Kersti's Corner

Confusing!

Today I watched a German program on the French Revolution with an English voice-over. All the re-enactments were in German, very confusing!

Ireland does some things right for once

Well today I popped down to Revenue which is the name for the Irish tax office. I had my forms from last year's tax and a few medical receipts with me. I looked online to see what office I had to go to (they tend to insist that you only go to one place here - when I voted I had to go to one particular polling booth too) and off I went.

But surprise surprise noone there - the guy in the cloakroom suggested I go to another office.
I was dubious, having experienced the joy of the Irish run-around before, but I had nothing better to do so I headed for the other side of town.

Well, when I got there I was surprised indeed! The office had a clear sign pointing out where I should go, so I followed the directions (which were correct too), took a number and waited in the queue to have my number validated by reception - basically this means having someone make sure I've got the right forms etc Took 5 mins to get through this queue.

I then sat in the waiting area and settled myself expecting to spend an hour or so - but no, 15 mins tops and my number was called. The next section which was just full of desks had a sign pointing me to which desk to go to and the girl there was incredibly helpful - turns out I was missing two forms, but she handed them to me and I filled them in on the spot.

And the biggest bonus, my tax was assessed right there and then. Under half an hour. My return will be deposited in my bank account in about 10 days.

So, the Irish are capable of running an efficient and helpful service - if only they'd adopt that model for other areas too.

Voting

I voted today, yes a Thursday. As a British citizen resident in Ireland I am entitled to vote in local and European elections - everything except voting in referendums or for the President. Voting here is not compulsory. Personally I think the compulsory voting is the way to go, somehow it just makes sense to me.

The campaign which was announced only 4 weeks ago has been closely fought with every light pole bearing huge posters of the candidates faces and yesterday (thankfully) the campaigning had to stop.

So when I showed up at my designated polling place (you're not allowed to go to others) I was surprised by how low key it was. No lines of people shoving how to vote cards into my hands, no party atmosphere at all. Just a small room with four officials who looked at my passport and then crossed my name off and handed me my ballot sheet.

The ballot sheet itself has logos for the party, if a candidate is affiliated with one, the name suburb and occupation of the candidate and then their photo - very illiterate-friendly! All candidates are listed in alphabetical order.

You place a 1 beside your first preference and continue down, similar to Australia - except here you can stop where you like, you don't have to give a vote to the weirdos or the gun lobby if you don't want to.

I was in and out of the polling place within 5 minutes!

The Arklow Adventure

I had an off-site for work on Thursday and Friday. Kind of like a group love-in, we all went away to spend some time bonding and getting some actual work done without the interruptions. They're a great idea and for this one we were staying at a lovely place in County Wicklow called Brook Lodge nestled amongst the rolling green hills.

After our first day we found out that our sales people had hit a milestone, so it was certainly going to be a celebration. The champagne came out before dinner and continued on. Dinner itself was lovely - all organic produce and delicious.

After dinner Ciaran decided that we should go to a club. Trouble was that we were miles from nowhere - so off he went to organise something. A taxi was soon on it's way and we headed off to the nearest "club", being a pub in the historic town of Arklow - 17 kilometres away from where we were staying. Jen wisely grabbed the taxi driver's card so we would be able to call him when we wanted to go back.

Ignoring the stares of the locals we hit the dance floor. Brilliantly skilled DJ - every time we really got into it he managed to put on a floor-clearer, you have to try very hard to be that bad. But what the hell, we continued on and had a great time until they closed at 2:30.

So, out onto the street, time to flag down a cab. The locals largely disappeared until there was ourselves and another group left. Our cab driver wasn't picking up at all, neither were any of the other taxi companies in the county. We even called the hotel, they were trying their own contacts for us.

While we were calling various people trying to get a cab a very expensive volve came screeching to a stop in front of us and the driver asked where we were going - absolutely no-where with someone who drives like that! He sped off, screeching the tyres and coming to a hard stop in front of the other group who also didn't look too impressed, so off the guy screeched again. A few seconds later he was back and doing about 120 down the windy main street, swerving towards us so we all dove for cover in a shop doorway. The guy was clearly on something and clearly dangerous, so I got on the phone to the local Garda to report him. As I was on the phone, your man drove his car straight into a the corner of a shop, screeched into reverse and then smashed into the shop again, eventually turning the car with bits of it twisting off and speeding away.

Eventually the police turned up and went off to look for him, but we were still stranded without any taxis. The lads were getting restless and annoyed so we started to walk. After a while we came across the police again - we askedthem if they could help us, two of us were quite sober and if we could get back we could drive down and collect the others, but they told us they were going off to pick up a lunitic who had stolen a car and was burning it - their recommendation was to stay put.

