The silent Blog…

Well it has been several months without an update and the reason is tthat I have had really nothing to write about…

The others left and came back and so I’ve been doing the standard walking around handing out my CV, Applying for jobs online and baically just being a hobo and not doing much…exept playing Ulti of course.

And that leads on nicely to my next little bit of writing which involves me actualy doing something out of the ordinary.

As stated earlier I have started playing for an ultimate club in Dublin, Johnny chimpo and the institute for higher learning, and have been training with them on saturdays. Last weekend was our first big tournament, the cork open, and as the team to beat I was a little nervous seeing as I han’t plaed in so long. Anyway headed down friday evening and got set up in the hostel. Met up with some of the other chimps and as per usual with ulti players got on the chop a little bit…..

Needless to say Saturday morning was a bit of a rough start but was good to be playing competative ulti again. We had three games throughout the day in our pool and we won all of them. A lot of running and One massive layout that almost knocked me senseless as well as some d’s and scores, so all in all a great day.

The saturday night party is a massive Ulti tradition no matter where you go and this was no exception. The bar had been hired out and the theme was come dressed as your nationality. Now as chimpos we decided to form our own nationality with flags and diplomatic immunity cards and everything. It was awesome. But better yet because it was out captains Birthday we acted as his security detail and had ear pieces and suits with orange shirts (orange is the chimpo colour) and made sure he was “protected” the entire night. A few drinks later and everything was well into the swing of things…

Sunday morning as an even slower start than satuday but we manaed to pull through out quarter final and then dominated in the semi so were back into the swing of things come final time. We ended up against broccoli (rival dublin club) and although was a really tough game came out on top. So winning all our games glad to say looks like it could be a cracker time playing ulti over here….

 

This of course all depends on the job situation which is getting tighter and tighter… But have a few iterviews.. In marketing of all things so we’ll just have to see what happens. Hopefully i’ll get some work soon to get some cash so I can have adventures and possibly not take 2 months to update the blog ahaha

Peace out

Catch 22

Ok i’m agrivated…. well ok more than a little aggrivated.. So i’m going to put this down in point form.

1. I am legally allowed to ride in Ireland for 12 months on my NZ licence

2. Insurance on all vehicles is compulsary in Ireland.

3. I CANNOT get insurance for a bike on an irish licence.

4. I CANNOT swap my NZ licence for an Irish one but you can swap an Australian, UK etc etc etc one

5. I CAN swap my NZ licence for a UK one which I can obviuosly swap for an Irish one.

 Is this not RIDICULOUSNESSNESSNESS in it’s purist form..

So I’m sussing a plan at the moment but it’s just going to cost money and take up a lot of time.

PLUS I had to turn down a job because I can’t get there unless I have my own transport…grrrr

Oh and the Ulti tournament this weekend is going to take about 11/2 hours+ to get there on busses walking etc but would be like 15 mins on a bike….GRRRRRRRRRRR

Ulti is looking up

Well about a 20 minute bus ride and a 30 minute walk now gets me to Ulti. And I have made a few successful runs now so looks like i’ve broken the curse.

And on top of that managed to get involved in a savage sevens tournament this weekend. Which basically means you only have 7 on a team and no subs.. gonna be absolutely stuffed come sunda where I’m meant to be playing as well hahahaha

Definately going to be an ulti fulled yet very painfull weekend

Ultimate vs the Universe

Right so after my previous experience with how hard it’s been to get to a game of Ulti for Sunday Pickup I made sure I knew my route planned it all out and even left early…

I shoud have known that something was amiss when my bus was about 15 minutes later than is should be. Get on the us and think sheeesh thats wierd it seems to be rocking back and fourth when we stop and cutting out and beeping. 10 minutes later right in the middeofabusy intersection the bus finally gav upand stopped. The driver manged to get her going and pull through and then pull over, but we all had to get off and wait another 20 minutes for the next bus. Lets just say I ran the 25odd minute walk to the field, and was only 5 mins late. It’s only pickup so in no way a big deal but i’m not to sure if it’s ultimate, the park or just busses in general that are the problem…..

