Having returned from a short stint in the land of mystery, ghouls and ghosties (most people call it Edinburgh), I’m playing catch up again. Photos to process, college stuff to gain some sort of an understanding of and exams to do in a couple of weeks. It was a nice break, but damned if I don’t need another holiday right away to make up for the stress of being back. Good to be back to my comfy bed, big TV and the familiarity of good old routine. Photos in the next couple of days…
Less
More
Archive for the 'Life in General' Category
If only because our various working hours conspire against us on a weekly basis, or the fact that I attend college two nights a week… Or even her various courses and meetings, but lately, I’ve hardly seen her. To remind myself of what she looks like, here’s a photo taken at the recent Lough meetup. The better news is, it looks so damn fine in print. Even finer than it looks on the screen of my mac. Should we resort to sharing Google calendars to schedule some free time?
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
It all started some years ago when I converted a Drag Star into cash, then after a long drive to Templemore and a short conversation with the unreasonably grumpy owner, I turned cash back into bike. It was the bike I’d been after for some time as what I wanted to do more than anything was load it up and head to warmer climes.
After what seemed like an eternity, that eventually came around when myself and herself hopped on the bike and took it to warmest of warm France via drizzly England. 2500 or so miles later and we were back where we started; Rosslare. So after that, it sat covered in the garage waiting for it’s next excursion. At that stage I’d found a job that offered a company vehicle. Bad news for the bike really. I didn’t fully realise it back then but it wasn’t long before the tax expired, the insurance expired and getting it back on the road seemed less and less likely.
So it sat in the garage under a canvas cover. I still had notions of getting back out on it for the summer but that dream went flat at the same time as the bikes battery. Wheeled out every so often for a wash and polish and once or twice when someone came to look at it. I mistakenly thought it’d be an easy bike to sell because it was rare. In fact, it’s probably the only one in Ireland. (That is, the only limited edition model). In reality though, all this made it harder to sell. I went through some unpleasant telephone conversations with dealers. Self styled motorbike guru’s who each assured me they knew the market backwards. Some offered to ‘do me a favour’ by taking the bike off my hands for significantly less than I asked for. No thanks.
It was listed on various advertising websites for ages and I’d get the odd phone call or email regarding it. Then, a very decisive bike owner from Wexford visited me yesterday and converted bike back into cash. I’ll miss it and I very much doubt I’ll be bikeless for very long but for now at least, it’s as if I’m missing part of the family. The only consolation is that with the cash raised from it’s sale, I can now be debt free for the first time in about 7 years. Well, apart from the mortgage… that doesn’t really count though as we’ll be paying that off for the next thirty years!
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
In a slight distraction from all the photo related stuff (well, this is slightly photo related) I’m looking at cabling the house with cat5e so I can eventually install a fairly large nas drive on a gigabit network that’ll be accessible wherever I want it. At the moment I have an airport extreme router with a 1tb drive in raid 1 plugged into it. I reckon it gets me around 300mbit but it’s still quite sluggish when moving gigs of photos around and I’m guessing it’s going to crap out on me some day when I least expect it. A simple external hard drive is not meant to be left on 24/7 like a more expensive NAS is!
So, I need to run network cabling for approximately 20 points around the house. I figure I’ll go a bit mad with the number of points I’m installing to cater for future gizmo’s I’ll no doubt end up buying. Then I can relocate all the routers and various network gear to a cabinet I’ll install into the attic, cleaning up a few shelves in my already crowded with camera gear office. So, my requests are simple… Does anyone know…
1. Anyone that knows a bit about installing cabling into existing buildings. I’m prepared to have some ducting showing (primarily because I don’t want to tear all the plaster off the walls). I’ve got all the cable myself so I’m after advice more than anything. Although it someone want’s to quote me I’m more than happy to listen.
2. Where can I get networking gear & various bits & bobs cheaply. I know I can get cabinet, patch panels and wall outlets from a local supplier. I can get ducting from a local large electrical supplier for somewhat cheaper than B&Q are charging.
3. How I go about completing a neat job?!?
The idea is to do it before anymore of the house gets painted in case I have to start knocking holes in walls. It’s also probably a good idea to do it before the attic gets floored sometime next year. I was hopeful at first that I’d be able to run the cabling next to the existing TV cable, but due to what must have been an electrician severely lacking in depth perception, I find I’m unable to proceed with that plan. I know it’s a very very bad idea to run cabling outside the house and not a good idea to run cat5 next to power cables… but what about next to plumbing? So many questions, so don’t want to pay a fortune to get them!
