The Quiet Life

For obvious reasons which I am not about to outline once again this weekend was a relatively quiet one. However I did let the hair down a little on Friday night when I met les bitches for
tapas and a few bevvies. Naturally I had no intentions of staying out for long, but as usual good intentions mean nothing when faced with good company and no text books so I managed to consume more beer and take longer about it then was probably wise! Still life remains short and if you can't meet you mates and get pissed every now and again then what's the point of anything?!

The rest of the weekend was a strange combination of study and cricket!! I know it surprised me as well!

Shane Warne

The boy had been watching The Ashes for the past few days and as its a relatively quiet sport and my head was thumping saturday morning I sat with him to have a cuddle and a snooze. Instead I found myself asking penetrating (forgive me, I need to make myself feel good about this somehow!) questions about the game. My Dad had explained the basics to me years ago about overs and wickets and LBW's and what have you but this weekend I had a tutorial on the finer points of the game! It's surprising how interesting it is when you're hungover! After I felt sufficiently regenerated to hit the books I kept the game on in the background to keep an eye on the score. I think that my initial fears some weeks ago about the state of my mind and mental health really has foundation in my strange behaviour recently.

On the other hand Cork's victory over Galway on Sunday was a completely different ball game (har har!)

Don't you just love hurling?

Best game in the world and even though my county are far from inspiring at the moment there is a joy in watching the All Ireland regardless. It's a pity Galway couldn't have lead Cork at any stage as that would have made for a more exciting game, but as it stood Cork were masterful and were deserving winners on the day.

Friday Cheer

I had to turn on the light this morning to see what I was doing as I got ready for work and it hit home that summer is over. It's pissing rain here in Dublin today but it's friday so I don't really care!
I found this 80's music test on the world wide wonder web and as I have nothing better to say I thought I would share it with everyone and see if you can do better than me. I would almost guarantee that you will as I am crap at these things! So enjoy!



P.S. The image isn't appearing when I look at the page but you can still click through to the fun stuff!

I have to share...

I was just cruising around Irish Blogs and finally clicked on Twenty Major. I've been meaning to check it out for ages and didn't for whatever reason. I nearly choked trying not to laugh too obviously at his account of Dolphins and Beagles and why they are evil. It's a classic- check it out!

Defeat at Lansdowne Road

This is a shot I took of the Ireland v Italy friendly game which we also lost this summer....

Well it wasn't a good night for Irish soccer and despite the fact that I try to be upbeat about our performances in the face of all negativity I have to admit that after last night I don't think our chances for qualifying for the World Cup in Germany are particularly good.

I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong with our team but I think that it is something do with the chemistry on the pitch. Individually we have some very talented and commited players. Damien Duff is a joy to watch and Robbie Keane fights hard and is a committed and talented goal scorer. In mid field Roy Keane is breath taking and he played out of his skin last night the only problem being the yellow card and consequentially he won't be available for the Cyprus game. In fact the loss of Morrison, Reid and Keane is a real blow to our chances. In my opinion the ref was definately over zealous with his cards and did us no favours. But besides all that we should have done better last night. Since the draw was made it was known that this game against France at home would be the high light of the qualifying schedule and in the end it just didn't match up to the standard of game that I know I was expecting.

I'm gutted and I'm annoyed. We need to start playing like we really want qualification and if we do that maybe we will, but I'm not holding my breath...

Snapshots of a disordered mind

Chaos


Confusion


Calm

It would appear that I have survived the last of my DIT exams and with a bit of luck I should have a legal qualification very soon. They weren't bad as exams go, it was the learning bit that drove me demented!

The above 3 pictures best describe how I felt over the last week or so. It's definately a relief as even if I don't finish with the FE's this time round I have achieved something tangible from the efforts of the last 2 years and that's a good feeling. Oh maybe I'm being a bit pre-emptive results aren't in yet but having sat 12 exams in the last 15 months (!what the fuck!) I have an instinct about these things now!

Overall it was probably a good thing to have a bit of a practice run at this stage, I have a better idea of what I need to do for October and so after tonight, which I am taking off to watch the big game (cue nail biting and nauseousness) it's back to the grindstone on Thursday! Oh joy...

A Pertinent Quesion

My mother has just asked me one of those questions which make your heart beat faster and your breathing become more difficult not to mention makes your head spin. She has a habit of asking pertinent questions at impertinent times and by God she's just hit me with a good one. It's my own fault for being such a bag of misery at the moment and seeing as she can read me almost as well as the boy and in fairness in some cases better she's never too far off the mark.

Today she asked me "Do I want to do this?" Meaning the law thing. When I say I nearly jumped down her throat I'm not exaggerating. I assured her immediately that Of course yes I do want to do this. She had to ring off then but I know she'll be back to me later so I really began to think about it....

The thing is Yes I want to study law. I want to spend my evenings and weekends stuck inside learning off cases and I want to pass my FE1s, I want to sacrifice my time and energy and press my relationship to its limits and not see my friends and family. Why? Because I really want to have a purpose. I'm sick of drifting from poxy job to poxy job. I want to be successful. I think I have a head for this legal stuff and I want to engage it. Yes its tough now but By God I'll make it pay when I'm finished! I have great support from people who care about me I'm young enough to have the energy and old enough to know the value of everything that I'm doing. If I don't get a direction to go in now and stick to it then I'm afraid I'll drift for the rest of my life wake up old and worn out someday and think what the hell did I achieve? That's why I'm doing this. And that's what I'm going to tell her when she calls me back. And I'm going to thank her for helping me get my direction back.

This is a flying post as I have loads to do but I needed to put those thoughts on paper (or at least in writing) now otherwise I would forget again! I've just read what I wrote its a bit stream of conscience-like but I feel better for it!

I got MeMe'd!

Right 10 points for anyone who can tell me what meme stands for/means!I haven't a clue and would love to know the origins of it if anyone can tell me!

I haven't been tagged before so I guess that makes me a tag virgin so cheers for that Red Mum!

Ok here goes:

Seven Things I Plan to do before I Die
1. Have kids (God love them)
2. Read Ulysses by James Joyce
3. Own a cat
4. Practice yoga in India
5. Drive across the USA
6. Perform on stage (again)
7. Attend a Cookery School

Seven Things I can do!
1. Crochet
2. Bake cakes
3. Sew a hem
4. Produce wind(I'm an expert at it)!
5. Cross my eyes
6. Make people laugh (whether it's with me or at me is inconsequential)
7. Drive a car

Seven Things I cannot do.
1. Wash dishes properly (it's boring)
2. Be tidy
3. Edit what I say before I actually say it
4. Remember last week without really concentrating
5. Tip my nose with my tongue
6. Eat a grapefruit (or anything bitter) without looking really stupid
7. Pretend I'm not bored.

Seven Things I find really attractive about the opposite sex.
1. Smile
2. Eyes
3. Openess
4. Sense of Humour
5. Hands
6. Intelligence
7. Conversation

Seven Things I say most.
1. Ah Feck it!
2. Bollox!
3. Shite
4. Oh No!
5. Hey ya!
6. Manic!
7. Grand Thanks.

Seven Books I love
1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
2. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
3. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
4. Possession by A.S. Byatt
5. Rain on the Wind Walter Macken
6. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
7. Birdsong Sebastian Faulks

Seven people I would like to see taking this quiz are:
1.My Dad
2.Elke
3.Steve
4.Gillian
5.Emma
6.Becky
7.Conor.

All the bloggers I read have done it already apart from Elke and Steve so it's up to you guys to carry the flame in blog land!

A Busy Bee!

I may not be around all that much this week and early next week due to the fact that I will be trying to earn my degree in Legal Studies by taking deferred exams. So wish me luck! I'll need it!

I have just about finished my Equity course and only have two more topics to cover in Property which is all good news as they are the exams I will be taking. However the serious bad news is that I haven't learned anything from either of them so the head will be well and truly down!

In the meantime I have posted a review of The Importance of Being Earnest on my other page for your delictation. And here is a picture of the lovely Alan Stanford just to add colour to the post!



I'll pop by later to let you know how the insanity is treating me!

All Loved Up

When I opened my mailbox this morning I had a lovely surprise. 10 whole people left comments on my site all for little ole me! I feel loved on this friday morning!

