Wise men are born Fools

Oh, at last, a post from Paul. Believe me I have nearly written one a few times bot apathy has always gotten the best of me, more on that later. So i am just home from what was possibly the most disasterous night ever in Dolans. The night seemed to be going so well when i was asked to man one of the smaller bars in the Warehouse where all the gigs were. I would be in there completely on my own so i was a bit nervous but got the place set up without a problem. SO my first customer orders a drink and after i have poured it i ring it into the register to get the total, as i turn to get the money off him i hear a huge CRASH!!!, CRACK!!!, SNAP!!!, SMASH SMASH SMASH!!!!!. I jump a mile and turn around to see that when the till opened it overbalanced and fell of the counter. The money section had spilt open ad coins and notes were everywhere, the actual register had hit the ground, started beeping manically and broke in two, the wires connecting it to the wall had been pulled out of the wall and snapped and since they were running along the wall had thrown all the glasses and bottles that were in front of them also onto the floor. Needless to say the place was completely destroyed. Long story short, i called my manager straight away, the cash register was fucked and we had to close the bar. Good one Paul.
The rest of the night did not go much better, i tried switching a bottle that i thought was empty but turns out was not, spilling the Baily's all over me and the floor, i was completely incapable of pulling a pint of Smithwicks and i also spilt an entire full spill-tray on the floor, all while being watched by my manager. POO. The night could not end quick enough as i got a stress headache at around 11 and it did not go til we finished at 3. I fully intend just crashing in bed in a few minutes and trying to forget about it all. The annoying thing about being asked to look after the bar on my own was that it was obviously a test. The venue was pretty quiet with an older crowd and earlier in the night my manager had been asking me how i was getting on and if i was feeling confident behind the bar. GUess i failed that one. I am back in there tomorrow night and hopefully that one will go better.

So why the long wait between posts i hear you all eagerly ask. Well to be honest blogging is not the only thing i have been neglecting. For the last few weeks i have been pretty much useless. I am not getting back into my usual sleeping pattern during the week, it is unavoidably fucked up by working in a bar during Friday and Saturday, and so i have been going to bed around 3 or four every night and getting up at one or two. I have not managed to accomplise anything during my waking hours either; i spend them just sitting around watching Tv or surfing the net. I would not usually mind but i actually do have things i could be doing, i have emails to send, blogs to write, work to go to, i struggle to even motivate myself to wash my clothes or myself. I have not been going to Capoeira or kick-boxing or even the gym. All in all i am a lazy bum. I would not be too unhappy if i was wastingmy money on drink and nights out or socialising but i am not even doing that. I rarely see the anyone other than my housemates, mostly because i could not be bothered renting a game or DVD or going to the cinema. Blah

The whole socialising thing is actually going to be quite difficult for the forseeable future. Working weekends is not that much actual bother when everyone is in college, if you dont go out during the weekend you can just go on any other day of the week, week-nights included. These days however more and more people are either working or studying during the week and so the weekends are their only free days but the equivelent of the start of my working week. Sux to be honest.

Dont want anyone to be thinking i am getting depressed however, that wojuld require too much energy. I dont have the motivation to be annoyed about it but still i wish it could be different, even if i do not know how that is possibe. I realised that at the minute i have achieved something i was wishing for all through college. I have no responsibilites, noone relying on me and noone to answer to at the minute. Its kind of like Maine all over again. I can just work 8 hours in ISI and even quit Dolans if i wanted and nobody would have any right to say anything to me. My days are filled with the option of only doing what i want to do. If only i wanted to do something a bit more productive.

Working 9 to 5.......ya right more like 9-4..the next morning!!!

Alrighty then so i think regardless of other developments in the 'blogosphere' (oh how maddox would be turning in his grave) i think i will continue to use this blog as my primary kind of 'diary' thing.

So i am just home from work there, well actually Eoin came and picked me up and we went to Eddie Rockets, i really have to stop doing that, i aint excercising as much as i want so i have to stop eating so much of that shit, delicious as it may be. David Kitt was playing tonight, he was grand, a big crowd but they were not mcuh drinkers so it was a pretty quiet night. I am working again in Thursday night and then Saturday and Sunday night. If i stick to my ISI schedule then i am on the way to working my first 60 hour week. Did you ever think you would see the day ehh. I am not doing much bar working at the minute but it is not too much of a bother, i am getting at least 8 hours sleep every night so i think i can handle it as lond as that stays the same. One thing about it however is that i am finding myself clenching my teeth the whole time and it is beginning to hurt. Perhaps it is because i am subconsciosly stressed i aint sure I think it might just be the whole working behind the bar and dealing with people. I am not sure why i wanted to work in a bar so much to be honest as i hate dealing with people. As many of ye know i cannot stand having to answer phones and dealing with people face to face is not better. I actually dread starting work behind the bar but that subsides after a few minutes. Pouring pints is easy but i am always worried that i am doing something wrong. I always get into the swing of things and enjoy it a lot as the night goes on but i think that i am doing most of the clenching when i am actually pouring the pint and adding up the persons change in my head. Perhaps i will start wearing a gumshield in bed cuz i think i do it a lot in my sleep as well, i actually wake up with sore teeth.