The mighty search

Well last week Wednesday the other intrepid travellers started their journey around Ireland. While on my lonesome I managed to get one or two things done. Firstly got a bank account finally, which was in itself a bit of a chore. Secondly I have been trying to get into some local sport and managed to find a localish (or so I thought) Ultimate frisbee game… for those of you who don’t know what it is.. ask someone who does.

Anywho, finding out that their was a game on the thursday at the Dublin University I decided to look i up and see how far it was… not realising how deceptive google maps can be I thought hell close enough i’ll just walk. The local “big” shopping mall is on the way so thought i’d just stop in there on my way and pick up a cell phone. Leaving my place at 5 with the ulti starting at 7 I’m thinking I have plenty of time. So boost over to the shops only to find that they are sold out of the cheap cell phones. Which is ,although a bit annoying, quite ok. Looking at the clock it’s 5:45 over an hour to go, excellent i’ll be a bit early and so can try and warm up a bit and see how the body handles 2 years without sport. So off I set. An hour later I have been walking pretty fast, talked to 3 Irish and 1 polish person who didn’t know the area in which they lived. Started jogging and although huge and apparently hard to miss several helpfull people later I arrived pretty shagged from jogging for the last half hour but only 15 minutes late. The Uni is HUUUUUUGE… did i mention that? Anyway after running around for another 30 minutes it’s now 7:45 and i’ve been walking/jogging/running for the last 2 hours 45 mins. I ask at the sports building (which I finally found) and they tell me it’s sometimes not on and i’d passed over the field its usually on but not to worry there is definitely a game on sunday and here are the directions to the park on the other side of Dublin where it’s played. Managed to find a bus half the way back so exhaused even without playing I got home about 9:30..

You’d think the fiasco ends there…. roll around sunday.

Sunday morning and nothing local is open. Need to buy some cletes so head to the shopping mall to get some only to find they only open at 12 and the game is at three… No need to worry though because i had all the bus routes mapped out and so had plenty of time. Pick up some boots and a cell phone and jump on a bis at 1:30 knowing I had plenty of time….. Bus into town was all good and smooth sailing. Bus out of town… Well I had no idea where I was going so asked the driver to let me know when my stop was. The bus was absolutely packed but he said sure no problem. Over an hour later in very jammed conditions (he turned people away cause the bus was so full) we get to some carnival by the sea and I says so are we near yet. His reply was sorry mate forgot about you, you should have gotten off about 40 minutes ago. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH needless to say I was not impressed. So 40 minutes later I get off the bus this time at the right stop and so at 4pm only 1 hour late and 2and 1/2 hours on a bus later I finally got my game of ultimate….

Got another game tomorrow night I wonder what else can happen..

So what now??

Well its all up in the air at the moment.

The other two are going adventuring a bit more in a couple weeks to france and italy and such but i’ll probably stickaround here. Will be looking for a proper job but I am unsure how long i’ll last before I have to find something, if not just to do something….. but we’ll see.

London

What a week. Absolutely cram packed with stuff to do but it all started with a very very very long day of travel…

Flying into Stansted we caught a bus into London and then another bus over to Oxford where we were spending two nights with the girlies family friends. Oxford…. what can I say. We engaged in a walking tour and 2 hours later I was absoluely inthralled by the place. If I get the opportunity (and the finances) I really would love to go do some post grad stuff over there. I just think it would be absolutely fantastic. Although very very small it just has that vibe about it and I loved every minute of being there. But we set off to London to stay in our “hotel” out in essex…. They had messed upthe first night so had to sleep in this other room which i still have the spring marks from. But I must say our proper room was quite awesome with a double bed each even if we had to share one bathroom with 5 other rooms hahaha.

