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.

Where Paul talks about the Harry Potter Film

Will try not and give away spoilers but tough if i do. Plus i presume this will be of no interest whatsoever to Steve and Pa, philistines that they are. So just back from ye olde Harry Potter film. Went with three fellow hostel people in this pretty sweet cinema. It was real old and had been a theatre for decades so there was big sweeping stairs, fancy foyer, vaulted roofs and class balconies and stuff in the cinema room, cant really call itjust the 'screen' cuz it was prett big. Anyway the cinema was nice.

First impressions coming out of the movie was "Is that it?". Found it very underwhelming to be honest. Perhaps it is the book that it is based on. Order of the Phoenix is actually one of the best books in my opinion, mostly because the story actually starts going somewhere, its pretty big, and not as childish as the first few. I think that might have been the problem though, turning that type of book into a film was always going to be a tall order.

First of all they of course had to cut out large amounts of the story in order to make it a watchable length. It was a little over 2 hours long i think. So for fans of the book like myself it was a bt frustrating that they left out bits that i would have thought were important or just interesting. But then for people who did not read the book it seems a bit disjointed at times as they seem to take for granted that people will know what is happening behind the scenes. I seem to remember thinking the same after the last movie, but not to the same degree. It parts this one definately seemed rushed and too much was happening in too little time, the obligitary montages were trying to pack to much in and were leaving too much out.

The fact that this book was more of a placeholder in the series and was a bit more about character and plot development rather than action always meant that it was going to be an odd one. Even though it was relatively long it was all just buildig up to the climax at the end and so i felt not much was going on in between. Lots of Harry Potter being angry and angsty and the others trying to be understanding. Although saying that yerman Danieal Radcliff was far better in this than he was in others, perhaps cuz he did not have to do much except mope. He is not really looking much like a 14 yearold though. Guess its easier to make a 20-year old look 17 ala Dawsons Creek thatn to make a 17 ear old look 14. Yerone who played Hermione got a bit annoying after a while, just seemed to be outraged about stuff the whole time with her eyebrows going crazy and runing around in her peadophiles dream-jumper.

The ending was pretty class all the same but not sure if it was worth waiting for. I am definately glad i went to see it though, kind of had to be done. Roll on the 26th, have the book ordered.

Back to Dunedin....for a few days

So i have arrived back in Dunedin for a few days R&R to recover from the stress of hosting Dolans. Was a bit of a nightmare getting here but it all turned out in the end. Went to book a bus ticket this morning (how farsighted of me) except it turned out the bus was booked out. So pretty much i was stuck in Queenstown for another night without accomodation. Mightly irked i was talking to yerone from the bus company on the phone and she said that if i could get to a town called Cromwell, around an hour away then the bus might have emptied by then. So buses to Cromwell, dont be so silly. I had to swallow my pride and actually hitchhike. Was out i the freezing cold for nearly twenty minutes before i got a lift from a nice fello called Julien from Switzerland. Offered to pay him for some petrol but he refused. Very nice of him.

Of course that was not the end of my troubles. Managed to book the ticket for the bus but was three hours early, gave myself a little too much time to catch a lift. So luckily i found a library, with a graphic novel stand. So next time i look at my watch its five minutes past the bus departure. Picking up my ridiculously heavy rucksack i ran up and thankfully got the bus. Even though i broke two eggs that were in my bag, who would have thought they were so fragile. Now since i started staying in the hellhostel in Queenstown, Downtown Backpackers tell your friends to avoid it, i have started developing pneumonia. Well a sore throat and cough anyway. So i stopped int o a pharmacy before i left and bought some cough syrup. Unfortunately i did not have a spoon to measure it so i just took a few chugs from the bottle on the bus and hopped for the best. THink i might have ODed on it though, felt pretty sick the whole way down and pretty drowsy. The cough went away though. In one of my lucid moment on the bus did see something i thought was odd though. THis old woman got on a little after the first stop and the only place for her to sit was beside this teenage fello. The odd thing was they started talking and were at it for the entire 4 hour trip. Did not catch what they were talking about but it seemed quite animated, i think he gave her his number at the end.

