Source of Terror as a Child

These guys were seriously scary. All they said was 'Yip, yip, yip...' faster and faster. Very traumatic for a four year old. Where was that 'Ma na na na' guy when you needed him?

My Little Sister and Brother Getting Their Hair Cut

My Fabulous Weekend

I love getting away for the weekend and leaving the city. I especially love going to visit friends and family. Since I had a job interview in London on Thursday afternoon I thought I'd turn it into a little mini break and decided to head down to the Cotswalds and visit my exceptional friend Andy and his family. The interview however was three hours long and despite my best efforts at running in five inch heels and hauling a suitcase, I managed to miss my coach by about two minutes. I think I yelled something rather profane which doesn't require typing here, but needless to say I was quite pissed off. Just over an hour later, after muddling through a sweaty central tube line to Paddington Station, I managed to buy a ticket for Cheltnam Spa and was sitting in a very comfortable seat on a train, rocking my way to Stroud.

At precisely 9:15 pm I stepped off the train in Stroud and was greated by a warm summer evening and an even warmer welcome from Andy. His mother Vera was kind enough to drive us to his house in Bisley where I spent the next two days. After getting up at 4:30 that morning to get ready for travel, I was incredibly tired but great conversation kept me up for a few more hours. I managed to sleep in until 10 the next morning and was met by Andy's good friend Martin who took me on a lovely walking tour of Stroud. It was sunny and warm and was the perfect way to spend a Friday. We eventually met up with Andy and visited the local museum in the park.

Andy and I had dinner with his parents and then met up with his amazing friends at the bowling alley where I managed to get a total of five strikes all night and tied for first with Andy. His friends were really funny and welcoming. We decided to make a night of it and headed into Cheltnam to go dancing. We ended up at The Prom club and danced and drank until 2ish and then crashed at Andy's friend Pierre's house. I was feeling really sluggish by the time I got on the bus heading back to London to catch my flight. It was a great break away with my exceptional friend.

I'm Lovin' It

Of course any visit with Meaghan wouldn't be complete without a compulsary trip to the local McDs. With the World Cup on, McDonalds has a campaign on promoting the "bigger Big Mac" or "Mega Mac". After teasing Chuck with the prospect of this grotesque form of fast food, we had to indulge. I don't know if the staff got confused or if no one had ordered the Mega Mac yet, but we were given the North American version of the Double Big Mac. Nothing too mega about it but the effects it had on my cholesterol level were huge!

Red Light Green Light

Because mockery is always popular, Chuck took this photo of my over-exaggerated pushing of the massive crosswalk button after our afternoon at two museums. Of course we didn't wait for the light to change and just jaywalked...

The Obliviator

Chuck and I spent Saturday afternoon visiting Christ Church Catherdral and St Patrick's Catherdral. Being as skint as I was, I sat outside on park benches while he toured inside. No way was I paying €5 to take photos of a church I'd already visited. Is that wrong? In fine tourist fashion, Chuck wanted me to help him document his trip with photos including signs of where we were. Although I sighed and hoped that the guy on the right would get the hint, he didn't exactly make any effort to move so I took the photo anyway. So here's Chuck, and some random guy, preserved together in photographic form for eternity.

The Dublin Experience

This is my favourite photo of Chuck. We're just outside Dublin Castle, getting ready to que up for the group tour. I'd already taken the tour back in November, but was interested in going again. However we didn't manage to sell the tour very well to a couple of young American females who couldn't be arsed to pay the €4.50 to go inside. Oh well. I learned that Earl Grey used to be a viceroy to Ireland and live in Dublin Castle, the presidents of Ireland are sworn in at the castle and that you don't have to be an Irish citizen to be president. I'm thinkin' if this new job doesn't work out takin' a crack at it.

The Chuck Factor

My good friend Chuck came for a week long visit earlier this month. He'd never been to Ireland before and despite my work schedule, I tried to steer him in the right direction and make sure he got the full Irish cultural experience. His first day consisted of going to the bookie and watching the England-Trinidad and Tobago World Cup game at Sinnotts Pub in Dublin. He's the one taking this photo but the two other people in it are my friend Sarah and her boyfriend Antony. I'm grinning my face off because I found out earlier about my job interview in London. Great things seemed to keep happening to me while Chuck was visiting so I started to refer to it as "the Chuck factor".

Big News!

My friend Hance sent around an email a few months back announcing his engagement, stating that contrary to popular belief, he actually was "the marrying kind". Well, in following with a Hance-esque sentiment, I'd like to announce that contrary to popular belief and years of frustration, I am "the full-time employment" kind and will be moving to London, England ASAP to start a full-time job in media!

