Christmas Time !!

When I was small, and Christmas trees were tall. Now I am not so small anymore.

When I grew up, Christmas was always a big thing. It felt like that to me, anyway. And I always try to keep it a big thing. I always did anyway, until the kids grew up and stopped believing that I was Father Christmas. 

So my daughter came to me and said we should have a competition to see who can draw the best snowman. This was my attempt. I think it is not half bad.

So a merry Christmas to all, and a prosperous new year. May the best of this year pale in comparison with what is to come.

 

Christmas in Dublin

As I mentioned previously, living in Ireland is like living in a picture book. Well, I think Christmas probably tops that. Everybody goes into festive mood, and then the Christmas lights come out…

This year I did not get round much, and not a lot of pictures was taken, but I promise to do better next year. That said, below are some of the pics taken this year. Mostly in Dublin around Henry and O’Connell streets, and then some of the houses near my home that put on a lovely display.

Lockdown Christmas

 It's been a strange old year alright.

First the world imploded on itself. Then I moved all the way across the world. Then my family cannot move because of COVID variants and all silly things like that. 

And now it is Christmas. 

And I am sitting all by myself in Ireland. 

Not the best way to end a year, but at least this year is ending. Not one I will easily forget.

At least there are Christmas lights. 

So here are some from the neighbourhood. Merry Christmas.

Down Memory Lane

 Went to view a rental this morning. Got a call this afternoon that I got the house!! No small feat in Ireland, I can tell you that. So will be moving from my Air BnB next weekend. Cutting it fine!!

So a little good news there.

After the viewing this morning I went for a trip into Dublin city. What a little trip down memory lane that was!

This non-descript door in North Great Georges street was the front door to my apartment building back in 2002. I lived on the top floor in the smallest 2 bedroom apartment you have ever seen. It was just me, so suited me fine.

Right on top there, where the small windows are. That was me. Lived there for two years. When I was still young and handsome.

And this was my local. Many a night was spent in that pub. We had the best of times, we had the worst of times. 

This is Moore Street. There was a market here every weekend back in the day. Obviously all closed up now due to COVID. Will have to see if the market is still going. Used to buy most of my fruit and veg here back then. 

Still here!! The Tesco in the Jervis Centre in Henry Street. This was my go-to supermarket. Always on a Sunday morning once a month. All the groceries you can carry! The rest of the centre has changes, but Tesco is still there. 

And this was my bus stop to get to work. Every morning :-)

When I first moved to Ireland in August 2001, I happened to stay in the hostels in Trinity College for a couple of days while I looked for somewhere to stay. The internet was in it's infancy, Facebook was not even an idea yet, and it was not possible to look for a more permanent place to stay online. You had to take what you could and sort it out from there. This was my "take what you can get" at that time. 

I will have to go and look for my other haunts at some point when it is easier to get around.

Until then, I will be getting myself geared to move into more permanent accommodations. 

Happy days.

(Almost) new beginnings

 Just when you thing everything is grand, and life is peachy, 2020 happens. So here I am, in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, and I have just landed in my new home.

Now, I have to admit, I am not entirely new to Ireland, and Dublin specifically. In fact, it is almost 18 years to the day that I first arrived in Dublin. It is this familiarity with Ireland and the Irish standards that has sparked interest in my abilities, and has ultimately led to my appointment. That, and the fact that once again, there is a rather large skills shortage in Ireland.

Now, the trip over here was interesting and frustrating, to say the least. The South African government has made it all but impossible for anybody to leave the country, and I had to jump through some hoops to get out, eventually catching a repatriation flight for Europeans from South Africa, departing from the Netherland Embassy. To say that flying out of an all but abandoned OR Tambo Airport was an experience it putting it mildly.

Then, obviously, sitting on the aircraft with masks in place, even sleeping (or trying to) with a mask on. Running around a very quiet Schipol Airport with the same mask still in place and eventually arriving in Dublin where I now have to self isolate for 14 days in an Air B&B.

I'm tired. Really tired. Not much sleep on the plane last night, so properly bushed. Checked into the Air BnB. Going to catch some Z's now. I start working tomorrow. The company will drop over Laptop and the other necessities tomorrow. No rest for the wicked.

Sand Art

 Went to Fish Hoek beach yesterday. This little sculpture was on the beach. Some people are so talented!!

You are not defined by your job

 Sometimes not so easy to remember…

You are not your job.

You can have pride in your job, yes.

You can enjoy your job, yes.

But when you mess up, or hate what you do, you need to remember that your job does not define you. You are the person you are.

This article by Toni Morrison is absolutely spot-on. Worth a re-read at least once a month.

Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash

An ode to the download

I can still remember when the internet started making it’s way into our offices and lives. At that time nobody had e-mails. If you wanted to tell somebody something you had to write a letter, on paper… or use the trusty old phone. Or fax them. And notwithstanding this lack of communication everybody survived. Economies grew. And life was a lot more simple.

Then came the internet.

9500 bps. That was the first modem I ever had the pleasure of working with. Dial-up was all the rage. It took you half a day to download a file. But who cared?

Slowly but surely the whole thing took off. Faster and faster. More data. Larger files. Tons of e-mails per day. Working holidays.

Silly, really.

“What are you on about?” I hear you ask.

I am currently dabbling in a spot of programming and app development. Call it a passtime. All of a sudden I am in need of an Apple MAC. Now, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a MacBook for a week or two and frankly, I hated it. Most of the software I use is not available for Apple. Bit of a bummer. So I stick to PC’s and indulge myself on the iPad and iPhone.

So how now brown cow?

Hackintosh…. Yes. That was my expression as well.

Seems that OS X can run on the humble Intel and AMD processor. If you look at the iMac Mini, it is based on an Intel processor.

Well well.

If you are interested, Google “Hackintosh”. Interesting stuff.

I am therefore now busy building myself said equipment. Part of the exercise is to download OS x. Which I am currently doing. All 5,9GB of it. Currently on 4GB. And that in just more than 90 minutes. Impressive. (Telkom Uncapped LTE… because I know that’s your next question.)

That took me back to the old 9500 modem and me and a mate of mine downloading the “WarCraft” installation file, which was just over 5MB if memory serves correctly. The exercise took us the best part of a night and then… just before completion… the line died!!! Oh, the good old days. That file would today have downloaded in about 10 seconds.

And we wonder why we feel so overworked and pressurised.

Download speeds.