Take with a pinch of NightMonkey.

IRELAND GRAND SLAM

2009-03-22T14:02:00.003Z

I am ecstatic. I still can't quite believe what I witnessed in the courtyard of a buzzing Edinburgh pub last night. Ireland's 6 nations victory over Wales for the Grand Slam is simply one of the greatest sports matches I've seen since Man Utd beat Bayern Munich for the Champions League in 1999. Actually, it was better than that. The atmosphere was there - a clear evening with a BBQ on the go, a big screen and a mass of rugby fans from all the different countries. Obviously, everybody went crazy when that final ditch kick missed and the whistle went. If that had gone over, I'd have been so gutted beyond belief!

What I think is really good though, is that everybody i know, regardless of their background, seems to be celebrating this in unity, which can only be a good thing for Ireland North or South!

Indie Music Sucks

2008-07-19T02:13:00.001+01:00

It really does. The thin guitar sound coupled with not much bass and a bit of whingy singing about bridget jones and the likes.

For some proper good new music from some locals, check out The Japenese Popstars. Awesome.

Well well

2008-05-11T20:07:00.003+01:00

I watched 30mins of the new Gladiators in a pub this evening. It was alright, but i will withold real judgement til i watch it fully when i can hear it properly next week. The events are still cool, and it looks like good craic. But i am going to put what i think should be changed in bullet points:

The old theme is not there. Instead we have new 'specially composed' music. Get back to the rock anthems during the games guys. And how can you repleace the mastery that is the original theme tune?
John Sachs, the original commentator, should be there. Not that the new guy is crap, just Sachs is better.
It is on a Sunday night at 6pm. Gladiators belongs at the 7pm slot on a Saturday night.
It is run by Sky One. Personally I don't particularly like Sky at the minute, as they are a rip and like to steal the TV rights to Champions League football. Give it back to ITV. At least then everybody can watch.
Wolf is not there, and Sky have allegedly not asked him to return for the Legends special. This is with Wolf himself saying he wants to return!

But yea, apart from that it's not bad. It'll be hard to match the 90's version though. Also if we go by the observation that tonight's contestants were not that fit, then the whole media hype that England has been getting fatter for the last 10 years could be very true. Still, we have Top Gear!

In other stuff, i had cracking Irish Nationals, and i am currently about to embark of 5 days of exam slogging. Then i am free to get up at 1pm, play Xbox all day, and watch cult TV shows in the pub.

Something else that has recently made me wonder is the music they play whilst passengers disembark off the Stena HSS. They like to play the type of airy fairy music that you get at the end of movies where the protaganist has just come through some massive ordeal. You know, like when the world has nearly exploded except he saved it at the last minute, but his house got wrecked and he nearly fell off a cliff in the process. Why? At the most the ship may have been rocking and i may have completed Sega Rally after a nervy few races, but it isn't that epic! I would rather disembark to some Thin Lizzy or KC & the Sunshine Band. Flybe once has the right idea, when they played Pick up the Pieces by the funky outfit we call the Average White Band. I tell you, that had us dancing.

If you're wondering why i'm talking (more) crap (than usual), blame Group Theory: An Introduction to Abstract Mathematics. Because of it I can now prove to you inferior people that the square root of 2 is not in fact a rational number. Woohoo!!

Until next time

Guess who just won the Bath Cup again....

2008-03-14T22:16:00.002Z

Screw the schools cup, the mighty Inst have taken the Bath Cup for the 2nd time in 3 years. Sometimes makes me wish i was 2 weeks younger so i'd still be living the life in the U6 ready to bash out a big time in Whitgift with their expensive cricket ground and flamingoes.

It is awesome really. School swimming was a blast. I do hate Plymouth College a bit more now. They weren't allowed to enter this year cause they're a swimming academy now. If that had only happened last year we would've destroyed, but unfortunately 0.4 seconds made the difference there. But then i may not have swum as stupidly fast. Ah well!

Uni swimming is good craic too though. Off to Sheffield tomorrow for a big 100 freestyle and what will hopefully be two rocket like relay swims.

Anybody remember me saying a few years ago i was going to quit when i left school?

Not happening right now!

Legends of the Core

2008-02-25T16:43:00.004Z

After 6 months of backtracking, Scots Unis was a step back in the right direction. Thank God for that.

Cheers for the hardcore.

P.S. the Oxegen lineup this year is rather awesome. Anybody who fancies joining me for 3 days of carnage in Kildare this summer is very welcome.

Do you feel the power??!

2008-01-31T02:11:00.000Z

My week has in effect been made. The greatest TV show of the 90's, Gladiators, is being resurrected. And it's getting it's prime time slot back on Saturday nights!

Let's face it, it was a great show. I loved it. You loved it. It was decent, even family orientated entertainment. And it got the fat kids off the couch. Want to solve the obesity crisis of doom? Then put Gladiators back on TV. Who doesn't find the prospect of battering somebody with a giant duelling stick fun?

However, i am aware of the risks of all this. The 21st century revamp could quite well turn out to be a disaster. Let's face it, no Gladiator will ever replace the mighty Wolf. And the attire worn in the new American Gladiators series quite franky looks stupid as anything. If they change the theme music at all the organisers need a good clout in the bake. Cause it's awesome. Thankfully, some events are returning, and it has been promised that "more dangerous and exciting" events will be provided. Good. Anything to piss off health & safety.

And the best bit is the ref, John Anderson, may well be returning!

I for one will be planning to go see the new series live in London (if ticket prices agree with my wallet). In the meantime, anybody up for auditioning to be an actual Gladiator?

Go 90's TV!

Bleeehhh

2008-01-25T15:03:00.000Z

Due to phenomenal demand (i.e, like two people), i'm resurrecting this bad boy. How long this streak will last for beats me, but here's a start. If you've no idea of where i am these days, i currently "study" maths, philosophy and german at the University of Edinburgh. To clear a few things up yes, i still retain my original accent, no, i haven't eaten haggis yet and no, i dont have a kilt.

So how is university? It's interesting, i can't say i'm bored. I did and still do have reservations about it, but not to worry, it's nothing to be concerned about right now. I have plenty of fun each day swimming, playing my drums (not enough), annoying Paddy, Geroge Formanning, playing xbox, pulling a few pranks and having a few drinks. The other big upside is that emmm, yea, i have 7 weeks left of teaching in 1st year. Then i don't have to attend another lecture for 6 months (you've all heard me yarp on about this before). A few exams in April/May, and then i'm off for ages.

Well that's all i can be bothered with now. Oh yea, and to clear another thing up, i'm home pretty regularly. You may have seen me having a snowball fight in Belfast at 2am the other week. But for those who remain at home, don't worry, i'll be back to terrorise you soon (and i'll be back for a long time). So eh, until next time!

Daft Punk are unbelieveably awesome.

2008-01-12T21:41:00.000Z

All i'm sayin this month.

Pink Floyd = Godlike

2007-09-28T01:09:00.000+01:00

'nuff said

Bath Cup 2007

2007-05-12T14:19:00.000+01:00

Lost the Bath Cup by 0.4 seconds after a huge comeback. So we were rather pissed. On the upside, we smashed our old record by 3 seconds and Plymouth have 2 British youth swimmers on their team. We were all pretty much through the roof on adrenaline, and so won the otter instead to make up for it, taking Plymouth apart, breaking the record and stopping them from doing a clean sweep of 2 girls trophies, 2 boys trophies. So there is satisfaction in there. All i can do now is speculate on what could have been if i'd had 1 more metre. But anyways, not a bad way to leave school swimming!

.

2007-02-04T22:38:00.000Z

Ah crap, that's Irish Schools swimming over. Back in the day i thought i'd be happy at that prospect, but it's actually a rather sobering thought.
So yesterday i ended up at the Grove for some more swimming. It sucks that my last Irish schools trip had to be in Belfast, as i was all up for Cork or somewhere like that. The thing that struck me this year was that they piled though it all at an incredible speed. My individuals were done by 12.30pm (in Limerick 2 years ago i was still waiting to swim my final at 6.30pm), and the whole thing was done by 3.30.
Anyways, in a nutshell i unexpectedly came bloody close to qualifying for that good old Irish Schools team again for the Home Internationals in March. Ended up in the 100 freestyle final, and from what i gather it was a close one. Close like the 6 of us (who all know each other) were pretty much in a line side by side for the entire race. In the end there was something like 0.8 between first and last, and i came got beaten into 5th by 0.06 seconds. Had i come 4th, id have made the team! But anyways, i think the date they were going on would've clashed with our all day concert rehearsal. It is ironic though, that while i should be pleased that i unexpectedly came so close to getting on it again, i am a bit disappointed at the same time.
But anyways, we altered our senior relay team a bit and took our 'rivals' Bangor grammar to the cleaners, winning the irish title for both relays again, so i'm not complaining.

So, if i was still going by my plans from 18 months ago, i would now be entering my last 3 months of competitive swimming. However, i think my plans have changed, as i dont really have any intention of giving it up anytime soon. I still seem to be motivated and it's still fun, and may that continue. Roll on Bath Cup 2007.

Last 6 weeks

2006-12-15T19:57:00.000Z

Well, the last 6 or so weeks of my life have really been the busiest ever. Not that i'm complaining. Rather busy than bored off my ass, right. So i'm now going to indulge in my life over the last 6 weeks.

Halloween holidays ended and i pretty much took off to Holland for some water polo tour with school. We ended up in a place called Zeist, about an hour from Amsterdam, where the Dutch football team train. So we trained, played 2 matches (and got hammered), and visited Amsterdam, including its red light district in all its glory. It is a tourist attraction, as well as being highly sleezy, and judging by the amount of times we got offered, a drug hole too. Very interesting stuff though!

So after those 4 days i returned to school, only to take half that week off for good old concert rehearsals! Our charity concert was on the 17th, so we had lots of good times in the week before of course. Biko returned, we gave the Hallelujah chorus a good run, and the Rolling Stones were hammered out. Good stuff indeed.

Saturday 18th was good old Grammar Schools swimming. We had a weaker team to last year, but i have to say that my last ever Grammar Schools had a good bit of style and controversy. The controversy ensued from the 50m freestyle, where it appeared i had been beaten, but the computer clock got me as winning. As i couldn't be bothered arguing with the Bangor Grammar coach (who claimed it wasn't even close), i just threw our good old Fiona Eakin swimming coach into the fight instead. In the end it turned out a number had been written down wrong, and i had in fact came 2nd by 0.02. Not close my ass. The context of this story was that Bangor Grammar and ourselves were both going for the same trophies, and so a rivarly had been struck up. As far as i see it all this just throws up good craic and makes it all nice & edgy. In the end we got tipped in the relays, but still took the Overall Boys & Inter Boys trophy.

The week after i can't really remember what i did. Seems to me i actually attended a full week of school for once. Oh wait, the Continental Market started, which brings great novelty and fun. Saturday i had a full day Oklahoma rehearsal, where i actually began to like that play. Goggles was in full command of the band, so we were sweet as. The following week i got Monday & Tuesday off for Oklahoma rehearsals, where the 'sweet on cymbal' manouvre returned once more. The rest of the week was performances of the play, and by the last night we were steaming and playing well! After the last performance i had to tear off to the afterparty, where we started our first of 5 Flying Gypsies gigs in 2 weeks.

So, first gig went pretty crap all in all. Although the general partying was good, i ended up sitting behind my drums for most of it and not getting invovled. Ah well. Saturday 2nd Dec we went to the Hoot Bar in Downpatrick for a gig. It was pretty much a nice hole, but i didn't like it, and for some reason that has given me a dislike for Downpatrick in general. The band we were playing with, Thrones of Roll, were good though. All from Belfast, they nicely greeted the Belfast people in the audience (us), then talked about how Belfast rocks. Then they introduced their next song: "This song is called Video Store. It's about going to the Video Store to rent a video." It was really a had-to-be-there moment. But anyways, we got like a tenner each of that one.

