The crib

Hiya! :-) Long time no see.
I hope it'll be better from now on.
We attended a Sunday's market in Farmleigh. Bought a nice bread and listened to some carols.
We also visited the crib nearby.
Funny thing - something is missing from the picture below - do you know what? ;-]

There was also a pen with some donkeys inside. Nothing special but still something to look at. Cheers!

Scary eye tool

Link of the day:
USB Eye Massager

Cycle Sunday

Today I felt like doing a whole day cycling.

I headed south - after an hour I cut through Dublin and landed near M50. I followed Barnacullia and Ballyedmonduff Road because the first waypoint of my journey was placed in Glencullen. The road was uphill for most of the time. I was dripping with sweat but at least views were nice. :-)

When I reached Glencullen I headed south to get to my second waypoint - Enniskerry.
This part of the trip was much nicer - downhill for most of the time - so I got to Enniskerry very fast. Along the way I got today's SPEED MAX - 69km/h. Oooh... yeah! :-D
In Enniskerry I stopped for a few moments to consider the next waypoint. Glendalough or Bray?
After a short moment of hesitation I chose Bray - on my bike and off I go!

Enniskerry

The road to Bray regretably wasn't very spectacular. I crossed M11 and after several minutes of wandering around Bray I finally landed at the seaside.
The beach in Bray isn't very inviting, there are lots of stones, almost no sand and the whole place is crowded. I sat on the stones and managed to stay there for approximately 10 minutes. I couldn't sit there any longer. The sky was clouded so there wasn't much sunshine and the wind was blowing so I was cold after a couple of minutes.

Bray

I didn't take any water with me so I needed to drink to not to end dehydrated. I bought a bottle of 7UP at a nearby stall, drank it and headed back home. My plan was to go through Glencullen again so I cycled through Shankill and turned left to Stonebridge Road and then to Rathmichael Road. The weather got uglier and it started to rain. It rained all the way to Glencullen. The road was uphill and I already started to feel tired. As soon as I reached Glencullen I knew I need a short rest. There was a nice pub near the road so I sat there. I went inside and said: "Uhuhu.." The pub was very nice, got real atmosphere and a sawdust on the floor. There was even a band playing Irish songs. Of course I don't have to mention that the pub was rather crowded. I ordered a Coke (I really needed sugar then) and a Guiness and sat outside where I managed to sit at the table (the rain scared off clients dining outside).
The magic of Guiness worked very well - as soon as I sat at the table it stopped raining and a beautiful sun appeared. :-)
Wallowing in the sunshine I enjoyed my beer and coke to the last drop.


When both glasses were empty I jumped on my bike and headed in a direction of Dublin. Of course it was raining along the way so I got wet. I had to stop in Phoenix Park and consume the last (emergency) muesli bar because I was starving and out of strength. It helped (it always does ;-). I got home at 6 p.m. - tired and cold. I changed a backpack and went shopping to Lidl. I was back at 7 p.m. and I finally got my dinner - a full bowl of musli. :-)

TRIP INFO:
Max Speed - 69 km/h
Distance: 99 km
Average Speed: 19.5 km/h

P.S.
The broadband is still damn slow. I can't even browse webpages - I need to hit Refresh a few times in Firefox for the page to load. I need to write to NTL about it again. :-|

Second week

Survived a second week of training in Xerox.
Of course when I finally got a job my phone started ringing with people begging me to work for them.
Geez...
One of the new jobs looks nice though - Customer Account Manager.
I asked about more details...

Link of the day:
Spain is back to the middle ages

Started a new job at Xerox as a Customer Solutions Representative.
The first day went fine - people were really friendly and helpful.

The so called "dress code" in Xerox is bullshit. I learned that today.
I've spent 200 Euro for new clothes and almost everybody wears jeans and t-shirt there.
I feel cheated! ;-|

Link of the day:
"I've Got Nothing to Hide" and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy"

Kittens just moved

Today Lucy and Peter took kittens to their place.

no job..

