Irish Phrases

I've been hearing the attached list of phrases and thought I'd pass along including the American translation:

General Conversation
Irish: You know that way?
American: You know what I mean?

I: Your man
A: That guy

I: Cheers
A: Thanks

I: Your so good
A: Great job

I: Grand
A: Awesome

Telephone Conversation
I: Come here to me (or Come here)
A: Listen...

I: Right so
A: Alright then

I: Bye bye bye bye bye
A: Bye

I'll update as I learn more.

Here it is:

RIOGHNACH = RENA

Poll Question

What are your thoughts on how people view Americans around the world? I know that there may be different views in different places, but I think there is a general view.

Please place your answer in the comments section - I would really love to know what people think. You can comment anonymously.

Thanks!

THE Best Ever

Unbelievably, I was able to see "The Dark Knight" last night. I thought there was no way that it would be possible, seeing as it's not even officially released here until today. The idea was to buy tickets for another day but there was a show starting at 6:40 and there were actual seats available! The planets were aligned...

As you know, big Batman fan here, and this movie was the best one so far. Except for the brief fallout in the middle, they increasingly get better and better. Lots of twists and turns that I didn't expect and the acting was the best so far. Of course Heath Ledger was just as good or better than the glowing reviews, but the others were outstanding as well. Maggie Gyllenhal was a GREAT switch for the character of Rachel Dawes and I'll watch anything with Aaron Eckhart in it - yummy. And I could go on and on about Christian Bale but I won't bore you.

Anyway, GO OUT AND SEE IT! At the beginning, the whole crowd is in, eating their goodies and waiting for the movie. After the previews, there's always a screen that shows what movie is about to play and up pops "Mamma Mia". MAMMA MIA?? If you're going to make a mistake, at least put on another thriller or something. Of course there are plenty of hisses from the crowd and so it stops and there's another 15 minutes or so before Batman comes on. The funny thing is that there was a sign at the register that said "Due to technical difficulties, Mamma Mia won't be shown." The joke is that they probably lost the film and once that error occurred...FOUND IT!

The Irish Name Game

I thought it would be fun to play a little game (will also help me to know if anyone's actually reading this blog). Below is an Irish name that when heard, sounds just like a regular American name. If you'd like to play, please put in the comments what American name you think this is. The American spelling is very simple and easy.

When I heard her name (yes, it's a girl) I wrote it down the American way and then saw the actual version on an email and my eyes probably got pretty big. Once we have the correct answer, or there's just no way in heck to guess, I'll let you know.

RIOGHNACH

This is fun!

No, it can't be real

But it IS!! My SHIPMENT IS HERE!!! Only 104 days since it was picked up. Yep - that is not a mistake. 104 freaking days.

I did plan ahead and ordered some wardrobes (i.e., Irish closet) but you have to put them together and when I say "you" I mean "me". Even though I planned ahead and they were delivered, I didn't put them together before the shipment came. So now I have to put those together before I can empty my clothing boxes. I'm sure all of my clothes will be in pristine condition. Ahahahahahahahahahaha!

Doesn't look like there's much serious damage. A bend to a box or two. I did blow up my DVD player yesterday however. Seems the voltage converter that works fantabulously with my chi iron is not equipped for DVD players. Seeing this, I am doing extensive research before plugging my desktop computer in. I have even surveyed our technology risk department here. :)

I should have everything organized by the end of the week. We shall see...

So, here's what I know

Normally a FUNCTIONING radar will have lots of little dots where the planes are and next to the little dots are statistics of each plane, including but not limited to, altitude, location, speed, landing estimation (I just made that up). The Dublin airport radar only had the little dots. So this means that a human has to physically call each plane and get the info that the radar normally provides.

Well, that's just freaking fabulous. Don't you just love the potential of human error when you're on a big ass plane heading to Newark. Fuuuuun stuff. Apparently it's "fixed". The most interesting part to me is that what people are complaining about is the delays that it's creating. Are you KIDDING ME? Doesn't anyone care about the planes potentially colliding in the air???!!! Maybe that's just me.

A much better start to the day

I took the bus today instead of the train. The bus drops me off at Pearse Street - the other end of where my train station is. It's a pretty long street. First of all, it's not raining (yay), but just in case I wore a pair of patent leather flats. I got them the other day on sale for 30 Euro and when I tried them on they were a little small. Last pair they had of course. I got them anyway and figured I'd suffer through since they were TOO CUTE! Here's a pic so you can judge for yourself:

The walk to work from the bus station starts at the end of Pearse Street and the first thing that I come to is Trinity College. I was walking around the perimeter of it and had to really take in the fact that I was casually walking past a serious amount of history. Trinity was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I due to the fact that she didn't think the Irish (and relocated English) felt education was important - next to drinking and partying. She couldn't stand one of her countries being uneducated I suppose.

