The greatest news!

Hello Everyone,

S and I have great news to announce. We are going to have a baby!!!! We have been waiting for this for a little while but a little angel is finally on its way and should show up in the spring between mid and end of April 09.
On Friday, S had the first visit of her midwife (P). The time and day of the visit was somehow unexpected so I wasn't home. It was apparently very emotional because S could hear the baby's heartbeat while she did not expect to be able to so soon (12 weeks). They called me to see if I could hear it over the phone but baby decided to play a trick on its daddy and played hide and seek. Next time, I won't miss it! Baby and Mummy are both very healthy and apart from some dizzy spells, mummy is doing great. To answer a few questions: No we do not know yet whether it is a boy or a girl and yes we do want to know. Concerning the names, we have ideas. If it's a girl it will be R, G, L or O and if it is a boy it will be P, G, C or W. (For privacy reasons, I only mention initials in this blog ;-) )
Another piece of news is that we will be traveling to California for 6 weeks between the end of October and the beginning of December. I am going there for work and S will be coming with me and enjoying the Californian weather which is somehow different from the local Irish rain. S is currently trying to get a placement over there for her early childhood studies. She will try to complete as much of her course as she can before the birth.
Finally, a last piece of news is that we are planning on relocating to Zurich in about a year or so. (Not before Sept 2009.) We have not started the process yet but are pretty convinced it would be better than Dublin. Although Dublin is nice, we are considering Switzerland as our final settling place to live but we will see first if we like it.

A trip to Israel and its security

This 3 days trip to Israel, for Business, was very interesting. The business part was a couple of days dedicated to meeting the local teams and participating in the all hands. The rest was a visit of Jerusalem and a free morning in Tel Aviv.

We left Dublin on Tuesday Afternoon and flew to Tel-Aviv via Frankfort. The most interesting part of the trip was the security checks. Since this was a commuting flight in Frankfurt, we did not have to pick up our luggage but still had to go to security ... twice (Despite having gone to security in Dublin.) Once arrived in Tel Aviv (after 3 AM) we had to go to the Israely imigration and that is where most of the fun started. We had been told that once you have the Israeli stamp on your passport, there is a list of countries which will not open their doors anymore. Therefore, we were advised to ask not to have the stamp on the passport. Once I arrived at the immigration 'desk' a smiling lady asked me a couple of questions about the purpose of my trip. As soon as I asked not to have my passport stamped, the smile disapeared and the discussion was along those lines:
(Lady) - Why do you not want to have your passport stamped?
(Me) - I have been told that there are some countries I will not be able to visit.
- Which country do you need to go to?
- None but I'd like to keep the option open.
- We need to stamp all passports. Which countries do you need to visit?
- None at the moment but I often travel...
(...)
(Lady) - There are only 4 countries that you can not visit with the Israel Stamp: Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Are you planning on visiting those countries?
(Me) - Hopefully not.
A few other questions and answers later:
STAMP. Passport stamped... I'm free to go.

Aparently, a colleague of mine insisted a bit more to have his passport not stamped and the conversation was also slightly different:
(Same start...)
(Lady) - Which country do you want to visit?
(D) - Egypt?
(Lady) - You can go to Egypt with an Israely Stamp.
(D) - Iran?
(Lady) - Why would you want to go to Iran? That's not a country you should go to. ... ...

It took him a while to get past this desk and D. was then taken to the side and asked questions for a long while. In the end he did not got his passport stamped but was it worth the stress and waiting?

We also had to wait for a Turkish colleague who also had the chance of having to answer some specific questions like the name of his grandfather but in the end everyone was allowed to go forward. We found our taxis which brought us to the hotel. (By the way, some taxi drivers in Israel are a bit crazy and the others are worse... (Well not all of them.))
Once arrived at the hotel we asked for our room and they inform us that they have only 3 rooms booked while we were 8! Interesting. It turned out that half the rooms were checked-in the day before. Only one of our colleague did not have any room and that was because he forgot to fill a form. Luck turned around, they did not have any normal room and he therefore got a business class room for the same price!
At last, it's 5AM and I can go to sleep after setting the alarm clock for 7:30 since the first meeting is at 9AM. We received a little surprise from the hotel on that morning: They woke everyone up at 7:00 AM with an anouncement (in hebrew so none of us could understand). This special wake up was repeated a few times at a few minutes interval. I got woken up 3 times and got up twice thinking someone was at the door... After this, getting up at 7:30 was sooooo eaaaassyyyyy... zzzzzzzz....

