Sunday, June 24, 2007

...still haven't found, what i'm looking for

so it's been a bit of a weird week for me. work is going along well. it's long hours, but this is the last week for that, i hope. it might be a six day week though. i expect to work around 55 hours in the coming week. gerry will be gone for the last few days of the week, so i'm going to have to do the usual shopping expedition to prepare for this. i need easy to prepare food sources that do not require thought to choose. when i get home from work, i am so brain-dead and tired, i just want to turn on the oven and have a meal magically appear. i'm gonna be in charge of lunches too, so i may just make a lasagna or something today and freeze them for lunches.

the word on the street was that we'd probably have to work yesterday too. luckily we got enough work done that that didn't happen. sadly, because my back was in bits, the date day gerry had planned for us had to be modified. we went to my favourite restaurant, cafe paradiso (veg gourmet) and had brilliant food and service. then we saw shrek the 3rd. and later we went out to the franciscan well, and met up with people for juan's going away party. on the way home, we stopped at the best chipper, lennox's, for chips and a veggie burger. YUM!

it was a lovely day. and in a couple of weeks, hopefully the ergonomics person will have visited, and i'll have my insoles for my shoes, and my back won't hurt anymore, so we can go do the original date plan: a petting farm!!! this means there will be baby sheep! yahooo!!! i can't wait to squish them!

in other news, i haven't seen the dude that i want to give the shoes to yet. i've been carrying around those shoes every time i go to town.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

burn on me

today, while in town, i saw a guy begging who didn't have any shoes on. since i was on my way into a store i decided to pick him up some. when i came out he was gone. i've seen him around before, so i guess i'll just have to try to make sure i always have the shoes with me when i go to town.

today today today

because i was sick, gerry banned me from doing the 5 hour drive to carrickmacross after a full day of work to go to the wedding. i stayed home this weekend, and despite wanting to go to a birthday party on friday as well as a going away party the same night, i couldn't. booo urns.

i was feeling heaps better by friday evening, but decided to hang out with sky+ and harry potter. i've now finished re-reading all the books and when the new one comes out next month, i'll be ready. i also got to talk to danielle and beg her to send more nyquil and deodorant.

yesterday sharon came over with some movies and dinner. *the ill appreciate these genstures* so we washed crash, and i enjoyed it. a lot. not the canadian one (well, i give that one two thumbs up too, but that's not the one she brought). anyway. it was a relaxing, quiet evening in. so today i feel about 85-90%. still snotty. still a bit of a cough, but generally not bad!

so i'm thinking of heading into town, enjoying some lunch items and maybe a bit of shopping. after working on the laundry situation here, and trying to fix my ursula bag. whoot.

nutter butter

last week was a bit of a nutter. we had gerry's friends from the band 'mike got spiked' staying here for a couple nights, had a barbeque monday, i started my new job, and i got sick. yeah, a nutter!

the barbeque went well, and the guests were nice. we had lots of food, lots of conversation, and since shant and elaine came over to entertain me and enjoy the food, i got to chat with my ladies too!

the band played in cork on tuesday night, but it was too late for gerry and me 1. i was sick at this point and 2. gerry has to get up at 6am for work, and i have to get up shortly after that. heard it was a good show, and they might head down again at the end of the month.

my new job is going well. it's moving a bit slower than my abilities, but everyone is so busy, and there isn't really enough of a focus on training because the big picture isn't being looked at. i've started working on my own, but the guy who's the sort of team lead for northern europe is soooo passive aggressive, that i think it's become an issue (in only one week). so i think if i need to talk to him. i will give some examples:

i wrote an email to a distributor and instead of the not-really-supervisor-but-sort-of-taking-a-lead-position-dude just saying: oh, you should change this, this and this to something else, he chose to say: oh. ehm. okay. no. that's...fine. so i was like, listen, you just have to tell me what you want changed, and i'll do it. more back and forth of this and eventually he said, oh, well, it's just i would have done it differently. so i'm like: just tell me. every one has a different method, and i won't know how you want me to do something unless you tell me. so he finally said: well, i would have not put 'Thanks!' i would have put 'Thanks,' so (this continues the not focusing on the big picture) i changed it and asked what else i should change. repeat the whole process again, add in: well, you've worked in the nordics before, you would probably know better than me, but i wouldn't put my name down again, because you already have it in your signature.

i couldn't resist, partially because i was so sick, and i couldn't believe he was picking at this, like, no wonder there is such a backlog! and i said, well, this is the email, that's the signature file. but he was having none of it.

*so annoying* anyway, if it happens again, i'm going to be even more direct and say that the best way to approach me is directly, and to simply tell me what should be different, and to not beat around the bush. and that, all of that being said, we should probably either have one standard created by him that we all use, or we should not focus on insignificants.

the good news?

