Vacation or not?

Two weeks has passed since the last post, and I cannot remember what I wrote in the last one.

Anyway I am all settled now in the flat and has almost stayed here for a month now, but I still feel like finding a better and bigger apartment should I decide to stay in Malta for another year or so.

In the meantime I am looking for some jobs in Sweden and should something interesting come up I would be up to moving back again, not due to me hating Malta or something like that.

Sure I admit that Malta has given me a few punches here and there but should I get out of the funk at work, I would not have anything against staying down here.

I did start out extremely small again when it comes to online poker and it started semi-ok, however since I did not have much of a bankroll it only took one horrible day of play to get back to where I started and it’s time to start working on the climb again.

As it stands for the moment I do have 22 vacation days left to use for the year, however since I cannot afford to go back to Sweden for the moment, I have absolutely no idea of what I will do with the days, perhaps I will just save them and take the entire month of October or December off and go back at that time.

The sad part in doing so is that I miss out on any part of the Swedish summer, which is the part I woul like to enjoy by going fishing and doing some barbeque with friends and family, oh well we’ll just see what happens.

This is as much as I’m gonna write today as I have nothing else to say and am a bit upset with my play tonight, so better just call it quits.

Ciao.

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HSBC, Melita, Malta...Mela...

Welcome back people.

In order to get my internet up and running I had to call the guy from Melita and set a time on when he could come back, and also call the electrician and book him to come by at the same time, and then have them argue it out together in Maltese, and hope they could come up with a solution.

The result: SUCCESS! And I have internet now.

The problem with it all was that the pipe where the cables should go was covered by 15cm of concrete…and the two Maltese guys were using hammer and screwdriver to chisel their way through so that the cable could be connected.

There are things that really do get my blood pumping down here, and it is mostly the lack of “think it through” that comes up from time to time.

It can be the fact that they decide to have a “festival” for a local saint in Sliema, which they decide to celebrate in one side of the town, and the other side could not care less about.

And by having this feast they decide to block off the highest trafficated road in the entire Sliema, and this by just setting up a block where they decide to start the feast, and NO warning for people going on this road in order for them to start taking alternative routes. 

Instead this will cause a massive traffic chaos, yes bigger than normal when cars are standing still and honking the horn for the poor fucker in front, who cannot go anywhere and are trying to find a way out of there.

If I did not mention it in the last post, I got shafted out of the biggest part of my deposit on the old apartment, and they paid me €110 by writing me a cheque that I could cash in at their bank HSBC.

I thought this was ok since I had decided to change bank from Banif to HSBC in due to better loan possibilities and a bigger bank with more branches as well as international offices.

So when I was at work the last time I checked online to see when the closest branch (St Julians) was open, and I saw they were open until 13.30, and I decided to go the next day. 

Since I work nights I am not keen on getting up at 10.00 or so, and I set the alarm at 12.00.

Got up in time, stepped on the bus and went over to HSBC, brought the cheque and my passport and such stuff I thought I would need for opening an account.

I came into the bank and not many customers were there and I felt lucky (my mistake)…

A women comes up and asks if she can help and then asks me to sit down at her desk when I informed her I would like to open an account.

She says that I need to book an appointment for open an account, and then proceeds with informing me that there is only one HSBC branch on the island where they can open new accounts, and it would be best to book an appointment to do this…

I proceed with a few questions in order to find out how it could be that only one branch have the “authority” of opening new accounts, and her reply is :

“I’m sorry but this is the way it is, and I do not know why”.

Very well then, I inform her that it is not exactly the welcoming start I was hoping for when trying to open a new bank and giving them my money but ok, let us book an appointment.

She looks on the computer and ask me if 9.30 would be ok, even though it is a bit early I decide to say yes, as to make sure I get this out of the way and can start using the new account as soon as possible.

She then follow this up with :

“I have now booked you for an appointment at the xxxx Branch on 28^th of August at 9.30…

“Sorry, but did you say August?”

“Yes, it is very busy this time of the year…”

HOW FUCKING LONG DOES IT TAKE TO OPEN A BANK ACCOUNT!??!?!?!?!

This is a procedure that will take some button clicks to do, and once this is done there might be some checking with other banks before the account is set up, but these checks are done AFTER your appointment and you later get informed when the account is opened… what the hell is the problem with getting stuff done???

I inform her once again that I am disappointed with having to wait over 1 month in order for me to even “apply” for a bank account, but still sets the appointment, after all I could just cancel it if I decide to do so later.

I thank her for her time and ask her where I need to go in order to cash the cheque that I have, and she looks at me and says :

“I am sorry but we only cash cheques until 12.00”.

“But you are open until 13.30, so what is the problem?”

“I am sorry but this is our procedure”.

I decided to cancel the appointment in regards to opening an account and then left the bank with a strange taste in my mouth, it taste like blood, I guess my heart was about to explode…

Now I will try and get some sleep and we’ll see what the day will hold when I wake up.

I must admit it is very relaxing to just sit and listen to music in the sun sometimes, even though the sun is a bit too hot for me. 

/Jonas

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Squatting a shit!

I am now currently staying in the new studio apartment which in a way is all good and nice, at least it is cheaper than a hotel.

