Yesterday, I implemented a cool new feature in GMCS: switching on nullables - you can now write code like this:
And for all you fans of the World Cup 2006 - I am very happy today:
I got two tickets for the Paraguay - Trididad & Tobago game in the Fritz Walter Stadium in Kaiserslautern (I know, the website is in German, click on Bildergalerie to see pictures). That stadium - also called "Betzenberg" - is the home stadium of my favorite team, the 1. FCK (unfortunately, they're not playing in first league anymore next season) - and I already watched a lot of games there in the past ....
I'm back from a wonderfull weekend in beautiful Dublin ("Baile Átha Cliath"), met a lot of nice people and had a lot of fun there :-)
Friday and Saturday, I spent most time going from one Pub to the next - mostly around Temple Bar - and tasting a lot of Irish Beer ...
The weather was absolutely awesome and so on Sunday, I did some sightseeing, walked around in the park and then finally found myself in another nice pub drinking
even more Guineess and other Irish beers. I had to wake up really early on Monday morning, my plane was supposed to leave at 7:00 am - but somehow I still managed
to miss it - it wasn't even that late, just about 6:40 am when I arrived at the airport, but they already closed checkin and I wasn't allowed to board anymore :-(
However, Air Lingus is really a very cool airline - they allowed me to change my ticket by just paying the fare difference plus a small fee. Unfortunately, the second flight on that day was already completely booked out as well as the 7:00 am one on the next morning.
So at about 6:55 am on Monday, when I realized that I was stuck in Ireland for another 34 hours, I decided to see more of this beautiful country and rented a car. It turned out that driving on the wrong side of the road wasn't even that complicated at all and the Irish people are really very nice and helpful - thanks a lot again for helping me out when I got stuck with a flat tire somewhere in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but cows and sheep around !
Galway and Cork were both really nice and Galway has some beautiful beaches. Unfortunately, it was very cold and rainy when I left Germany, so I didn't even think about swimming and didn't pack anything - so I just walked around the beach a little bit. I finally arrived at Cork late at night and was very happy to find a pub which was still open and they were also playing live music there :-)
The next day, I got up very early and started driving back to Dublin - I almost made it to the airport, just another 15 kilometers and plenty of time left - when I got stuck in a really bad traffic jam. For the first two hours, nothing was moving at all - I could have walked to the airport in that time, but I had to return that rental car ... - and then it started moving very slowly. I lost over 3 hours in that jam and when I finally arrived at the airport at 4:55 pm, I didn't even bother going to the checkin counter (my flight was supposed to leave at 5:00 pm) but run upstairs to the airport bar and just made it in time.
When I arrived, I saw my airplane already being pulled away from the gate and slowly moving towards the runway .... so I quickly ordered and when it took off, I waved goodbye with a Guinness in my hand ;-)
As I already said, Air Lingus is a really cool airline - changing my ticket a second time wasn't any problem at all and I got the 7:00 am flight the next morning.
Tomorrow morning, I'm heading off to Dublin, the beautiful capital of Ireland for a long weekend of sightseeing, Guinness-drinking, partying and having fun :-)
I'm really looking forward to it - it has been a long time since I've been in Dublin last time ....
Just the right time to relax before a busy and stressfull week - next Thursday, I'm getting new windows in my apartment. In general, that's a very good idea since my old windows are probably older than I am and I'm really happy that the landlord wants to replace them. However, I'm a bit scared of the dirt and dust this operation will make. At least, I'll be some work moving my desk away from the window and covering all furniture with covering sheets. And then, on Friday, it's the big spring cleaning day for me ...
Ok, time to leave to the Irish Pub to get another pint of Kilkenney before leaving :-)