Three more days... OMG

You cannot imagine the excitement in me right now..

In three days, Grumpy will be arriving here in Dublin!! 

It feels like forever. I bet the next three days will be the longest three days ever!!

Although, today at work, I was checking out his flight itinerary, and looking at the day he leaves Dublin to go home. He's not even here yet, and I'm already sad that he will be leaving me end of August to make his way back to Melbourne. With a stopover in KL, which is totally unfair, but thats a different story. I dread the time he goes and leaves me here all by myself again. I could not cope. No way. I will be devastated.

Not only that, he has the wackiest flight routes too. He flies Melbourne > Tokyo > Copenhagen > Birmingham > Dublin. And guess what? He arrives Friday at 11pm. We fly off to Rome Saturday 7am! I emailed Mum and Dad today.. with my Europe itinerary. And I said to them, if Grumpy's flights to Dublin are somewhat delayed or cancelled.. does that mean I am going to Rome alone? 

I sound like a Negative Nancy.

But on the flip side, there is a lot happening at work this week, so that should keep me occupied. On Monday, an email was sent out to kick start a pretty significant project here. I'm the lead business analyst on this. Exciting, yet the other side of me is terrified. The 'tidak apa' attitude of some people in the teams here worries me that when they go live on the new implementation, it will fail. And no way I want to fly back to Melbourne with a 'FAILED' stamp on my forehead.

I sound like a Negative Nancy again.

The next two days I'm busy with workshops. We have 2 colleagues from our Lux office here for these workshops. I've been asked to be their host tomorrow night and take them out for drinks and dinner, and charge it to the company. That's fine. Only problem is, I'm as much a tourist as they are here in Dublin. Little Miss Whats-For-Lunch said "don't forget your map, Jules!" 

Some pictures that I was looking through before..

Our recent holiday at Queensland. (More pictures to come 'when'.. I mean, 'if'... we make it to Rome. After Rome, we'll make our way to Venice, Prague and then Berlin)

My close friends. I miss them. It would be absolutely amazing if they were all here in Europe and we can do weekends in Paris or London together. 

And of course, my little puppy. He looks funny here. I don't like it when I can't see his eyes. I love looking at his eyes. But Grumpy prefers it when his hair covers his eyes. 

THREE MORE DAYS!!! AHHHHHH

Weekend in Deutschland

Geez I swear, living by myself, I do anything I want, whenever, whatever… 

In an odd way, I must admit it is quite liberating. Minus all the frozen meals. Hahaha 

Things have been going well here in Dublin.

I sleep better.

I go running around the canal.

I drink Guinness with blackcurrant.

And, I went to Germany last weekend.

Germany was amazing. I had such a fantastic time.  I loved it so much, I hope to go back again.

It wasn’t a direct flight to Dusseldorf. I had a stopover in London. Cheaper that way.

Little Miss Gypsy picked me up from the airport. Walking towards her car, I was waiting for her to open the door, she says to me “You wanna drive or what?”

“No, are you crazy!” And then I realised it was left-hand drive! Derrr.. hehehe It felt very weird. Even when on the road, the lanes are the other way round. It took a while to get used to. I felt I was travelling against the ‘normal’ direction of travel and that we were about to hit on-coming cars.

We travelled on the autobahn. It is brilliant! The cars go so fast! Grumpy and I will be making our way to Berlin next month. Another German friend has been kind enough to map me the routes so that Grumpy can go ‘his’ way on the ‘highway’.

Dusseldorf was a nice city. It had a two parts to it, a modern part, and the Old city. Very upmarket. Shopping in Dusseldorf is so much better than in Dublin. Best part of it was the fact it was SOO dog friendly. Seriously, you can take your dog with you inside the shopping centres, in the boutiques, in the airport.

I stayed in Little Miss Gypsy’s home, which was located in Wuppertal. About a 20 minute train ride from Dusseldorf. She lives in a very cosy apartment. Felt very much at home.

We travelled on the Schwebebahn. Something very special to Wuppertal. 

We drank beer, exchanged stories, we even went for a walk with Little Miss Gypsy’s best friend and her dog to the forest in the pouring rain. It was lots of fun!

I guess this trip was really good, because I was with a friend, who was a local, and we went places where the locals would go.  It was also my first taste of non-English speaking Europe. I learnt a lot about Germany during my short trip, picked up a few words… and I am even more curious about Germany now. When I was living in Melb, Germany didn’t appeal much to me. But now that I’ve experienced Germany, I really like it there.  

(More pics in Facebook)

Chips or Rice

Things are going rather well, I must say. I mean, things could be a lot worse.. but they are not. Which I should be grateful for.

I'm here for work... work sent me here.. work paid a lot of money for me to come here.. so of course, in return, I get a lot of 'work'.. and occasionally feel like I'm struggling. I must say, everyone in the office is nice and friendly. I have made some friends, but no one particularly close enough whereby I can hang out with outside of work on the weekends.

Work has mentioned they would love if I could stay here longer. 

On the weekdays, I'll tell Grumpy.. "yea, I could go back for Christmas, and come back to Dublin for another 6 months.." 

And then comes the lonely weekends, I'm all teary-eyed telling Grumpy "I want to go back home now!!!! I don't want to be here!!!! I want to be back in Melbourne!!!!" 

I walk to work each day. Each morning I walk past a church. And this guy brings his Westie out on the church lawns every morning. Its an absolutely perfect way to start my day. Always puts a smile on my face.. 

Today on my way home, I decide to try this Chinese/Thai takeaway place. I look at the menu. The usual.. green curry, red curry, sweet and sour pork, lemon chicken, fried rice. I decide on Chicken with Thai Sauce. The Chinese guy says to me "You want with chips?Or rice?"

Oh gawd. Take me home.