DIARY: Back from Spain

I wanted to provide you all with a lengthy review of my trip to Madrid, but truth is I'm simply too knackered today, so I'll give you the condensed version! (praise God, I hear you say!)

See all the pictures here.

I'll start by apologising for the poor picture quality, but my ordinary camera is broken, so have to use my camera phone!
Why Madrid?
Well I just love beautiful metropolises. Seriously, though, these were my (alterior as always) motives:

• Visit my old dorm mate Brian!
  
• Cross another country off my "seen" list!

• And most importantly: Watch the Euro qualifier between Spain (booo!) and Denmark (hooray!)

The Trip

Overall, it was a successful trip. Madrid is a beautiful city, the weather was perfect, and the food very very affordable!

On Saturday we spent a great deal of time on Plaza Mayor swarmed by Danish roligans and a few cows (look at the pics for an explanation!). There was football and canned beer everywhere, and thus much rejoicing...

In the late afternoon we ran into "the lads": Jacob, Thomas, and Kristian from work, and our regular football buddies Bisgaard and Kaiser. Let's just say they all looked like they had taken a swim in the nearest Jameson distillary tank before taking off for Madrid!

The Match

Stadium great. Atmosphere, generally good, apart from some animosity from angry young fans a the end. The Spanish were good craic before and after the game, and I didn't get lynched even though I stood up with only Brian at my side and sang the Danish National Anthem amidst some 75.000 Spanish supporters...

End result was a very undeserved 2-1, with both Spanish goals scored when we had three men in defense due to a terrible sending off of Niclas Jensen by the overwhelmed (or bought) Swiss referee (if he's representative of Swiss football, then God help them at the Euro 08).

The players showed fantastic attitude, though, dominated completely until the sending off and managed to press Spain back for most of the second half with just ten men. It was a gutless performance by a lot of the Spanish players, and as much as I like the team, and the technical gifts they possess, they'll crumble at the first hurdle, if they don't improve...

As for our status. Toughest game over, and still one point ahead of Spain. Northern Ireland will drop too many points against the other teams to be a serious challenger for top 2, while Sweden seem likely to run away with one of those spots, having racked up 4 wins without ever lifting their game beyond mediocrity (as usual, but in football, winning badly is a gift that generally means qualification).

If we can take 6 points of the Swedes, and in the belief that the Spanish will get no more than 1 point in Copenhagen, then 1st spot is still a possibility. Realistically, though, we are only slightly better than Sweden, man for man, and 4 points looks like the very maximum we can get out of the next two back-to-back games against our old rivals.

On the other hand, two defeats at the hand of us, and a loss in Spain, could condemn the Swedes to 3rd, still, so a very open group, and the promise of an exciting run-in...

The low....
Well, my wallet got stolen! (lifted!) In a quiet cafe while sitting there with my back against the jacket holding it. A shame we didn't catch the guy in the act, as my friend Brian would surely have relished the opportunity to deal out some vigilante justice and renew his martial arts training.

I lost only a 100 quid, though, and all my cards, but the damage was contained in the end. Anyway, here's hoping the culprit has a nasty run-in with the police very soon....

DIARY: Going to Madrid!

Hi all,

Tomorrow I'm going to Madrid to visit my old dorm mate Brian (below right of Mathilde, who you'll remember I visited a week ago, yep, all the same family!) and (more importantly - sorry Brian!), watch the game: Spain-Denmark (football Euro-qualifiers for the unbelievers amongst you).

I'm hoping for at least a draw, we're one of the best teams in the group (player for player I'd say second-best only to Spain), and are advocates of a great brand of attacking football (sadly rare these days), so I'm hoping for a historically good results against Spain, even if it means eliminating them from the competition (which is a shame since I find that they stand for a much more attacking brand of football than the other teams in our group and I would have like to see them go through in second, but well!).

Well, I'm off to join the army in Red on Plaza Mayor! Till' Then!

DIARY: My Celebrity Friend

I have a celebrity friend! Well, at least so I have just learned :)

My old friend Janne, with whom I have shared countless drinking session to the early-early-early morn' at the last many Tønder Festivals, has reached the final in the Danish tv-show "Scenen er Din" ("The Stage is Yours").

I am chuffed to bits for her as she has a talent the size of your average supernova (without the destructive side-effects!), and I know how much her music means to her, and how much time and practice she has invested into it over the years. So here's hoping she makes the big break, especially since she's not afraid of singing songs from the "niche" genres such as Folk. You go get them Janne!