Still without a job.
For two weeks I've been sending out CVs to the ads placed at FAS and jobs.ie - with no success.
I attended a few interviews but no job so far.
Today I dressed up properly, got on a bus and visited some agencies. I made a few kliks around city center and left some CVs. The sky was cloudless and the sun didn't have mercy on me. I was half baked when I finally reached home.
The same day I received a call from one of the agencies. It seems that Intel is looking for someone for Asset Management position and I would qualify. I told the recruitment agent that I would gladly work for Intel - so I'm waiting for their move now.

New Location

I've just moved to a new house.
In some respects it's better than the old one and in some respects it's worse.

Today's Lili's birthday. Gave her 2 (under)shirts from a breathing material. I hope she'll like it.
Geez.. Who would've thought I'll be buying her underwear... ;-O

I've had a job interview today in Fujitsu-Siemens. I was told that I'm overqualified (!) - so I probably won't get that job.. :-(

Short entry today 'cause I have a skull-splitting headache and I don't feel very good. :-|

Moving to a new house

During a last few days I've been very busy. Me and Lili are moving to a new house and there's a lot of trouble with transporting our belongings, with closing/opening/updating accounts in ESB, Bord Gais and NTL.
Lili went to Poland for several days so cleaning the old house and finding a new housemate is on my head right now.
For a next couple of days my blogging activity will be severely limited, because there's no broadband at a new location yet. Well, even if there would be internet I don't think I'd have time to blog - considering the task of clearing all our items piled up on the floor...

and the music plays on!

I received a package today!
Inside - my new Fender CE140-SCE.
Photos soon!

The Package has arrived (well... almost...)

Ahhhh...
Today I received a note saying that DHL has a package for me (courier arrived at 11 a.m. and bounced off the door because nobody was home)!
AT LAST!! :-)
My special, custom order that I've waited for sooo long (till February) is going to be mine tomorrow.
I'm so happy.. :-D (...at least till the very moment that I open the parcel to see that contents are broken ;-)

EDITED:
I find it funny: :-)
What the Duck

exhausted

Very tired today.. :-|
Goin' to bed now so no more blogging today.

ROTFL

I just managed to find a new Polish web magazine.
It's called "ŻÓŁĆ" and it's really funny.
Unfortunately it's in Polish so many of you can't appreciate it. Sorry...
Here's the link:
Magazine
Enjoy! :-D

The rain isn't really an obstacle

When I got up in the morning I took a quick look through a window. The sky was heavy with clouds. Well... I thought that situation might improve with time so I went back to bed. :-)
I tried the second time at 9 a.m. The sky looked much better so I decided I should move my old bones.
Took a shower, ate breakfast and by the way found my backpack - I couldn't find it yesterday. I was in a sorry state yesterday and I didn't remember what have I done with it. I left it in a living room, probably when I wanted to set off the fireplace (God knows why - I was mind blasted then ;-).
After the breakfast I called Krzysztof. His girlfriend was working today so he had a free day. We agreed that we won't sit on our butts at home and we're about to catch some fresh air instead. I packed my backpack and hurried to the rendezvous.
The weather was very variable. There were some showers along the way but fortunately we were able to hide under trees. Actually we were so lucky that we didn't get wet a single time. :-)
Our evasive maneuvers were awarded with a beautiful sun some time later. The sky turned from gray to blue and the ground and grass began to dry rapidly. In a great mood we went our way enjoying the fresh air. It scented with flowers and it was a real pleasure to breathe it into our lungs. :-)
I forgot to take my GPS receiver with me so I can't really tell how many klicks we have made but I think it was a little over 20. On our way back to Blanchardstown we felt like relieving our legs for a while would be a good idea so we stopped by the pub. Ahh... a pint of Guinness was the way to go. :-)

and the road becomes my bride...

