Hiya all! I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas (or Happy Christmas as they say in Ireland) and that everyone's New Year has gotten off to a great start. I had a wonderful holiday, my parents came over to visit for Christmas and we did a bit of a tour around. We went to Galway, Cork and Dublin. The weather in true Irish fashion was completely crap, so the holiday centered primarily around eating. I can't complain since it is my favourite hobby :)
I hope Christmas cards arrived, I mailed them a bit later than I should of, and given the Irish postal service they may not have arrived at all, but they were sent out, I promise.
Work is going well. Not too excited to start back, could definitely use another couple of days break, but the trainees got extra time off, so I am grateful for that. The next section of the program has us split with two of us working in the main Dublin branch, one of us in a regional branch and one of us placed with a member company. So it will be a bit lonelier around the office and whoever is in placed in the Industrial Relations/ Human Resources rotation is going to be completely swamped with work...eeps. But, all that aside it is a wonderful experience and far and away the best job I've had. There are moments as with an job which are a bit trying, but the organisation is very invested in the program.
The week before break I carried out my first adjournment. Employment law does not run through the normal court system here, but instead through a set of quasi-judicial bodies: the Labour Court, the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the Rights Commissioner Service, and the Equality Tribunal. For the Labour Court, adjournments must be filed and carried out similar, though less formally than they would be in a normal court of law. So I had to request and adjournment, which is normally a pretty straight forward process. Not this time...twenty minutes of integration and being given out to by the Chairman, just my luck. It was kinda of a buzz, though and even though it was something small, it's the first time I've formally presented in front of any of the Employment Rights bodies.
I'm sure some of you heard about my house excitement. We were burgled by someone who had a key to the house a couple of weeks before Christmas. My housemates and I had our laptops stolen and it was a pretty upsetting. Definitely a wake up call in terms of trusting the people you live with, since one of the people in the house seems to have had some involvement in the whole thing. The individual who was the problem is gone, the locks are changed, the alarm is fixed and the rules of the house have been changed, thanks to fighting with my landlord for ages. It is all sorted and no one got hurt. A few of the people I work with were also burgled before Christmas, so upsetting and there isn't really anything the police can do about it. I find it ironic that of all the traveling and moving I've done, Ireland is the only place I've ever had a problem.
Onward and upward though.
A quick thank you for the Christmas wishes and presents that made there way over here. It is so sweet and much appreciated. Shout out to Aunt Pam, the Beadazzler will be put to excellent use! Thank you notes are on there way soon, but again, with the post system there's about a 75% chance of arrival.
Wishing you all the happiest of New Years, I know a lot happened in the last couple of months and here's hoping we are on to better things!