•i think that once i don't need my work checked, so in another day or so, i won't even have to deal with these kind of things from him. i will be able to work more independantly. and if it's not working out, i will move to renewals, because they need people there too.
•everyone's really nice there, and i now sit across from sylvia. so, overall, things are good.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

application update

so, i've checked online, and our application has been received in london and is being processed.

yay!

Sunday, June 10, 2007

they keep pulling me in!

dear facebook,

well, it's official. i caved. i'm in, like sin.

here's my soul, please be gentle.

xo
ursula

make you sweat

gerry and i joined the gym at the oriel hotel in ballinhassig.

i'd been talking about it, because this working out at home business isn't really inspiring enough to get me to do it. the hotel is very near my new work, and not far from gerry's, so we took a look around yesterday and agreed to join.

there's a pool, hot tub, sauna and steam room, so we'll be able to visit those once in a while after sweating our butts off at the gym.

we're hoping to combine the gym stuff with going to kick-boxing once a week. and i'm hoping to get my butt back into my jeans.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

ah the beach!

it was supposed to be two days of rest, relaxation, and reconnecting. and it was. it was kind of busy relaxation, trying to get to chocolate body wraps between the gym and the beach. so here's a bit of a run-down.

day 1
we got there early and had a drink in reception, where i promptly cut and bruised my leg on the table.

our bags were brought up, and we relaxed for a minute and then hit the gym. then it was time to chillax in the pool and the relaxation room before our chocolate body wraps. then we went for a snack in the pub, and a walk on the beach. *relax relax relax* and had a devine dinner at the http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifgulfstream restaurant. followed by bed.

the next day was kinda the same. breakkie and relaxation, then a massage and tanning at the beach. followed by lunch and a workout then sitting on the patio enjoying the sun and a book. we found dinner in the town, which was much less of a success than the night before.

the last day we packed our bags and checked out after another breakfast with a view. we went to the local market in clonakilty and picked up bread, cookies, broccoli, potatoes, and strawberries.

and then continued the relaxation trend at home.

it was nice. very nice. when i suggested we make this kind of thing a tradition and do it every year, gerry suggested that we do it twice a year. how can a girl say no to that?

Friday, June 08, 2007

stick it to me

it's been a week since my last visit to the chiropractor. let me say, i was desperate for it today. apparently things will get better once my inserts arrive and i start wearing them.

i got some acupuncture today and some adjustments. now i feel completely knackered. i think healing takes a lot out of me.

i'll blog soon about our fabulous time at the beach. cause, really it was.

Monday, June 04, 2007

party like it's 1999

and by that i mean: like i'm the same age as i was in 1999.

saturday's going away party was great! a good time was had by all, and despite having my first hangover since before 1999, i was happy it went so well.

there was good turnout, and i even managed to get home okay. (gerry was in listowel, so i didn't have a designated driver.)

we went to tom barry's (our landlord). there's a nice outside garden but we managed to get a big table inside and held it for the evening.

so saturday was pretty much a write-off, luckily i still have some advil stash that ian brought over cause my headache was severe. after gerry brought elaine and me to lennox's for a veggie burger and chips, i think we felt better.

the hangover part i wouldn't mind skipping, and since there won't be another reason for people to buy me crazy amounts of drinks, i think i'll be able to. back to my 2 drink max.

Friday, June 01, 2007

it's here! it's here!

whoot! today was my last day at work. i have all next week off and we're going to the beach for a couple of days mid-week.

it was sad to leave today. i held it together fairly well, but at the end kinda cried. i've been hanging out with these people for the last 11 months and 5 days! actually i think that leaving kind of brought up some feelings of homesick and friends and moving on and all that stuff. it got me all verklempt. and i got a lovely present and card.

in other, and possibly more exciting news (HUGE SMILE!) we got our receipt today! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

this means, as the letter explains, i have qualified to sponsor gerry to go to canada and our application (which has been considered complete) will go on to london where we may or may not be called in for an interview. how excite!!! we can now track the application online and should have results in about 3 months depending on all kinds of things like getting there for an interview and so on.

so the first part is done. now we just have to be able to prove our relationship is genuine in front of an audience. i'll suggest they bring up some quality argument starters such as: pretend you're having a party at your house, who last cleaned the toilet, who gets grumpy when they try to stop eating chocolate, what quality programming on television do you share as a couple, who would come to bed with cold feet, hands and nose, and my personal favourite, have you ever tried to do a cleanse together. bring up any/all of those things, and we'll be able to prove we're a couple without a doubt. they probably wouldn't even bother to ask for emails or pictures!

my work going away party is tomorrow night, so i hope i didn't waste a staying up late tonight! i want to be able to stay up until at least 12 tomorrow!!! wish me luck!