I was biking today. Made 124 km and most of of it against a strong wind and in the falling rain.
Last 30 km i rode hungry because I run out of food (taken only 4 musli bars and 2 apples). I pushed myself a little too much because I developed symptoms of severe hypoglycemia. I was hungry at first then felt very weak. When I used all my strength to climb Tinkers Hill I started to feel dizzy and confused I also had problems with breathing. ~2 minutes after I managed to climb the hill I felt very exhausted and sleepy and my eyes started to close. Fortunately it didn't end with a coma because loosing consciousness on the road could be fatal for me.
I won the fight with my body - I reached home - but ~1 km from the front door my muscles started to tremble and I had difficulties holding the handle bar. Despite my efforts I wasn't able to ride in the straight line I was staggering like a drunkard.
The first thing I did when I reached home was eating all of the turkey breast from the fridge. I also drank a tea with 6 spoons of sugar. I was so exhausted that I went to sleep without taking a shower despite being all covered with dirt and mud.
Now I'm awake and feel rather weak so within a few minutes I'll jump back to the bed - I need to regenerate. I felt so bad at the finish that I'm sure that catabolic processes kicked in so my body started to eat it's own muscles. I wonder how much muscles I have lost?
Geez...
When I think about it now - I was in a really serious condition. Almost rode myself to death... :-O
BTW: The trip was nice (not counting the rain). Visited Blackrock, Dalkey, Shankill, Bray, Newtown, Enniskerry and so on.
OK, time to bed now.
EDITED
I'm up again.
I had a plan to run a few kilometers today. Because of my exhaustion I wasn't able to run after I finished cycling. So, as I always try to keep to my word - and exhaustion isn't the excuse - I set the alarm clock to 23:30. I got up from the bed, changed clothes and simply went running. :-)
I took the medium route of around 4 klicks. I usually finish this route in 18-20 minutes. Today it took me 19:25. So my condition isn't that bad - that few hours of sleep worked miraculously well. :-)

Long weekend

The long weekend has just started. There's a bank holiday on monday so there are 3 free days.
Unfortunately the weather forecast isn't very optimistic with haze, clouds and light to moderate showers in the prospect. :-|
There was a plan to conquer Carrauntohil (the highest mountain in Ireland, 1040 meters) and visit Cork or Galway. Well, it was decided that we shall go to the Northern Ireland for a hike in the Mourne Mountains and perhaps in the vicinity of Carlingford.
We set off for a hike at around 11:30 a.m. We started with climbing a mountain. The plan was to reach the top and then continue along the ridge.
We reached the top of the mountain and after a short rest we followed the ridge. Regretably girls soon decided that the hike isn't very interesting for them, they lack nice views (there was a haze in the mountains) and overall the trip sucks. So we abandoned our plans of following the ridge and descended to the car. :-(
For the next hour or so - instead of hiking - we enjoyed being squeezed in a car. :-(
When we finally reached Carlingford we disembarked and set out to hit another mountain. We took a trail through the forest. Soon we had to force our way through fallen trees that blocked the trail. It slowed us down but I liked this part of the hike. Soon after we cleared those trees we walked out of the forest and found ourselves at moors. We climbed for a little longer but after a short time people decided that we won't climb to the top and we should head to the car instead.
I got really pissed off then. We were half the way to the top...
If you don't want to climb to the top you shouldn't even start climbing. It doesn't make sense! So on our little hike we didn't complete any plan and I really hated that. I hate to leave unfinished business and today we did just that a few times. :-( We didn't follow the ridge because "the view wasn't very nice" and we didn't reach the top of the mountain because "the slope was too steep" (it wasn't).
Geez, what a wasted day... I was teased with the prospect of a descent hike and it all ended like that. It was like licking the ice cream through the window pane. No sense at all... :-(
When we returned to Dublin Peter and Lucy invited everyone to their home for a movie. Vincent and Lili agreed and I did not. I really wanted to get to those 2 beers in my fridge. I also wanted to send out a few CVs because I'm still looking for a new job (and Peter's would-be company seems to have stalled at the moment of choosing a location). Oh.. and I was still pissed off too...
I don't think I'll go hiking in the mountains with Lucy and Lili any time soon. It simply doesn't make sense - they don't feel it. :-(

