Done and dusted

What could have been a nightmare week actually finished up quite well.

I went to Dublin on Wednesday evening with the intention of looking for a place to live in for the two month period I'll be working there.

I woke up on the couch in a house I used to live in on Thursday morning, with a full day of walking and public transport ahead of me as I looked for a place. A place, to compound the difficulty, that would only need me for two months.

It was pouring rain outside. It didn't stop for two whole days.

Mercifully, the ad I had put on the internet yielded results. A man mailed me offering a room for the two months in a house that isn't that far from where I will be working, and I got sorted. After that, I got on with the business of meeting old friends and quickly and efficiently boozed the tax cheque I got down to almost nothing. Will I ever learn?

In other news, I went to see War of the Worlds. I had the Jeff wayne musical version thing when I was younger and was quite impressed by it. This was typical Spielberg, visually impressive with a rather linear storyline, and he didn't deviate much from the original plot. The 'violence, menace and peril' tag...er...isn't that supposed to be covered by the censorship rating? Anyway, I recommend, and contrary to what seems like popular opinion at the moment, Tom Cruise's presence in it doesn't make it unwatchable.

Another film I saw this week was Downfall. This has been out for quite some time, but I never got around to it while I was in Brighton. I should have had, as it was definitely one of the best war films I've seen in a long time. In all the Nazi-centred war films that I've seen up until now, Hitler has always been portrayed as a one-dimensional raving lunatic (War & Remembrance, anyone?). This one did a much better job, putting him across as...erm...a raving lunatic BUT one with human qualities. There are times in it when you would see him as a doddering and doting grandfather in years to come, in the way he deals with women and children, including those of the Nazi Youth. When one of his officers, Albert Speer, informs him that sometimes he deliberately acted contrary to the Führer's wishes, you almost felt sorry for the Nazi leader, not so much because of the betrayal involved, but because it was like holding up a mirror to Hitler's own deluded thinking. One other thing that was alluded to in the film was the fact that support for the Nazis from the german people themselves was never at 100%, something that never seems to be mentioned in intermediate level history textbooks. All in all, extremely considered in its treatment of an area that is often tramped over with great big jackboots. Go see.

I wonder though, how the admissions department of that Austrian art school felt as they saw WWII play out before them? In any case, I wouldn't mind getting my hands on a copy of Mein Kampf, just out of curiosity.

Friday saw me go for an eye test in Vision Express, and in spite of the fact that I told them to use the frames I already had for my new lenses, it still cost me 180 euros to get kitted out (including the insurance). Apparently, it 'costs' 70 euros alone to cut the lenses to fit the frames I already had. What's that sound? Oh, it's me getting boned in the ass. I also had a contact lens consultation, which I have to follow up with in the next week or two. I really want to make the switch to them, but when the optician put them in as a trial run that day, it felt like there was a group of wasps partying on my eyeball. Hopefully I'll get used to them.

Yesterday I got the lovely train back down to Mallow which was stuffed full to bursting with noisy knackers and me with a lingering and even more lovely hangover to make the experience that bit more special. What is it with people smoking joints on trains? Couldn't they at least use the toilet? Urrgghhh!

After that I went out in Mallow and met lots of people I hadn't seen in ages, what with the bank holiday and all, and ended up in the local nightclub. In there I saw a bouncer who used to teach me life-saving in the local swimming pool fifteen years ago, and who I remember as being rather hot in his day. Of course with all the alcohol I had he was duly informed of this in the course of the night, but he seemed more chuffed than anything else.

Getting the train back tomorrow. It'll feel like an escape. First up, 'Bear Cub', a film I tried unsuccessfully to see in Brighton before, is showing Monday coming in Dublin, so that's one thing I might pencil in. Overall I'm looking forward to getting back to civilisation.

Arrgh! Gmail gets stressed:

Well I thought it was funny.

Finally...

