Call it timing or being lucky but two days after my arrival Sepultura and In flames, two of my favourite bands, held a gig at the Ambassador in Dublin. I couldn’t let an opportunity like this escape so I ordered tickets though ticketmaster from home.

Yesterday, being my first day at work I asked the boss to leave at 5 to catch the bus, only to realize that my PC's clock was 15 minutes late and it was already 5.10pm. Thinking that I had no chance to catch the URBus to the village but still hoping that it might be late I left the office just the same. Just as I passed the security pass through what looks like an airport scanner, I saw a normal Dublin bus outside. Cheering my good luck I sprinted to catch it without considering where the bus was going. Surprise, surprise, the bus didn't pass through my village and after an hour hearing two Italians discuss their evening together and kissing noisily, I ended up in the city center near the Ambassador theatre.

Outside the theatre were the gig was to be held, there was a long line of teenagers all rigorously dressed in black with chains, pentagrams and the usual attire. Guess how many light coloured sweaters I've got with me? One. Now guess what I was wearing? Yes, that's right I was wearing the off-white sweater today. Looking like a geek doesn't cut it well with a heavy metal crowd so I decided to risk going home to change.

The trip to the village and back to the center took me one and a half hours and at around 7.30, dressed in black and without a satchel I went to collect my preordered ticket at the box office. I was seated upstairs in the balcony of this not so big theatre away from the teenage crowd standing downstairs.

I arrived early enough to listen to Sepultura's sound check which was already enough to get me goose pimples. At 8 Sepultura kicked off as the guest band and they really kicked ass. I know there isn't Max and I would have gladly paid 3 times the ticket price to hear him, but it was still a great show. From the original line up there were only Andreas Kisser and Paolo Jr. because Igor Cavalera didn't tour with the band.

Sepultura played a lot of their classic songs like Refuse Resist, Arise, Beneath the Remains, Trooper of Doom, Altered State and Roots which was cool, although significantly different from the originals because of the vocals. It must be strange for Derrick Green to see the crowd rocking really hard at these songs and then turn speechless at the chorus of the newer stuff. I though that they weren't going got play any of Max's stuff but luckily I was wrong. I totally digged watching Andreas Kisser play the guitar and Roy Mayorga was also very good on the drums as the tour drummer.

In flames also gave a great show. They played several songs from different albums and even though they were coming from a long set of consecutive gigs they played a long set about 1 and ½ hours. Their lights were original and quite complex for a non mainstream heavy metal band. The crowd really liked the band and it's evident that the Swedish band grew a very large fan base in these last few years.

The organization of the event was impeccable and very effective. It was amazing watching a complete set being changed between bands in half an hour. The tiny gigs I've been to take that time to change the band members let alone a complete set.

Punchline: Gig kicked ass and was worth every cent.

Somebody is going to be very envious at this news ...

I'm going to a Dresden Dolls concert on the 2nd of May!!

I’m missing the local gossip with my friends so let me tell you a bit about my housemates in to self satisfy my gossip needs.

We are supposed to be 5 living in this house but until now I’ve only met 2 other people roaming around.

The most frequently met guy is this Bangladeshi who’s around my age and of a slightly darker color. He works part time in a big computer store but is trying to get into college to study. He’s an extrovert and gladly stops to talk sprinkling all his sentences with the F word. Understanding him is not always easy, although I’m sure I never miss a fuck when it’s there. So sometimes a sentence goes like this in my head; hummmmmmmmmmmm fucking hummmm fucking hummmmm fucking …

I’ve also started learning some Bangladeshi habits now. First of all they have a proper meal for breakfast, but I think that’s common in many Asian countries. More interesting is the fact they eat with their hands. I don’t mean they peal prawns with their hands, or they finish off a chicken thigh with their hands, they even eat rice with their hands. Can you imagine that? To eat rice he grabs some rice in all his fingers, swishes it around in the sauce then throws it in his mouth. I was amazed it was possible at all, yet it didn’t bother me in the least.

Another rice related thing is this appliance we’ve got called 'Automatic Rice Cooker'. It’s a big white pot with a metal cover and a wire sticking out of it. The pot is from Tefal which gives it some credibility but I still haven’t got a clue how it works or why is it necessary for that matter.