So i am back in Central Backpackers until Monday when i head back to Queenstown to stay in the Black Sheep for another 2 weeks, which will be pretty nice. Its weird how homely this place feels, i would not mind hanging around here indefnately to be honest. The danger of a place being too comfortable. I even got a pure cheap rate in the hostel, works out at 15 dollars a night. The perks of being friends with the boss. Just going to get some beer and DVDs now and will just bum around for a few days. I told Richard, the owner, to get tickets to Harry Potter so 4 of us are heading to that on Sunday, should be a lorra fun.

So i am

The Aftermath

So Anna and Rob have headed off to whatever godforsaken country they come from and things are getting back to normal here in Queeenstown. Twas a good two weeks while they were here, lived up the Queenstown lifestyle, drinking, parachuting, racing through canyons at high speed in jet boats. I am trying to put up pictures on bebo but am being stymied by damn computers at every turn.

So i have decided that i am going to head back to Dunedin for a few days just to chill out before i come back here next week and start looking for a job. A big reason i am leaving is that i am staying in the hostel of death here at the minute. Its around 30 years old and i dont think has ever been re-decorated. The walls are all covered in carpet and condensation drips from the roof, mildew is everywhere and the service is shit. I got no sheets or duvet for my bed and had to hunt them down myself as management vanishes and reception closes at 7 in the evening. God it is so dingy, perhaps i will put up some pictures of that just to show you what i have to put up with. Whats worse is that it is being demolished in two weeks so they just do not give a shit anymore, it is no shit that its not part of any of the hostelling groups so no discounts and so it is also one of the most expensive hostels that i have stayed in. Ridiculous.

Ya so i am heading down to Dunedin and am tres excited about that one, going to be a nerdy one. Going to see Transformers again as last time i had a fidgety Anna and Rob tossing and turning and bitching at me, philistines, and i also have tickets booked to see the new Harry Potter movie on Saturday, that should be a lorra fun.

I will not fear, fear is the mind-killer that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear.

So things have been much better here over the last week or two. I should really blog more so i dont have lots of stuff to say when i do. Went snowboarding for the first time yesterday. That was a whole lot of fun, did not fall over that much and am not that sore, the gym must have paid off. The actual sloped themselves were not that good, much smaller than the ones we went to in Italy and much more crowded. Still the season is only starting and more runs will open as it snows more. It has actually rained over the last 4 days and that actaully closed one of the snow resorts cuz all the snow melted. It gets pretty miserable as a lot of other stuff cleses as well.

Anna, her friend kate, and her brother Rob arrived last Tuesday and we have been out and about a bit since they arrived. the girls took snowboarding classes while i went up the slopes. We will be going back again tomorrow for a while, might try and jump on a few of the rails around.

So i have moved to another hostel for a week as i has stayed the maximum two weeks in the other one. The one i amin right now is the absolute pits. I mean it is dank, constantly smells damp and has carpets on the walls. Still its cheap and i dont spend much time in it, plus its only 19 dolars a night. Anyhow so this morning as around 12 i get a call from Anna who is at the other hostel, god bless the Black Sheep, saying she was booking a skydive and did i want to go. Said i might as well but then found out that we were going to be doing it at 3:00! It was good in a way as i did not have much time to worry about it and it did not really sink in til i was 12,000 feet up with the doors of the plane open and me sitting on the ledge. It was a tandem dive and i was doing with this guy who had like 10,500 jumps under his belt so i was not really worried about that. I was not really worried about anything going wrong to be honest, i mean even if everything went right it would still be terrifying. The scariest bit was the first few seconds after leaving the plan, just dropping and dropping and dropping til you reached terminal velocity. I will admit i roared like a baby. after that it was all good, dont really remember much of it to be honest. I paid an extortionist amount to get a DVD and photos so i will put them up after i get them tomorrow.