Livin' in the city

Today me and Lili had an appointment in the evening to see a house to rent.
As it's really a casting these days we put on better-than-usual clothes, taken references and moved on. The house is very close to the place we live now so we walked all the way.
When we arrived at the place we were greeted by landlords - they seemed like nice people.
We checked the house. It's a very nice one indeed - even better than the place we live in now! It was a lovely house and we loved it!
Our casting performance was great - we were all smiles and professional so we made a good impression .
I received a call from the landlady in the late evening. She said that she and her husband decided that me and Lili were the best so we can rent their house beginning from the next week! :-D
That's really great news for us!

Feistier than ever

Upgraded today to Kubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn.
The upgrade took a whole night but it worked without a single glitch. Wow! :-O
Somehow I managed to empty 2 Gigs on my hard drive because I read on the internet that upgrade needs approximately 1.3 Gigs of space. Well it's true. After the upgrade I was left with ~500 MB of free space. After I checked that everything works and nothing was broken during the upgrade I wished I could clean Edgy Eft's remains. I opened a Konsole window and entered:
sudo apt-get clean
and to be sure:
sudo apt-get autoclean
and then I checked how much space was left on a hard drive.
The result: 2 Gigs.
Bling! :-)

Birthday

A pleasant surprise happened to me today. :-)
Yesterday I uploaded my 2 versions of 'Powered by Kubuntu' stickers to KDE-look. Today I checked the website to find a comment for one of my stickers by Richard Johnson - an author of the original 'Powered by...' stickers for System76. He wrote that he likes my design and I made a good job. It's a nice feeling to know that your work is appreciated. :-)

I have to admit I haven't been in a good mood for the most of the day. It's my 30th birthday today and I can feel my life seeping through my fingers faster and faster. :-|

Lucy has her birthday tomorrow so we agreed on joining forces and making one-for-all party at her house. At 6 p.m. I arrived at Lucy's&Peter's house and fortunately my foul mood changed into a fairly pleasant one. When all the guests arrived we started with the party. I had a really hard time with choosing a birthday present for Lucy. I didn't want to buy her another cup, vase or a sculpture. I didn't want to buy her cosmetics (Peter suggested that) 'cause I don't want to see her wrinkled within next 10 years. I wanted something of a utility. Hmm.. I decided to buy her a set of jams (not ordinary jams of course - these were damn expensive for a jam :-/), a plaque saying: 'A home is not a home without a cat' (I liked it so much, I bought it in the same second I saw it) and a DIY mascot cat (material, threads, strings). I wonder if she liked my presents. Those jams looked delicious... ;-)

I have to admit I was really surprised with presents I received. First came a birthday cake. Peter and Lucy were supposed to buy it. I thought it would be a standard cake but I couldn't be mistaken more. Geez.. It was a custom made birthday cake (was delicious by the way) with a dedication - Happy 30 Birthday Emil! That was very nice - thank you - but I was bothered with one thought. It was also a cake for Lucy's birthday and there wasn't any dedication for her? I felt a little uncomfortable with it...
As for the rest of the presents I received - a brand new SHIMANO XT REAR DERAILLEUR, PANARACER CINDER 2.1 TYRE (foldable version of course) WATER BOTTLE and BIKING SHORTS. :-D
Thank you again! In my wildest dreams I never expected such great presents!

Ok. Enough about the presents. We all sat in the living room and had a real good fun. Around 10.p.m. we decided that it's time to hit some clubs to stretch our legs a little. Half an hour later we landed close to St. Stephen's Green. The first club we visited was Dandelion. Large club but music wasn't very good so we left after ~20 minutes. We went to Sinnots and we stayed there till the club was closed. Sinnots was pretty crowded but we danced a lot and had a good time overall. Thanks everyone for a very nice birthday party!