I got my transcript, and I got a 2.1! Yay me! That breakdown in full:

Quantitative Skills for Pharmacists:	A
Pharmacology:	A
Pharmacy Practice – Coursework:	A
Pharmacy Practice – Exam:	B
Chemistry I:	B
Pharmaceutical Analysis:	B
Chemistry II:	C
Cell Biology and Biochemistry*:	D

I also got my tax cheque this morning and it has been lodged. I've noticed that it can be a pain in the arse trying to get through to the revenue department, but once you do, they act quickly. All I have to do is wait for the money to clear, and partaayy!

*Eye-wateringly boring. No-one could ever hope to do well. That's my official defence anyway.

More news, some good...

Having spent half of yesterday on the phone to the revenue office (most of it on hold), I found out that I overpaid tax to the tune of 900 yo-yos last year, so that's a fat cheque that's winging it's way to me. Ha ha.

Brighton Uni still haven't complied with some of the requests I made of them, including the forwarding of my transcript, and I don't think the angry letter I got from them this morning telling me I still owe them £250 is entirely unrelated to that. Trying to manage my bank account at the moment is like trying to stall the sinking of the Titanic. Oh fun and games.

There was an explosion in the main street in Mallow this afternoon, right across the street from me, and then lots of oohing and aahing from gawkers as a cloud of smoke rose up into the air. Firemen duly arrived on the scene, but it was lashing rain so I didn't stop to check them out. Hopefully no-one got hurt.

I've been officially promised a job for the months of August and September, so all is not lost on that front. I leave for Dublin on the 25th or so. It'll be about time.

...

...


Dammit, I'm bored!

Oh. My. God.

I passed everything! I'm through into second year!

Who de man? I de man!

I don't know how I actually got on in any of the individual subjects, I just checked on the website, and next to my name, those magic words: 'Proceed to level 2'.

Oh joy and rapture!

The only fly in the ointment is that there is no-one to go out and get drunk with, but my parents have offered to take me out for a drink tonight to celebrate.

Now, off I go out into the sun to get burnt.

There is a light. Is it an oncoming train?

I found out yesterday that, as a mature student, I am entitled to unemployment benefit this summer at the usual rate of 130 euro a week. My sanity has started to make something of a recovery. Now I will be able to do things that normal people do, like go to the cinema, and top up my phone credit.

My results are out sometime at the start of next week. I'm not sure how I feel about this impending revelation. I have almost certainly failed Biology, and if the resit date coincides with or interferes with any of the concerts I want to go to in August, I will surely kill myself. Here's hoping...

The morning of the London bombs was one of the few where I was actually up early enough to hear about it happening on the radio. At least the people I know that are based there are OK.

My sister and I were having the discussion that morning, and one thing that came up was that if Al-Quida had struck just before the UK general election, it would have quite possibly scuppered Tony Blair's chances of getting back into power, just as what happened in Spain with the Madrid bombings. The then PM of Spain blamed ETA solely to distract attention away from the fact that he had led his country's armed forces into Iraq against the wishes of almost everyone in Spain, and now they were suffering the consequences.

I wonder though, if the relationship between participation in the Iraq war and suffering revenge at the hands of the terrorist organisation is that linear.

I'm still bored!

My boredom and frustration has reached a plateau. It hasn't got any worse in the last week, but that's not to understate how intense it is already. To top it all off, our VCR has given up the ghost, so I'm reduced to watching the four Irish channels for entertainment (Saw 'Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya sisterhood' last night. Gawd!)

My phone interview reaped rewards, but it turns out that that only means I'm over the first of three hurdles in the selection process, and it's for a permanent position, which is not what I'm really after (though anything will do at this stage). I'm e-mailing an average of 2 companies per day with regard to advertised positions, and so far none of them have had the courtesy to get back to me.

Two friends of my mother's are over from Holland for a while to stay, so at least that breaks up the monotony.

In other news, I've picked up a guitar again for the first time in nearly a year. I'm currently trying to nail the Cure's 'Just Like Heaven'. It's not going too badly. Before, I always set myself these trying practice sessions as my goal, with a view to learning as much as possible, whereas now I'm just learning songs that I like, as opposed to rambling chord changes, and it's turning out much better.

I still need a job though.