Queenstown, not exactly a bed of roses

So end of the first full day in Queenstown and all is not really well. The first time i was here i thought i was not too fond of the place cuz i had just arrived and was not really used to the place. Now, after nearly 2 months in the country i still get the same feeling. I liked Dunedin, it was a city and really just got on with it, there was expensive places, cheap places and lots of different places to go and things to do. Queenstown is different, i do not get the whole friendly vibe here half as much. There is no such thing as cheap here, everything is based on extracting as much money out of tourists as possible and if there is one thing i hate its the feeling that someone is goughing me straight to my face. There is not as much kiwi hospitatility because everybody is like me, foreign and just here for a short time. Dunedin was a student town but this place is just full of gangs of young sports bums hanging around. I know it is a bit of a black pot/kettle situation but i dont consider myself like them. I came here for the snow and stuff, not the constant drinking and crazy nite-life. I think i am just kind of missing the set-up i had in Dunedin, in the hostel at the minute they have their own drink so you cant bring cheap stuff from supermarkets, you have to buy it from them.

As for the whole job and accomodation thing i am not sure how that will work out either. I am in the hostel for two weeks but at the ewnd of that time a friend is coming over ot visit me for two weeks so i cannot really get a job if it means that i will be working the entire time she is here. Accomodation is something else that i dont know about. The average price at the minute for a cheap old apartment is between 140-200 dollars a week. At that price it would be cheaper to stay in the hostel. Not that i have seen any apartments to rent however, every notice board around is covered by notices from people asking for rooms rather than people offering them, they are golddust at the minute. That and lots of them are unfurnished or looking for 6 month minimum contracts.

Mah, i think i might just be making mountains out of mole-hills but i am just not i the best of moods at the minute. Back to not really knowing anybody again and having nothing to do with my days, god bless the regular get-up, dress beds, go on internet, go to gym, have lunch, hang around in cafe, have dinner, hang around in cafe, drink beers and watch DVDs time in Dunedin. Just cant get my priorities right at the moment and not sure what i should be doing. Hopefully things will be better on the morrow.

Its a town fit for a Queen!!!

So i have arrived back in Queenstown. After hours of trying to get it to work the music programme needed to transfer songs onto my MP3 player randomly decided to start working and so i got around 400 new songs for my trip. There is something that i wont be able to do down here, it is going to be hard to get used to paying for the internet again, kindof sucky as well.

So leaving Dunedin was a bit depressing. I had settled in nicely there and made a few friends in the hostel and the internet cafe. thats something i will have to get used to i suppose if i am going to be moving around a lot. Of course i was half-way to Queenstown when i realised that i lelt my phone charger, a pair of shoes, a hat and all my rings, chains and stuff back there so i am getting the jewellery's and charger sent back to me. The rest can just be donated or dumped. Richard, the owner of the internet cafe and hostel said if ever i need a reference for a job in an cafe/hostel here then i can give his name which is pretty sweet. I will try and get back there for a weekend or two before i head away.

So Queenstwn is just as i remember it, except colder. Last night appearantly it was -10 degrees, boo. The slopes are opening this qweekend but i may give them a miss as i am sure that they will be completely mobbed and i want to get stuff organised here. Finding a place and a job is important but also finding a place with someone who drives and is here for the season is going to be a must. There is a shuttle bus the 8k out to the snow fields several times a day. Except this being Queenstown it is $25 dollars a day or $700 for the season, i mean fuck sake.

Back in the same hostel again for a while. Its a bit weird, going from the person who showed around the new guests and so knowing most people ion the hostel to just another back-packer. I am better prepared this time though, just on my way to the supermarket to stock up on all the necessaries and then will make myself a proper diner. i am also a bit better with the whole hostel eqituitte, in that i find it easier to start conversations with complete strangers and stuff, which is always a help.

Anyhow, expect my internet presence to be greatly reduced for the near future, going to have to stay in uber-cheapo mode for a while i say.

PS: Hello Patrick, i missed your musk

REAL NZ EXCITMENT!!

Well not much going on, bar my near death experience today. One of the guys got a car so we decided to go on a wee trip today cuz it has been shitty weather all week. It is still bitterly cold, snow fell on the hills and everything, but it stopped raining at least.