I imagine that I didn't recognize the history in my daily life in New Orleans either, but this city is OLD. And really beautiful. The second part of my walk is down Grafton and since it was so early, there was no one really on it. Usually it's so crowded that it takes expertise to successfully get through the street with relative pace. The rest of my walk was the same, but my ipod was playing some great stuff this morning so the walk flew by. One of the songs that came on was "If I Ever Leave This World Alive" by Flogging Molly. It's on one of my soundtracks, but it's full on Irish and I LOVE it! I couldn't stop smiling all of the way to Starbucks. In fact, when I got to work, I downloaded two of their albums ("Drunken Lullabies" and "Float"). I highly recommend a listen.

Now I'm at my desk and I suppose I should start working at some point. I hope your day starts out as good as mine!

Oh - and a side note - apparently the radar at the Dublin airport has gone kaput. They had to cancel all outgoing flights and also couldn't let any planes land past 1:45 pm yesterday. That's fantastic since I'm flying on Sunday. Let's hope they get the thing up and running by then!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/09/travel/main4244318.shtml

And so it begins

The weather that I've been hearing so much about. When I left the house it was definitely overcast and a little chilly. I am wearing pants and a short sleeve shirt to work today and for my walk to work I wear these ballet flats that I bought at the gap for like $7. They're probably as cheap as they sound but they do the trick for the walk back and forth. I keep a pair of heels under my desk and occasionally change into them when I get to work. That turned out to be a good thing.

Once I got to the train station, the mist had started, but not enough to use an umbrella. Just enough to make my ironed straight hair frizz out (as much as possible with the straightening chemicals in action - best invention ever). It was definitely chillier than I thought it was originally - I would guess around 55 degrees. The train ride was super crowded, but I just read my book along the way.

Once we got close to my stop, I looked outside and the mist was a lot stronger than it was before. Definitely umbrella material - or "brolly" as they'd call it here. Fortunately my train station is actually enclosed so I was able to get off of the train and prepare for the rainy walk.

My walk consists of three long streets that I would guess probably take me about 10 minutes each. I opened my brolly and off I went. Now, everyone else has one too, so there's lots of moving the umbrella side to side to avoid clashing with other people. What started first was my cheap shoes - I think they're basically cotton - started getting wet and the water started to seep through to my feet. Then the rain/mist worked it's way through my pants. I had to look down to avoid the puddles on the sidewalk because the sidewalks are made of these really big stones that have probably been there since 1700. The stones are not even whatsoever so there are basically puddles in each stone. Bah.

I'm pretty sure that if the world was quiet and my ipod was off, I would've heard this by my third street: squish squish squish. On the third leg of my walk, I found 2 girls that were walking at my pace so I basically paced myself behind them and just put my head down and cruised. What am I, running a 5-K??

The biggest decision of the morning was weather to go straight to Starbucks or to go to the office first and dry off. I figured might as well get my vanilla latte fix covered first than having to go back out in the rain. Good decision. Once I got to the office, I got my heels and went into the restroom to dry off. My pants are still a little wet but all is good. And it's not even "winter" yet.

Epic

Extending beyond the usual or ordinary; extraordinary.

Yes, that would be the way that I would describe the men's Wimbledon final last night. Well, at least it was night for me and for them. For those of you who would not have seen it, it is going down as the best tennis match ever to be played by two competitors. I have even heard the "best sports final ever." I can't say that for sure, but I'm right on board with the best tennis match. Zero doubt on that.

The players spent somewhere close to 5 hours on court, but including the three rain delays and the breaks between points, games, and sets, it was almost 7.5 hours in total. I started watching this a little after 2:00 thinking that I would have plenty of time to get the wardrobes (closets) put together that I ordered, but of course they are still secure in their boxes.

During the match there was lots of me yelling at the TV: "No way!", "Stop it!", "Get OUT!" The tennis was just that good. When there was a superhuman shot hit that was definitely unreturnable, one or the other would, in the same superhuman form, prove me wrong and get it back. It was unbelievable.

The score at the end of it all was Nadal d. Federer (or Rafa d. Roger) 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7. There's not tiebreaker in the fifth set so the match would've gone into this morning if Nadal didn't win that last game. I can't even imagine waking up and having to play the biggest match of your career starting at 8-8 in the fifth set. It's anyone's game at that point.

But nonetheless, the guy that I was pulling for did not win. But after reading the interviews and hearing what Nadal had to say, I respect the little fella. Maybe not so little - the guy is ripped. They both deserved it, but Nadal had less errors in the end - plain and simple.

It was unbelievable - ESPN has it as an instant classic (is that an oxymoron?) and I highly suggest that if you didn't watch it yesterday and you see it coming on - WATCH IT ALREADY!