In the meantime, I'll have to find out if I can catch the episodes on TV2 Sputnik!

DIARY: Canada Trip 1

Well, I've returned from Canada, and now I have also recovered from St. Paddy's weekend! Even though I stayed true to my "max three beverages" rule, Friday was still late (very late!), so I feel slightly below optimal today.

Not too tired to talk about Canada, though. Overall it was a great trip (thanks Mathilde!), here's my day-by-day tale:

DAY 1 - Endless Atlantic Miles and Arrival
I decided to go to bed at 02:00 in the morning, to make it easier to sleep the first night and overcome the -5 hour time difference.

I flew over Amsterdam directly to Montreal, and while the flatlands of Amsterdam always have depressing effect on my mountain-loving soul, everything went great in Schiphol Airport, and the transatlantic flight (my first in a 747) was very pleasant and we were well-fed!

On arrival (around 17:00 local time), I quickly got a bus and then a taxi to Mathilde's apartment close to downtown (that's "city centre" in English) Montreal.

After much hugs and kisses (actually it was more like "a look who's arrived, ready to eat?"), we went for a walkabout and I got reminded was real cold was!!! (temperatures were around -13 degrees Celsius on the first day).

Well you don't mind it too much when you can snuggle into a warm sleeping bag afterwards and have a long exciting week to look forward too!

DAY 2 - Mount Royal & Mathilde's Office

On day 2, we had a long stroll, and our first destination was Mt. Royal (a mighty cliff of 211 metres, the name reminded me of our own Danish "The Sky Mountain" which also stands at a staggering 151m). The mountain has given the name to the city, though, and is actually quite impressive (its much broader than its high!), and offers a spectacular panoramic view over the island of Montreal and the rest of the Monteregian Mountains.

The lowlight was that my camera started malfunctioning because of the low temperature, so I'm gonna have a serious talk with Dell about that! Fuji Cameras surely must tolerate below zero temperatures!

After that we went back "downtown" (YEAH), and Mathilde took me to her office located on the gazzilionth floor in one of those fancy skyscrabers (known as "glasscages" by older Irishmen). I was very impressed, especially with the offices with a view, they don't let you forget that you've reached the top in those places. I wonder how far into the basement you can be demoted....

After that we had lunch with one of her colleagues and I inspected some local outdoor shops (this is part of a "little plan" of mine, but I shall not speak more of that here, shhh...).

The evening introduced me to a little tradition called 5-7 (in French!) where you get two beers for the price of one (a ritual that translates well into all languages). I got a good taste of the local brew (which isn't too bad at all!), and met our designated driver for the weekend trip to the mountains, an Austrian friend of Mathilde's called Christian.

Day 3 - THE BIG DAY

This was the day were would leave for the mountain and forest region North of Montreal. But before that we had another (for me critical!) visit to a huge Canadian Outdoor Shop called Mountain Co-Op.

The centre was just as impressive as I had hoped, and I was blitzing away and recording notes like a madman of the make of this shopping centre while indulging in (WARNING SEXIST REMARK) a shopping spree worthy of any woman (WARNING OFF). All in all I got: 2 trail running socks (one winter, one summer), 1 Sleeping Bag, 1 Compression Bag, 1 Toughskin madras, a bunkload of energy bars (for the trip!), and a balaclava (renamed to "balaclalavala" after lengthy discussion with Mathilde. In Denmark we call it "elephant hood" which is weird since it doesn't feature a snout...).

On our return to Montreal city centre (sorry, downtown, and no, I won't let it go!), we packed up our stuff and got picked up by Christian in a nice big American style convertible.

We then went on to pick up the girls from Ottawa and drove up North through great sceneries of frozen pine forests and densely vegetated hills between which small Christmassy villages were scattered in what seemed like idyllic semi-isolation.

As you can see, the night finished with a nice dinner, a well-lit fireplace and general coziness in a magnificent cabin (I'll put one of those on my "to-buy-when-I-get-rich" list. And before you ask, no plastic surgery is not on that list!!!).

To be continued...

Return from Canada

We'll I'm back! I had a great time in Canada, and will be sure to post a big update on the trip here as soon as I've de-jetlagged.

Until then, you can see all the pictures here

Goodnight!

DIARY: Trip to Canada!!!

