Update....

Things have been quiet on this blog since I started work in Limerick, and are likely to remain so for a while yet. I've now changed flat and escaped the 'rip off landlord from hell' and am sharing a company flat with a mate from work, but there's still no internet connectivity other than at work. Even though I've been in the office on the alternate weekends when I've not flown home to London (where I am now, as I type this), blogging hasn't exactly been at the top of the ever-expanding 'To Do' list.

Officially the Ireland contract ends in 3 weeks, and already a couple of colleagues have jumped ship by declining renewal offers (including my flat mate/unofficial chauffeur - yikes!). Aer Lingus have also announced in the last fortnight that they're stopping flights between Heathrow and Shannon. This is a real blow to the whole area, with the long term survival of my favourite airport - quiet and with free Wi-fi, what's not to like?! - now looking very much in doubt. Rumours are that the treasured Aer Lingus flights won't stop until December or January and I'm hoping it's the latter given the way I'm expecting things to pad out.

So far as the 'it was always going to be tough' project goes things are in pretty bad shape: specs are still being argued over and when they arrive are thin. The real work has barely started and there's no sign of half-decent talent in the few CVs we manage to get hold of. But I hate giving up on something when I think there's still a chance, even if a slim one, of success, and it looks like I'm now extended to the middle of October, and realistically probably beyond that through the end of the year if I want to be. I can't say I 'want' to be, but leaving early would just seem like a waste of the time already spent on the project.

All of which means that ShinyDiscs.com probably won't see the light of day until 2008 now. So much for the plan to have evenings and weekends free with nothing else to do but get that fully developed!

I've been back in London this weekend on my regular fortnightly trip but, with so much to do ready for work next week, have had no time to go and see The Bourne Ultimatum, as hoped for (maybe next weekend in Limerick?). I have managed to watch a single, solitary film on DVD: Fracture featuring 'Sir' Anthony Hopkins and young up-and-coming actor Ryan Gosling. It's pretty far-fetched in places, but enjoyable for all that. Hopkins plays a character who kills his wife after discovering she's having an affair, and confesses to the crime, only to retract and seem to have committed the perfect crime when young, arrogant, up-and-coming lawyer Gosling is put on the case for prosecution. Two excellent actors duelling with each other lift the rather mundane script and hokey scenarios used to help the 'perfect' crime be committed, making this well worth a rental, if not an outright purchase.

It's three weeks before my next trip home - and that's on a Monday because I'm working the preceding weekend in lieu of having 3 days back home - two of them to attend the Microsoft MIX 07 conference which is a cut-down version of the event that took place in Las Vegas earlier this year. All of which means things will be pretty quiet here on my blogs over the next month.

As usual I'm ferrying a whole bunch of DVDs over with me to Limerick, but the chances of me getting to see them, never mind review them are looking increasingly slim. In the last fortnight I've actually managed to watch just two (Breaking and Entering and Tunes of Glory - both excellent! :))

On the plus side, in case this post sounds a bit gloomy, I'm still enjoying the work and the people (but concerned that two of the people I get on with the best are moving on come September 7th). I'm learning new stuff which is always good, althought at times frustrating (three phrases: 'Infragistics', 'overly complex' and 'bug ridden' come to mind!). As for Ireland itself - I've not had chance to see much other than the endless rain and black clouds on my trips between 'home' and work, but am hoping to get a weekend to explore before the contract ends. Earlier this week I went to a superb fish restaurant in the small hamlet of Bunratty when GCS, the agency who placed me, took a couple of us out for a slap-up meal, so it's not ALL work and no play!