So, unless anyone has any advice for me, I’ll just crack on with a drill and a hammer over the Christmas break. I had thought about putting in cat6, but it’s too damn expensive. I figure cat5e will serve gigabit ethernet perfectly well for my needs anyway. Next post, once all this is done, will possibly be a way to cool the cabinet in the sauna of an attic we have. Or maybe not. Guess I won’t be putting anything hugely heat sensitive into it anyway.
…and can’t decide how to communicate! I’ve been looking into getting a ‘landline of sorts’ at home since we moved in but I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. This is where you, my learned readers, come in very handy. I’m seeking the benefit of your experience. A bit of background; I didn’t get a physical phone line installed at home, primarily because I’d rather melt my eyeballs with a lighter than give eircom €25 a month to rent a crappy out of date copper cable. So I got symmetric 1mbit wireless broadband from nova networks to fulfill my internetty needs. As I see it currently, I’ve got two options.
1. Get skype. I’m already on skype, so all I’d have to do is create a ‘home’ account, buy something like this for €180 ish (incl delivery) and use skype pro @ about €50 a year (incl geographic 021 number). Upsides are free landline calls in Ireland and cheap as chips for worldwide calls. Downsides include the inability to ‘text chat’ from the phone and the apparently inability to send text messages from it. I’d live without both as I have a mobile. Also, skype is a closed network so I’d be unable to call regular VoIP phones. Err, don’t currently know anyone that has a VoIP phone.
2. Get Blueface. They were my original first and only option. Skype only entered into it a few weeks ago when it broke that they are now offering Irish geographic phone numbers. I’d have to get a phone; something like an s450IP (Siemens Gigaset) and probably get the second package for €99 a year. Instantly, that’s about twice the price of the skype option. It is a more open and adaptable system but is that so important?
Both have a minimum charge of around 2cent per call (connection charge) so I fail to see how an unlimited national landline package (skype) compares with a 300 minute national landline package (blueface) compares. I know I could do additional mad stuff with blueface like connecting it up to the sky box and possibly a monitored alarm and maybe even home automation, but that’s just fanciness for the sake of it. I could setup my own asterisk server, if I so chose. I could get a fax to email phone number with blueface, if I so chose.
Landlines these days are coming with broadband and calls packages that come in around €40/50 for something around a 2mbit (asymmetric) line and in some cases, unlimited calling in Ireland and the UK. I suppose at the end of it all, is blueface worth twice the price of skype? Does Blueface have twice or more of the functionality of skype? I’m not talking about all of the posh stuff either. Just talk, voicemail and maybe some text. How well does €5 per month (roughly) compare with €10? Skype is by far a more user friendly system as far as I can see. Anyone with even a fundamental knowledge of computers can download and install it. It might take a bit more insight to go out and buy a headset to use with it, but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility for even a novice user. Blueface, while not much more complicated, can get confusing for the layman with all the talk of ATA’s and SIP settings. In skype, if you can remember your username and password, you can use it anywhere.
Finally, for my own interest… How many of you are either on skype, have VoIP services or have both? I welcome your thoughts on the above.
Just before I get back to processing and posting images, I thought I’d take the opportunity to take the piss a bit. While enjoying my coffee the other day at work, I found myself wondering where the graphic designer that created the wrapper for the chocolate biscuit I was about to devour hungrily studied.
Clearly a work of designer genius. Unfortunately, the chocolate was as bland as the container…
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
Nuts. Just plain nuts! Eoin, one of my best friends and co-founder of Munster Pubs is getting married tomorrow and so the last few weeks have just been plain nuts. No salt, not roasted, just plain bloody nuts! I’d been doing odds and ends in the run up, including helping him name the tables after Beatles song titles, which took up alot more time than I thought it would. Mostly down to my own procrastination as per bloody usual. But then, Wednesday came around and I finished my task. I was actually looking forward to sitting down and clearing some of the several month processing backlog I’ve found myself in.
Then, on Thursday morning, Eoin decided it’d be great if I made a speech. Hmm, not too sure about that one. I was all set to tell him it was a bad idea when we met in the pub on Thursday night, but as these things often go, after a few pints of the devilish black stuff (Murphy’s of course) were consumed, I decided that not only was it a good idea to make a speech, it was the best idea. Right up there with hotpants and sliced bread. It seems I was railroaded into it by myself. Dang.
The following morning, wondering what I’d say and how I’d say it gave way to wondering how much I could say before getting asked to sit down. I was up on 2 A4 pages before I even realised I started. To put it as I can only understand it, I blogged with pen & paper. Having never written or delivered a speech in my entire life, I can only hope it comes off as well in delivery tomorrow evening as it sounds in my head. Then again, I think everything is a bit rose tinted in there lately.