So we went up the coast to see some famous rocks. Appearantly they are unique cuz they are big and very round. Went to see them but was not very impressed, mosty because we were freezing our asses off. So on te way home we were coming down the side of a small hill and didn't the driver lose control of the car. The road was icy and had loose chipping on it and we were also coming around a corner. The corner was not too bad but with everything suddenly the car started drifting, we verved left and right a bi then went around 40 yards sideways, i was expecting us to flp over at any stage. Eventually we ended up on the opposite side of the road facing the back up the hill we just came down. We were lucky that there were no cars coming cuz otherwise both us and them would have been fucked. It al turned out alright in the end though, i might even put up some photos of the beach.

So my last few posts have not reeally been very action filled, and to be honest this one is not going to be either. I have been in DUnedin now for around 3 weeks i think, maybe four, and will be here for another one or two i say. I have done most of the tourist stuff around here, say the Steepest Hill, went to the Catlins and saw the Peninsula wildlife sanctury. I have become pretty settled here and i am not really that bothered by it. As i said to Liam the other day, not everyday can be filled with mountain hikes and bungee jumps. I have actually started paid work here in the internet cafe (the hostel reception is in the internet cafe and the hostel is upstairs) as well as dressing beds and doing laundry in the hostel, meaning i get free accomodation several days a week and make a few bob during the week as well. That has been my plan while waiting for Queenstown, not heamorrhage money cuz i am sure there will be plenty of that in Queenstown, or Expensive-Ville as i like to call it.

The hostel has gotten pretty quiet with it turning to Winter and all and there has not been a good a group as the one we went on the roadtrip but it has ticked along, lots of rented DVDs, occasional drinks and incresing time spent playing computers in the cafe. "You could have done all this at home!" i hear you say, true i suppose but i am not at home and i am doing what i like down here with different people and in a different culture than home, which makes it a different experience and a very enjoyable one at that.

New Zealand Living, hobbits and cheap cars

So what have i noticed today? Well one thing is that New Zealand is a bit of a nanny state (sorry amanda). They are all about giving money to poor people and spending money on services and welfare and stuff. One thing this has resulted in (in DUnedin and Queenstown anyway, God only knows what Wellington is like, a welly i suppose) is that the streets are very clean. I was out taking a call from home one evening when some bins were kicked over, within 15 minutes a garbage truck turned up and cleaned it all up, this was at 8 o clock at night now. Beats the three days it would take the council at home to turn up.

One strange thing that i have never seen before is people walking around the streets in their bare feet, in the library and and supermarket and everything, seems to be the done thing over here, just another thing linking them with hobbits.

Was talking to one of the guys who works in the internet cafe next door as well and he was complaining about the cost of his car insurance. He is 19 and has already written off one car so his premium went up. It now costs him $400 a year to insure his car, thats right, no missing 0's or anything. I was telling him about Niall and his equivelent of $3400 for one years insurance and that was on a shitty starlett with no claims or anything. Some people have it too good.

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.

i am like a vacuos, ephemeral chimera, you dont know me

So i am reading two books at the minute. One i had to buy and the other was in the hostel. The first one is called Quentins by Maeve Binchy. Its a total load of crap but similiar to crack it is hard to put down. When i read it i get filled with a warm fuzzy feeling that is as addictive as the high quality white stuff. I have only read one of her other books before, Scarlett Feather and it was the same. I love the way you get to empathise with the characters, all two dimensions of them and the same characters are used in each book so you get a secret thrill froom knowing their backstory form another of her wonderful novels. I feel so dirty.

The other novel i am reading is the Alphabet of Manlyness by I. M. Maddox. It is slightly different from Maeve Binchy in some ways. Tis well calss though. Just like his web-page The Best Page in the Universe. It can get a bit much sometimes though. ANyone who has ever seen his sight will know how OTT and haveing a book filled 120 pages of the same stuff is pretty over-whelming. I shall keep ye updated when i finish it

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.

