Curses....Foiled Again

In one of my recent posts, I talked about how we had planned to go to Killiney via bus.  There's an An Post (post office) in the shopping mall there, and we wanted to mail our ballots.  And then our scheduled bus got cancelled, and we wound up going somewhere else (but not the post office).

Today, we planned to go to Killiney via bus so we could drop off our ballots at An Post....and our scheduled bus got cancelled.  😡  I told Eli that the bus seems to hate me because he never seems to have these issues when he's traveling alone.

We noticed there's an An Post in Dundrum, which is on the train line, so we walked over and got on the tram.

Got our ballots mailed, got some stamps, ate at McDonald's, got a few things at the grocery store, and came back home.

Eli decided he wanted to go to Dun Laoghaire (pronounced doon leery), which is accessible via bus.  I told him, "I'm sure the bus will be on time, and you'll be served champagne and caviar, and everyone will get a puppy."

He sent me a text a few minutes after he left:  "Of course, I'm on the bus."  My response:  "I pretty much hate you right now."

Bits and Bobs

I haven't been a very good correspondent regarding my new life in Ireland so I thought I'd best pop in with a new post.

Over the weekend, we wanted to visit a shopping center in Killiney, which is about 15-20 minutes away by bus.  Patrick had been to the vet on Friday for possible full anal glands (it happens to him a lot), and he was so upset by the entire process that the vet didn't want to continue.  She prescribed gabapentin for him, and we made another appointment for this past Monday.

There's a pharmacy and SuperValu at the mall in Killiney, plus it's somewhere we haven't been yet, so we decided to head there.

This is where we again have to learn how to adapt to the transportation system here.

We saw there was a bus leaving our stop at 12:30 so we hustled to get out there and arrived in plenty of time.  Minutes went by with no bus.  Eli got on his phone and checked the schedule to see if it were delayed.  It was delayed - and by delayed, I mean cancelled, with the next bus not due to arrive until 1.

Since we had a good 15 minutes to kill before the next bus, we walked around to the bus stop that's in front of our building, a distance past the tram stop.  That bus stop is the beginning/ending of the route, and we hoped the 1 p.m. bus wouldn't also be canceled.

So we're standing there, and a young couple walks up to the bus stop.  They began to have a lovers' spat right there in public, not bothering to keep their voices down.  I wanted to go over to Sophie and Jack (I know that was their names because they said it a million times back and forth) and say, "Hey, All My Children - no one wants to listen to this soap opera so pipe down."  But they wouldn't have understood the reference, and I'm from Minnesota and we don't do confrontation, so it didn't happen.

The tram was sitting at the stop, waiting for a few minutes before it would head back out.  I told Eli I didn't want to listen to these dopes arguing on the bus, so we trekked over to the tram and rambled our way to the retail district in Leopardstown.

After dropping off Patrick's prescription, we went to the Dunne's grocery store that was right next door to the pharmacy.  Dunne's is a department store (like Target/Kohl's) and some of their locations have a full-blown grocery.  Y'all, if you can be star-struck by a grocery store, I was star-struck.  The deli counter stretched for days with all kinds of hot and cold fare.  There was also an in-store meat counter, and they had sides of beef hung and rotating at the back of the room.

We wandered around a bit and bought a few things before heading back to the pharmacy.  The techs were having trouble finding the filled prescription and finally went to ask the pharmacist about it.  He kinda smiled and said, "This was for Patrick, right?"  Instead of having my name on the bag, they had Patrick's name.  😼

Yesterday, Patrick had his second vet visit in the span of four days.  For the first visit, we had taken a taxi to and from the clinic - the clinic isn't even a mile away, and it cost €30 (which is over $40).  For the visit last night, Eli walked there - it was a nice evening, and it's only about 10 minutes away.  He said that Patrick didn't seem to mind the trip at all.

We had given Patrick a dose of gabapentin before the visit, but the vet gave him some other sedative as well because he wanted to do a more in-depth examination of his glands, which would've been painful and stressful.  He thinks Patrick might have an infection, so he gave him a shot of antibiotic.  In all, Patrick had four shots (one antibiotic, one sedative, one pain killer, and one sedative-reverser), got his glands expressed, and had his nails trimmed - and it only cost €93.  Just walking into our vet in Elk River would cost $60 or $70 - and then another $300 for the treatment.

