10 Years in Ireland ....

A month ago, I read this French Foodie blog post about her last 10 years in Ireland, only to realize that myself, I was going to celebrate my 10 years in Ireland in a couple months.

And here we are, 10 years ago, I debarked in Rosslare with my old french car. A long road trip, which took me from the French Alps to the west coast of Ireland.

From the boat bringing me to Rosslare

To be honest, I initially thought, I would only stay a year or two, before moving on with some enhanced knowledge.

A thought, that I now realize has been shared by many expatriate, not the ones who left - as planned - after a year, all the others. One year, leading to another then without as much of a whimper to a decade.

So I am still there, 10 years after. So why did I stay so long ? What is making me stay ?

First, as a matter of fact, I  like Ireland. And more and more, the longer I stayed... even if at the same time, I am becoming more and more infuriated by some aspects of Irish life - I have the same relationship with France.

For each year I stay, there was a different reasons, from the diving, the professional challenge and finally the girl.

So in summary ... "Putain 10 ans !!!"

So to celebrate those 10 years, and yes I am copying the idea from the foodie post, I hope she won't mind. I do concur with most of the items in her list, except for Penneys, hence the duplicates.

1. The Irish people. I am not a people person, but Irish are incredibly friendly. In particular, they are really easy to work with - especially when compared to my own compatriots. I felt welcome here from day 1, and continue to have that sense, every time I encounter someone here. 
2. Pubs. An obvious one, linked to the previous item. I like the variety of ambiance, atmosphere. Nothing better than ending the day, sipping a Murphy by the fire, chatting away with friends. Since my move to Dublin, I am on a quest to find my perfect local.
3. The west coast of Ireland. I loved living by the atlantic ocean, being able with an hour drive to be by the rugged coast, from the humbling stormy waves, to a serene blue sea.
4. Scuba Diving in Ireland. I probably had the best of my dives here and love being part of this vibrant community.
5. The extra long days. Nothing beat a late evening barbeque by the beach under a late sunset.
6. The gigs in Ireland - I love how the Irish public engage with the music, and the musicians.
7. How passionate the Irish can be about any particular subject. At first Irish can seems passive, but they are also passionate, either for gaelic sport in their own parish, food, sea activity or music.
8. Irish comedians: Just look for Dara O'Briain, Dylan Moran, Foils arms and hog or the rubberbandits.
9. Cosmopolitanism. An incredible change has happened, from a country of emigrant, Ireland is now attracting brilliant mind from all other the world. I lived in Grenoble which use to have a big contingent of foreigners, but I never felt so much diversity pouring in the local culture. I am actually curious to see what Ireland will be in the next ten years as a result of this immigration flow.
10. And finally the one.

Failures, successes and lessons learned from 2014

"There are years that ask questions, and years that answer." Zora Neale Hurston

As much 2013 (and the year before ) was an exciting year, full of change, and challenge.. the past year 2014, did not turn out to be as promised, mainly of my own fault.

2014 mark a failure on my part on few areas. First and foremost I failed in finalizing the Msc I started in 2013, only managing to scrape a Higher Diploma in the process.
I somehow neglected my friendships and myself.
I  did not go scuba diving as much as I had initially envisaged, stop going to Aikido, my lack of exercising. All this also resulted in some extra gain weight, basically regaining all I had lost in the past two years.

But at the same time, I had a couple of interesting opportunities and encounters.
I went for the first time to Body & Soul, and it was a refreshing experience.
I started to go to meetups, mainly related to R, Data Analytics, hackers and Python related subjects, and discovered a vibrant community.
As a result of one of this encounter, I was part of a team who entered the Kaggle Epilepsy challenge ; we ended up in the first tier, not that bad for a first participation.
I engage myself in more projects, and used online resources (Coursera, Checkio ) to practice and learn more about python, programming and data analysis.


So what did I learn from all that...

• Always ask questions, question everything. Ask for help and advice to mentor and veterans. This is something I was doing all the time when I started my engineering career, but somehow during my thesis, I forgot about it.
• Be relentless, and focus. Only chase one rabbit at a time. Focus on the task at hand, then move on.
• I need my own alone time, to reflect on my own project. Somehow I forgot that about myself.
• Exercise, make it a habit. Either be going dancing (salsa/swing) every week, snorkelling, hiking or diving. 
• Have project and objectives, those might change depending on opportunities arising.
• Not only seize opportunities, but also thrive to create them.
• Embrace friendship and be present when needed.

