Thursday, December 22, 2005

So this is Christmas...

Well I'm off on the piss tonight after our department lunch so blogging may not be top of my agenda tomorrow morning! And then I'm off home about midday so I'm going to create the last post of 2005 now.

I have absoloutely no intention of visiting here again for about 2 weeks as I'm taking an extra long Christmas break to allow myself some head space and recovery time after what has been, with hindsight, a difficult and very busy year!

In the meantime, thank you for taking the time to visit me here and for reading my ramblings during the last 7 months.

Have a wonderful peaceful christmas and if you get bored drop by and play this:

http://www.elfmovie.com/swf/snowball_fight/index.html

It's fun!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

On this the shortest day of the year...

They say there's magic in the air on the solstice.

I don't know about that but I do know that there's hope!

newgrange_solstice
I handed my notice in today.

I'm off back to evil bank land.

Don't fret though it's a short term move to gain experience and bide my time hopefully in an environment where I won't fade away due to boredom! Extra money is also an advantage.

newgrangebeam

The major problem with the move is whether I will have internet access. If not the blogging will have to wait til the evening times when the boy and I will do battle for ownership of the PC. Ah well I'd still rather not be bored! Don't worry though I want to keep this site up cause I really enjoy venting here!

P.S Photo's are robbed! But they illustrate my point nicely I think!

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Christmassy Nonsense

Your Christmas Song Is
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!Let earth receive her King;Let every heart prepare Him room,And heaven and nature sing,
It's not about what you get under the treeBut sharing love with family, friends, and strangers
What Christmas Carol Are You?



You Christmas Stocking Will Be Filled with Money
You've either been really really good this year...Or Santa is trying to pay you off!
What Will Be In Your Christmas Stocking?


You Were Nice This Year!
You're an uber-perfect person who is on the top of Santa's list.You probably didn't even *think* any naughty thoughts this year.Unless you're a Mormon, you've probably been a little too good.Is that extra candy cane worth being a sweetheart for 365 days straight?
Were You Naughty or Nice This Year?


How embarrassing...

Monday, December 19, 2005

Tag! I'm it!

Mish has tagged me with a very thought proving meme which I feel obliged to answer. It has to do with weird habits and took some careful consideration by me before I decided to answer it. I would also like to point out that I haven't looked at anyone else's answers yet so these answers are entirely my own!

The first player of this game starts with the topic “five weird habits of yourself,” and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says “You are tagged” (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.

No.1 I need to have a choice of shampoos with which to wash my hair with at all times. My theory is that if you swop around the brand every wash my hair remains shiny and soft otherwise the product builds up and makes it dull and sticky. I don't know if its true or not but it has become one of my compulsions!

No.2 I try to avoid killing spiders and small creatures as I have a fear that karma really does exist and I would prefer to err on the side of caution. Generally I make a half hearted attempt to drown the spider in the bath, fail, and then release him into the wild when the fear of karmic retribution hits me!

No.3 Whenever I use my hair straightners I spend the rest of the day obsessing about whether I've plugged them out or not, even if I have checked that they were in fact plugged out about 40 times before I left the house.

No.4 I used to play a game with my food when I was little which involved building a kingdom in my tummy of kings and queens, princes, princesses and subjects. The game involved piling a little of every type of food on my plate onto my fork to create the king and queen and then varions combinations of the types of food to create the other characters. As a result I still do this however subconsciously, and, yes I realise how ridiculous it is.

No.5 I cannot sleep in a room where the bed is between a window and a door. This again stems from my childhood where my overactive imagination reasoned that if monsters were to attack me and came through the door then I could battle them with my back to the wall, however if they also could come through the window and get me from behind, then I was screwed! I also think that it comes from time I spent in hospital when I was very small. I was in isolation in a room with 2 windows which were opposite each other and a door on the same wall as the internal window, it made me feel very insecure and vulnerable, as people were constantly observing me, yet I couldn't move.

So there you go, I should probably be under observation for mental instability but I keep it well covered up most of the time!

I now tag

Red Mum
Maca
Kaz
Steve and Elke

Which is my quota of 5!

Friday, December 16, 2005

The Great Light Off

Every year from the beginning of October to the middle of January the houses in our area are bedecked and adorned with all manner of crazy decorations, from pumpkins and witches to santies and reindeers.