But we couldn't stay on the street. The 4am bells were ringing for mass and we had to start the next day's work at 10! So, we started to head home. Jenny wearing heels and myself in a singlet top. 17 kilometers - I figured about 5 hours given that most of it would be poorly made roads and pitch black. The hotel hadn't found us anyone, and the only people on staff there didn't have cars so they couldn't help us themselves.

At about 4:30 after walking for what seemed like hours (I know, only half of one but it seemed like hours) it was starting to rain. Tony and Ciaran had run off ahead and left the rest of the group following. We were starting to think about having to find shelter if the rain got any heavier - we were fast becoming one of those idiot groups that get caught out and die of exposure. Then, out of the blue the phone rings - the hotel has managed to wake someone up and he's on his way to get us. he rain's getting heavier so we stop and huddle under teh one umbrella waiting for our taxi-saviour. Finally he arrives, in a mini bus and with the two lads who'd run ahead. At 5 I stumbled into my room, grateful for the chance at a few hours of sleep.

Next morning Jen and I met for breakfast. The boys joined us at about 10 - clearly we would be running late! Ciaran was later, we had to wake him up. Turns out the boys had continued the party for some time. Despite that, the day's activities went well - although we were all very happy to be heading back towards Dublin!

So, that was the Arklow adventure. Certainly not one I'd recommend!

Brooklodge and Wells Spa

Easter Sunday

Nothing is open today - except the pubs! It's totally bizarre. You would think that they'd have one day where everything was closed and not do this strange all but no pubs on Friday and nothing but pubs on Sunday...

Good Friday

WOW! No pubs open on Good Friday - totally bizarre. Even restaurants are not allowed to serve alcohol. Of course that doesn't stop the locals from going to the off-license on Maundy Thursday and stocking up for their home parties. I'm sure that there will be some very sore heads tomorrow!

Ilze flew in this morning. We headed into town for some lunch and for a bit of a shop - thankfully Brown Thomas was open, so we had a good look around at the shoe lounge.

Louis Vuitton has a new range out - the monogram canvass with a silver or gold lace pattern overlayed, it's lovely but only come in a couple of bag styles and really is a bit overpriced like most LV stuff is. Still, lovely to look at.

Next stop was Dior and they finally have in the flat shoes that match the pumps I purchased last year - I just adore them, I've been popping in and out of Dior ever since to see if they'd get them back in. You can just imagine my excitement to find them back, I'd honestly given up! Naturally they didn't have my size in the colour I wanted - they did have in white so I could try for size. The assistant looked up stock lists and found that Manchester have my size - what luck! They store in Manchester is holding a pair for me :)

We next tried for a bit of an afternoon tea at Bewleys - and everything on the menu that I fancied they were out of. Finally I settled on a scone, but they came back to say they didn't have any so I decided to give up - maybe grab some chocolate later on. Was a bit miffed when they girl came out to give the couple at the next table some hot cross buns - they hadn't told me about those! Not to worry, M&S make the best hot cross buns... we grabbed some of those to heat up at home.

Next stop was a quick look in Fitzpatricks where I found a lovely pair of Fendi's in my size going for less than half price :) Love that! Yes they came home with me... I'll upload a photo in a few days. Obviously St Crispin is looking out for me today :D

The rest of the day was spent planning tomorrow....

Ireland going Green

One of the things I noticed when I first arrived in Ireand was the plastic bag levy. It's a 15c charge on every plastic bag applied at the checkout. Must say that this is quite successful - most people carry around a few plastic bags and a lot of retailers have switched to paper bags.

It's impact on my is definately there, and I considered myself to be reasonable conscious of my plastic bag useage. Now I have a couple of those great bags that fold into themselves (they fit in my handbag) and even if I'm going shopping and not for groceries I'll take along a bag or two. If I need to pop into the store after work I will beg and borrow a plastic bag rather than buy one at the counter if I haven't got a bag on me. In the past if I didn't have a bag on me I'd just grab the plastic ones at the checkout and not think of it.

But it's not until you go elsewhere that you really notice the difference. In London they don't have such a levy and every shop will hand you a plastic bag, I actualy feel quite disgusted by it and try to take as few as possible. People look at you strangely when you pull out your own bags there. In a way shopping in other countries makes shopping in Ireland seem cleaner.

