Well if all the cool kids are doing it...

Hark, I hear a call, a call to all across the blogosphere, a call to write and pontificate. Who am I to refuse? So I will keep this short, like Laina I don't think there is much use in going in-depth into what I have done since blogging last; partially as it was only last January and also because not much of note has happened. I am just after finishing the term-time work for my Masters, all I have left to do is a thesis, but I am sure I will whip something up before September. I have also finished all three of my part-time jobs so if anyone has any casual labour going then drop me a line. In my last post I had just started working in the Writing Centre and I am actually very pleased in how that went. I was completely lost at first but then I started to realise that most of my students were far more nervous than me, by the end of it I was guru of all that is good writing, or at least people thought I was. I think most of the time simply having someone give your work a critical read over is all you need, there were times when I had post-grads come into me with essays that I was completely clueless about but they left delighted so i must have been doing something right. The best thing about it i think was the fact it made me a whole lot more critical of my own work, I now am constantly critiquing my own lay-out and editing - case in point, no spelling mistakes yet.

So this post will be more of a statement of intent. Looking back through my old blog postings I noticed we had a good community thing going and i think we should try and get that back again. Think back to the halcyon days of 04-05. Even though we were pretty much all still in college and doing the same thing we managed to talk about it an awful lot. Five years later we are all working/studying in a plethora of different jobs all around the place so there is no excuse that you don't have anything to write about. So if you are reading this leave a comment, or just a link to your own new post - challenge extended. While I cannot really talk with this relatively bland post but I see that we now have the ability to post polls and videos and everything on this thing,
so I for one will be trying to make it a bit more lively.

I am tired and going to bed, off to Derry tomorrow with my class for 4 days, should be a laugh. Will post again when I get back. I hope to see some more posts by then.

Interesting Site of the Day: Biological Rationale for Religion

Olde Schoole, Literally

So, as of Monday I am officially a post-graduate student back in UL. I am doing a Masters in Peace & Development Studies. What & What & What I hear you say, well in short its a Masters that studies conflicts around the world, what causes them and how can they be resolved. Hopefully by the end of it I will be better qualified for a job, probably in the UN, Foreign Affairs or maybe some NGO.

My class is pretty small, only 12 of us, and so far we have gotten on pretty well. I feel a bit under-experienced to be honest. f the twelve there are around 5 who have come straight from college and the rest are in their late twenties early thirties, with one guy in his fifties. They have all been working in real world jobs, in places like Peru, Washington, Chad, Darfur and Iraq. I am not sure what i can bring to the table. While we get on well, I do feel that there is, or at least will be, a bit of competition between us, there are only a certain amount of books and the lecturers only have a certain amount of time. I think I will have to get a bit Machiavellian on their ass.

So I have also gotten me a part-time job on campus. I have actually been a busy little bee for the last two weeks, making out lists every day and actually sticking to them. So after looking in lots of different places I chased down a job as Monitor in the new Jim Kemmy Building on campus. Basically what the job entails is me sitting behind a desk from 6 until 11 making sure noone steals the building. Its a handy number, mostly because i don't have internet access so I am forced to actually do some reading. I have actually read, and written notes on the required reading for 2 of next weeks classes. I am well nerdy I am. If there was one problem with the job however is that i get home pretty late. Since I only have 2 morning starts I don't see Steve in the morning and he is in bed by the time i get home at night, I usually only see dave for a bit before he heads to bed as well. That might change in a few weeks though as there may be someone else doign the job with me and we will work consecutive days, giving me a few evenings off.

All in all I am pretty excited about it, will see how it goes.

Until further notice

Will not be blogging for a while now. Think it will be a week or two before i write a proper post as

a) Ran out of money a week ago so cant afford internet cafe's
b) am now working 6 days a week, 10 hours a day so dont really have time
c) the free internet in the hostel is dial-up and has a 30min limit and since the page takes 5mins to load this page just cant do it.

will talk to all ye crazy cats later

Alright so i am not as tired today, well i should not be, just got out of bed. Now i can regale you with tales of my fun weeks work. When i arrived down to the wharf to start the unloading job i did not know who i was supposed to talk to but eventually i found these two British guys who looked as lost as i was and we went looking around until we found a woman who knew what was going on. She brought us up to the office to get kitted out in overalls and gumboots and stuff. When all that was finished she brought us down to the boat and was talking about how the first while is bad on the boat but then you get used to it once you are out at sea. I was a bit confused so i asked her when would we be getting back to port, she turns around and says "Umm, December 15th a think". Turns out i was with the wrong group all together and was 30 mins from heading out to sea for 8 weeks, i quickly ran away from that one.