This all came about after applying for many, many positions and finally being granted an interview in London last week. I flew over on Thursday afternoon in my smart little business suit and case, sat through three hours of questions and tests, only to emerge at 5:00 a little weary, but feeling confident. It wasn't until I got into work on Monday morning that I discovered that the company hadn't been able to get through on my cell phone but they wanted to offer my position. As you can imagine, I was exstatic and couldn't stop shaking for a few hours. Everything has been a whirlwind since. I've been packing like mad. I fly back to Canada next week and start my visa process. It's crazy how life twists and turns, but this is a wonderful twist and one I can't wait to dive head into!

Why I Couldn't Stop Laughing Yesterday Afternoon

What I Did On My Work Pub Crawl

Reasons to Stay in Bed

Sometimes I truly fear for my own safety, and not because of other people but because of what a space cadet I can be! After an exhausting weekend of hitting the town along with working at my second job, I went to bed last night just before 9:00. However I could not sleep. I'm usually an incredibly light sleeper in the first place and because my street is kinda loud, I can't open the windows otherwise I won't sleep at all. The problem is that it's been really hot and sunny recently in Dublin (I know, shocking!) and this has caused my room's temperature to soar to near tropical climes at night. Sweating and tossing and turning equal no sleep. I managed to catch a few hours interspersed with bizzare dreams which included; receiving a present in the mail from a friend only to discover he'd sent me a couple of mint condition Cabbage Patch Kids in their original boxes, I dreamt I was back teaching English in Japan only I was very vocal about how much I hated it but the kids were actually really sweet and good, to finding myself in a staff meeting with old coworkers, friends from a previous job in Ireland, Brian and Mikey from the current season of Big Brother. When my alarm went off at 6:10 this morning and I noticed the overcast skies, I immediately thought of not wearing the skirt I'd ironed the night before...the skirt? Oh S**T! I'd set out the iron on the ironing board last night, PLUGGED IN, and went to bed! It was still on and hot when I rushed to the kitchen. Honestly, God must have been watching out for a complete muppet like me for that thing to have not caught fire. I still feel sick when I think about it.

After getting myself sorted this morning, I rode the bus to O'Connell Street, caught the tram and tried to wake myself up for a long day of work. However, when I tried to get off the tram at my stop, people just wouldn't get out of the way so I just about fell over and then when I started to walk along the sidewalk, my heel got caught in a grate, causing me to propel forward and land my bare foot on the dirty concrete, whereby I had to hop on one foot while I tried to haul out my shoe. It's not even 9am and far too much has happened today. A coworker just reminded me that things happen in 3s so hopefully my day will continue fairly uneventfully. Hopefully. Knock on wood.

Irish Charm

I love the Irish charm, I honestly can't seem to get enough of it. Everyone just always seems to have a witty comment to toss out or at least a great comeback line. It's a gorgeous sunny day outside again and after sitting in the local park reading, I came back into my reception job only be be greeted by a client leaving the office. As he handed in his visitor pass he said, "I swear every time I come in this office the receptionists get better and better looking." Ah, gotta love that charm, even if it was a teeny bit fake!

Temping Part Deux

The second installment of my temping saga isn't nearly as tempestuous as my first chapter, however it was just as stressful for me.

I had a great placement which unfortunately had to end, however I had complete confidence in the agency that I'd be sent somewhere that would fit my background and interests. Ah well, it didn't quite work out that way. Sometimes temps get lost in the shuffle and I feel I ended up the victim of mistaken paperwork and ultimately was sent to the mortgage center of one of Ireland's leading banks. I know absolutely nothing about mortgages except that they're big loans that involve houses and the more of them you have, the worse it is for you. That being said, I arrived at the bank on one windy and very cold March morning. I walked in to the office only to be met with a distinctly strong call centre vibe. My back was immediately up. I have to admit, I'm a complete call centre snob. They're everywhere and although I'm sure it's great work, I just don't think I could ever work in one. I still have the opinion, coming from where I'm from in Canada, that they're for high school dropouts. I know not everyone that works there is like that but like I said, I can't help my long seated scorn.