The week after that i pretty much had 1 1/2 days of school. I came in for a music test on Tuesday 5th, then cleared off to the airport, got a plane to Birmingham, got told that half my English money they didnt accept (fussy), waited 40 mins for the late train, and got on the packed late train to Oxford. I'm not really complaining, i actually quite like exciting new situations like these. So if you havent guessed that, i was in Oxford to be interviewed at Jesus College. Seems to me like i picked the right college. It was compact, right in the centre of the city, but not claustrophobic, stuffy or posh. I spent the following 72 hours there and only spent about 1 hour in interviews. During my free time i just hung about with totally new people, and really sound people too. Basically we just hung out in the JCR (with full sky TV), or went to random ice cream/cookie shops, that sort of thing. I got one interview at Jesus and automatically a second on at Magdalen. As for Magdalen, i didn't really like it. It's 'nice', but it is one of the richest & poshest colleges in the university, and you can get it from the atmosphere. The interview there was nice & intense (good in otherwards), and i got hit with a "Have you ever seen a god?". Lovely. But anyways, they can keep their deer park, nature trail and expensive 12th century buildings to themselves, i'm not so sure if it's for me. Jesus on the otherhand, if i got an offer i'd happily go to! I travelled home (standing on the packed train) on the Friday, as i had to be at Open Day on Saturday, where i gave it plenty on the drums.

That brings us to this week. I attended school on Monday. And Tuesday, after which we went to sing at Stormont for their Christmas tree lighting. Choir trips like that are always good craic. Wednesday i took off to go to TCD open day, after which i've decided the place is awesome and i'm definately applying. The Enterprise, compared to Virgin Trains in England, was not packed to the brim! Yesterday i passed my driving theory. Today we actually had a good Carol Service rehearsal, then i had to go swim in the Ulsters 4x200m freestyle relay final. Not expecting to do well (and nowhere near my fittest), we came 3rd and good a spanking medal and flower each. Woohoo!

Now i am just moving to a bit of Daft Punk, thinking about how i might hit Halo again for the first time in 8 weeks, right after i've finished watching Jack Bauer kick ass in 24 series 5.

Prog Jazz

2006-10-24T21:58:00.000+01:00

Instead of going to play water polo tonight, i ended up in Bangor tech, recording random jazz music for Barr, a guy in last year's U6, who's doing music technology there. Basically myself, Dos, and the one and only Scott Flannigan just had to jam whilst it got digitally stereologically recorded or something. So we jammed, except eventually it turned into an ultra-modern jam, where we basically just played atonal-whatever-the-hell-we-wanted stuff. Pushing the boundaries to the max, if you like. Scott Flannigan, who is 24 and only just passed his driving test, got uber experimental by putting paper between the keys and the strings, slamming the piano lid, and playing glisses on the piano strings (: An interesting recording may come my way soon.

In other developments, I have now not played Halo for well over a month! The European Youth Parliament guys didn't want me, so i will not be gracing Strasbourg next March. Oh yea, i got an offer from Glasgow, so at least i can try to go to uni somewhere. Also, my A levels end on the 14th June, so i'm thinking a trip to Europa Park is calling (if possible)......everyone welcome!

Uni tours

2006-10-02T20:37:00.000+01:00

Now that i've got over all the application crap (filling in some parts of the UCAS form is quite annoying when you're crap at making decisions like myself), it is time to look at the unis i've applied for. So the ferry was booked for last Friday night, for a little trip to the land of the Scots. Unfortunately it was the P&O slow ferry from Larne, mainly cause the Stena slow ferry is even slower! But still, i wasted ample money in the games room for the 2 odd hours it took. After that we just motored up Scotland for a few hours. The motorway we were on runs straight through the centre of Glasgow, which looks fully immense at night time! 2 hours and 110 odd miles later we got some kip in a Holiday Inn express near Kilmarnock, £50 for 3 people for a decent room & breakfast. Good stuff indeed.

I've just realised that i haven't said that we were actually going to Edinburgh. For the uni open day. That kicked off at half 9, in the good old George Square lecture theatre which The Cat Empire had graced a few months earlier. There i just got told stuff about accomodation and admission and whatnot. After that i headed to a Geography talk (yes, cause i'm still thinking of doing it), followed by a Maths talk, which was quite entertaining as the guy couldn't work the threatre lights and kept opening and shutting the curtains instead. I also went to a Philosophy talk, where i also learnt that i could take modules in Meteorology at Edinburgh. After that it was really just general talks. Sport at Edinburgh was one, and surprisingly the room wasn't very full at all. However, there were 4 water polo players (including myself) in the room, all 4 from Belfast and 2 of whom i know really well! Edinburgh has stacks of sports anyways. Quite tempting is to retakeup badminton, and then take up some crazy stuff, like snowsports or ice hockey. Another talk told us about the clubs, and the speaker was pretty good humoured, as he dismissed the Ultimate Frisbee club as a load of crap, and Skydiving as pure instanity.
We then went and got a tour of the University sports complex, offering student membership for £74 a year. The complex is hidden away in a normal looking building, but it is class, they have all these new weights rooms/sports halls/cardio suits, all the modern stuff. After that we headed round to the Pollock Halls, which are right beside Arthur's Seat. The newest halls are brilliant, and it'd be kickass to get one of them. The not so new ones are still class too, and there was a good student vibe about the place, including lots of people wearing crazy hats.
After that we headed into the centre (about 10-15mins walk), and had seafood. That's about it, i liked the place alright.

Went up towards St Andrew's a bit, and stayed in another Holiday Inn. One think that did strike me about this trip was how damn nice Scottish people are. In total i think we met 6 really dead on people, who just went out of their way to do stuff for us without a problem. Anyways, Sunday was St Andrews. Place was deserted at first, but we went to the Chapel to see Jamie sing. Jamie, i hope you don't mind if i say a bit about the various traditions etc at your uni! All the singers were wearing their red gowns, which are awesome. There are various ways in which each year of student can wear them. And apparently until about 3 years ago, if 3 or more people were walking down the street in their gowns, they were classed as a delegation and could stop traffic! The tradition pier walk follows the service, followed by a sherry reception! I saw Jamie's nice & large student room, and his halls, which are good stuff. One thing i wasn't qutie sure about St Andrew's was the amount of stuff in the actual town, but in truth it has every mainstream ship bar an HMV, along with loads of bars, specialist shops, and some sort of jazz club. Elsewhere i saw the Student's Union, and sports stuff. On the subject of Jamie, he's settling in well, and already playing some hardcore Korfball.

So that was my weekend, as usual probably missed loads of stuff out, but anyways, if anybody has any inquiries about Edinbrugh i could try to answer them. St Andrew's questions can go to Jamie obviously. I'll throw a few pics in here anyways. Cya!

'Sup

2006-09-11T23:03:00.000+01:00

Ages since the last post, reasons for that are i've either been too lazy or too busy, i've had a bit of both in the last month. Currently i'm pretty used to school again, and Uni applications are pretty much done. At the minute (might do a bit of tweaking), i'm putting stuff in for Human Sciences at Oxford, Music Technology at Queens, Maths & Philosophy at Edinburgh, St Andrews, Glasgow, Queens. I still wouldn't mind doing a bit of Geography, but i decided that sticking in all maths & philosophy instead of half and half would make the (annoying) personal statement easier to write. The fact is, Scotland is so flexible that i probably could go there and end up doing Chemistry & German if i really wanted to.
As for whether to go away or not, i'm still undecided. As for Oxford, i'm also still a bit undecided. Avoiding the posh colleges is pretty high up there, but the one i'm currently looking at has a good humoured website and apparently used to be a completely liberal hippy college. Intersting. One thing that stands is if i go over there and hate it, i'm rejecting it if i get an offer. On the upside, Oxford terms are 3x8 weeks, therefore i'd be home for well over half the year anyways.

So forgot all that for now, hopefully i can try make something of this year anyways. For some odd reason i'm still doing 4 subjects, but that gets me out of general studies after all! Dr Greer also pointed out to us that if we got over 250, then we are sitting on an E at A level. So basically i've passed all my A levels! Woohoo! I'm back to all the usual stuff, including my 'part time job' (haha) of giving it stacks on the drums. Friday night gig was average, though the crowd were good. Saturday night (Magill's party) was way better, and we enjoyed it at least. We even had Goggles as our 'sound advisor', which was quality.

Now i can't think of much to post about. Oh yea, Limerick was pretty quality, so i had a good time and got something out of it. We gave it stacks, if you like.

Eventfulish

2006-08-10T00:49:00.000+01:00

Since i ended up using one of my days off to their full potential, i'm going to write about that day. However, this is probably going to be quite similar to JME's blog post about his day in Dublin, as i went to the Guinness Brewry, and ended up at a show.

Guinness Brewry first then. They output 3 million pints of the black stuff a day, and Berlin is the leading city in the world (bar Ireland obviously) for Irish pubs, standing at 32. That's pretty much what i learnt there. However, it is a pretty interesting place, and the exhibitions are good. The Gravity Bar also has good views of the city, and that's where i had my "Complimentary soft drink".

Anyways, ended up on the tour bus again, and we got a kickass guide! He sung folk songs of course, but also cracked jokes about everything around him. Examples: "Today my name has been Joe, although it may change tomorrow", etc. etc., and he also just ripped jokes at everything in a lovely good natured way. So i tipped him. On another bus we also learnt that a few hundred years ago Christ Church and St Patrick's Cathedrals were a bit short of cash and needed repairs. So apparently Guinness funded one cathrdral and Jameson's the other! Haha!

After that we wandered for a while, and visited good old Grafton street, where there was a group of buskers called 'The Slovak Dulcimer Ensemble', who were brilliant, so we bought their CD. I also stumbled upon the 'Music Maker' music shop in Temple Bar, where their basement is basically drum heaven!

Ended up going to see Starlight Express at The Point. That's the Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical where they are all on rollerskates. And it was very enjoyable, with some pretty class music. And some cool stunts. Therefore i would go again!

So that was my productive day. All the motorway & duel carriageway meant we got home in just under two hours. Now i'm currently looking at going to see Faithless and Kasabian down there, on results night!

Barvarian Cream Filled Doughnuts

2006-07-31T14:59:00.000+01:00

Ehh. First thing after SM was the UYJO course. It was good, since it was just myself and drum mad Rebecca from methody beating the skins. Usually there are like 10 drummers each year. As for guitarists, there were 7. Pff. Unfortunately there was no Scott Flannigan to have some crazy jam sessions at lunchtime!

After that hitched a lift to Limerick and spent 10 days down there swimming. 12 training sets, around 26 hours in the pool, 3 races, and around 65km. Pretty productive stuff. The Kilmurry Lodge hotel is cool, as across the road we had a petrol station, supermarket, (rip off) cinema, Dominoes, chippy, indian and chinese! So food wasn't exactly a problem. Also i had Larkin for a room mate, good fun. Unforunately we had to move to UL accomodation, 20 mins walk away >:(, cause all the swimmers for the competition had invaded Kilmurry. My 7 hour planned bus journey back home didn't take place, as i managed to hitch another life and go Limerick - B'fast in just over 4 hours.

So i took a few days off, and took advantage of crazy Tuesday movies. Although the psycho policeman with a fire engine siren meant we missed the 7.15 of superman >:(. Haha. I also did that 10km walk to Bangor, then got ripped off for lunch! Scotty had bust his shoulder again, and so was living in my bedroom when i returned, as his parents were in England. Therefore i ended up in the spare bedroom, but at least i saw that awesome thunderstorm.

Quite a few BBQ's were had too. I was at one where myself & Maxwell were in charge of cooking. He made a melted marshmallow pork and apple burger, which must've been interestingly tasty. Eventually returned to the pool for Irish Open Nationals, which basically meant i was going up against loads of the big guns with 40% more muscle than me and 7 years extra time on the planet. Regardless, after peaking the week beforehand, i swum crap! Sprint times were up to 1 second below what i should have been doing. But ah well, just wasn't on form! It was good seeing the random crowd from the rest of the island though. There were also such halarities such as the coaches race, where they just completely too the piss. And even dressed up in bikinis! Humourous stuff.....

That's about it now. No swimming for a month, so i can risk wrecking myself quite nicely, by indulging in ice skating, wrestling matches, and the likes. Oh yea, i also have to decide what to do at good old uni. Laters!

Supercharged

2006-07-05T16:15:00.000+01:00

That shall be my phrase to describe the Summer Madness '06 for me. Who actually reads this anymore anyways? Ah well, the reason i'm still typing is cause 1: i may put down some of the good stuff that happened, and 2: somebody will eventually stumble upon it.