There are 2 houses in particular on my street that seem to outdo each other every year. The fact that they are directly opposite each other adds extra fun to the proceedings, which I like to refer to as the Great Light Off.

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Last year house no. 1 put up a sizeable amount of tacky lights and ornaments all over the facade of the house. House no.2 then waded in with twice as much crap and so it continued in a tit for tat fashion until finally there wasn't an inch of space on either house and santa was even parachuting off the telephone wire. I think my favourite pieces of tack had to be the giant 6 foot blow up snowmen in the front of house no.2, I don't honestly know how the inhabitants got past them to enter by the front door!

fi015.jpg

This year we are once again witnessing the Great Light Off, the snowmen haven' t been produced yet, but I live in hope.

Kong made me cry

KK

I'm talking "Fiona get a grip, you can't sob in the cinema" crying.

I'm such a freak sometimes that I even amaze myself!

Review to follow on my review page cause that's what it's for!

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Life and Near Death

I gave blood yesterday. Which was good.

I nearly got run over by a kid on a tricycle this morning. Which was funny.

tike
Tike on a trike

I came very close to being wiped off the road by a driver taking a right hand turn against the lights. Which pissed me off.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

In The News # 2

I was musing in the linked post previously about the story surrounding Michael McDowell v Frank Connolly. Last night the tale took another turn with McDowells address to the Dáil and Ahern's defence of McDowells position and his assertion that McDowell has been acting with the full consent of the cabinet in relation to this matter.

McDowell is still asserting that Connolly is/was involved in subversive activity including travelling to Columbia on a false passport, the application for which he was able to produce, and being associated on that trip with a known IRA man.

The other side of the coin is that Connolly's Centre for Public Inquiry have recently being investigating the purchase of land in North County Dublin for the location of a new prison site. The coverage on that story indicates that the land may have been bought over value, but McDowell denies this.

So it appears that McDowell is concerned that a public body with funding like the Centre for Public Inquiry and the subsequent powers of investigation that it has access to should not fall into the control of subversives who could use it to undermine the authority of the state. That sounds like a fair argument to me. What is really strange about this story, however, is Frank Connolly's unavailability for comment.

He has denied the accusations previously but since the story hit the headlines again he has consistently refused to provide evidence of whereabouts in April 2001 or offer any defence apart from denial. Surely at this stage it's time for him, if he has been the subject of a witch hunt, to stand up and address the issue. The longer he fails to do this the worse it looks for him.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Hard Lessons Learned

1. Budweiser and Budvar are not the same drink.

The girlies and I hit the town last night with a vengenance. I am alive this morning but in great need of more sleep and antiacids! We ate in the Dandelion Café and the food was lovely but the waiting staff were a bit weird. I was discussing this with a colleague in work this morning and she said that she had heard something similar so at I don't feel too bad about saying it here.
The waitress was very bubbly and friendly but seriously didn't have a word of English. Trying to order the beer turned into a bit of a pantomime, us going 4 Budvar please, her reply 4 vodka? No, Budvar please, etc etc. In the end Bex resorted to Budweiser which was understood, but we had to dispatch her off to correct the order after a very ernest discussion about how they were definately not the same drink! We got the right ones in the end, but what an effort!


fi013.jpg

2. Computer programmers are very hospitable.
We completed our night in a private members club after being begged by one of the girls, boy to please come and double the female to male ratio at the party. There was free booze so of course we went! It was Margarita's for me all night.

margarita

3. Margarita's taste lovely on the way down but repeat on you all the next day.
Uuuurrrrrgggghhhh. I feel yucky.

Monday, December 12, 2005

As a classic dame I would be....

Katharine Hepburn
You scored 19% grit, 23% wit, 42% flair, and 23% class!
You are the fabulously quirky and independent woman of character. You go your own way, follow your own drummer, take your own lead. You stand head and shoulders next to your partner, but you are perfectly willing and able to stand alone. Others might be more classically beautiful or conventionally woman-like, but you possess a more fundamental common sense and off-kilter charm, making interesting men fall at your feet. You can pick them up or leave them there as you see fit. You share the screen with the likes of Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant, thinking men who like strong women.

