The week in review.
Where do I begin?
Not much happened as far as I can remember on the Sunday, I think we made our way back to Carmel's then just prepared for the next day of work. Oh, and it rained.
We were up at about 6 on the Monday, wide eyed but anxious. We got into work at about 8:30 and were pretty much alone in the office bar a few of the very early birds. Around 9 Shane came in and told us we would be dealing with Joe and that he would be in around 10... 11 came around, and so did Joe. Day 1 was under way.
We were set up and introduced to a few people, but almost instantly were being shown how the system works, what they expect from us etc... It was information overload, and it all seemed very far out of reach, but most of that is down to first day jitters and the new things you find in all jobs. Once we had been given the brief, we were told what we would be doing, how we would be contributing to the project. We were shell-shocked. We weren't being told to fetch the coffee (although we were issued the position of milk-testers when the freshness of the office milk was called into question) or sit in the corner, we were actually being integrated into the project in a meaningful way, and it was only the first day. To be honest, it was un-nerving, but exciting.
The people around the office were great, from the fellow developers to the CTO, everyone is on the same level and there is a great sense of unity and comraddery amongst everyone. One of the lads we had meet in the morning spoke of an apartment for rent just above him, the previous tenants had left on Friday, and said that he would follow up with his landlord about it. Joe said he had a place in the City that he might rent to us (on a slight subsidised deal). We were put to work but everyone was very approachable and would help with any issues that would arise. Everyone was treated to lunch in a nice bar across the road and it was a good time to get to talk to everyone and mingle a littl.
Apart from that, we were filling out some forms and some other things. Although it turns out that we get 0 vaction days, yes, 0 (ZERO).
After work we had a couple of apartments to visit, one was decent but wouldn't be ready until the 15th and the other was a no-show. We got back to Carmel's at about 10 or later, ate, then went to bed.
Overall the first day got a thumbs up.
Here are a few pictures from some Macy's "petacular" (their name, not ours) thing that was on on Sunday. People dressed up like their pet's and proceeding were resided over by a homosexual bumblebee, naturally.
This woman brought here daughter along with her; scarle' or wha'!
There was a parrot, a pig and a ferris wheel too, why? Why not.
Tuesday was more learning and trying to blend in, with some apartment viewings to boot. Back to Carmel's and bed. Not riveting, but it gets better, I promise. Oh and we arrived again at about 8:30 and we thought there was no work the place was so empty.
Things started to get interesting on Wednesday. During the day, Ryan (that's the guy from earlier who spoke of a vacant apartment) came up to us and gave us the number for his landlord. We gave the landlord a call, and arranged a viewing for that day, cancelling a few of our other viewings for the day to make space. We left work a little early to make our way down to Bayonne on the light rail to view the apartment, arriving a little late, we ran for the house to make sure they were still there.
Luckily they were still there, as the apartment was worth the run and then some. Large rooms, some free furniture (double bed, sofa, microwave), above Ryan in work, in a somewhat Irish neighbourhood, park down the road, right by public transport, 30 minute commute to work, adjacent to main street. It was perfect.
On that note; here is a threesome; Cute dog (it better have won), Gay Bumblebee, and Mr.Disapproval (harder to spot).
We had a look around and signed an application form, unfortunatly, they had more viewers still to come that day and they said they would ring us the following day.
We were elated at this stage, spirits were high (the past few days had not been the best; apartment-hunt-wise.) and we made our way to the next viewing.
The place was muck in comparison to where we had just been, while it may have stood a chance had we seen it earlier, it was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We swiftly moved on.
We laughed and smiled our way back to Carmel's that night, suddenly a 2 hour trip home didn't seem so bad, we wanted the joy to last as long as it could as we knew well that our spirits could be dashed the following day and they likely would be.