They're about to up the levy to 22c, which is the highest they can make it. And I must say I agree. I actually would agree with this being introduced all over the world. The only thing I'd do (and it's hard to police but not impossible) is perhaps to introduce one levy for plastic bags using new plastic and another for plastic bags using recycled plastic. And you know, I'd also welcome a small charge for paper bags too. After all they use bleach and still contribute to landfill.

Irish medical

Well shortly after I posted that one about my little fall I was feeling pretty crap - back was starting to get sore and so was my neck, in fact my neck was quite stiff indeed. I put my hand up and felt a lump - eek!

Asked one of the girls at work, who said that she could see it, went to the bathroom to look in the mirror and sure enough, a big lump sticking out of the base of my neck at the side. Not good.

Now I haven't yet bothered to find a "family doctor" in Ireland, I tend to not really get sick so when I need some doctoring I just head to a walk in service down the street from work, trouble is that they're only open from 10 to 3 or something.

A quick check of the Golden Pages (where else?) turned up a few clinics nearby, but it was starting to look pretty dicey when the 8th one in a row was fully booked up last night and couldn't see me until the follwing day.

Finally found a "late night" walk in service - open until 7. However, Jon said that he didn't think that would be a good idea, seems my own walk in service is unusually good compared to the norm here. And no, no such thing as a real late night clinic.

So there was nothing for it. Off to the local hospital emergency ward.

Now I must admit here that the last time I was in an emergency ward for myself was well over 10 years ago, and to tell the truth I can't remember if it was for me or one of the times I took Gary there, so while I can look at some comparisons, they won't be scientific.

When I first arrived there was a queue to sign in and register. I waited for 15 mins standing in line - as I was on my own I didn't have the benefit that others had of getting their companion to wait for them. Anyway I signed in and was told to wait for the triage nurse. The chairs were wooden backed, and there was no reading material around, so I figured I was in for a hideously boring time - thank whoever you believe in for google talk on the blackberry!

Anyway it was only about 10 minutes until I was called in to the Triage nurse who decided I needed to go to Zone 3. So back out to the waiting room and a call to St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne to see if mum happened to be working - she was so I chatted to her for about 15 minutes until I got called into Zone 3.

Once in my little cubicle in Zone 3 (minor injuries and illnesses) the doc came past and chatted and then had a look at the lump on my neck - the verdict, nothing to do with the fall. Instead a pretty nasty lymph node infection. He had a look at the movement in my neck and decided that it would be OK, but if it gets worse I'm to go back. I asked about the location - turns out there's more lymph nodes in my neck than I thought, and given that I've never really been a sicky it'd quite understandable that I wouldn't know about those ones. Doc was quite adament that I was right to come in rather than sleep on it.

All in all I was in emergency for about 1.5hours - pretty damn good for someone who wasn't actually about to die. I'll get a bill for 60 euros, which to be honest is only 10 euro more than a standard doctor would have cost me. All in all a pretty good experience with the Irish health system. Although Jacqui from work waited 14 hours to get treated for pneumonia last year so I was clearly very lucky.

So, I got myself home and today went in to work but had to leave early - now the infection's really hitting and I'm feeling absolutely terrible. Not sure if the aches in my back are from the fall or from the sickness. Guess it's time for me to actually rest up. I so hate getting sick!

Ash Wednesday

I had the telly on this morning, and they were interviewing a priest. "What an unfortunate birthmark" thought I on seeing the black smudge on his forhead, "surely they could have covered that up with some makeup?"

Later they were talking to someone else who had a similar mark. And then when I was walking to work past the church I saw a group of people coming out, all with the same marks on their forheads - I figred by now that it must have something to do with Ash Wednesday.

According to Wikipedia "At masses and services of worship on this day, worshippers are blessed with ashes by the celebrating priest or minister. The priest or minister marks the forehead of each participant with black ashes, in the shape of a cross, which the worshipper traditionally retains until washing it off after sundown."

I wasn't in Dublin last Ash Wednesday so this is my first encounter with this particular ritual. Learn something new every day!

Christmas in Antwerp

A real Christmas tree and my first ever cold Christmas! I'm so excited, and yes I know it's daggy to be excited about it, but there you go.

On the day I arrived we went to the local Carrefour and picked up a base then a sweet little tree  and a few decorations. On the Sunday we headed up to Amsterdam cos I had my heart set on some lovely baubles that you can get from the tourist shops there. 

Boo, Alan's cat is quite interested in the tree - she keeps trying to eat it. So we've got her some cat grass that was ready for eating by last night - she loves it. She's been chomping away like it's going out of fashion, even made herself ill poor thing!

Anyway, we had a lovely day of doing absolutely nothing, opened some presents and had a lovely meal. All in all it was a very nice relaxing day.