I intend for 2015, to learn from those errors and not reproduce the same mistakes again.

Desert Island discs

From time to time, I catch myself listening to that more than 70 year old  BBC program : Desert Island Disc. In this weekly show the celebrity castaway is asked to choose eight pieces of music, a book and a luxury item that they would take if they were to be cast away on a desert island, whilst discussing their lives and the reasons for their choices.

My 8 songs / albums would be, many songs from the 90's early 2000, my youth in college where I discovered thanks to my friends much of the music which now populate my music library.

• Since I left you - the Avalanches 

• Hail to the thief - Radiohead 

•  Serge Gainsbourg - Melody Nelson 

• Transformer - Lou reed 

• Jethro Tull - Burtsing Out 

• Tostaky - noir desir

• Genesis - Foxtrot 

• Bjork - Debut 

Two shy from my top ten album which would also include:

• P.j Harvey - Stories from the city, stories from the sea. 

• Janis Joplin - I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!

More difficult would be to pick just one book, I guess it would have to be:  Plume - Henri Michaux 


But my heart could also go to :

• The man in the high castle - Philip K.Dick
• "La vie mode d'emploi" by Georges Perec.
• Prevert - Poemes
• Perceval le conte du graal - Chretien de Troyes
• Jules vernes - Le tour du monde en 80 jours

As for the luxury items (I guess a computer is out of order), so it would be: a guitar so I can find the time to learn how to ply it (finally).

Random Thoughts redirection

Just posted a new post on my other blog, a warning: it is for geeks, it is about Python and Pycon Dublin:

https://tofguerrier.github.io/articles/random-thoughts-from-pycon-dublin-2014.html

National Botanic Garden

The National Botanic Gardens are a little piece of heaven in the North side of Dublin 

You can also see there a good share of squirrels (grey ones on that side of the Shannon )

There is also an annexe in County Wicklow, which is worth the trip,see National Botanic Gardens, Kilmacurragh

Watching the world cup [2014]

Another world cup is upon us, this time taking place in Brazil, and I have seen myself dragged (on my own will), into watching the opening ceremony and the first game of this competition.
I think the last time, I watched the opening game of a World Cup, was 20 years ago.

1994, the World Cup was held in USA, the opening ceremony was memorable with a Diana Ross singing, then kicking a ball in high heels, a wide shot, missing the goal ... which still opened split.
France was not part of that world cup, due to 2 losses against Israel and Bulgaria... The commentators at the time, before going those games, were adamant France would qualify, since it only needed a draw out of those... a draw not 2 losses - and yes both games were played on home turf. The defeat to Bulgaria was the last time I saw Eric Cantona scoring a goal with the French jersey.
I was still interested in football, still under the influence of my childhood with the Michel Platini era, with its highlights:

• The win over Brazil in quarter final of Mexico 1986. Followed by another defeat to Germany in semis.

• The win in the Euro 1984.

• The epic semi-final against Germany in 1982, a loss... but probably the most dramatic game I have ever seen. 4 goals scored in extra time, and France leading 3-1 after 100 minutes only to lose to penalty shoot-out in the end.

France Team in 1982. Mundial

• First the total disrespect to the referee, every single decision is contested, seeing half a team bullying the man in black, shouting at his face is an awful sight. Worse, we spectator are either engaging in the same behaviour (via the safety of a screen) or just watch impassably the bullying. Every time I see one of those scene, I am reminded of that Jean Pierre Mocky movie: "A mort l'arbitre" , where a set of fanatical supporters go on a manhunt for a referee.

• Then there is the acting, and the fake "diving", which we saw another instance of that first game. Last night dive was a textbook example, as studied  in this paper: 

• It turns out that diving is more common when there’s more to gain by it: in the offensive half of the field – specifically, in or near the penalty box – and when scores between the teams are tied.

• Source: David GK, Condon CH, Bywater CL, Ortiz-Barrientos D, Wilson RS (2011) Receivers Limit the Prevalence of Deception in Humans: Evidence from Diving Behaviour in Soccer Players. PLoS ONE 6(10): e26017. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0026017

• Finally the sport has been turning more and more individualistic, the Real Madrid celebration during the last champions league, were an example of a bunch of splitted egoes celebrating around the field, not of a team.

• respect of the rules and the referees decisions.

• solidarity with your teammates.

