The good news finally came at 3pm today – Benny got the job!!! The relief, the blessed relief, we’ve been grinning like idiots all day. He’s starting the week after me so not long to go. I just thought I’d pop in and tell you all before we head to the pub, our first night out in Sligo

I promise I’ll do my best with the photo’s tomorrow, should have brought the camera today up to Bundoran, we went for a walk on the beach and some pub grub, life is good…

28^th March approx 9pm

Wow, cool, this is my first time writing this in my new study. It feels very spacious and it’s weird not smoking while I’m writing this. Not bad weird, I’m really enjoying having a house that smells all yummy and plug-iny and candley (can’t have much of that kind of stuff when you’ve got kitty’s so this is a rather pleasant rediscovery for us).

Very busy day yesterday (Tuesday), went to Cavan for the last car load of boxes and bags and to do a general clean-up. It took an age, as these things are want to do, but we had really good weather for the trip so it wasn’t too much of a chore. Looking at all of the stuff all over the floors in the house was when the chore feeling really kicked in, although it is wonderful to see our stuff again and it does add an extra dimension of homeliness.

Today we went hunting for a few bits and pieces that the house, lovely and well stocked as it is, were found to be lacking. Namely; a big pot for the mince stew (don’t knock it til you’ve tried it, tis Oirish bolognaise and it’d put hairs on your chest sure it would), a shower-hose jobby with a suction holder to secure it to the tiles (the only minor downer, no lecky shower), some more cleaning/make-smelly-nicey bits, and a swap out on the new kettle we bought the other day whose button was refusing to co-operate in the ‘staying down so the kettle boils’ department. We came back with very little of the above plus a Homebase solid wood garden table to seat 4 that was a left over from last year which I bargained down to 25 quid (seriously cheap), four delicious high quality red seat pads for 12 euro (!) and four white chairs at 6 euro a pop! Wa-who!

Seriously though, that deck was screaming out for some furniture and it’s going to look really well when I paint the table white (going for the nautical feel, seems only right).

I promised photo’s didn’t I? I can’t really take them til the unpacking is unpacked and the light is just so, you know how it is. I’m sorry guy’s, that’s all I have in me tonight, there’s so much I want to say but my concentration span is goldfishular at the moment so I’m going to quit while I’m ahead (or at least still awake) and make for the fireplace, it’s such a nice fireplace…

29^th March approx 1pm

Reading back over that it’s actually really obvious how limited my attention span was. I always find writing in a new environment challenging, I’m such a creature of habit. I remember reading Salman Rushdie saying that until not that terribly long ago he couldn’t imagine sitting down to write anywhere other than at his desk but that he had since acquired the knack of writing on trains etc. Ah I’ll get used to it, though I am looking forward to having the old desk back, the one I’ve sat at since I was in school.

Benny is still waiting on word back from the mobile phone shop position, they can’t get in touch with one of his references and they wont offer him the job until they do. We made a few calls this morning to try and sort it out so hopefully that will be resolved by the end of the day. It would be nice to have it off our shoulders so we can sigh that really deep sigh of relief and fully relax into enjoying our new circumstances.

Anyway, must dash, himself is waiting on me downstairs, we have to go into town for some bits and bobs, take care all 

29^th March 19:43

What a pain in the bum that was earlier not having the file on the USB key. Drat indeed. Ah well, another little poddle into town will do no harm I suppose.

Not much happened today, which we were both rather thankful for, I think we needed a day of pointless shuffling around fiddling at unpacking, looking out the windows, sipping an endless stream of coffee. We’re both just downright knackered and this is the wind down I suppose. We must do something tomorrow though, in the way of sight-seeing/pub-going. Something to celebrate being here, to celebrate the end of the ‘moving’.

It was a day of waiting too. We got a call later in the afternoon from the recruitment people to say that the reference had been gotten so 02 would call either later on (which didn’t happen) or tomorrow to deliver their verdict. Yay, another day of chest spasms every time Benny’s phone rings. The way I look at it though, they had three people’s references to check for two positions and they held out for a week trying to get Benny’s reference – that looks pretty good doesn’t it?