Friday was great. Went and spent some looking around the british museum before we went and saw the west end show Spamalot. Which is basically the broadway adapted version of monty python and the holy grail, with a few script changes to keep you on your toes…. Hillariously funny stuff.

Then on saturday even thought there was persistant rain we did an indepth look at the tower of london doig the free tour as well as some self exploration. Gabbing some food and a quick look in the arts museum and we headed to the shakespeare globe theatre. We saw agreat show of King Lear and I really really enjoyed it even with the 3 hours standing and pouring rain. But it was great.

Sunday rolled around and while the others set out to do some stuff I headed over to spend a really awesome day with my cousin. Although while trying to book a ticked to aus the travel agent we spoke to didn’t even know where the Sydney airport was….. A complete muppet!!

Monday saw us braving the crowds for the changing of the gaurd. Which after experiencing the whole thing was for me anyway a complete waste of time. Sure you have to do it to sa you’ve seen it but I got tenfold more enjoyment watching the police on horseback doing crowd control, which was actually pretty cool.

After that and a few other places I headed back to the “hotel” to get some rest before heading back to Dubbers.

 

So the trip to London was highly successfull and I did more than 3 times as much stuff that what I did last year. I enjoyed the visit but after a wek I know that although good for a holiday London is not the place for me.

Dubbers

Short post.

Had a week and a bit before heading to London.

Cleaned a lot more.

Ordered and bought appliances.

cringed at amount of money I have left

Got house into a very acceptable living space (except for the wierd leaks that are springing up)

And started getting ready for London.

Operation Galway

With the festival happening in the Town we were going to call home we thought it rude not to go check it out. So Left sunday morning on a bus westbound. Got all checked in and headed to this free night parade we had heard of. Here I was thinking it wasn’t going to be that big. Boy wasI wrong. With huge Floats and people all dressed up in heaps of costumes it was wicked!!! I was suitably impressed and was a great way to start our four days in Galway.

We had only one show booked for the last day so decided to see what else the festival could offer. Most of the shows were unfortunately booked out. But we did find a lunchtime comedy show which showcased some local talent and were suitably intertained by the street performers. But to soon wednesday came around and after spending the day paroosing the streets we heading to our main event. It wwas a “whose line is it anyway” show and was well worth the money. One of the best laughs i’ve have in a long time. But all to soon it was over and time to head back to Dubbers…

 

So what was my impression of the place we were going to stay. Well to be hnest it is small…. very small. We had to walk from one end of town thinking it wouldn’t take ages…. and 15 mins later we were there sorta thing. It’s a lot cheaper than Dublin and I could definately see myself living there for a bit but at the moment Dublin is pretty good, but who knows where i’ll end up in the future.

The big move

This isgoing back a month or so but here goes…

So after my last post about Dublin we have done some scything and got the garden somewhat reasonable and had started a decent go on the house….

Thus came tuesday and we decided to spend our first night in the caravan and, having no bathroom deal with the no shower for one day… so much scrubbing was done that first day. Then on the wednesday we started cracking and except for the bathrooms we basically had the upstairs bedrooms done. Getting pretty late in the day we decided to spend a second night in the caravan. A few beers later me and tim decided to attack the bathroom. Unfortunately just as we started…. the first wipe of the wall in fact…. and the tiles began to fall. So after an intense discussion we left the wall to sleep on a possible suggestion. Morning came and we had a basic idea.. to take off the loosest of the tiles and leave the rest. Not to many we thought but alas it was a bit more than we bargained for. About have the tiles later, a whole days work and enough chemicals used to sanitize a sewerage plant we took our now 3 days without shower and bad sleep pretty mongrul selves back to the other house for some much needed rest and a definitely needed shower.

Friday rolled around and we came to the decision with rooms a bathroom and a caravan at our disposal we might as well just move in. So we did.

So with a vaguely livable abode we headed to Galway..