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.  

just run jules!

They've given me my clothes for tag rugby tonight!

I have a white polo tee - with the company logo on the front, and number 7 at the back.

and short shorts - with velcro at the side for the tags.

 

Apparently i'm competing tonight! with other companies!! representing the company! oh gawd I will SOO disappoint the team!

 

Everyone said I should try it.. I've never heard of tag rugby so I thought it might be interesting.

 

I wonder if its too late to back out now?

 

Everyone goes to me "its like rugby.. you know rugby rite?"

me "err nope.."

 

Then they go "hmmm..."

*pause*

"just run, jules"

two weeks

It has been nearly two weeks already! I can’t believe I’m really here in Dublin.

After Abu Dhabi, I flew to Dublin. It was an 8 hour flight. Again, I slept thru about more than 5-6 hours straight. So far, my experience with Etihad has been a positive one.

This is how the premium lounge looks. Very comfortable, Etihad staff were very friendly.

 

This is all I need to stay alive – fruit, Arab Perrier, Filofax, mobile phone, Mac book pro and MSN! 

Abu Dhabi airport. Very small airport, shaped like a dome.

Arrived Dublin, checked in to hotel. Ended up staying 4 nights in the hotel. Every morning I go down to the restaurant for breakfast, and by day 2, I was sick of bacon, eggs and baked beans.

Took 3 lousy pictures of the city! Dublin is actually a very small and expensive city.

There are hardly any tall skyscrapers here. The government puts restrictions on tall buildings, rather, preserving the historic buildings. Hypermarkets are a big NO NO. Everyone tells me “you should check out that shop, its hugeeee!” and then I get there, and I go “WHAT?! This is tiny!!!” A guy at work talks about this massive building, saying I couldn’t miss it. He said it has 15 floors!! FIFTEEN floors!!! I’m like “oh okay… wait til you see our government housing commission flats in Melbourne!”

I guess one way of putting it is that good things come in small packages. 

I must admit, I am still a little bit jetlagged, but I wouldn’t say it was too bad. I am fine during the day, but for about more than a week, I wake up at 3am each morning, and have trouble getting back to sleep.  Its getting slightly better now, this morning, I woke up at about 5am, but I was able to go back to bed for another hour.  Summer here – the sun rises at approx 4.30am, and sets only at 10pm.

Work has organised a nice and modern furnished one bedroom apartment for me.  It is about 15 minutes walk to work, but after experiencing extremely bad weather on the weekend, I now take the train to work. There is a train station in front of my apartment (hence, the noise), and in just 2 stops, I’m at work. Train station is next to the office.  Apparently, I live in a posh area in Dublin. I’ve seen more ‘posh’ in Melbourne, but lets not get me started. My apartment is also next to the Google offices. The next time I want to google something, I’ll just step out on the balcony and yell out my question. 

Here are pics of the apartment.

 

Views from my balcony.

 

This is the Google office.

Last weekend was awful. I was all alone. Homesick, and missing Grumpy more than anything!! Think Alicia Keyes.. “Some ppl want diamonds rings, some just want everything.. but everything means nothing, if I ain’t got you…” Doesn’t help with the time difference! We struggle just trying to have a chat with each other. I count down the days each day, before we meet again!

Hopefully this weekend will be better. I’ve bought a day tour ticket to Galway for this Saturday.  Haha, decided I had to visit Galway after watching PS I Love You.  I’ve also signed up for tag rugby, playing for the company. What is tag rugby? No idea, I’ll find out tomorrow!

transit in Abu Dhabi

I must admit, I was not the happiest camper when I got my flight itinerary on Wednesday. Thats right, I fly off on Friday, but got it only on Wednesday. I was to fly from Melbourne to Sydney - Abu Dhabi - Dublin. On Etihad airlines. First thing I did was message my mother, "MUM! Where the hell is Abu Dhabi? And what the hell is Etihad airlines?!"

I googled Abu Dhabi, googled Etihad airlines... and the worst part, transit in Abu Dhabi for 14 hours. No hotel to put up in, only lounge facilities. 

Anyways, as the world has much more important things to worry about such as poverty, war, world economy and politics, I decided that I was just going to stop being a drama queen and be thankful of this opportunity.

Packed all my stuff... the dog has not been too happy looking at the suitcases, etc. 

