This week we got another visitor which isn’t Toni. No this time it was Joel, a student from the Strato AG, who came over and stayed for a weekend with us. It was good to see him again after 5 weeks which felt abit longer than it actualy was. I showed him a bit of Belfast at the day he arrived, we went shopping togethera and visited some sites. He told us something about his work in Derry and we told him something about our work here in Belfast. We went to the MCM ComicCon Belfast the very next day together to buy some merch and to make some pictures with the local costplayers and we did make some nice pictures, but I will tell more about it in another post.
I think I already talked about that one market we have next to our work placement at the Lesley Exchange Building from Concentrix. At friday Tim and I were there again and agein we were looking for lunch. This time when we looked around we found another Burger stand but this one was special. It was so special because they had him and with him I mean the „Titanic Burger“. That Burger was giantic. Two times 6oz Steaks, two times Bacon pieces, four cheese slices, rocket, and grilled onions. When the griller finished the Burger he said „It is like a piece of art“ and I said „Beautiful“ then the man next to me said „Beautiful is the perfect word to discribe it …“. The taste of that Burger is … you know … I can’t tell you. It is indeed to good to say it in words you have to go and eat by yourself.
On Friday evening we went to Tesco and Iceland to buy some groceries for the next week.
Afterwards we made again some nice burgers for our dinner.
While having dinner Nick and I enjoyed the movie Pain & Gain even though I have already seen it but its still a nice movie.
On Saturday Nick, Martin, Eric, Joel and Tim went to the local Comic Con but I decided to stay at home since I’m not really into Anime and Manga.
Other than that the Weekend was rather uneventful. We stayed up long on Saturday so we decided to do a lazy Sunday.
I was lucky enough to pick up my girlfriend on friday evening to show her around Belfast and tell her about all the exciting experiences I made so far. We are planning to make another road trip this weekend and I am really happy that I am used to drive around in Northern Ireland and can differentiate which parts of the North Coast are interesting to see and add some more stops on the way. As I am writing this post we are having a typical british breakfast with scrambled eggs and bacon all as a side dish with a huge beagle next to it. The weather is beautiful and I couldn’t be happier to hit the road again… this time as a pair of two!
I feel like I am becoming a more important part of Speechstorm than ever before. This is due the importance of a telephone meeting we had on friday where I was not only setting up the call itself but also contributing to the further development of the spanish localization task we are currently working on. We were talking to an american company which as a little side note also provided for the very known of apple devices Siri. In this call where me and two other colleagues were connected to the three persons on the other side of the world were talking about further development questions I was able to ask important questions and felt really „useful“ if you know what I mean. The call took a lot more than expected but it was a huge contribution to our ongoing tasks.
Yesterday Lawrence gave me a little task to write a macro for Excel that automatically draws a graph based on a .csv file.
It took me a while to get back into VBA its been a while since I used it the last time. But the macro is nearly done only a few pieces are missing to make it perfect. Today before Lunch I had to do a little Presentation about my Company what I’ve learned so far and what I want to learn in the last 3 Weeks. Samantha ordered Lunch for this ’special‘ occasion so we enjoyed some chicken wings, Sandwiches and mini Pizzas for Lunch.
In the Afternoon I continued to write the Macro for Lawrence and tried to help Hans with his Pivottable in Excel.
As the title already states I used the last few days to prepare for the NetRiders competition.
So nothing really eventful happens. I didn’t thought the difference between the CCENT NetRiders and CCNA NetRiders would be that big but yeah the CCNA one is definitely way harder than CCENT. Next Tuesday we will see how bad or good I scored finger crossed that its not the last place.
After I attended the NetRiders my Supervisors were supposed to come to visit me but as Martin told me they didn’t have enough time to do so they didn’t come over. So I spend the rest of the day with John he introduced me to the VOIP services KNI offeres. I was supposed to go with him tomorrow on site but I don’t have the Health and safety training I’m not allowed on a ‚construction‘ site.
Today I had an appointment at 12 o clock to meet up with me supervisors from Germany. We met in our conference room and had a nice chat about what my work here is all about and how i am getting along with it. After introducing the AFIB to my Speechstorm supervisor we discussed what I learned and how I feel about my work here. All in all it was nice to show them that I am learning a lot here and not just wasting my time. Followed up by the discussion we took some photos and I had the opportunity to show them around my working place and explain a little more about it. They had some more visits on their strict time table where they are going to meet my other german colleagues and find out more about their work here in Belfast and Dublin.
Arriving at Dublin Airport around 7.20pm on Friday, George and I went to Avis to pick up our car. After my VISA was declined, we had to book an insurance packet with Avis directly which cost us 12€ per day on top of what I had already paid in advance. It’s still very cheap to get a car for the weekend and after that minor setback, we were off to the guys in Derry. The drive up there was nice and after around 20 minutes on the road, sitting on the right side of the car, shifting with the left hand and driving on the left side becomes quite natural. The only thing that bothered me up until the end was the indicator being on the left side of the steering wheel which made it virtually impossible to use while shifting gears in a roundabout for example. When we arrived in Derry we had a small birthday party for George with Budweiser and Cake.
