News round-up
What a dearth of postage. I guess we haven't been in the mood: sadly Laura's grandma passed away earlier this month and Laura went to Florida for a week for to be with her family... and we haven't quite recovered.
Noteworthy items:
- On April 5 we celebrated 1 year in Ireland. Time goes fast and it's hard to believe it's been a year since we were deposited, bleary-eyed, on Marlborough St by our taxi driver only to discover we couldn't find our accommodation, only to be rescued by some friendly locals, only to eventually find our building, only to find we couldn't rouse anyone inside nor would they answer our phone calls, only to eventually make contact and get in. It is strange; slowly it stops feeling different to be here and it starts to feel normal. But then odd things will remind you again; be they gossiping girls saying ".... the fecking eejit...", or the rapid development of a nostalgia you never knew you had.
- I am now the proud owner of a provisional Irish driving license, with Laura hot on my heels after a successful theory test today (yay!). Unfortunately a new rule was introduced in December which means we can't take our practical test until we've held our license for 6 months. So we have no choice but not to drive, or to drive semi-illegally on our NZ licenses. Oh well.
- Some time ago, but still within the scope of this post, I purchased a Canon 55mm 1.2 S.S.C. Aspherical lens in mint condition from Casanava Foto in Barcelona. From the late 70s, I have it on good authority that when it was released it was the most expensive standard SLR lens in the world. It's a very exciting lens because Erwin Putz, a Leica guru, reckons it's better than the equivalent Leica lens. This means it is a very very good lens, and the photos I have taken with it certainly back that up.
- Since Laura expressed very little interest in arbitrary train journeys (especially those involving Russia, go figure), I have booked myself a short holiday in the first week of June (my contract is over, and although I'll probably renew it, it means I can make plans recklessly without "asking the boss". It's reckless, it's great). It's a holiday-cum-medical experiment. It should probably be the subject of another post, but I suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome some years ago, and still have the occasional symptom. There is a lab in Brussels which can conduct some fancy blood tests and discover things. So I'm going to do that; so I will fly to Brussels and spend nearly two full days there being analysed, and analysing the beer. According to my email confirmation, I'm staying in a small backside room. Then, in the spirit of aimless wandering, I am catching a train to Cologne in Germany for no other reason than it's a decent way away (a few hours). Then I'm spending two nights there in a really seedy looking guest house (there's some hugemungus trade fair on and all the nice places are either booked out, or really expensive). Then I'll return to Cologne by train, kill a few hours (more beer tastings I suppose), then - the highlight of my trip - I will catch the Eurostar direct to London. It's a 2 hour journey, but due the time difference I will be in London's St Pancreas station approximately 1 hour after leaving Brussels. There, I will spend one night at Mike's, then fly back to Dublin (I just booked that flight; all up, Gatwick to Dublin, including taxes and booking fees, it was £7.99! Ryanair of course.)
- Depressingly I turn 30 in 16 days. But Wikipedia just informed me that "30 is the largest number such that coprimes smaller than itself are also prime" and that has distracted me for the moment.
I think that will do. If you've read this far, you are a true and loyal patron of this blog. I hope Laura will post soon, and I hope also to hear from you, dear reader: many of you are truly awful communicators; I'm referring specifically to you Janelle as you have ignored my Facebook email for weeks now. And Emily, you're not much better.
Noteworthy items:
- On April 5 we celebrated 1 year in Ireland. Time goes fast and it's hard to believe it's been a year since we were deposited, bleary-eyed, on Marlborough St by our taxi driver only to discover we couldn't find our accommodation, only to be rescued by some friendly locals, only to eventually find our building, only to find we couldn't rouse anyone inside nor would they answer our phone calls, only to eventually make contact and get in. It is strange; slowly it stops feeling different to be here and it starts to feel normal. But then odd things will remind you again; be they gossiping girls saying ".... the fecking eejit...", or the rapid development of a nostalgia you never knew you had.
- I am now the proud owner of a provisional Irish driving license, with Laura hot on my heels after a successful theory test today (yay!). Unfortunately a new rule was introduced in December which means we can't take our practical test until we've held our license for 6 months. So we have no choice but not to drive, or to drive semi-illegally on our NZ licenses. Oh well.
- Some time ago, but still within the scope of this post, I purchased a Canon 55mm 1.2 S.S.C. Aspherical lens in mint condition from Casanava Foto in Barcelona. From the late 70s, I have it on good authority that when it was released it was the most expensive standard SLR lens in the world. It's a very exciting lens because Erwin Putz, a Leica guru, reckons it's better than the equivalent Leica lens. This means it is a very very good lens, and the photos I have taken with it certainly back that up.
- Since Laura expressed very little interest in arbitrary train journeys (especially those involving Russia, go figure), I have booked myself a short holiday in the first week of June (my contract is over, and although I'll probably renew it, it means I can make plans recklessly without "asking the boss". It's reckless, it's great). It's a holiday-cum-medical experiment. It should probably be the subject of another post, but I suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome some years ago, and still have the occasional symptom. There is a lab in Brussels which can conduct some fancy blood tests and discover things. So I'm going to do that; so I will fly to Brussels and spend nearly two full days there being analysed, and analysing the beer. According to my email confirmation, I'm staying in a small backside room. Then, in the spirit of aimless wandering, I am catching a train to Cologne in Germany for no other reason than it's a decent way away (a few hours). Then I'm spending two nights there in a really seedy looking guest house (there's some hugemungus trade fair on and all the nice places are either booked out, or really expensive). Then I'll return to Cologne by train, kill a few hours (more beer tastings I suppose), then - the highlight of my trip - I will catch the Eurostar direct to London. It's a 2 hour journey, but due the time difference I will be in London's St Pancreas station approximately 1 hour after leaving Brussels. There, I will spend one night at Mike's, then fly back to Dublin (I just booked that flight; all up, Gatwick to Dublin, including taxes and booking fees, it was £7.99! Ryanair of course.)
- Depressingly I turn 30 in 16 days. But Wikipedia just informed me that "30 is the largest number such that coprimes smaller than itself are also prime" and that has distracted me for the moment.
I think that will do. If you've read this far, you are a true and loyal patron of this blog. I hope Laura will post soon, and I hope also to hear from you, dear reader: many of you are truly awful communicators; I'm referring specifically to you Janelle as you have ignored my Facebook email for weeks now. And Emily, you're not much better.
Labels: david
I do apologise.. but I told you right from the start I was bad at emailing :o) Grats on your licences though!! :o) (it is awfully nice to be singled out.. even for the wrong reasons heheh)