The scaffolding firm i was working with was run by this religious group called the Brethren. Well its not run by them as such, just all the management belong to them and all their members work there. They are an odd Christian group, always wear long sleeves and pants, no smoking and no swearing on site. That was one of the hardest things, i mean have you ever gone an entire day without cursing? And i dont just mean the usual 4 letter words but 'Jeasus' or 'Damn' also included, was well hard. They also eat all their food separately so us non-religious zealots had our own area to have lunch. Was talking to one guy at lunch, an English guy, and he was saying how he was working with the company for months ands they still had not gotten rid of him even though he kept trying to convert them to Atheism, was leaving copies of The God Delusion around the office, kind of like reverse-evangelicalism i suppose.

I finished up up work for the last time here in Nelson. Off to Abel Tasman National Park for thew weekend for a three day hike. along the coastal track. Should be a laugh, going with one of the girls from the hostel and neither of us have ever done a multi-day trip before so it should be eventful. Luckily the weather is pretty hot at the minute and sunny so all will be good, just as long as the sand-flies keep away.

So work was retty eventful this week. Spent the first two days unloading boxes from a boat. Was told i was going to be unloading fish and i nearly refused to do it but the n it turns out that the fish have all been processed and are frozen and packed in boxes so that was alright. Was pretty hard work, throwing around 20kg boxes for hours at a time in -20 degrees. You would work for one hour then have a half hour break. It was good except for the fact that i was going from -20 to +20 degrees and so caught a mother of a cold for the next day. I was working putting up scaffolding for the rest of the week which was outside in the sun and was grand work. Good thing i was not that scared of heights cuz i was putting up stuff 4 and five stories up. I had no problem walking around as soon as the guard rails were up but the guys who were doing it full time were walking around 40ft above the ground with nothing between them and the ground. Lunatics.

Had other more interesting things to say but am just too tired to be honest. Leaving Nelson next week, looking forward to that.

Bleeding Hearts 4 d Win?

Have you ever noticed that the day goes by so much faster when you are actually enjoying yourself? The last three days i have been working in the NZ equivalent of Atlantic Home care moving around rows and stock and stuff, pretty mindless work, frustrating at times but nothing too strenuous, except for the fucker i was working with. He was this local kiwi fello in his forties i think and had to be the most disagreeable shite i have ever worked with. Within 2 hours of meeting him he was giving out and swearing under his breath whenever i might put something in the wrong place, or a few times, when he was in the wrong but blamed me instead. I mean, i had barely even met he guy. Anyhow, the first two days when pretty slowly and tempers got frayed a few times, thankfully yesterday he came down with AIDs or something and had to go early. He did not come in at all today and instead this other kiwi fella was working, he was pure sound, lived in Ireland for a year and was well easy going, the day went so much faster when you can actually have a bit of a laugh.

With all my time to be thinking stuff during the day i often come up with things that i say "Oh, i'll put that in my blog" but then i often forget. One thing that i did remember was something i thought of after i heard that Liam's car had been wrecked again by knackers, by 14 year olds this time. I was just wondering what can you possibly do to stop this kind of shit. One side says pump them in prison or even just shoot them. Would this have any long term benefit though, if put in prison they will just come out an even more hardened criminal, probably a drug addict as well, and shooting them will probably not have that much of an effect, just look at the States and the Death penalty. The other side says that you should try and rehabilitate them, to look for the deeper causes and address them. I kind-of fall into this camp, you dont get the instant satisfaction of retribution or revenge but thinking in the long term it might turn out better. The problem with that one is that so many people would just take advantage of it and its next to impossible to see the results. It is also hard to turn around and try to actually help the little shite that ruined your motor and cost you so much.

What if...

So New Zealand are out of the World Cup ehh, humble pie all round i think.

What do you call 14 guys sitting around watching a rugby game? The All Blacks

A man was found dead in Auckland Harbour wearing nothing but high heels, and All Black jersey and fishnet stocking. Police removed the All Blacks jersey to prevent embarrassment to the family.