Friday night

I'm spending Friday evening at home.
I'm tired and I don't know the reason. :-|

Today Lili made a cheesecake for me. I love cheesecake and she knows it.
She said that it's my birthday present. :-)
She's such a lovely girl...

Upgrade to version 3.0 soon

On Saturday I'll have a birthday.
I do not really feel like celebrating but it was decided (for me) that we're gonna hit a disco in the City Center. Probably we're gonna land at Sinnots or Break for the Border. I hope we'll have a good time!
I told my friends that I don't want any birthday presents and I was totally disregarded.
So let it be the way they want it to be...
The best present I can think of will come on 19th of April. It's a release date for Ubuntu 7.04 aka Feisty Fawn. :-D
(I'm a pathetic nerd - am I not?)

Another thing:
Yesterday I learned about the availability of a 'Powered by Ubuntu' sticker that can be ordered for free from System76 and placed on your computer. I really liked the idea, so I made a Kubuntu variant of this sticker. Here it is (beautiful isn't it?):Now... Is there anybody that can print a few for me? ;-)

Bad news

Karine called me today while in the job.
She said that our letting agent James contacted her and told her that we have to move out of the house in 35 days (that would be 23 of May).
That's not good news for me. I end my work at Creative on 18 of May. It seems that soon after I'll be unemployed and homeless.
Shit... :-(

I've been thinking...

...that my blog's formula doesn't really please me.
I need to change a few things.
Two main points:
1. WHAT I write,
2. HOW I write.

I'll try to work on these points in a near future.
I'm curious of the results.

Sun-day

It's 10:30 a.m. As usual I woke up at 7 a.m. and it seems I wasted a lot of time in the morning (but at least I updated yesterday's blog).
Well...
I'm already after breakfast and shaving.
The plan for today - I want to visit the Gallery of Photography in Temple Bar.
There's exhibition there called: "Another Day in My Kingdom".
I'll better be on my way then...
Edit:
I took a bike and rode to Phoenix Park where I sat on the grass in the Peoples' Garden. During my ride there Peter called me and said that he and Lucy would gladly come with me to the exhibition. They would be in the City Center around 3:30 PM. I said fine, why not?. Since I had few hours of time now, the golden sun was high in the sky and the grass in the Garden was soft and green - I took the book from my backpack and started reading. :-)
The book was another chapter of Terry Pratchett's Discworld saga called Reaper Man. As always I enjoyed it - Terry you are a god! C:-)
At 3:50 PM Peter called me again saying that they're in the City Center now so I quickly packed the book into the backpack and jumped on the bike. Around 10 minutes later I was in Temple Bar where the gallery was placed.
We visited the gallery. It was a mistake (I won't be torturing you with the details) because the "exhibition" was pathetic. Fortunately there wasn't any entrance fee so I didn't have to hold anyone's neck and scream: "Give my back my money you filthy bastard!". ;-)
We visited Secret Bistro (a restaurant) where we ate a dinner. Then we headed back to Temple Bar where I jumped on a bike and Peter and Lucy jumped into their car. Two means of transport, one destination - Blanchardstown.