The other person I’ve met is an Irish lady probably in her late 30’s who must have a king sized bed in her room to fit comfortably at night. She works as a nurse and has been living in the house for 5 years so she has the best contact with the landlord and thus settles bills and the like. I’ve met her only twice, and in both cases in front of TV drinking wine and smoking Silkcut – a good example for a nurse.

This paragraph looks like I’m picking on her but it’s not that way at all. First of all she shared her wine with me and she was the one who had the decency to show me around the house and explain the basics, like how to switch on the heaters and wash the clothes.

There should be another 3 people living here but if I don’t meet anyone of them by Saturday I’ll start to believe they don’t exist.

After yesterday’s late night I took the leisure to wake up late at around 11am GMT, and after the usual stuff I went with my friend for my first Irish Tesco experience. I returned home with only 4 Tesco products – soap, toilet paper, salt and ham, all the other products were familiar products like Nescafe since Tesco haven’t got a clue on how a coffee should taste. Unluckily I didn’t find the small Tesco coleslaw which would have nicely served as a meal substituting snack. They didn’t have cloth hangers either, but since my cloths were still in the suitcases it didn’t really matter.

In the afternoon I went for dinner at my pal who cooked some Tesco spaghetti which tasted better than I thought they would, and later we went to the city center. In my ex-country, which is almost as religious as Ireland, people go and buy cheesecakes (a local delicacy not the sweet cheesecakes) after mass, here people also go for a local delicacy – Guinness!

At night I started my 'socializing with housemates' plan, so I joined the Irish girl who was watching TV and chatted with her for a while. Second day was over in a jiffy.

I arrived at the airport at about 2pm and as I arrived there already were some of my friends waiting to say the last goodbye. I’m not that type of person goes around hugging people but when I get one (or two) of such intensity they break me really really bad. This was the most difficult goodbye I ever had to say in my life. Enough said, before I break into a nostalgia mode in front of my new work colleagues.

The flight to Dublin got delayed by an hour, so I arrived at about 9pm and found my friend waiting at the arrival lounge with a bright red rugby shirt of our country. He easily convinced me to take a bus to my new home saving about 30 Euros in a taxi, which I’d rather spend on Guinness rather than on transport. We had to change the bus in the city center but the second bus stop was only a few meters away. The stressing part was the walk was from the bus stop in the village to my house which is about 5 minutes away, but dragging 64kgs worth of luggage it becomes never-ending.

After a quick look around the house and my first piss in my OWN bathroom, we went back to the city center, for a local drink, guess what? Having a local helpful friend living in Ireland for 6 months for immensely beneficial for me because I found an already paved path. Apart from finding me a home he even had the foresight to buy me a duvet (quilt), bed linen, a pillow and an Irish mobile phone line. Also, since he now knows everything about buses and getting around, I didn't have to worry on how to use the buses.

We went to a Russian themed pub called Pravda. This pub is huge by my usual standards and we spent about 10 minutes wandering about looking for some of his friends. We found his co-national friend making friends with some Irish and Italians who were very keen for us to join the fun. Talk about Irish hospitability - it's all true. What's better, after a few drinks they become even more talkative and friendly.

We had a small glitch at about 2am because we went out for a quick snack (the cheapest i.e. some chips) and the bouncers wouldn't let us back in cause they were closing earlier due to the summer time change. After a while one of our new met friends came to meet us outside and we were let back in thanks to his acquaintances.

My first evening in Dublin ended at about 4am where I was welcomed back home with a new and irritating smelling bed linen.

Arrived in Dublin last Saturday!!! My first post from the Irish Islands is going to be short cause I'm in an internet cafe and I'm not familiar with typing against the clock.

I got a house share with another 4 people, one of which is from Bangladesh and the others are Irish. The people in the house work strange hours and they never seem to be in, not that I was in myself with all the Guinness around but ...

Tomorrow should be my first day at work, maybe I get some time to blog better from there if I get a PC.

As part of my farewell with my village friends we went for my last weekend on the pea-sized island to the farmhouse of our German blooded pal. After a week packing, cleaning and backing up, I was barely better than a zombie and the farmhouse was very quite with only the cook and his madam arriving before me. The fun wasn't far away though cause we were about to fabricate the nastiest joke we've probably ever played on anyone.