I started work in a new job today, on another construction site, removing a scaffolding, hopefully it will last another day or two. It does give a lot of time to think thogh, like the last job. What i was pondering today was; what if tomorrow, you woke up at home in your 16 year old body with all the memories of what happened between now and then. What would you do? WOulod you do the same subjects at school, hang around with the same people, do the same course in college? Then theres the big stuff, do you remember enough stuff over the last 8 years to be able to bet on it to make money, would you try and warn people about atuff, i mean how would you anonymously let the US Government know that Sept 11th was going to happen. Stuff like that. kept me occupied for at least 2 hours.

Paul: Arms of Steel, Heart of Gold

So i arrived in Nelson a few days ago. Its a big enough city, little smaller than Limerick, but all nice and sunny and on the beach so that is good. Will stick around here for a few weeks, not more than 4 i hope.....take note Liam, and then head up to the North island and work my way around up there

So just back form a few hours work wheeling barrows of cement and moving blocks. It was just a one-day job for a guy who was doing some DIY in his back garden. After i finished dumping around 30 loads of cement down the back of his house he asked me to level and smooth off one end while he worked from the other. Now brute labour i can do but jobs that require refinement and skill i am not the best at. I think i did well enough, he did offer to 'finish up' for me while i went and lifted some blocks but i think hollows and ridges just add character to footpath.

Now i got the job through a job agency and was pretty lucky to get one so soon. Walked in the day after i arrived and they had a job for me today. The job today was also cash in hand so that was all nice. Got on well with yerman who i was working for and he took my number and said he has more work to do, including some down on their beach-house in Marlborough Sounds and that next time he would pay me direct cuz this time he had to pay through the agency and they took a slice. I was talking away to his wife and while i was having lunch i was playing away with his little 3 year old kid. The child pheromones were working again and we got on like a house on fire. The mother was actually saying that i should try and join up with some of the after-school camp things they have in some places. Its just time to do homework and activities with the kids for 2 or 3 hours everyday after school , money is supposed to be pretty good and she said that often they are glad to get male applicants. Something to think about.

So my plan for the next month has been thrown a little askew. I am not working this week. The job i was on finished and yourman was being very unefficient at getting us a new one, like he would ring early on morning we were supposed to e working to say the job is not on, or else on days off we would get a call at 6:45 saying that there is work for us that day. So i have worked 17 days and made a bit of money for the next while so hopefully that will be good. I had also planned to go to Dunedin this Friday but am onw thinking of just going tomorrow.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, now sure yet, there was a huge snow dump last night and one if the guys i have been hanging aorund with, Emmerson, asked if want to stay for the weekend and go snowboarding. Dont think i will though, will trust that there will still be snow when i come back from Christchurch on the 16th.

Speaking of leaving and coming back, said goodbye to several people that were leaving the hostel today. Have been hanging around with them for the last month and they were the ones i went on my weekend trips and hikes with. I have written about this before during my stay in Dunedin but to be honest i think it will be a constant theme in my stay here. I was talking to Sarah about this on MSN just this morning and what she said is true, you have to get to know people very quickly over here and then just as quickly they are gone forever. ITs very emotionally draining but i think unavoidable, the only alternative is to become a recluse which is not fun either.

I am not too bad, Emmerson is still around for 2 months, as is Makoto the Japanese lad. I am looking forward to leaving Queenstown though, just have t do my bungee jumps and that is everything i want to do here done.

ON a completely different note, i am thinking of getting my hair cut. Have put up a poll on my bebo site to see which one people think looks better. DO IT!





So am talking at this very minute to Joan and Sarah on MSN.

a working man i am.

Does anyone else think it is strange that i am not really that bothered/tired after working an 11 hour day? After a week i am slowly getting used to it i think, getting up at 6 is never fun but at least i am no longer having to physically drag my body from the bed. The day goes pretty fast as well, think it is because i am actaully enjoying the work. The one thing about it is that i do not have a lot of time to do stuff, an example being the post ing of pictures on the internet. I finished work at six, came straight to the internet cafe to check out my stuff, have to go back to the hostel now and get my gum gear, go down there for an hour or two before it closes at nine, cook my dinner and then try and be in bed by 10:30, busy busy busy.