However there are things that still bug the fuck out of me, for example the fact that up until today I have been without a blackout curtain to stop the daylight from disturbing me when I try and sleep. Or the lack of shower curtain which makes the entire bathroom floor wet when having a shower.

But the most annoying thing is that the toilet seat is set on the height that is suitable for a midget, dwarf or little person, whichever is more PC to say.

You can see the picture below (I put a box of milk in front as to show you the comparison), and you tell me if you think it is normal to have a leg workout every time you plan to take a shit…

Oh yeah, I am posting this from work, as I need to come early to work so I can do some internet stuff, as I still do not have internet access in the apartment, and this is all thanks to the electrician that has stuffed all the pipes for cables.

And the Melita guy could not get the cable through, so now I have asked the landlord to get him back here and sort that shit out, as I will not be staying in a place without internet for a long time, that is for sure.

I did meet up with the old landlord and settled everything and had hopes of getting my deposit back, which of course ended up me getting shafted and screwed out of €600, yeah that is just what I needed when I have €15 to my name. Oh well, it’s only a couple of weeks until payday…

Thankfully I have great friends and family that always show up when I need them, and I really and truly thank you all, and if I can ever be there for any of them I would not hesitate if I could help.

I did have plans to try and move out of this place as soon as I could find a better and cheaper one, but at the moment my mental capacity is working on 35% or something like that, and not really feeling up to making long term plans.

After all, I pay €550/month rent, plus €50/month for utilities in this place, and as you can see on the pictures, it’s not that big at all.

The truth is that with a bit of patience and timing, you could find a nice penthouse or a 2-3 bedroom apartment with modern finish for the same price, if not even cheaper, and to be honest it’s always nice to have a spare room if someone decides to come by for a visit.

I will just have to take things slow, and like the people in AA say, “One day at the time” and see where it goes from there.

Since the whole ordeal with the delay with the apartment getting ready and me staying in a hotel, I’ve been forced to take a bit longer break from poker, since I had to spend so much fucking money in a short time, but hopefully I can get back into it soon, and try to qualify for Battle Of Malta which will be held in November.

Battle of Malta was fun last year, if we count away my own performance that is.

However it was nice to see a lot of familiar faces from Sweden coming down to play, and as it looks this year there will be a whole bunch coming down again.

Last year a few of us went to a wine tasting, something that did not end up being what we expected, but what the hell, at least we got to see each other a bit.

I will see if I can come up with something better for us to do this year, perhaps look into renting a boat or two and go out on the sea for a day and go down to Marsaxlokk to eat some fresh fish.

From what I understand it is not extremely expensive to rent a boat, and going around the island should not take too long.

The only question is how difficult it is to maneuver the boat on the sea, since none of us has any clue on where it would be ok to go, or not.

I will look into it and see if possible, as I think at least some of the people from Gävle are up for a bit of an adventure, and hopefully there will be some sun so we can pull it off.

Hopefully my next post here will be made from home and my internet is up and running, but I would not get my hopes up, after all this is not the way things work here.

I wrote this post in short spurts over a few days and I have no idea if stuff makes sense when reading, but what the heck, hopefully you get the general idea on how stuff are for the moment.

Below you can see a picture of how the studio look, as well as my amazing view from my prison window. 

/Jonas

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I am still alive, I think

Hello everyone!

After some drama in regards to where I should write, I decided to keep trying to explore my mind and share my thoughts here instead of at Pokerskull or Poker.se for the time being, but I might move again later...

Malta in July is what you could call heaven and hell. 

For people that love to go swimming or laying around on the beach it would be called heaven, well that is if you can find a nice beach of course, I think there are 2 or 3.

For a fat lazy sun-shy Swede who is in the hunt for an apartment to live in, it could be called hell. 

Malta has a huge amount of apartments that is bought for the purpose of being rented out to tourists like me, however during the summer the amount of people coming to the island makes it hard to find a place. 

There will always be a customer that is willing to pay that extra high rent that they are advertising, and I understand that they are not up to negotiating the prices since 2 hours later they have got another customer that accepts it.

Of course you always have the option to rent something further away from the St Julians and Sliema area, which are the two areas that are most popular for tourists, and also the area me myself is working in, and I prefer to live close to work. 

If I would decide to live further away I had to get myself a car and pay extra for that as well, including insurance, gas and the fact of buying a car, so in the end that might be just as expensive. 

I have now found a small studio apartment that I will be moving into, the question is just when?

Since it is brand new, this comes with problems here in Malta, since the Maltese are not a people that like to adapt to the deadline that some people want them to.

The owner told me “It will be ready by Friday for sure”, and 2 days later when I talked with him the answer was “Yeah I hope it is ready for you to move in by Tuesday next week”, and that is the way it works.

I was hoping I could find a few pictures and show you some of how big the difference is now during summer, and a bit later, for example from October and towards new year, when I will start looking again for a bigger place, preferably with a view, and not just staying in this bunker that I will be moving into, soon?

I will update as soon as I have moved in to the new apartment and gotten internet up and running, which I would guess would be in 3-4 weeks or something. 

Below you see some pictures of the studio apartment I will be living in BEFORE it was furnished, I will post pictures of it once I moved in as well. 

Until then, have a good day or two all of you. 

Regards,
Jonas

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