So, Thursday night a guy in a big van drove into my driveway, and i was whisked out of the house to go and start to build my home for the next 4 days. This guy in the big van was Jimbo, and the van was a rather good van, which of course reminded me of how awesomely loaded Youthlink seem to be (or else they just manage their money well), as that's where the van had come from. Going into Summer Madness we got held up by Lisa beign site staff, and telling us to do stuff already :P. Then it took about 2 hours for us to put up our tent, mainly cause we just talked about random crap the whole time. Everybody got kicked out at 9.30, so a load of us piled into Dave Bell's car and sat in a queue for 20 mins while listening to some Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi.

On Friday i didn't actually go down til around 6pm. By this time our staff camping was full on tents, our entire crew consisting of Phil Todd, Pemerson, Magill, Matty, Fi, Clare, Alli, Jenny, Jimbo's other sister + friend, Lauren, Aaron, Jamie, DB, Mark, Castlereagh Jack and myself. That was a pretty class group to have actually. We made ourselves comfy, and i dropped the bumper food box of supplies into our tent. Youthlink, having loads of money from somewhere, had bought Dominoes for upwards of 30 people! Next was Warship (worship), which in previous years had been a bit on off with me. However, Tre Sheppard was back! To put it straight, it has all got a hell of a lot better in the last 2 years. The band was good, and the drummer had what was the awesomist snare drum sound ever. We were up in the balcony, but downstairs most people had just floor to sit on, apart from Mark and Jack, who'd decided to bring their portable camping chairs in and sit above everybody. Good choice. The activities kicked off, and i spent a while in the comedy club then got the guitar and went and played round at the bandstand with Matty, Nicci and somebody else who i didn't know. Actually i can't remember much about Friday at all, apart from seeing people i hadnt seen for yonks.

Saturday the team had devotions, which really consisted of us dancing to some song, then i went and took some pictures of DJ Roly Miller in the Youthlink tent. What a class name. Morning warship had a guy called Phil Collins (not the Genesis drummer) speaking, and he told an amusing story about his family and a spide family on holiday. On Saturday afternoon there was a seminar in the Youthlink tent involving people asking questions to an ex-INLA member and an ex-UVF member. One had planted a bomb which didnt explode and the other one had served 13 years for a sectarian killing. So that was really interesting actually. Youthlink being Youthlink had them sitting side by side, one on a chair with a tricolour draped over it, and the other with the union flag draped over it. I ended up later on briefly with the Pslam Drummers again, before we gathered with 1500 people in front of a big screen to watch the England Portugal match. The support seemed to be about half & half, so it was pretty mental at times. Haha good match it was. We had dinner of fish & chips, then evenining warship, which again had Tre, who told another story about his infamous dad (:. I seem to remember that the Saturday night music was pretty awesome too. Can't remember much of Saturday night either, a lot of hanging around. Oh yea, Jimbo Stevie & Mal got the chicken & monkey suits out and spent ages scaring people, which was good. Saturday night involved a lot of chillaxxing and then about 6 hours sleep, which is good for summer madness. Sunday had about 5000 people there cause it's free then, and Phil Collins was talking again. In the afternoon we did a bit more videoing of another seminar, this time involving victims of the troubles, and then i ended up in the 24/5 place. I'd actually never gone into it until the Saturday, like i always knew it existed, but i thought it was just a small room. It was actually a large room, with cool lights, and painting and stuff to do. On Sunday afternoon the Pslam Drummers had moved in there, and i ended up with them drumming for around an hour & a half. Jack was there too, and he was giving it complete stacks. With Pslam Drummers, there is just a circle with continuous changing rhythms being played, with loads of bits of percussion in the middle, and you just pick up and join in. That was one brilliant 90 minutes. From there it was over to the Avalon Acoustic Afternoon, where Dave was up against 4 others to get into the final. He played well, but was just outclassed by the 2 people who went through, but he's learnt stuff from it, so it's all good. Sunday evening warship had a guy called Mike Pilavachi talking, and he was class. After that there was more comedy club. I'd been in the Matt Foley sketches, and the best one was where Jimbo jumped on top of a "crappily made coffee table" so that it smashed into pieces in spectacular fashion. Myself and Pemerson ordered a Dominoes - £8.95 for a medium pepperoni! The guy delivered to the wrong gate, so we had to tear through the campsite to get it cause we were quite hungry! For information, when all the evening activities end at around midnight, everybody just hangs around and has a laugh, and eats from the overspriced food trucks. Jack somehow managed to get a giant hockey cokey started, which was brilliant. I got "Yessed" by Magill to play the game of life, so we ended up playing it in one of the tents. I came 3rd, but Pemerson got his ass kicked cause he had no house insurance, and he lost $125000 from fixing his house after it was damaged by gales. Jamie won because he had climbed Everest, invented a new sport, become prime minister, cured the cold, discovered a new planet, and done loads of other crazy stuff. I ended up still awake but not feeling tired at all, so i ended up sitting in 24/5 chilling, where i ended up hanging with a girl i knew from the staff. This resulted me in getting into the staff chill zone to fetch coffee, where a few of them were playing poker at 3 in the morning! They all get free food, but then so do we.

Anyways, Monday i had to get up early cause i had to go to my granny's funeral. Pemerson was left in charge of the camera. Oh, and i wasnt that down in the dumps either. A phrase had come about over the days "It's not summer sadness, but summer madness". That applied quite a bit, and there was no way in hell i was going to mope about when i got back. So i gave it stacks, as that's what would i would have been wanted to do. I returned in time to see the Avalon final, to get my supersoaker confiscated by Mr Summer Madness, to sponser a balloon for realease, and to see Mike Pilavachi do a halarious study of the disciples. The rest of the night saw more comedy and plenty of celebrating. I ended up in bed at 5, got a few hours kip, then i had to leave to go to the law courts for work experience at 9.

So that's that. A crap account of it in my opinion, but there's too much to remember. I had a good time and i'm pretty sure everybody else did too. I look forward to living like that again next year. I have 130 photos, which may appear online sometime soon!

.......

2006-06-27T00:48:00.000+01:00

Probably time i should update. In a nutshell, rough times characterised with decent high points and some crappy ones. Sounds like a damn graph of X-rays, that we got asked 2 full pages on in Mod. 3 physics. Exams went largely alright, physics will be my crappest mark, but at least they're done for this year. My last week was a tough one, but it was good to culminate it on Saturday with a good decent gig at the Front Page. It was full of legeheads, and even Goggles went!

I spent today dossing about and playing network games of Command & Conquer against Scotty. May as well start planning for a decent summer. I would like to have an all nighter again, as i've noticed lately it's never properly dark til around half past midnight, and it starts getting light at 3am. Summer Madness will take care of that one. That's where i'll be for 5 days or so. Followed by a jazz course, then off to Limerick to trash myself by swimming too much. Then im back for ages, so if anybody wants a random hangout feel free to suggest something. But anyways. Stay safe everybody, wherever you go!

Engeland

2006-06-09T23:18:00.000+01:00

Just to be different, i'm going to blog about the World Cup. If you hate it, what do you watch on TV?! Every 5 minutes it's mentioned. Lucky for me, i'm a pretty big fan of competitions like this, even when my interest in regular league soccer has dwindled a bit in previous years. International football is good stuff though as far as i'm concerned. My chosen teams to win the World Cup are Mexico, followed by Holland.

And talking about who's going to win the thing brings me nicely on to...England. Fair play to them, in my opinion they have a damn good team this time round, but why every single time do they get so cocky about winning?!? The players seem to be alright, they're just like "We have a good team, we'll give it a good shot". But the fans, and especially the TV, are kinda annoying. ITV news just ended with a 2 minute video of celebrities wishing England luck, all over some very emtional music. This is the kind of stuff that makes them look so stupid when they lose!! There are other nationalities watching!

But anyways, they've had plenty of luck given to them. If they win they win. On the other hand, one game i'd love to see in the World Cup is USA vs Iran. How awesome would that be in light of the current situation! However, i've checked up, and becuase of the "random drawing of groups", the only possible way Iran can play America is in the 3rd place playoff, or the final itself.

Oh yea, to give some credit to England, they do write good football songs. I haven't heard it, but apparently the Iranian world cup song is shocking. 'Three Lions', however, is quality (do note that they thought they could win Euro '96 and France '98, but didn't!), but i still really like that song. The lyrics can easily be replaced with other lyrics which relate to whatever trophy you want to win. Excellent.

In other events, though of course there isn't really anything else happening other than the World Cup, i had another gig with the Jazz quartet tonight at Instonians, and it was good fun. Moe was giving it stacks, Cookie was being good as usual, and Dos was always doing cheeky things on the keyboard. I just about made it on time after a horlax at the pool, as i was told id be swimming 400m at 6pm, which actually turned out to be 7pm. The computerised timing system then decided to pack up, resulting in it starting at 7.35, and me having to wait for 8 heats to happen in 25mins. However, i just laid the smackdown, and told them i had to go to work (haha), which resulted in me getting moved to the first heat.

So, i swam pretty crap, and had a massive turnover in the car. However the gig was fine, and i enjoyed it cause i played pretty well. It was nice sitting with the sun shining stong on me through the window as it set, while playing some grooves. Yea.

Back to reality. Mexico to win!

There he is.....

2006-05-29T14:36:00.000+01:00

Such a legehead. Cya in July Tre Sheppard!

$(h00L

2006-05-26T01:16:00.000+01:00

So, after over a week of doing completely nothing, we were 'released' from school. However, looking back on the previous week, it's actually been quite a lot of fun just going into school and having a good time. For example, my day today began with everybody having a laugh in common room, followed by double physics, where we had multiple games of Worms on a mobile phone, which was fully class. For anybody who doesn't know, Worms is a game where worms try to blow each other up with a variety of weapons. I gave it stacks with the completely awesome banana bombs and actually won a couple! After that i had a couple of periods of not much, followed by double chemistry, where we watched Mythbusters. Then there was lunchtime with all the usual, and then we got kicked out at about 2pm. So that's L6 over pretty much. I've aleady done 5 exams, but i've seemed to have had a decent time during it.

And of course, it's taken me til now to realise that my last year in school has been a bit of a lege. As for the subjects, maths is a gift, music is music, chemistry is good & interesting (different from what i first though), and physics is...pretty hard actually. But our physics class this year was legendary, cause the majority of the class liked a good laugh (and yes, we did do a bit of work). In physics this year we've had plenty of good stuff, like the time we made a giant straw, the time we played worms, the time we all ended up in the corridor for supposedly knocking a roof tile out, the time Dr Greer let us have a paper airplane contest, and of course, the time when i did full acrobatics across the floor half way through a kicking attempt. You can ask about that one if you like.

Apart from that, we've got to smell plenty of cool chemicals, do weird things to plenty of experiments. Like the time we managed to make a crazy purple iodine type gas from heating some liquid too much. Maths we just sat there and tanked our way through problems, while Davey C told us weird things about maths, and Mr Allen slagged off the Man Utd supporters. The latter there showed us a presentation of his world trip in 2003, and it looked fully class. If interested, you can hear plenty of stories about rioting villagers, pretty much no health & safety, and apparently 'shooting cows with rocket launchers'. Then there's music which is always a right riot. We decorated for Christmas this school year, had chair tossing competitions, keyboard jam sessions on the DJ setting, and took God knows how many periods out of private study to go there and chill out.

To add to that there has been concert times, which are just legendary with their moments. Watching Fergie direct the stage team was good stuff. Oh yea, for those who were at our Easter Concert, the encore plan was to get somebody in a monkey costume to get up to the front and present all the presents, but unforunately the U6 guys got a harsh warning beforehand not to do anything :(. Ah well, next year, new principal. On the other side of things the water polo team has been good stuff this year, and you've all heard enough about swimming & bath cup etc. i'm sure.

So that's that year. Well it ain't fully over, but you get me. Too many decent times to remember actually. Although there is a video of one of our geography teachers climbing out his window, which is brilliant. Of course, the U6 are leaving, which sucks! Going to miss you guys, so we'll try to carry on the classiness that's being left. But anyways, i'm blabbing now, and i'm continously listening to the one and only Lordi! Time for bed i rekon.

Bath Cup 2006

2006-05-15T21:56:00.000+01:00

Just two of the 15 or so i snapped over there. A bit of glory and a dream come true. All in a good weekend's work.

.....

2006-05-13T16:53:00.000+01:00

Oh my God. We won the Bath Cup.

