Irish Efficiency….
…… is a paradox. On fri, Ulric and I woke up bright and early to head to Garda (Irish immigration) to get our papers done up – we have until 28th to do it, and since there were no classes on Fri, we agreed to head downtown on Fri to do it.
We knew that we were in for a long wait, as advised by our immigration predecessors; so, to make sure we do not spend the whole day there, we arrived at Garda at 8:55am (it opens at 8:30am), and were prepared to wait for our turn at least till early noon. Everything should be smooth right?
WRONG.
The place was extremely crowded when we arrived (expected). So we queued. After 20 sec or so, a lady came out from the office, and made this statement:
“Sorry, you have to leave this place, we are out of tickets for today”
What in the KFC 2 piece chicken meal???
If it was a super duper long wait, i could understand; large and messy crowd, i could understand too; even if they tried to make things difficult for me at the counter, it will be tough to but i still would have been able to understand but
NO TICKETS??
wapiang, I’m in Ireland, not Indonesia you know? (this is with all due respect to my indo friends)
Actually, i wasn’t that annoyed; true i didn’t appreciate the fact that i had to wake up at 630am on a day i didn’t have lessons, but part of me was actually amused that something like this still happened in a developed nation.
Ulric, on the other hand, was majorly PISSED. Think he could have killed someone.
So, since 28th is the last day to do it, we’re resigned to skipping our Monday lectures. We are so going to take the first bus and camp outside at 730am. Not even queuing for Man Utd tickets ok =.=
Fortunately, the day didn’t go badly from that point on. We headed for brekkie at O’Briens, then i blew some serious money on retail therapy (trenchcoat, jeans, t shirt, scarf). How major? er… ask me personally. Lol.
While eating brekkie, i had a eureka moment:
GUINNESS STOREHOUSE VISIT!
Since we had nothing to do, and it was still really early, might as well right?
So off we went to visit the place where Guinness was born.
On the tram en route to the storehouse
Glimpse of the factory
HAHAHA
On the top of the storehouse, and the end of the tour (11EUR – about 23-24SGD), was the acclaimed Gravity Bar, where visitors could redeem their free pint of Guinness, and catch a breathtaking view of the entire Dublin City.
That’s how crowded it was
cheers!
On the way home, we stopped by for some groceries. Other than alcohol, i think fresh meat from the butcher has to be one of the only other things that are cheaper than SG. The meat is dirt cheap. Like seriously. Like 8 huge chicken legs (thighs + drumstick) for 5EUR – about 10-12SGD. Like, 600gm of ribeye steak for 3EUR. We bought 26EUR worth of meat – think it’s enough to last us for the next 3 weeks at least.
Today’s cheapo dinner (which will probably cost a bomb in SG, or restaurants):
Ribeye steak with potatoes and carrots and er, kailan (had to finish using it -yellowing), topped with creamy mushroom black pepper sauce – i’m really having a whale of a time honing my culinary skills! haha
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this is a little overdue, but thanks for all the birthday wishes guys! Muchly muchly appreciated. You know who you are. Love you people man! =)
Other than the Singaporeans back home, i didn’t expect much of a celebration right here, i mean, whoever knows me? But my housemates really surprised me. I was on MSN, and Ulric told me to go to the kitchen to grab dinner (was my German housemate’s turn to cook). I trotted off to the kitchen, and….
This bunch of people (with more in the background) broke into “HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU~~ (x4)” I only got to know them for 3 weeks! Apparently, my german housemate cooked up a birthday dinner, and invited all our newly made European friends. Could feel the tears welling up. haha! but was extremely, extremely, touched.
The mastermind
Birthday gift from Sebastien (german housemate) and Ulric. Bottle of champagne which was promptly drunk up.
Till next time!
26 Random Things that happened to me since 20/09/08
1. Quit facebook
2. Got my heart broken
3. Made it to Dublin to study!
4. Fell in love with Kari Jobe; a pity that the feeling’s not mutual
5. Became great friends with new and wonderful pple
6. For a period of time, felt totally and utterly worthless (not now!)
7. First time to Kuching
8. Signed up for my first every gym membership….
9. ….and a hint of a 6 pack actually developed…..
10. ….. but evaporated when i came over to Dublin =/
11. played in Suntec for the very first time
12. first public song presentation
13. attended 3 weddings (would have been 4 if not for other commitments – more to come in 2010 i think)
14. attended final fantasy concert!
15. acquired a taste for Guinness draft
16. got introduced to diaoyu on the rocks and mojeeetos.
