visit from our supervisors

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.

Galileo Galileo

Galileo Figaro!

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… 😉

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.

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.

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.

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 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. 😉

Cheers,
Angelo

Coffe

Hello everyone!

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.

Moving monday

Hello everybody!

Today Max, Tim and I had to swap the PCs from one trainings room in our main building with the PCs from a trainings room from another building at the opposite site of Belfast. We also had to swap the monitors, keyboards and mices which was completly senseless because the monitors where exactly the same and you could use the mices and keyboards everywhere. One thing that was kind of annoying was that we had to walk everytime but not with all the stuff because Peter drove it with his van but there wasn’t any place for 3 more people thats why we had to walk. Tomorrow we will have to set up those room because there was no time to do that today.

Awesome weekend

Hey everyone,

the weekend passed very fast. Angelo, Tobias, Paul, Joel, Maximilian and I had a raodtrip and discovered a lot of sights in Ireland and Northern Ireland. On Friday Angelo and I went to the Dublin Airport. We rented a car and drove to Derry in Northern Ireland. It took a few hours but we arrived our target without any issues.

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It was unfamiliar to drove on the left side of the road but Angelo had everything under control. Today we arrived Dublin in the late afternoon. I am very tired, it is nearly midnight hour because of this I will descrieb the procedure of our trip in the next blog entry.

Good night!

Yours George

Half Time over? … Half Life 3 confirmed!!!

Hello everybody!

Sorry for that terrible „pun“ in the title but I saw it and then I had to make this „Half Life 3“ reference. There are two thing I really miss here in Belfast. The first thing is my PC. I just need to play a triple A title right now but it is impossible to do so with those laptops but so atleast I can get up on all those indie titles I have on my steam account.

The second thing I really miss is my e.V. and all the people with it. When I am back I have to go to one of our regular fiday meetups again and hug all the people I haven’t seen for two months. Just sitting down with some guys and girls you know and talk about technicolor ponies.

I have no picture that would really fit but I have a picture of an irish pony.

Working with Peter

Hello everybody!

I know I talk al lot about this guy  named Peter but I have to say he is one of the nicest people I have ever met. I remeber that one time where this guy Toni was mad at us because we messed something up we didn’t know about and Peter tried everything to make him sure that we work correctly and do our tasks as it is told us. At one point I thought he is going to yell at him but right before that happened Toni gave in and apologised to us. I really love working with Peter because he tells us that we are good workers and have to start making things slower because we are to fast.

We all three hope that we can work all the time with Peter and they don’t send us to another building, also if that one guy Collins is also very nice but when we are with him he is doing all the work and we just staying right next to him and watching him do the work.

Just wait and hope for the best!

Weekend in Belfast

This weekend i went to Belfast. I went there on friday after work and got the bus at 18 o`clock. When I arrived we celebrated the birthday of one of the spanish people from the upper apartments and the german „herrentag“. On saturday we went out to see the city. Sunday was rather quite and we watched movies and tv series. I take the bus tomorrow to get back, because monday is a bank holiday in northern Ireland

exploring Northern Ireland

Whoever told us that it is not possible to rent a car under the age of 25 was mistaken and wasn’t well informed. You just have to ask for an „under age insurance“ and you are good to go. With just 60 Pounds we took the car for a day and had an amazing trip along the coast filled with great impression and an incredible landscape. I will try to capture as many details as possible in further posts but I am kind of devastated and sleepy after driving around 250 miles on the wrong side of the road! Ill end with one of my favourite pictures of todays trip:giants causeway

Halfway trough

Four weeks are over four to go. Its been a good time so far hopefully it continues.
This weekend wasn’t that eventful besides Toni visiting us for the weekend.
On friday we celebrated the german „Herrentag“ the spanish guys above us celebrated a birthday so it was a rather loud Friday. In the evening we wanted to go to a pub but it was rather late and they didn’t let us in. So we headed back home and I went to bed.
On Saturday we showed Toni a bit around the city. But the weather wasn’t great so we didn’t showed him that much.
Today we spend most of the time at home watching movies. In the evening we went to tesco to get some groceries for the week