Jazz

2006-05-07T00:26:00.000+01:00

Aside from TAPFS, the gig i've been is now well up there competeing for best gig ive been to in the last year. I went to see Courtney Pine, a saxophone player, as part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. So i arrived at 8 at the big marquee right in front of St Anne's, and chilled about for an hour til they eventually came on at 9. Now, i was expecting a sax player, piano, bass & drums, but no...we got a sax player, a drummer, a pianist playing keyboards and a grand, a guitarist, an electric acoustic upright double bass player (playing one of those basses with just the spine), and an electric violin player. And so we were basked in over 2 hours of awesome experimental jazz music.

By experimental i mean rhythms from every part of the world, violins and basses with flangers and wah wah, weird saxophone playing, insanely high notes, and insane drums. The cool thing was it was all really listenable to. The way they did it was, they did a song, then Courtney Pine (sax player) introduced a certain member of the band, who then ripped into a 5 minute crazyass solo. For every single member of the band, including such a drum solo. It's hard to remember everything that happened, but i'm trying....

And then there were the high notes. This guy was hitting notes well over 3 1/2 octaves above middle C on a tenor sax. That's insane if you didn't know. Courtney Pine is such a class guy too, he was telling us all to get into the groove. Eventually he said "Some people may know what i'm talkin about - jazz is not just from the head, but from the entire body, so i want everybody in here on their feet!" And so the entire marquee packed with 500 people got up and were loving it. It was brillaint, and so laid back, as there were no bouncers to stop people getting near the stage, so by near the end i was pretty much almost sitting on the stage.

So then they finished, went off, and came back on to play a further 45 minutes of awesomeness. Courtney Pine got the audience involved, split them into 3 sections, and got us fully into 3 part harmony. Oh yea, and all 6 of them were insanely good at their instruments. It was like this, CP would play a totally improvised passage to the bass player, and he would play it back, note by note, every time. So eventually they finished off by stating that all this does one thing: "Music brings people from all backgrounds together", and this is what they were trying to put out through their music. Amen to that guys.

In others things, i've been swimming and doing well. Only 6 days til the big one, then til i'm free from competition for ages....

.............

2006-04-27T22:22:00.000+01:00

There've been a lot of things going on lately. Easter was alright, Donegal probably being the highlight. The sand dunes game in the dark was brilliant, and it's incredible none of my bones are broken. Since i've been back at school it's been tanking in the work.

Composition is pretty much done & dusted, good stuff.

Was in Dublin on Tuesday for Ulster U16 waterpolo, for anyone whos interested we beat Connaught 11-10 but lost to Leinster 7-6. Funnily enough, one of the refs was the same guy from last time, and after getting my third sin bin in 10 minutes from him, i somehow had the suspicion that he hadn't forgotten about last month's episode.

Got music practical date, 19th May. Since i'm just using the Bazz Jand it's no worries.

Had a swimming/water polo fundraiser quiz for Inst too, where our team managed to win a bottle of wine. Haha. The adults team, consisting of certain relatives of me, Jamie, Aaron & Scotty came last and won a balloon modelling kit.

Apart from that Bath Cup is in 15 days time. All my gear arrived yesterday, so already the psyching up is starting. We'll try to win, if we don't we've still had a damn good time this year, and so we'll finish it up by spending our (hopefully again) big budget in London on the Friday night.

Oh yea, and i got put on the team of guys in school who get to dish out prefect duties to the L6 when the Uppers leave. Basically that means that i help to put whoever we want in whatever duties we want, with whatever other guy we want. Bonus is we don't have to do any of the duties ourselves if we don't want to. There are many ways that position could be abused, but i wont (:.

So anyways, score.

0658

2006-04-16T06:54:00.000+01:00

I've blogged about screw all for ages, so im just making some random post to show that i still remember it exists. I was going to do a picture one, but there are a surprising lack of pictures of stuff i'd like to use. Once i get some dosh together a digital camera/camcorder will be invested in.

Apart from that, it's 0655, and i'm sitting here listening to Rush Hour dance music. How incredibely random. In reality, i am supposed to be packing for Donegal, which won't happen til the last possible minute. As long as i remember cool stuff like the vortex ill be sweet. Now, should i go back to bed or not? It completes a messed up week in bedtimes ranging from 8.30am to 4.30am, and getting up times ranging from 5.30am til 1pm. Call me lazy or whatever, but on the upside i am seeing the world at weird times.......

Biased Refs

2006-03-29T22:50:00.000+01:00

Last Wednesday, as i've probably said, i was in Dublin for school's U16 water polo. So i'm guessing you'd all like to know how it went? Well, in short, we played like troopers, got screwed by the referees, and therefore lost out.

Game no. 1 saw us getting sin bin penalties 6 times, while the other team got none. I managed to knock up 2 sin bins without doing anything massively wrong, so of course i was duly reminded that one more and i'd be ejected from the game. The game ended in a 8-8 draw, and we decided to opt for sudden death, goal the winner. So we were going nice & well, until the ref decided to give the other team a penalty for no reason at all! Therefore they scored and we lost!

Game no. 2 saw the two most biased refs come together (water polo has 2 refs). This time both teams got sin bins, but the other team got 3 penalties! 3! To add to all the crap, our coach then got throw off the poolside! Basically, the ref tried to warn one of our guys about nearly getting into a fight. Our coach asked the ref if he'd seen it. The ref went "no, but i know it was this guy". No effort to warn the guy from the other team, pfff. So our coach told him to go away and give us some peace (it was a timeout), and then he got kicked out! That game ended on a tiebreak too, and we lost 4-3.

So we played well, and got messed up by the refs. I'm not just saying that, they really were the most biased i've ever come across!

TAPFS

2006-03-27T17:37:00.000+01:00

If you like Pink Floyd, even a little bit, or you like class visual shows, go see the Australian Pink Floyd Show. Last night was incredible! Since the real Pink Floyd ain't touring anymore, these guys are really the alternative, although they are pretty damn close to the real thing. Myself and Niall went and decided to stand, which was a good choice.

They kicked off by performing the 'Wish you were here' album in it's entirety, then they took a break cause of technical problems. 20 mins later, and £45 lighter, the two of us had two t-shirts and a concert DVD before going back in to see the rest of the show. The cool woman let me pay for my t-shirt in euros & pounds (:.

Anyways, i'm trying to list most of what they played. Second half contained (in no order) Us & Them, Another brick in the wall Pt2, The Great Gig in the Sky, Comfortably Numb, Money, Run like Hell, Mother, In the Flesh, On the Run (i think), One of These Days, and a few Syd Barett-era songs, which were class.

Anyways, these shows are massively visual. They have loads of coloured lights, big projection screens, lasers and whatnot. Highlights had to be:

All the lights shining on the audience during the chorus of 'Shine on you Crazy Diamond'
The saxophone guy, who was class!
The hugely extended Another brick in the wall Pt 2.
Money, just cause it's a class song.
Lasers, specially during Run like Hell
The guy with the Auzzie hat and long hair playing 5 keyboards

Then there was Comfortably Numb, where during the solos they brought down this huge disco ball, and splattered every light they had on it, which was really an eye feast.
The vocal scat solo in Great Gig was incredible, better than the way the real Pink Floyd do it on my live album.
Then there was One of These Days. I wasn't expecting this to be played, but as you were probably told, it's been my MSN name for like 2 weeks. It was class! I've been to quite a few concerts with strong bass, but this was unbelievable. In the build up the bass was so strong that it just incased everybody in a shell of low frequency vibrations for about 10 seconds. It's one of the most incredible things i've ever heard! Then during that, they blew up their big pink kangaroo mascot which was the size of the stage, and when the music really got going, the roadies bounced it around! It was class, you had to be there!

So, some brilliant music all supported by lots of visual videos during songs, in Pink Floyd's style, except replacing their pink elephants with pink kangaroos. It should be renamed The Australian Pink Floyd Experience. I'm so going next time!

To complete the night, Niall and i got into his car, drove 5 metres, and realised that we had a flat tyre! Great! So we spent about 20 mins under the M3 bridge getting our hands dirty and doing a good job. Yea, the tyre stayed on all the way home thankfully!

Dublin Calls

2006-03-21T22:12:00.000Z

Jamie, since your random pictures post was so good, i think i might just copy it, without your permission!

Dublin calls again tomorrow, for water polo this time. I will be captaining our water polo team to glory. Or not. In reality we may well get a good beating, but who cares! It'll be fun, as we will play at least 2 games in the classy NAC then get a kick ass meal in some nice restaurant near Drogheda on the way home. Even if we do get beaten, we could try for a dip in the fun pool, which well over twice the size of Lisburns! While you are all at school! Hah! Apart from Stevie, who will probably be on Xbox Live. Nah, i quite like school everybody, with all the incredibley random stuff goes on down there.

Quote of the day: "You better come down during easter ya hoebag!!"

Yup, that made me laugh. Cheers!

On another note, good luck to Graham as he goes for an early dip in the pool tomorrow! I'm coming next Wednesday, although you'll probably hate yourself for being up so early by that time!

St. P

2006-03-18T01:03:00.000Z

Well it's been a while as you've all probably noticed, for quite a few reasons, like school, music exams and swimming training taking up some time. Actually at the minute i have more free time than i've had this year, which is certainly a good thing. Now i just have to use it wisely. Nah, Bebo has been taking up quite a bit of time, as after being bombarded with 10 bloody Bebo emails everyday i decided to join for the fun. 5 days later, there are good things and bad things to it. The good things are using it to keep in touch with people outside Belfast. It's incredibely useful for doing that (it's more of a European thing than American). On the other hand, my profile is kinda screwed, and annoyingly keeps telling me that i'm 17, when 16/6/89 is clearly scribbled over the page. Stupid thing. Point of that is that Bebo was partially to blame for distracting me off blogging.

Happy St Paddy's day by the way. Green all around for everybody. And a day off school! Anyways, the original dates in my calander for the 17th onwards was the International Schools in Scotland. Not cause i was sure i'd make the Irish team, but just to remind me that that was what i was training towards. Of course i didn't make it in the end, and i've never really wondered whether i was blame or nobody was to blame. I did train loads towards it, but i'm pretty sure in the end it was just down to 5 guys, 4 of them over 18 months older than me, just having the age advantage. It's something that had affected me at primary school, and it's returned this year. Pity though, it would've been a good trip. But i do look on the brightside about it, there's not much else i could've done to get on that team again, and there were others who missed out on a second year. Anyways, that's that kinda half rant over.

School Concert, 30th/31st March (Thursday/Friday), if we get sorted out in time it should be a good one, so it could well be a good night out. Unfortunately, we will not have a representitive of the Bank of Ireland presenting it and cracking some good jokes, but it's the music that counts!

Work Expo

2006-02-23T22:18:00.000Z

So, for anybody who didn't already know, school came to me yesterday and offered me one day's work experience at Musgrave Park Hospital. I didn't have a clue who it was with, what the hell i'd be doing, where i was going, what i'd see & if i'd like it, but of course, me being me, i just said yes so i could actually say i'd done work experience!

8.30 this morning i walked into the hospital, and by around 8.33 i'd been clothed in true Scrubs style and chucked straight into an operating threatre with the Dr. guy who was supposed to be supervising me. He rustled up some anesthetics then ended up handing me a coffee. Now, i don't like coffee, but i had to be polite and drink the damn stuff. That was quite a hard task. Coffee sucks. And what's more, the whole coffee-full-of-caffeine thing did completely nothing for me. NOTHING. In creativeness, i rustled up a quick graph or two on paint:

1. Graph of Alertness vs Time, in what i thought coffee was supposed to do to you:

2. Graph of Alertness vs Time, for what coffee did to me:

In otherwards, it's effects sucked as much as the taste. My alertness was actually going down until they got started on somebody's hip replacement.

Which meant blood. Let me put it this way. Orthepedic surgery is all to do with bones. In my opinion, Orthepedic surgery is just Surgery with Power Tools. SPT for short. Any DIY fanatic who likes blood would love it over there. They use chisels, hammers, drills, screw drivers, saws, nails and clamps to repair people's bones. In a later operation i saw them take apart this person's knee then replacing it with titanium bits. I'll be nice and not get into the details, but what was good was that i didn't feel sick or anything. I just watched with interest as they hammered away and all that sorta thing.

I then got a 2 hour lunch break, where i was given another coffee, and where i spent some of the time in the staff room eating & watching TV, but then i decided to pop back into the theatre to see what was going on. From that visit i found out some stuff about what they drug their patients with. Morphine of course was one. Diamorphine was another. Anybody know what diamorphine is?? If you guessed heroin, then you're correct. If you think the surgeons are junkees, then you're incorrect, as you should've guessed that it's in small amounts.