After several years going against the flow, my friend the cook decided to resign to peer-pressure and buy a mobile. Knowing his perverse mindset he didn't take long to start getting wicked with his new toy. Last week he started messaging our other friend, who isn't very lucky (to put it mildly) with the gentler sex, playing the part of a 20 year old girl who secretly likes him. The joke had been going on for about a week and since its beginning our pals had already written several pages worth of script. Needless to say, our poor friend was burning with desire to meet his secret admirer after she returned from hospital following an alcohol poisoning, and a weekend-in punishment.

On Friday the cook got the ingenious idea of making our friend go and knock the door of Stef his secret admirer while filming everything from the field in front of the house.

At around 2230 we drove to the target door, careful to conceal the car, and walked covertly in the fields just in front of the house. By the time we arrived Joseph was still at home preparing himself for this much anticipated meeting with Stef, giving us enough time to find the best location and setup the camera gear to film the event.

You might be sharp enough to ask, how someone in his right frame of mind would consider knocking a door after 10 at night. The excuse was that Stef's mother wanted to ensure that her daughter was in good company after the mishap of last week's party that sent her to hospital. This stupid excuse peppered with a 'sweetheart' and 'darling' every once in a while toyed with our friend Joseph's common sense and convinced him to play along.

Few minutes later the white Tojota parked in front of 'Anfield' the targeted house and while he kept the car running, Joseph hesitantly approached the brown wooden door. I was in charge of taking the footage of the event while Stef was texting away convincing him to knock the door. Now Joseph was a perfect personification of a living dilemma - shall I knock or not, knock or not, knock or not, KNOCK KNOCK!!! In the silence of the night the knock, quickly followed by the barking of dogs from inside, reached our eardrums. After knocking Joseph withdrew away from the door as if it was going to pounce at him, and waited for a response.

No reply from inside.

I was trying to keep the camera still from laughing although a part of me pitied him. Seeing that there was no reply Joseph messaged Stef asking her to come and open, but Stef convinced him to knock even harder because her mother didn't hear the first knock. Perplex and anticipant he went to knock for a second time but with the same result. Should somebody have opened this blessed door we would have died with laughter, but lady luck must have had mercy on him and avoided further embarrassment.

Seeing that all his efforts were in vain Joseph tried one last time but still no reply. Satisfied that the joked worked perfectly Stef said, "listen, promise me that you'll not laugh at me" to which Joseph replied, "of course not." Stef said "because you see, I'm a little bit gay." Just as the pixels formed this message we heard the tires screech and the car dart away in fury.

Few seconds later we got the reply, an epic pearl quote saying, "how I wish that you'd pay all the money I spent on texting you in pills".

As soon as we returned back to the farmhouse the cook challenged us to bet whether he'll manage to convince him that he's not really a gay. We didn't have time to ponder on the question because 2 messages later Joseph started dreaming about Stef again ...

The rest of the weekend was spent chatting with my pals, drinking, listening to music and playing Stef. We slept really late on Saturday after all of us turned into seasoned psychologists analysing the mentality of our friend Joseph, who joined us for a special seafood dinner (with salmon, crabs, muscles) oblivious of anything we did the day before.

I received 3 cool presents to take with me; a lighter - because I always ask for one, a business card holder - because now I'll get loads of those, and a mini grooming kit - just in case I forget to take a comb when I'm abroad.

At the end it was a very nice week-end, I'll willfully remember for a long time.

I'm writing from home and it's 4pm => I'm not working any longer !!!!

Yesterday was finally my last day at work even though officially I was supposed to finish on Friday. Yesterday was goodbye/final-packing day which ironically lasted more than a normal day since I left work at 6.30. Before leaving, as devout, I said goodbye to my 3 year long boss who unexpectedly said that she really liked working with me.

In the evening I had a nice surprise party from my work pals (boss not included). I was lured into this restaurant with the impression of having dinner with some friends, only to find a large table (of around 20 people) full of my work colleagues. I'm alien to being the center of attraction but I must admit I liked the gesture very much. As main course I had a delicious seafood platter with lots of mussels, oysters and other assorted shellfish.

After dinner, my ex-office interplanetary pal recommended that we'd go for drinks in a particular bar. We walked to the bar and after passing by a couple of lively pubs full of young foreign students, we found the recommended desolate hunter's bar. Despite the general consensus that the plutonian must be missing some bolts to avoid crossing his heart we followed his suggestion. The company was great and we laughed out loud at some banal comments from the usual naive master. All in all it was a great night out with people I rarely had the opportunity to meet outside work.