(Lindsey Lohan suffered from heat exaustion, i am just tired)

So 60 hours ehh, i am going to be rolling in it. What i really want to do with the money is pay off my debts, i got rid of the Credit Card money and am set to get rid of the Credit UNion loan in a few months. I am going to continue living like a pauper and just save money and pay back shit. Imagine not oweing anybody anything, it will be great.

On a connected note, i am now thinking of puching back my leaving til April, the reasons for this are multitude:

1)i will have completely paid off my credit union loan
2)i will have saved up a lot more money
3)if i have paid of the Credit Union loan i can then get a graduate loan from the bank and i wont have to pay that off til i come home, with the Credit UNion i would have been paying while i was away.
4)I will definately have my life-guard and swim-teacher qualification, at the minute getting the lifeguard one looks a bit iffy.
5) i will be going into New Zealands winter and can head straight to the ski-resorts and try and get a bar job there, i will then be set to get a summer job at the start of their summer rather than arriving in January which is nearer the end.
6)I will be able to fit in a snow-boarding holiday in Europe before i go if i am lucky.
7) i will get to see my sister for more than two weeks in two years. As it stands she will just be coming back and i will just be leaving.

The only think making me want to go in January is my pride to be honest, i said to myself and everybody that i will be going then and it sux that i will not be able to stick to it. I cant think of any reason why i should not put it back another bit to be honest. If anyone has any suggestions or somments about this please leave them here or somewhere more private as i am starting to try and get organised and would appreciate any input.

Right i think i will go have my shower and then head to bed, tomorrow is my leisure day, well i might work a few hours in ISI but i told myself i dont have to. Since i work weekends i dont really have any days to do nothing bar the ones i allow myself.

First Post as Paul Sheehan B.A politics major, Yah

So this blogging malarkey ehh, well I will not bother to giving a detailed recap on what has happened since I last blogged, I graduated and have pictures up on my bebo. For those that don’t have a bebo coughcoughconalcough…ahem if you are really desperate then you can look them up on someone elses, although I thought I showed them to you already. Anyway, I notice that everyone has been kind of lax in the whole blogging thing but since we are not actually all in conal anymore and don’t get to see each other as much I do think that we should try and do it a wee bit more, even if it is only a small thing like Pa’s succinct thoughts or Joan’s long-winded whiny feminist rants.

So as many of ye know I started working in Dolans around 3 or 4 weeks ago, for Amanda, Dolans is a big pub/gig/traditional music venue in town. Last week I started pulling pints which while nerve-wracking is a good thing as I get paid a little bit more, I think. For the first while I was just collecting glasses and stocking the bars and getting the place ready before gigs and cleaning up after. The whole while I was doing it I noticed that people were treating me different, I was ‘the cleaner guy’. My first night was an Aslan concert and the place was filled with Scobs and while I was collecting glasses this young fella goes to me ‘keep it up bud, everywhere need people like you’, and another night one of the new bar-men gave out to me for mixing up the Heinekin and Guinnes pint glasses, I just stared at him til he apologised, luckily he was fired the next week cuz it turns out noone else liked him either, which was nice. I actually remembered him from school and he was an idiot there as well. He is a bit younger than me and Conal said it is kind of sad that he is still seen as a twat this much time later but the way i see it he has had 15 years to learn so its not all sociaties fault. I dont see my job as degrading or lowly in the slightest though, so i mop up after people when they spill their drinks or collect their glasses when they are finished their drinks, but some of the looks i get given are weird and if i am working and meet someone in kind-of knew from school a lot of the time they get embarressed if i serve or clean up after them. People are odd.

I am also doing a swim teachers course so i will be qualified to teach lessons when i am finished. Its hard going at the minute as i have been working Friday nights, doing the course all day Saturday then working from 6 til 3 on Saturday night. I have been like a zombie, but the people in work are all sound so it has not been too bad.At this stage i will have bar experience, a swim teacher qualification and hopefully a pool lifeguard certification. Hmmm hopefully it will be enough. I really have to start saving my money though, its getting rediculous at this stage. I am delibrately telling people that i am leaving in January so there will be plenty of pressure on me to actually go or else i will constantly be having to explain to people why i am such a waster. I am still trying to decide my route and all that, some day soon i will sort all that out.