Thursday was my last day at the circus. I was hoping to leave early, to resume to packing, but did you think they'd let me leave early? NO! Got an outlook appointment for my farewell presentation, 4.30pm! What the?! Whatever. Despite all that, I was very overwhelmed and touched by the well wishes I got from lots of friends.. friends from the company I used to work in, and friends from the circus, etc. I will miss them all. Someone wrote on my farewell card 'have fun in iraq'! (because I could not shut up about my transit in the Middle East)

Friday, on the way to the airport, mobile wouldn't stop ringing... hehe more of my lovely friends called to say goodbye. They are so sweet. 

I check in with Virginblue. I'm flew domestic to Sydney first. Good thing is that I can spend more time with Grumpy, as he can sit next to me til the minute I actually board the plane. Told my friends it felt very weird sitting in the Virginblue waiting area. Only because the whole 'going overseas' thing didn't quite sink in yet, and I felt more like I was going to Sydney for the weekend. I was quite emotional, but it wasn't as bad as what I was expecting. Grumpy was perfectly fine. He was looking forward to Europe!

Got to Sydney OK. Waited in the Qantas lounge, free food, free Internet. It was OK.

Took the next flight to Abu Dhabi. It was a 15 hour flight. I slept more than 12 hours straight through.... I guess I must've been very tired. Etihad's business class seats are quite impressive. There are little walls next to our seats, so it gives us all our privacy we need. And the seats recline to a bed. There I was sleeping like a princess, with my legs stretched out. Didn't even eat much, no appetite. Did not even finish the movie I started watching, Fools Gold, or something that like. Matthew McConaughey, hot hot hot. 

And now I'm at Abu Dhabi airport. Read a bit about Abu Dhabi on the plane. Its not THAT bad, close to Dubai, and of course, a lot of rich arabs, expensive cars, fancy buildings, etc. I've got another 8-9 hours before my next flight to Dublin. The Etihad premium lounge is good. There is free wireless internet, so I can go online on my new Mac book pro. Didn't get that at the Qantas lounge in Sydney. Food is OK, had 2 bowls of spaghetti, and saffron rice. There are also spa facilities here. I was very quick to book in for a neck and shoulder massage. Very very nice. Relaxing. 

Then after that, I took a nice and warm shower.

I also went out for a walk around Abu Dhabi airport. Its not a big airport. Some people are sleeping on the floor. I wanted to take more pictures, pictures of the people, etc. But I am very conscious of the arab culture, and worried some people make find it offensive. Esp the men in white gowns with white fabrics around their heads. I went looking for a fridge magnet. An Abu Dhabi fridge magnet. Couldn't find a nice one. I collect fridge magnets. I hope to collect lots more once I get to Europe. 

Work has not found the right accommodation for me yet. Therefore I'll be staying for 2 nights at a hotel in Dublin. Damn, was hoping to settle in to my place.. but again, I remind myself that the world has much more important things to deal with.

Will write more once I get to Dublin. 

big sook

As time draws closer to my departure date, I have mixed emotions about leaving.
I am so excited yet the whole thing terrifies me at the same time.

One minute, I just can't wait to touch down in Dublin. Exploring Europe... going to London... going to Paris!! PARIS OH MI GAWD.... going to Rome, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Venice, Prague, Nice, whatever... endless. If I do get bored in Dublin town, I plan to go for French classes. Its about time I stopped saying 'Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir'!

The other minute, I just want to stay here, at my very safe home, with my very lovely Grumpy and my very loyal precious dog. Watching reruns of SATC and Girls of the Playboy mansion all day on Foxtel. Seriously, this is really what I have been doing all day. And it feels good.. to just laze around in my trackie-daks in front the TV.

I have been counting down the days. Today marks the end of my last weekend here. I am lucky it happened to be the long weekend. Last week I booked in for chiro, optometrist, manicure, pedicure, hair perm (which didn't turn out all that good, see pics below. Bugger!). I have also been catching up with friends, and Grumpy has been repeatedly asking me "What do YOU want to eat?"

On Saturday night, we all got quite happy and high. Haha it worries me sometimes when Grumpy keeps encouraging me.

Last night, we had Korean bbq with our close friends, Mr Happy and Little Miss Happy. They are such a lovely couple.


Then, we headed to Lygon's for coffee. Look at my hair, disaster.


Last day at the circus is Thursday. I fly off on Friday.

I will miss my two darlings...

Grumpy, I will reunite with him in about 7 weeks time. He will stopover in KL first, to get pissed and drunk, then continue his journey to meet his lovely better half, ME!

I will miss him the MOST!

Mummy, are you leaving me?

My little puppy..

You can bet that I'll be the biggest sook on Friday.