I'm sitting here minding the reception desk in work which is always more fun than doing real work as I get to field the freaks and then laugh at the people I pass them on to! Who needs to deal with legal queries when you have the option of freak fielding!? It could be a new career move for me. Anyway I'm sitting here freak fielding and singing to myself and the tune for today ladies and gentlemen is....

The Cure Friday I'm in Love! So sing along if you want here's the lyrics for your convenience!



I don’t care if monday’s blue
Tuesday’s grey and wednesday too
Thursday I don’t care about you
It’s friday I’m in love

Monday you can fall apart
Tuesday wednesday break my heart
Thursday doesn’t even start
It’s friday I’m in love

Saturday wait
And sunday always comes too late
But friday never hesitate...

I don’t care if monday’s black
Tuesday wednesday heart attack
Thursday never looking back
It’s friday I’m in love

Monday you can hold your head
Tuesday wednesday stay in bed
Or thursday watch the walls instead
It’s friday I’m in love

Saturday wait
And sunday always comes too late
But friday never hesitate...


Dressed up to the eyes
It’s a wonderful surprise
To see your shoes and your spirits rise
Throwing out your frown
And just smiling at the sound
And as sleek as a shriek
Spinning round and round
Always take a big bite
It’s such a gorgeous sight
To see you in the middle of the night
You can never get enough
Enough of this stuff
It’s friday
I’m in love

I'm Officially Mad!

I did this psychometric test yesterday which portrays your personality as a movie and I got Platoon! Apparantly I'm an over anxious soldier lost in the jungle of life or something! So I disregarded it and put it down to the fact that I'm so wound up at the minute..

I did it again today for a laugh. This is what it gave me....

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

I think I'll do this from time to time to remind myself that while there may be no hope for my sanity at least I can make myself laugh!

The Rose of Tralee (a.k.a. The Lovely Girls Competition)

Every year on these fair shores the Lovely Girl Competition to end all Lovely Girl competion's is held in Tralee Co. Kerry. This is a pagent dedicated to discover the prettiest and most accomplished and as already stated the overall Loveliest Girl in Ireland (or of Irish descent).


One of the Fr. Ted episodes did a fantastic take off of beauty pagents like this one which was called "The Lovely Girls Competion" where the girls had to impress the priest's with their baking and such like to win. My favourite quote has to be from Ted as he commentates on a girl on the catwalk (this is not a direct quote just my recollection of it!) " Would you not agree that she has a lovely bottom? I mean sure don't they all have lovely bottoms?" You have to see it to really appreciate it!

This year there were 30 entrants from all over the world and while I definately didn't have the time or the inclination to watch all them strut their stuff I did watch some of the show over the 2 nights.

To be honest I settled myself in to watch The Rose of Tralee with more than a pinch of cynicism as I haven't looked at it for years and my over riding memory of past year's shows was of being bored out of my skull as one after the other frumpy looking girls in guna's tried to flirt with Uncle Gaybo on stage, generally while shaking with nerves and waving at their Granny's. This year there was the requisite amount of Granny waving, leaping around dancing, caterwauling and instrument beating, so I wasn't disappointed! However there were a couple of fundamental differences this year.

The first being Ray D'Arcy (I like him) and his ability to put the girls at ease flirt with them in a flippant way and generally the fact that he seemed to be aware of how silly the whole thing really is but was determined to have as much fun as possible doing the job!

The second was the girl's themselves. Jesus some of them were very impressive. There were nucelar physicists, assistants to Congress women, biologists extracting DNA from fossilised bones, I even heard a rumour about a potential astronaut being among the number! I believe it too. These women were high achievers the majority were gorgeous and sporty and funny and .... it was a bit sickening actually. Back when I was a kid if they had the Leaving Cert they were clever and ambitions ranged from becoming a teacher to getting married and having babies!

The winner this year was a case in point Aoibhionn Ni Shuileabhain is from Mayo has earned a first class degree in maths and theoretical physics. Is a talented Sean Nós singer (type of Irish rythmic singing very beautiful and difficult to perfect) a musician and overall a Lovely girl! She was a deserving winner!


This not a great photo of her!

Utter Frustration

You know when you look at where you are at a given moment and you think "Humph this is a bit crap" and then you look to the future and it occurs to you "Yeah there are possibilities out there I've just got to make them happen" and that thought cheers you up and you go back to your hum drum life and make some plans, and take some action.

Six months later you're back thinking "This is still crappy" and the possibilities are still out there but haven't come to any fruition yet. That's where I am right now.

I know the path I'm on I can see the end sign it just feels like I will never get there. I call it Frustration.

This Robert Frost poem keeps coming to mind at the moment.

The Road Not Taken


TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I've always taken sustenance from this thought when I have decisions to make or like now when I am on a path and wondering did I take the right one.

Food Conservatism

I have been pondering on the different levels of adventurousness that people exhibit when it comes to food this weekend.
Personally I'm a foodie, I love trying new food of all shapes and sizes be it with a face or without. I generally don't mind as long as it tastes good. I am also of the opinion that most things taste good apart from a very short list of food that I have tried but have failed to warm to. The list includes aparagus and caviar oh and artichoke.


Yuck!


Double Yuck!

Everything else I will either suffer through or wolf down. Now I admit that I was not always as adventurous as I am now and I definately remember a time in my childhood when onions made me gag and I made my poor saintly mother sieve anything that might have "lumps" in it, specifically yoghurt. But I'm over that now and what's more since meeting me the Lovely Boy has also tried all varieties of new cuisine and also likes it! All is good.

Some people just aren't into being inquisitive or adventurous with food at all and it just puzzles me really. There is so much out there to be experienced why would you limit yourself to what you know? Well that's my thought for the day!

I'll give you a laugh at my expense!

I received a call today from Mr. Q who is the financial director of the company I work for. I have no real dealings with his department and apart from a friendly Hullo whenever we meet, there really is no need for me to have any interaction with this sixty year old man. So the phone call today came as a bit of a surprise and I was even more surprised when he asked me to come to his office to see him.

So up I get and stick my head round his door fully expecting him to say he had made a mistake and actually wanted to see someone else. Instead he was sitting there looking sheepish and grinning at me. So I said hi and he said hi and then he asked me who Lovely Boy (insert real name here) is. I replied he was my boyfriend, I was beginning to get very suspicious at this stage so I asked why.

Here goes deep breath... I had sent an email to the boy stating "I love you loads" it had somehow ended up in Mr. Q's mailbox. How? I have no idea. Embarrasment factor? Massive.

I turned a lovely shade of purple and burst out laughing. Whereby he started laughing so all I could do was look him in the eye and let him down gently with a "Timmy I'm sorry but I'm not actually in love with you!" Oh the shame. That'll teach me to send random emails without checking the address bar at least 6 times!

Hope this story of my humiliation has given you a giggle. I'm still alternating between laughing and turning an unattractive shade of peuce!

Rainy August Days

It feels like Autumn has come early today. It's very wet and dark and not cold exactly just cool. If you could chose weather to match your mood today would suit my mood perfectly!

I think I have sorted out the problems with my site by moving things around a bit but if somebody sees anything else its always good to get constructive criticism!

We went to see the Ireland v Italy friendly last night in Landsdowne Road. I really enjoyed the game and while it was crappy that we were beaten at home for the first time in 17 games I felt that the team played well as a whole and with the inclusion of the 2 Keanes for the qualifier against France in September we shouldn't embarass ourselves. I hope to God we win though, I really do. Of course we never make these things easy for ourselves if we had only just beaten Israel like we are capable of doing we would'nt have put ourselves in a position of having to beat France. And they've dug Zidane up again just when we thought we were safe. It's a bit of a disaster for us really. Anyway everything's crossed that the Gods of the FAI will smile on us and pure rays of genius will burst out of all our player's pores collectively, which will blind the French thereby allowing us to score fabulous goals due to their distraction. Well we live in hope I guess...

Problems with css (whatever the feck that means...)

Anyway thanks to the anonymous blogger I have moved stuff around and hopefully firefox users will be able to access and see my site properly! This is all double dutch to me!

The FEAR

Oh Lordy I got the fear real bad right now! It's consuming me as I sit here making me more and more antsy and agitated. Why do I have the fear? Exams dear reader stinking yucky life consuming exams!

