hopefully going to be serving on a lightweight committee to assess and address the office's environmental impact, which is very exciting.
In two weeks, Clare and I are going to Paris. How romantique. I've put my phone into French so I get some practice. There's a cute little bakery just down the street from me that mostly employs francophones, but I haven't got up the hutzpah to start speaking French to them.
My flatmate has moved out, mostly — some of her stuff is still here — the dampness and mould in her room were too much, which is fair enough. The landlord is going to do something to try to improve it — more insulation and a vapour barrier, I think. I've borrowed a humidity sensor and been taking measurements around the flat, but they're fairly inconclusive. I'll start looking for a new flatmate in a week or so, once that work is done.
I'm taking ECON 247 from Athabasca University. It's been pretty basic so far, and I have to force myself to remember that I dispute a few of the fundamental assumptions while still pretending to accept them so I get the answers right. However, I got a good few hours of studying in at the Garda Station, so that was good.
I think that's a pretty good update. What's that you ask? Have I seen any good movies lately? Yes, I have.