Several Days of Fun and Frolics

blearh, i am not really in the mood for writing this but i guess that since ye peons live to hear my words of wisdom i may grace ye with a few choice words. The last few days have been much fun, started off on Thursday with a small hike down the Dunedin peninsula, at least we thought is was going to be a small hike. We got the bus to the tip where there are seals and albatrosses and stuff and then intended walking back to the bus stop which was around 3 miles away, unfortunately we left it too late and then when we arrived we found out that is actually was around 8 miles back to the bus. A quick look at the albatross-free skies and then we started to walk back, we gave ourselves 2 and a half hours to walk to the bus station which would just about give us time to get the last bus back to Dunedin city around 20 miles away. Unfortunately, again, we did not pay much attention to such things as daylight when we made our plans so we were soon walking in the near dark along very windy roads over cliffs, not much fun. It had a happy ending though, a very nice Kiwi man who we asked for directions at one stage followed us down the road in his truck and offered to drive us to the bus stop. It was pretty surreal, driving along these v. scary roads in the back on a pick-up van. lots of fun though.

Forgot to mention who the 'we' was. The new hostel i am staying in has a much younger crowd than the Hogwartz one and i got talking to a german guy, an american girl, an a fella from Kilkenny. It was the four of us who went on the hike and that was fun so we decided to hire a car the next day and drive down the coast to see some of the famous beaches and stuff, the more we talked about it the more people were interested so in the end we hired a mini-van and on Thursday 9 of us headed off down country to the Catlins, 2 irish guys, 2 english girls, the german fella, a french girl, a dutch guy, and an argintinian and American girl. That was lots of fun, will put up pictures some time, probably on my bebo first though. Many adventures were had, saw sea-lions, mountains, waterfalls, and rainforests that ran straight onto a really nice beach. We nearly got screwed in the beach when Andi the german boy decided to drive the van down after us and of course it got stuck in the sand. After around half an hour of digging and stressing and trying to find wood (Surprisingly hard even though we were surrounded by forest, that forest was dense, could not get into it) and rock to put under the wheels in order to get traction. FInally managed though, could have been trouble if we did not though, around 30km from a town, getting dark and the tide coming in.

Yesterday was just a nice day in the city, a smaller group of us went for a walk across the city to see the world steepest street. It is very steep, took pictures ran up to the top, nearly died. Took in the botanical gardens on the way home and then bought food for a big dinner. Lovely steak and spuds for me with chocolate cake and ice-cream for dinner. The last thre nights have also seen us drink prostigious amount of beer. Spaights is the local stuff and you can get a case of thirty 330ml cans for 25 dollars. We have actually kept all the cans and now the bathrooms windows are al blocked up with walls of them, as are the tops of every cabinet in the kitchen. Theowner of the hostel thinks it is prtty cool as well and has let us keep them there, for how long i dont know.

While lots of fun has been had, have to face something which i guess will become a pretty common experience. Gotten on very well with all these perople but after today 6 of them wil be gone and since they are only in New Zealand for a holiday chances are i wont see them again, a bit depressing but i will just have to get over it. I see my facebook and bebo friends lists growing though. Funny thing about the group of us that went, except for the argentinian girl all of us were solo travellers. I am pretty glad that i did not come with a group cuz those always seem to just stick together and not participate much, i am sure that a lot of them have fun but they seem to miss out on some stuff. Anyhow i am very tired and just a small little hung-over, 3 nights of drinking and a late night last night watching Serenity, The Goonies, Team America and Shaun of the Dead will do that.

LEAVE ME A COMMENT, feel like i am talking to the wind here. None of ye seem to be blogging so perhaps ye can push yerselves to a comment or email telling me what is going on back home. Even you conal, use someone elses internet

hmmmm

today i joined the library, that could have been a bad idea, my productivity aint the best as it stands. One the other hand it is free internet, just not email.

Pretty much just a book review, not much happening otherwise

So i was bumming around Dunedin again today. Although perhaps it was not a complete waste of a day, i finished and printed off my CV and references and also got the name and addressed of recruitment agencies. The problem i have now is that i have to get my IRD number which is sort of like a social security number. it says i have to put down my permanent address but at the minute i dont have one so there is nowhere for them to send it, i cant use a PO box either, quite frustrating.