So post college living has been a bit weird to tell the truth. Last week i started doing kick-boxing and in the class of around 100 i knew nobody there bar steve, it was like feeling like a stranger in my own home. Since i am still living out here beside the college and working with students in ISI and living with Eoin, Eoin and Mary i am not completely out of touch but i could not imagine what is must belike for you Pa or Liam who are completley removed from it at this stage. In a lot of ways though i am quite relieved that it is overwith, my evening are my own now and i have no projects, reading or assignments hanging over me. Plus for most of the week i can get up as late as i want except of course for saturday which i so busy i cant actually remember them. On the other hand though it is weird not having such a wide circle of friends around, while i may not have spent all that much time with people in my course i would have met and spoke with a much arger amount of people every day than i do now. At the moment is is limited to people in my house, people form home and people in work. A usual amount for most people but i am used to seeing and knowing much more people in the run of the day.

Alright so a bit of a disjointed post there, i am updating my Bebo page while i write it. I want everyone getting on the posting bandwagon again, Pa has his new job and shit, Amanda is in another country, conal is getting ready for Sudan, Joan is studying again, Liam is living post ISI and steve is back to college so give us all a recap at least.

Family Affairs

Okay so since Pa put forward such a convincing argument and since I actually have something to write about I said I would blog. First of all, a disclaimer. It is Midnight as I write this and I have been drinking since 2 thi9s afternoon so I accept no responsibility for the spelling mistakes included here within or for the slightly sentimental tone that all drunken musings take.. I may even expose this to a spell-checker before I actually post it on work either tomorrow or the day after but I promise nothing.

S o the reason I am slightly inebriated is that today we buried my uncle Sean. He had been sick for a while and I had been expecting a call while I was down in West Cork about the bad news,, which I got last Thursday. I came back up home on Sunday and we have been kind of busy since. I had to break out my suit from its containment and went to the removal last night and the funeral today. As I am one of the ‘men’ I was standing in Cross’s funeral home and shaking hands with all the mourners. It went on for an hour and my hands were killing me after. The strange thing was, and this was with everybody, that we were all grand and even cracking some jokes until y the time came to close the coffin and then suddenly everybody, myself included were in bits.

This morning at the funeral was the same, we were all grand until the very end of the Mass when they started singing ‘The Fields Of Athenry’, a song that was very fitting considering that my uncle Sean was a huge Munster rugby fan and, even though he was in a wheel-chair, went to most of the Munster matches around Europe. We actually were going to have the Heineken Cup as one of the offerings but, even though we had permission to use the cup, we decided against it as it would have taken away from the mass. Anyway, I was in bits once they started singing that, I don’t think I will be able to listen to that for a long time without getting sad. It wil be added to ‘Fields Of Gold’ as a song I cannot think of without feeling a wee bit weepy. So when ever I had to actually face people I was usually blubbering away to myself but for 90% of the rest of the time I was grand. I am hard as nails I swear.

My uncle was a bachelor who really lived life to the limit, even though his illnesses put limits on his enjoyments of several things but he dies after a long long time ill so the last few days wer3e really a celebration of his life rather than a mourning of his death. Funerals usually sadden me, not only because I will miss the person in question, but because I am sorry for the loss and grief that their death cause the family. In my uncles case we were the family and since he had nobody relying on him there was not that air of despondency around the occasion. Sean had a good fulfilled life and even managed to see Munster win the Heinekin cup which was a huge thing fo him, he would have been pleased as punch if we had had the cup for his funeral.
What I really learnt and what made me sad over the last few days is that I have gotten to know my cousins and family and learnt how much I have missed over the years by not taking advantage of what a complete legend of a family I have. I spent most of the day today in the bar after the funeral with my two older cousins aged 28 and 33 whom I have not spoken to for at least 10 years and getting pretty drunk with them. We got on like a house on fire and I really hope I will see em again. I have arranged to take my cousin’s kids to the cinema tomorrow and will take Gavin and my younger cousins as well. I really want to stay in proper touch and have got the number but I am kind of depressed as I don’t really see it happening as, even though all my family live in Limerick, we only see each other on special occasions and don’t know each other that much. The two cousins in question have always been really older that me and this is the first time that we have all been together as ‘adults’ and able to speak as such but they are both sound as a bell and we just spent the evening drinking Red-Bul and Coke and just pissing ourselves, I did not realise that such a thing was possible with my cousins but I hope it will happem again some time soon in the future.