So once this weekend is over, I can possibly get back to processing. Hooray. The only thing that I’m left to worry about after this is that once the first of my school friends is married, where does it all end?
So as it came to pass, it’s time to buy a house.
22nd May 2007
So, offer accepted after a slight bump up to the pre-election stamp duty threshold. Happy with that. Means the election essentially doesn’t mean a damn thing anymore. I do hope Mr. Tayto steals a seat in his constituency though. The auctioneer spoke ‘at’ me for a bit, telling me exactly what to do next. Booking deposit? Solicitor? I really should have watched that EBS DVD. Dang. “Yup”, “Grand” and other such non-chalant expressions gushed forth over the telephone as I watched about 40 terms and steps in the process sail blissfully over my rapidly greying hairline. Then it hit me. ‘Our’ family solicitor is either retired or dead. I don’t know any solicitors. They aren’t exactly in my social circle. The closest thing I’ve got to hanging out with a legal professional is having a few pints with a defendant in the local. I’m boned.
Or not. Rang around (I say rang around, I actually rang one) and it seemed good to me so I’ll stick with her. I have the inkling feeling I may not be called on by the financial regulator anytime soon to review and rate the conveyancing services of any local solicitors.
23rd May 2007
The meeting with the mortgage advisor was interesting. A large figure, very retired gardaesque, calculating all the in’s, out’s and monetary figures of our day to day lives for the past few years. Friendly, but when my hand started to cramp from signing all the various documents I couldn’t help but feel that I was well, signing my life away. At least for the next 35 years.
Medically speaking we’re both sound, but I don’t think the life insurance crowd believe me on that. It’s another case of English opression. I get referred to some quack that’ll poke, prod and extract €60 or so from me just to tell me I’m (more or less) healthy. All that just because I was born outside the 32 counties. Oh 800 years and whatnot. The injustice continues. Could stand to lose a few pounds, but I guess everyone could.
Yesterday morning I got a sizable cheque in the form of inheritance. Less than 10 hours later it was gone. Less than 24 hours later my (admittedly modest) savings were cleared out. I think I just felt another hair go grey.
29th May 2007
Today was medical day. I’d been fearing it, partly due to reading the leaflet that came with the notice and partly because I hadn’t been to a doctor in a hell of a long time. In fact, I don’t actually know if my GP is still practicing!?! As it turns out, what the leaflet outlined was a broad spectrum of poking, prodding and squeezing; Very little of which I had to endure. A fairly quick checkup, followed by about 45 minutes spent drinking cups of water in the waiting room (yes, it is what you think), followed by another fairly quick chat and a couple more tests. Never let anyone tell you that urinating on command is an easy task. Visualising waterfalls with the sound of running taps in your ears does not help as much as I had imagined. Similarly, never let anyone tell you that urinating into a small plastic tube is anyway easy. When they’re finished not telling you all that, also never let them tell you that holding a small plastic tube of that same hard to come by liquid is a comfortable feeling. Sure it’s warm and all that, but it’s not a good kind of warm. Have I finished discussing the gory details of providing a specimen yet? Yes, thankfully for you I have. After reading a bit about blood pressure on Wikipedia, I thought mine seemed a little high but I guess it’s nothing to worry about given that the doctor gave me a clean bill of health, at least for the purposes of getting life insurance. So I guess I’m going to be around for a few years yet. I suppose I’ll have to have a think about a few more blog topics then…
Otherwise it seems things are coming together nicely. A simple valuation has been done on the house and I finally managed to find a surveyor that actually seemed to be bothered about both talking to me on the phone and actually doing the job. Perhaps a little insight. Over the last week or so I’ve called several surveyors looking for quotes and general information. The kind of information that first time buyers like to know about. Stuff like how much, what’ll be checked, how it’s checked and what kind of detail there is in the written report we’ll be shelling out our hard earned cash for. The first one I rang, recommended by our solicitor, didn’t seem to want to talk and ended the conversation quickly after barking a price down the line. The second, third and fourth rattled off figures without being anyway inclined to give information on the report they provide. Subsequent attempts at finding a human being ended with much the same results. In desperation, I started asking around to see if anyone had a recommendation. Nobody had. Only two people I know have bought a property and neither of them used a surveyor. Different circumstances though.
So after further enquiry, I finally called another recommended surveyor today and the experience was shocking. He was pleasant and gave outstanding detail compared to the others. I almost became overwhelmed with the surprise of it all when I looked over and the call timer on the phone read 15 minutes. He went through all the detail (in perfect clarity and absolute honesty) of what he’d be doing, what’s checked and what’s not and oddly enough, his working relationship with several auctioneers. Best of all, he charges half of what the rest do. Either that or it’s down to name dropping. Either way I don’t care as long as it keeps a few more quid in the back pocket.
