Seven Sleeps to Spain!

Of course, as usual, a million things have happened since the last blog that I don't have the time or energy to relate it all, but in a nutshell - I have a new life. It has been transformed beyond all recognition from what it was a few posts ago. Along with my new flat I have a new job - Market Research Account Manager with W5 Marketing Intelligence Ltd. I also have so much on my social plate it's all beginning to spill off the sides. On top of that I've started Adult Literacy Tutor training and creative writing classes on top of my Wednesday salsa class. In short - I barely have five minutes to scratch my nose these days.

Firstly my new job. While I loved my old job, it really was time for a change. Challenging and interesting as admin is, I like to keep learning all the time, and after a while in the same job you tend to get stuck in a bit of a rut. Last thing I need is to be bored at my job - nothing could be worse for motivation. Anyway, as my contract was up end of this month, W5 (Genesis's wholly owned subsidiary) decided to employ me. I'm up to my eyeballs in market research - customer satisfaction, focus groups, surveys, clients and respondents. At the moment I'm learning the practical side of the job - survey implementation, reporting, the mechanics of SurveyWriter (the online software we use to deliver our online research). This can be a little tedious at times but of course you have to learn the slightly more boring part of the job before you can move on to the more interesting part - questionnaire design, presenting to clients, project co-ordination. Basically I've no experience, study or training in Marketing at all and am slightly bemused at the idea that they trust me to do this job. But learn it I will. And they've already got me proofing all the proposals, tenders and presentations - and you know I always relish any opportunity to hunt down and kill grammatical errors! My main projects to start off with will be Jurys and Microsoft. Both these projects are in the process of growing from smallish little reports into larger, more important projects so I've come in at a dynamic, fascinating time for these projects, and they're great for me to learn on. Jurys is one of our big clients too, (and, might I say, one of our most demanding) so if I can handle them on my own (not yet, but it will happen) I'll know I can do anything.

Of course, learning a new job is always tough. I've been putting in a lot of long hours over the last week and a half but loving every second. We had a temp in to do my old job before Irene came back finally (thank God for Irene) so I had to hold her hand (figuratively, thank goodness) while trying to learn my new job at W5. Now that Irene is back I can trust her to take care of it all and can concentrate on my new job, which is making things a lot easier. But the people at work are fabulous as always, stimulating, motivated, intelligent, funny, kind-hearted and generous - so for the moment, my working life, while long, is fulfilling and entertaining. What more can a girl ask for?

She can ask for some friends to fill up some of the time while she's not at work. Three months ago, I was in a social rut. The same old friends, same old places. Old friends are golden, but sometimes you need something new - new stimulus, so you know you're alive and not trapped in some kind of Nietzchean eternal circular universe. How am I going to make new friends though? I asked myself. When you're five, you can make friends with someone simply on the basis that they live across the street from you. You can bond over a shared love of cherry flavoured Hubba Bubba. Twenty years later, things are slightly more difficult. Everyone already has their own set of friends, they don't have any openings, they're not taking any applications, they're not interviewing for any positions. Plus, being in the same geographical position as someone else often isn't enough to base a friendship on, even for a summer. So, how to achieve my goal? The answer turned out to be surprisingly simple.

Attitude.

That's it. Just attitude. I changed nothing about myself or my life other than the fact that I had made an internal decision to be more open about meeting new people. I went to no extra effort, hatched no crazy schemes, had no Hollywood teen movie makeover. And it worked like a charm. In fact, it worked so well that I'm almost longing for the days of yore when I used to have time to crack a book once in a while, lie on the couch and daydream a time, or even cook, do laundry and go grocery shopping! A good lot of people have passed into my life in the last 90 days or so. Some of them have come and gone (the downside of living in a global community is half the time you get close to someone, they go home to France or Germany or Poland or Spain or Italy or China or whatever) but thankfully lots are here to stay. There's Tania, the little Russian doll from Moscow with whom I've seen more of Ireland in the last three months than in my whole first year in Ireland, Dan, the gorgeous San Franciscan/Korean with a heart of gold, Melinda, the Swiss with the perfect Argentine accent when she speaks Spanish (thanks to her Porteño ex-boyfriend), Eimear, the crazy Aussie I picked up in Clarks that time, Denise, her mad-as-a-cut-snake Irish housemate, Nadia, the Aussie/Chinese/Russian that loves doof-doof music and wants to live in Rathmines, Pascal, the Franco-German gentleman of a bygone era who plays the guitar like a dream, Nicolas, the party guy with one eye on every girl in the place, Peter, the relaxed Belgian who's full of surprises, all Marie's friends I met at her party in Lyon...need I go on? Suddenly a night on the couch in front of a crappy romantic comedy is a fast-fading memory. But life is for living, so I'm not wasting a moment of it.