I also got talking to my aunts and uncles and my second and third cousins and just singin songs for the evening. I am known amoung my relations as Paul the Wonder as I am really the first who has finished college and I get a good bit of ribbing about it but I as talking to relations I have not seen for a very long time and just found out that that while some of my cousins are doing very well for themselves, others have gone a bit astray. I realised tonight that a few of my cousins that i was the same age as and very friendly with when I was younger have now families and two in particular are major drug dealers in Limerick. It turns out that I have pretty close ties to the infamous St Mary’s Park Ryan family, something I never copped on to. Its good to have contacts though, incase I ever need anyone bumped off, Liam I am looking at you. For all these guys faults their mother was like an aunt to me we were talking and singing for ages, it had been an age since we spoke and got on like a house on fire.

So today I realised tha ti actually have an extended family. I have never really thought of myself as a family man and dismissed my cousins as people I see rarely and have little to say to but realised today that I have been missing out on a lot. Having two older cousins is weird since I a m used to only having an older sister but seeing my cousin and his two kids I realised that there is a lot more to my family that I had originally thought. I found cousins and distant relations I did not know existed and having that much ‘blood’ relations actually was very cool. I am kind of depressed in a way cuz I know that a gathering like this one will not happen again for a long time but hopefully now I will manage to stay in touch with at least a few of hem that I was not talking to before.

Uhhh, blogging from work, i feel so naughty. Just a short one i suppose, since it seems that i am doing more posts that the entirety of our little community put together. I arrived safe and sound from Barcelona, albeit very tired. Sat next to a random person on the way back home that turned out to be the daughter of one Claudia Beckett, one of the slushs from Clonlara parts, tis a small world.

I dont see myself doing much posting from work in the near future though, i have gotten a job in the Summer Camp so that should be a laugh, conal and Elaine are doing it and one of the guys in works girlfriend's is too so it should be a laugh, i suppose i should mention that Joan is working as well.

ammm, i wish people would blog a wee bit more, just so i can have something to do while in work, our newest recruits Pa and Steve are being uncharacteristically silent. Bebo is good, but not good enough, although Amanda has promised to put up pictures of her and her Maouri boyfriend Benji on her bebo site, they should be fun.

Drugs are bad *Kay

Alright so perhaps a more cheery post is in order. Went to the first full day of Sonar yesterday, that do the the music festival i am here in Barcelona for. Queue was pretty big but we had left it late to go in, around 3. As we were queuing though we heard the Scissor sisters playing on the main stage, we got to listen to their last 4 songs but only got to see Filthy/Gorgeous, they were not actually schedualed to play at all so that was a surprise. They are so lax dusing the day with what youcan bring in. They only sell expensive Bud in there so we just brought in two or three 40cc bottles of San Miguel and proceeded to get a little tipsy while sitting out onthe grass, twas well calss. We stayed there till around 9 then headed bac to apartment to get fed and changed before we got the bus out to the night venue, this mahoosive convention centre areound 25 minutes outside the city. They were much stricer with the alcohol thing out there so we had to sit outside and drink our beer there, that was actually pretty class as there were tons of people out there, we gave some M&Ms to these dutch people so they gave us some orange mixer, which we shared with some swedes if they shared their vodka. We had tons of beer left over that we just did not want to we just gave around 8 of them to some other randomers besides us.

INside was class, went to see Nightmares on Wax, DJ Shadow, and Jeff Myles i think, we were just wonderingaround for a good while as welll as there is three or four diferent halls. There was one in particular that myself and Kay went crazy in, i dont know who it was but it was just filthy electro shit with class a brilliant light show, poor anna wore new shoes to the thing and ripped us all her ankles so by the end of the night there was no junpy jumpy for her. This was at about five in the morning so i had well flushed out all the alcohol from my body, well i think so anyway. We got hopme a while after six and for some reason i got up an hour ago to goon the internet for some reason so perhaps i am a bit drunk still. Just going for breakfast now and hopefully we will be at the day venue before 2. I am just going to pack all my stuff as i think that i will be conming straight form Sonar night to pick upmy gear from the hostel then going straight to thwe airport. If anyone is around tomorrow morning and wants t pick me up from Shannon around 1 just text me and iwill see what i can do.

I do so love my mother's one-line text messages. Ijust found out this morning that one of my neighbours died, she lived across the road from me but i would always stop to chat if i met her. I have no idea what happened her,she could not have been over 60 and i was talking to her only last friday but i just get a text this morning "Christine Lynche died" which has made me a lot more upset than i thought it would. There are a lot of people living in the estate she came from that i truely would not give the slightest damn if they dropped down dead tomorrow, a majority in fact, but she was certainly not one of them and i really wish it was one of them instead of her.