Hopefully we won't have to go back to the vet any time soon.

In other news, we got a delivery of our belongings back on September 7.  I have been through most of the boxes, and everything looks to have arrived in good shape.  I know why these moves are so expensive:  because the moving company uses ALL THE TAPE AND PAPER while wrapping items.  Seriously, I'm grateful they take care to ensure your possessions are protected, but geesh.  The cats are in heaven because we're saving some of big sheets of white paper they used to cushion some items.  We spread out a few sheets on the extra bed, and they've had a blast playing with it.

I had hoped that having some familiar things around me would help soften my psyche and make me feel more at home.  It's helped but I'm still feeling adrift, like I don't belong, like I don't fit in here.  I know that going out and about would help me feel more integrated - but I need to feel more integrated before I feel comfortable going out and about.  I've got a real Catch-22 going on here that I hope to break out of as the days pass.  I need to keep reminding myself that we've only been here a little over a month, and that's not a lot of time.

I haven't been able to sleep well since we got here.  I think I've had maybe two nights where I've slept about five hours.  Otherwise, I go to sleep around 9:30 and wake up at midnight or 1 a.m., completely wide awake.  It's more annoying than anything right now but only because I don't yet have a job, and I can take a nap if needed.  I don't know if it's because I know I'm in a different environment or what, but I hope I get acclimated soon.

It's my birthday in a couple days, but I'm so discombobulated that I've had a tough time focusing on the fact that it's coming up.  I haven't quite decided what I want to do to celebrate.  Eli has an appointment for his PPS number (like a Social Security number) on Thursday morning, so we'll probably get out and do something.  I'd like to go to the library in Dundrum and maybe wander around the big mall there.  Eli's taking off Thursday and Friday so perhaps on Friday, we'll head to Bray so I can visit the beach.

I'm already looking for other places to live, even though I think we might be stuck here for a year since our lease doesn't have a break clause.  I want to get a house with more windows and a small yard - basically so the cats have things to look at.  At the house in Minnesota, there were birds and squirrels and chipmunks and bunnies and deer around all the time, and it gave the cats some enrichment and stimulation.  Here, the windows we have look out into the courtyard, and there's not much there to see.  I feel like we're on top of each other in this tiny apartment, and it bothers me that I don't have my own space.  There are some good things about this apartment, but I can't see staying here for longer than a year.  Fortunately, another move won't be quite as horrific - or at least I would HOPE it wouldn't be.

The weather here has been a revelation.  Eli was tickled because even when the national weather service says there's a 0% chance of rain, that just means it might rain a little and be over quickly.  Currently, it's sunny and 64 degrees, which is leaps and bounds better than the nasty weather Minnesota is getting at the moment.

Hurry Up and Wait

For about 40 years of my life, I have owned a car.  I never really thought twice about being able to get in my car at any time, day or night, and just go.

Not having a car in Ireland is messing with my head.

We went to the library on Saturday, and it entailed a lot of planning and hurry up and waiting.  I don't know if the bus we needed had fewer trips during that time of day or if it had fewer trips period, but we had to sit around waiting in the apartment until we could catch the next available bus.  For the ride home, we had finished looking around the library but had to sit for an extra 45 minutes because the bus back to the apartment wasn't due to arrive until that time.

Today, I took the train one stop down to the grocery store in our sister apartment building.  Once I was done shopping, I had to wait 15 minutes for the train to come back through so I could get back home.

I don't mean for this to sound like whining or that I'm ungrateful.  It's wonderful to have access to decent public transportation.  But it's going to take me some time to adjust to a completely different mindset where travel is concerned.

Manic Monday

We were told about a week and a half ago that our possessions (which are being shipped via air freight) would be in Dublin on August 21 or 22, and that we'd probably get them on August 29 or 30 (after Customs was done pawing through everything).

This past Monday, I reached out to the Irish moving coordinator for an update.  She said that our stuff still wasn't in Ireland, that personal goods can get bumped from a flight if perishable goods need to get transported.

