Skry got his visa approved!

Yes folks, at long last, both the Adamsons have their PR visas Approved In Principle. All we have to do now is get those passports over to London for the stickers. Which reminds me, I need to get to the post office to pick up an Irish passport application form... Hope I have some passport photos still lying around as well, because frankly I am a bit heavier right now than I'd like to be, and I don't want a reminder of that for the next ten years! A photo from six months ago would do nicely for this particular occasion.

Looking to the past

It amazes me, whenever I think about it, how much we in Ireland take our culture for granted. It's so normal to see the remnants of hundreds-of-years-old castles and forts dotted about the countryside that we don't even notice them unless somebody takes the time to point them out.

Skry and I went down to Hook Head yesterday. The main point of the excursion was to see the lighthouse on the Hook. This lighthouse is about 800 years old, and the walls are four metres thick. They are so thick that the spiral staircase actually winds its way up within the walls rather than against them. But 800 years is only remarkable because the lighthouse was operational for all that time, not because it's so old. People from other parts of the world that don't have this culture of old buildings must find it absolutely amazing. Even on the road down there we passed countless ruins of forts and castles and tumble-down buildings that are so ordinary that they just crumble, unloved, where they stand.

We had a picnic lunch on the edge of a cliff beside the lighthouse, looking out over the sea. I'm not sure what sea, exactly - I suppose we were looking out over the Atlantic in some shape or form but I'm not sure where the boundaries are between the Atlantic proper and the other seas and channels that have names, around this island. Anyway it was a very nice lunch despite the mushiness of the over-ripe avocado in our sandwiches. The views from the top of the lighthouse were lovely, too, and we could see the farmers rushing to harvest as much as they could on this sunny day after months of rain. I'm not sure how visible it is, but in the photograph to the left you can just about see a smallish table-shaped rock resting on top of the other rocks jutting into the sea. This smallish rock weighs an estimated 20 to 30 tons, and it washed up in a storm. Glad I wasn't in the lighthouse for that one!

On our way to the Hook, we stopped for a quick look around Tintern Abbey in south Wexford. This abbey was founded in around 1200 AD so it's pretty old as well [understatement]. The abbey has been restored quite a bit since I was last there, as the government has been working to restore it to what it was like as an abbey rather than as an abbey-converted-to-a-house-then-fallen-into-disrepair which is what it turned into over the last few hundred years. As I have mentioned above, we are maybe too blase about old buildings, so for me the most interesting part was that the current buildings pump their sewage into a reed bed, which filters the water several times in the most natural way until it is pure enough to pump back into the river. Much better than running it through loads of chemicals in a treatment plant!

Star light, star bright...

...I saw thousands of stars tonight.

In a bid to regain my sanity, I left the laptop at home while we took a trip Home - i.e. to my parents' house in Co.Wexford. It is my dad's 60th birthday during the week, so the whole family turned up for a bit of a celebration. It poured rain almost the whole 200 miles yesterday when we were driving down, and my car is giving trouble too (it'll have to be looked at by a mechanic before we drive back to Belfast), so we were pretty glad to arrive in one piece. But we had a lovely family meal yesterday evening, and today the sun came out. Blue skies above and t-shirts and sandals below! It was lovely.

Tonight was the most gorgeous clear night too, and when we got back from the cinema just before midnight I went out with my camera to snap some star shots. Unfortunately I didn't have a tripod with me, or a remote control, but they still give a good sense of just how bright the sky is right now.

Check out the Plough too, behind the trees - it looks like somebody has a row of LEDs up there! I know that was partly because of the way I took the photo, but it still looks pretty cool. Skry and I spent ages out the front of my parents' house looking up at the Milky Way and trying to spot satellites (we saw three) and shooting stars (he saw one). I just wish we had a telescope!

My head is about to explode

I am exhausted and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. I have been working 12+ hour days all week, trying to get some programming work done, and I'm being thwarted at every turn. I have barely got near any code because I can't get the %^$£%$£@* environment working properly. After this project - if it ever ends - I never want to see the word "j_security_check" again.

Oh, and it's still raining.

This is getting ridiculous!

Ireland. Mid-summer. Note the way the rain is actually bouncing off the roof of my car.

And still the rain

When I woke up this morning it was beautiful - blue skies and sunshine. I did a quick load of washing, hung it out on the line to dry (which I expected to take no more than an hour), made myself some toast and coffee, and sat outside with my sunglasses on, eating my breakfast and reading a magazine.

After breakfast I had a lot to do, so I cleared up after myself quite quickly and took in my magazine and the cushion. Lucky that I did, because no more than five minutes later I looked outside to find this:
Yes folks, you've got it in one. More rain. Sigh.