My weekends are pretty busy as well, like i said i went up that mountain on Saturday and after some more research i found it was actually 1200 metres tall which i suppose makes it a Munro, now i just have to do 8 more before i beat the record Niall set when he was nine. The walk, while tiring, was pretty enjoyable, understand a bit better what Pa sees in the Outdoor Pursuits.

So on Sunday we rented a car and went off on another trip. This time i saw:

The Ford of Bruinin (this was where Arwen called the flood to wash away the Black Riders
The River Anduin and where the Argonoth were (the river they went down with the huge statues on it)
Also saw some mountain range that was used as a backdrop once or twice when Gandalf was heading to Minis Tirith

I actually think that i have exhausted all the LOTR sites within a 3 hour drive from Q-town so might actually start going places for other reasons now. ON sunday we were in a town called Wanaka which is around an hours drive away. It was all sunny and nice and we just sat around the lake before goig to the local cinema which was called Cinema Paridiso. It was pretty class, small eough but all the seats are either old armchairs, sofas or Laz-E-Boys. They have an intermission at half time and you can buy freashly cooked muffins and cookies or preordered pizzas and stuff. Went to see History Boys cuz it was the only thing on, a bit boring but alright.

oops, my hour is nearly up, must be off. ONe good thing about work is that i have a lot of time to think about stuff and actaully composed this in my head during the day. Hurrah for the win

On physical excercise and Fish

oh lordy i am tired. So did a full week of work this week and i have to say that it was not actually that bad. Getting up at 6:15 is never fun but am getting used to it a wee bit. Start work at seven and then finish at six. I have been lucky this week as i have been working outside but the weaher has been fine all week. From wednesday on it was even geting hot enough during the afternoon that you could go aorund in t-shirts. It feels so good to be out in the sun again though, it makes me happy, i have always been white but my skin is so pasty after 12 months of darkness that its good to get a bit of the old UV rays.

So working hard all week thought we would take it easy during the weekend. No such chance. Went to my capoeira class last nihgt, noone else turned up so i just had a private class, which was 'class' har har har. The trainer's name is Omar and he works ont he site as well so i get on pretty well with him. Today i had a glorious lie-in till 10 and then myself and Emmerson, a South African guy who is also long-term in the hostel went on a humoungous hike up a local mountain called ben Lomand, if anyone has Google Earth ye should check it out. Its a 2600 ft peak just over queenstown and we made it a 5-6 hour trek up and down. I was so pooped going up, emmerson is some kind of mountain goat who is crazy into his hiking, biking and other active shit back home so i was struggling to keep up. Around 2000 feet up i was just shuffling along with my poor legs burning but i had my chocolate bar just before we hit the snow and managed to make it up to the top. The snow bit was fun, we were not really in the proper gear and at some stages it was more like rock climbing but we eventually shuffled our way up and made it up there, took a piss of the top and everything, it symbolised me pissing on Queenstown.

Just back now and i am completely wrecked, will head backt o the hostel and spend an hour or so in the hot-tub before we are heading to a sushi-party tonight. One of the guys who used the stay in the hostel, a japanese fellow called Makoto left around 2 weeks ago to an apartment and is having a kind of house-warming thing tonight and said he would cook us some sushi. Now i dont eat sushi but it should still be a good night. Dont really feel like drinking though, want a proper nights sleep and was on the wine last night. Early morning again tomorrow as we are renting a car and heading up north to Arrowtown and Wanaka. Hopefully i will get a few more LOTR shots, i know that the Fords of Bruinen are up that direction, thats the river where Arwen called the flood to wash away the Black Riders.

i have a lot of time during work to think about stuff but seeming a lot of it i have forgotten. Another post may be made tomorrow if i remember any of it. Plus it good to see you reading Pa, none of those pictures are up on Bebo yet so dont sully yourself by checking just yet, congrats on teh Harry Potter books, another gold star for Shona/Shauna,

Of Jobs and the Lord of the Rings

So i have not really been doing that much blogging lately, thats partly because of lazyness and my unwillingness to spend money but this week it's because i got myself a job. Yes that job in the construction site i took and started on Wednesday, after a bit of humming and hawing on behalf of the manager, whoever said pester-power does not work is deluded.