I have to date passed 5 of the FE1 exams which are the entrance exams to Blackhall place where you train to be a solicitor. They are notoriously difficult bloody things and I have only 3 more to get before I will be in a position to seek training as a solicitor. Yeahhh say I, I'm over half way there! Booo say I, I still have 3 to do.

It's a year since I took my first set and considering I have heard verifiable tales of people spending up to 5 years trying to pass all of them (and some not even suceeding within that time frame) I'm not doing too badly and shouldn't really complain. But I miss my life and so I do complain.

However the best thing possible has just happened to me in the past 24 hours.

I got the fear.

The fear is when all you can think about is studying and how it tears you apart because right at that moment you are not. It's like an itch you can't scratch. The only relief for the fear is to sit in a quiet room just you and your relevant books. If people interrupt you, you growl at them, the time for welcoming distraction is now over (the poor unfortunate lovely boy discovered this last night). You examine your timetable over and over trying to figure out where you can squeeze in more study time. You stop watching the soaps and you start buying throw in the oven convenience food. You get fat. You ignore your mobile and your friends.

This is the fear and I got it.

An Action Packed Weekend

I am only just on the point of recovering from the weekend of excessive drinking and howling which I and my pack of friends indulged in. Hence no post yesterday as I could barely speak never mind formulate thoughts to put into words!

Princess Peaches arrived over from London with 2 realtively large backpacks to sustain her for her long weekend in Dublin. I counted a total of 5 outfits in the 3 days I saw her and 2 pairs of shoes which is probably not a lot for herself when I think about it. She stayed with me and the lovely boy friday and saturday and miraculously reduced her room to the status of kip within an hour of arriving! I love that girl she's mad bad and great to know!

So the plan for the weekend was to go Karaoke singing in Ukiyo at midnight with the aim of getting as pissed as possible before hand in order to make the pain of listening to each other sing be more acceptable! Here are some piccies from the booth...


It looks like Beefor is getting intimate with Doyle Doyle but they have the T-shirt for that move already and were just staging a re-enactment for our titillation!


This is the Princess strutting her stuff. Beware!

All in all it was a night packed with good humour and hilarity and I would definately recommend it to one and all as an option for a different sort of night.

On saturday we went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as we figured more alcohol would probable kill us. I'll give my views on the film elsewhere. But it was a fun evening and the darkness of the cinema was a great blessing in our time of need.

On saturday Doyle Doyle rustled up a roast chicken and all the trimmings for everyone and it was delicious! More alcohol was consumed and Princess insisted that we watch Eddie Murphy Raw. It was funny for about 10 mins and then the tutting started and the glancing to check was anyone else being amused. After that came the accusations and it was eventually turned off. I've seen Eddie Murphy performing stand up while being in the company of lads and its definately more palatible with men around for some reason. Needless to say the girlies weren't impressed and I count myself in their number! Dirty Dancing would have been more on our level that night!

All in all it was a brilliantly fun weekend and it reinforced how much we miss the Princess on a day to day level! But we'll enjoy her company whenever we can get it!

Sometimes I wished I still smoked

Sometimes I really do wish that I still had this dirty disgusting not to mention expensive habit. Why? Because of the extra time away from your desk that you are allowed to get away with. Us non smokers are complete mugs you know. I went for a wander a few minutes ago just to stretch my legs and go to the loo before I actually fell asleep sitting at my desk, and I came across a group of about 10 people all hanging outside the back door of the building basking in the beautiful summer sunshine and heat, puffing away and gossiping. I was overcome with 2 emotions. One overwhelming hatred and secondly I was saturated with longing.

I really don't want to be a smoker again I am much better off on so many levels without the habit but I do want to be able to stand or sit in the sunshine whenever I want like all the smokers do. We really are a pack of idiots us non smokers. We should demand equal amounts of doss time that the smokers get. They get paid to do feck all and kill themselves slowly. I get paid work (and blog heh heh) but thats it.

I think there should be some sort of system that whatever amount of time the smokers spend smoking when they should be working the non smokers should get time in lieu and maybe get to leave earlier. Alternatively I could just go stand outside in the middle of them to make my point. I wonder how that would go down???

Views from a holiday

I have uploaded a choice few photographs taken while on my hols onto to Flickr. But I'm going to post some here as well with some comments. These photos were all taken on my camera phone as I haven't quite stretched to a digital camera yet but I think considering the technology I'm using that they turned out pretty well over all. Let me know what you think!



This photo was taken in le Grand Place in Belgium. The building is of gothic architecture and towers over all of the beautifully gilded yet much smaller medieval guild houses which surround the square. This was the Mecca for tourists in the city and while everyone else ran for cover as the dark clouds threatened I took the opportunity to take this snapshot.



This is St. Catherine's church in Brussels. It was destroyed some time back in the day and this is a nineteenth century reproduction of the original. Its badly weather worn and didn't really photograph well however I couldn't resist the image of the chip van, fancy as it is stuck in front of it! Damn fine frites though!



This is Le Manneken Pis, he's absoloutely tiny. The day I took the photo as you can see someone had made a half hearted attempt to dress him up. Apparantly its tradition for heads of states to bring costumes with them when visiting Brussels in order to dress the Manneken. His wardrobe is now so large that they have allocated a special museum all for his clobber. Maddness. Personnaly I didn't find him at all charming just funny. And the amount of tack you can buy in the strategically located gift shops was even more entertaining. My personal favourite was the cork screw with the screw part you put in the cork coming out of his little man hood! Priceless!



This is the Atomium which was built for the World Trade Fair in 1959. They were fixing it with cranes when we went to visit and was closed. And that's about as exciting as it got here! Also in the park in Laeken they have a mini Europe theme with copies of famous landmarks from EU states. Thrilling. There is also a replica Chinese style house and Japanese tower built by Leopold II (boo hisss I don't like him).

So there are the holiday snaps the question re who buys the lace will be answere later...

I'm obviously BORED

Wow two posts in one day on this site its a bad sign indeed for my employer!
Actually its just a short one this time to let you know that I have posted a new review on the other site.
I also want to tell you that you can view our rugby team on www.tagrugby.ie if you want but which one are we and where am I??? Its a mystery....

A Bullrush in the Eye

My friend JG called on me yesterday to come pay him a visit and drink a cup of tay with him as he had injured his eyeball! My inate curiousity overcame my hunger and need to study and I dropped in on him to find out just how this unusual injury occured, and grant him the delightful gift of my company for a portion of the evening. It was as is usually the case when JG and I get together an evening of random discussions, good coffee and lots of laughing with the added bonus that I got to screw up my face in horror at the damage to his said eyeball.

The incident which led to his disfigurement is a typical JG scenario and one that anyone that knows him will appreciate and laugh along with just as he is at the moment. Mr G every summer takes himself off to Killarney National Park to butcher Rhododendron trees in an effort to save the Oak forrest in the park.


Rhododendron trees in all their glory.

This is indeed a noble venture by my friend each year and he states that the fact that there are many nubile young German women and lots of "recreational" activity has absoloutely nothing do with his commitment to the cause. On this occassion on the last day of the purging of the rhododendron Mr G was considering to himself how fortunate he had been in all his years not to have suffered an injury of an sort in what is after all very physical activity. According to himself it was about 20 mins before the end of the day and there was one gigantic mother of a tree left to uproot and move. Mr G being a strapping lad of over 6 foot decided gallantly to let the ladies take a breather and proceeded to move the monster on his own. In the midst of turning the tree to position it in a way which would prevent the deer for eating the young saplings next spring the accident occured.


A giant Bullrush!

A giant Bullrush which he had obviously knocked against swung back at home dived behind his glasses and gouged him in the eye. My friend when I visited him is now sporting an oozing weeping redened optic and a pair of very fine pimp effect sun glasses stuck together with blue tack, he is also sitting entrenched in a darkened room listening to Led Zepplin. He's bored but happy and will make a full recovery by friday for his birthday I have no doubt.

I'm Back

It's back to the grindstone for little old me today the holiday is finished and will soon become a distant memory but right now it's still fresh in my mind so before I become too depressed at being at home again I will keep a little smile on my face when I remember the fantasically fun week we had in the Little country.

We ate lots of Moules et Frites, drank many glasses of strangely named beer and viewed a breath taking array of Flemish masters and consequently I learned lots of interesting facts and stories about the lives of Saints! It was riveting honestly so much torture and pain being celebrated everywhere!