The next morning started off with a nice breakfast after which Joel came to Tobi and Paul’s place and then we were off to meet Max on a parking lot near to where his girlfriend was staying. Paul was kind enough to burn his road trip CDs for both our cars so after a few minutes our cars both looked kind of like this.
It took a little getting used to driving with another car behind me so when I came upon a place I thought was beautiful and well worth taking a couple of pictures, I pulled over with Paul rushing past me. Granted, I was kind of quick in my decision making and didn’t really have the time to indicate my desire to pull over so I wasn’t surprised that Paul didn’t make it. I was actually glad because I myself barely managed to come to a stop before the pocket ended. After that, it went rather smoothly. I tried watching out a little more and we reached every place safe and sound. We even came across a nice place where I had the chance to transform my Renault Mégane into a Dodge Ram. Well, sort of… 😉
Pimp my Ride, Hillbilly Style
The first stop of this journey was Mount Errigal in County Donegal. The Saturday sun blessed us with an amazing view as well as a nice tan/burn. We climbed 688 meters all the way to the tippy top which took us roughly two and a half to three hours and about an hour for the way down. I had to change my t-shirt and the others had to change their shoes and pants because the bottom of the Mountain was quite boggy. We started toward Galway at around 2pm and got there at 7.30pm. We spent the night at a nice little B&B run by Larry Bogan who’s a very nice man. Before going to bed, we decided to go into city center to eat something and maybe also have a pint of Guinness. It turned out to be quite hard to find a place that everybody could agree on and so we ended up in a diner eating burgers and drinking milkshakes. We were all pretty beat after climbing that mountain and driving down to Galway so we went home after that dinner.
Mt. Errigal
Mt. Errigal
The next morning, Larry made pancakes for us and we had toast and fruit as well. We left his B&B at around 9am, walking on the beach of Galway Bay for a bit, taking pictures and collecting a few shells; well, I did that anyway. After that we were off to the Slieve League Cliffs which are not as famous as the Cliffs of Moher but reach almost 3 times higher. The look down to the Atlantic waves smashing against the walls of the mountain was entrancing and so was the drive up and down the narrow roads there, going up and down, left and right.
Galway Bay
Sliabh Liag
Sliabh Liag
Since Paul had to return his car before the rental place closed, we had to make our way back rather quickly and also get gas before returning the car. We managed it all fine, got back to Tobi and Paul’s place and had a little time to relax before we made our way into the city to have something to eat and drink. Since their favorite restaurant was closed, we ended up getting bat wings coated in cornflakes and dipped in scalding hot fat. The Hillbilly’s Family Meal comes with 6 pieces of chicken, 4 helpings of fries and a 1l soda. I went to bed at half past twelve and got up at 8 to have a final breakfast in Derry, before leaving for Dublin via the Giant’s Causeway and the Causeway Coastal Route.
Beautiful Ireland
Dunluce Castle
The Giant’s Causeway was beautiful, the rope bridge tiny – from up where we looked at it – and the Causeway Coastal Route was amazing, breathtaking and fast. I had a blast riding that road like a dolphin rides the waves of the ocean.
George
Giant’s Causeway
The Chimneys
Der Causeway und ich
Giant’s Causeway
Giant’s Causeway
Rope Bridge
George and I stopped at a restaurant which made the famous ‘golden seagull’ its emblem and took off ‘flying’ down the M1 Motorway towards Dublin. Now, when I say flying, I don’t literally mean flying like but I was going almost 180km/h at one point though the overall speed limit is 120 if not lower. But what can I say; it’s frustrating, having a fast car that isn’t allowed to go fast.
Giving the car back at the airport was easy enough since there was no damage done to the car, the tank was full and we even threw out the garbage. We made our way into the city by bus and when I came home, I put my clothes in the washer, went to Tesco to get some cash as well as deodorant and had dinner and a pint of Guinness with Eamonn, my host dad. After that I took a shower, shaved and went to bed.
In short: whoever said that driving 250 miles is hard, is not well informed because after driving roughly 1331 kilometers this weekend, I think 250 mi are a piece of cake. 😉
I re-discovered my love for coffe! This morning were like every other morning and I was damn tired so I asked Peter where did he got his coffe and he told me that I bought his coffe at the central train station across the street. So I asked him if it were okay that I quick go there and buy me coffe and he said it were okay. At the train stastion I went into that coffe store and odered a big Cappuccino and wow was that an awesome Cappuccino. When I got back I already emptied it but I still wanted more coffe. I went to the vening machine and bought like 3 cups of coffe over the day. Damn it I really frickin love coffe!
I can say that I can work better with some cups of coffe and I think I know now where I go now before work starts.
