Stone cutter

The Job race is on again

Over the past few months I have been getting up early and checking all the job sites to see if there may be something there. Well this morning I checked the FAS (Foras Áiseanna Saothair, Training & Employment Authority) and there is an internship for a General Operative (Stone Cutting). This is in a small company that makes marble products for sale to the tourist trade and overseas. Sounds like it is my kind of job as I would love to get back into the arts and craft industry again as I am a qualified cabinetmaker and an art student. I have sent in my CV ( CV stands for Curriculum Vitae which is the same thing as a Résumé) with cover letter and I will also phone them in the hope they will at least give me an interview. I know it is early days, but I kind of feel good about this one. 

Ten minutes later

I called the company that is advertising this internship and they say that FAS has not approved anything yet (even though it is advertised on the FAS website) and as soon as they get the go ahead they will review all the CV’s. I got the impression that they have received loads of CV’s. I just hope that they will at least look at mine.

It’s the highs and lows of being unemployed as I don’t feel as good about this one after all.  Well that’s an hour out of my life and it feels like I was on the roller coaster of the jobs market. I just want to feel like I am employable again.  I want to do something that is creative and constructive and artistic if a job like that exists. 

 The company that I applyed for the internship makes jewellery and gifts from Connemara marble.

Death of a lawnmower

I rang my brother Arren (sounds like Arren but starts with a D) and I asked him if I could get a lend of his lawnmower, but as it is electric, I don’t think it would do my lawn as the grass has grown so high. I told him about my lawnmower troubles and he said it was the make of lawnmower that I had and they were practically unserviceable as it was made to be thrown away. I kind of agree with him at this stage as I have spent so much time trying to get the Fekin thing to work. I think it may be time to call it a day with the mower and save up for a new one. In the mean time I will try and hire one from a hire shop and as I once worked for a very good company in Dublin called Sam Hire, I will call into them although since the recession hit Ireland, most of the hire shops have closed down. 

Here are a few of the flowers that have grown in my lawn. As you will see, most of them would be classed as weeds. 

 This is a photo collage that shows some of the flowers that are growing on my lawn at the moment.

This flower is really beautiful with its reddish orange petals that open up in the sunshine and close up tight in the evening. Really nice.

Can't forgget the Dandilion and Dandilion clock. Wonder why it's called a Dandilion clock?

Lawnmower from hell

OMG I have spent hours today trying to get that fekin* lawnmower to start with absolutely no luck. I got up early and drove around Dublin looking for a shop that will sell the sparkplug that fits the mower. It seems it is an odd ball of a size that no shops sell. I even went into Halfords car component shop and the guy behind the counter laughed when he seen the sparkplug as he had never seen that size before. B&Q were worse although they did sell sparkplugs for lawnmowers which was feck all use to me as they didn’t stock the one I was looking for. I even tried some of the hire centres and they all said no. The last place I went to was a tool shop in Blanchardstown that told me they could get the plug but it may take a few weeks. So you guessed it, I gave up my quest for a new sparkplug. I am thinking it would be easier to find the Holy Grail at this point or even find an honest Fianna fail politician.                                         
( Fianna Fail is the political party that destroyed our country with there corruption and lies. In fact our last Fianna Fail prime minister told the country that anyone that believes the econamy is in trouble should go and hang themselves.)

I went back home and fiddled with the mower again and also I tested the sparkplug which I am glad to say works fine. So the good news is I don’t need to replace the sparkplug, which made me really happy when I could see the sparks coming from it. I then took the mower apart for the third time. Stripped and cleaned the carburettor and then put the whole mower back together again.  I then put fresh petrol in the tank and what do you know? Not even a chug of smoke. Tomorrow I will call over to my brother and see if he can lend me a mower or go and hire one. I’m not that surprised my mower is banjaxed as it was a really cheap one that I bought in Argos called a Challenge Extreme. The name is quit fitting as the mower was a real challenge to the extreme. I think it may be time to put my mower to rest and bring it to the recycling centre. On the bright side, there are some fantastic wild flowers growing in my lawn. So tomorrow I will photograph some of the flowers in the lawn so you can all see.

* For anyone from outside Ireland, the word feck is a filler word that has a few meanings. For example “feck it away” which means “throw it away”. “Feck off” which is the same as FU#k off but more humorous. Fecky which means fiddly or tricky. Mostly the word feck is used as an expression of frustration.