So i just saw that this will be my 100th post, pity it is being written on a shit keyboard so will be oft times illegible. I do be in sunny Barcelona at the minute. Arrived on Monday evening after getting the fright of my life the night before since i thought we were not leaving til Tuesday afternoon, luckily all wnt well and we arrived safe and sound. The hostel is very nice, its clean, relatively cheap and you get nice beds and a locker. It is just overlooking one of the streets on the Gothic Sewctor and since we are on the third floor we can look directly into the Church just across the street, only around 20 foot away. Pity the bells start at 7 in the morning then every half hour, god damn Catholics.I will put up pictures when i get back.
Spent the last two days doing tourist things, went up some crazy Gaudi cathedral yesterday then went to a park designed by him, we got a tiny bit lost once or twice and must have walked at least 8-10 miles yesterday, not including the hundreds of steps in the god-damn cathedral. Today we went to Salvador Dali´s home town and went to his museum, lots oif funky shit there. Tomorrow ius the beach and aquarium and then tomorrow evening maybe to the SonarPub. I am completely disorganised and we do not have a map or programme for this festival at all, i am hoping everything will just work out in the end, whats the worst that can happen.
I will try and post at least once more before i go home and might actually be able to give a description of this famous dance festival that i paid so much money to go see.
Adios (thats actually spanish for good-bye....i think)

So i spent all last night re-aligning my core assets, ie touching myself inappropriately

So i have not been blogging that much recently and the major reason is that i have just not been bothered. Most of the people who read my blog have their own, so they know the reticence that seems to fall over you when you sit down in front of this screen. There has actually been many a time over the last few months when i load up this 'Post new blog' screen, stare at it for a while then go off to look at the World of Warcraft forums. Still we have succeeded in increasing our number and converted Steve '12inchesaround' and Pa 'devilsoldhissoul' to our congretation, which is good and well. Now we get to sample the twisted Malkavian nether regions of Pa's psyche and Steve egotistical self-indulgent rants. Over the summer i am sure that our absent friends, ie Joan and Liam will get off their heinies and actually let us know what is happening in their lives, as probably living with them wont be enough

I have just finished my last essay for University today and have been forced to accompany my missus to the conputer lab so she can type some crazy post-grad thing so i said i will catch up on my blogging. In the last three weeks i have written the equivelant of a second FYP in essays. The one i handed in today was for a really difficult politics class i have but it was actually very interesting when i started getting into the books. Call me a nerd but i enjoyed reading John Locke's Letter on Tolerance and Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary. I have spent so much time over the last few weeks writing and editing my essays that i am unable to stop going back over what i write and checking does it make sense, flow right, and sound okay, hence this being probably one of the most grammatically correct, well spelt posts i have ever done. While the sociology essay was predictably shite and boring, the two political papers i wrote were very interesting. The one i did on Security actually made me think that i would like to pursue it in a post-grad, i am sure i saw a Security Studies post-grad somewhere. The one i did on classical writers made me want to get more of their stuff and read it on my own time, i could actually understand it and thought a lot of it was applicable and relevernt today.

To counter-balance this new nerdy trend i have been captivated by the new Big Brother. I know that it is heavily edited and filled with weirdos but i just love to sit and watch them all acting out. Its something that is fun to do in real life but for some reason people dont like you staring at them for hours on end in public. I like to think of it as a sociological experiment. We will se how they play out over the summer.

So i am off to Fanore for the weekend for some rest and relaxation. That frickin last essay really took a lot out of me. Myself and Kerrin are heading down till Monday. A weekend of rest and recuperation should be great fun, plus the Eurovision is on tomorrow night and i am bringing my lap-top so i can play Civ 4. It is looking like a good weekend.

Worst. Holiday. Ever!!!!!!

SO this weekend was like, totally, the worst weekend i have ever had to like, you know, experience!! Eoin, sooo totally forced me to come on some complete waste of time that was his 'roadtrip' to the freaking Giants focking Causeway!!!! I mean, i like so had an uber eventful weekend planned!!!!

I suppose you could say it started with Christophers, like, birthday on thursday night! I sooo had more important prior commitments to i arrived late but the party was really only waiting for me to arrive before it got started!!!! Everybody who was anybody was there, apart from Mein Kamp, who like totally would have blown all the trolly-dollies there right out of the frigging water!!!. Anyway, it was a quiet affair, so overrated, i was like so brutally attacked and like my hand was completelly gashed to pieces and my keys stolen!!!!! I mean, like what sort of lower class tripe do i hang with, i am sooo much better than them!! lol

The next day i was sooo hungover, well less hungover and more, like, not hungover! Eoin rented this complete monstrosity of a people carrier, i was mortified!!!!! There were like seven of us in the car and while i said i was like comfortable it was actually like hell and i, like totally hated every second of it lol!!! We eventually arrived in Eoins 'house' in Naven that evening and i like so had the worst meal of my life. Eoin's mother like totally only made four home-made pizzas, homemade brown bread, gave free beer, toast, spuds and for desert we only got like five bowls of crisps, tortillas, nuts, chocolate and sweets. Talk about living below like the breadline!!!