After lunch i ended up by coincidence with the guy who operated on my dad's knee when he bust it up two years ago. He was doing the exact same repair operation on another guy. This wasn't big bad gruesome surgery though, this was all keyhole surgery, where they make small holes and stick a videocam in. Anyways, this guy who i was with a bit of a legend. The operating theatre isn't serious at all, all the surgeons crack jokes all the time. This guy was no different. His theatre had a CD player chucking out good music in the background, while he spent the operation slagging off his training assistant and making jokes about his Auzzie assistant who were both helping out. Apart from that, there were at least 4 other medical people dossing about the (small) threatre doing completely nothing at all! So many of them do that, they just sit there during operations doing crosswords, or in this case, dancing to the background music. The keyhole surgery was also interesting because it let me see the inside of a knee when it wasn't totally mangled by heavy duty tools. But anyways, it was a good laugh alright. This surgeon told me quite nicely about his work. He told me that if there was a difficult bit in the operation, he would ask for quiet so he could concentrate. Apart from that, he told me that when things were going well, or easy, then everybody just relaxed and enjoyed themselves. Here's to that one.

So, doing all that was interesting alright. Who else has seen stuff like i did today?! Apart from that, it hasn't really swung me any further towards medecine, although if i was going into that i would definately consider surgery. However, i would only ever do medecine if i really really really wanted to, and i don't really really really want to. Nevertheless, surgeons are good fun people alright.

Oh yea, i apologise for all the probable spelling mistakes in that. Medical stuff is damn hard to spell!

Omphhh

2006-02-20T21:21:00.000Z

One thing i would like to see at swimming training sessions is the presence of music. It's annoying the way they don't, i mean what a way to motivate people like myself. Walking into the pool at 6am to the sounds of Sandstorm by Darude would please me a lot more than walking in to the sound of nothing much at all. Like come on, wouldn't you have more fun swimming to that? Or anything actually, from big bad happy pop songs to rock anthems to Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band to the thumps of the dance classics. They do it other places.

Come to think of it, they did play music once. At Christmas time. We got some Shakin' Stevens at 7am, followed by Slade, Duran Duran & all that sorta thing. But that was on like the 21st December, when Christmas was 4 days away, and everybody was busy thinking about what the big man was going to bring them.

One downside to music at the pool would be that it might screw my concentration at times, i.e. i'd get lost in the music and end up smashing into the wall or something. But who cares?! I rekon the motivation of it would do me better. Or just make the whole thing more enjoyable.

Now i'm just talking randomish crap, so onto other things. If your PC has enough memory & is fast enough, download and run the BBC Climate Change experiment. It runs in the background, doing calculations which will help predict all the climate stuff. I think there are 100,000 odd people round the world doing it, and apparently this is helping the environment, cause it is using less power than their supercomputers use. Even so, it slows down my beast of a PC to a crawl when starting up, which doesn't please myself when i'm trying to get some music through the speakers nice & quickly. But anyways: www.bbc.co.uk/climatechange

Just been watching a lot of Winter Olympics lately, as they make good TV in my opinion. What i like about it is that all the sports done are more like hobbies than jobs, therefore they enjoy it more, and don't need to train til they drop to actually compete. Bobsleigh for example. If you aren't the driver, you just need to push a bit of fibreglass like a tank for about 5 seconds, then jump in and enjoy an 80mph ride down a tube of ice. Everybody from all walks of life do that, which i like. Also, Winter Olympics has Ice Hockey, and that's enough said.

3 Part Post

2006-02-13T19:05:00.000Z

Some of my top Chuck Norris facts. If you don't know about Chuck Norris Facts, go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris_Facts

The chief export of Chuck Norris is Pain.
CNN was originally created as the "Chuck Norris Network" to update Americans with on-the-spot ass kicking in real time.
Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
It is believed dinosaurs are extinct due to a giant meteor. That's true if you want to call Chuck Norris a giant meteor.
Chuck Norris uses a nightlight. Not because Chuck Norris is afraid of the dark, but the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris once kicked a horse in the chin. It's descendants are known today as giraffes.
The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Chuck Norris out. It failed miserabely.
Contary to popular belief, America is not a democracy. It is a Chucktatorship.
Chuck Norris does not churn butter. He roundhouse kicks the cows and the butter comes straight out.

2. Today i actually looked at univeristy courses! Woohoo! That meant i only looked at Queen's, Trinity, Edinburgh and Oxford. I wrote down 20 courses from Queen's, 20 from Edinburgh, 10 from Trinity & 8 from Oxford. Narrowed down very nicely so far. For those who are interested, here are some of the courses i wrote down:

Astrophysics
International Studies
Aeronautical Engineering
Structural Engineering + Architecture
Music Technology
Artificial Intelligence + Maths
Physics with Meteorology
Scandanavian Studies
Law
Ethnomusicology

Ok, so im probably not doing the right subjects for half of those, and i'd probably hate doing half of those too. But who cares, i finally did some research!

3. Continuation of the University part. I may go randomly and visit some universities within the next 18 months. If anyone would like to come along for the trip (or laugh), then by all means come along. For the record, i'm not paying for it. Places i'm thinking of visiting are Oxford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Trinity.

How it all went........

2006-02-05T00:23:00.000Z

Hopped in the car on Friday morning, got down to Dublin (well, Ashbourne), and spent the next 3 hours hanging about the hotel watching Blackadder DVD's in our room. Then went off for the Friday night session at the NAC, and managed to get ourselves lost in the process. Dublin like, they seem to have divided the suburbs into all sorts of "towns". Examples: Blanchardstown, Buzzardstown, etc.etc. Trust me, there are loads of them! But anyways, the NAC (National Aquatic Centre) is fully amazing. 50m olympic standard state of the art pool, diving pool with about 10 different boards, a fun pool about twice the size of Lisburn's, and then all the usual gyms and all. It's totally class. And damn hard to find too. But yea, Friday night's session i wasn't swimming, so i just dandered about looking around and saying hey to some of the crew from down there.

From the end of that session at about 9pm, we got back to the hotel while getting lost again, and had a pretty lovely dinner in the restaurant. I had a steak sandwich topped with cheese and mushrooms, and potato wedges on the side. After that the 4 seniors went round the block to stock up on lucozade and the likes, and found the full Friday night nightlife in Ashbourne in full swing. The nightlife involves many groups of Skangers (spides) hanging outside the 24 hour Tesco Store, chasing cars and stealing trolleys. To avoid them mobbing us and stealing our goods on the way back, we walked through some random apartment area, and ended up scaling the back wall of the hotel car park to get back in. Interesting.

So after that at about 11ish we hit the pit, and ended up watching.....late night wrestling! It's so fake, but it's funny! Last night Kurt Angle was taking on Triple H for revenge for getting his car blown up or some crap like that. Had not a bad nights sleep, and then started today, the day which i've spent the past week thinking about. Here started the lovely diet i had today. Between 8am this morning and about 9.30pm tonight, all i had was a small bowl of cereal (with loads of sugar), 2 bananas, a kitkat, about 4 bits of pasta, and a complete ton of powerade, water, apple juice, and red bull. Put all that together and you make me hit a sugar high of about 7 hours, which is only starting to wear off now. That can't be good for me! The fact that i didn't eat was cause it'd screw up my race.

Anyways, back to the swimming. I warmed up, then spent the next 3 hours not swimming! In otherwards, wandering about, waiting to race, drinking stuff, and talking to people from other parts of this island. My heat was a doss, because everybody was swimming slowly on purpose. I was way ahead after the first 2 lengths, so i just slowed right down and swum with the flow, and put myself in the final. Now, the final was make or break for the Ireland team. Let's just say i broke it, and ended up coming 6th, in one of the most wrecking races ever. I ended up doing 100m freestyle in 54.16 seconds, which is a personal best for me and was pretty damn close to the rest of them, who were all like 18. The age factor is a problem this year you see. If i was 2 weeks younger i'd have been Intermediate, and i would've either won or come 2nd in my race. But ah well. So, slightly disappointed, but what was to follow got rid of that.

Relay time came after that. Our U6 swimming was mighty annoyed that he didn't make the Irish team (cause he should have), so he was all up for tearing out the relays. As were the rest of the senior team. The heats were easy enough, we just dossed it to get ourselves a central lane in the final. Then came finals time. I know red bull ain't good for you, but we had some anyways and were fully ready for it. The challenging school were called Gonzaga, from Leinster. One of their guys knew 2 of us, but apart from that, they didn't have a clue who we were, and were pretty sure of winning. It was a great race (this was the medley relay), so i took last leg of Freestyle and tanked it like my life depended it. 50m and 23.9 seconds later i hit the boards, and we damn well celebrated. Not just cause we'd won, but somehow we also smashed the 12 year running Irish record, taking 3 seconds off it!
Freestyle relay was the same story in the heats, then we had the final again. I was expecting a 3rd or so in this. I ended up going first, and the other guys managed to hold off Gonzaga for another win. And another Irish record. Now of all i was expecting this weekend, this wasn't it at all. In our true style, we got the party poppers & hooters out there and then. We were all absolutely knackered, but who cares?! We can now call ourseleves the fastest Irish Senior Schools relay team...ever.

A good weekend's work then. It has totally wrecked me, and all the other guys, but i personally don't give a crap at all. It was well worth it, and again it's things like those competitions which are keeping me in the pool right now. I'm sure it's the same with other things - doing stuff like this let's me experience a lot of pretty memorable things, pleasant or not. Getting fully tanked on sugar and adrenaline is one thing. Cruising about the Dublin suburbs trying to find the pool while blasting out Sandstorm in the car is another. Nerves before the race is another. Craic between everybody has to be another. You've probably guessed hanging with people from elsewhere on this island is another. It's all a good laugh in the end.

Cheers for everybody who supported me coming up to this and kept the nerves at bay!! The sugar high is going now........but what we managed to do today was pretty legendary. The above blog is a quick summary of my last 36 of so hours. They have been 36 damn long hours, and i'm loving that.

.......

2006-01-30T22:38:00.000Z

Listening to: Duran Duran - Ordinary World

This is how i stand right now. It's Monday, and i'm already thinking about the stuff i'll have to do this weekend. Swimming in Dublin if you don't already know. Irish grammar schools, and (to me) you can screw all the other galas, this is the one that is important to me. It's the one that can secure a second trip with the Irish School's team, or not. So you can guess on Saturday night, my mood will be one of two extremes. You've been warned for either way it turns out. I'm not nervous yet, just feeling pretty jumpy and whatnot. It's not a bad feeling actually. Maybe some adrenaline, i don't know. But anyways. For once i'm having a sensible week of sensible bedtimes and hardly any swimming training. Whatever happens though, i'm looking forward to this weekend, as all school's trips are good craic, and of course i'll be seeing lots of the mob from down south. Talking to one of them tonight, who pointed out it's been over 6 months. That's the swimming world for you though. You make friends, and see them only that often, but it's all good.

What a weird world it is.

Week in Pics

2006-01-22T22:59:00.000Z

Yea, i'll have a better one next time.

Ohhhhh

2006-01-16T21:07:00.000Z

Friday 13th was a good day. It had two highlights; one was Jose coming into big bad Inst and talking in assembly about Exodus. And it was such a good talk. He just got stuck in, and somehow got the attention and interest of all 1000 people in that hall, even though he was in reality talking about a Christian ogranisation....nice one Jose! Second highlight was orchestra, when who else but Nick had a big bag of Haribo, and proceeded to position gummi bears on the edge of my crash cymbal, so that they would get projected nicely up into the air mid-song. So after a few tries, at which point most of the orchestra were interested, i managed to (while playing through a song), hit the cymbal, shoot the gummi bear about 5m into the air, and catch it in my mouth, and keep playing. Mr B. didn't have a clue what the hell all the random cheering was about. But honestly, it was one of the most legendary things ever, and i feel very fulfilled now. Hah.