Lawnmower trouble

  I have been trying to fix my lawnmower for the last few hours and it is driving me crazy as I just can’t get the dam thing to start. I took out the spark plug, cleaned it and made sure all the contacts were ok. I removed the pull cord mechanism and rubbed down the magnets that create the spark with fine emery paper so the whole thing looks like it is almost new and realigned the electric coil.

   After all this I put the lawn mower back together and said a decade of the rosary before I tried to start the mower and you guessed it “NOT A PEEP”.  I then removed the air filter and carburettor which I took apart and cleaned every little nook and cranny before putting it all back together again with the anticipation of cutting my lawn.

  Yeah I’m afraid I could feed cattle on the crop of grass that is growing on my front lawn at the moment and it doesn’t seem it will change for the near future at least. My next step I will do is call a good friend J (sounds like kimmy but starts with a J) who used to manage a hire company and ask his valuable advice. I have a feeling he will tell me to go and hire a lawnmower so I will continue this blog in 15 minutes or so. 

30 minutes later or so!

I rang J (sounds like Kimmy but starts with a J) and he told me to do all the things I already did except one thing “get a new spark plug” So after taking it apart for the second time and putting the lawn mower back together (under the watch full eye of Rocky) I will go down to the village tomorrow and buy a new sparkplug. So tune to my next post and hope fully I will have good news. Also if anyone has any other advice regarding my lawnmower, please let me know.

Sunflowers and courgettes

A few months ago I decided to plant a few flowers and maybe the odd vegetable or two. You will be able to read about it in some of my older posts. ANYWAY! With a few drawbacks (Rocky being the main one) I was able to take what was left of the flowers and plants that Rocky did not destroy and transplant them to a new flower bed that I made in the front of the house.  All the plants have started to grow and even some of the flowers have bloomed. I had 4 large plants that I would swear were sunflowers except they did not grow tall. I thought this was because Rocky had damaged them or maybe it was a dwarf breed. I decided to leave them in my flower bed as a kind of experiment and just see what would happen. Low and behold, flower heads started to form and I thought I was in luck for a change.  I noticed over the last few weeks that yellow flowers were starting to form, and they were definitely not sunflowers. I was out looking at them this evening and it turns out the flowers are growing into courgettes of all things.  NOW, I’m not daft or anything, and I know the difference between sunflower seeds and any other seed, but I don’t remember growing courgettes of all things. I think with all the destruction that Rocky my boxer dog created when he tore the back garden apart and the fact I tried to salvage what plants that were left over, I must have mixed the seedlings up somehow. The funny thing is, I was sure that the only plants that escaped Rocky’s pot smashing and soil digging was my sunflowers as I was sure they were the ones left up high, from harms reach. Looks like gardening is not my thing, although I will enjoy my courgettes when they are ready to eat. Now the only thing is, what do you do with a courgette? I never had one before. Well at least I don’t think I did.

Amazon has refunded me YAHOO!

I’m after receiving good news regarding the purchase of the battery pack for my PURE DAB radio.

Amazon has looked into the matter and have refunded my credit card to a tune of £16.52. That’s a big refund compared to the £24.99 that I thought I was paying.  I have to hand it to Amazon for looking into it so quickly and also for being so honest to give me back the refund. NOW I know the battery pack still is expensive, but I was just thinking about when I first bought normal batteries for my PURE DAB radio and it cost me €9 for 6 C batteries that didn’t last very long. Then it was another few bob for the rechargeable C batteries that turned out more trouble than they were worth.  So now I will not have to recharge any more batteries as the pack charges when you plug the radio in. All’s good once again in the world that Marconi created.

Power to price ratio

I bought a PURE ONE Classic DAB radio from Argos a few years ago.

I was driving up home to Donegal on my own as Rocky 2 wasn’t even born and also Rocky 1 died a year or two previously.  (Rocky 1 and Rocky 2 are my boxer dogs) So I stopped off at Argos in Strabane Northern Ireland, and purchased this fantastic PURE ONE Classic DAB radio which is still like brand new. It worked out about €20 cheaper than if I bought it in Dublin due to the currency change as Northern Ireland use the UK sterling pound because they are part of the UK. The only thing bad about this radio is that batteries don’t last and even though I used rechargeable ones, it is just a big pain to use them as they are size C and it also takes six of them and my charger only takes four batteries at 7 hours a charge. Well I’m sure you can see what I mean.  

The radio does have a power adaptor, but as I use it when I wash my teeth, shave or take a shower, I need batteries. I got so sick of this charging malarkey, that I bought a cheap radio and the batteries last for months rather than a week.

The only thing about the cheap radio is I can’t get the dab stations (I like to listen to RTE Choice) and also the sound is really poor to say the least. With the PURE ONE Classic DAB radio the sound is really good and I get to listen to what I want to.

