Ranelagh

I am sitting here, trapped, in my new apartment. While I may not be trapped literally (I can exit the building whenever I wish), I have not been given the keys to house yet, and Tim, my liaison with the accounting firm that owns the building, has gone out, saying he will be back in five minutes. I knew not to believe him, because before that he went out to find out about internet access for my first couple days saying he would be back in twenty minutes, and it was an hour and a half (and then we still couldn’t get it working). I have been told that the Irish have a different sense of time, but that might be unfair. I think it may just be Tim. Introducing Tim Standard Time (TST).

I am annoyed as a) the room is cold because the renovators keep leaving the back door of the house open, and it is grey and raining, b) I need to go out and buy sheets and blankets and pillows so I am able to sleep tonight (I have a double bed, which I am pretty excited about) and c) I haven’t eaten anything today. Before you start at me, it’s not my fault! I left the hostel at ten a.m. Now it is one-thirty. Did not expect to be trapped.

Ranelagh Village is just outside what I would call downtown Dublin but have been instructed not to say ‘downtown’ (they say ‘city centre’ here, or just specific names of streets) just past the Grand Canal (which despite its name is wee). Despite being a twenty minute walk from city centre all the buildings are small here and you could imagine yourself much farther out in the country. Ranelagh is the main street and has all sorts of Annex-y things; restaurants, coffee shops, florists. There are many families and children and dogs around. There’s only one downside: remember in my previous post when I got mad at the Starbucks that wouldn’t take my resume at all, and said I wouldn’t want to work in that neighbourhood anyways? That’s my new neighbourhood. So obviously a stealth operation is required in which my resume ends up at that Starbucks without the knowledge of the French barista who was mean to me. SOMEBODY should want to hire me!

Okay, I am worrying about that tomorrow. Today is about my new apartment, which I decorated with Team Macho postcards, prints of 1910’s fashion plates and my Judy Garland record. It didn’t occur to me before today, but many years in residence taught me how to make one’s imprint on a room in a fast and effective manner. Megan and Mel, my visitors this past weekend, are supposed to visit my neighbourhood tonight after having gone on a day trip to “the sea” and other than that my plans were going to consist of watching several hours of Golden Girls (can’t though, without internet...) and reading my Nixon book and sleeping for 11 hours.