I have some piccies posted up on Flickr. Here's a taste of Rue de Bourges!


This is a mad place with restaurants lined up on both sides of the street and guys and gals from each restaurant trying to entice you into their establishment with various degrees of cajolment and flattery. It took a while to get used to it but it was great fun and we learned how to be firm but cheerful very quickly!

I'll post some more stuff later but work beckons at the mo so I shall toddle off!

"We're all going on our Summer Holidays"

Yiiiipppppeeeee last day of drudgery here I am! The photo is of the red double decker bus which Sir Cliff and friends converted into a holiday home for their adventure around Europe in the film

Summer Holiday!

When I was a kid all I wanted to do was take a holiday like that!

But its not to be this time! Oh who cares I am out of the office for 7 whole days. I will be missing from my beloved blog for a total of 11 DAYS! - how will I survive? How will my readers survive and more importantly will they come back to me once I return from my holliers!? Ah well only time will tell!

On a different note I have been given a highly important mission by a friend of mine which includes a covert undertaking to discover who it is that buys lace collars (a la mode in the 16th century) from gift shops in Belgium. I will endeavour to do my best on this one. If anyone else has a mission for me let me know before 4.30 Irish time!!

Well thats me for now I shall post loads about my trip when I return and as many pictures as I can manage!

The Saga of the Search for the Perfect Bra

I seem to spend a vast amount of precious shopping time on the hunt for the perfect bra! If I'm not looking for a specific shaped bra, whether it is backless, clear strapped, low cut orplunge to suit a particular outfit, I'm discovering that yet again my bussoms have changed size!

Since my early 20's I have gone from sporting a very pettite A cup to as it stands pretty substantial D cup. Goodie you might think the amazing expanding chest does exist! However I beg to differ...

The rapid and spontaneous changing bussoms are a bane of my life. I am constantly having to expose myself to the rough hands and cold measuring tapes of bra fitters in drafty changing rooms. I hate this process. I hate seeing myself in 3 way mirrors and I absoloutely hate old women pawing at me. If they were attractive and young then at least I could provide the LB with some food for thought, but generally the reality is embarrasing and uncomfortable.

But yet again yesterday evening I found myself in Marks & Spencers trawling through rails of Mulitway bras searching a) for my newly updated bra size and b) for the appropriate shape and fit of bra to suit my lovely new dress, which I plan to wear to my friend's wedding on Thursday. It was as usual a demoralising and depressing experience and after about an hour of holding back the tears I picked what I hoped would be the perfect bra.

Before you read on - None of these pictures are of me, they are the official photos from the M&S website so don't get too excited!



This is bra No. 1 which was the best of the million I tried on.




This is bra 2 an unmitigated disaster on me for some strange reason.




This is the one I wanted but which for some reason just made me look like a mutant!

Now none of these offerings are particularly sexy or attractive. In fact functional is the word I would apply to them. Searching for a pretty mutli way bra is no way zone it seems and did add to my frustration. Therefore in the end I had to setttle and hope that what I picked would be appropriate and more importantly would stay out of view. So I brought bra No. 1 home and thankfully it fits inside my dress (just) and the straps can't be seen where they shouldn't and so this time I don't have to return it!

And so my recent saga of the search for the perfect bra is over, for now. But no doubt I will be back in the same position within another few weeks and when it happens I might as well share it with the world!

Battle of the Blogs!

Ha ha I won! That cheered me up!

I Nearly Died of Boredom

Uuuggghhhh is how I feel this Monday morning. I spent all (yes ALL) weekend locked up at home studying. I hate studying. I hate the FE1's and I want my life back. This round of staying at home with my nose in the books is a zillion (no I'm not exagerating) times worse than either of the previous times with knobs on. I'm like the antichrist today and I'm just going to take this opportunity to vent. Luckily for you, you don't have to read it! But you can if you click onwards!

Ok so yes I did get quite a load of work done this weekend but I'm still behind in my study plan which I get quite anal about and the fact I'm not following it as its laid out really stressed me out. IS stressing me out. This is not helped by the fact that I will be on holidays from this Thursday. I am of course really looking forward to it, however when I get this worked up about my study I would prefer to keep going at it until I was in a better position. So I have to battle with my inner demons to RELAX! Pathetic isn't it?

My poor abandoned little sister who has recently been released from the Gaelteacht (Irish speaking college for those of you not in the know, and who are gluttons for punishment and are actually reading this post) contacted me yesterday and compounded my misery by requesting that she be allowed to come stay with me for a while so we could spend some quality time together because she misses me. I would love to do this more than anything else, but you've guessed the Plan won't allow it. So I had to compromise with her and she is now coming to stay with me for the Bank Holiday weekend in OCTOBER. Isn't that crap am I not a bad selfish person? The poor thing was really good about it as well and said she understood and was really looking forward to it. I'm going to have to really pull out the stops for her for that weekend to show her that I'm not a boring old fart with no life... Oh hell.

The boy was great this weekend, very supportive a cuddly as per usual. He brought DVDs home for me to watch, all designed for my enjoyment. So we watched Ice Age (very funny) and Seabiscuit (gentle and relaxing with pretty horses) and that and the fajhitas I made were the highlight of my weekend!

The good news is that I feel much better now after all that venting. So if you have read this post thanks for listening!

Viking Invasion!

Ok so I've overstated my position again but I like the title of this post!



This is a replica Viking ship which is currently docked in Dublin and I got very excited when I spotted it on Wednesday. My phone was low on juice so I had to wait til yesterday to take my piccies so I thought I'd share with the wider world!

I have a postgraduate qualification in Archaeology which I really enjoyed doing, although with hindsight was not a great career move! However I did learn lots and I got to play with the dirt for a year which was fun!

Of all of the archaeology that I covered in that year I still have a huge affection for and interest in Viking history and archaeology. I just like it. The Vikings were advanced, intelligent and a bit mysterious. As such I am waiting with baited breath to hear how the excavations of the Longphort in Woodstown are getting on. This discovery is phenomenally huge and I hope its chocka block with lovely finds!

I remember the day very clearly that I first met the Viking skeleton, which was removed from the site at Heuston station, and is now on display in the National Museum. He is incredibly well preserved and I could not get over the length of him, he must have been welll over 6" in his prime. He was buried in full battle gear complete with helmet (the horns are a work of fiction Vikings never wore horns on their heads the Victorians just felt that they should) shield boss, which is the central metal part of a wooden shield, and a huge sword. He's shit cool.

So here's to the Vikings! My favourite of the conquering nations!

Code problems

I'm trying to make the flower in the my title bar appear as background picture and the code I have apparantly won't work. Anyone have any ideas to help me out??

Cheers!

So much bad news

I've been browsing around the web a little this morning and a couple of news stories really struck me. Check out this link to Google for a brief snapshot of whats going on in Niger at the moment. For a better analysis than I can give The Big Drought has highlighted the issue in a succinct way.

I have in recent times began to read historys of Africa, and have found myself becoming increasingly interested in the causes and reasons behind the wars and famines on that continent. We all give ourselves a pat on the back when we donate a couple of quid whenever there is a crisis like the one developing in Niger right now, or the continuing crises in the Sudan, Zaire or any where else you might of heard about recently. But very few people realise where these problems have come from and most people think it is because of natural disasters at most.

I'm not an expert just because I've read a few books and I'm not going to preach here about my opinion on this subject, but what I would like to do is to encourage people to start learning about the reason Africa is in such a bad way. I think that a better understanding of the cruelty and exploitation visited on these people may give us ideas about how to make a lasting difference there. And we still need to keep the donations flowing and campaigning for real and lasting justice - and that is where campaigns like Make Poverty History show their worth.

Other news that struck me today was the story about the Mother who sold pictures of her children in the bath on E-bay. She claims she did not recognise any potential danger in her action and she just wanted to raise money so she could visit her daughter who is living in the States. Maybe the woman is at her wits end and beyond desperate but honestly with all the hype in the media about Paedophiles on the internet there is no excuse for ignorance on this question. At least maybe this story will mean other people who show "cute "pictures of their kids in all states of dress and undress will err on the side of caution in future. For the sake of their children if for nothing else.