I find myself tonight faced with the problem of wanting to say so much more but having to peel my eyes away from the window and wrestle my wandering mind back to the computer screen. I think it’s just the tiredness, the huge highs and lows of emotions, the anxiety, the happiness, the waiting, the getting, the taking it all in. It’s a lot so it is. The writing will flow when the waters settle. And the whole lack of internet thing is bugging the crap out of me too, I really miss being able to interact with the comments on my page and others, I miss being able to msn and email people and the internet café here is so prohibitively expensive. I am hoping against hope that my new job has internet access so I can at least upload the night-befores writings when I’m in work, though I’m going to be in training for the first fortnight (something which is also complicating the installation of the broadband) so I’ll probably end up having to walk home past town to upload. Just a little more patience Nolbert*, just a little more.

* Nolbert: One of my more odd pet names and it would be seriously impossible to explain so I shant. It’s enough to say that that name is used for me when I’m stomping my little feet and that broadband who-ha has my little feet a’stompin, let me tell you.

Sorry lads, have been rooting around my USB key for the past few minutes and the file I saved this morning with yesterday’s and today’s entries is nowhere to be found, I shall do my best to get it to you before the day is out.

Drat.

Hi guys! So sorry for the delay but it’s been a hectic few days, and I’m happy to say that I’m writing this in an internet cafe in Sligo town centre after a 15 minute walk from our beautiful new home!

So where did I leave yee? On Friday night, on the way up to the house in Cavan with the USB key to show Benny the place I’d seen for the non-smokers with the sea views if I remember correctly. Well, when we looked at it together in more detail we realised it looked perfect, lovely big fireplace, big white bedroom with wooden floors, lovely mature garden with a little gate at the end looking out over the estuary and the docks… basically 100% nicer than the other kip-hole we’d looked at earlier that day.

So I gave the number a ring and spoke to the lovely Fiona who said she’d be free to show us it on the Saturday evening. I noticed when dialing that her mobile number after the prefix was 962 – a good omen if ever I saw one as my mam and dads home number has 962 as the last three digits and Benny’s mobile has 962 as the last three digits too – I just love coincidences like that.

On Saturday morning we went down to Meath to go to Benny’s Granny’s month’s mind Mass and after tea and sarnies back at the homeplace we started out on the long trip up to Sligo, lots of driving for poor Benny that day. It actually took less time than we thought and we arrived into the town at 14:30, I gave Fiona a call and we were up looking at the house at 15:00.

It is beautiful, it is so perfect we can’t believe it. I walked in looking straight through the hallway out to the kitchen window - like a big picture frame for the estuary sparkling and lapping in the bright spring sunshine at the bottom of the garden. It all looked even better in reality than it had in the pictures. The kitchen is gorgeous, fitted in the last few years, brand new washing machine, lovely units, gorgeous table and chairs, wooden floors in the dining section and lovely big green plants dotted about. She took us into the sitting room next and we saw the real size of the fireplace, handmade by the first owner with beautiful ornate detail on the cast iron and a lovely hand carved mantle. The walls are a lovely cream (our favourite) trimmed with fresh white paint on all the skirting boards etc.

Upstairs we were wowed by the bedroom, solid pine floors, big pine bed, views of Knocknarea and the sea and the docks. The guest room, study (which already had a computer desk fitted) and bathroom are all in perfect order too, all fresh, clean, bright and really fairly spacious for a house that’s practically in the town.

She was quite taken with us too and was absolutley fine with us taking it straight away so within about 10 minutes of seeing it and being shown how to work the heating and alarm we were ‘home’. I walked around the house crying while Benny moved the car to outside the gates. I have rarely ever cried with happiness but if ever there was a reason I had it on Saturday afternoon. All the relief, all the anxiety about finding a place, about it being nice, it was done and we were just overjoyed to have found something so much in line with what we wanted. And to have found a nice landlord too, she left a lovely soap in the bathroom and scented toilet paper, loads of glasses in the presses, new saucepans etc. and she was cleaning the microwave when we came in so the whole kitchen smelt of cleaning products, possibly one of my favourite smells ever, a fresh kitchen.

On Sunday we drove down to Cavan to fill up the hatchback with all the essentials (principally my mugs which are currently in pride of place in the lovely glass doored press in the kitchen). Today we spent a small fortune in Lidl stocking up the fridge and the cleaning press and I started the somewhat harrowing task of organising broadband, more on that some other time.

Anyway, himself is getting bored here beside me and there’s dinner to be enjoyed back in the little house in the West (sorry for nicking that John!) Thank you all for your supportive messages over the past while, it’s so lovely to know we’re being thought of and routed for by all of you, it’s such a comfort isn’t it?