Next day we saw some like, totally lame pile of rocks called Newgrunge or some shit!! Something to do with ancient people and the sun or some like totally boring shite. I mean really!!!! Next we were dragged off to some complete culchie Wexford hill that was supposedly like the tallest pub in Ireland, duh Eoin its like, friggin Good Friday!!!! After getting sooo completely lost we found ourselfe in like some resemblance of civilization in Terenure, it turns out that Eoin had some totally great plan for a complete short cut. Christchurch is like sooo not a shortcut Eoin!!!!!!!

After getting a guided tour of the Red Cow roundabout for like the second time we started heading up to like the land of the IRA!!! For some crazy reasons the GC (giants causeway for all ye tards!!) was closed or something so we went and like just managed to get a B&B that was like a complete hole. We all had to stay in this room that was like completelly huge and we all got our own single bed, i mean at least throw me a friggin bone and give me a queen-size friggin bed!!!! So we go look at some complete deathtrap that is some ropebridge over likea 200ft drop, i mean what are these weirdo doing on islands in like the middle of nowhere that they need a complete waste of space that is a bridge. Roysh i was like sooo bored but Eoin made us climb mountains and take like a million pictures of some stunning vistas or some crock, i mean i was like not even able to use my friggin phone!!!!

That night was spent in some complete hole of a hotel that had some steak that was only just edible while everyone completely scoffed theirs down saying it was focking delicious or something, i mean they are all like pigs or something!!!! After buying some tripe of beer we like so had to sit in a pub and play completely lame games of pool and darts for ages!!!!. i like totally forgot about how much fags stink and my clothes were like completey reeking when we got backt o the B&B and opened our drinks there. I had to have like a complete prehistoric shower, lame life!!!!

I will like totally finish this litany of disaster tomorrow, the library is like closing and i have to go home and catch a few zzzz, lame lame lame!!!!

This has nothing to do with my road-trip but is a picture of bendy Elain Ryan doing some funky spinning shit. I know this is a bad picture, she has put on a lot of weight in recent years

The crew gather, ready to embark on a journey that would test the limits of their endurance and strength of character. The tension and excitement is palpable as they stand in front of the ancient shrine to Lugh, waiting to receive the puissent blessing only the mighty solar God-head can bestow. Newgrange is also in the background

Eoin, with his steely gaze barely contains behind his jet black visors, transfixes the road with a single glance. In the background Paul cavorts with his eager harem. Christopher remains unseen after the size of his 'junk' is disclosed by an errant rodent. (insider-jokes are for tomorro!!)

Paul points out the 12 ft troll he just tossed single-handedly to the watery depths some three kilometres beneath this flimsy barely suspended 'rope' bridge. Behind him the natives barely conceal their boundless joy, Kerrin is struck dumb with awe

Abercrombie (left) & Fitch (right) enjoy a day at the Giant's Causeway.

I aint dead

Alright so i hear the multitudes screaming for some more words of wisdom from the mouth of Paul. I am down in the library trying to fulfill some of my electronic obligation to all asunder as well as update shit and look up stuff. Perhaps i should not have left this old blogging til last cuz i do not want to re-hash all the stuff i already said.

I am very much relaxed at the mo, i have no essays due until week 12, i.e 4 weeks time so i am just hanging aroung doing sweet fuck all. I should really start doing something. As the the end of college gets closer i realise how little i actually have to do. I have been doing less in college as the years go by rather than more. My lectures this year are all pretty interesting but if there is no percentages going for attendance then i usually dont go. I know i am wasting a huge opportunity but i just cant motivate myself to go. There was a weekend conference on there last Saturday and Sunday on the Israeli/Palestinian thing with speakers coming from American, Israeli, and Palestinian universities as well as yerman who runs the labour party, or else the Socialist party. Did i go, hell no.