17. got my iphone stolen =(
18. did some truly, truly dumb things
19. saw my first shooting star =))
20. had my first night picnic
21. cried. a lot.
22. got a new and most amazing mentor (thanks Chris!)
23. actually forgave pple whom i never thought i could
24. felt really, really, really loved
25. learnt what it’s like to truly surrender to God
26. conquered my fear of onions (i still don’t like it though; but i can eat them!)
in short, to quote Dr Seuss,
“If you’ve never been born, what would you be?
You could have been a rock, a toad, or a tree.
Or worse in all of that you could have been a ‘wasn’t'!
Now a wasn’t has no fun at all no he doesn’t.
A wasn’t just isn’t, he isn’t present but you are here;
Now isn’t that pleasant?
Today you are you and it’s true-er than than true
That there is no one alive that is you-er than you
Shout out loud “I’m glad who i am!”
Thank God I’m not a rock, a clamp, a ham
or a dusty old jar of gooseberry jam!
I am what i am, and it’s a great thing to be,
if i should say so myself,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!”
=))
Week 1 Updates
Warning: monster post
Week one zoomed past! School started, attended lectures, made (even more) new friends, attended a new church and a new lifegroup.
The modules that I’m going to be taking this semester:
Knowledge Management and Innovation
Globalisation for Business Students
International Business
International Finance Management
HRM Techniques
Asian Business
was supposed to take Financial Economics too, but changed my mind after the first lecture (i have till 18sept to confirm my modules). The FE class was seriously 0-0. All the dy/dx X du/dt log ln formula sh….stuff. I told my program manager that my purpose here was not purely for studies. I could have done that in Singapore had i wanted to. If i had taken that module i can kiss my weekends and term break goodbye. She put us in Asian Business promptly. Nice lady =D
The international finance management lecturer was hilarious. He definitely hails from one of the eastern European countries going by his accent. He went through our notes and halfway through, exclaimed:
“What the f*** is this?” “Total crAAAAp.” “Irish financial commentators are rubbish…”
and proceeded to tell us not to buy the textbooks cos we wouldn’t be needing them, unless we had a personal interest in it. Btw, textbooks here are seriously ex. To the tune of approx 100sgd per textbook. I’m just going to head to the library every week la.
I have already established my least favourite lecturer. She takes my knowledge management and innovation lectures. The module itself is quite interesting, but her workload is unbelievable. This is how we are going to be assessed for this module:
Exams: 70%
Project: 10%
Learning Journal 1: 10%
Learning Journal 2: 10%
-START OF RANT-
Looks alright? Think again. Learning journal part 1 is on lectures week 1-6. Every week, we are supposed to journal a minimum 1000 word entry. 600 words commentary on pre-lecture textbook reading and a random article we pick up from the internet/magazines/newspaper and 400 words on post lecture reflection. 1000×6 weeks = 6000 words. I still need to read through, reflect, write my thoughts. All for 10%! Which means, per 1000word entry, im only going for 1.7marks. Totally WTH right? She thinks her 1.7 marks is the world. Needless to say, i totally spammed my first entry. Didn’t even bother double checking. I understand the need for some effort, but this is just ridiculous….
-END OF RANT-
Other than that, the rest of the lectures have been rather interesting. I enjoy the non-singapore way of education, where you just memorise everything and regurgitate during exams. Well, a certain amount of memory work is required here as well, but i particularly like the fact that most of my classes are conducted interactively, rather than just having the lecturer read from the slides. Didn’t realise how much i missed student life until these couple of weeks.
Did i mention that i have long weekends for the entire year cos i do not have lessons on Friday? Shiok! Am already planning to hit other countries with my housemates. Other than that, am grateful for the extra day to do my chores, cleaning and shopping for the week, so that i can have my weekends for other stuff like music, church, travelling etc.
Went grocery shopping on Friday! This merits a mention just for the reason that it’s the first time in my life i went grocery shopping with a haversack, because in Ireland, plastic bags are not given when you shop (apparently they are huge on environmental issues).
Pre shopping:
Post Shopping:
See my haversack has increased in size. One week’s worth of groceries. All was good, except for the one tomato who chose to explode in my haversack =.=
At the risk of jinxing it, i must announce happily that Dublin has had FANTASTIC weather the past week. No rain (which is a surprise, as Dublin is more prone to rain than sunny weather), the day was cooling, night wasn’t that cold, and it was just really, really nice to walk around. No sticky skin, no unnecessary perspiration. Jealous yet? =pp
On friday, i played football for the first time here. Man, it was literally a World XI vs Botswana XI. Yours truly was one of the smallest guy on the pitch. Totally felt like Park Ji Sung. I had Spaniards, Italians, Americans, Germans, Russians on my team. I was the only Asian on the field. I still had fun though, shan’t go into details, except that my italian and spanish teammates were really, really good. There was a guy who played like Maldini, and another who played like Giggs. Serious! But the weather was superb. Just the right amount of sun, and there was a cool breeze. Oh, and i had a team mate who is the splitting image of Berbatov. No kidding! I’ll try to get a picture in future.