Here are some buildings to break up the blocks of text; Grand central, Met Life (I think) and Crysler building (spelling may be wrong 'cause a drunk guys i eyeing up my laptop asking me to look up some porn... sigh)
Arriving early to work again (we will learn soon enough) we spent the day awaiting the call that would maintain or destroy our joy. It never came. We were moving along well with the tasks that had been given to us and they seemed happy with our progress. Unfortunatly, I missed an e-mail from Carmel informing us of a possible attendance to the Yankee's game, replying too late to get our tickets. We made our way anxiously home (I was beinging to fear the worst for our apartment dreams) as we planned to ring Mike (the landlord) once we reached Carmel's. We gave him a call, and he said that he was still waiting to hear from the other group that had been viewing the apartment, as they wanted to consider all possible options (IE, get an offer that wasn't two students for 6 months :)), he said he would get back to us tongiht or tomorrow before 12. I went to bed early, the anxiety was starting to get to me.
Finally we get to Good Friday, or Super-Awesome-Stupendous Friday as it shall henceforth be known. The day began as usual, with us arriving into the office before everyone else. It was a relaxed day, as some people had taken the day off and we were due to be let off early for the day. Little did we know just how relaxed it would be. We were treated to a free lunch yet again, and one of the guys had brought in an xbox 360 and hooked it up to the projector in the conference room for some 30" Guitar Hero 2 action etc... Shane (the CTO) was the second up to wield the guitar in true rockstar style (well, as rock and roll as a programmer can get!). Retreating to my desk for a while, Gary's phone began to ring.
Gary : "Hello?"
Mike : "Cool."
"Cool what?"
"The apartment, it's your's"
*Cue jubilations and histerics*
(it's a shame we didn't have the plastic guitar in hand or we could have really done some celebratory damage)
They talked some details, and worked out the move in price, with the choice to move in from Tomorrow. I couldn't believe our luck, the apartment was perfect, and having been turned away from much MUCH worse apartments due to our 6-month lease we were both very appreciative. We spent the next hour trying to sort out some finances (as our first pay check arrives the first of May!), but anyone we got in touch with was practically throwing money at us (perhaps this practice will continue once we get home? who knows :)) so it was not difficult to breach the target needed (thanks Dad :D). We skipped around for a while, before deciding to start moving the money around, I went into the bank downstairs to see if I could retrieve the money from my AIB account without much difficulty, but they would not accept my ATM card because it didn't have a VISA/Mastercard symbol (Damn you AIB, where IS my VISA?), this slight hiccup was rectified by 6 stops to the local ATM until my wallet was bursting as the seams and the ATM refused to issue me any more cash ( returning to the ATM 10 minutes later revealed an "Out of service" error screen...whoops :)). Everyone in the office was excited for us and offering thier congratulations, although Joe was slightly bug-eyed after a NON-stop 10hour 3-way-speakerphone problem solving day.
Here is some pics of the Empire State at night, they don't look real, but they are.
The trip back to Carmel's tonight was definitly the fastest yet, the subway was floating on a cloud. We called Mike when we got back and said that hopefully we would be able to move in tomorrow and said that we would ring him tomorrow as he was available only in the morning and at night. We should be moving in tomorrow, but if not it will be Sunday or Monday.
Well, that brings us up to the current day in a round about way. Oh, and the weather has been shit, stay smug while you can Ireland, it won't last long!
Here's to tomorrow.
Not much happened as far as I can remember on the Sunday, I think we made our way back to Carmel's then just prepared for the next day of work. Oh, and it rained.
We were up at about 6 on the Monday, wide eyed but anxious. We got into work at about 8:30 and were pretty much alone in the office bar a few of the very early birds. Around 9 Shane came in and told us we would be dealing with Joe and that he would be in around 10... 11 came around, and so did Joe. Day 1 was under way.
We were set up and introduced to a few people, but almost instantly were being shown how the system works, what they expect from us etc... It was information overload, and it all seemed very far out of reach, but most of that is down to first day jitters and the new things you find in all jobs. Once we had been given the brief, we were told what we would be doing, how we would be contributing to the project. We were shell-shocked. We weren't being told to fetch the coffee (although we were issued the position of milk-testers when the freshness of the office milk was called into question) or sit in the corner, we were actually being integrated into the project in a meaningful way, and it was only the first day. To be honest, it was un-nerving, but exciting.