Oh well, at least the clothes were still wet! It would have been really annoying if they had actually dried out and then got soaked again.

In other news, I got a reply back from NZIS about my name change. It's no trouble at all; all I have to do is send my marriage certificate along with the new passport. Thinking about it, I'd probably be wise to leave the new passport until after our European trip just in case I lose it and have to buy another one, but then if I do that I won't get any stamps in the new one for border crossings. Technically we aren't supposed to get stamps going across the border in EU countries, but if asked nicely the person at the desk will usually give us one anyway. I would like to have a few European stamps in the passport that I'll be using for the next ten years. Decisions, decisions.

Rain, rain, go away

After two or three days that were quite pleasant and even featured some sunshine, the rain came back with a vengance last night, and it has been raining steadily all day. This has been the wettest summer for decades, and everyone is completely sick of it at this stage, but what can we do? Outdoor activities planned months or even years in advance are cancelled at the last minute, nobody has had a decent barbecue in ages, and there are 50% Off All Garden Furniture sales in Homebase and B&Q. I did get a couple of chances to use the new bistro set that I got the other day, but I think they won't be used again now until next week at the earliest. I also had to abandon plans to get rid of quite a few things at a car boot sale today, which is really annoying, but I have no cover for the table and I'm sure there weren't many customers at it today anyway. And it has also messed things up for the astronomers who were hoping to get a good look at the meteor showers. I am really getting quite ticked off with the whole thing!

In other news, I think I am going to have to get a new passport. I still have about eight years to run on my current one, but I have got married since then and I do want to use my married name now rather than my maiden one. I thought that it would cause problems with my visa application if I changed my name in the middle of things, but it only takes 10 days (and €82) to get an Irish passport renewed, so now might be a good time to do it, before we go on holiday. I've emailed my NZIS case officer to see what impact this would have on getting the final stickers for my visa, but hopefully it'll just be a case of sending them my new passport and our marriage certificate. I'm sure they'd prefer to issue the visa in the name I'll be using in New Zealand in any case.

Three rooms painted!

Phew! We have now finished painting the living room, kitchen, and bathroom (thankfully it was only ceilings and trims in the last two), and it feels great.

The living room still looks a bit unfinished, because we can't hang the curtains until the gloss paint on the window frames is fully dry, and the mirror has to be re-hung over the fireplace, but otherwise it's grand. And I was able to get the furniture put back in time for us to eat our lunch on the new table and chairs!

I'm also very pleased to have somewhere to put my fancy lamp, which has been languishing under the dining table for months. Hurrah!

We're off to have a celebratory dinner tonight after all our hard work of the last two days. I know there's still a lot of work to do to the house, but at least we have started now, and that feels pretty good.

The painting begins

What a day. Skry and I spent the morning boxing and clearing the rest of the living room, piled everything into the middle and threw a plastic sheet over it, and got ourselves down to B&Q for paint. (We came home with a new bistro set as well, but I am not allowed put it out in the garden until after the living room is done.)

Having equipped ourselves with the required tools and colours, the games began. First off was a fresh coat of paint on the ceiling - troublesome for me, since I couldn't see any difference between the existing white paint and what I was applying. Should've got that Dulux stuff that starts off bright pink, so you can see where you've put it... Of course, one might also venture the opinion that if the ceiling was already white, it made no sense to paint it again, but that opinion didn't get me anywhere earlier and the fresh coat went on anyway. Ceiling done, it was time to slap some magnolia paint on the walls in a bid to achieve that neutral look that estate agents keep telling us will sell well. We'll be getting neutral coloured carpets too, but that'll be a bit further down the line. I did "brighten" things up a bit by putting a light brown paint on the back of the alcoves beside the chimney, which looks very fetching, but I don't think we'll be winning any style awards.

I still have to do the skirting boards, but Skry has now gone out for a run with the Hash House Harriers, so I have taken a well deserved break. The items below may be playing a part!


(That's a red onion in a string bag in the bowl, in case you were wondering.)

Finally, a start on the clearing

Today I finally started clearing the things that aren't going into storage yet, so that we can get close enough to the walls to paint them. The first task was to wrap and pack all the framed photos that were up on the walls - no mean feat, since they were all over the house. The walls look a lot barer now, apart from the visible nails everywhere and the dirty marks where the frames were! That lick of paint is long overdue, it seems. In fairness, most of the paint throughout the house was applied before I bought it nearly seven years ago, so it's not a huge surprise that it needs to be done again now. Magnolia throughout, here we come.

