Movin' On

The apartment is completely empty. It's the cleanest it has been in two years. It looks quite lovely actually.
In approximately 1 hour we will no longer be tenants there. Jamie and I are going home to our respective families to spend some quality time.
In 7 days time we will be leaving on that jet plane. I'm quite excited, with a little ball of butterflies in my belly.

The next time I blog I will probably be in Sydney............ :-)

Arachnaphobia

So it turns out I'm terrified of spiders, and yes in the big sissy girly way of screaming and running around in circles trying to shake said spider from one's self.

We're moving out on Sunday and I took to cleaning the kitchen today. Everything was going fine til this massive (about 1 inch long) black spider drops on my arm, and so followed the screaming and running in circles. Anyway, a panic stricken phone call was made to Jamie from the living room (where I took refuge, spiders are usually found in kitchens and bathrooms, logic dictated I would be safe in the living room). I demanded Jamie return home from work and check for other spiders. Obviously the heartless cretin refused, so after a few moments of psyching myself up - Jamie said the spider was probably more scared than I was - I returned to the kitchen to continue the big clean.

About 30 minutes later the spider returned. Now, I don't think it's the same spider but Jamie does. My theory is, there is a whole family and of course as I probably killed the last one, this one is here to seek vengeance. Everything was going fine, cos he was on the ceiling and I could keep an eye on him while cleaning. Then he decided to walk down the wall behind the door, I lost track of him and left the room (I wasn't sreaming....but there were minor squeaks).

Of course I rang Jamie again but to no avail. I am in the internet cafe. Yes, I am hiding. I have no idea where the big bastard spider is but he's in my kitchen and I can't go in there anymore. A little melodramatic but if he's out for revenge I'm not hanging about. If you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know that him and his family have won!

Man Chocoloate

Was feelig peckish a little earlier, decided to go for a coffee, was considering what goes nice with a coffee - raisin & biscuit Yorkie, of course. So I went to get a coffee and a Yorkie for me and my colleague. On the way to the shop I was thinking about Yorkie's new advertising campaign - you know the "It's Not For Girls!" ads. I find them funny, especially the one where the girl goes into the shop with a fake beard and a hard hat on, she puts on a deep voice and asks for a Yorkie. I was picturing me in a fake beard, hard hat and putting on a deep voice....
Anyway out of curiousity I searched the web on this one and would you believe there are a whole host of silly women who want to boycott Nestle for this advertising campaign. Jesus - get a life, or one between ye!!!!
I enjoyed my forbidden man chocolate - thank you very much!

LOTR

I have to confess that for the third time Lord Of The Rings has been shelved. After making 100 page progress while convalescing after my tonsillectomy (I didn't read every day, I picked the thing up about 3 times in total and I have a reading age of about 9. So if it seems I'm making no more progress than an asthmatic ant with heavy shopping don't mock me!) I stopped readig it again.
The only reading I've done is that New Zealand book and even then I haven't paid very close attention to that. I'll try LOTR again at the end of the year - honest!

Leavin'

So the John Denver song about leaving on a jet plane has been going round in my head for the last few days. At random moments; sitting at my desk, walking around the office, or indeed in the middle of the street while walking to or from work I will burst into impromptu and unrequested serenade of those around me with the only 3 lines of the John Denver song about flying that I know:

I'm leavin' on a jet plane,
Don't know when I'll be back again,
Oh god I do do do do do
So I'm leavin' on a jet plane...

and so on. Suffice to say that soon I am indeed leaving on a jet plane (the trip to Australia) and I am excited like a 5 year old chewing a worm.

Tomorrow is my last day at work. I'm going through my files at the moment wondering how in just over a year here I have collected the largest amount of crap you have ever seen.
We'll be moving out of the apartment, and therefore out of Dublin at the end of next week. Recently I had become to dislike Dublin greatly. I've lived here for 4 years since graduating and I was thinking it was time for a change of scenery. Although now as time draws closer I am feeling a little emotional. I think I'll miss the people I know here more than anything else.

Last night I met a bunch of friends for a farewell dinner and tonight my group at work are taking me out for a little farewell dinner. I'm looking forward to that. They're a good bunch and we should have a laugh. then tomorrow evening I will proceed to get LASHED in the local pub.
It's all the goodbyes and farewells that will be tough (I'm a highly strung and emotional person, I will cry at the drop of hat). But I don't think it's really goodbye (yes I'm about to get corny), cos I'll be back in four months and I gonna be buggin gall my friends for a place to stay ;-)

The packing has begun in earnest...

...and I'm realising how totally insane I am about the most stupid things.
The Trip to Oz/NZ is not far away now - three weeks today, exactly, we will be taking off - and we have to pack up the apartment, pack the rucksasks out of which we will live for the next four months and also enusre we get to have drinks/dinner with friends by way of goodbye. I'm finding the whole thing quite stressful; that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Anyway, Jamie was helping me pack away ornaments and candle holders yesterday. My plan was to get them all in the same box, and label it sensibly so that it would on return be easy to find all ornaments and candle holders. For his own weird reasons Jamie decided not to do this. Without going into great detail, lets just say I LOST IT!!! Completely. I mean, you know the way Monica in Friends is weird, she hasn't got a patch on me... if we hadn't already packed it all away, I would have thrown something at him.

The weird things is, when I go loopy like this, there is a tiny miniature me inside my head telling how stupid I'm ebing, but the rest of me just can't believe the total disorder and chaos Jamie just brought to the packing.

Kudos, of course, to Jamie here:
1. for keeping his head
2. for not caving in - said box is now in a corner, exactly as Jamie packed it, and hidden away from me in case my neuroses get the better of me and I am tempted to re-pack the thing.

Anyway the general moral of this story is, that at this difficult time, you all need to throw your support behind Jamie, cos God knows he's gonna need it. Thanks!

Tesco tests spy chip technology

OK, so this story is a little old but I only just found it and I am shocked and outraged. If Gillette will spy on us.. what is there left to believe in.

But seriously, Gillette are putting radio tags in their products which not only tracks the product but takes a picture of the consumer. What will the picture tell them, that the people who buy their products are men with beards. Oh big surprise! I will never understand this use of techology.

Anyway in case anyone feels strongly enough about it there's even a petition to stop Gillette doing this: http://www.boycottgillette.org/

I'm Back

Yes I survived the tonsillectomy. The worst bit was being in there the day before and seeing other poeple come back from operations. That just made me more nervous. The best bit was the anesthetic and post-op pain killers.

I didn't imagine that I would be so giddy on the anesthetic. I think I provided the staff with plenty of amusement - if not, I was amused when I remembered suggesting to the doctors "Hey! you guys should try this, it's excellent", in a rather drunken giddy voice.

The first week after the op was very painful and eating was very difficult. I had a banana for breakfast one morning; it took me a half an hour to eat it and then I went to bed for a rest.

I'm all better now, although yawning still hurts like hell.

Thanks to everyone who visited me, brought me goodies and sent their wishes.

Love ya'all.