The people around the office were great, from the fellow developers to the CTO, everyone is on the same level and there is a great sense of unity and comraddery amongst everyone. One of the lads we had meet in the morning spoke of an apartment for rent just above him, the previous tenants had left on Friday, and said that he would follow up with his landlord about it. Joe said he had a place in the City that he might rent to us (on a slight subsidised deal). We were put to work but everyone was very approachable and would help with any issues that would arise. Everyone was treated to lunch in a nice bar across the road and it was a good time to get to talk to everyone and mingle a littl.
Apart from that, we were filling out some forms and some other things. Although it turns out that we get 0 vaction days, yes, 0 (ZERO).
After work we had a couple of apartments to visit, one was decent but wouldn't be ready until the 15th and the other was a no-show. We got back to Carmel's at about 10 or later, ate, then went to bed.
Overall the first day got a thumbs up.
Here are a few pictures from some Macy's "petacular" (their name, not ours) thing that was on on Sunday. People dressed up like their pet's and proceeding were resided over by a homosexual bumblebee, naturally.
This woman brought here daughter along with her; scarle' or wha'!
There was a parrot, a pig and a ferris wheel too, why? Why not.
Tuesday was more learning and trying to blend in, with some apartment viewings to boot. Back to Carmel's and bed. Not riveting, but it gets better, I promise. Oh and we arrived again at about 8:30 and we thought there was no work the place was so empty.
Things started to get interesting on Wednesday. During the day, Ryan (that's the guy from earlier who spoke of a vacant apartment) came up to us and gave us the number for his landlord. We gave the landlord a call, and arranged a viewing for that day, cancelling a few of our other viewings for the day to make space. We left work a little early to make our way down to Bayonne on the light rail to view the apartment, arriving a little late, we ran for the house to make sure they were still there.
Luckily they were still there, as the apartment was worth the run and then some. Large rooms, some free furniture (double bed, sofa, microwave), above Ryan in work, in a somewhat Irish neighbourhood, park down the road, right by public transport, 30 minute commute to work, adjacent to main street. It was perfect.
On that note; here is a threesome; Cute dog (it better have won), Gay Bumblebee, and Mr.Disapproval (harder to spot).
We had a look around and signed an application form, unfortunatly, they had more viewers still to come that day and they said they would ring us the following day.
We were elated at this stage, spirits were high (the past few days had not been the best; apartment-hunt-wise.) and we made our way to the next viewing.
The place was muck in comparison to where we had just been, while it may have stood a chance had we seen it earlier, it was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We swiftly moved on.
We laughed and smiled our way back to Carmel's that night, suddenly a 2 hour trip home didn't seem so bad, we wanted the joy to last as long as it could as we knew well that our spirits could be dashed the following day and they likely would be.
Here are some buildings to break up the blocks of text; Grand central, Met Life (I think) and Crysler building (spelling may be wrong 'cause a drunk guys i eyeing up my laptop asking me to look up some porn... sigh)
Arriving early to work again (we will learn soon enough) we spent the day awaiting the call that would maintain or destroy our joy. It never came. We were moving along well with the tasks that had been given to us and they seemed happy with our progress. Unfortunatly, I missed an e-mail from Carmel informing us of a possible attendance to the Yankee's game, replying too late to get our tickets. We made our way anxiously home (I was beinging to fear the worst for our apartment dreams) as we planned to ring Mike (the landlord) once we reached Carmel's. We gave him a call, and he said that he was still waiting to hear from the other group that had been viewing the apartment, as they wanted to consider all possible options (IE, get an offer that wasn't two students for 6 months :)), he said he would get back to us tongiht or tomorrow before 12. I went to bed early, the anxiety was starting to get to me.
Finally we get to Good Friday, or Super-Awesome-Stupendous Friday as it shall henceforth be known. The day began as usual, with us arriving into the office before everyone else. It was a relaxed day, as some people had taken the day off and we were due to be let off early for the day. Little did we know just how relaxed it would be. We were treated to a free lunch yet again, and one of the guys had brought in an xbox 360 and hooked it up to the projector in the conference room for some 30" Guitar Hero 2 action etc... Shane (the CTO) was the second up to wield the guitar in true rockstar style (well, as rock and roll as a programmer can get!). Retreating to my desk for a while, Gary's phone began to ring.