I’ll try and organise some photo’s for the next entry so sit tight! Take it easy all

P.S. we’re not smoking in the house, there’s a lovely little deck in the back garden and we had been planning on giving up the smokes when we moved so maybe this is the kick up the bum we need ay?

Well, we knew when we started this that it wasn’t going to be a dawdle, and to be fair it hasn’t been too bad. How bad would it have been if we didn’t get jobs? Or if there were no houses at all. Still though, you can’t help but wish you get that little bit of luck that makes it all seem shiny again and that little bit of luck is holding back from us at the moment unfortunately.

The reason we went up to see the house we saw today is because the girl in the property place said it was in much better condition than the house in Summerhill, the one Benny went to see on Tuesday. Now, the first one was no oil painting but it was such a blank canvas it would have been easily modified into something homely in no time. The kitchen was the only real let down in it. Imagine our displeasure at arriving to see a worse version of that house, slightly further out of the town, no mountain view, rusty aul falling apart cooker and gacky furniture and even gackier paintwork and no ‘wooden floors’ in sight, despite what the girl in the property shop had said.

We’re still thinking about it. We have to think about it, it may be too much of a risk to say no to it considering nothing has gone up on daft etc. within our price range and desired area in the past few days. If only we hadn’t lost out on the Summerhill one, what a kick in the nethers.

It’s basically the exact same house as the other one, just not quite as nice looking and seriously let down by the fact that it wasn’t particularly clean either. We could make it look nice, we know we could but it just would have been really nice to walk in and say, ‘yeah, I like this’, rather than, ‘hmm, it’ll do’.

So, it’s a tough call. There’s one other property that might do the job which looks nicer and has sea views (sea views!), I think it’s probably still available as it’s been renewed in the past two hours. The only problem with it is ‘non-smokers please’. Hmm. Neither of us smoke that much. How immoral would it be to lie? I don’t like lying but I know why people don’t want smokers and we really arn’t heavy smokers and we never smoke in bedrooms etc. Hmm.

Right then, I better head up and show himself this other spot and see what he thinks. Thanks for sticking with me everyone, I know it’s all a bit hither and tither at the moment but tis the best I can do I’m afraid

Hi all, very quick update again, bit tired and mopey today unfortunately. I had to take the job in the call centre, they offered it the day after the interview and I was trying to stall them while I found out what was happening with the mobile phone shop job, they appear to have gone with Benny, we’re awaiting confirmation tomorrow so think good thoughts our direction. I’m really happy about the way it’s worked out from the perspective that I wanted him to get the less stressful of the two jobs and the call centre people appear to have overlooked him on account of us being a couple and me having a slightly larger amount of experience in that environment.

Although I know that to get our foot in the door is a good thing and I’m happy about having secured a job in such a short space of time I genuinely do not want to do this job, I hate the thought of it. It pays 18k, some of the shifts are until 9 at night and you work up to seven days a week, the chances are this will make us spending time together difficult. Hence the mopeyness. I have my sliver lining glasses on though and I’m trying to think pleasants thoughts about ‘if it’s meant for you you’ll get it etc’ and the fact that this place is rapidly expanding and they look to promote within the company and theres no cap on how long you have to have been there before you get promoted but I doubt I’ll get that far.

We’re off to see a place tomorrow as the other one went so hopefully it’ll be nice, it’s a tiny bit further out but still looks like around a 30 minute walk to work for me so that’s ok, I could do with the leg stretching opportunity.

Talk to you all soon, sorry bout the sketchiness

Just sitting in an internet cafe in Sligo quickly checking if there’s anything new on daft house wise. Benny saw the one this morning, little bit scruffy but same plan as my Godmothers old house and lovely fireplace. We’re going to make a call to another one we’ve seen on daft that’s a bit dearer but we think it might be a lot nicer, fingers crossed.

My interviews went really well, the mobile phone shop position is actually quite appealing I have to say, so here’s hopin. We’re off to stay with my relatives tonight so it’ll be nice to catch up with them. Talk to you all soon

Not a terribly long post today I’m afraid guys, just to give yee an update as tomorrow I’m unlikely to be able to get anything posted what with bein in Sligo and all!

