Arrived in Ireland

We are here, in Ireland. First impressions: Ireland is cold. Where Singapore was meltingly humid, Ireland is bitterly cold.

We went to Mathew's office to get the key to our new house. Then two of his coworkers drove us to it (we have 6 suitcases and they didn't fit in one car, apparently).

It is a nice little house in Clonee, a suburb of Dublin. It has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a living room, kitchen, and dining room. It has a fireplace (unknown if it works or not, it might just be for show). There are some pieces of furniture - two couches, a dining room table, a kitchen table, and a bed in each bedroom.

The problem with the place is not what's in it, but what is not. It is a house that is on the market, not a fully furnished apartment. It has no towels, no sheets except for what's already on the bed, no clothes dryer (but it has a washer) or clothesline. There are no chairs for the table. There is no television, or internet. And, no phone.

None of this would be a problem if, like in Singapore, we were near things or had public transportation. As it stands, the nearest shopping venue (a Pharmacy, a small 7-11 style market, and a restaurant) are all about a 20 minute walk away. Keep in mind, as well, that we have no coats, no winter boots, no gloves, no sweaters... so walking 20 minutes to eat dinner would be a bad idea. And we're not going to carry detergent and food stuffs back in the cold like that, either.

Mathew's office gave us a USB cellular internet stick, so we have a tiny bit of internet. It's not great, it is getting no reception here. They also gave us a cell phone, but it doesn't work because they don't have the pin number for it and will not be getting us a new sim card until later today.

It is clear that no matter where we go, we will need a car. If we were in Dublin proper, it might have been possible to skate by on that. But here, for 2 months... we're going to need to drive. Which means we're going to need to learn to drive on the other side of the road.

Mathew has sent an e-mail to his boss requesting that we stay in a hotel until the apartment situation is sorted out, and that we get a rental car while we're here. So it is likely that this weekend we will be staying in a hotel.

Leaving!

We're off to the airport. Here's seeing you on the other side. :-)

We're moving!

It's official. We're leaving Singapore and going to Ireland. Flights will be booked tomorrow, and we will be leaving sometime between Tuesday and Thursday. The company is going to get us another apartment somewhere near the office, but also near a grocery and public transportation, etc.

If anyone wants anything from Singapore before we go, speak now or forever hold your peace!

It Must be New Years!

If you can see this post. :-)

Happy (Western) New Year!

Just a quick post to say Happy New Year 2009. I know you guys haven't hit 2009 yet, but here, in the future, it's pretty cool. No flying cars yet. Anyway, we went to see some fireworks at Marina Bay. I have a video, but only people in 2009 can see it, so come back in 10 hours.

Merry Christmas, etc

From Singapore to you all - Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and we miss you guys back in the states. :-)

Translation

For those who don't play World of Warcraft, a small dictionary might
be necessary to understand the first part of Mathew's post.

WoW= World of Warcraft
WotLK = Wrath of the Lich King (the new expansion)
Tank = guy who leads the group into battle. He has a lot of armor and takes all the damage so everyone else doesn't have to.
Guild = a group of players who play together
80 = the new highest level

Also, "Lucky Draw" means a contest drawing here.

What wasn't mentioned in his post, by the way, is that we discovered that we could have had our friends purchase WotLK in the states and email us the codes. It turns out that Blizzard, the company who makes WoW, put it online for people to download once they upgraded their account with the code. I had mine earlier than Mathew because Jon got me the Collector's Edition and I got my code an hour or two after the US launch, 22 hours before the launch here.