I've also just seen that three underground lines have been closed in London due to, so the reports say, the setting off of detonation devices. We'll have to wait to see if this is any more serious than the first reports indicate. We were only discussing this morning here in work how places like London and Turkey should be safer to go to now as terror attacks rarely happen so soon after each other. I hope we're not wrong.

I appologise for the rant by the way I think yesterday's hangover has caught up with me today and I feel unlike my usual chirpy self, which has been compouned by all the bad news, but my theory is better out than in!


I

I'm famous!

Alright so that might be pushing it a little but I was on the radio this morning and I did win a prize!



This is Ray D'arcy a DJ on Today FM and a bit of a hero to my generation as he worked on kids telly with infamous puppets and made us all laugh lots. And I spoke to him today!

I was was wandering into work this morning, late, (I had permission to sleep off the hangover from the post rugby drinking session) and they were looking for people to call in who worked in the legal profession so, being still probably a bit drunk I decided to give it a lash, and they picked me! It was the odd one out quiz which means Ray calls out 3 things and you have to pick the odd one out. I got them all right! I couldn't believe it I think I should get drunk more often!

I've won a hoodie and will never take it off as it is the first thing I have ever won in a competition and I'm dead proud of myself!

The Tag Rugby League Final

The mighty Misfits take to the pitch



Action shots with Twinkeltoes on the ball and Mac running is support.

It was a game of epic proportions. We each had two sendings off. The trys were matched one for one for the whole game. With 2 mins to go the score was 12 points each. Then they got a soft girl try (worth 3 points) and we had a girl try disallowed on the final whistle despite the fact she was tagged over the line as opposed to before it. In short we were robbed.

However as it was such a tight game there was no shame in defeat and yes we were all disappointed but plans were soon hatched to steal the winners trophy and that put us all back in top form again. Unfortunatley we didn't succeed but it was fun trying!

One Pint Lighter

They took my blood and were glad of it! I can't donate platelets yet cause it takes me so long to squeeze out one pint! Eleven bloody minutes it took with me squeezing on the bone thing they give you to hold for all that I was worth! And even at that the machine kept beeping at me until I had gathered a crowd of nurses and doctors around me with obviously nothing better to do apart from encouraging my veins to give up their precious cargo! Ah well while I may not be able to play tonight (I say may, only time will tell if I actually will or not) at least I have the warm fuzzy light headed feeling of giving!

Super Tuesday

I am going to have don my Superwoman outfit in order to fulfill all of my obligations for today. I have somehow managed to organise the blood donation drive for work to clash/coincide with the final, top of the table clash in the tag rugby league. A stroke of ingenuity on my part wouldn't you agree? Odds are I will have to sit out the game due to lack of blood but I'm keeping my mouth shut until I know for sure as they may not want my blood today so there's no point panicking about it yet!

I have 12 of my fellow work colleagues lined up to donate today, and most of them are donating virgins so even if I'm out for the game I can bask in the warm glow of having done something pro-active anyway. So I won't feel too disappointed! Or at least I'm trying to convince myself of that!

Life is going to be a lot less interesting from now on without the tag games on a tuesday night to keep my blood pumping. And God only knows what we're going to talk about in work, as it seems to have dominated nearly every conversation around the table for the past 3 months. Ah wel I guess I'll have no excuse but to get the head down 100% for the exams in October and look forward to regaining a life once they are over. I hope to God I pass them in one go as I think I'll crack up if I had to face them again in the spring time. But that is idle speculation and I would be better advised to use my time and energy concentrating on the task in hand!

Post the Harry Potter Weekend

Well the plan for the weekend went smoothly for once and I did everything that I predicted I would do including spending far too much money on Saturday on stuff I convinced myself I needed (well holidays are fast approaching and I have NOTHING to wear etc etc). So the rest of the month will be spent in abject poverty living off thin air. But at least I have pretty skirts to wear in the sunshine... Oh dear.

On the Harry Potter side of things, I stand before you disappointed. I did my review on the other page so you can check that out if you so wish but the bottom line is that its the weakest of all of the books to date and is in short a filler book. However the story line has been moved on and to be fair I think Rowling has set up the finale to be something very special so all hope is not yet lost!

My so called "friend" who works in a library thought it was very funny to send me text messages all weekend asking did I want to know who died, and threatening to tell me. I found it funny as well but tried to keep the fact from her I don't know who was winding who up in the end, but like I said it was amusing!

The Harry Potter Weekend

I just got an email from my friend who works in a library threatening to tell me who dies in the Half Blood Prince. I'm very upset. If she manages to leak it to me I'll probably kill her. I'm not joking.

I know I'm realtively ancient compared to the target audience for the Harry Potter books but I love them and get such a thrill out of reading a new one! I've even reread the older ones on occassion while bored. Its my secret shame (actually not so secret anymore it seems). And so my weekend will comprise of studying Equity and Property law - I have enough of Tort for the moment, going into town to spend my wages - we get paid mid month here which is very inconvenient as it means I'm broke when everyone else I know is flush, and reading Hary Potter and the Half Blood Prince - which in my nerdy excitement I have pre ordered from Waterstones!

A new route home

The new Sean O'Casey pedestrian bridge had its grand unveiling yesterday evening and I was witness to it as I plodded on my course home!



This is the bridge complete with important people walking across it at about 5.20pm yesterday. I had become bored watching the silly prancing people running up and down the bridge in some kind of dancing show and had walked over the bridge further down. By the time I had walked around I was able to witness the first official crossers of the bridge!



This is my maiden journey across said bridge this morning.

Now you're probably wondering why in God's name I am blogging about the opening of a bridge in Dublin, I can understand that most people really couldn't give a damn. But you see this bridge is very important to me. And there's a story about it so I hope you're sitting comfortably.

You see in my last job in the Yuckiest Bank in the country (I'd love to name and shame them but I had better not) I worked with a most horrible and irritating person, let's call her Niamh. Niamh was a very unhappy person. She also liked to spread her misery.

Now I admit that I can be easily irritated at times, but I recognise this fault in myself and I try very hard to see the good in people so that when I feel irritated I can put myself in a better frame of mind. I worked with this creature Niamh for 18 months I can say with all honesty that despite my best efforts she had no redeeming features. She seemed to suck all the light out of the room and all of the pleasure out of the small things in life. She was constantly belittling me and she just made me feel bad. I was glad when I no longer had to work with her. BUT just when I thought I would never have to see her skinny pointy miserable little face again she pops up on my route home every evening. It's feckin torture. I have done all I can over the last few months to avoid her and its been exhausting. However with the opening of this new bridge it now means that it is highly unlikely I will bump into her anymore and it saves about 5 minutes off my journey to and from work every day! Yippppeeeee! And so that is why I have blogged about the opening of the Sean O'Casey bridge in Dublin. Thank you for listening.

Come back Mr. Sunshine

Mr Sun is hiding behind some hazy clouds today but as I write is making a brave attempt to break through and warm this fair city once again! I know I'm harping on this weather thing but its the main topic of conversation everywhere I go and you just have to revel in the heat whenever it arrives. Remeber this is Dublin and the country is Ireland and it is located on the Atalntic seaboard and the rain hits us first before dissipating over England leaving mainland Europe basking in the sunshine (Bastards).

Speaking of mainland Europe I will be there myself in about 2 weeks time and am now allowing myself to get all excited about my holliers! They've been booked for months but I never think about going anywhere until close to the time, otherwise I'd wear myself out with the excitement. This year we are going to Brussels! I know its not exactly the Costa del Sol but all the reports I've heard about the city have been very positive and I was personally sold on the reports of fine dining and excellent beer, so I'm happy enough.

Last year we spent a week in Berlin which was fantastic! Its a great city and although it was my second time there it wasn't in the slightest bit boring. Its a huge place for a start and there is so much history on every street its cool just to kick back sit in a cafe and take it all in. We also hit Amsterdam and Oslo last year on weekend breaks. God bless low flight no frills airlines its so cool to be only 3 hours away from amazing fresh places to see and investigate a definate perk of living in Ireland!

A Heaven Sent Day

Oh its glorious in Dublin today. According to weather pixie the temperature is in the mid to high 20's and the sky is the most beautiful mediterranean blue! I love this city when the sun shines, the people sparkle and strip off and everyone looks happy! Yesterday was the same which means we have had at least 2 consecutive days of summer weather!!! I'm making a note of this here so that the next time its miserable and raining and cold I can look back at today's entry and remember that we had some good weather this year!
I just checked out overheard in Dublin there's an hilarious account of a 'scary burd' on the 77A. Its well worth checking out.
Oh I'm in a real rambling humour today. But I better go do some work before I get caught dossing!