It’s absolutely freezing down here at the moment, we’ve had snow, sleet, hail, rain, pretty much winter conditions for the past two days. We have our fingers crossed that tomorrow will be a little better for the journey to Sligo. My first interview is at 12 and the second is at 2:15 so just cross your fingers all day, actually cross them at 12:45 in particular for Benny going to see the house, we’re really really hoping it will be nice and that we get it with no hassle.

Today we went down to Benny’s Mam’s house to wish her a happy Mothers day. I’m struggling to think of much more to write to be honest, my toes are frozen from the walk through the town and all of my focus is on tomorrow to the point where I think all I’ll be fit for this evening is melting myself in front of the fire again.

Today’s piccy is of our fry-up from Friday night, chilli-cheese sausages from the gourmet sausage butcher down the town, potato breads, puddings and a nice smoked rasher, topped off with a yummy guggy-egg (I’ve only recently acquired the knack from Benny of cooking them the way his mammy does, it’s basically just ‘over easy’ but you have to get the crispyness and the gooeyness just so, you know how it is)

So I shall leave it at that, talk to you all again as soon as I possibly can, be good,

Lou xxx

Written on Thursday 15^th March… 

Ok, I’m trying this in Arial to see if it looks any better. Fingers crossed.  

So, today’s news, I got a call from the nice lady at Skillfinders who got a call from the call centre we asked for the CVs to be submitted to yesterday, they want to interview me for a management position, starting with a telephone interview tomorrow at four. Now, I know the intention was to leave this world behind, and it still would be if I could help it, but there just aren’t the jobs there at the moment for us to afford to be picky. And you know the old phrase about everyone having their price? I would do this job naked for the money they’re offering and I’m frankly stunned their interviewing someone with my limited managerial experience. I must have written a pretty blinding CV. So can everyone please cross everything crossable for me tomorrow at four? If I got this job we would be so sorted financially Benny could take his sweet time finding a job and we’d be well on our way to mortgage land very soon after.  

Everything else about today was rather unremarkable, we got up late again, something we’re really trying to avoid so as not to get into bad habits but it’s so hard to peel ourselves from the fire in the sitting room at night, it’s just so pleasant. We had a lovely time last night after watching a bit of tele going through old cassette tapes of mine from when I was a kid. I even found one of myself and my pal MF writing songs together from about 6 years ago. That really brought me back I have to say, I couldn’t believe the detail of the memory that came back of the little room in Glasnevin that me and Danny shared. I love when you find a little time machine like that, sometimes they come in the form of receipts, sometimes letters, this time an actual audio record of our voices laughing and joking and singing. Strange feeling somewhere between happy and sad, no words will come tonight to explain it I’m afraid. 

We went for a nice drive this evening out to Killykeen again for me to have a little more driving practice, went well apart from one or two stalls due to forgetting to use the clutch when coming to a stop. We brought a pack of sandwiches and a flask of hot water to make oxtail soup but unfortunately the park has gone a bit downhill and we couldn’t find anywhere to eat it outdoors, we made like proper culchies* and had it in the car in the end. 

*culchies – rednecks, hicks, favourite phrase of Dubliners to refer to anyone from the rest of the country. 

Written Saturday 17^th March… As I mentioned yesterday I was seriously up to my eyeballs, and I wasn’t in the best of sorts as my wake up call from Skillfinders that morning was to inform me that the interview at 4 was for a regular customer service agent, not the managerial position I had been informed it was on Thursday. How irritating. I wasn’t overly surprised though to be honest but it was still a slap in the face, I had really gotten myself psyched up for it, given a lot of thought to how I would sell myself to them and I was feeling pretty confident.  

Though the bad news came mixed with some good, as I mentioned yesterday, we both have interviews lined up for o2 on the Tuesday and Wednesday, which I think I would have a slight preference for over the other place, seeing as neither option is especially appealing but o2 appears to be the less stressful of the two. The Wednesday morning interview (which Benny is doing) is at 10am so we have to stay over on Tuesday night, I’m working myself up to ring my Godmother and see what she’d feel like about putting us up. We have our fingers crossed though that we might be spending the night in our new place.  

I spent yesterday afternoon in the net café looking on daft.ie for places and after sitting looking through the nine or so properties I brought home on the USB key we rang about one that’s central and within budget. Benny is going to see it on Tuesday as I’ll be in an interview at 12 with the call centre place (I walked the phone interview, she says with an air of arrogant disdain, which although uncharacteristic, she feels is allowed in light of the let down of interviewing for a position that pays 18k a year as opposed to 45k at a few hours notice). I have to go straight to the o2 interview at 2:15 and the house viewing is at 12:45 so I doubt I’d be out in time. He’s going to bring the camera and a distinctly uncritical eye – the way we’re looking at it is as long as it’s not a complete dive it’ll suffice to get us started, it’s a six month lease at the end of the day so if it’s not too shabby we’ll seal the deal and camp out there on the Tuesday night.  

