Monday/Tuesday — Nothing much happening. We take the train out to Raheny on Tuesday evening – timing things slightly better on the return journey this time, so it takes little more than half an hour to get home. I’m getting the hang of this.
Wednesday — Still waiting for word on the taps. There are boxes in the living room begging to be unpacked, but the day gets away from us. Could be partly due to my playing F1 2010 on the Xbox for much of the afternoon. Guilty!
After seven we meet Eoin and Joana in town for tapas and conversation. I’ve never been to the Market Bar before and it’s not at at all what I expected, in a good way.
When we get home there’s a notice on the front door from one of the other tenants, warning about ‘narcomans’ wandering the halls. I presume they mean junkies, of whom I’ve seen zero in the area. They were probably just drunks who couldn’t find their apartment door.
Thursday — Finally some news on the taps! The plumber is coming out on Saturday, and taking an electrician with him to look at the dodgy stovetop. Maybe he’ll have a look at the loopy oven switch/timer too.
Inspired by Tom’s naming strategy for his new computer, I rename my trusty MacBook. It’s getting on in years – will be four in March – so I think Chamlis Amalk-ney is an appropriate choice. It was that or Methuselah.
Friday — Later to work than hoped due to the slowness of my USB flash drive. It shouldn’t really take half an hour to copy 3GB, should it?
Shortly after I get in, a courier drops by with a spare set of apartment keys, which is a good thing since Bee is out at Debbie’s tonight with mine.
Some idle time in the afternoon. I mull over investing in a Kindle. The new ones are very attractive. And with the recent fall of the dollar against the euro, they’re shockingly good value, too. I save one to my shopping cart to think over later.
Cottage pie for dinner, and almond halva for dessert. Dishes done, kitchen mostly cleaned. Nothing much good on TV after Mastermind and QI so I veg out watching wrestling. Such is the exciting life I lead.
Saturday — Plumber arrives at lunchtime to replace the taps, then runs off after two before he’s finished, so we have to wait another hour or so for his replacement.
In the meantime I try to order a Kindle, only to find that my Amazon account has regressed by seven years! Understandably I freak out for about half an hour – before I notice that the string of asterisks masking my password is shorter than it should be.
Turns out the Keychain app on my Mac has suddenly confused my Amazon login with an older account I haven’t used since 2003. Which is quite annoying, especially since no amount of cache-clearing seems to fix things. And it appears that I’ve ordered the Kindle using the old account, which really fucks up continuity for me. But hey, at least my details aren’t lost forever.
Two hours after all that everything’s finally done – and I can finally get out to the shops before sundown, TV Burp and UFC 120 (I get the TV to myself for the night as Bee’s busy online). Not a bad Saturday night, all things told.
Sunday — Sometime in the small hours, I slip on a wet patch on the floor of the bathroom, ramming my big toe into the ceramic thing under the sink and my head into the shower door. Ouch.
Later we discover that the water pressure on the cold taps in the kitchen and the bath/shower has dropped considerably. The bathroom sink tap is running as normal, but there is a worrisome wet patch on the floor just beneath – presumably the same I slipped on.
I have the sinking feeling the plumbers have messed up the plumbing…