Culture Difference

I've always heard that there are things that Americans may say or do that would be a no-no in other cultures because it takes on a different meaning. And vice versa. The other day I had my first no-no.

We had an away day scheduled North of Dublin for the group that I was in (I'm officially FIDS now so I'm no longer BRS, but thought I'd attend to get to know meet more people). Most people "worked from home" on the morning of and went out there for the actual meeting in the afternoon. However, some people came into the office and the people that sit around me where in. I had meetings with the partner that morning and so she said that she would take me to the away day since she was attending as well.

When the others came in they asked me if I wanted to go with them and I said "No, thanks. I have a ride." Then I got "Oooh nooo. I wouldn't say that here. It means something 'different'." I got the picture.

I think the following phrases would be very common place in the US:

"Do you need a ride?"
"No, thanks - I've got a ride."
"Because I could give you a ride."
"I'll just get a ride."

I'll slightly adjust those in the workplace. :)

Isa! Dryer Update!!

As you may remember, my dryer needed about three cycles per washed load to get the drying done. And the water would somehow collect in a pull out container at the top. Over time, the space below the lint trap seemed to be wet and the container at the top stopped collecting water. As a result, the drying was taking longer and seemed to stop altogether.

After research was performed - following a trip to purchase a new one - it seems that there is a filter at the bottom that needs to be cleaned. OH! Really?? Of course - I should've just known...

You're supposed to vacuum this filter out. It was a MESS. Now, with the filter spotless, the dryer dries not only in one shot, but it's so freaking hot that I'm scared to dry my clothes on high heat and I open the window because it gets too hot in the room.

So there you go. I now have a working dryer. :)

And just a few stops away on the tube...

Since we were going to Wimbledon, we thought we'd stop by that other small city nearby. I let others take the pictures as I already had a set from my previous visit, but London is always fun to visit. There is so much to do there that one visit isn't enough anyway. Once I get a copy of the pics, I will attach a better post, but I did take some pictures at the Movieum. You are not reading that wrong. I thought - hells yeah I'm going to that.


I thought this one was interesting:





There was no one in there when we went and there were lots of sets and costumes from movies as well as history of the making of them. Very cool stuff. And for all of you that know me well, I'm sure it's no surprise that I'd take a picture of:






And of course that's the one worn by Michael Keaton - not from the silly movies in the middle. :)

Oh yes...I was there

And it was COOL!! So now the only slam that I haven't been to is the Australian Open and I have a feeling it may be a while before I complete group. I did think that Wimbledon would be the hardest to get into, but my mom was able to score tickets with actual assigned seats in court 2. Geaux Mom!!

So as we walked up to the entrance, I had to get a picture of:


This is center court:

The only thing that I didn't love about it was the layout of the area. The US Open and the French Open have a much more open layout. It was difficult to see the entire area as you can with the other two.

The infamous Henman Hill. I think they are starting to call it Murray Mound since Henman has retired and the English are really tough on their athletes if they're not top notch. All hope on Murray. A lot of people think this hill is outside of the grounds so that anyone can watch on the big screen, but nope. You have to have at least a ground's pass. During the late night matches that would go on for hours and hours, this hill would be PACKED with people. When we were watching the match on TV, the cameras would pan over to the hill and when the people on the hill would see themselves on TV, everyone would throw their hands in the air and cheer. Great stuff. :)

Here are my seats on court 2. I did like that you had such a great view not only of the scenery but also of other courts. To the right were 3-4 courts where you could see a little doubles action.

This is where the players and rich people eat and sit to watch the matches on court 2. When we were walking over to the court we saw Roger Federer walking on the path overhead to his nice seat in the viewing area. Too quick to take a proof photograph. You'll just have to believe me. :)

The experience was great and I'd love to go back again. I do have a positive story about the famous queueing as my co-worker did it herself - 2 days in a row. The first day she went at 6:00 or 6:30 in the morning. She was given a card that said she was 1,467 or something like that. Shoe in as they give out approximately 6,000 tickets. They give out 500 tickets to center court then maybe another 500 to court 1 and then a batch for court 2 and the rest of the people just get grounds passes. She was lucky enough to get a court 2 ticket with an assigned seat on the front row! So basically she queued the morning of and had better seats than we did. Sheesh. Well, I guess she really did deserve it though - worked a lot harder to get them.

The second day she went at 7:00 and just got grounds passes. But it was good to know that you can show up at a normal time. The only downside is that play doesn't really start until 1:00 so you have plenty of time to spend all of your money in the Wimbledon shops.

We did of course get strawberries and cream and Pimms. Wasn't sure if I'd like the Pimms but it's gooooood. I recommend.

So for anyone who's thinking of going to Wimbledon, it's a lot easier than it sounds. And if for some reason you queue and don't get in, London is just a tube ride away!