Thursday, July 27, 2006

Bye Bye Camera Phone...

I have finally indulged and bought myself a proper wigital camera yoke! It's mighty it has 7 million mega pixels (I know, I know but indulge me I have no techy knowledge!) and it takes ogeous pictures! (Can you tell I'm living in the midlands again?)

I took some brilliant action shots of the lovely boy playing lovely football in the lovely garden with his lovely brother and sister at the weekend which I was really pleased with. Then I managed to take some very blurred shots of trees. You'd think action shots would be easier to muck up than trees wouldn't you? I'll keep practicing!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

It's a feckin menagerie

It's been an odd few weeks around here it you're of the animal variety.

Firstly I have to announce the sad and untimely dissappearance of Paddy.

Paddy was/is our loveable, cuddlyable, adorable black and white pussy cat, who loved everyone and even inspired a local artist to paint him. Paddy was involved in an unfortunate incident about 5 years ago where he managed to lose his tail. He survived the trauma however and managed to live a very full and happy existence and it was decided by one and all that knew him that he probaly hadn't noticed it was gone, as he wasn't really the brightest animal around. However he's been looking off colour recently and we were waiting for the little bro to make an appearance before bringing him to the vet - just in case something bad had to happen to him. Little bro turned up, Paddy sat on everyone's lap in turn, left the house and hasn't returned, we think he was waiting for the bro to come home too so he could say his last goodbyes.... Poor Padso we miss him.

On other news, the Boscoeenies are now impossibly cute as the following photos bare witness...

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I had to take them to the vet last week as they had sore eyes, and am now denoted their saviour as they would have gone blind if I hadn't so kudos to me! But they are gorgeous one of them (whom I affectionately have called Septic) still has a sore eye but I'm minding her and she should be fine.

As for something completely different our local friendly hedgehog paid us a visit last night...

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He got himself into a spot of difficulty...

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Don't worry Fiona Doolittle came to the rescue! I've never been that close to a hedgehog before and to my surprise discovered that they can move very quickly when they want!

And to round the animal update up last week a magpie dropped dead at the back door. I have no pictures cause it didn't seem right but according to Ro it panted a bit first and then just keeled over and died. Very weird.

I'm living in a fecking mad house, with a wacky family and crazed animals! No wonder my sanity is slipping!

Monday, July 17, 2006

Maybe not so joyful...

Well we managed to lose both the minor and the senior games on Sunday, not a good result by any stretch of the imagination.

But it was still a nice day out and the quality time is always good so I won't be complaining all that much. Besided Dublin did well. Offaly weren't fast enough, or fit enough and although both sides missed many opportunities and Offaly went a man down for a second yellow card when he shouldn't have gotten one in the first place, it was still an enjoyable game.

Crokle Park
Before the invasion... The crowd and the atmosphere were fantastic.

Crokle Park
The invasion started well before the final whistle blew and that was after 3 streakers ran onto the pitch during the game!

Sunset

Sunset

The long road home...

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Joys of the Summer

Some of my happiest childhood memories are of accompanying my Dad to Croke Park on Sunday afternoons with a rake of hang (ham) sandwiches and milky coffee in a flask to watch the behemots of Offaly hurling (and sometimes football) battle it out with other great counties on the field of play.

I was there in '94 when Johnny Dooley struck that fateful goal from the 45 yard line with three minutes to spare, that was followed up by another 3 points from play, and I screamed and screamed until I thought I would pass out and the end result was that we won the All Ireland, when it looked certain that Limerick had it in the bag. And I was there last year when Kilkenny whipped the lard out of us by 31 points in the all time worst game of hurling I have ever witnessed.

Tomorrow I am heading off to watch Offaly v Meath in the Minor Leinster Football Final and Offaly v Dublin in the Senior Leinster Football Final. It's my first ever time to see Offaly play a football Leinster final and despite my exhaustion, and the general anxiety I've been carrying for months now, I am really looking forward to the game. It takes effort to enjoy stuff sometimes and I'm going to make a big effort to enjoy tomorrow.

I hear from lil sis that hang sanwiches from the boot of the car have been replaced by subs from Subway, and milky coffee from a thermos in also no longer dé rigeur, but I'll bet you that Pops will still be full of excitement and usually unconcealed aggression towards our opponents and I will as per usual be left struggling between trying to restrain his enthusiasm for fear he'll get into trouble or actually getting myself into trouble by opening my big mouth! I also think the days are now long gone where I can get away with dressing in green white and orange from top to toe, and thinking I look cool!