When I'm not with my friends, I'm at class. Monday nights is Adult Literacy Tutor training. I've been looking for something to volunteer for for ages, and this is perfect for me. I think I'd be a fairly good tutor (I'm a good listener and a competent-ish teacher) and literacy is something I'm passionate about. Unfortunately the delivery of the training course leaves a lot to be desired. It is lacklustre and snail-paced, dissipating my enthusiasm for the subject into a pool of boring handouts and ceaseless waffle only tangentially related to the matter at hand. One simultaneous highlight and lowlight of the course is one of the tutors giving the course. His name is John but give him a hand puppet and he is (note, not resembles, but actually becomes) Mr. Garrison from the immensely popular adult cartoon, “South Park”. He has the personality of a cold trout, he's completely effeminate, and he says things like “If we would all learn to listen to each other the world would be a better place”. But the dead giveaway is the fact that he ends most of his sentences with “mmmkay?”. I swear I am not making this up.

Tuesday nights is Creative Writing. Well, Tuesday nights should be creative writing. It was due to start this Tuesday gone, and I had it down to start at half seven. As Irene was starting back on Wednesday morning, I was late leaving the office as I was preparing everything for the handover the following morning. I got out of the office at ten to seven but figured I could still make it if I caught the bus. I walked briskly to the stop, and then realised I had left my wallet at the office and had no change for the bus. Reluctant to make the trip to fetch my wallet and back, I took a deep breath and started jogging for home (the class is round the corner from my house). Luckily I had changed into my new sneakers (I asked the sales guy for ones with loads of cushioning, so I feel like I'm walking/running on balloons!) but I was still in my work pants and skivvy. I was only planning to jog a little way, maybe up until the canal, but I found when I got there I was hardly puffed, so on I went - up Camden Street, Wexford Street, Aungier Street, George's Street, dodging people, prams, street lights, bus stops, the occasional bike. I made it to the Liffey in less than 20 minutes. I was halfway up Capel Street when I finally packed it in, but considering two years ago I bet I couldn't have run 3 minutes without getting puffed, I'm pretty proud of myself. I made it to the college by 7.25, amazed that I had gotten there not only on time but early. On the door of the college was a sign. “Creative Writing: Tuesdays, 6:15 pm to 7:45 pm”.

Holy Mother of God.

“You're too late to go in now, better come back next week”.
I won't share with you the steady stream of curses running though my brain and exploding from my mouth at this juncture, for fear my mother will revert to her usual refrain, “We spent all of that money on private schooling to have you talk like you live in a gutter”. I'm sure your imaginations will do justice to the situation. Next week then!

Last night I met up with an old friend I hadn't seen in a few months. We went to the Porterhouse for a pint and chatted non-stop for hours. It was great - good beer, a pub crooner mangling all the most interesting Beatles songs, dim lighting and animated, wide-ranging and captivating conversation. I had missed that a lot - though I've met a lot of fun people lately, it's different when you just “click” with someone, or with a group of people. That inexplicable feeling that descends when you're with them - an almost tangible sense of well-being, of contentedness. You can relax, be free. Who needs Valium or Prozac when you have good friends around you?

Tomorrow another exciting day - my parents are coming! They'll be in Dublin a week checking up on my lifestyle, making sure I'm eating enough fruit and vegetables, fussing over me and ordering me around (you know, normal parent stuff). Next Thursday we'll be heading off for Barcelona, and then touring the north of Spain. To pile more fun and coolness on top of all that, one of my coolest bestest friends from back home, Julia, will be meeting me in Bilbao and we'll be heading down towards Madrid together! Wicked partying, here we come! Then to Rome, where I will be doing nothing but drinking coffee, eating pizza, revelling in ancient ruins and checking out all the hot Italian boys (for whom I have a strong weakness). After three weeks of fun in the (hopefully) sun - back to Dublin and Jurys, Microsoft and piles of statistics!

By the way - I finally got paid the money I was owed from ACS. Here's hoping that's an end to that. I'm still having awesome fun at salsa class, no longer the worst in the class, yay! I'm in the middle of "To Kill a Mockingbird" - now that I'm reading it I can't believe I've never read it before now - it's brilliant! Anyway, it's late and I have to get some sleep as I'm getting headshots done tomorrow for the W5 website and I need my beauty sleep! Good night world...