It's 1am and this is the last thing I'm doing today before leaving the office. I've spent a whole day doing backups, giving hand over and updating documentation. Long long day and I'm still not done.

"Losing all hope was freedom. If I didn't say anything, people in a group assumed the worst."

"If people thought you were dying, they gave you their full attention. ... People listened instead of just waiting for their turn to speak."

"I am Jack's smirking revenge. "

"I felt like destroying something beautiful."

"Self improvement is masturbation."

"How Tyler saw it was that getting God's attention for being bad was better than getting no attention at all. Maybe because God's hate is better than His indifference."

Final Book Review: 5/5. The film is just a perfect representation of the book

An image to celebrate the birth of my 5 little black perls. I've got 11 cats and kittens now - enough for a soccer team.

After surviving for more than 3 years without a national identity card now that I'm leaving I went to make one. Yes, I am strange and incomprehensible sometimes.

One of the reasons I never went to make the card was that I always thought that it was a l never-ending bore to get something out of a government office. The first time I made it I had to wait for a whole morning and had to return to collect it a week later. However today I was absolutely impressed at how efficient this government office became. The whole routine of taking an oath (and kissing the cross) that I really lost my previous card, taking a photo and signing on the new card took only 15 minutes, and I got the new card immediately. I spent more time getting out of the car and drinking a hot chocolate then actually making the card. What's even more impressive is that I got to sign on a digital pad for it to be printed on the card. Granted this is the 21 century and these things are normal in every other country in the world but here ...

Tomorrow I'm planning to go and make the vehicle road worthiness test (VRT) for my car. Again, why testing the car if you're leaving. Ask my dad for this one cause he decided that he wants to keep the car to add it to his white car fleet.

I'm dreading hitting the keyboard at home after all the hand-over documentation I'm writing at work. Instead I'm spending most of my time browsing the web and reading blogs - as if I haven't got anything to do. My conscious self dictates that I'm supposed to do something worthwhile like look for medical insurance or maybe start deciding what to take with me to Dublin, or learn some stuff that I will be using in my new job. But no, I'd rather aimlessly surf the web. Come to think of it I might not have broadband at home in a few weeks time. AAAAAA!!!

I've noticed that in the last few days people at work people seem to be considering me in a different light. I also feel like socialising more, maybe it has to do with the feeling of not having to meet them again in a long time.

At least yesterday I went to collect my new sexy glasses. The principle behind this is that I'm trying to sort out expensive purchases while I'm still here because in Ireland this will cost 3 times more. Obviously next Monday I'm due for an appointment at the dentist.

I haven't blogged that I've finally decided on a date. (Actually I did so about a week ago). The last day on this friggin island is the 25th of March.

I drank 2 much tuday ... maybe see yu tomorow.

If I keep drinking like this (has nothing to do with drinking)

No matter how unsociable you can try to be, in a company of 2000 people you're likely to meet some nice people you dare call friends. I've spent the last few days at work telling this very elite group of people (and some managers) that I was leaving the company and country. Very few took it as a surprise and all of them were happy for me (what friends would they be otherwise). The rest of the people will learn through word of mouth (better known as gossip) and I know the news is spreading like wildfire. Strange feeling saying bye.

Updated kiwi pattern. Download this pattern and test at will here

Although the title sounds very much like a cooking book this is a novel by Irish author Marian Keyes. I happened to pick the book because the back cover says it's about a magazine editor who gets transferred against her will from London, to setup a new magazine in Dublin.

The characters are well portrayed and definitely the strongpoint of the book; there's the professional career driven Lisa, the underdog commoner Ashling who is Lisa's assistant editor, Jack the sexy scruffy boss and a couple of friends thrown for good measure. I secretly have to admit that I liked the novel and read it very fast although I avoided appearing in public places with this bright green paperback after I realized that this was woman's contemporary fiction. I would recommend this book to any woman who likes lightweight, easy reading commercial novels with touches of romance and humour. Final Verdict – A one off read 3.5/5

Funny EDS Commercial - Cat Hearding

Now that my bosses at work are informed I can officially proclaim to the world that I am immigrating to Ireland - Dublin!!!!

A self proclaimed 3 cheers for me.