Saturday 14th was an even better day. Of course, at open day the jazz band was screwed with only two trumpets, but who really gave a crap? Davey Howell sure didn't. From that led onwards to the swimming pool for the Ulster Schools. After 4 hours of sitting about, i finally raced, made the final of my 100 freestyle, then went and did that final. And managed a nice 2nd place, to a guy who i know from Derry. Who goes to tech. Going to tech = all the time in world to do stuff like train for swimming. Point made. Oh yea, and that came along with a personal best, so i was well happy.
That wasn't the awesome bit though. The senior relays are a big one at these things, and the money was on for us vs the Methody boys, and the bets on for a close final in both. So our team spent the next hour preparing for this. Out came the red bull, and down went half a can each before the medley relay final. Add this to the amount of lucozade, water and chocolate i'd had and this was me hitting the roof on sugar. High on it if you so desire. It was good, and the adrenaline was flowing. So we did our race, i went last leg about half a second ahead of the Methody guys in second, and i thought it was going to be a toughie. But we ended up completely trashing them, and breaking the Ulster record by 2 full seconds. It was a slaughterfest, and a right fun one too i must admit. So then there was the freestyle relay final, and again came out the red bull (which i never ever drink!), and that resulted in us borrowing one of those swimming pool dummies, dressing it in an Inst hoodie, swimming cap and goggles, and then me carrying it up to the starting area, where he was placed up alongside the diving boards as our "Unofficial Mascot". If that wasn't taking the piss i don't know what is, but we won that final too, and took another record with it, in what was possibly one of the best days of swimming i've had in quite a while. Good craic like that is the reason i enjoy the schools galas. And also the reason why i sometimes enjoy swimming. But next time i go for training, i will hate it again, so don't worry.....

On the side, One of these days by Pink Floyd is one of my favouritist songs ever. One of many favourite songs ever actually. Nonetheless, it makes Pink Floyd look even more legendary than ever, and makes the thought of going to see The Australian Pink Floyd Show in March pretty awesome. They are highly recommended. Anyways, i'm off to Dublin Feb 3rd

Wow, this steak is red inside

2006-01-07T23:50:00.000Z

I'm sitting here eating a very rare steak, so hopefully i won't get poisoned. Who cares, it tastes good anyways. Yes people, i'm eating my tea at 11.50pm, but that's how i live my life at times. Also, i eat as much of the steak as my molars can break down. That includes the fat, which is nice. I'm also listening to Rush Hour Disc 1, aka, the Limerick beats. Bringing back the memories.....

2005

2006-01-01T22:41:00.000Z

So, 2005 then. How shall i do this :S.....month by month?

January: Rolled in the year up in Donegal, probably by having a good game of Monopoly. This was when my swimming times really started going down, and where i started doing things i originally thought pretty impossible for myself, so was all good. I think i also remember the time in January when we were in Scotty's car, with the windows down, blasting out "Fight for your right (to party)" by the Beastie Boys! Apart from that, i spent a lot of time wondering about what on earth i was going to do that summer. I'd never really thought much about going to the USA, but for some reason i just suddenly wanted to go. So when i got offered to go to NC, i went for interview.

February: Kicked it off by starting something great that would last for months. Returned to Limerick for the swimming, and had a very relaxing day followed by one of my most athletic days ever. I remember that weekend incredibly well actually. Going to the local M&S to buy a crate of Lucozade, surprising myself by making an Irish final (was seeded 15th), completely knocking myself backwards by coming 3rd in that final, and being confused as hell when told i'd made some Irish team. Then the late night where one guy like broke his leg, then the legendary journey home in the back seats of a people carrier, revising all my chemistry for my mock. Awesome.
This month also saw one of the best music performance nights ever. Friday 25th, i think it was. Went back to Nick's house (this was when i was starting to hang out with him), then crashed this guy Tim's house, then went to the School's Jazz gig thing at the Cresent Arts. We walked in, and were nicely surprised by the full on smokey jazz bar look. And so we saw all the other schools, who were awesome. Now at this point, we'd had Davey H for 2 weeks, and we were full on under-rehearsed, so you can forgive us for being damn nervous, specially myself. But then we went on there and rocked the show. The crowd carried us and we rode on it. It was great, and it gave me a nice big confidence boost for playing the drums in public, something that became a hell of a lot easier after that night.
Yea, apart from that, February was filled with mocks and stuff like that, but it was awesome. I still haven't forgotten the "February 30th" joke, which kept going for ages! Oh yea, and there was February Fanfare, which was pretty cool. I also got interviewed for NC that month, the day before my ad-maths mock. 1 day of revision and i got a C in my mock, which i was proud of!

March: Let's see, March. March saw Choir of the Year, which sucked & which we got our asses kicked in. There was the Irish School's team trip to Wales. As it was my first time in that country, it strikes me as a really weird place. Specially that language. "Wyrydysky llandyrywr" is kinda how it goes. Anyways, i met a few legends on that trip, which really kind of kicked off my contacts with swimmers round this island. And also, the Irish team were by far the best fun. As always. And all i had to do was swim in a 50m relay! The whole Focus Formal thing was pretty good, and it also confirmed my thoughts that i hated Chinese food.

April: Actually, this bit begins March 31st, but who cares. That was the night where the clocks did something, and i ended up getting up at 4 which was actually 3 to go cook sausages with NC people for the dawn thing in the hills. That was pretty cool. Then i sacrificed my Easter Dinner to go to Donegal. However, that was a great fun trip. The tent outside totally owned, cause Phil, Matty & myself had no rules out there. Vortexing was awesome, as was watching those random movies, messing about on the beach, and watching Mark draw "Weird Phil" and "Maxwell" pictures. Oh yea, nobody can forget the Dave Bell late night discussions, Dr Phil, Martin's song, and the full on slagofest of that talent show. And also, there was that awesome milk drinking contest, followed by sitting on the couch for 3 hours straight, then sitting in the tent til 5.30am. The rest of the holidays just had random days out, and at the end of them, a residential for NC group. We went bouldering, which was fully awesome, just jumping in freezing Mourne waters yelling "It's warm!!". By this point SRO had written some hot stuff, and so got themselves a place in that Battle of the Bands competition. Even without Mark, i think we tore down the house, and should've won! The winners completely sucked: ignored the audience, left out solos & had none of their own stuff. Damn methody people. The rest of that month was taken up with swimming, by which point i'd peaked for the year, and doing a bit of work for the old exams. And our school concert, which owned and saw the last performance of some legends.

May: May began with the marathon water table, which was fully cool and wet. That street artist guy, remember him?! Then there was the weekend where i took off to London for the Bath Cup competiton, that was such a fun weekend. On the last night we went to Planet Hollywood and were still running round Leister Square at 1am. Oh yea, and 3rd overall in one of the relay races rounded off a pretty awesome 5 months of swimming. After that my training kinda went down a bit, and i got off on study leave, a lot of which i spent watching 24 Series 3!

June: Exams, exams. I saw Mark Knopfler live at the Odyssey around May or June too, and basically spent my free time doing some revision, talking to people, or hanging in the park. Or being driven about by Stevie. Or playing Halo actually. Sunday 19th i was supposed to go to Dublin for interprovincial gala, but somebody cancelled the Ulster bus! So we just drove down anyways, and had a right laugh in the pool right beside Dublin airport. Even out of training i wasn't doing too badly. 2 days later i was hanging at the city hall 2 hours before my last exam. So i went and did that physics paper (which was easy) then walked out of school to a 9 1/2 week holiday. First thing i did? Had an all nighter of Halo, from midnight-5.30am, with Stevie & Jamie. I'm sure you're all going "Why the hell did you do that?" but why not?! I had nothing else to do! June 25th i went randomly to Dublin and finally saw the centre of the city which i'd been on the outskirts of about 14 times before. It was a roasting day, and we fully got sunburnt, but who cares! Also had an awesome joint b'day party, then spent the last few days of the month saying cya to the people who i wouldn't see for ages, and generally chilling.

July: Ok, i've already blabbed about it enough. But in a small list: Summer madness - Tre Sheppard, telecommunications device, Scotty breaking health & safety laws, big super soakers, Shane the American, Hanz & Franz's debut, free pizza, Niall's bike, catapulting water bombs, meeting randomers from Sligo, the comedy club, JP giving us an awesome pitch, African drumming afternoon with the crazy guys, the TankTent, lying about for an afternoon, our mess of a tent, the 'peace' evening when the lights got turned out & everybody got the phones out, the music, having a guitar, the cool hang out places, late nights, weird eating times. Was all great fun.
NC - transatlantic flying, Stevie tanksleeping, the psycho in New York, the NY theme tune, the Ricks, SUV's, roasting weather, working on the site, pool parties, drinking water, Dr Pleasants, flying squirrels (dives for anybody who thinks i was harming animals), The Claytons, HP launch party, baseball, getting lost in the country, buying loads of CD's, eating huge pizza, outdoor movies, owning everybody at laser tag, watching American TV, more late nights, the dart plane, sunburn, overnight trip back.
After that i was in Donegal, a welcome break from 3 weeks of non stop activity. I was pretty damn relaxed, as i didn't have to go swimming because of my ear!

August: Just chilled about the place, til the Irish Nationals, which i mostly officiated in. As i said ages ago, i just liked being there, as i got to hang out with people i know from down round Dublin, Cork & Galway. Was good fun. Then i took off to Limerick, which i think i also wrote loads about. So here's another list! Limerick - Bus journey, seeing the place look exactly the same, meeting the new guys, stopping at fuel places in the middle of nowhere, mealtime at the big table, kids club, a bigger & better Xtreme, Hanz & Franz, free afternoons, David's cool jokes, sleeping on the windowsill, DJ Mal, the guy Neil, BBQ's, swimming pools, Saturday out, just generally having a real good time while doing something worthwhile. Then we had Xtreme and all here, and more Hanz & Franz! Everybody was back at this point, so it was all good. Oh, and SRO recorded an EP upstairs in some guy's house on a roasting hot day. Interesting.

September: I guess i was pretty moody most of September, because i was back at school, back at swimming, and not as free to do whatever i wanted. Also i pissed myself off over picking subjects, going to training, and wondering whether no was the right answer and if i should've said yes. Still it was good seeing old friends who you only ever see in school! And jazz band was back...but i made a start back into the old competitive swimming, which should hopefully pay off for me now. It wasn't a bad month, but it wasn't really a great one either. Though i did rediscover Gladiators, and my liking for Ice Hockey grew.

October: October is always good fun. Just worked steadily at the usual things, went out on random nights, until Halloween break came, when i began on my usual week of getting little sleep and maximum fun. I was happy to say i did something every single day, including that weeknd to Downhill, what with the hardcore swims, Mussoden Temple, the stars, the record collection, and Exodus. Also i must mention SRO's trip to Exodus earlier in the month, for a first proper gig, where the crowd seemed to like us!

November: November is kind of a blur (like October & September were). I had the charity concert, which was great fun, and Graham's India concert was very good. And for the first big swimming competition of the season, we cleaned up at the Grammar Schools.

December: I remember most about the latter half of December, unsurprisingly. Although in the 3 weeks of school i had, i had 3 Fridays in a row where i had either 5 or 7 periods free. Since i'd done most of my exams, school was dossy, and we all just had quite a laugh. I had a busy weekend round the 17th what with swimming competitions again, where i set a great time for me (hopefully means i can do something good in Feb), Oasis concerts, a party & 2 Carol Services, and a fun time just forgetting about school and all coming up to Christmas. Christmas Eve was the busking day, and a good day it was. Since then, i just chilled, got very confused in late night convos, went ice skating for the first time (which was awesome), had a committee meeting, eaten loads then not much, and then the wedding. My first wedding was great fun, with playing drums, dancing, partying, and then taking off to my house, and ending up at the Bergins, which was actually 2006. But still.....

So in general, 2005 was a good year for me. Thanks to everybody who helped make it so, who drove me about the place, travelled with me, hung out with me, spent loads of time with me, put up with me annoying them, supported me, and even pissed me off. It was part of the experience, put it that way......so yea, 2006 better be good

2006

2006-01-01T05:37:00.000Z

So yea, 2K5 was a pretty interesting year. Maybe i'll write more stuff on it later today, but in short i had a good time this year. Had some breakthroughs in swimming & water polo, made a lot of ground with musical stuff, met new people, made new friends, visited new places, had a lot of fun with existing friends, had some awesome days, some crappy ones, but i have loads & loads of memories of this year. In short, i love y'all, and let's make 2006 an awesome year!

.

2005-12-30T01:28:00.000Z

Hope everybody had a good Christmas.....Ice skating rules.....

Who you gonna call?!?

2005-12-23T14:58:00.000Z

Like i went through the Gladiators phase, i am now going through the Ghostbusters phase. Just for the record, Gladiators is still one of the most awesome shows on this planet.