Both Eli and I were quite upset about this development.  Neither of us have ever had an international move so perhaps this indeed is the norm, but as I said to him, "If our stuff can get bumped indefinitely, why the fuck did we pay extra for air freight, thinking that would be faster???"

Come Tuesday morning, I was still pretty distraught after having ruminated about the situation the previous day.  I started to hate everything about being here.  I had the thought "I want to go home!" which was quickly followed by the feeling of not really having a home to return to.

I lay down in bed and just cried like my heart was breaking.  I just kept thinking, "I want to go home, I want to go home."  Everything felt very bleak and hopeless and dark.

After a while, I said to myself, "Okay, that's enough."  So I got out of bed, had second breakfast (yes, I am a hobbit), went to Tesco (and set off the alarm), and otherwise went about my day.

We got an email from the relocation/moving coordinator later in the day that some of our stuff was at an airport in England and waiting for a flight to Dublin.  Since then, two-thirds of our shipment has reached Dublin; apparently, they broke our belongings up into three shipments and there wasn't room for everything on one flight so one-third is still floating around somewhere.

Once everything has arrived in Dublin, the Customs process can start.  Hopefully this means we'll have our things in a week or so.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything will be undamaged and nothing will be missing.

Wilderness of Books

"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.”  (Jorge Luis Borges)

I registered to get a library card today.  I can't tell you how unbelievably excited I am about this!

Libraries have always felt like home to me.  I have always found peace and sanctuary and belonging when I've been in one.  Wandering through the stacks in this "wilderness of books" (Thoreau's description of a library), I feel a sense of unbridled glee and awe.

And to be honest, I sometimes have a sense of overwhelm and near panic.  There's a scene in the show "Two and a Half Men" where one of the characters is at a bookstore, and he starts to have a meltdown because there are so many books and he'll never be able to read them all.

Yup.  Been there, done that (except for having an outward meltdown - my library meltdowns are all quietly inward because, you know - shhhhh, you're at the library).

We're planning to visit the library on Saturday - as part of the registration process, you need to provide a photo ID and proof of address.

However, they have already provided me with a temporary code so I COULD start reserving books "straight away."  😸 

And speaking of books, I will leave you with one of my favorite quasi-book-related videos:  the yip yip martians having to use their Earth book to figure out what a telephone is.

Sesame Street: The Martians Discover a Telephone (youtube.com)

Grey Day in Bray

Eli went to the seaside town of Bray yesterday.  I wasn't feeling well and didn't go, but considering it's about a 15-minute bus ride to get there, I'm sure I'll see it soon.

Here are a few photos he took:

One Small Step

I was determined to venture out on my own yesterday, so I decided to take the train to the small grocery store located in a sister building one stop up the line.

Before I left the apartment, I made sure I had my key fob, oh, like a bazillion times.  I don't know where I thought it would go after each check - if I thought it would jump out of my purse and run off or what.  I apparently have a touch of OCD because I have always done this - check multiple times to ensure I have my ticket/keys/wallet before heading out the door.

I managed to get turned around trying to find my way out of the building but eventually, I just went down to the ground floor and found the exit we've been using.

Tapped the reader with my transport card (called a Leap card) and got aboard the train.  We're the last stop on the line, which is great because the train is typically empty or near to empty when we board.

There was a group of young people in the seats behind me, rattling on about this and that.  It amuses me when Irish-accented folks cuss the "big one" because it comes out "fook."  😀

After a trip of about a minute, I jumped off and tapped the reader again to tag out.  That's something I've had to drive into my brain - the need to tag on and off when you take the train.  With the bus, you simply swipe your card once and let the driver know where you're going but you don't have to swipe it when you get off.

I wandered around the store for a while, still not feeling comfortable.  I'll be so glad when all of this seems like second nature, but I know that's going to take time and practice.

Bagged up all of my purchases and walked across the street to the train stop.  It was a grey, breezy day and a little chilly, but being from Minnesota, I appreciated the coolness in August.  I chuckled a little to myself because there was a mother and young child at the stop, and he had on a heavier coat and stocking cap while I'm sitting there in short sleeves.

Got back to the apartment (and yes, I still had my key fob - and it worked) and put my groceries away and felt proud that I had taken this small step.  I still felt jangly and uneasy but, as I said earlier, I know that feeling will pass at some point.