So there are clear walls now, and one clear corner (the cupboard area to the left of the fireplace, if you're interested). But the task still facing us is very daunting to disorganised, over-sentimental, reluctant-to-throw-anything-out me. See what I mean?




But still, I am basking in the success of that one corner. A good morning's work, I think!

etsy

A couple of months back I opened an etsy shop (etsy is an American site for selling handmade goods). Back then it was for greetings cards and tote bags, but now it has morphed into a jewellery shop. I love the etsy layout, and how I can have multiple photos of the same item. I also really like the way other users can "heart" items or shops if they like them, and the shop owner can then see what items are most popular. I wish I could get software like that behind my own shop, because it is so much slicker, but I don't know how to write something like that and have it tie in with Paypal.

There is also the problem that etsy is really aimed at Americans, even though many people from the UK use the site too, so everything is priced in American dollars. Not only is the exchange rate awful for them at the moment (US$5 = £2.45), but I'm competing with similar sellers who are able to offer cheap or even free shipping because they are all in the same country. Unfortunately there isn't a way around that until etsy becomes truly international, but right now I am underpricing my items there and probably taking a loss on postage just to keep my prices competitive.

Anyway, check out my etsy site if you want. Even the banner below has been provided by them, so it's all very slick indeed!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade lareine.etsy.com

Moss agate - pretty pretty pretty

It turns out that moss agate is really pretty. I had no idea - I'd never knowingly seen it before the arrival of a packet of beads yesterday. They are stunning. Lovely shades of green and white all tumbled together.

I made the bracelet pictured here, yesterday evening, and I already know I won't be selling it. I just like it way too much. But I still wanted to show it off here!

A bit more space

A massive Pickford's lorry the size of a double decker bus has just left Inglewood Court. With it go all my books and photo albums, a tumble dryer, and every board game we own. I can actually see the carpet again in the living room and spare bedroom, now that so many boxes have been moved out! There is still a lot of stuff in the spare room that has to go to a car boot sale, so it isn't completely empty, but we're off to a good start.

And in other good news, Skry's police report from the Met in London finally arrived today. Unfortunately it doesn't list a check in his old name, despite explicit instructions from us to check both old and current names and despite the section on the form we filled in labelled "former names", but it'll have to do. It will be extremely frustrating if NZIS won't accept it, but Skry will send it to them anyway and hope they don't care enough to need proof that he never committed a crime in a country he has never even lived in (mainland Britain).

I also got three deliveries of beads in the post today (and an accompanying £17 customs charge - ouch). I'll be busy for the next couple of days!

A busy week

I can't believe this is Thursday already. This has been a busy week - we were down in Cloughey on Monday and Tuesday, staying with friends, and I have been working since then on some IT work they gave us. The house in Cloughey is lovely; a large detached place just across the road from the beach, with a sun-drenched patio and what is temporarily a croquet lawn. Skry and I enjoyed a lovely walk along the beach by the light of the moon after dinner on Monday, and it was so quiet and peaceful.

Yesterday I took a break for a few hours to meet a friend for lunch, but aside from that I am mostly either working on jewellery (I got some custom orders in over the last couple of days) or trying to remember how to program in Java. It's amazing how much I have forgotten in the last month or so, but I'm getting there. It's just a bit scary not having anyone nearby to ask when I can't figure out how to do something!

My first market stall was a roaring success

I survived the market! After working feverishly on my jewellery for most of the end of last week, Skry and I gathered our bags and headed down to St.George's Market at about half eight on Saturday morning. This is the earliest that we have been up and about for quite a while, so that was traumatic, but we got there in good time and were allocated a stall. Well, half a stall. I knew beforehand that I might be required to share, so it wasn't a huge shock, but we were also told that the person who was meant to go on the other side might not turn up. As it turned out, they didn't show and we could have taken the whole stall, but by the time that became clear I had already laid out my cover and arranged all the jewellery on it, so it was too much trouble to spread it out.

It took about half an hour to lay out everything and make it look nice, then all we had to do was wait for the punters to arrive - and arrive they did. I wouldn't say that we were thronged, although occasionally it felt like that, but we had a more or less constant flow of customers from 10am until 2.30pm when everyone started to pack up. I was hugely relieved to have customers who weren't just my friends making pity purchases! That was what I had been most worried about beforehand, but I needn't have worried at all because people seemed to really like what I was selling. I got lots of compliments, and many people asked if I was coming back the following week. By the end of the day, I had sold a ton of stuff (including three cotton tote bags that were brought almost as an afterthought but did well to fill up the empty half of the stall) and was about £240 richer!