But Ghostbusters. How cool is it? I think i've seen the movies, but who cares, i know that they run around NYC with big buster packs sucking up ghosts. It's all good fun and there's no blood involved. Just big funny ghosts chasing screaming people downtown in Manhatten. Then the question is asked....Who you gonna call?? And everybody goes, GHOSTBUSTERS! Haha, full on greatness. Then the 4 guys come along and kick the ghosts crap in with their armory of ghost sucking up stuff. Then i can't remember, the put the ghost in some machine.

And the theme tune, how kickass. It's one gaurenteed to get everybody shouting when it's played. Sullivan Upper's Jazz Band did a version of it, i think it'd be super cool if Jazzman Howell got us to do it in school, as you can all shout Ghostbusters at the audience. The song has some cool catchphrases in it too: "I ain't 'fraid of no ghost", "Who you gonna call?" and "Bustin' makes me feel good!". So yea, Ghostbusters is 80's cool.

As for other things in my world, well actually, most things seem to be going just peachy. I am fully chillaxing my time while off school. And taking plenty of late nights.

Ts'day

2005-12-15T21:14:00.000Z

My Thursday was quite enjoyable, so here we go, step by step!

Around 8 i got out of bed, and ate a bowl of bran flakes while watching Sky News. Then Gav gave me a lift to the Grove, except the journey took about 10 years as the traffic was hugely heavy. So, i got to the pool, said my hellos, did my warmup, then had to do the first event, 50 freestyle. Now, since this was the Open Championships, that meant i was against big tanks who have been living 5-10 years more than i have. But anyways, i made it to the semis. Then i, as we usually do, dossed about and looked at my physics book for a while, then we got in and did our 4x100 medley relay, which was fully good. I made my best swim in the last 6 months, and banged out a big cool PB. (i was swimming last leg, the freestyle one).

So anyways, it was 1pm and everybody was clearing off, as the next session wasn't due to start til 4.30. I managed to hitch a lift off this cool guy from Lisburn (i can't remember his name right now), but it was the first time i'd talked to him, and he gave me some good convo on the way to town in his car. Also, he said he thinks the amount of swimming i do is fine, which is nice to hear. The guy swum loads when he was 16/17, then got fed up, then came back. But yea, he's a pretty good legend.

Spent like an hour looking about town, and as hardcore as i was, i had 70p in my pocket. Eventually when i got bored, i scrounged a half single on the 2F bus to some random suburb of Belfast which i've never been to, and got off at the pool. One thing i noticed in town: why were so many kids not at school? 2pm, and 10 year olds everywhere in Castlecourt!

My finals went alright but not awesome, but i don't really care as i got that time earlier. And there was good craic going round with all the other randomers from all the other clubs. Now i'm preparing for a non uniformed Friday, and what should be a kick ass display from the UYJO tomorrow night!

Take a guess at my "Theme word" for this post....

2005-12-08T20:38:00.000Z

One of the most rocking songs ever has to be Big Guns by Rory Gallagher. It's full on quality. Tomorrow there is the Narnia premier. Saturday morning is Open Day, where i get over 2 hours of full on drumming. Saturday afternoon is a full on PTL swimming gala (which ain't really that big). Saturday night is still in planning. Sunday is out for a full on dinner. Skipping to Thursday next week, it's a full on day off school to swim a few races. Friday is another full on day off school for Carol Service rehearsals. Saturday is fully free but also the full on Focus party. And Sunday 18th is one swimming race, carol service, and full on Oasis. How awesome.

GBest

2005-12-04T01:25:00.000Z

Yea, i know, everybody is talking about it, but for once i'm going to talk about the same thing too.

What does everybody think of the George Best funeral???

I had some of this pointed out to me. Why did so many people turn out to give, what was pretty much a state funeral?? Giving so much praise, but if they do it for George Best, then why not for somebody who's made a breakthrough in medecine, or something like that?? One possible answer may be because of lack of faith. Today there are less people with faith or religion than 30 years ago, like not everybody you know is going to have a connection to a faith nowadays. So maybe that is why so many people turn out for things like this. It happened with Princess Diana too. Maybe people find these as a refuge, te things like today can perhaps show that most people roundo have a flicker of faith when otherwise they don't usually. I don't know if anybody gets me there! But that can sort of be a good thing, as it shows that many people here perhaps still have a faith somewhere inside themselves, just they don't want to explore it. That's about as best as i can explain it, cause it's a hard one to explain.

That said, i ain't having a knock at this whole thing today. While it could've been seen as a bit OTT (which i've already kinda tried to explain why so many people turned out), it didn't bother me. From what i've heard and seen the guy was a pretty big genius, and a charming guy too. I didn't see all of the funeral becuase i was out swimming, but it seemed to be a pretty fitting tribute. The guy was a legend, along with loads of other people.

And i guess it also shows how people come together. One reason i think this whole thing might've been good was because it's brought the worlds media back here again. Except this time it wasn't to show some riots or bomb or something, today the TV's showed united people round here, and i understand that dude who leads the PUP was having a good old laugh & yarn with big boy Mcguinness?? Why can't they just be like that all the time?! Might solve a lot of problems eh? yea, Politicans are weirdos.

So now that's the end of my serioussy weirdish post. Today i chilled, and tomorrow i plan to chill too. Laters

Bits

2005-12-03T00:24:00.000Z

Yea, i'm sorta copying Anne with this. But she shares my b'day, and so it should be allowed.

Bits of my week:

Jazz Band, with an awesome new piece
Playing water polo with medecine balls, then with normal water polo balls (it's weird!)
Ulster schools v Leinster, which we won
Doing well in my maths mock
Water polo again on Thursday, the Inst team is getting good!
In music, somehow getting from listening to Bach onto listening to 1970's progressive rock
Getting 6 periods off today to record that BBC thing
Table quiz, which was pretty good

........

.

2005-11-23T23:10:00.000Z

If anybody has a digital camera and a spare CD, you've come in handy. Oh, and you also need photos of somewhere you've been with me over the summer. (i.e Summer Madness, NC, Limerick, or random stuff here). I'm mainly looking at Jamie, Niall & Stevie, as they have a stash of these photos the size of the amount of crap on my desk.....(so when you get a chance send me some photos of all the summer stuff!)

dnekeew

2005-11-21T20:36:00.000Z

Weekend: Two awesome concerts in two nights. What made Graham's so different was the fact that they had a few microphones, a few cables, and some instruments. On Friday night we had a town full of wires, mics, seats, instruments, drums, staging, drum cageing, and fireworks launching units.

I don't know why the Saturday concert was so cool, it just was. Everybody was great. Where on earth to you get people like 'Banter' from??? Nobody else will go and sing a song in fully harmony about the world nuking itself! Cheers Graham.

All this fundraising for trips stuff has got me in the mood for a trip. I don't really care where, just a trip. And yes, there are plans in the pipeline of me going to Dublin to busk a few days before Christmas! Woohoo!

What else did i do this weekend? Swum, hung, and ate pizza. That was it!

Concertingotisdsdkf

2005-11-18T23:24:00.000Z

So, i've just had a fun night of concerting, as we all winged it and came pretty much out on top! The whole percussion thing was pretty buzzing, especially for only a one night concert. It had timps, a gong, a tubular bell, bongos, congas, shakers and all sorts of whizzy things. And that big drum kit. How i ended up becoming "head" drummer beats me (haha, get the pun?!), but it's well worthwhile going to school for!

Let's see, highlights. That gong which is the size of a house was pretty cool. Cookies trombone solo with all the slides was legendary! The jazz band were fully in the zone, while Davey Howell stood up conducting looking swazz in his black shirt and silky white tie. Such a jazzer. Nobody thankfully screwed up Synchronicity, which we've spent years of time going over, and Nick winged the singing part. Apart from that all the other stuff was cool, and apparently "Run" (that Snow Patrol song) was pretty classy. For the record, the original version of Run bores me to the moon and back. So anyways we had the fireworks and all that crap, so i think people enjoyed it....and Rory's dad got most of the stuff recorded, score!

TV (sometimes) sucks

2005-11-08T17:46:00.000Z

Well, many of us know nowadays that TV sucks bigtime. Bigtime bigtime. I don't even watch it that much anymore, mainly because i prefer to sit in front of the TV playing NHL 2005, bodychecking everybody on the ice, winning fights, and making Robert Lang score with awesome assists from Steve Yzerman. If anyone is interested in my NHL season, i am playing as the Detroit Red Wings, and i'm sitting around 8 points clear at the top of the NHL with 18 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw. And it ain't on easy difficulty, so i'm happy with that one.

Anyways, back to TV. Yes it does suck, but there are still some classic shows on worth watching, so i rekon i'll post my "10 favourite TV things" (in no order):

24 - I don't even watch this on TV, i buy it on DVD. Either way it kicks ass.
Late with Jools Holland - This guy knows how to pick good music, and so he does every Friday, from 11.30pm or whatever time it is. Enjoyable to watch.
The Simpsons - Whether i like it or not, The Simpsons have taught me a lot in life. Probably the same for a lot of people actually, but anyways, it is quality TV.
Gladiators - As everybody knows, i love it.
Friends - Good fun comedy with legendary characters.
COPS - Even though i don't watch it that much, it is quite quality. I saw a great episode last week, where some southern redneck got into an argument with a Cop for "being near her back yard" while chasing a carjacker....
Continental Eurosport after 10.30pm - On the UK Eurosport, after 10.30pm you get TVshop, with some weirdo trying to sell you their automatic cooking utensils or crap like that. On the continent after 10.30pm, all the regular sports go away, and you get the full on greatness of Truck Racing, Destruction Derbys, Chinsaw races, Log Rolling and big cool things like that.
NASN - (North American Sports Network). I wouldn't mind having that for a while actually, as i'd happily watch Ice Hockey, Basketball and Baseball. As for Yankee Football, i've only really watched it once, to laugh at them hustling each other and diving off the field to catch the ball. Actually, all American sports are funny to watch. Stuff like Ice Hockey seems to have reason too though!
Have I got News for You - Yea, i watch this from time to time, and the people on it are genius. Thinking up funny stuff on the spot. The guest presenters make it pretty cool too.
The Crystal Maze - With Richard O'Brien, it made good watching.

I guess i ain't exactly a TV buff, and i've probably missed like 20 good shows out, but what can you do?!

Half Term

2005-11-05T00:37:00.000Z

I am currently sitting up, listening to Enya's "The Memory of Trees" album, and it contains some of the greatest music ever heard.

My half term in a nutshell:

Weekend at Downhill, great fun
Laser Tag on Sunday night
Hangin' at the Odyssey & fireworks and all on Monday night
NC meet up on Tuesday night
Random party on Wednesday night
Geri Allen jazz trio Thursday night
Bergins 'gathering' Friday night

As for Saturday, i don't know. But i've made a lot of my week, so what i do tomorrow doesn't bother me. Let's see, stuff i've discovered over half term:

How awesome Vinyls are
Indian food is nice
Pink Floyd are awesome(r than i thought before)
Listening to music on a PC sucks
I love Ice Hockey!

Cheers everybody....

Belfast goes Boom

2005-10-31T17:16:00.000Z

My point of this post is that i like Halloween, and our kick ass week long school holiday which all the Unis don't get. It's now 17.17, and it is almost fully dark. I am predicting that i will see a firework go off within the next 10 mins. I'm also predicting that as i'm walking down a Belfast street tonight; loads of random fireworks will shoot up and go boom.

Can somebody tell me, are fireworks here illegal or not? I don't really care whether they are or not, but from what i know it's damn easy to get your hands on them. When used properly, they are great fun, but stay safe everybody! It's Halloween night, and i always find it amusing that in a place where fireworks are illegal, about 10 go off every second, turning this city into a fireworks boombox. Awesome (:

Hallo

2005-10-27T22:37:00.000+01:00

Wowee. It's October already. And it's roasting. On the radio today they were talking about how it's abnormally hot right now, so instead of talking about why it is so weirdly warm, they decided to talk about how this warmth would affect the planting of gardeners' tulips. I was miffed.

So anyways, i'm leaving myself very little time to pack for going up north. Even less time than usual. In otherwards, if i don't pack right now before going to bed, i won't get a chance to, coz (unlike some), school looms tomorrow. Ah well. Have a good weekend

15th - 30th August

2005-10-18T22:42:00.000+01:00

I'm predicting that this post will be much shorter than the others, as i actually spent the last 2 weeks of August at home (well, close to home), doing whatever i felt like! Here goes.....