Ya so that work is pretty tough, 11 hours a day and it is in demolitions so i am just tearing up carpets, knocking through walls and smashing town plaster ceiling all day, as well as lugging stuff to the skip, not very complicated but pretty damn tiring. Getting up at half 6 is a bit of a culture shock but i am getting used to it, work for nearly an hour before the sun rises. I am working with three guys from the hostel and the other guys on the site are pretty cool as well. One week down another 3 to go. I am earning 15 dollars an hour which works out at a little under 7 euros an hour but is actaully quite good by NZ standards, its nice to actually have a bit of an income at last. The really fun bit is that the building i am demoloshing is that shit-hole hostel that i was staying in for a while and that was charging throught he nose and making me sick. I think its poetic justice that i am now destroying it.

The house i decided not to take in the end. I went up and looked at it and met the housemates and while it is really nice and they are sound it is just too far from Queenstown for me to get in on time for the job. I have to be on the site for 7 and the buses dont actaully start till then so i had to forget about that. Felt kind of bad cuz my friend who was living there is pretty sick and had to move home to Dunedin and its an extra bother for him to sort it out but i say it will be snapped up pretty quick. I am staying instead in Bungi Backbackers which urns out to be one of the cheapest i have stayed in, 18 dollars a night. I have made a good few friends here and the management have a far morte relaxed view towards long-termers, technically there is a one week maximum stay policy but if they have space they do not mind you staying longer so thats all good.

Since i am working nearly 60 hour weeks now we have decided to make the most of our weekends and so i have managed to convince a few of the guys and gals that we should rent a car for the weekend and go for some hikes around the place. However my nefarious plot is to suggest and organise all the places that are reqally nice but coincidently are also Lord of the Rings locations, which it is hard not to around here. Today we went up to Deer Park Heights and there are tons of animals wondering around that you can feed, deers, llamas, alpaca, different kind of goats and sheep and stuff. That kept the girls happy but the real reason i wanted to go there was beacuse the peak of the hill was a big scene in the Two Towers. It was when the Rohirrim are moving their women and children from Edoras to Helms Deep and are attacked by wargs, that entire scene was shot up here. I was like a big kid, took tonnes of pictures that i will put up later, probably on bebo. Tomorrow we are heading up Glenorchy way, which is where all the Isengard scenes were shot, thats very exciting.

Edit: In other news, do everything ye can do to sort out this Shannon-Heathrow malarky, i dont want to have to fly into Cork or Dublin next May, that would not be mighty irksome. There was a march tonight i hear and some sort of petition is going around, that would please me

i said it would all work out all right in the end

woah, so Paul has not been updating much recently eh. Well i am pretty strapped for cash at the minute and trying to cut down all my spending, and a large part of that is the internet so i have nae had the time to write anything here.

All that is going to change soon however as things are finally coming together for Paul. Yes i have managed to find both a house and a job. Both are not ideal but i think i will take them. The job is on a construction site. I have decided that i am needing the money so i am going to work full time for a month and then leave and spend the last month snow-boarding before i leave Queenstown. The construction job will be tough enough i say, its from 7 in the morning til 6 in the evening 5 days a week. on the other hand it pays a few dollars over minumum wage so i should make a bit out of it. From what yerman told me it seems that i will be involved in Demolitions so that sounds like fun.

The house thing is kind of lucky for me but at the expense of other. A friend of mine came up from Dunedin to work here in Queenstown for the season and was put up in a house because he works for the Ski companies, however he has fallen il and has to go home for an operation and so said i can have his room. Hurrah for sick people. Its a house and costs around 80 dollars a week, which is dirt cheap. Unfortunately however it is a bit outside town, around 20 minutes cycle. I would like to take it but i will check out bus timetables and stuff first.

thats it really, things are slightly looking up, huzzay

Of Belt-Tightening and French Maids

Back in Queenstown i do be. Met up with yet another bum from Ireland when i did. A fello called Rob that i used work with in ISI is over for a week so we are just having a few drinky-poos and what not, none of the expensive stuff. I think he might have gotten the wrong impression of the place though cuz the first pub we went into was strangely enough filled with attractive women dressed in French Maid outfits, believe it or not this is not the usual scenario in Queenstown bars. So we hung around there for a while as the girls were now on the tables and bar dancing around, which was nice, the bar staff were all taking pictures fro0m behind and below. Anyhow after a while the DJ cam on the speakers and announced how "hot it was getting, maybe we need some......firemen!!!" At which stage a ton of guys in firemen outfits ran in, at which stage we left.