"Scandinavia looks like a willy"

Quote unquote my mate Liz.!



This is Liz looking a bit blurry and grumpy because she probably doesn't want to be blogged but she gets blogged cause she's funny!

Anyway the background to this story is set against a pub crawl in Dublin with my mates. We ate Tapas from here. Drank Mojitos and Margueritas everywhere and fell around the place laughing for most of the night while protesting that we weren't in the slightest bit drunk.

I learned many new things last Friday night not least of those is that Scandinavia does indeed look like a willy as illustrated by Nutty Liz on production of a euro coin! I also learned that being single in Dublin is very scary indeed and that there are some very odd looking men on the prowl out there. Chief among them (that we liked best) was scary outback farmer/Californian beach bum look-a-like (who was probably from D4) with his skin tight transparent white shirt tucked into skin tight across the crotch blue jeans and his Kerrraaazy dance moves. This guy had to be seen to be believed! I'm sure I'm not doing him justice here! Oh yes and a very special shout out also goes to the leather trouser clad long haired blonde "man" with shiny ear rings. Beautiful. That's all I can say. I wonder did he score the terrified looking girl he had cornered?

What has happened to Mr. Unky?

Mr Unky the moody man has disappeared from his site and now all it says is "Coming Soon" I miss him. By changing the picture here on the blog every day it made me analyse exactly how I was feeling and then the fun part of what image best captured that mood. I am one of those people who will announce to all that could be bother listening that I have PMS or I'm grumpy or even that I'm hyper/happy. I feel that it is only fair that if I'm going to be in any way tedious, annoying or even funny that there should be due warning. Unky made me analyse beyond my usual three emotions (as above) and I was beginning to enjoy it! I hope he comes back soon.

Reactions and Thoughts

Why is it that we feel the need to watch disasters unfold in front of us? Why do people rubberneck when passing car crashes? Why were we all glued to the web or the tv yesterday as the events in London began to unfold? The lovely boy posed a question similar to this as I flicked to the news channel as soon as I walked in the door last night. I told him after I had thought about the question that I just wanted to be prepared should I ever be involved in something like that. I would prefer to have some idea of what to expect than to be caught unawares. This is an honest answer from me but its not a complete one.

The other other side of watching images like those that emerged from London yesterday and from New York in September 2001 is that we have a connection with people in London and New York which many of us on here don't have with people in Iraq or India or Africa. Many of us have friends, relatives and history we can draw on when we see those places and it hits us harder and brings it closer to home. We also feed into the drama and the worry and the confusion, if it can happen there it can happen here. We get afraid.

I guess thats what the people who plan and execute these attacks want. They want people in Berlin, Paris, Toronto, Sidney to be afraid. That's the real power they have over all of us. Thats the lasting effect of what happened yesterday.

Of course the first thing GWB had to say was that the war on terror would continue. The attack in another vindication in his eyes for the terror that his war unleashes every day in the Middle East. The logic (if there ever was any) of that argument must surely be wearing thin even in the most conservative of minds. We forget that while upwards of 40 people died in London yesterday in Iraq at around the same time there were 2 suicide bombs which killed 13. The people there face this sort of terror every day. How must they feel? We certainly don't feel the same sort of fear and worry when we hear about the attacks they suffer every day.

sharp return to reality

My thoughts are with all of those people who are caught up in the events that occured in London this morning.
Thankfully my friends who live there are all safe.
I don't see the point in commenting further on this at the moment as we really don't know what has happened yet nor do we have any real idea of the extent of the damage that has been done.

Minor Miracles

I must have some prophetic blood in my lineage as after a day of unrelentless rain as soon as we hit the rugby pitch the sun broke through the clouds and we basked and played in the warming rays of the summer sun for the duration of the game! Surprisingly it wasn't even particularly muddy on the pitch so there was no real danger of injuries from slipping and sliding like last week. However our "surly" coach did have the misfortune of dislocating one of his fingers (really gross) but the valiant young man popped it back in grimaced a bit, sprayed his hand with that magic spray footballers use to cure everything and went back on to score more trys! I'm not sure if I should be impressed or not but I do admire his commitment to the team! The good news is that we are back on winning form with a 12 point win against our opponents last night! So we all hit the pub happy little bunnies once again.

As for Bex she survived the written part of her Irish exam relatively unscathed but was a little out out by the oral when the examiner started asking her questions that weren't covered in the 2 week crash course like "Why did she come to Ireland" - Bex didn't know what "why" was in Irish and had to be told in English! I can't imagine that went down well but she says she rallied as best she could so fingers crossed she did enough to get through it! She expressed her feelings of pent up frustration at the Irish Law Society by scoring a lovely try for the first time and so I have no doubt went home pretty happy with herself!

Spare A Thought...

For my poor friend Becky. Becky is a lovely funny gregarious young one who is presently sitting an exam in Irish which, if she passes will allow her someday to become a solicitor. Becky is from Essex. That's in England. They speak only English there. She has not one word of Irish. She has been learning reams of gooblidegook (Irish) which she plans to regurgitate in the exam today. She also has an Oral exam to pass. Hopefully a "Hello my name is Becky I'm from Essex" in Irish will be sufficient to get her through that one. The poor gobshite.

On the other hand it is feckin raining in this city again. As its Tuesday that means it will be rugby in the rain again tonight unless a miracle happens and we get a heatwave at about 4.00pm. You know it is possible so fingers crossed!>/span>

Sunshine & politics

Its hard not to think of last weekend and this coming week without bringing the G8 summit into the proceedings. Like a lot of other people I watched the Live 8 concert this weekend and while it was entertaining and it was great to see so many people supporting the event I shared to some degree the scepticism many people in the media expressed about the actual point of the day. That was until Bob Geldof showed a film from 1985 depicting children in Ethopia who were dying from disease and starvation, I asked the boy did he ever wonder what happened to those people and he reckoned they were all long dead, which I agreed with and I felt guilty and sad while watching the little faces on the screen. At the end of the film Bob asked the same question and answered it by introducing a young woman who had featured in the film, who when she was filmed was on the brink of death. She is now in her 20's has graduated from university and is absoloutely stunning, with a future ahead of her. The point Bob was making was that despite all the cynicism about what exposure of the poverty in Africa will actually achieve, there is a point to trying to make a difference and that girl was living proof of it. I was deeply moved by that moment. I know that the >Make Poverty History campaign has its flaws and I'm not holding my breath that this G8 summit will make the breakthroughs that we are campaigning for, but if it makes people aware of the problems that are in the world and the potential soloutions and those people add their voices to the campaign, I can't see how so many people can continue to be ignored. Its worth trying for at any rate.

TGIF!!

Yipppeee its the weekend!

We went to see War of the Worlds last night and I have to say I really enjoyed it! I was on the edge of the seat for the whole film with my hand in my mouth to stop myself from becoming too vocal! It was great! The level of tension and fear generated in the movie is excellent and considering how easy it is to be cynical about these types of stories it was very easy for me to be completely sucked into the "We're all going to DIE!" mentality!
It's always great when a movie hits the right mark and despite the whole TomandKatie pre moviewhatthefuckisthematterwithhim stuff the film stands up on its own.
Tonight its Batman Begins which from all accounts sounds like its a fairly good movie! I wonder will it live up to the rollercoaster that was War of the Worlds though??
I used to love the Batman cartoons when I was younger there such an element of darkness to them and they were so story driven it was hard not to get hooked on them! I've heard that this round of Batman movies have returned to that root, which does give me hope! Considering just how bad Batman 2 & 3 were there is definately room for improvement!

Old Grouse

I am turning into an old grouse. I was sitting here at my desk in work thinking about how crap everything is when I realised that I need to get a grip and stop moaning all the time!
Ok so injuries sustained in Tag hurt - but they hurt less then they did yesterday - so get over it.
Alright I'm a bit tired BUT I spent a lovely evening in the company of my wonderful friends last night and then went on to have a very tasty meal with my boy and the family. I'm only tired because I drank too much so I really have no grounds for complaint or being grouchy!
So my job isn't exactly fulfilling but I do manage to sneak study notes in to work, and I have discovered the joy of blogging so its not all negative. Plus it is a means to an end and will put money in my pocket until I am ready to hit the road and then the big time!
It has also stopped raining (for the moment) and the sun is even showing her face so I can no longer claim to be soggy!