Hiking in Wicklow

Yesterday evening I've got an idea. The idea was what to do on Saturday.
The weather would still be sunny and warm so there was only one choice - outdoor activity! :-)
On the Saturday morning I received a message from Peter saying that he, Lucy and Lili plan to jump on bikes and enjoy a little ride. Knowing how their usual weekend day looks like - sleeping till midday and then breakfast, packing and then moving out - I decided against. I also suspected that their Saturday ride will be another oh-no-not-Phoenix-Park-again thing (I was right). Geez.. when we have a whole day to enjoy why do we have to waste time going to Phoenix Park? I can ride in Phoenix Park when I have a little time, 1-2 hours, so it doesn't make sense to ride further. When I have a whole day of a free time - it's simply a waste for me...
By the way - for a short period of time I'm fed up with the bike so I decided for a little hike in Wicklow.
The way to Glencullen (where I started my hike) was a little rough.
I took the first bus from Blanchardstown to City Center. The second bus (14) took me from the City Center to Dundrum. For the third bus I had to wait over 90 minutes.. :-( The bus (44B)took me from Dundrum to Glencullen. This whole bus adventure took me almost 3,5 hours.
One sentence summary --> public transport in Dublin sucks like a vacuum cleaner. :-|
Finally I arrived at Glencullen. (Yipeeee! ;-)
I checked a map, fired up my GPS receiver and headed west. I needed to get to The Wicklow Way because I had a plan to follow it and at the end land again in Dundrum. The weather was soooo good. :-) Warm sun, blue skies and slight gusts of wind made my soul want to sing. ;-) It was so warm that as soon as I left the road and entered the "wilderness" I took off my shirt to catch some sun.
I had all day, there was no haste involved so I enjoyed my time to maximum. I paced slowly, taking photos and marveling at bright sunlight and sweet air, scented with resin. I walked off the designated path once - I took a quick sally to Two Rock Mountain. Just to take a few photos and to check a landmark nearby... ;-) Standing on the top of the mountain I also auto-calibrated an altimeter in my GPS receiver. The height calculated from satellite readings was 536m above sea level. I checked a map - Two Rock Mountain - height - 536 meters. Wow! I was simply astonished - that was a very good performance from my Vista C. Kudos Garmin!
I followed the track further in a general direction of Dublin. I met a few people along the way so my trip was peaceful and undisturbed.
After a few hours I reached a car park near the Stackstown Golf Course that heralded the end of the "wild" part of the trip.
Regretably I missed an opportunity to conquer Kilmashogue Mountain. Maybe another time...
I headed to Dundrum to get on a bus home. This part of the trip was a little less pleasant because of traffic and urban noise but I still enjoyed it. I was never before in Dundrum so it was an opportunity to see something new. I have to admit I like what I saw. Judging from the looks - Dundrum is a nice place to live.
Took a bus and got back to the City Center. When I tried to get on the 39 bus I had a little "issue". I was out of coins ( I spent around 10E for buses today) but I had a 5E banknote. I thought that there wouldn't be any problem with banknotes. There was.
The bus driver told me that he doesn't accept 'notes...
So...
I was standing on a pavement with 5 Euros in a hand and watching the back of the bus disappearing around the corner. Let me tell you - I was VERY pissed off! :-E
Few minutes have passed and I succeeded not to explode. I was tired with a whole day trip and I wanted to get home ASAP. It obviously didn't work.
When I cooled down a little bit I moved in the direction of Connoly Station. I have waited 20 minutes for train to arrive. And after another 30 minutes I landed at home.
Despite the incident with the last bus I was generally happy with the trip.
It was a fine day! :-)

Biking in a middle of a week

Hello!
I just took a shower, made my beloved Lipton Caribbean tea and sat down to keyboard.
I woke up fresh. Hmm... Those ~10 hours of sleep seemed to work. ;-)
When I came to work a security girl informed me that the case with a gym isn't definitely closed. Theoretically the gym is for Creative employees only but since there are only 4 contractors working in Creative at the moment an exception might be possible. She informed me that some-guy-which-name-I-do-not-remember is considering granting an allowance. That would be good. :-)
At work - nothing new.
Those Poles returned. More questions. More photos.
At 3 p.m. I got an idea. The weather was very good so I thought about biking in the evening. I called Peter and he welcomed the idea with enthusiasm.
As soon as I got home I prepared a dinner and rode to Peter's place(TM). Few minutes later we hit the road. We took a route through Coolmine, Clonsilla, Lucan, Palmerston, Chapelizod and Castleknock. It was a fast ride! A few times I thought I'll soon start to breathe with my ears. ;-)
When I reached home my bike's computer told me that I made 40 km with average speed near 30 km/h. Hmm.. considering the route, my sore-with-yesterday's-running-legs and a moderately strong wind that wasn't bad at all!