Anyhow when i was finished all that i sat around the frnt of the library reading my book. I have been reading an awful lot recently, started off with the book version of all 4 Alien films, and then another one called The Last Wilder which was book 2 of a series i read a year ago, the onto a more serious The God Delusion byt Richard Dawkin, its all about how god does not really exist and stuff, interesting but not anything i had not really though of before. I find it hard to agree with him on some stuff though, certain things might just be psychosomatic but walking around in a forest or down by Doonass at home feels much different that over here, and i have been through far more breathtaking terrain over here than at home. I think its just that i know a lot of the myths and legends of places at home and certain things over here just dont have that meaning. The huge old Beech trees and sequioas i see over here are just that, big trees, at home however i would be much more fanciful about The Green Man and Danu and whatnot. I think not having a religion or a belief in something more than what you can see in touch makes the world a more mundane place. God may be a delusion as yerman says but certain aspects are pretty comforting.

I have also read some pulp fiction short stories y Ron Hubbard and some psychobabble tripe called Tipping Point, which i though would have actually been quite good, sorely disappointed i was. I finished The Vampire Lesat by Ann Rice yesterday and the newest by William Gibon today, Pattern Recognition it was called. The Ann Rice one was okay, better than the last i read of hers, Taltos i think it was called. I can see how her writing has been taken by Goths actually, she is very descriptive about shit, sometimes too much so. You can see as well were lots of the Vampire the Masquarade lore comes from, The Sabbath, the Masquarade, Malkaviens, Toreador, Antideluvians, The Embrace, Gangrel, all of em are alluded to. Apologies if you dont know what i am talking about, part of my nerdy past. Stil it was only alright in the end

The William Gibson one i was pissed about at the beginning, expected it to be cyber-punk novel but uts actually set 6 months after 9/11. Was good enough actually, in that i did not put it down and finished it in a day. Strange coincidene hat, the last two books that i bought together and really did not like were William Gibson and Ann Rice books.

I was sitting in the square reading this book anyway when this woman came and sat down in the bench a little away from me. I looked up after a few minutes and saw that she was quite overweight, you know the type, where they can rest their arms on their hip fat. She was just sitting there anyway and just staring at the ground and stayed like that for at least ten minutes. She was quite young and i actually felt really sorry for her. I know that there is just as much chance of her being a bitch as there is of her being a nice person but i felt the overwhelming urge just to go over and try and make her smile. I was interrupted by someone else coming over to her, a middle aged woman she appearantly knew, and yerone just followed her, rather like a child after a teacher or a yound child afer its mother. I dont know it was about her but i was hit that she has had twenty odd years of being herself and wondered if she had enjoyed them, i felt like a bit of a voyeur actually as she did not know i was thinking about her life and personality and stuff, trying to peek into her mind if you will. She is gone anyway and i will never see her again, nor will she ever know that a complete stranger was analysing her this much, makes you wonder how many, if any other people have done the same to you.

Dunedin

So i have made the move to Dunedin. It was a 3 and a half hour journey but a collection of sci-fi short stories by Ron Hubbard got me through it. Was in a bit of a panic this morning as when i went to book a hostel i found out that there was a large rugby match on today and a lot of places werte booked out. All the internet directories came back as full and i was actually looking at hotels, which are pretty expensive. Eventually i found this place called Hogwartz (note the copyright infringing avoidant z), which you could not book online but i rang em up and they had one place left in a shared room, which was cheaper than a dormitary but still half the price of a hotel.

Dunedin itself is around the same size as Cork i think, much bigger than Queenstown, have to get used to looking both ways before crossing the road and actually pressing those predestrian buttons. I likes it though, its a university town with around 20,000 students so it has a real Boston feel to it. Plus its not up the mountains so it warmer than Queenstown. Lots of cafes and people sitting out drinking and stuff, will do some proper exploring tomorrow.

The hostel is pretty sweet as well. IT is actually this old house and i luckily got to go to a dormitary after all which worked out cheaper but it ius actually a big high-ceiling room like Drenatra with comfy beds, not a bunk to be seen. The whole house is actually olde-school and well class. Not much else, will be back tomorrow

well proud but sore i am

Okay so, i suppose this post would be better off with pictures but i dont have them ready just yet. I do be just back from my first Queenstown adventure. Went for a humoungus hike today, or as the New Zealanders call it, a tramp, or tramping or something. GOt up at 7 and got picked up and brought around 50 miles to a place called the Routhbourn Trail. ALong the way we passed over a small bridge and saw this .