I have to admit that as a result, of not so exciting preparation games, I did not follow the 1998 world cup from the start. I should have known better, Aime Jacquet after all was the manager of Bordeaux during what I personally consider France soccer team golden years, with many player under his elm (Giresse, Tigana, Tresor .... ). He certainly learned the lessons from this era, before he took charge of the national team.
Lets' go back to the present and this first game played between Brazil and Croatia.

Brazil was very lucky to win, helped by some dubious referee decisions.

That game make me realize why I somehow lost interest in the football game. I still think this is a brilliant game, the most fantastic you can play, it's basic are easy and simple, any kid in any city can and will play it, sometime without needing a ball, a tin can is a valid substitute. 

You can make a ball out of plastic bag, and then go on to dream you are winning the world cup.

So why don't I watch soccer.... few things are annoying me in todays soccer shows:

I have to make a comparison with Rugby Union here, we often talk about the values of the rugby ( sometime in an ironic way ), though I think Rugby exhibit some venerable values, we sometimes mistake them for what they are.

I am not talking about fair play, Rugby Union is a contact sport, and players want to win, so you will see as many acts of non-fair play on a rugby field than any other sports (eye gauging, high tackle, taunting opponents ... ). Where I think Rugby Union exhibit values is in 2 aspects:

Now those two things do not happen by chance. The respect of referee decision is strictly enforced. When you contest a penalty, you have the risk of seeing that penalty brought forward by 10 meters. Only the captain is allowed to talk to the referee, and arguing with referee can lead to a yellow card. Some of those things could easily be implemented in soccer. Also the rugby referee, constantly talk and warns player about their behaviour, the italian soccer referee Collina used to do that constantly during the game, so this could also be an improvement.

On team solidarity, it is a necessity in Rugby by the nature of the game, you have to rely, have trust in your partner to win the game, you cannot win a rugby game on your own, a solitary exploit will not be enough. Soccer has slowly evolved to the opposite direction with the raise of individualistic star with inflated egoes. I watched recently "Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos" about the rise and fall of this USA soccer franchise, who brought Pelè in the states, this story can be seen as a precursor of what was bound to happen with the influx of money in the soccer world.

Finally on the faking and diving, we could also take the example of Rugby Union, with a discipline committee reviewing action of the payer after the games using videos, and condemning unfair play and simulation acts with match suspension.

I ended up watching that first game with mixed feelings, yes the game can be brilliant, but is at the moment spoiled by other interests - I won't go into the FIFA scandals, John Oliver did a much better job than me explaining it ( by showing his sausage ).

I am happy to see Brazil win, unhappy by the way they did, still hopeful that I will see some fantastic football display... which probably mean I will most certainly watch more games. And yes that also include watching France play....

Looking back at 2013

I have been neglected this blog, since a couple months now, just realise this post was in my draft since the first of January 2014, so with a bit of delay here it is....

Looking back at 2013:

• January: Starting the year with walks in charming company on Dun Laoghaire pier.
• St Patrick in Düsseldorf -  My first steps as a contractor.
• Tea parties.
• H-cup final ASM defeat in Dublin.
• DIY and shelves.
• Bourkes Pub.
One of my favourite in Limerick, excellent provider of gigs.
• Summer in Cambridge.
• Airport, airport and more planes.
Between fortnight trip to Germany, then UK, and France, 2013 have been dominated by airflight to the point of sickness. Not good for my carbon footprint.
• Trip to London: Science Museum
• Electric Picnic 2013
Back to the Electric Picnic, to celebrate a special anniversary <3
• The Dubliners in Whelans.
• Depeche Mode in O2.
• Heatwave in Ireland. Snorkel in Clare.
• Forbidden Fruit
• Jerry Fish.
Somehow I miss his circus in the EP, so now I am in chase mode to catch up on his performances.
• New socks - so popular someone steals them from me.
• Dublin beaches.
Thanks to the heatwave, my transition from the west coast to the east coast beaches was easy :D
• Dublin Zoo.
• Saying goodbye to Limerick.
I finally moved all my stuff out of limerick city, where I first moved to Ireland 8 years ago.
• Starting as a student again - Statistics in UCD
Here it is the big one, back on the student benches for one year. UCD campus:
Back in ampitheatre:
First homeworks:
• Enjoying Dublin.
I am still in discovery mode with this city.
• Cats time.
• Introducing my girlfriend to my beloved Auvergne.