To be honest i was recovering from the lack of sleep that arose from the Post Grad Ball. I went along in all my glad-rags with my glamorous Lady and we balled the night away. Fun was had by all. The only downer was that i had to be up at eight the next morning to give a presentation at nine. Now everyone knows how much i like my sleep so that class was absolute hell. I bull-shitted a bit on Marx and Jews then for the next 2 hours tried to force my eyes to stay open and my brain to engage in reality rather than the soft world of dreams. There was only 9 of us in the class so there was no chance for a quick snooz but i have been told that my eyes were rolling around in my head. Still it was worth it, i go to rent out a spiffing tux and the bands and Dj that were there were well good, apart from the DJ's like of Nirvana, and rock music that had all the girls jumping around risking all their poor ankles, i really wonder how they do it.

Hmm i am really out of practise with this blogging malarchy, what does one write about in these things. The Students Union elections are on this week and appearantly this is the biggest turn-out of candidates in the SU history. I am someway interested in it this year, ironic since i will not be here to see any changes, because i know a lot of people running for the position. I actually went to the hustings, a platform for them to give their speil, yesterday and it was good enough. Most of it was predictable enough but there were some funny bits from the suited druggy Ra-head who kept shouting at people and eventually i cringed every thime he spoke. ANother unexpected bit was a friend of mine Sinjin, a long-haired left-wing hippy, actually convincing Chris and Liam, two right-wing disgustingly cute bigots, that he would be the best candidate. There is a reason he pretended to be Jesus in his posters.

i will leave off there but i will post again about my summer escapades, money problems and those long hairs i find on my pillows.

Picture Review part II

The delight of finishing the F.ucking Y.oung P.andas, i have at least one day of Rag Week














Niall, chillaxin on the Canary Islands.















Kerrin falls for the Irish Charm yet again, with horrific consequences

A picture review up to this point

Carving up the some wicked powder on the piste's in Italy. Forget the fact that i fell over soon after this picture, i still kick ass.












Joan and Grainne at Eoin's birthday, best you dont ask












God, i am a sexy beast....Kerrin is too bad either

Pout Central in the aftermath of the exams

Damn right i am a saint

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Hail Britannia.....ha

You know its one thing to have written a huge long post and then lose it but its another to write a huge long post, pay for the privilege of using the internet and then lose it all. grrrr. Anyway i am just writing to sate the hunger of those mewling creatures whose only purpose in life seems to be tasting the sweet necter of pauls words. I am in London at the minute in the hotel lobby doing a bit of study. Thats write you heard me right, it has to be done cuz i have been putting it off for so long, i am just doing an hour or two of it before i meet up with shea and we go to the Natural History Museum which should be fun, i am meeting up with Rachel then for a while afterwards.

I will blog about my snowboarding last week when i get home and can post some pictures but it was indeed very good fun. I have been in London since yesterday and have mostly just been walking around. I went to the Museum of Art and Design yesterday which was full of cool shit from Asia, India, Europe and Africa throughout the ages, some class samuri swords and statues and stuff. It was when i went to the comtempory stuff that i decided that i should go look at some modern art, you know how that feeling just comes upon you, well James does i'm sure.

So off i went down to the Tate Modern on the Thames. It was free in like the other place so i just strolled around to my leisure. I saw all the stuff which included some Dali, Bacon and Picasso but all in all i did not really like it. Perhaps it is my complete lack of artistic knowledge or perhaps it was the lack of slepp but i came out thinking that i have just seen mostly a pile of rubbish, i was just not in the mood for thinking about things myself. It was also mostly paintings except for the warehouse full of white boxes and i mostly prefere abstract sculpture or architecture, the museum itself was pretty class and led to a really funky bridge over the Thames.

Afterwards i went home and freshened up and then myself and Shea made our way to Kingston to see rachel's play. It started off in the Theatre with a bit of interpretive dance about getting ready for a night out and then they were handing out invitations and jumping off the stage and it ended up with a conga line through housing estates and dark alleys till it lead to a pub and the rest of the play was in a function room in the back. I must say that Rachel was the best sex crime victim i saw in long time. So between that crazy shit and the Tate in general and then this morning a looked at conor's blog my mind feels funny. The world is gone loco, there is no Truth only lots of truths, its po-mo, or maybe neo-po-mo.....ya

As for amanda, i actually had a dream about you last night, i was in New Zealand in Aucland and rang you to meet you but i got mistaken and said i was in Wellington and then my credit ran out.

And Laina, i though that God acted in his mysterious way and smote down all camera's in that nest of iniquity. i remember mine stopping work in the pub beforehand and only starting to work back in the Hostel. I will have to see this picture, i hope it is not that one with Robert.......

A Withered Horse runs among us

Yip i do be sick and i aint the only one. This post may be a bit out of date cuz the worst has passed but between Eoin's pneumonia, Liams strang rash/throat infection combo, joans racking cough and my feeling like poo i think Mr Pestilence has been having a jolly good time. I personally blame my parents for making me eat meat, i never got sick when i stuck to the potatoes, joan dropping us in the wilderness and making us walk home probably did not help either. I have been chugging the cough syrup like water but i can nae seem to shake it, i hate being sick and i really really want to get better soon.