Well not actually this, take away the big spire thing and the burning trees, yes thats right chalk off the first Lord of the Rings location sighting. A river actually runs through this.

Anyway i was taking a guided tour through this trail that appearnatly was first used by the Maoiri's to get to their jade and then by the Europeans to get to gold. I know this cuz we had a native guide showing us the way. His name was Tupa-tupa or something, he said it was Carl but they always change their name so to be more accepted by us Europeans so i just guessed Tupa-Tupa. UNfortunately he was not wearing his traditional dress of leaves and tattoos but was impressive none the less, appearantly you are not supposed to feed them as he got quite irate when i tried to give him a banana.

Anyhow the trek was long and arduos ( i dont care about spelling), took several hours and involved going up the side of the valley, then through the middle for a bit before heading back up the other side. Perhaps i am not explaining this very well cuz it was quite impressive. The sides were covered in temperate rain-forest and the peaks were around 2500 metres tall and some even had glaciers. Like i said i took lots of photos and will put them up tomorrow or the next day.

I was actually quite proud of myself for finishing it without any real trouble, it was 10km to the first huts and then the same back and i never really felt that i had to collapse, 14 miles up and down tough terrain is not to be sneezed at. My legs do feel a bit like jelly at the moment though. For the last hour none of us really spoke cuz we were just exhausted, well not our guide as those people live for this sort of thing but myself and the other person taking the tour, Ashka i think her name was, she was Japanese.

I wanted to get a steak dinner to celebrate when i got back but the fates conspired against me and none are readily available, its probably cuz i am just too lazy to look for them. I bought a wholemeal ciabatta loaf instead and it is quite delicious. Anyhow i will put up the pictures later and apologies to Amanda for insulting her boyfriends heritage, the 'Polish'.

The Lord spake to me through Dreams

Wow, so like three posts in one week, easy to tell that Paul is not at home. I have moved from The Hippo, my first hostel cuz while it was clean it was not very cozy or anything, I am now in The Black Sheep, thanks to Robs reccomendation. It much better than the other place, cheaper, bigger but with a huge rec area with loads of couches and a firething in the middle. Much more people there but i have found the receptionists to be a bit cold, a smile when you come to reserve a room would be nice.
Had a bit of a bad day yesterday, got a bit overwhelmed with what i am actually doing here, have to start doing something, whether it be working, travelling or doing all the crazy things available in Queenstown. Just walking around the town on my own all day was getting me down, plus the fact that i lost my phone was really pissing me off. I do be putting in the effort to get to know people in the hostel and stuff but it does not come natural to me, there was a few Irish around but i said that i will not rely on people from home, the same reason i am not going to apply for jobs in the two Irish bars in town. To be honest i am not sure i want a job in a bar, unsocial hours and stress being the main reasons. Of course i would prefere just to not work at all but that seemingly is not an option.
So i was pure tired last night and ended up going to bed at 7 o clock, bad idea cuz i woke up then at 4 wide awake. Odd to think that i could not sleep before 4 for the last few months back home. ANyhow i got up and went to the rec room and watched The Matrix Revolutions and The Mummy 2, both classic films. Went back to bed at 8 and conked out for two hours. Had the strangest dream though, while most of it was about a mermaid and irish mythological creatures and pubs and fanores, the main jist of it was that she had been moping around for years and eventually changed her life by getting off her ass or something like that. I woke up pretty soon after and to be honest i dont think my subconscious could be giving me bigger hints. Went back downstairs, found my phone under a chair and started talking to grumpy receptionist who turnes out is not as bad as i thought. Am in ye old internet cafe typing this at the mo and then finishing off my CV. ALso going to put up some pictures on my bebo.

Will keep ye posted on whether this mood lasts

First Impressions

Well, so its day 1 here in Queenstown. Crashed and burned last night, i know i posted something then but cant remember for the life of me. The flight over was actually not as bad as i expected, i slept the whole way from Shannon to London (mostly because of lack of sleep from the night before, thanks Liam and Conal), then for around 8 hours between London and Bangkok and then for around 4 between Bangkok and Sydney. I cant remember the flight from Sydney to Christchurch but i dont think i slept and i certainly did not from Christchurch to Queenstown, the view was amazing. When you fly out of Sydney you actually fly over the city so i can say i say Sydney Bridge and Opera House, chalk those off the sites i have to see before i die.

