Thursday, January 19, 2006

Since we've been back





Since we've been back in Dublin......

(Luke)

We arrived in Dublin at 10:40am (Irish time) to plus 8C weather, an empty fridge and a dead city. It was Sunday, so everyone was still hung-over at home or church from the New Years celebrations. The streets were empty. Ninety percent of the stores were closed but we managed to find a SPAR, which is like a grocery store inside a 7/11.

The travel was much better on the way back. It seemed shorter and less tiring (Mind you, we didn't really sleep again). Personally, I prefer to gain hours then lose them, and our connections weren't as long either. We actually had to run to the gate in Montreal and Heathrow and we made the flight at Heathrow just in time. I personally want to thank Air Canada Jazz for having propeller planes - ya that was fun. I almost shit my pants. I didn't want to get on the damn plane! Well, at least they don't fly that high. But still, it is pretty freaky.

Well it was pretty weird being back, kind of surreal. But very nice at the same time. Nothing better to do then spend holidays with family and friends. We definitely miss our families, and friends.

(Jess)

Since we've been back we've gotten right back into the work routine (yuck). We had Sarah and Tom over for dinner and martini's last Saturday. It was deadly, as it usually is with those two. We intended to keep the evening fairly quiet as Tom had to work at 11 on Sunday morning so we ate, sipped some martini's (They were awful. At one point I even mixed the chocolate with the fruit stuff.... horrible). From there we decided to go to Pearse Pub down the street for ONE pint. Well, bingo was happening so of course Sarah and I had to join in. We had no idea what we were doing (the martini's weren't helping us) so we enlisted the bingo ladies to help us figure out the rules. The rule was that you had to get a row of numbers - and I DID! I looked up at Sarah, Luke and Tom and whispered 'I've got a row!'. They all looked at me, looked at my card and looked at me again. 'Call out check!' they all shouted. I wasn't sure (the last time I played BINGO was in Canada, years ago, and when I yelled BINGO thinking I had won I was hissed at by the old ladies as I hadn't won at all) if I had the guts to call out but the pressure from the gang was killing me so I broke down and screamed 'CHECK!!!' in my obviously foreign accent. Every turned to look at me. I was greeted with 'Go to the back and let 'em have a look' and 'Go, Go' from the people surrounding me. So I did. I made my way through the crowded pub (it was PACKED) to the back room where the SERIOUS bingo players were and I handed the woman my card. She looked at it, looked at me, looked at it again and said..... 'No'. I said 'What do you mean no? Here's the row I got'. She then said 'You still need 3 more numbers. You're playing for the entire box'. (Keep in mind that she was holding the microphone during this, therefore everyone in the place knew exactly what was going on). Boos could be heard throughout the pub. 'Boo!' they shouted. 'Boo!' they heckled. It was humiliating. I sloapologized around, apologised to crazy ladies there in the back room and made my way back through to the front of the pub. The 'Boo's!' kept coming until I finally got to my seat and looked at Luke. He hugged me. It was alright.... after all, this wasn't the first time this had ever happened to me. The game was over and Sarah and I had both lost our €4.50. We drowned our sorrows with a few more pints care of the lovely couple that sat next to us. The gang be-friended an Irish couple in the bar that proceeded to buy the 4 of us round after round after round. I made friends all over the bar as anytime anyone heard me speak they knew that I was the 'American' that called out 'CHECK'. Before we knew it we were being told to leave because the pub was closing. So much for taking it easy.

Since the weekend Luke and I have been living the healthy life. Hadn't had anything to drink, haven't had any junk. We've been eating fish and chicken and veggies and good, wholesome, yummy stuff. We've also managed to (finally) find a gym close to us that is reasonably priced so we will be signing up together on Saturday, which I am really looking forward to. I'll tell you how that goes.

Oh. I have been promoted. Next week I'm training the new PA and I'm moving up in the world. I'm taking over my friend Brian's position as the Personal Lines Account Executive (Or something like that. no one here actually knows their job title). In 3 weeks I'll officially be a few steps up from where I am now and I can't bloody wait. I'll be off at 5pm instead of 5:30. I won't have to be the boss' bitch anymore and I'll be able to just do my own thing and learn something new. I'm quite looking forward to it. And the raise that comes with it.

Well, that brings us up to now. It's Thursday January 12th and we're looking forward to the weekend.

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