Hmmm..
I just finished my tea so it's time to finish writing.

Oh...
I learned that I need to change my wireless network encryption. It's WEP encrypted and it looks like this kind of encryption can be broken within few minutes. Article here. I need to change the encryption to WPA in a near time in a future. I wonder how does the configuration of WPA encryption looks like on my Kubuntu. I've got a WiFi card with a Ralink chipset and there is no GUI tool to configure the connection. Hmmm.. It looks like I'll be messing with a text editor again...
On second thought..
I think I'll wait till I upgrade to Feisty Fawn. Maybe the configuration of Ralink equipped cards will be simpler there (two mouse clicks?).

Exhaustion

Hi..
It's been a long time since I wrote anything here.
Explanation is simple - I haven't got time...
...really...

At work it was a typical SSDD - Same Shit Different Day.
There wasn't much to do.
As the CL's RMA Department where I work will be shortly outsourced to Poland - there were three Poles wandering on the floor. They asked some questions about RMA process, took few photos and were gone. Mark said they will appear again tomorrow.
When I was leaving I asked a security girl if I can use a gym (there's a gym in the warehouse and it looks like nobody uses it). She allowed me to take a look - it's a small gym but it's got all I need to work on my pectoralis major. Unfortunately the gym is available only for Creative's employees and I'm a contractor. Damn... :-(
When I got back home I made a dinner - some rice with vegetables and chicken pieces. Soon after the dinner I hit Lidl where I bought some food and tempted by a low price I bought jogging shoes for 11E. Well we'll see how long will they survive... ;-)
As soon I got back home I was tempted again to test those shoes. I went upstairs, changed clothes, took my mp3 player, wore shoes and started running (after a short warm-up of course). I was a little too ambitious so I took a long route which was shortly modified into even a longer route. I run near Tesco, through Clonsilla Road and through Waterville (I wanted to say 'hello' to Peter and Lucy). Hmm.. they weren't at home so I bounced off the door handle and headed home.
A crisis got me at Clonsilla Road near a Chinese Takeaway. Geez.. I got stitch and I couldn't breathe. And it did hurt too.. Ouch... :-( After 2 minutes of deep breathing I felt a little better so I started running again. I was trying to take deep breaths while running but I got another stitch ~500 m later. Ouch x2.. :-(
Struggling I reached home - as always last 50 meters trying to run as fast as I could. The result was as always. I reached the front door barely alive. I crawled upstairs to my room, changed clothes and went to bathroom. I have to admit - I was very tired - exhausted and my legs were sore. I wanted to have a hot bath in a bath tub. Regretably water was already cold. Well... so I took a bath in a cold water then. I was so tired I was laying in a bath tub for 15 minutes. After surviving the bath I went to my room and almost immediately fell asleep. It's was ~9 p.m.
Yep!

I'm alive

I'm busy and I'm not in a mood to write anything of value.

I paid a short visit to Poland, am no longer with my girlfriend, had fine Easter holidays (great photos from Powerscourt by the way).

I'll write something longer when I'll have some more time.