My exams are ongoing but i have not really been doing anything. I do have one on wednesday but i have yet to start it. I am enjoying myself not studying though, i dont regret not doing more. I will be glad when they are over though, then its straight onto the FYP, i am trying not to think about that one. I am so dedicated to the stufy that i even went to Dolans last night with Liam, Steve and Chris. Twas a good night until my contact lens fell out and that really pissed me off. Perhaps it is because i am wearing them so much more these days but i just cannot stand being blind any more, I dont know how people who have the same eye-sight as me can go through the day not wearing glasses. I just cant function without them, you have not a clue what is happening around you and since you cant see a persons lips, face or gestures properly i find it harder to follow conversations and shit as well. Anyway after that happened and we came back from town i just went home and skipped the after-party party. Not that it helped though, i woke up today with a horrible hangover and i only had a few pints and one vodka shot. uhhh i cant wait for all this exam, essay shit to be over.

I am still hopefully going snow-boarding after the exams. I dont know exactly when but hopefully that will be organised. I have been talking to a few people and the best thing seems to just get cheap flight somewhere and get accomodation and then rent the boards and the ski passes once you get over there. I will have steve look into it cuz he is my bitch. At the minute it is myself, steve Dave horan, kev and one of steves friends going and hopefully that will not change much. Kev may not be able to make it cuz of something but i stern 'NO' should convince him of his loyalties.

Old School City

So i went off the Danielle's 21st in Molly's on Saturday night. While i am more used to attending 21st in exclusive bars i deigned that perhaps this one could be worth attending. I got to see the ex-dyke Elaine whom i have not seen since Liam's 21 around 6 months ago. Her hair looks alright i suppose, she was mugged before she arrived thoug and lost one of her sleeves and around 6 inches off the bottem of her skirt. It was an old school meeting though i saw a good few of Danielles friends that i have not met in ages and Joan & Dave, Kev, Dave eile, Steve, Liam and Kerrin were out as well so there were plenty of us. I love parties, like Liam's Halloween one, where you know nearly everyone there and can just go from person to person and talk to them all. This one unfortunately did not include Conal and Pa and Laura was only around for a bit but what can you do. I tried to explain to Kerrin the tangled web of relationship in our group but it got a bit confusing when i got to Dave and Kev...hmmm.

And just so she can say that there is a picture of her on the 'net here is a licture (ha, that was actually a spelling error but i guess its a pretty good fraudien slip so i'll let it be. licture like picture and lick, get it?? i'm fucking hilarious) of myself and the missus. I think she enjoyed herself, perhaps up until the point Steve dipped her bag into a pitcher or beer, or was it the other way around??

And just to finish here is a picture of the gorgeous McMacin (well thats embarressing, i forgot how to spell Danielles name) Twins, Daneille on the right and Emma on the left. I actually got them mixed up when i came into the bar and was going to give out to Danielle for snubbing me before i realised that it was Emma that i was talking to. She did not recognise me either so i suppose i can forgive her, just

Auld lang sym was not sang here

Are'nt we just the cutest little school boys ever. So this is one of the few photo's i have of my New Years celebration down in Fanore. It twas a good laugh, conal, liam, myself, Dave, chris and steve (starting from left2right) as well as Kerrin, Laura, Yvonne and Joan (left2right again)

I was not sure if the caravan could take 11 of us but it all woked out in the end. Apart from the electricity going after 10 minutes and very a stressful half hour before we got it running again. Still we had gone an bought tons of candles in the meantime so we did not really use the electricy anybar, bar to power the running water which was pretty necessary. Like i said a good night was had by all. We had two swims, the last one of 2005 at around 10 with myself, liam and Dave being the only ones man enough to brave the frigit waters of the Atlantic without any sort of thermal protection. Later on then myself and Chris went for another dip at around 3. If anyone had seen us running half naked through the dunes holding hands in the rain, questions may have been asked but luckily we had pretty much the whole park to ourselves for the night. The next morning then we went for an olde-school walk along the beach and rock pools. Poor little conal was so excited about looking in all the rock pools, he even found a little jelly friend. We left early enough as driving in the dark sucks and very few people got sleep the night before (thanks liam & Chris). But it just goes to show that even without lights, TV or radio, good wholesome fun was had by all. We are thinking of having a return trip some time next semester and perhaps this time Mr Mullane can join us, plus if we are there for a few days we can organise swimming togs and surf boards. hmmm