Of course I haven't even come close to covering my costs; I buy too many pretty sparkly beads and things just because I want them, and I've probably spent twice as much as I've earned. But I'm lucky enough to not need to make any money from this at the moment, and I have the confidence now to believe that I could go to another market or craft fair and be able to make some sales.

I also have two pieces commissioned - a necklace to match a bracelet that I sold to one friend, and a necklace and bracelet to match a dress for another. I'll make those in the next couple of days, and also get more stock up onto my website. Now that the market is over, I need to get my online sales roaring in the same way :)

Earrings, earrings everywhere

I've started getting everything together for the market in St.George's on Saturday (10am onwards, people - be there!). I just spent the last hour fastening earrings onto business cards, writing the details on each one, and logging them in an Excel spreadsheet so I can keep track of what I've taken with me. There are nearly 70 pairs!

I haven't gone through the necklaces and bracelets yet, but I think I have only a fraction of that number with the two of them together. Luckily I got a delivery of some necklace sized memory wire and some new beads in the post this morning, so I'll be able to make up some more necklaces before Saturday morning. I don't want to look like I am focussed on just one thing.

I'm both nervous and excited about this market. I have never done anything like this before, and I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also worried that I won't sell anything. Well okay, I know I will probably sell some things because I have friends coming down, but I'd like to have strangers think that my stuff is worth buying too. I suppose I'll just have to wait and find out...

Modern art is rubbish?

I found this site earlier today and wanted to share it. Piles of rubbish formed into art. Fantastic.

Things are meant to be moving OUT!

This is all wrong. Everything is going the wrong way. We are meant to be clearing the house and getting it painted and decorated, but not a single box has actually left the premises yet, and Skry has just brought half a ton of stuff in. As I write, I am surrounded by bulging bin bags filled with goodness knows what. I can't complain, really - the whole rest of this house is full of my own things, and Skry's things have been languishing in his old house since we got married. But we are making the opposite of headway with the whole clearance thing...

We spent the weekend doing nothing, too, partly due to my brother visiting from Dublin but mostly due to laziness. I did make some more jewellery, and I made a start on some new purses and bags too, but that has had to be put on hold because my sewing machine is acting up and is currently in the repair shop. I don't know if I'll get it back in time to sew anything new for the market this Saturday. I'll just have to make a few extra bracelets or something instead!

I'll try and take a few photos today of what I've been working on, and stick them up here. Don't hold your breath though.

Cat-related guilt - a follow-up

The cat-related guilt adventure has reached its conclusion. In the post today we got a card addressed to "Jenny and partner" with a rather garbled address on it (incorrect street name and no postcode). I am half-expecting an evening invite to a wedding, so I assume it was that until I opened the envelope and there was a bouncy 3D giraffe design on the front. Not very weddingy!

Inside the card it read: "Thanks again Jenny for being so understanding - [Woman]" and "To Jenny, thank you so much for Freyja's photo. It is very special. From [Girl]" and there was a little drawing of a cat purring. It was all very sweet.

I'm still mystified as to why the address was garbled, since they live right in front of us and have the exact same address themselves apart from the house number, but nevertheless it was a very nice ending to the whole cat guilt saga.

The man from Pickford's

The man from Pickford's, Ron, came to the house yesterday to see what we want to move to New Zealand, and let us know what services they offer. He went through the whole house and we told him what we wanted to get transported over in the Autumn, and he also viewed a stack of boxes that I want to get put into storage now.

The first thing he said about the boxes that are already packed was, "Those boxes won't do at all - we need double walled cartons for international transport". I only bought "those boxes" a few days ago, from Belfast Self Storage, after talking to a Pickford's girl on the phone and asking was it okay for me to pack some things myself. I made it very clear that I would be packing them in order to have them stored for a while and then shipped to New Zealand, so I wasn't at all impressed to hear that I had wasted £35 and a load of time. Happily, Ron agreed that I had been misinformed, and said they can take the boxes as they are for temporary local storage, then they'll re-pack them for transit and I won't be charged for the cartons they're re-packed into. Phew.

He is to email me tomorrow with a quote for their services, but the things for temporary storage can go into a big crate that costs £12 per week. We don't have enough to fill that crate yet, so I have some more packing to do, but hopefully we'll have a much clearer house in another few days. Clearer, that is, until Skry gets all his stuff from his old house in Killowen Street - it has been languishing there since we got married because there wasn't any room for it here.

It'll be interesting to see what the quote is for the rest of the packing and transporting. I'm expecting something in the region of £3,500 - £4,000, but I should find out tomorrow. That sounds like a lot, but it's a whole lot cheaper than replacing everything we own!