During our stay, we spent an afternoon in Jerusalem and this was a very instructive and interesting visit. We saw several religious landmark like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, The Temple Mount and the Western Wall. The old town was very nice. It was also very interesting to see those very different cultures living together and so close to each other.

I will not elaborate on the humidity and heat of both the air and the sea in Israel so all I will say is it was hot.

On our way back, we had another set of funny events (again, many security checks, questions, queues as expected) but everything ended well and we all arrived fine (and this time at a reasonable time)

A long time for being offline...

Hello again,

The main reason why there hasn't been any posts for so long is that we have been 'offline'. Since we moved into our new apartment (almost 2 months ago), we have been trying to activate internet at home and it hasn't been that quick. Of course, it would have been much faster if Eircom hadn't messed up in so many different ways (Cannot give our account number by phone, wrong account number given the first time (by post), wrong spelling of names and address, refuse to validate our account number (which they gave us)...) Anyway, we're online now...

These last two month have gone past rather quickly. S's parents both visited us at different times so we haven't been feeling too lonely. :-) S and I both enjoy our jobs very much and S is now working half-time at the Museum. On my side, I have lots of things to do at work for my project and the completion target is the end of June so I am happily-busy... I also found a badminton club so I can get some exercise once a week. Yeah!!

While I'm here: A funny story concerning the local post: We heard that they changed the itinerary and system before we arrived. This resulted in unhappiness in the local staff leading to disruption and problems in the mail deliveries. A couple of facts on that: S's father sent her a Birthday card about a month ago, and S's mother sent her some mail a few days later. The mail arrived within 48hours but she still hasn't received the card. :-(
The other 'problem' concerned the delivery of a package I ordered for S's birthday. We received a small card saying they attempted delivery on one day (during most of which S was home) and therefore we needed to collect the parcel ourselves. I phoned as soon as I could to ask if they could redeliver it and the answer was clear: "No, and by the way you should come and collect it today since otherwise, we may send it back!" (The card said they would keep it one week but of course the date on the card was far from being the actual day on which we received it...) Oh, and the address on the card for the collection was incomplete (just the street name) I guess you're supposed to walk up and down the street until you find the place...!

But some things are better in Ireland than in Scotland. The weather is an example, until now, I don't think we can complain. Yes it rains from time to time but we also have some blue skies and, believe it or not, some sun. I just hope it's not going to be as it apparently was last year: A short summer in spring and the rest was rain (60 days of non-stop rain). We'll see...

Oh, I almost forgot another anecdote about Bank of Ireland. (Quick flashback) When I opened the first account, I filled papers for two accounts: A current account and a savings account and what I got was two current accounts (How practical. Now back to this story).
Since then and because I knew I wasn't going to be able to open any savings accounts at another bank anytime soon, I filled some more paperwork to open 3 savings accounts. Two of them I wanted to use and a third one as a temporary saving account until we could get proper savings accounts somewhere else. We filled the paperwork with an employee from the bank who was telling us what to fill and where and verifying that everything was in order before we left. A week or two later, we received by post some documents explaining that we did not complete the Direct Debit order for this third account (the temporary one) and therefore it could not be opened. And with those, we also received some papers which had nothing to do with the savings account at all (Direct Debit instruction for the Electricity bills). Since in the meantime, I did manage to open the savings account I wanted at AIB, I sent S to the bank to explain that we did not want to open this third savings account anymore and to ask why we were sent those other papers. It took them a while to come to the conclusion that those papers should never have been sent to us. And guess what, they opened the third savings account in the end and did set up the direct debit (without any signature of course!) Oh, well, I guess that's what we call professionalism...

