Busy June

My baby

From the dearth of blog posts in June, you may have guessed that I had a very busy month. I (sort of) moved into the house, spent time in Switzerland and then visited the USA: Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, and New York. I came back the previous Monday and then left last Friday for Achill Island on the West coast of Ireland. I went there to visit, it is a beautiful place, and to run in a 1/2 marathon race.

Keel beach

I had hoped to come in under two hours in the half marathon. I managed to do it in five additional minutes. The course had some hills and it is difficult to find hills in Dublin without heading into the Wicklow mountains. This was a test race for the Dublin (full) marathon I want to do at the end of October. So I'm not quite at the necessary speeds in my training yet, and I only tappered for a week for this race. It was a fun race in a neat place and I'm happy with the result (although it could have been better ;-)

Strange flowers. I wonder if leprechaun paint these patterns on them.

I stayed two nights in a guest house on the island because I wanted to take some pictures. Saturday after the race was more or less dry, but far from what I would call sunny. Sunday was constant drizzle. That's better than what Dublin and the East coast of Ireland got that weekend: Three weeks worth of rain in one day! I didn't get very many pictures because of that.

There is a preserved area on the island that is littered with ruins of old houses that were abandoned during the potato famine. Now they are inhabited by sheep and archaeologists who are trying to piece together how the people lived back then.

They do think they own the place.

There is a road, called the Atlantic drive, to the West end of the island. It's nice, steep, narrow, and curvy. Perfect for a little bit of fast driving. There are no fences or guard rails, which adds to the challenge, but the bigger problem are the sheep in the middle of the road. They think they own that part of the island too!

Sheep everywhere!

At the Western most part of the island, at the end of the Atlantic drive, are steep cliffs. You have to hike up the hill to see them. I didn't do that that since the rain would have prevented me from seeing anything or taking pictures.

Now back to my busy work life, finish moving into the house, and get ready for vacation at the end of the month. It is not a castle, as afrodri suspects. So, no moat maintenance. However, even though I wasn't here for most of June, the grass is now about knee high in my yard. To the left and right, it is much shorter. I guess they mow it. I need a sheep! On Achill island, even in remote areas, the grass looks manicured (except for the sheep droppings) and neatly cut (bitten off) to about a 1/4 inch off ground.

An Irish sheep stack.

Moving

I started writing this before I moved, but am just now getting back to it. I'll write more about my very busy June in my next post, but for now, let me tell you how it started out...

Bye bye Mulhuddart, hello Castleknock. Lee Ann found us a house and with any luck, I'll be moving there in about a week. This also means new adventures with Irish service providers and new fodder for the blog ;-)

I checked Airtricity's web page and it says to just call them on the day of the move with the new meter number and they transfer service. Sounds good. I hope it works like that.
Today I called Vodafone with whom I have broadband Internet and phone service. Being an existing customer, I figured they would be happy that I want to stay with them and help me make this transition as smooth as possible, but there are new rules in place. I have to commit for twelve months. OK, I guess. It may take up to 28 days to transfer the service. Usually it is much quicker, but that is kind of scary. And they want a direct debit option. I hate when companies can just grab their money out of my bank account. It is convenient until you forget which day it will happen, and your account is low on funds, or when you want to quit. I told them I would get back to them and started looking for other options. Also, the DSL modem they gave me had to be replaced after the first month and is starting to act up again.
UPC, a cable TV provider has a better deal. I get three times the data rate, a much higher per month data limit (although I never came close to using up what I had before), and more free after-hours phone call minutes, for five euro less each month. And the first two months are half price.
I moved my stuff over, dumped it in the new place and basically left for the month of June. Now, I'm back and am trying to get things organized and unpacked.
The old apartment is supposed to transfer my deposit into my bank account. Despite asking twice and getting assured it would be done right away, I still don't see it in my account listing. No big deal, I'll go by tomorrow and yell at them.
I called Vodafone in the middle of June to cancel my phone/broadband service. She looked me up and noticed that my phone number has already moved over to the cable company. Good, so far. Then she asked why I want to cancel and then told me that I couldn't!
A little while back they called me while I was at work and offered a service to get cheaper rates for calls to Switzerland. That sounded good, but I was busy and wanted to look at it more closely. I had to sign up right then, but could cancel within the first six months, so I said OK. It turns out, somewhere in there was an agreement to extend the service for another year. Mind you, my phone number has already moved, and the place where they are providing broadband to, is no longer accessible to me, but they intend to continue charging me 45 euro for another ten months ;-)
Last week I also emailed the agent who is handling the rental of the house. I need an account number to pay this month's rent. No answer in a week (I sent it to two people at that firm!)
Ireland is weird...

You can see the pictures I took when I first viewed the house.