2nd June
Things seem to have stalled, waiting for just one single form to get filled in. A few digits and one signature on a piece of paper has held us up now for about 4/5 days. It’s almost maddening. I’d be blowing a gasket on both our behalf if we didn’t seem to have everything else sorted out, but the truth is we’re still being held up at the first hurdle. It’s a bit of a silly situation to be in.
20th June
The one single form got filled in, everything moved along swimmingly for a few days and then seemed to slow down to a crawl again waiting for contracts to be issued. The good news is that contracts have now been signed, engineers have given the nod and there’s only about three weeks to go (hopefully) until keys are handed over.
23rd July
Whomp! We’ve now been in the house for about two and a bit weeks, there are boxes everywhere but thankfully I’m back online due to slightly later than expected call from the Nova Networks installers. Stuck firmly to my guns and now have a wonderful no phone line broadband connection setup. Had to have the 1 mbit upload for adding photos to flickr of course!
It’s all come together quite well. There were a few minor… lets say ‘miscalculations’ toward the end, a lovely refund and then the handover of the keys. Enjoyed a bottle of Bubble Brothers champagne (leftovers from the 2007 Blog Awards) to celebrate. After renting for so many years it’s odd living in a house that you actually own. If you’ve read all the way down, my sincere apologies and hearty congratulations. I can’t even remember starting this some months ago. Now, anyone want to donate to my ‘buy a lawnmower’ fund?
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
Because I so rarely have time to take photos during the week, I decided to take a few quick snaps with my trusty camera phone on one of my fairly regular tours around various locations in Ireland. See, I’m a field engineer by trade and I often get stuck out for a few days on the trot. All the more reason I’ve been meaning to get a very compact camera to take with me. I could take the 20D, but that’s just another bag to haul around. Nothing too emotionally stimulating here, just a few shots I thought I’d upload to flickr so it actually looks like I’m doing something…
It all started on Monday evening in Wexford. There’s nothing like only arriving on site at the time you’d normally be crashed out on the couch at home after a long days work. While waiting for a DAT drive to do it’s thing, I strolled around the yard and spotted this scene on the other side of a menacing fence. Finally got moving at 9pm.
Arrived in Kilkenny (following some bad directions of epic proportions) at around 11pm. Give or take. Missed Lost on TV, spent an hour or so praying that my sister taped it. I’ll find out tomorrow. Stayed in the above; Lyrath Estate Hotel on the Dublin road. Should have stayed in Wexford but was itching to find out what this place was like. Big & posh. They seem to have lost some of the friendliness somewhere along the road to building a big & posh hotel. Ah well. No room service when I arrived, gotten too used to 24 hour room service elsewhere. Starved for a few minutes before deciding to ration out the cookies on the tea tray. Possibly good for a mother of a naughty weekend. By my reckoning, you’d comfortably fit 5 people in the shower.
Day 2 of the Irish Rail train drivers strike. Or so you’d imagine. Possibly one of the only trains running in the entire country and I get stuck by it. Almost got caught by it again but I just escaped the wrath of the level crossing. How and ever, I did get caught by the same train again before reaching my destination.
Could I be correct in labelling my journey as one of the most bloody awkward in the land? Kilkenny to Ballina. Very few major roads. Essentially going the wrong way across the country for a few hours. Turns out it took around 4.5 hours to do the trip.
The view from my hotel room in the Ridgepool in Ballina. Well, I say room… It was actually a suite 
Don’t even ask how I swung that one. More good luck than dirty dealing. Unfortunately not too impressive, much like Ballina itself. No offence to anyone from there, well.. anyway…
A games room, apparently! I only stayed for one game…
The week was now starting to drag on and on and on and it was only Wednesday morning. I had to get to Letterkenny fairly sharpish to install a server. I had one of those “if I had only” moments on the way up there. Bought lunch and filled up the car at Statoil in Sligo and promised myself I’d stop around Donegal and eat it. Didn’t. Wish I had. Instead of only being a close spectator to a road accident, I almost had a starring role. A car, driven by an old man, pulled into a side road passed Ballybofey whereupon it was clipped on the back wheel by a woman overtaking. His car spun, made shit of the back of it. I was two cars behind. After thinking “fuck it I hope he’s alright” I thought “I wish I stopped in Donegal”. Ended up being late to Letterkenny as I had to wait for the Gardai (whom I rang) to arrive. Took them 25 minutes. Odd, seeing as we were only about a 5 minute drive from Letterkenny. The ambulance turned up about 10 minutes later, lucky nobody was seriously hurt.