I think that's enough for today...

The joys of settling down in a new country

Despite the fact we are far from being done, I think it is time to talk about the joys of settling down in a new country. Although I had a job contract signed before we arrived in Ireland, it was not the case when S and I moved to Scotland so I let me start with a flash-back. From the end of May 2004, we both knew we were going to arrive in Scotland around September. Therefore, I started to actively look for a job. Naive as I was at that time, I had a French CV which I translated and used assuming a CV was meant to be same in all countries. I only discovered after I signed a contract to work at Cisco Systems that the UK-style CV is much more detailed than the short French version. This means that my short one page CV probably did not look very encouraging to UK employers. Anyway...
During the months of June, July and August, I applied (with my short CV) to dozens of positions via mainly the Internet but also by phone. I did make it clear that I was going to move to Scotland mid-September and therefore did not require any relocation/visa/... but since we did not have any UK address at that time, I left my French address on the CV. The results were astounding: Only one company was interested in my profile ... for a job in London! The results of those 3 months of efforts were clear: We were going to move to Scotland without a job and with limited financial reserves (Student savings...)
Now once we had moved in, I could at least put a Scottish address on my CV and that made a huge difference since suddenly, people started to be interested in my (still short) CV. (I thought that skills were important but apparently, employers stop reading after the address field in the top-left corner...)
From a timeline point of view, it took 1-2 weeks to have the phone and then internet set-up at home without which, looking for a job in IT was rather difficult. From this point on it took me 3 weeks to obtain a contract with Cisco, following which I needed to wait 3 weeks before starting and of course, the first salary only comes at the end of the first month but we survived... Note that since I already had a UK bank account, things were easier from that point of view. Now let's go back to the present and the Irish story.

So, we arrived in Ireland on Friday 29th February and I started working the following Monday. One of the first things we tried on Friday was to open a bank account. I went to three different banks and the story was almost always the same:
"Hello, I would like to open a current and a saving account."
"Sure, sit down here. Have you brought a proof of address?"
"Eh, I just arrived in Ireland and am currently staying in a temporary accommodation, is there anything I can do?",
"No, sorry, you need a utility bill. Good-Bye."
Now, let me think: We are in a temporary accommodation for 2 weeks, then I'm going to the USA for 3 weeks, then another temporary accommodation for 2 weeks (part of which I will be in Austria). Since the current rental market is such that when you find an apartment, you are asked to move in within 1-2 weeks, I won't have any apartment (and therefore address) before the end of the 7th week of work. Then I need to register for utilities, wait for them to be activated, then wait a month or two for the first bill to be created and only then I'll be able to apply for a bank account (which, minor detail, I need to be able to get paid by Google)... That should sort itself out in few months...
Fortunately, I managed to get an official paper certifying my name and address (which I borrowed since I did not have one). This was just enough to get me sorted and I managed to open an ultra basic bank account as well as a saving account (which I discovered a month later was just a second basic current account (they messed up)) and to get my social security number. Of course, I did not get this information to my employer soon enough so I missed the March pay-roll. Oh, well, just another month to wait.
Now, let's estimate what would have happened if I had to follow the rules correctly and couldn't borrow an address: (Note, this is fiction)
29 Feb 2008: Moving to Ireland.
29 Feb -> 15 Mar: Temporary accommodation -> No address and therefore no bank account and no social security.
15 Mar -> 05 Apr: Trip to USA -> No address
06 Apr -> 22 Apr: Temporary accommodation -> No address
22 Apr: We moved in so we have an address although no proof of it according to banking standards. Registering to utilities.
0x May: First utility bill (assuming we can get it within a week or too, if not, just add a month or two to the dates) Yeah!!! Lets go open a bank account and get a social security number (PPS).
1x May: Got both bank details and PPS numbers, lets give them to Google. Oh, you missed the payroll deadline, you'll be paid end of June (or July?)... That's only 4 or5 months without income...
(End of fiction)