I was invited out for a few drinks last night by thjis guy i was sitting beside and his friends and while i had the best intentions i was not able to walk straight by 7 so i emailed him and made a rain-check, not much of a start for my go-out-and-make-friends plan but i got their number and texted them today. On that note, i actually got my phone working today and my number does be 0061-212045358, someone give me a text soon just so i know that i internationalised that right, i think 0061 is right. I was awake this morning at 5 though, made myself snooze til 7 and then got up just as the sun was rising. I should be alright sleep-wise by tomorrow i say.

So i am kindof at a loss as to waht to do with myself. I have got my phone organised and applied for the NZ equivelent of a Social Security number so i can work. I dont want to start straight away and dont know which of the many many activities to do. The place i am staying in at the moment, The Hippo Lodge, is clean and stuff but its not very cozy or anything, the only other people i have seen is the receptioist and 2 asien girls in my room, if it were not for them i could have slept comfortable as god intended. I am moving to another joint tomorrow called The Black SHeep. Called up there today to make my booking and it seemed much more lively, a more central rec area, kitchen and reception area, same price as the Hippo as well.

Read Sarahs entries on Queenstown there, its weird to think that she was here, as was AnneMarie. The place is only really the size of Killaloe. Just exploring today and yesterday, there is actually a frisbee-golf course, i get a feel of Maine from the place. It is autumn at the minute and all the leaves are brown and falling, kind of New Paltz-esque.

I may head for a nap in a wee bit, still a bit dozy. Forgot the word for shampoo last night when i was asking the receptionist where could i buy stuff. Oh and the bread, milk and cornflakes all taste the same so all is good on that end. I am too out of it to make any serious philosophical or intellectual effort in this post so i shall leave it at that. Comment now, or even better write your own entry. Even if it is mundane and boring as hell it is still my biggest link to home.

It's finally happened

So after many a year of talk and many months of saving i am finally here in New Zealand, Queenstown to be exact. I am after spending 28 hours in a plane, gone through i dont know how many time-zones and travelling at least 12,000 miles but i do finally be here in a hostel. Apologies if this is exceptionally brief but i am exceptionally tired. I slept for around 15 hours on the plane but it was pretty shitty sleep to be honest. On a good note however, I arrived in my hostel and was told that the double bed in the room had become free so now i get to sleep in possibly the most comfortable bed in history.

This was just a short one to say I am still alive and the whole blog thing is up and running again. A longer article is sure to follow.

Slightly inebriated musings

So, long time no post ehh. I have went to post so many times but the sheer enormatity of writing an entire mini-article just dissuaded me. I dont like small posts, they seem like cop-outs. Although saying that i have a feeling this one will be particularly short, i am nae in the mood for a long one (i suppose several short ones are better than what some people do, i.e. not post for nearly an entire year, this category are usually described as the type that wouls own a sports car).

Just writting this from the floor of Eoin's room, it does be is birthday tomorrow and we are having a few drinks, by that i mean that the lads are in the kitchen playing poker and drinking and since such infantilwe things bore me i am watching a DVD while having the occasion brew, hmmm brew. Since i am drinking relatively slowly i am in abetter state to write i suppose. Have you ever noticed that after a certain amount of drinks you suddenly start thinking diffeently than usual. After two or three drinks i get incredibly itchy fists and get the overwhelming urge to punch or fight something, since i have never gotten into a fight in my life i think that i have pretty good control over this but all the same i am just waiting to bw jumped when in that condition, although i am full aware that i have far less balance and shit as i would while completely sober, a pint or two later i start thinking like i presume stoners do, get very pensive and philosophical so i do. Thats the state i like being in though, any more than that in short succession and i just feel sick.

Anyhow, i could start writting about work and life in general but i could not be bothered at the minute. Am experiencing my first free saturday in almost two months so want to make something of it. Dunno how that one will go.

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