Across the Broad Atlantic

...is not only the title of a great Wolfe Tones' album, its also where I'll be going tomorrow. Not huddled on board one of the grim Coffin Ships of days gone by like so many other's from Ireland before me, but riding a KLM transatlantic plane.

Visiting an old friend!

Now experiencing the spectacular wilderness of Canada should be reason enough to go in itself, but yet its not my primary reason. I am going over to visit my old friend and dorm-mate Mathilde (girl in black on the left seen four years ago at one of our many spectacular Dorm parties, during an, not surprisingly, "Irish-themed" room session in my room back then).

Montreal and Mountain Cottage
I'll be spending the first and last days of my one week trip in Montreal (checking out the city, watching a game with the Montreal Canadians, and more!).

The highlight of the trip will, undoubtedly be our weekend trip to a cottage in the "wild and way" close to Mont Tremblant (more on that on my mountain runner blog).

I'll be posting pictures and stories upon my return, so there should be a few good shots to look forward too!

See you on the other side!

THE PAST 3: The Way Home

This is not the title of some epic Western, instead its a few shots of my road "home" every day (taken on a nice sunny day, not that its the norm here!).

Looking back at the Atrium Building.

The Sandyford LUAS station (right and below). The LUAS are a light urban train system operating two lines (north-south and east-west through Dublin). They are the quickest transport to most of the Industrial Estates.

Ten years ago Sandyford was nothing but fields and horses. Still the air is nice and clean down there...

As I get off , there's a nice old nursery home on an old manor estate.

A castle-like house...

A lovely green walk in summer!

Another nice house on the road.

HOME!

THE PAST 2: First Day at Work

Hope you'll enjoy today's post, when it comes to trilogies the second part is often the best (the original Star Wars, Lethal Weapon, Back to the Future spring to mind, admittedly LotR and Indiana Jones 2 were not the best, but good enough alright!).

Nervous Schoolboy
Do you remember your first day at school? I do, well at least the part until I got pummeled unconscious by the schoolyard bully (my shrink insists that never happened...).

Going round that first corner with my shiny new blue/red backpack completely oblivious, well, going to work the first day was not so different, all that changed was 20 years spend doing things the Catholic Church would not approve off...

Approaching Microsoft...
You may imagine I was more than a little curious as to how "Microsoft" (not the most unknown company in the world!) would actually look from the inside. All my previous work experience had been in dusty stock halls, in aluminium filled factories, or behind the desk of an old "Rocky-style" gym.

So as I took the LUAS (our urban rail, I'll talk about it later: www.luas.ie), got off 15 minutes later, and walked towards the two imposing white towers (the twin towers were a bit ominous, but I got over it...), I was more than a little excited...

I didn't know anyone, since I had been hired on the phone, and I was wearing my fanciest grey suit since the agency that recruited me told me it was "business attire".

This soon made me look fairly stupid as I arrived completely overdressed and it was a fair Spring day so the heat didn't help any (there wasn't tattoos and piercings everywhere, but let's just say the dresscode was definitely "casual").

The taxi driver who took me from the airport on the first day had told me to approach Miriam in the reception and so I did, and sure enough minutes later I was picked up by my "supervisor-to-be" Line and we rode up the elevator to the 7th floor (left).

Moving up in the world...

From here I could admire our large (but frustratingly inconsistent and slightly overpriced!) canteen, and look up at the beautiful glass roof of my new "work home": The Microsoft Atrium Building.

On the 7th floor I took my place with the Nordic team as a Transaction Specialist, and they all proved to be a great bunch of guys and gals, lads and lassies: Jannick, Kamilla, Louise, Timo, Tess, Dorthe, Lars, Mads, Steen, Michael, Hanna, Mike, and Per.

I put the one's that are still my colleagues in bold just to show you how vibrant a place it is (Dublin and work!), and it truly seems like ages ago that I went into that team feeling like a complete newbiee (think J.D. from Scrubs! I would later meet our version of Dr. Perry Cox in our manager Helge Tønnesen!).

My first desk! (While I've had four jobs in the company, I must have had double that amount of desks by now!)

One "half" of the Nordic teams area after work hours...



The first week I spend newbieeing around in the team like a headless padawan trying to understand the ins and outs of the business as much as you can as a part-time spectator, and then I went into training for 3 weeks before returning as a fully fledged...not swan...but agent! Ready to take on partners any time of the day...

And???

As for the rest? Well as they say, its history, but it is also a story for another day...

So as Lorne said in the final episode of "Angel": Goodnight folks...

-Renny