Nice day

Hi!
Oh what a lovely day it was. Sunny and warm - a real spring day. :-D
I woke up in the morning and immediately checked the weather behind a window. Great! A cloudless sky and no wind.
I dressed and went downstairs to eat something.
I ate some bread and some smoked turkey breast - not much though - that would hinder my performance few minutes later. ;-)
For few minutes later I changed to my new, shiny lycra shorts, lycra shirt, wore shoes and went running. :-) Yeah, I started running in the morning - once a week for a start but I intend a training to become more intensive in a near future.
Well... I stretched my muscles and started running. I've taken a usual route through a Coolmine Road. This time I took my GPS receiver to measure the distance. Several minutes later when I reached home my GPS showed that I made 2.2 km. That's not bad for a start I think...
I ate a breakfast and waited over an hour to get a shower. Yep.. and hour... It was early in the morning and girls were sleeping - I didn't want to wake them up (damn water pump in the bathroom is sooo loud).
After the shower I started preparing for a trip to city center to do some shopping at Carrols. Lili asked me for help with a presentation she has to make on monday. We did a few slides and the decided that a weather outside is too good to sit at home. So we took our bikes and rode to the city center together.
We visited two Carroll's shops, chose several gifts for my friends and family and left with ~50 Euros less in my wallet. ;-|
We successfully made our way through very crowded O'Connell Street and got to our bikes. Along the way we passed near some people demonstrating against abortion - thay had large posters with photographs of human embryos. A rather disgusting sight let me tell you... :-(
So... we hit Phoenix Park again - the weather was so fine that we took a detour through a Knockmaroon Gate to enjoy the sun a little longer. :-)
We came back home - unpacked gifts from our backpacks and took a ride to Tesco.
We made some shopping there - including some fruits for the salad we intended to make at Peter's and Lucy's place because they invited us for a small meeting in the evening.
We hit home again.
Lili treated me with a salad she made from tomatoes and mozarella and I reciprocated with my Ultimate Vegetable Soup(TM) ;-). We ate the meal in the garden to catch last rays of a setting sun. Then we made it back to Lili's room to finish the presentation. It took us a long time so we came to Peter and Lucy late. Nearly one hour late... Shoot... I hate to be late... :-/
At their home we prepared a salad - sliced peaches, kiwi fruits, bananas and pinapples covered with a cream - I really recommend this one!
Peter and Lucy of course had prepared plenty of food - two salads, a cake, chocolates and more... As usual we weren't able to eat everything - what a shame - dishes were very good!
Later we watched a movie. Lili went back home at around 11 p.m. because she had to meet with Vincent. I slept at Peter's house this night because I didn't want to disturb Lili's and Vincent's meeting with my presence. ;-)
It was a good day! :-D

What a day

A new entry....
Geez.. Who would've thought there would be another one? ;-)

Friday began not-really-good.
I woke up with my stomach aching.
At first I thought that I'm just hungry so I went downstairs and ate a usual "musli style" breakfast. Didn't help much though...
Several minutes later, despite aching stomach I jumped on a bike and accompanied by Lili - headed to work. I was riding in a front so the result was obvious - when I came to an entrance I was all Sweat&Sticky(TM). I think I should've let Lili lead the way - we would be at work two minutes later but without steam coming out of our ears. ;-) Got to remember that...
Well...
First three hours at work were really awful - my stomach hurt so much I wanted just to puke and die under the desk. Also some fever appeared. :-( I drunk three teas which made me feel a little better. Around 2 P.M. my condition improved so there appeared a faint light of hope that I'll survive this day. Luckily today there wasn't much to do, so most of the time I sat my ass on a chair trying not to look too pathetic.
The way home was a breeze - much to my surprise.
I arrived home, ate a soup and a piece of bread and wrote this entry. :-)
My stomach still hurts but it's much better right now.
I don't know what's happening. Is it a sign of incoming flue or just a standard "spring-crisis"?

I feel tired so I think I'm about to go to sleep in a couple of minutes.
My plan was to make a list of gifts I want to buy at Carroll's tomorrow (I'm flying for six days to Poland - next week) but I'm too tired to do that.
I think I'm going to decide tomorrow in a shop.
That's all for now... Cheers!

Blog is started

Hello there!

My first entry - a short one, because it's already late.

I started a blog today...
Geez... I've never thought that I'll ever start one!
I needed an account to write a comment on MADMTB's website.
I got an account but didn't write a single line. ;-|
(edited: I wrote a comment after all...)

Well..
This whole idea of blogging is a little strange to me but I'll give it a try and decide if I like it or hate it.
That's all folks (for now)!