So bar the occasional drinking not much going on, i am back in the Black Shep in a proper warm, clean room without condensation on the windows and dripping from the roof. Will be here for 2 weeks then have to move again. goingtop be pro-active this time and book a proper hostel a few weeks in advance. See i have also looked at my bank account and it is not doing that well. Anna's visit really took a lot out of it, typical women. So i have decided to tighten up the bootstraps and give myself a budget and try and stick to it. Cutting down on all my stupid expences, which unfortunately involve all my internet time. I am a member of the gym and library and have a ski pass so hopefully if i justy stick to those things i will not be tempted to spend that much else. I am not in dire straits by any means but just cant continue like i have been spending.

I joined a job agency in town and will wait for a call from them but i think that i will also start randomly sending my CV to a few of the hotels around the place and see tdo they have any wokr. I do not want a full time job though, cuz that would just make all the money i spent no snow boarding stuff a waste of money, 15-30 hours a week is what i am looking for.

On another random note however, i was walking down to the gym last night when i saw this guy practising Capoeira over by the lake front. I went over and asked him if he knew of any classes that go on around town and while he mentioned one or two he invited me to go training with him a few times a week. I told him i had only been doing it a year or two cuz he was pretty class and it turned out he had been doing it 20 years, but he said that that was no problem as it is just easier to train with somebody else and that he would be able to teach me some stuff as well. So hopefully i will start getting my 1 on 1 free capoeira lessons next week. Then after talking to him and walking 50 yards down the road i met another South American guy i know (they are common as dirt over here) and his friends, also from South America. I got talking to them and it turnes out they are looking for a house, gave them my number and we may go looking this weekend. Then while in the gym got talking to a guy about his tattoo and it turned out he was from Ennis, its a small world.

Thats one thing that weird over here. When you are travelling on your own you have to learn to be self-sufficient, or insular as one girl i was talking to about it said. If you are not with a group then you have to get used to spending a lot of time just on your own and learning to be happy with that. But you also have to learn to be more out-going and willing to talk to complete random strangers, to initiate conversation with people anywhere cuz otherwise you will never make any headway. Have to admit that was not very easy for me at the beginning but you get used to it.

I will be well insular this weekend though. Have pre-ordered the new Harry Potter book and will be picking it up on Saturday morning. Its being released at 11 o clock in the morning over here so i though, "super, i will get to read it before all ye bums back home" then i realised that with the time difference it would be just about midnihgt in Ireland ant thats when the big releases are at back home, grrr. Will probably spend the weekend reading that, its nearly 800 pages long so i should finish it in a day or so, a day if i dont sleep til late. Sounds like a plan.

Random Saturday update

So i said i must update ye with all the new happenings going down here in D-Town (thats Dunedin by the way). Not much to be honest. The gym is going well, dont know how long that will last, i have stopped taking books out of the library as i never d anything otherwise. I have started working in the hostel part-time and will do so on the days i am not working. Since such a thing is random i think i will just ask the boss to book me in until the middle of June and then when i am leaving i will pay him for the days i did not work.

So the big news is that i am now the proud owne of a second-hand, black, Solomon snowboard! I got the board and the straps for 200 dollars off this guy who was getting maaried and moving up to the North Island. It was originaly 230 but i managed to argue him down cuz i am class. All i have left to get now is the boots and then i am flying it, huzzah.

I do be tired at the minute, had te worst night sleep last night. Missed a call from the Recruitment Office on Friday with work and she said there might be some this week so i kept dreaming that the phone was ringing and when i woke up it was only 2 o clock, this happened around every hour for the whole night. I was actually having lucid dreams inbetween where i dramt i woke up and then realised that that was a dream and then woke up from that one etc, etc, all in all a very bad night sleep. I should really go to bed but instead i think i will go to the late showing of the Pirates of the Carribean, find out how that stupid thing actually ends.

the only reason i put titles is to differenciate between posts, they usually dont mean anything

So whats happening in the crazy topsy-turvy life of Paul i hear you ask. Well nothing major to be honest. Things are kind of becoming routine at the minute, this is of course a good and bad thing. I have finally gotten off my ass and organised my IRD number and also gone and set up a bank account, its empty but at least it is there. I also went and got a hair cut today, which i have been building myself up to for forages. It looks alright, will take a bit of getting used to. She took off around 3 inches and somehow made it curly, perhaps i will put up photos, i will wait and see if i approve of it first. On a sad note i can no longer tie it up in a ponytail, on a plus point it is no longer in my eyes.