Even though I wasn’t actually involved, I found it hard to concentrate during the remainder of the drive into Letterkenny. I even found it bewildering the next morning on the drive back to Sligo. Like I had to be extra careful. Weird. That’s why there isn’t a photo from Letterkenny. I was concentrating on getting back, as least as far as Sligo anyway.
Put in a quick appearance at my appointment in Sligo, got the job finished quick so I was back on the road to Cork by lunchtime. Hurrah!
The fact of the day from Tuam. Proudly displayed thanks to a recently opened bottle of Snapple. Thankfully, the majority of the drive home was uneventful. The odd battering of rain and black cloud, like the one below from the Ennis road, threatening to dump a few million gallons of acidic h20 onto my lovely new(ish) car.
Finally got home at the reasonable hour of 6pm, after battling traffic around Mayfield and the Jack Lynch tunnel for the bones of 40 minutes. Some bad vibes must have followed me from Letterkenny as on my way into Charleville in north Cork, it appeared a French truck driver had slid across the busy road and ploughed through the ditch. Despite the dramatic condition of the truck, I can only imagine the driver escaped serious injury. Odd, I thought, that I should see two accidents in the space of two days. I hardly ever see that kinda stuff. The worst news? It’s only Thursday and there’s a whole other day of work tomorrow! Another one of those “If I had only” moments. If I had only stayed in Galway tonight and came home tomorrow morning! Gah…
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
This is just one of these kind of “isn’t it wonderful” posts. Nothing too factual or interesting about any of this. No photographs either. Anyway, put yourself in the following situation…
You design websites, only work on a few because it’s time consuming. One of your clients, lets say… someone in some way involved in some currently booming industry, has been an immeasurably awkward fucker since they day he first signed a contract. That was (give or take) six years ago. Every year you promise yourself you’ll drop him, as the amount of hassle you’re getting isn’t worth the piffling amount of money the contract brings in. You picture how you’ll do it and rehearse the speech every time you walk into his office. Every year it takes no fewer than ten visits to his office to get paid. Each time you get fucked around and told to come back in a few days. You get verbally abused and bullied, up until the point where you walk out slightly richer and waiting for the same time next year to come around.
Picture a group of people that can’t for the life of them figure out how to fix any problems of their own creation. People who depend on you for their every action. If you weren’t at the other end of the phone 24/7, they may forget how to breathe. People that can’t understand why you aren’t at their beck and call constantly and won’t pay for re-training and other non-support callouts.
Then, one day, while out doing your 9 to 5 job you receive a call. It’s the man himself, disgruntled and ignorant as usual, wondering why his website is down. You explain the concept of no payment no service, his annual contract having expired 14 days beforehand. He explains he paid last year. You sigh heavily, laugh a little then explain the term ‘annual’. He becomes audibly very annoyed and demands to see you. You explain you’re currently 250 miles away performing your job and won’t be able to make it. He wants the website re-activated. You explain (several times) that once you are paid for services, the website will be active immediately. That doesn’t go down well. The usual 15 minutes of swearing starts.
You take it very slowly, calmly and patiently, explaining the concept of annual payments, support contracts and why you de-activated the website. No joy. More swearing and demands of action. You start thinking that you’d like to see who’d win in a battle of arrogance & loudmouthedness (is that even a word?) between this guy and Rev. Ian Paisley. Possibly this guy.
Suddenly, 20 minutes into the phone call, you have an epiphany! You’ve been trying to get rid of this wanker for years. This isn’t only the perfect opportunity, it’s a chance to go out in a blaze of glory. Your glory that is. The next sentance that comes out of your mouth will live forever. “Tell you what, the best thing you can do now is go and FUCK YOURSELF”. You hang up, laugh for 2 minutes non-stop and then bask in the warm glow you have created inside your brain. You spend the next 20 minutes wishing you were a fly on the wall of his office, watching the crimson red vein popping out of his neck.
He rings back the following evening to lay down the law. He’s not given the chance. You let rip. He’s told that you’ve wanted to drop him for years and you’re far better off without him and his ridiculously small annual payment. He says he won’t be spoken to like that. You point out that he’s been speaking to you like that for years. He goes off on a tangent about people owing him money. You say you don’t care. He instructs you to come into the office and collect a cheque. You say thanks but no thanks. Another tangent. Finally, and before you hang up again, you say that if you ever hear his voice on the phone again, you’ll hang up.
You take his recently renewed domain name and ponder on pointing it toward a website that caters primarily for some kind of beastiality and/or necrophelia fetishes.