Back to the grind (sort of . . .)
I had my first day back at work today, but in typical Irish fashion, nothing was really in place. I had no computer, no security pass, no food card and my manager was away for the day. I ended up getting a tour around the parts of the brewery that I had never seen before (mostly the kegging, storage, international export and bulk liquid/fermentation areas), and went for tea 3 times (with different groups of people around the office), then met up with a few of the people that I had worked with on my last contract. I took off early and will hopefully have a workstation ready for tomorrow (I still won't have actual work to do until after I get training on the database system later in the week, but at least I should have access to Facebook and MSN . . .).
Latest "Must See" movies: The Lives of Others [Das Leben der Anderen] (Stasi surveillance of East Germany in the 1980s) and Goodbye Bafana (Nelson Mandela and South African Apartheid) .
I'm not sure if either are showing back at home, but they are definitely worth watching.
Saturday afternoon we (myself + flatmates) made our way out to Malahide for the 10th Annual International Festival of Piping and Drumming. I was definitely up for checking out Highland Games (I just wanted to watch the caber toss), but we had the added benefit of "knowing the band". One of our friends, Andrea (a fellow Canadian - from Nova Scotia), is a piper with St. Laurence O'Toole Pipe Band here in Dublin. They are the current World Champions and kept up their reputation by winning the Grade 1 competition that day. There were 48 bands that played throughout the day, as well as a Drum Major competition and Highland Games (stone throw/hammer toss/16lb+54lb weight toss/caber toss/haggis throwing). It looked like we were going to make it through the day without rain until they gathered all the bands together to play a final song - at that moment the clouds opened up and the rain/hail came down in sheets. The great part about living in this area is that it only ever lasts for 5-10 minutes before blowing through. Everyone had run for whatever cover they could find, then reassembled for their final song and began the parade after it had all cleared. Apparently the way these competitions always end is by having the bands march from the fields into the towns, breaking off in groups to settle in the pubs for the night.
Rather than try to get a pint in an overcrowded pub full of soaking wet pipers and drummers (along with their instruments), we opted to catch the train back to Dublin and grab nachos at the Aussie pub (The Woolshed Baa and Grill) at the end of our street. One beer with nachos turned into two, which led us to another pub, then another. 7 hours later we made it back to the flat, a little bit poorer but quite content. The same can't be said for Sunday morning, but it was nothing that a day on the couch watching downloaded episodes of The Wonder Years couldn't fix.
Pics from the weekend are up.
Latest "Must See" movies: The Lives of Others [Das Leben der Anderen] (Stasi surveillance of East Germany in the 1980s) and Goodbye Bafana (Nelson Mandela and South African Apartheid) .
I'm not sure if either are showing back at home, but they are definitely worth watching.
Saturday afternoon we (myself + flatmates) made our way out to Malahide for the 10th Annual International Festival of Piping and Drumming. I was definitely up for checking out Highland Games (I just wanted to watch the caber toss), but we had the added benefit of "knowing the band". One of our friends, Andrea (a fellow Canadian - from Nova Scotia), is a piper with St. Laurence O'Toole Pipe Band here in Dublin. They are the current World Champions and kept up their reputation by winning the Grade 1 competition that day. There were 48 bands that played throughout the day, as well as a Drum Major competition and Highland Games (stone throw/hammer toss/16lb+54lb weight toss/caber toss/haggis throwing). It looked like we were going to make it through the day without rain until they gathered all the bands together to play a final song - at that moment the clouds opened up and the rain/hail came down in sheets. The great part about living in this area is that it only ever lasts for 5-10 minutes before blowing through. Everyone had run for whatever cover they could find, then reassembled for their final song and began the parade after it had all cleared. Apparently the way these competitions always end is by having the bands march from the fields into the towns, breaking off in groups to settle in the pubs for the night.
Rather than try to get a pint in an overcrowded pub full of soaking wet pipers and drummers (along with their instruments), we opted to catch the train back to Dublin and grab nachos at the Aussie pub (The Woolshed Baa and Grill) at the end of our street. One beer with nachos turned into two, which led us to another pub, then another. 7 hours later we made it back to the flat, a little bit poorer but quite content. The same can't be said for Sunday morning, but it was nothing that a day on the couch watching downloaded episodes of The Wonder Years couldn't fix.
Pics from the weekend are up.
posted by Trevor Schofield at 3:54 p.m.
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