Ok, so it wasn't without pain but I now (+-10 March) have a bank account and a PPS number. Well, it's time to get a local phone number since we're going to need to be contactable. Not many options are available without a home so let's find a mobile phone.
A quick study points out that the '3' operator sounds interesting and since we're going to use the phone in the first few months, lets opt for a monthly subscription. We go to the shop:
"Hello, I would like to purchase a mobile phone contract",
"Sure, sit down here. Have you brought a proof of address?"
"Eh, I just arrived in Ireland and am currently staying in a temporary accommodation, is there anything I can do?",
"No, sorry, you need a utility bill. Good-Bye".
(Sounds familiar?)
"Do you also need a proof of address for pay as you go phones?"
"No, pay as you go phones do not need a proof of address."
"Great, how much is a simple Pay as you Go sim card?"
"Sorry, we don't sell only sim cards, you have to by a phone."
"WHAT!!! Ok, I'll think about it. Good-Bye."
Let's try the next mobile phone provider (Good they are all in the same street).
The next provider accepted to sell us a sim-only pay as you go card. But of course, our UK mobile phone was locked by Orange in the UK and since Orange doesn't operate in Ireland, well, we're stuffed once more... We finally managed to get a sim card for S. which worked in the mobile phone that F. kindly gave us a while ago. (I'm glad we still have it.)

From this point onwards, there wasn't much we can do so lets jump over the USA trip.

Once back from the USA, I still wanted a contract sim so once again, we had to bend the rules a bit. Apparently, obtaining a contract from '3' was impossible until we had a utility bill. We were told this is the law so it's going to be the same for other mobile operators. Ok, so we took our two most important papers (PPS number and bank paper mentioning the transfer I did from my French account to the newly opened Irish account) and we went to a resaler (Carphone Warehouse or something). And they considered that the two papers we had were sufficient to take the exact same '3' contract with the exact same mobile handset for the exact same price. Don't ask...
So much fun.

Again, lets just jump forward to mid-April where we moved into our new apartment. I need to pay the deposit and a month's rent. Total 3000 Euros. (Did I not mention that life was expensive in Dublin?) First try: a check. It turns out that all I have is a French check book so it means an additional charge of 50+ euros. :-( Ok, lets try the French credit card: Well, I discovered there is a maximum I can pay with it in a month (Hadn't really used it for years) and so it did not go through. After a few phone calls. (Also forgot that banks are closed on Monday in France) I find out about the limit and what the limit is so we can now try an amount below the limit: It fails again. The reason is probably that the credit card is foreign and therefore needs an approval. The agency needs to contact their bank, which then try to contact my bank which is closed... Oh, well, lets go back to the Irish bank account and take some cash out manually. I mean, it's not everyday that you can enjoy walking in the street with so much cash in your pockets anyway... Good the agency was understanding and patient.
Activating the phone line was rather easy: A call to Eircom and we had our phone number activated within 30min. :-) But for security reasons they cannot give us our account number, we will receive it via post within 1-2 weeks! This means that unless we opt for Eircom broadband, we have to wait 1-2 weeks before being able to do anything for broadband. Is that a real security issue? Or just plain disadvantage (adding an additional 1-2 weeks delay) for other broadband suppliers?

(I think you got the point so I won't elaborate further...)

Our new apartment

At last, we have moved into our new apartment. We love it and here are a few pictures of the living room:

A great trip to Austria

Despite a few hiccups for which I am not sure who should be blamed, I considered it as outstanding organization/planning. Especially taking into account the number of people attending.
Coaches took us from the office to the airport where we boarded a chartered plane. Flying in a plane filled only with colleagues is a nice experience! Once arrived in Innsbruck, we received a welcome pack and then hopped on another coach which took us to our hotel.
Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with conferences in a nice complex. In addition to the interesting content of the conferences, it was a great opportunity to meet other people from Google.
On Wednesday, we left Innsbruck and took coaches to Sölden for the Ski trip!
The weather was great and the snow outstanding for the period. I skied most of the time between 2800m and 3200m. I was expecting to be cold but was very comfortable and the snow was just great at this altitude (apparently, it snowed the week preceding our arrival). Also, the 5 years of non-skiing did not seem to be a problem and I regained my confidence in just a few minutes. I wanted to experience skiing without sticks (I did not want to have to carry them around) and the experience was a great success. Much more freedom both on and off the slopes. (And skiing with your hands in your pockets looks so cool! ;-) ) Only two glitches during the day: First, someone took my skis during the lunch break at the restaurant. Since there were very similar skis next to where mine should have been, I hoped they were only moved but none of the other similar pairs fitted my shoes (not even close). I'm not sure if this was an accident or a steal but the restaurant was at the bottom of a few slopes and to go back up you need to take the gondolas. Therefore, there's a good chance that if this was a mistake (someone picking the wrong pair of skis) the person would only notice the mistake after a while and only once away. Fortunately, there was a small ski renting station next to the restaurant and when I mentioned the issue (and the fact I was from Google) they took my name and gave me a new pair of skis so I could enjoy the rest of the day. :-) The second glitch was the fact that I did not have anything to protect my eyes. Since it was partly cloudy, I thought it would be ok but the wind and snow is probably what hurt my eyes the most since they were quite sore and red in the evening and the following day. It's better now but I won't let it happen again. Sun glasses have been added to the shopping list.
I took some photos of the surroundings while skiing and you can see them here: http://picasaweb.google.com
For the evening, Google took all of us back to the ski resort for a dinner 'on the glacier'. Again, the quality of the food and the organization was outstanding knowing how many we were. Several night clubs were then booked exclusively for those wanting to party into the night.
Nothing much to mention about our return on Friday apart from long queuing caused i.m.o. by the inappropriate number of travelers we were compared to the size of the airport.

Now that I am back, it is 'moving-in' time. We went to out new apartment this morning in order to sign the lease. Although a few administrative details (including payment) still need to be sorted out with the landlord on Monday, we now have the keys and will move into our apartment this week-end.
This means that the next post will probably have to wait for when we have broadband working in our new home...

House Hunting season...

Time has come to look for a property and thankfully, there are more available now than what there used to be a year ago in Dublin. Nevertheless it is still very expensive but here is one of the reasons we are going to rent and not buy: The prices of 2 bedroom apartments in Dublin 2 and Dublin 4 range from 310KE (only a handful below 420K) to above 3 million euros!!!
And so we started visiting... A Googler advertised a 2 bedroom house to rent and we visited it on Tuesday evening. It was nice but we were not convinced. On Wednesday, C. from C.R. took us on a property hunting day (part of the Google relocation package). She picked us up at 9:45 and we visited 11 properties, then had lunch and visited another 2. We had a 14th property to see but decided to call it a day. From the 13 properties we saw, I could see myself living in 10 of them so it was nice to be able to chose. In the end, S and I narrowed it down to 2 properties. One very spacious but less appealing apartment which was in a nicer area but less well located for commuting (30mins from Google but closer to shops) and the other one much brighter and closer to Google (<10mins). In the end, we opted for the very first property we visited. It caught our eyes as soon as we entered the living room. It wasn't especially spacious but of reasonable size and has 2 of the 4 living room walls almost completely covered in full length windows (Photos to come once we'll have moved in). And since the apartment is a penthouse (4th floor), it is *very* bright. Of course it is very expensive because Dublin is but we managed to negotiate 100E/m off the price thanks to the relation between C. and the agency whom we also know from our temporary accommodation. We had confirmation today that the apartment is ours although we haven't signed anything yet so Youpiiii! In the other apartments we visited, there were only 2 which were cheaper, they were both 1 bedroom, both small and not too appealing. We also visited a 1 bedroom apartment at 1600E/m non-negotiable so I think we got a pretty good deal.
We can't wait to move in but before this can happen, there will be a trip to Austria including one day of skiing...