Interesting week.

Going to sleep monday night, calm day, nothing interesting happening. 3 hours later, I get back from a gay bar. Juuust as I was going to start getting ready to sleep, one slightly less than sober landlady knocked on my door. She and her friend Dean were going to party, since he was only going to be here for a while, and they dragged me with them. It was actually pretty cool, dancing, good music, no one had THAT much to drink, so for a night out, pretty calm.

I'm also getting used to the UK now - understanding the accent a bit, remembering they all drive on the wrong side here, setting up a bank account, national insurance number, and everything. Felt I'd moved in properly when I got into the bathroom, and someone had moved my toothbrush into the communal toothbrush cup. We share meals, walk the dogs, make jokes... It's good. Matt and Lisa are great people.

And yesterday, I had my final exam and mock call in our universal remote training, I'm all done with that part now. Only peripherals left, then I'm out on the floor, shooting troubles.

Today's been calm, gaming, making some food, until just now. Zeppelin, the massive Akita, was eating out of the trash, told him no, went in to grab whatever he was eating out of. Stupid move. He bit me, and now my right arm hurts like a son of a bitch. It'll be fine, but they're going to have to get rid of him for now, unfortunately. They're worried he'll do it again. Bit of a downer to the weekend. Hopefully I'll just end up with a cool scar and story, though.

I'mma go internet now, sleep tight and don't let the akitas bite!

"I was talking about MY CROTCH."

So I've moved in properly. I now find my way around the kitchen, here. The last few days have been good, my colleagues are nice, Matt and Lisa are great, and last night, I had my first Irish Pub experience. Matt took me out to meet one of his work friends, Paul, and his fiancée. They were both swell people, and they lived so that they could see the place the Titanic set off from, as well as the actual Game of Thrones studio. Cool getting to meet them, but even better once we took a cab down to the city centre.

We were going to a place another friend had told me about, the Limelight. Only it was payday, and monday is a bank holiday, and studies start next week, so there were people EVERYWHERE. We went to a less popular pub, and even then that was packed. Loud, both from the music, and the people there. It was good music, but too loud to talk comfortably, and too packed to dance. I even had the full Irish experience (apart from the booze and rioting); A guy with a black eye fell down just behind me, and was half carried out of the pub, followed by security. And trying to get a cab at 2 in the morning is almost impossible.

All in all, for me, it was a good night. Not as good as the Bar'am parties, but still, good times were had by all. Might get forcefully invited to Paul's band. And I found out that on tuesdays the Limelight has Circus night - juggling, fire dancing, acrobatics, it seems. I'll check THAT out in a few days. If I get good enough, I might actually get paid to fire poi. Getting paid for doing what I'd usually do (fix swedish people's electronics, spin my poi), good friends, and a nice city so far without any riots. Could N.I. get any better?

No, I have things to do, bye for now!

We don't go to Ravenhill.

Must resist urge to dance in public...

The training is going fine, it's all fairly simple once you come down to it. I don't have to understand the technology behind it, just how to fix it. The instructor keeps going on about how to make it as easy as possible. So far so good. I'm getting to know and like my colleagues more and more. While hating both the technology and its developers more and more.

On a better note, I've found an apartment. 3 floors, kitchen and dining room bottom floor, upstairs a bathroom larger than my bedroom, said bedroom, and a livingroom, and another floor up, the other people, Matt and Lisa, live. They also have the gaming room there. And fiberoptic internet. And 2 dogs, a lab named Molly, and an akita named Zeppelin. It all seems great, about 4 km from work, view towards the park just outside, quiet neighbourhood, and they're easygoing, fun people. I think it's all going to be just fine. :D

Pictures tomorrow. See ya!

Catch-22 with several layers

I work until 5.30, half an hour from the nearest phone store. So I can't buy a SIM card from the store. I know, I'll ask them to send me one in the mail! Only I need a permanent address AND a phone number to get that... I'll get that first then? Oh, I need to call the agent to apply for a residence, or maybe have access to a printer? Sure, I keep one in my suitcase. And I have the time to stop working to visit them. Fuck this, I'll just get an insurance number and a bank account in the meantime, will make the other things easie- oh, I need a permanent residence for that? I guess I'll live under a picnic table then.

At least the hotel room is nice. I now have free 128 kbps internet. And I can find my way without a map. Sort of. It's still not GOOD since I have a ton of things to sort out, but it's getting there, slowly, I think. In other news, I'm getting to know my colleagues right now, as well. They all seem really nice. I've gotten used to internationality, and having people from all over the world around me,

I think it'll be another month before I'm out on the floor, taking calls, but then I'll take y'all by storm.

Anything I missed, that you want to know about? 'Cause I've got nothing more to say right now. I need to figure out how to get back on track.

Take care, and The Game!

I've not fucked up yet.

I can find my way now, 20 minutes by foot or so, not too shabby. Still don't have anything yet. :D No phone, no bank, no house... But I'm getting education. So far it's been mainly what the company's all about, what to do to get a bonus, what not to do (don't kill anyone, or steal their money, or sexually harass them. DUH.).

At 8.30 this morning they picked us up in a taxi. Me, a french, an italian, a finnish, and a german guy. All newcomers doing tech support in our respective languages. Well at the premises, we met another french guy, and a portuguese girl. There were more as well, but they're doing customer support for some other company. So it's just us 7 right now. 3 getting educated in a new dohickey as well, though, tomorrow, so for the next 2 weeks, we're 10. They all seem really nice, and there's so far been few problem with languages. The computers we've used, though... A mess to log in. I'm glad I don't have to troubleshoot that!

The place I work at is nice - spacious, looks professional, good and cheap food in the dining area. We apparently have a room with an example of all the current products from Logitech (some of which you don't know about yet, but they're great as well, I can promise that! Things I had no idea were even planned.), and employees enjoy quite the benefits - a massive discount at Logitech's website. All in all, I'm going to enjoy it here, I think. Nice people to work with, XBOX tournaments on fridays, and what seems like a great city. If only I could understand what they were all saying... Need to get used to the accent.

£ 1.475 an hour

So I've landed. I went from Sweden to Denmark to Ireland to Northern Ireland. Even got on the bus that left 10 minutes after I walked out the entrance at Dublin Airport. I'm now in some unknown hotel, not too far from the central train station, paying the title to visit the internet for 2 hours. I'll have a taxi waiting for me in the morning to take me to my work place, fancy! Well there, I'll be getting a month's paid education in all the stuff I'll be tech supporting in - keyboards, headsets, whatever. It'll be fun. I have no money - sheklim and euro doesn't get you far here. I have no home - the hotel only covers the first week. I have no phone - it didn't even work in Sweden.

... I'm off to a good start here. On the plus side I- oh right, the closest aquaitance is in Edinburgh, I think. Or Manchester, or Leeds, not sure which is closest. A swim away, at least. Not much else to say, and no pictures to add. I'll be back with more updates later, just in case you're interested.

See y'all!