Apparently it’s got magnolia walls so that’s one major stipulation dealt with (we hates the wallpaper, we really do). Our only other real preferences are a not too tiny kitchen and a real fire in the sitting room. Size of rooms/layout etc. isn’t really important. A shed would be nice too in case we want to upgrade anything and need the storage space. Fingers crossed ay. 

Benny’s been suffering really badly from Migraines for the past two weeks and the painkillers he was prescribed by the last doctor he went to are highly unpleasant and extremely expensive. He’s been making do with Nurofen plus but I thought it might be a good idea to see if there was a herbal alternative so we popped into the health shop in the town yesterday. The lady there was incredibly helpful and one of life’s genuinely positive people, you know the kind, where you walk away feeling you’ve had a lovely chat with a caring friend but you’ve only just met the person? She was so helpful and so sympathetic and she gave some really sound advice, we exited the shop with a Passiflora tincture for stress/anxiety relief (to combat the root cause of the migraines) and  Feverfew capsules to combat the actual migraines themselves. I’m taking the Passiflora too and I’ll keep you updated as to my experience with it, apparently it takes a few days to kick in fully but it’s supposed to be an incredibly pleasant and effective remedy.  

We awoke this morning rather late to the sound of marching bands at the bottom of the hill, it’s Paddy’s day for those of you who were vacationing off the planet recently. I unfortunately didn’t get out fast enough to get any decent shots but from the few I have I think you get a fairly adequate representation of the average country town St. Patrick’s day parade, i.e. a tractor with some streamers and balloons attached to the wing mirrors and a lot of wet miserable kids with heavy instruments to lug about. I’m not much of a one for enforced joviality events so I’ll limit my commentary to that at the risk of sounding like a right old scrooge.  

We’ve spent the evening sitting on our bummies watching the rugby, we’ll he’s been watching the rugby and I’ve been floating around back and forth to the computer writing this. I’m more of a football woman when it comes down to it but even that has waned without Darren’s wonderful commentary to keep it amusing and stimulating.  

I just went out the back to get in some coal and heard something rather incongruous – a thick Dublin accent. I don’t miss it I have to tell you though it’s owner sounded like a pleasant enough sort. The back of our house, positioned half way up a very very steep hill, looks down over the beer garden of the pub at the bottom of the hill on the corner. I know that’s a bit to get your head around but it’s the best I can do without a pen and the back of a beer mat or the ability to gesticulate wildly. Oh frig it I’ll just take a picture, hang on.

As you can see it’s a manky wet grey day in Cavan, which is fairly typical to be honest, but it doesn’t make for the nicest representation of the view from the back of the house. Though bear in mind we’re right in the centre of the town here so it was never going to be rolling hills and frolicking wildlife.  

The Dublin accent reminded me of an observation I made about Cavan to Benny the other day, something he’s noticed as well. And it’s not just this town it’s a country thing generally – if someone crosses your path, gets in your way, or even just passes close by you in a shop or on the street they apologise! They look you in the eye and you them and there is a recognition of the inconvenience be it a grin, a shrug, a waggling of the eyebrows, but the point is – you exist! You have been acknowledged, what a lovely thing to find some people other than us still have manners in this country. I know that sounds like a massive exaggeration but really Dublin has turned into such an unfriendly place, very very few people will acknowledge you if you hold a door open for them, if they step on your foot, walk right in front of you on the street etc. It was certainly one of the reasons why we wanted to move away from the city and it’s been extremely pleasant to be reminded of it so quickly into our adventure. Oh lordy, I have been going on, time to wrap things up so. The rugby just ended and I have a miserable Benny to look after. I shall leave you with the three piccies I took earlier on today. Take care all J

I had intended on posting today and may get what I wrote yesterday posted later but I’m up to my eyeballs right now. I have a phone interview this eve at four that I have to swat up for and we have an interview each for 02 (mobile phones, shop stuff) on Tuesday and Wednesday. We’re also trying to get a place sorted so all systems are go! I’ll post later if I can