Remember i mentioned in a previous post that i almost killed myself by going out to run in singlet and shorts? I got smarter hey. Nowadays i go in this:
(A jogging attire which looks really cool in movies but too siao to replicate in Singapore)
On saturday evening, i headed to the pub opposite campus alone to catch Man Utd vs Spurs over a pint of Guinness, as my housemates had some of their own plans =DD Good match, good victory. Just needed one or two buddies to complete the experience. On the way back, i stopped just outside apartment for a while. Was just captivated by how still, how quiet, how beautiful the sunset sky was.
My E71 camera didn’t do the surroundings justice, but at that moment, coupled with the awesome, awesome weather, looking at the landscape and the evening sky, wow, i suddenly felt really, really loved by God. Like he painted the evening sky just for me (maybe i have a hidden pathway to God?) And he spoke the words in Isaiah to me clearly, “In quietness and trust is your strength” =)))
I’ve been really blessed to have gotten connected to a church so quickly. Thanks to Hope London people for the recommendation. It’s a small but international church, but the things that they are doing are pretty similar to the early days of our church. I think they are moving in the right direction. You can check them out here.
Have attended 2 services, one lifegroup, and a music practice so far. If God is willing, i hope to be able to contribute to their music team soon and very soon. Think they wanna roster me soon as well… for such a small church (abt 100), think they would just take anyone who is willing to volunteer.
Some pictures:
Brendan, the senior pastor
Brendan’s daughter, Nicole – she has to be one of the most smiley babies ever! She’s always smiling, even to complete strangers… lol
Bohdan – my CL – he’s from Slovakia
Peter – the band leader – from Poland
We had a lunch session to facilitate fellowship after service today, and basically different people cooked for the church. The dish in the picture was a homemade lasagna by Bohdan’s wife, Anna. The taste was… indescribable, inconceivable~~~hahaha heavenly! Sometimes it feels quite good to become a member in church again. Like kena pampered.. hahaha. I’m enjoying the fellowship in this church =)
Till the next update, take care people =)
p.s (happy belated birthdays my brudders roy, ray and dennis – sucks that i can’t be there to celebrate with you guys – we’ll have a super belated birthday dinner/beer session/chillout night soon alright!)
p.p.s (sheep(s)….. reply my emails leh…. dun dao can. haha)
Dublin Calling
So, here i am, 1 day before departure, blogging my final thoughts before departing from this sunny island.
It has been a few weeks of crazy busy. Tons of things to settle and meetups aplenty came along with the approval for Dublin.
I have been truly humbled by the mere knowledge of how much God loves me, through his provision for the trip, and the care and concern showered by my friends.
It’s gonna be at the very least, 9mths of a new adventure for me, new culture, new experiences, and hopefully, when i do return one day, i would be much stronger as a man and a Christ-follower.
Thank you, friends, for the really early birthday celebrations, the farewells, the tons of treats (i think i might have put on weight even before i get there). I’m sorry i couldn’t meet with everyone.
Most importantly, you guys have made me feel extremely, extremely loved, and i wouldn’t exchange you people for anything in the world.
See you guys in a bit! Kindly keep me in prayer whenever you think about me =)
The Spartan
quirky sense of humor? check.
commence mealtime before the rest of the group has settled down? check.
immaculate timing of darnest quotable quotes? check.
saying the wrong (but unmistakably hilarious) things at the wrong time? check.
delusional about personal sexayness? definitely check.
well-loved by people around? check
magnanimous (when teased endlessly, and sometimes overboard-ly)? check
ability to bring joy to people and light up their faces? check.
dedicated individual? check.
sincere? check.
You have been one of my better friends, and i really enjoy this brotherhood that we share. You are the only drummer so far i have seen copy every single lick in a song so flawlessly. Your desire to live a life that’s worthy of God’s dwelling, inspires me to want to do the same. I’m sure i speak for the rest when i say that you are the life of the unit. Thank you for making my bad days less gloomy. Thank you for giving me the privilege to access your private life and ask tough questions. Continue to grow in your stature and personification of the word.
in short, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HENDRA WINATA! =D
