Kinda grand

That's it then. The second interview went quite smoothly; I spent half an hour with two people, and it felt like I was speaking faster and faster the whole time. As I was leaving, it seemed like they were just about to make their decision, so I imagine it’s all sorted by now. I’ll only hear back from them on Monday, though.

The day was kinda grand. I was pleased that, during the classes in the morning, everything seemed to go my way, and I could tick off yet another skills demonstration. The weather was nice, I wore my olive coat and couldn’t help but feel like a bit of a film star.

Going back to the interview, what if they tell me they have someone more suited to the position? Well, this role certainly has its downsides, but it would be lovely to improve my financial situation. I'd love to apply for Irish citizenship this year. I do hope I've done enough to secure the career change. I'm still awaiting feedback from the PSI, and a refusal from both institution within such a short time frame would be a significant setback to my plans, not to mention a rather serious blow to my ego. 

Below: An Cailleach by Vera Bugatti, one of the intriguing murals I walked by today.

Days of delights

After four weeks, I've returned to Monday/Tuesday shifts and found some positive changes. People who had always stirred problems disappeared from the landscape for good, and I enjoyed two days of pure relaxation (hope this mood to stay). Moreover, my husband had time to give me a lift in the morning and pick me up in the afternoon, so after each shift we could go together to our favourite coffee shop in Droichead Átha.

On Monday, I went to the library, provided proof of my identity and address and I was issued a library card for the year; it was all rather quick and straightforward, taking barely a minute.

Today, I had two pakcakes at work, with strawberries and fresh cream, because why not. And later, as we were leaving aforementioned coffee shop, we nearly bumped into Joe Rooney. I've never seen him performing on stage, but moments like this reassure me that the Ireland I know from Father Ted is real and present, albeit perhaps a bit more grown up. 

My second interview, which was meant to be today, has been postponed and I'm still awaiting further details, hoping the wait won't stretch out through the entire week.

In the evening we watched Woody Allen's Another Woman (1988). Hackman was in it, and I loved the references to Rilke (I'm still reading Herbert's biography), however towards the end the story felt more and more Americanish, which is not my cup of tea. 

Greyness

The weekend was dominated by a Jysk display cabinet we were so vigorously assemblying ;) and my thoughts about Monday. Monday was fast like lightning, and felt like a freight train ride. When I came back home, wanted only to lie down and sleep hard. Not like anything devastating had happened or the job interview went extremelly bad, I went out relieved and actually quite content, but the whole day my brain was tired of talking to herself.

The weather's awful, cold, damp, and grey. It's actually the same atmospheric conditions over and over again since the beginning of February. It supposed to be (isn't it?) spring in Ireland, but instead it feels like we stuck with capricious, maritime late winter bored with its own repetitiveness. The good mood is simply sucked out of me, it leaks through skin.

Today we went to Cairlinn. We had a nice chat with Garrett, and a pretty decent lunch, but in between was difficuly to find pleasure in walking around the town village (as they call it), too cold.

Below, we tried however; Mainistir Chairlinn and Slieve Foy in the background.

For several weeks or even months now I've been avoiding watching political news. It's painful to witness the Dilbert principle in action and Mr. Trump experiencing his Peter's plateau for the second time, all thanks to voters eating off paper plates.

Nice affairs

Finally, after years of contemplating this move, I joined the local library in Droichead Átha. It's a temporary online account, but I plan to validate my membership by visiting the premises in person. In the meantime, I already borrowed one audiobook, Foster by Claire Keegan. How come it took me so long to do the right thing? :E

There were more uplifting events in the last few days. Anne, our neighbour, was so generous to give us a present, opening night tickets for Der fliegende Holländer. Wagner, of course; and it's not like he's my favourite composer, but live music is a different level of fun. 

Another enjoyable cirmustance was an unexpected support from one of my managers. It seems like he really wants me to succeed in the job interview that would give me a serious promotion. I'm sceptical, doubt if the amount of potential new duties is something I will be comfortable with, but decided to follow this route and check where it will lead me. 

Well ... and today, Fred and I, we found a new lovely gastro spot, it's called Duende. They serve very nice steaks there. The whole adventure of looking for a new place to eat out was related with our search for a new office chair for Fred. The old one (which is actually not so old), started to rock back and forth rather dangerously. Now we have two almost identical office chairs in our kitchen, mine is black, Fred's is brown.

Below: spectacular Duende experience.

Tuesday?

Some good happened in between. Today I got a call from one place, they invited me for a job interview. I'm not sure I have a chance there, but it won't hurt to go and chat with people (I'll try to treat this as a valuable experience; my last interview was a disaster mostly because I didn't bother to prepare for it). 

Also, I booked a ticket for a flight to visit my family home. Just a few days in the last week of February, before the group I'm tutoring returns from their work placement. I called my Dad in the morning, and Mum later, when we were driving back from shopping, just to confirm the dates and cheer up whoever finds my visits comforting (Mum sometimes tells me I should save money for more important things; this time she didn't use this standard phrase of her, and was obviously happy; good).

Yesterday I finished reading Tokarczuk's House of day, House of night. In Polish, but I see that the book was already translated by fantastic Antonia Lloyd-Jones, and I'm sure at some point I will catch up with this version as well (I enjoyed her translation of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead).

And music: The Cure's album Songs of a Lost World is simply amazing! I was swinging to the tune most of the day.

Below: a picture taken good three weeks later and posted here one rainy morning, because that's what I wanted to do ;)