There is a fundamental difference between an optimist and a pasimist. Optimists can only be disappointed, while pessimists can be positively surprised from time to time. These days it is good being a pessimist. At least my mood doesn’t suffer from disappointment.

Last week the landlord told us that the ESB will start tomorrow. This Tuesday he told us they started today. Maybe next week he will tell us they started yesterday?

Being back at work helps to rise my mood, but there are new problems coming along. Problems called bureaucracy. Getting a PPS number promises to be easy, opening an bank account is a different story. There is nothing like a Meldezettel in Ireland, but you need an invoice from a governmental institution as prove of residence. I temporarily share a house with some students, there are no gas or electricity bill’s addressed to my name. The bank can not accept a letter from the landlord, but the nice lady behind the counter told me she will make an exception and open the account by taking the letter from the social agency, the one notifying me of my PPS number. This procedure can take up to 2 weeks and I have to give them our temporary address in Bishopstown. Being a pessimist, I am very confident that we will still live here when the letter will arrive.

With all the stuff we brought over, the little room is virtually filled to the brim.

And what you see here is actually only a bit of the stuff from the Landy. The big TV is placed somewhere on the ground floor, the surround equipment is on the closet and a lot of the inexpensive stuff is still in the car.

To live or even sleep in this little room would currently be impossible. Thankfully, being summer break, most of the other rooms are empty right now. So we occupied another one and put the beds together to have enough space for the mattress we brought over.

University will start again in September. Till then we must either have moved in, to the flat in downtown, or found something else.