Find out what kind of classic leading man you'd make by taking the Classic Leading Man Test.




Still Grinning!

Well I survived the wait for the results, receiving them, and the Christmas party and I'm still grinning like the Chesire cat!

grin1
Me!

It feels like the weight of a thousand worlds has been lifted from shoulders, I feel younger, lighter and oh so so happy. The relief of knowing that I will never have to sit those horrendous de-humanising and horrific exams ever again is the best Christmas present I could ever have received!

I comfortable passed Equity and Property, I had a fair idea that they had gone ok at the time, but my real worry was Tort. And I just got it! There was no room for error there it seems but, boy oh boy, I don't care!

As per my previous post I had a ball celebrating on friday, lay on the sofa all day saturday, grinning! And went to see March of the Penguins last night. All in all a very good weekend.

I'll be out on the town again tonight with the women for food and laughs, and will undoubtedly feel some pain tomorrow but I can nearly guarantee that I'll still have that smile on my face!

P.S. My opinion of March of the Penguins has just been published on the other page if you're interested!

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Celebrate! This party's over...

I had four lines by the end of the night in response to all questions posed to me.

1. I passed my exams!

fi012.jpg

2. I'm being a good girl!

3. I won a teddy.

4. I have a balloon.

I was a very drunken Trixibell!

Friday, December 09, 2005

Catfights & Handbags

I'm like a cat on the proverbial hot tin roof today and consequentially am not that interested in doing any actual work, as such I have only today become aware of the level of interest and excitement in the "blogosphere" (I won't apologise for using the term as I quite like it) concerning women and blogging and feminism.

From what I can see Sinead kicked off the discussion with a post , which then developed into a debate about Feminism and who is and who isn't a feminist and why. I won't list everyone who has entertained this topic as I would undoubtedly mess up the links so I've linked to Sinead and you can do your worst from there!

For my two cents, I was quite amused by the debate on feminism as it has always been my opinion that however much a woman denies being a feminist, by the mere fact that she has received a certain level of education, has chosen to work, choses to use contraception, drive a car, vote etc. she supports feminism. Without the hard work of generations of women none of these things would be options to us modern day women, and in my opinion they should not be taken for granted but celebrated and built on by all of us today.

I think it is also important to note that with these freedoms we have encountered other problems as women which were not immediately apparant when the fight for equality began. And that is children. Biologically we have to bear to children because men can't. This makes us different to men in a very fundamental way. However in today's society, where equality has been the key phrase this difference hasn't been fully acknowledged. Because we have so many more opportunities available to us we are now faced with the obligation of having a career that is fulfilling and also bearing the next generation. This leaves many women in a situation where they either have to make a choice or they engage in the most phenomenal balancing act in history.

As for myself, I am currently working towards hopefully one day qualifying as a solicitor, that means that if I chose to have children I will one day have to decide to either juggle both and become superwoman or chose between just having a career or just being a mother. It's not something I'm relishing having to consider.

As for women in blogging, I think my blog roll is dominated by female bloggers, but that wasn't by choice! It just happened that way! There quite a few male bloggers I enjoy reading and I think its important to be able to appreciate all aspects of interpretation and opinion. But I don't think I would have bothered getting into this lark if I hadn't seen women like Sinead so comfortable and at ease in what I would have previously considered a male dominant arena. I learnt by participating on discussion boards and reading Sigla's blog that there was nothing to be afraid of and could actually be very rewarding.

So thank you Sinead for showing me the way and opening up new possibilities for me!

Feck it anyway

I have been informed by my mafia network that the FE1 results are out today.

Feck.

I also have to go to my Christmas party tonight....

drunkfairy


Methinks there will be one drunken Trixibell loose in Dublin tonight one way or the other...

Thursday, December 08, 2005

The long slow decline

It was painful to watch United play Benfica in the Champions League last night, really painful.

They are now out of European football for the first time in 10 years. I can only imagine that it will also now herald the end of Sir Alex Ferguson's tenure as manager of the team, though when he goes and how will be up to the powers that be, unless he decides to cut his losses himself.

fi009.jpg

Listening to Dunphy and Giles last night on RTE, they were recounting how they were able to trace the decline of the team to gave against Porto 2 years ago. Others would argue that selling Beckham was the beginning of the end. Regardless of when it began there can be no doubt that losing the game last night is a huge blow to United and whatever and whoever comes next will as Dunphy put it "Have a dog of a job".