I have joined the local gym for a month so i can feel a little better about the amount i am drinking. We have ahd several good nights recently, drinking games are featuring largely; 4 kings, benga mostly, plus they have these things called pitchers in the bars which are great fun. People have been coming and going in the hostel and i am unsure off what it is going to be like next week. Reason being that there are three of us who have been here for ages and now one of them has gotten a job and the other is leaving to go touring for a few weeks. What am i going to do to fill my days. I am thinking i have two options, 1) try and work in the hostel so i get free accomodation, and spend the rest of my time hanging around and going to the gym so i will be in peak shape for the slopes, 2) try and get a real job for 4 weeks and pay for the accomodation. 1 could be alright cuz you never know what could happen next week, a class group or person could come in and lots of fun would be had, 2 would be handy because of money but then it is hard to get a job for just 3/4 weeks and then i would be paying for the hostel. Both are things to consider.

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.

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.

Happy Almost Halfway to St Patricks Day Day

Roysh, so i have just got the chance to update after my few days in Boston. I have a spiffing good time with Mrs Lainadoodle. I was only in the city for 24 hours but fu times were had. We stayed in the same hostel that the New Paltz group stayed in last year and that was kindof weird. The whole being in Boston again was kind of odd, i kept imagining Amanda or James to run out. Laina was actually staying in the room Rachel was supposed to be in last year.

So i went and did a wee bit of shopping which was helped by it pissing rain, we saw the Famine sculpture again but did not mock it this time. I actually went and spent a bit of money which was nice but a lot of the stuff over here is ver 'American' (obviously) and i nae like it. I went into a few stores that while they looked grand turned out that i was either a few shades too Caucasian or poverty-stricken to feel comfortable. We went down to Crossroads, the local irish bar to get something to eat and drink a wee bit. I had my first Magners of the summer, twas lovely. We then had a pitcher or two and some of the house beer in big glasses. Laina stole some stuff for me. Appearantly they are having a big celebration in all the irish pubs in the city in October called 'Halfway to St Patricks Day Day' which is a very good idea.

Now as i mentioned in my previous post we got a nite-club called Julliet's reccommended to us but unfortunately we could not find it so we went into this big one with a queue in frint of it that seemed popular, plus there was no cover. It was only inside that we realised that while it may not be an actual gay-bar it was very...very gay friendly. Still the music was alright and we had a few drinks there. It was my first time in a gay bar and while i dont consider myself homo-phobic in the least it was a little jarring to see so many same-sex couples dancing away. Now New Paltz and Maine is choc full of lesbiens but that was actually the first time i had ever seen two guys kiss, poor innocent irish guy that i am.

The next morning we got up resonably early at nine and while i checked out we settled on going to the Science Museum. That was a good laugh even though unfortunately there was no Lord of the Rings Exhibition there. The first place we looked at was all these optical illusions that in my state at least meade me feel very quesy. There was also a butterfly garden there that had huge flapping things in it, the terrified look on Laina's face made it worthwhile. Lots of other cool stuff, i bought a venus-fly-trap which will be cool. We left it too late when we were leaving though and i very nearly missed my bus home which would have sucked major ass, luckily the taxi-driver was hanging for a piss so he was in as much of a hurry to get to the station as i was.

Now hows that for an update. Today was my last day working in the book section at work and it shall be relatively dearly missed. I only have 5 or 6 working days left and i still have to organise my trip to New York. I was going to do it this evening but i started watching Kung-fu movies + Manga + X-Men2 so i got kind-of sidetracked. I was reading the Irish Independant as well today and heard about the vandels at Thomand Park. Appearantly they left a note saying "fuck the guards, fuck the system, signed scumbags" Now that note tells me they were either very socially aware knackers or what i think more likely is that they are the middle-class scowbs of Caherdavin, i know the type........