My supervisor introduced me to the girl who would be training me, let's just call her G, and left us to it. I discovered that my job would be answering phone calls pertaining to mortgages. People would call in asking for advice on insurance, quotes and everything to do with these loans. I didn't know anything about any of these issues and there was no training for it! I had to sit next to G for hours, listening in on the other phone while she took calls. That was the extent of my training. I knew it was the wrong place for me but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. By Tuesday I called the agency to let them know I was in trouble and that I wanted to go somewhere else. They said they understood my concerns but felt that I needed to give the "training" a chance and to give it until the end of the week. Fine. I came in the next day and G asked me if I'd like to try answering the calls. Sure. I slid into her seat and answered a series of calls that were incredibly confusing and resulted in me throwing the receiver at the desk, shoving back my chair and exclaiming that I couldn't do it. G was really nice and let me call the agency. Despite having done this same routine with the previous crap position, they completely understood how I felt and I was gone by 4:00 that day. Because I stood my ground, I ended up with an even better temping job two days later, so in the end everything worked out.

I never thought I'd still be temping, over eight months after landing over here. It's quite difficult getting a work visa and no matter how much I've enjoyed working somewhere, it just hasn't seemed to work out for me...yet. That's it for the temping drama at the moment. The less drama the better, but who knows, I still have a few months left.

Temping Anecdote

It was suggested to me that I should start writing about working as a temp, funny stories, what goes wrong, you know the usual junk. I actually had to think long and hard about my past temp work since September and I've come to a total of seven jobs, two of which I backed out of because I didn't feel they were the right placement for me. Here's a little summary:

My first temp job was as a receptionist at an architectural firm. It was a great job, really nice co-receptionist, it was close to where I live and I thoroughly enjoyed working there. I had just moved into my new flat the day before and was trying to sort things out with my life so it was a nice foray into the ever so glamorous world of temping. The next job however, was not. It was to be a much longer job, one that could have lasted several weeks, possibly months, so I was excited at the prospect of settling in somwhere. Fortunately for me though, it wasn't quite the place I needed it to be and because of that, I called the agency and demanded to be placed somwhere else and ended up at my perfect job for about four months.

Here's what happened at the hell job. I was supposed to be working in an office at a school that dealt with the continuing education of it's students. I arrived on time, but was met with an empty office. I had to wait around for about 20 minutes before anyone even showed up. The girl who arrived was, to be completely honest, very spacey. She just didn't seem to be 'with it' if you know what I mean. She sat me down at a desk and said I'd have to wait until the boss, let's just call her O, showed up. When O finally arrived, she didn't have anything for me to do yet, so I offered to help her label the envelopes she was rushing to fill. She asked me to write the word confidential in the upper left hand corner, which I did in capital letters. After doing this to three envelopes, she saw what I was writing, grabbed them out of my hands and furiously ripped up them in front of my face while exclaiming I was doing it all wrong. I completely froze. This was the moment I knew staying at this office would be a big mistake. She then finished the job and I was pretty much left sitting on my hands as the spacey girl and other female employee exchanged knowing glances. O then explained to me that I'd be doing data entry involving incoming course forms. No prob. However, as I didn't have a computer account of my own, I'd have to use O's account. She then proceeded to explain to me that I wasn't to read any of her personal documents, emails and stick to data entry. Hmmh. Here's the thing; she was quite rude when preaching to me about the dos and don'ts of computer etiquette, and her tone, assuming that I was a complete moron, was insulting. I was shocked that she would just assume that I was that unprofessional and that I'd actually read her mail! I had already had serious doubts about this temping job so I just filed it away under THINGS TO TALK TO AGENCY ABOUT AT LUNCH and continued with my work. Turns out she then needed me to open forms sent to her email, which then prompted O to AGAIN remind me not to read any other email as I was in her account. This of course caused much more annoyance on my part. Ok lady, you're seriously starting to piss me off now, that's it!

Lunch rolled around and instead of following along with spacey and new girl, I lingered behind and hastily dialled the agency. I explained clearly and under no circumstances was I ever going back to that job. I tried to explain as best I could the way I being treated and told the woman on the phone that I was doing the agency a favour by finishing out the day. I was very angry. At the time I was 26 years old, new to a country, had an honours university degree, was intelligent, articulate and not in the mood to be treated so harshly or to sell myself short. I'd had enough.

After lunch O left for the day and I was left to open course forms sent into her email account and do more data entry. As I was going through the emails concerning the course forms, I noticed that there was one from my recruitment agency, subject: my name. Well, after being treated like a snooping, unprofessional criminal, I decided why not? I might as well open it. I read the email and it was just a suck up letter to O letting her know politely that I decided my placement wasn't right for me. Of couse I printed a copy for myself and then clicked on the email and selected Unread. Maybe O would find out, maybe not, but I wasn't going to allow some overweight, middle aged hag try to belittle me and accuse me of things I hadn't (yet) done.

So thus ends chapter one in my temping saga. Stay tuned for chapter two, when I was placed in the mortgage department of a bank. Ooooo scary!