Now here’s the thing, you can buy an optional rechargeable ChargePAK C6L that charges while the radio is plugged in and also lasts 100 hours between charges. FANTASTIC!  Just what I needed, although I can not find this for sale in Ireland atall.

I went on to Amazon and bought a jacket and walking shoes and also this rechargeable ChargePAK C6L for the PURE ONE Classic DAB radio which cost £35.94 but should be worth it although abit costley but it should last for years. The walking shoes cost £32 and Jacket £35 which was really good. I had bought the same walking shoes in Dublin a few years ago for €86 in a sale and as they lasted me well, I wanted to buy the same as I am hard on shoes.

ANYWAY I received the shoes “FANTASTIC” and also the jacket which “fits brilliant” and I will put it away for winter use, but I have not received the battery pack yet. I am just after checking my order and now see that the battery pack is being shipped from another company and has a separate postage charge which I was not aware of. OMG you will not believe how much. Considering that the battery pack was so expensive at £35.94 which is just under the normal price of £42. The cost to post my shoes and jacket was £5.95 from the UK to Dublin Ireland. Not bad although I did think the battery pack was going to be in the same package. NO the cost to post this small battery pack from the UK to Dublin Ireland is £24.99.

WHAT! £24.99! just to post a small package! OMG! I could have got a flight there and back with Ryan Air and have change left over! It must be either a joke or some kind of mistake. £24.99! I could feed Rocky for 3 or 4 weeks with that! Madness! I learned a big lesson there “ALWAYS READ THE SMALL PRINT”

Item Subtotal:  £35.94

>           Shipping&  Handling:  £24.99

>                         Total:  £60.93

>                Paid by  Visa: EUR 71,88**

Needless to say I have been in contact with the company and they have emailed me back to say they are investigating why the price is so high. I am very much hoping that it was a mistake, But if not, I will never complain about having to recharge batteries again.

Playing footsie ?

The other day I was in the super market doing my usual weekly shop of dog food and more dog food. The truth about the dog food is I look out for special offers and then buy a few cases of food that will last a month or two. I buy the really big 1kg tins and Rocky will eat a half a tin a day with mixer so it costs about €1 a day to feed him if I buy enough at the special offer price that is. ANYWAY, that’s not what I am writing about today. While I was shopping I bumped into a girl I used to work with a few years ago and in the runs of conversation, I found out she was still single (smooth or what?)  Even though she didn’t have a white stick or a guide dog, I asked her if she fancied going out on a date some time.  So I said I would pick her up and we would go for a nice drink some were. Now when I say drink it means a cola for me and whatever the lady wants as I was driving a car. So went the night and everything was going really well. Talking about the old times (only a few years ago) and how and what everyone else was doing since we were all made redundant from the company we had worked for.  Then out of the blue she started complaining about how her slingbacks were hurting her. I being a typical guy didn’t know what a slingback was and to be honest I was a bit embarrassed to ask. My mind was racing. Should I say something or do something?  A slingback to me sounds like a catapult or some king of boys toy and to be honest, I have always been into Tom boy girls as girly girls kind of put me off which may be due to me being from the country side and not being afraid of getting my hands dirty.  Anyway, I made an excuse and went to the bathroom were I phoned one of my friends to ask what a slingback was. He didn’t know either. I then thought it must be something to do with the tendons on the back of her legs as she kept rubbing he calves and her ankles.  Now of course, after looking on the internet, I have found out they are a type of shoe of all things. It is one of those OMG moments to find that out as I am not really a shoe person. I went out with a girl a few years ago and she had at least 50 pairs of shoes which I still find amazing as she only had two feet.  If only she told me that some of them were slingbacks it would have saved me a wee bit of embarrassment.   Anyway as the night went on and we had a few more drinks, me with my cola and her with alcohol. She started to relax a bit too much for me as she then started to moan and bitch about her past co-workers and making personal remarks about them which I found unsavoury to say the least. Now I would be the first one to admit moaning about work and how I or anyone would be treated, but I would never make negative personal remarks about people no matter how much I would dislike them.  At this I realised why I had not asked her out while we were still working together and also why she was still single. When it came to office politics, I was lucky as I got on with everyone but this poor girl had issues with a lot of the staff. I think her poor attitude towards people may be more of a habit than anything else and I feel sorry for the girl to be honest.  Although I will not fall out with her as we always got on, somehow I don’t think we will be going on a date again although I will be very great full that I learned what slingbacks are.