Landlord from hell

I got a text from our old landlord in Dublin. I have been trying to reach him to see when we get our deposit back. He texted me to say, the apartment needs to be cleaned - will we sort it? OH MY GOD, we left the apartment dust and dirt-free. When we moved in, the place was disgusting, so we made sure to leave it nice, even if we really dislike our landlord. I am so offended that he claims that, and I am outraged, because he clearly is trying to get out of paying our deposit in full. And now he's not replying to my texts, where I'm asking him to specify what he thinks needs to be cleaned. I'm fuming. And we really, really need to get that deposit back! We are going to the registry office here tomorrow, then to the bank to open our accounts and to pay our current deposit. Oih.

Our current landlord brought another closet and picked up some stuff today - so now we have finally been able to move things around and them the way we want to. It feels more like home already! We moved the desk into the bedroom, to give A an office. So the living room is mine, now, isn't it? :)

Our last day in Dublin

On our last day in Dublin we have been busy answering the phones, packing and carrying stuff around town. R will be here shortly with her husband to collect our rug, hopefully our big soup pot and frying pan, too. Oh, and coat hangers! Then R, another ex-colleague, will come and collect our coffee table. Could I give her our leftover Bailey's and Morgan Spiced Rum too? We are trying to make sure we leave as little as possible behind for our greedy, manner-less landlord-pigs. We took two bags of clothes and a box of knickknacks to Oxfam, so watch out for cute Japanese soy-dipping bowls, a blue tea pot, green Gola sneakers and turquoise ear-rings if you are shopping on George's Street! We decided to ship a fifth box, so we are still feverishly packing and will have to bring the box Rathmines tonight. Oh, if anyone else is moving and shipping, this German company seems to be the cheapest: GLS Ireland.

It doesn't feel final, still. I've been too busy to stop and think about what is happening. I guess we will have all the time we want in Berlin! We might get to contemplate a little over dinner at The Buenos Aires Grill tonight, for a last supper in Dublin. I might order the crab and melon salad again... :)

Shipping

We are on our way to get our boxes shipped. We had to use all three huge ones, and a small extra one too. So much for not having a lot of stuff! We are weighing everything and looking very worried, re-packing, re-weighing and sealing. Almost there!

Oh, and seems my "why-does-the-sun-shine" rant worked, it's nowhere to be seen today. Oops.

Why does the sun have to shine?

It's really quite unfair of mother Eire to give us blasting sun and perfect summer when we are leaving. How will we now be able to avoid nostalgia and false images of what it is like here? It should be cold and lashing rain, so we remember what it is really like!

I had my leaving drinks with work yesterday in Dicey Riley's. We were on the balcony, overlooking the beer garden. The heat was tropical and the view was like in Ibiza. I had a good night, but I can't deny I was happy to be home by midnight. It still didn't feel very final, though. Tonight we are packing, we want to get the boxes shipped tomorrow, so now it starts to feel like we are really moving! We also finally tried to book accommodation for our arrival in Berlin. The place we liked best couldn't confirm availability yet, so we are getting a bit nervous - we need and address to ship our stuff to!

Awesome lunch

I had the best lunch ever today. I'm still thinking about it. I ate a delicious, fresh, juicy curried crab and watermelon salad at the Buenos Aires Grill on Golden Lane. I want to go back there every day that we are still in Dublin for, and have that again. It was a pretty, round chunk of watermelon, topped with succulent crab, on a bed of greens, garnished with curry mayonnaise. As decoration there were also slices of mango, dollops of the curry mayo and halved cherry tomatoes. I'm in love! Or the Argentinian salad, with palm hearts, pineapple, mango and vinaigrette. Or the salmon plate. Or the... you get my point. Maybe we will manage to get dinner there before we head off. Since we are not meant to buy food stuff to the house, opportunity might knock!

First last-drinks

I had leaving-dinner and drinks with friends today, the first one. It feels weird, not sad at all, to say goodbye, because I really don't feel like I'm going anywhere. I mean, I know I am, but I don't feel it yet. I don't think I will feel it until the apartment is empty next Monday, and we are looking at our packed suitcases. There's quite a few goodbye's to fake through before then...

Perfect timing

What a great time to leave Ireland: this week we got the news in work that three people are being made redundant and one person will downsize to a three day work week. That sort of killed the Friday buzz and my excitement for planning my leaving drinks. Luckily I sent out the details for the drinks a bit before the news hit... I know: selfish thought. But how happy am I to get out of here?! And it's only going to get worse. I really think Ireland hasn't seen the worse of this recession yet!

Packing, yuk

The other day I came to the strange realisation that for the past four or five years we have been moving house roughly once a year. What's wrong with us? Moving is not fun! Now we are moving again and the big, gaping cardboard boxes are staring at me in the living room. This weekend will be dedicated to packing. Yuk. I will have to go through all the strange piles of "important" papers, the clothes I pretend I will still wear "soon" and the books that I thought I "have to" read and can't give away.

This weekend is luckily the much awaited Street Performance World Championships in Dublin, so we will have a pretext for leaving the house. It is Midsummer this weekend and on Facebook everyone is updating how they will spend it at their summerhouses, the archipelago, at festivals or camping. It makes me a little homesick, the thought of the nightless nights and all our friends out in the warm summer's night. Well, who ever said they don't celebrate Midsummer in Ireland? In Temple Bar they apparently do! Maybe we'll check this out too.

A bad aftertaste

I got invited to go along to the Taste of Dublin event in the Iveagh Gardens at lunch today. I've wanted to go before, too, but I've suspected it's not worth my money. I was right. The cheapest ticket is 25€, then you exchange your euros to festival currency, florins; you can only purchase food and products using florins. A handful of stalls were offering samples, everything else costs you florins. I can't believe rip-off-Ireland is still alive and so well! The only highlights for me were Glenilen Farm dairy products: gorgeous yoghurts, cheesecakes and butter - yum! I'm also going for the 'girlfriend of the week' -award and bought my other half a bottle of Cave Creek Chili Beer. A small jalapeno floats in the bottle and the beer tasted like Corona and tacos – I figured it would be a hit at home.
My suggestion: avoid the Taste festival and go eat a fancy meal somewhere instead!

Last weekend away in Ireland

I have spent the night on laterooms.com to find cheap accommodation for our last weekend trip in Ireland. We will have a look at Cork, Waterford and Wexford and hopefully a lot of sea and nice scenery. We are being un-ecological and have rented a car – but if you know the state of public transport in Ireland you understand... For insight, or a laugh, watch www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YmvevAvhyM