Gary : "Hello?"
Mike : "Cool."
"Cool what?"
"The apartment, it's your's"
*Cue jubilations and histerics*
(it's a shame we didn't have the plastic guitar in hand or we could have really done some celebratory damage)
They talked some details, and worked out the move in price, with the choice to move in from Tomorrow. I couldn't believe our luck, the apartment was perfect, and having been turned away from much MUCH worse apartments due to our 6-month lease we were both very appreciative. We spent the next hour trying to sort out some finances (as our first pay check arrives the first of May!), but anyone we got in touch with was practically throwing money at us (perhaps this practice will continue once we get home? who knows :)) so it was not difficult to breach the target needed (thanks Dad :D). We skipped around for a while, before deciding to start moving the money around, I went into the bank downstairs to see if I could retrieve the money from my AIB account without much difficulty, but they would not accept my ATM card because it didn't have a VISA/Mastercard symbol (Damn you AIB, where IS my VISA?), this slight hiccup was rectified by 6 stops to the local ATM until my wallet was bursting as the seams and the ATM refused to issue me any more cash ( returning to the ATM 10 minutes later revealed an "Out of service" error screen...whoops :)). Everyone in the office was excited for us and offering thier congratulations, although Joe was slightly bug-eyed after a NON-stop 10hour 3-way-speakerphone problem solving day.
Here is some pics of the Empire State at night, they don't look real, but they are.
The trip back to Carmel's tonight was definitly the fastest yet, the subway was floating on a cloud. We called Mike when we got back and said that hopefully we would be able to move in tomorrow and said that we would ring him tomorrow as he was available only in the morning and at night. We should be moving in tomorrow, but if not it will be Sunday or Monday.
Well, that brings us up to the current day in a round about way. Oh, and the weather has been shit, stay smug while you can Ireland, it won't last long!
Here's to tomorrow.
posted by Andy at 02:13
7 Comments:
Yo Andy, the good news is money from Seamus is on he way!!!! he has just been sussed. The imcredible gift was from your Dad!! or maybe it was the one from me!!!
We're all around the computer in our house reading your blog. Fab about the apartment and great to see how much fun you're having.
Keep up the good work.
Hia Andrew
I will keep the XBox 360 safe for you until you come home!! We were in Eddie Rockets and you missed it! We said Achoo to the girl from Lithuania (that means thank you)
We all sat around the computer and thoroughly enjoyed your blog post! I'm glad I got the credit for the "gift" before you left .... but unfortunately can't really take the credit ..... there's no chance of that with Cecilia around anyway!! Ouch - she just hit me! Good news is I'm getting your account details from your Dad and will beef it up a bit. That was the plan from before you went - I swear ... no I swear!! Really!
More later. Keep writing. And gret pics of the Empire State.
Brilliant! Well done! Congratulations! You had us rolling around the kitchen laughing as we read you account this beautiful warm Saturday morning. Really like you writing style. Naturally we are delighted that you got your apartment sorted out: enjoy it. I could not get this comment to publish this morning so am trying again now, having saved it to Word. The photos are great: I think the empire state ones are excellent. Surprised that you get 0 vacations: in Ireland the law is 1.25 days for each month worked...mind you we generally be well under way each morning by 08:30. Have a great Easter. Buy yourself an egg!!
Hey all! Thanks for the comments again!
Sorry about roping you into debt Seamus >.< blame whoever it was (I won't be trying to name names again) that put in the vague bank comment!
No post tonight unfortunatly, just got the chance to post up a comment. I should be able to get another up tomorrow, if I can find some free access somewhere!
Oh, and thank you for watching over the 360 for me Josh, and a lot of thanks to Cecilia & co. for all contributions to my expedition, they have been greatly appreciated.
Hello there :) They are some really nice pictures!! I can't wait until I can afford one of them :-/ (A girl can dream haha)
and I loved the pictres of the dogs and their owners!! Very ammusing :)
Just a quick comment to say congrats with your new place and that we all wish you & Gary the best of luck!
Love & Hugs from Anna & co.
P.S. Hope the Easter Bunny came to ya!! (If not I'll will have one for ya!)
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