I'm going to see War of the Worlds tonight and am looking forward to it - reviews have been cautiously positive so fingers crossed it doesn't suck!
Then its off to Batman Begins on Friday and after that the kids go home and I get my evenings back!! Thats certainly a thought to brighten my day!

I told my friend that I was too apathetic to help look up a nice restaurant for us to meet in next week so I'm going to move my ass and actually do something to help on that score because otherwise I'm just giving in to the negative vibes!

Crappy weather

It pissed out of the heavens this morning from between 7.30 am (thats when I woke up) to 9.00 a.m i.e the time that I walk to work every morning. As a result I was drenched to my knickers. I could handle this on a normal day as I am usually super prepared and bring work clothes in a seperate bag to work and wear a tracksuit bottoms and T-shirt to walk into work. However last night at rugby it also pissed out of the heavens and not only did we loose I and my back pack also got very wet. Therefore this morning I had no bag to carry dry clothes in. Therefore I got wet and stayed wet until roughly half an hour ago when I finally dried out.

As I was walking in the thundering downpour this morning I mused on the fact that on the other side of the world This Girl was contemplating waging war on silly people watering their lawns and the foot path at the same time. In all fairness this thought cheered me up!

As you may have gathered the game last night was a miserable affair and one out of which I personally emerged crippled and in agony for most of the night. We had a new "team mate" last night drafted in as Surly our valiant player/coach is injured. The man played with London Irish there is no doubt he can play rugby he just forgot that this was social grade tag rugby and barrelled into everyone in his way with head down and shoulder up. He hit me square in the back and it feckin hurts. A lot. And I was on his side. I'm beginning not to like this game anymore...

Book Review

I finished a Book recently (last night actually) and have reviewed it over yonder. Its the first book I've read from cover to cover in months as I have been trapped in a web of law texts and apathy in recent times. The fact that I finished this one says a lot about it! Check it out!

Mmmm Icecream

I feel a bit chirpier now as it is after lunch and I had some icecream, an Ice Berger to be precise. You can't beat the old fashioned vanilla ice-cream in a biscuit sandwich if you ask me!

I have written my views on Vincent Wood's A Cry From Heaven on the other site. It's well worth checking out if you are in Dublin at the mo. Its a great Irish Tragedy and deserves to be celebrated in such a fitting manner.

I figured out what put me in such a foul humour this morning. We have the lovely boy's lovely siblings living with us this week and the three of them were snoring away as I got up to trudge into work this morning. Also the fact that they were planning a trip on The Sea Safari without me, didn't help. I'm mad jealous and the reports are it was great fun. Bastards.

We have our penultimate tag game this evening. They lost last week without me ( notice how I have distanced myself from the losers!) We are playing the first team we played in the league who after we beat them organised to train on Sundays (freaks) - they've won all their games since then! Mmmmm

Wrong Side of the Bed

I woke up bored this morning. It's not a good way to start the day. I have no intention or inclination to do anything which means I'll get frustrated which means I will eventually get cranky and will take it out on everyone I meet, silently in my head, which will lead to more frustration because while externally I might be smiling at people internally I will be smouldering with bad humour and probably hate for them.

So far there are 2 people on my list for just being too cheerful and for doing some work.

I don't think it's going to be a good one today. The over clouded chilly day is also really not helping my mood...

Ok dark thoughts aside I'll come back later and try to be more positive. Sometimes its just better to own up to being cranky and when you do you feel a little less mean!

U2 Croke Park Friday June 24th 2005

Oh what an amazing night!

We were seated at the back of the stadium in the middle of many water proofed American and English people, which was kinda odd to be honest as most of them had binnoculars and were lets say a bit older! My brother reckoned if they were going to be dry (as in humourless not as in protected from the rain, which they clearly were - unneccessarily as it turned out!) and remain seated all night that there would be slaps all round! But I'm delighted to say the whooped and roared like the rest of us when the band walked on stage! (So there was no need for slaps after all!)

It was a very emotional night. There was an air of nervousness in the air and the opening rendition of Vertigo just didn't hit the mark and was followed up with a flat I Will Follow. But once the opening notes of With or Without You began the place just lit up with noise and excitement and it didn't look back from there! I cried a grand total of 3 times! It completely shocked me how happy, sad, elated, excited, and poignant I felt throughout the 2 and half hours that the boys played for. It was just incredible. Bono dedicated Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own to his Dad Bobby Hewson - cue me in tears for the first time! Later on in the night Where the Streets Have no Name started me off again and finally One drained me of whatever extra moisture remained! They played 5 songs from the Joshua Tree (my favourite album) loads from How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb and Elevation and also at least 2 from War - the quintessentially for Ireland - Sunday Bloody Sunday and their other great anti war song Bullet in the Blue Sky.

I think they played all of their songs which I had on the wishlist in my head! And I don't think a gig can get any better than this one was!

All I can say is GO SEE THEM if you get the chance! They are the best band in the world and the best Live Act I have ever seen! Oh and they're Irish!

this is me experimenting with my shiny new camera phone!

Oh so tired

today has been a brief return to reality before the fun and frolicks begin again! I am dead on my feet after the wild celebration of my little brothers graduation to doctorhood and of course my own little success in the old exams!
The graduation was brilliant I can't believe he is now licensed to cut people open... its a bit disturbing to be honest! Apparantly he's great at surgery because his thumbs and fingers are mightily dextrous from years of playing with game boys, as a result he has been sought out to use the grippy arm things for key hole surgeries! Isn't that cool?- anyway the lesson there is that there is a point to a misspent teenagehood! He doesn't want to be a surgeon though he wants to be a paediatrician because he gets on great with kids and can really get down to their level! Its true too I think he'd be great at it!!! I still can't believe he's a doctor.... Maybe I never will!
Galway is just amazing I have fallen completely in love with the place over the past two days and its top of my list of places to move to once I'm completely finished with Dublin. I wish I was still there now its so laid back and pretty and the people seem so much friendlier than here and there was craic and laughter everywhere you went with people taking it easy as they did it! Its the way life should be lived instead of the constant rushing and hassle we have to endure here just to get from A to B!
On yet another note myself and my 2 siblings along with the lovely boy are trotting off to Croke park for the first of the Irish U2 Concerts! I can't wait! Snow patrol are supporting and a crowd called the Radiators who I haven't heard much about before. But regardless it should be a great gig. If it isn't I don't think I'll ever get over the disappointment as I've waited my whole life to see them live and even paid the fan club fee this time to make sure I got tickets. I know some people have a problem with that but I think its fair enough and the ticket made a great graduation present for the young doctor, so I'm happy. I think my 15 yr old sister is about to explode with excitement at the prospect of the gig tomorrow and that too is worth its weight in gold!!
I will give a full review of the gig on the othere site of course but it may be monday before I get to a machine so it'll have to wait til then!

Wahoooooo

I passed both contract and company with room to spare!

Can't stop now gotta go and get ready for celebration!

Am so relieved!

Results Are Out!!!

And I won't be able to report how I get on until Thursday! In fact I won't even see them for myself until wednesday night because they would be released on the day that I am going home for two nights straight from work.

And so the lovely boy is charged with the nail biting and potentially dangerous job of opening said results and reading them to me over the phone, while I will no doubt be on some form of public transport either screaming of trying vainly not to cry. Great.

On the up side if I have passed them then Conor's graduation tomorrow will be even better as we will have my continuing triumph over the law to celebrate as well. However that is putting the cart before the horse as they say so I think I will leave all wild fantasies to after I hear how I got on!

I've become a ...

Magpie. I have taken to flitting among other peoples shiny blog pages and nicking their lovely ideas and add ons. So far today its the Make Poverty history button thing and the very cute
Weather Pixie, which I do think is quite fab, but both ideas were lifted from other blogs and were not a result of my trawling though Google looking for ideas.
I find Google boring , I can never find interesting things on it and much prefer using the navigate button on Blogspot to find things to amuse me. Is there a name for this kind of web abuse?