C'mon Offaly lets beat those Dubs!

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Bosco and the Boscoeenies

Ladies and Gentlemen it is with great pride and pleasure that I can now introduce you to latest addition to Chez Trixibell's family!

'Tis none other than Bosco (the kitten with sluttish tendencies) and her brood of six, I kid you not, six kittens.

At first we were ashamed of her I mean she's still a child herself, we denied that such a thing could be possible in one so young and also because we thought she was a boy for a while... But once the teets for feeding appeared there really was no point in engaging in further denials, whats done is done. So now we have 9 cats.....

.... If anyone knows of a good home for a lovely black kitten, well you know where to come!

Bosco
The proud mother.

The Boscoeenies
The Boscoeenies

What do we do now?

Mmmm I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to do with myself now that the World cup is over? Was there life before hand? I think there was but it all seems like a very distant memory now and is definately sepia toned when I try to remember!

It was a great month of football, despite the fact that diving dominated a lot of the focus and no great talent emerged to wow us with his high scoring abilities. It was a tournament for the old guard, for those on their last legs in the game, at the end of their careers or even at the pinnacle of them (I'm thinking of the lovely Cannavaro), but it was definately an entertaining month!

WORLDCUP Germany 9

I'm glad Italy won, I'm sorry France lost as I was rooting for them, and I'm even more sorry that Zidane has ended his career in the manner that he did, but then he doesn't strike me as being a sentimentalist and he thought about head butting Matterazzi before actually doing it, so he must have realised in those few seconds of maddness that there would be consequences for his actions... I wonder what was said to him, I sincerely doubt that we'll ever really be sure, but whatever it was he reacted and he paid the price.

But back to my original question, what I am supposed to do now? Answers on a postcard please!

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Quarter Final 2006 (part 2)

What a magnificant day for football!

The French were sublime, graceful, powerful and convincing and they swept the Brazilians off the pitch tonight. I'm sure the Brazilians will find something to moan about but to my mind they can have little to say. Ronaldinho just didn't turn up, Ronaldo is too fat, sorry I mean, Ronaldo wasn't allowed to run, and Roberto Carlos was there somewhere I believe, I just didn't see much of him, and that is not a team that deserves to proceed to the semi finals. The French on the other hand showed us what real football looks like when it's played properly! Vierra played a blinder and as for Zidane, well what can I say, he's not finished yet despite everyone's predictions. However it was Henry that really surprised me, we are so used to not seeing him perform in big matches that when he does play it reminds us of just how special he is. I enjoyed this game immensely.

As for the previous game well it would appear that Wayne Rooney's foot has made yet more headlines. I've watched the pictures more than a few times at this stage and while initially I was convinced he had been hard done by and I really felt sorry for him, now I'm not so sure. I think that he must of known that his foot was hanging around Carvahlio's groin and he really shouldn't have dragged it back like that... However as our loveable pundits on RTE pointed out only Wayne Rooney can tell us if there was an intention to stamp or not. Regardless it was an unfortunate incident, but strangely not one that drastically changed the shape of the game. It was Beckham's removal from the game that made the best impact on the English. I'm not a fan of them as I'm sure you may have guessed, not because I'm particularly anti English, more because of the nonsense that goes on in the English media about 40 years of hurt and all that crap, so to see them go out is always a little sweet! However you're not going to fancy them in a penalty shoot out situation, not with their track record, and although they played better in the second half than in any other part of the competition, they remain as a team just not good enough. Granted I'll accept that they should be good enough, but it seems that the moral fibre to succeed under pressure is an element that they just don't have. It'll be very interesting to see what McClaren will do with them now that Sven Gormless is gone. I have wondered to myself how much influence McClaren has had on the team in this competition considering that Sven really had no reason to care, he was on the way out anyway, with 5 million in his pocket, why should he give a crap? Anyway only time will tell. What they really need is to have a major overhaul on the squad and the way they approach these competitions, but it's doubtful that that will actually happen.

All I hope now is that Germany doesn't win, only because they're in our group for the European qualifications and I don't fancy having to meet the World Cup Champions as we endeavour to rebuild our national team spirit... Role on the Semi Finals!