A stitch up? A frame? A conspiracy???

So Tom Parlon reckons Ivor Callely has been the subject of a conspiracy. It's very unfair the way he's been targeted you know? I mean anyone could let painters into their home and not pay them, couldn't they? Anyone could offer their PA a car in order to keep them in their job. Anyone could be Ivor Callely...

Except we're not are we? We pay our bills and treat people with respect.

callely

I have no sympathy for this man. Pride comes before a fall they say. It looks like this guy is falling fast.

The update on the Frank Connolly last night is that the funding has been withdrawn for the Centre for Public Inquiry... Curiouser curiouser and curiouser.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

In the news

I opened my eyes this morning to the dulcet tones of Cathal Mac Coille delivering the news as is my routine every morning. I find it is a good way to introduce myself to the day and only really backfires when the alarm comes on in the middle of a Morning Ireland screaming special between Aine Lawlor and some other individual who doesn't like the cut of her gip!

However this morning I found the news especially intriguing. It would appear the Michael McDowell our esteemed Minister for Justice, published a written response to a parliamentary question on the eve of the budget announcement. As a result, in my opinion anyway, today is turning out to be a very interesting news day.

The gist of it is that McDowell has accussed Frank Connolly, brother of Niall Connolly one of the
Columbia Three of travelling under a false passport with known IRA men to Columbia to engage in dirty dealings with Farc rebels. Curious, thought me, who is Frank Connolly when he's at home?

Frank Connolly is the CEO of a group calling themselves the Centre for Public Inquiry, a privately funded body who is charged with keeping an eye on governement accountability and ethics. It rang a bell somewhere in the back of my mind but nothing concrete and besides where do they get their money from?

They have been funded by Chuck Feeney, reknowned Irish American philanthropist who also liked to support the IRA.

McDowell doen't like Connolly. He doesn't like IRA men, and he really doesn't like being questioned about his ethics. This is a very interesting story and I hope we hear more about it.

I have linked to some stories I found online which I think are very informative about who we are dealing with here. I hope the links work!

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

In my opinion

I feel I've been a little off my game recently, which is due to various different reasons, some discussed here and others pointedly ignored!

This blogging game can be a little exhausting after a while. You feel obliged to be funny and interesting and readable on a regular if not a daily basis, and there have been plenty of days recently when none of that has appealed to me. It has occurred to me that it might be easier to have a blog with a dedicated theme like United Irelander at least there he knows what his boundaries are! Here, because this site is dedicated to my inane ramblings I get to throw a bit of everything at it, with no real structure to anything that I'm doing. It's probably a good indication of how I approach life. And I find that pretty frustrating at times as well!

I would love to say that I have now come up with a theme or a structure for this blog, but I haven't. Instead I have decided to tackle the stuff in my life that is frustrating me. The wheels are now in motion and I hope, all fingers and toes crossed, that I will soon be more fulfilled.

Also the exam results should be out in the next 2 weeks and with a bit of luck that chapter will also be closed as well. Oh how I long for closure on that one!

Friday, December 02, 2005

Small Girls, Big Bags...

I'm realtively small compared to most people these days, which makes buying trousers a pain in the posterior and has meant that I have learned how to hem to save myself a small fortune on tailors!

However there is one thing in particular I really just have to grin and bear, and work around as best as possible and that's rucksacks.

Backpack%20Girl

Today I carried a huge one in from home, in the rain. It's full of christmas gifts for the family that I have decided to transfer back to the parent's house now rather than having to lugg them onto a packed train 2 days before Christmas. Clever me eh? However the trek nearly killed me this morning, I had to use the biggest bag I had today to fit everything into it properly. It's at least 2/3 the height of me! Ah well at least I'll have that job done!

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Redemption and Rain

I have been reinstated onto the hallowed list of contributors to Irish Blogs! Three Cheers for the banishing of gremlins!

On the other hand, Weather Pixie says:

weather pixie

I don't know what she's looking so cheerful about it's one of the most miserable days in months and months.

That's all I have to say today.