Going Grey

I looked in the mirror in work the other day and was appalled and disgusted to note that I have more than a sprinking of grey shiny hairs popping up all over my barnett. I'm only 27! I don't feel like I deserve to be reminded of my advancing years in such a fashion. As I have dark hair the little buggers really catch the light (and the attention) so it looks like it'll be "Nice and Easy" for me before too long.... (see link)

On to other matters. We won again last night, but there was no pleasure in it. I can't quite put my finger on why but all the same the atmosphere was very flat. I think the lack of a hate figure on the opposite side made it difficult to care if we won or lost! Surely that's not good sportsmanship! We are top of our league and have a potentially decisive encounter with the second on the table also unbeaten team next week. Unfortunately I will miss it as my lil bro is graduating as a MD and its far more important that I attend his graduation ceremony and get drunk with the family while we celebrate the end of him being a student (finally)!!

After that then I (only)have U2 to look forward to..... - bring it on!

Waiting Anxiously

I'm like a cat on a hot tin roof waiting for there fecking exam results the law society just can't be trusted with their date of the end of June so for all I know they could be sitting at home in my post box for me right now....
I think I have another migraine as well which is making me even grumpier not to mention nauseous. I'm sort of hoping that its just nerves and isn't actually a migraine because 2 in 2 weeks seems a little excessive.
I see from the news today that the excavations are starting pn the Tara valley already thats probably another reason for my bad news.
Also the apparant failure of McDowells Cafe bar licensing proposals I feel is more bad news . I was looking forward to the introduction of civilised eating and watering holes to be honest. Not least because I'm a light weight and having food close by would mean I wouldn't get as drunk as quickly (yes I would eat if food was available simply because I like eating better than drinking!) but also because I personally enjoy the social aspect of eating and enjoying a few drinks with people rather than just sinking pints in a bar until I fall over.
Mind you no doubt the PDs will not be impressed by the Fianna Fail back bench uprising in relation to this little matter and that fact combined with the recent poor showing in the polls for FF does not auger well for them at the moment. All we need is one little push and I'm convinced we'll be looking at an early election. I wonder will Bertie be able to continue to hang on until things stabilise again... The problem there is that he hasn't really been all that secure since the last local elections and hasn't really convinced people that he can change the governments position either...

Mid week consumption of alcohol

Is bad for your health. I'm knackered! I met a friend last night for a good old fashioned girly chin wag full of screeching and giggling... Yes we were those annoying women that tend to turn up in restaurants and pubs making loads of noise and wantonly annoying other patrons! I don't do it often and while I hate being subjected to it by others its kind of liberating when you are indulging in the screaming yourself! I'm over exaggerating slightly but I reckon the volume was definately up to 8 rather than the usual 5!
However good food was eaten and very nice wine was consumed and although it wasn't a very late night it was well past my usual bed time by the time I made it home. You see I couldn't go home until after the game was over between Ireland v the Faroe Islands as I would just have annoyed the boy with my drunken questions and frequent trips to the loo and so it was that I had to stay out and drink more. Don't you just love logic?
Anyway I'm suffering now and I still have to drag my ass to Yoga, race home, shower and change and head back out to go see Sin City at 9.00pm! Oh Crap...

Glorious Victory in a Bruising Encounter

I think I'm beginning to sound a bit like a jock, but this tag rugby league is so much fun! Especially because we continue to beat all those around us! It was a glorious victory last night with us coming out 14 points on top of our rivals. The victory was made all the sweeter by the fact that yours truly scored 2 TRYS!!!
I'm very proud of my achievement and the second try in particular I'm told was a beauty! I can't remember myself I was pumped up and running on pure adrenalin. You see it was a bit of dirty game last night. Our opposition didn't seem to understand the concept of Non Contact - I personnally was shouldered around the pitch on at least 4 occassions. However I made my feelings perfectly clear i.e. that to touch me was to lose a limb - and that partiuclar practice came to an end pretty quickly! However some of our men folk took some very heavy hits and we could be in trouble with injuries next week, which would be a disaster as we don't have enough boys to play on our team anyway.
To be honest looking back on it I can't belive just how competitive and driven I became. I can't ever remember being that focused before, not even in school when I played a lot more field sports. Its kind of scary in one way I didn't really recognise myself...
However the buzz has been great in work all day our lady captain/my work colleague is a happy camper so there have been no psychotic episodes today!
On other news I was informed that the law society results won't be available until the end of June early July - so those butterflys can feck off until then!
I have collected the course material for the next set already so the reality is I just need to get stuck into it and hope that the last lot went to plan!

Various Rants

I haven't had a chance to come and rant here all day today until now and I only have a limited amount of time now that I am here so I'll have to make my contribution for today shrink to fit!
On the up side I only met 4 Gobshites on the road this weekend and I take it from the news that there was a significant decrease in accidents this weekend which is great news for everyone and long may it continue.
Mayo is beautiful if you are thinking of visiting! We stayed in a lovely B&B which was smothered in bric a brac and dust catching objects of all varieties! Tack central if you like and was run by an English woman (we named her Hyacinth) and her Husband (otherwise known to us as The Bitch as he was one well whipped man!). In all fairness to the pair the Full Irish on both mornings was the best I've ever had - as a result the choccie biccies on friday are now irrelevant as the weighing scales will now have to deal with fatty frys as well!
However we did scale the heights of Croagh Patrick on Sunday so I'm hoping that that act of extreme activity will balance out all the wonerful food and drink I consumed...
Oh if you ever meet anyone who tells you they have climbed Croagh Patrick barefoot please give them a slap from me. They are either lying or mad and if they are one or the other they will either deserve the slap or not notice that it has been dealt to them in the first place. Its hard going and I will certainly look upon all of the more ancient pilgrims who scale its rocky summit with renewed respect and wonder cause I barely made it!
I have loads of thoughts in my head about recent news worthy items of the last few weeks but as I am pushed for time today I think I'll leave my thoughts where they are for the mo and address them when I have more time!
Sorry for lack of pictures again we have a distinct lack of access to digital technology which is a shame because we were in some of the most scenic places in this country at the weekend. The drive from Louisburgh to Lenaune is spectacular and shouldn't be missed if you are in that part of the world.
Well I gotta buzz off now and pick up my course books for the next instalment in the track to Blackhall place. The results from the last set of exams are due any day now according to my bat sense so I will of course the world know if I was successful and it I'm not my silence will speak volumes on the matter...
I also have the third game in our tag rugby league tonight so fingers crossed its another successful venture otherwise I fear for the sanity of my very competitive and slightly psychotic Captain - and work colleague - who is doing a complete Jekell and Hyde whenever a game approaches. She goes from being very mild mannered quietly spoken slight walkover to super charged psycho and its not pretty...

Chocolate Biscuits

Are very yummy. I've just had three! And feel very full and happy... I won't be happy when I get on the scales next week but hey who cares it's another Bank Holiday!
We are heading west this weekend and the only care I have is that the roads are safe. I was listening to frightening statistics this morning on Morning Ireland. 5 people died this time last year but there were over 90 people injured. When I think of the kind of injuries that can be as a result of a car accident it just makes my blood run cold. The thing is though no matter what advertisements they put out there or how many chilling statistics they shove at us I will be guaranteed to meet at least 5 gobshites misbehaving this weekend.
I consider myself to be a good driver. I don't speed as I don't believe it gets me where I want to go any quicker. I definately would never drink and drive and I make sure that I'm aware of what is going on around me. But that is still no guarantee that somebody else taking the piss won't crash into me.
Mind you if I applied that logic and lived my life by it I wouldn't eat chocolate biscuits or ever set out on a road journey and that would make life pretty boring! SO I guess the moral of this story kids is just do what you feel is right and enjoy life to the full cause you just can't depend on anything...

Victorious!

There was blood sweat and sin binning last night in the second of our league matches but in the end we were victorious! With 2 girl trys (neither scored by me) we earned ourselves a distinct advantage over our worthy opponents and despite having our loquacious coach sin binned (for abusing his own team) in the second half we managed to hold onto the lead we had built up in the first half! It was a relief to have won this game on our own merits as a team this week, as last week I was replaced by a semi professional genuine rugby player who admittedly didn't squeal and drop the ball as much as me and did manage to score most of our trys! Its a funny old game!
Bring it on Next Week we remain unbeaten!