The week after Limerick i was left at home with Gav, as the rest of the family decided to pack off to England for a week, as they hadn't really been away. So i had a full free week to do some totally random stuff. In that week a lot of the Limerick team just went out to ramble in random places. I visited Pirate Golf for the first time, and it was way way above my expectations, and great fun. And i was dressed half like a pirate.

Since there was pretty much nobody to cook for me, i spent a lot of time either eating out or scrounging food off other people. Come to think of it, i now remember what i did on the Monday. There was free pizza & bowling for the Five Alive at the Odyssey again! So i got stuck into the pizza, and then sucked bigtime at bowling, which has gone downhill lately. Maybe the Aussie name of 'Mrs Mangle' was to blame! Tuesday i must've played footie or something, then SRO came round and rocked out all night, until like midnight. Mark & Jack left their stuff, went home, came back, and then we had a jam session which Mark videoed, including crazy drum & guitar solos. Then they made the weirdest snack i've ever seen (or tasted), ketchup & mayonnaise mixed together! On top of bread! I hate both, but the mix wasn't that bad, but this sort of thing is typical of those guys, and it's good!

Of course, my nights were bigtime late around this time, with many bedtimes well into the early hours, but for some reason i always kept getting up pretty early! Well ok, on the Wednesday i slept a lot, but chilled at night. Thursday we just all went and hung at the park, then had a Summer Scheme meeting. Oh yea, and Bethany randomly turned up in Belfast, so it was cool to see her again like 4 days after Limerick. I'd spent the last 3 days making my own tea (mainly on the BBQ), so this was the first of i think 3 nights that i ended up at the Bergin's house and scrounged some good grub. Also Graham, Matty, Phil & i launched our plans for a takeover of their attic, which may someday be one of the swazziest apartments in Belfast!

So Friday, Saturday & Sunday was the Summer Scheme in B'fast. However, the numbers were tiny! Ah well, it gave me ample time to just sit and play the guitar for hours on end, which i did do :) Sunday we all piled out to the zoo, and it rained all day, and we got nicely soaked! And also, with great pleasure i discovered that the one and only Gary Hamilton sponsers 'Al' the Zebra!
So that ended a totally weird week of wreckedness, fun, and surprises, some of which still have me thinking to this day. Onwards with Xtreme week....

Xtreme week i rekon was a success. The crowds were nice, the sketches were good, and Hanz und Franz rocked the show. But before that, on the Monday, SRO headed to a random studio and pulled off recording a 5 track EP in a boiling hot studio, on a roasting day. 8 hours, 5 tracks, not bad. Dave Bell's singing screw up remains one of the funniest things of the summer. As for the EP, i've heard it to bits now, but there are quite a few bits where i screw up (in the middle of Track 5 is most notable), but we didn't have time to re-record. Recording drum tracks is a weird thing to do, you see. But i'm ready for next time. Standing Room played at Xtreme, and as that hall cannot take our mighty sound, we were just a wall of sound!

Anyways, that week was a fun one, apart from getting exam results & going to Xtreme and generally kicking about i didn't do that much, and i ended up at Jimbo's on the Friday for a big BBQ....

Stevie: You do not need lighter fluid to light a BBQ!

Everybody Else: You've been lighting the BBQ for an hour, put some damn lighter fluid on it!

Yea, with the absence of Gav & Scotty, Stevie was in charge of the BBQ. Inexperience (:

So on that Friday we spent the afternoon just chilling, and then we ate loads. I went to Jamie's house and stayed the night, as the rest of my household had gone to Donegal. So the next day Rick left me to the Europa bus station, where they wouldn't accept my student card! So it cost me £8 single to Derry! That is what you call a rip and a half. But anyways, i made it up to Derry where i got a lift to Dunfanaghy, where i spent the weekend with everybody & Scotty & co. The best bit of this was when one night we decided to play Monopoly at like midnight. Now, Scotty is the ultimate master at these type of games. In Risk he can take over the world in 5 mins flat. However, 2 hours later i had beaten him!! Haha!!

So after that i came home, and got my lengthy hair chopped off, and went into school which was a waste of time. Actually, that's my summer story pretty much over.

I seem to remember that in June i made some sort of list of things i wanted to do over the summer, stuff like to meet new people, to make the most of what i did, and to keep friendly with people i already know. (I lost the list, but if i find it ill mention it again). I'm pretty sure i've done those, and it was a fun & weird time i had. Thanks everybody! For now it's back to my normal/pointless blogging.

Hope you liked my effort at the summer, even though it took like a month to do! I've missed loads out, and there ain't really much way i can do it proper justice. Ah well. Anyways. After all, you all did say "yay" when i asked......

6th -14th August

2005-10-17T21:17:00.000+01:00

6th August i got up, finished packing, then went down and threw my stuff into the bus which we'd be bustling about in for the next week. What'd we all do on the way down??? I just remember sitting in the 2nd row of seats on the left (beside the seat with awesome legroom), and getting a Stone Roses CD going through my big headphones.

Like 5 hours later we pulled into Limerick, which looks no different to when i was last there in February (that's no bad thing), we pulled up our bus, unloaded it and chucked all our stuff inside. All the Limerickans were there waiting for us, and so we met all of them (Sam, David, Paul, Mark, Bethany & Jon), who turned out to be pretty big legends. We played some incredibley random games, and got to know each other, and told jokes (yes, the pea on a fork is a good joke). So we just spent the night laying down the ground rules and eating raw chicken at one point. The first night i spent on my good old windowsill, only to wake up at like 4am to find me pretty much falling off it, so i resorted to the floor for the rest of the time.

Sunday we got up, had breakfast at the big long tables which are still there, and went to the morning service, which was pretty cool. There seemed to be a few more about than last year anyways. Sunday afternoon we got the place "rigged up", and bascially messed about.

Monday we kicked the kids club off, and we got a nice little number, including quite a few of the kids from last year. Theme was Pirates this year (LandLubbers), and i have to say Mal & Niall made two damn good pirates as they had their antics through the week. As did the drama team, lead by Jamie, and backed up by the king's man Phil Emerson, who wandered on stage once every few days, and gave one of his trademark PE performances. So the kids club was all well and good, and we just spend Monday afternoon hanging, playing Mashed, and doing stupid things. Oh yea, we also set out to send fliers about and had some good times, seeing the places which hadn't changed at all. Extreme was launched on Monday night, and we got more than last year, which was great. So all the usual went on, but the highlights had to be DJ Mal and his DJ Set, and the triumphant return of Hanz und Franz, in the bodysuits and all. And of course, we got the Limerick beats going full pelt again, and all piled out onto the street after and did our usual antics.

And about those antics, one thing which i will always remember will be the fact that Irish truckers are always up for a laugh. I spent a large portion of the bus trips in America trying to get the Yankees to pull the horn, and none of them did. However, the truckers going down the main street of Limerick seemed happy to, and we kicked ass at getting them to do it. I'll also remember the trucker from up here, who we tried to get to beep his horn, but he couldn't because it was bust! At least he tried. But yea, we got them to beep their horns, then we all went nuts as the passers by wondered what on earth was going on!

The next few days were Landlubbers & Xtreme again, and of course all the stuff in the middle. The hair dye had made it's way out again, and you can only guess what colour my hair made it to :). As for the afternoons, on Tuesday we just went out & about, giving out more fliers. Niall was by far the best at it, and he is able to walk up to any randomer and give them one, even if they look as if they are about to stab you! We also discovered this cool sign on the hotel building site. It was basically a "No Entry" sign, but with an outline of this guy mouthing "Stop!" and putting a HUGE hand out to show that going in was a big no no. It was so quality that a picture was taken of it.

Wednesday was only Landlubbers, and our numbers had increased to an all time high, so we got on with the job and did it well. I must mention Phil T, as he did a quality job as the Guy in Charge of Games. "I will shout out a characteristic!" "Let's diverisfy people!" You are a quality games guy, whether you like it or not. The way he addressed the kids was awesome! Unforunately Jon left, becuase of a family bereavement, which sucked, as it was only Wednesday. While he was there was great though.
In the afternoon we took off in our minibus to the full on Limerick pool, and i went up and tanked it in the gym, then went swimming. This was all while Graham & Phil T got refused for entry becuase they had no I.D at all!! We then went off to a Dutch guys house in the country, and had a good BBQ while chillaxing nicely. I was peeved, because i fell asleep on the bus, which i hate doing! Nevertheless, the bus journey back was a full on party, as David & Paul joined in our singalongs and slagging of the English football team. Quality. Then we ended up at Xtreme Bowling in Limerick, except it was even better than last year! The neons were on the rip, the music was pumping, and we all were having a good time. Neil, who was the temporary youth worker at the church, was always coming about with us, and he was a great guy when he got going, and quite a crazy one at times too. He's from Newcastle (our Newcastle, thankfully). Also, he is one awesome ten pin bowler, the only one i know like him is the J man, but anyways, Neil just rolled in the strikes like it was A B C. So that was all good, then we went back to our "living quarters", discussed how to improve what we were doing, and tried to go to bed, except our nights were getting later!
Mr Grumpy originated around this time. For anyone who doesn't know, Mr Grumpy is Niall's friend. Niall told Phil Emerson to shut up or Mr Grumpy would come out, and in true Phil style, Phil made plenty of noise, and so Mr Grumpy came out and proceeded to try and eat Phil. Mr Grumpy was then put to bed by the almighty Jimbo, who had been awoken!

I was only getting out of my "bed" at the very last minute in the mornings, but some people like Jamie Graham & Phil kept getting up at 6am for no reason. Why?!?! Anyways, the last 2 days of the schemes were great fun, and we put ample effort into them. It was all a success in the end, and i'm pretty sure we helped some people have a good time, as well as teaching them stuff. Hanz und Franz was a complete riot, especially when they made me & Graham drink a concoption of tobasco, cat food, coconut milk and sardines. If you ever want to try something horrible, try that! On the Friday night we all piled down to Abrakababra, Jimbo & Stevie in the Hanz und Franz muscle suits!! Now that was funny, all the looks we got!

Saturday we went off to Kilkee again, and got that cool boat again, played pool in the same Irish pub, and went to the same swimming pool and had a right old laugh and great craic. We actually ended up in bed quite early! And i missed the damn 4am "reunion on the stairs" because my alarm didn't even wake me up. Weird. This post is getting huge so i'm just going to go over some of the best bits (actually writing about this is incredibely hard to do 2 months after it happened, and i won't be able to do it justice!)

Neil was such a great youth worker, and what he taught me was amazing, and i haven't forgotten that. His food also improved! And the nachos ruled!

David & Paul were the brothers & musicians, and David was a legend at the old piano, and both a real laugh to be with.

Sam will be a leader someday, as he is just the guy for it. Always up for everything!!

Jon, although he left early, was a great guy to have about, and got on with everybody.

Mark is such a laugh, does anybody remember when him me & Sam went into the perfume shop & just sprayed everything and anything on us. Yes we did. And we smelt awesome afterwards.

Bethany nearly didn't talk that much, but when she did it was great! i'm pretty sure she had a good time, and she looked older than 13. Everybody knows that.

Also i will list the rest:

Stevies "sexy" costumes....
Mint choc chip ice cream!
Mal's car trip (throwing chocolate bars at Neil's car)
Mashed
That afternoon we all just lay on the floor so randomly!
Danger Danger High Voltage
That shop round the corner that sold the lovely sandwiches
Scoobies!

And the bus trip home, which was generally just a laugh and a mix of scoobies (rope thingys for those who don't know).

Well that's the best i can do on Limerick. It was great fun, but i can't really explain it that well!! If i've left anything out, chuck it in my comments box!

21st July - 5th August

2005-10-07T22:51:00.000+01:00

So i came home from America, and proceeded not to go to bed for the next 30 odd hours. Me and Jamie had a few hours at home before we were to go up to Donegal, so i just chillaxed at home and got familiar with my surroundings again. I was damn tired, but on the way up we had a meal at a hotel in Letterkenny which woke me up! I stayed in Donegal for the next 4 days, and i can't actually remember what i did. I talked about my previous 2 weeks, slept, and went out to the beach. Oh yea, on the Saturday we met up with Helen & Rach and their 2 Americans who were over, and just pottered about the beach the whole afternoon. It was helping me get back to the familiar way of life for me. So i just chilled in Donegal for 4 days, doing not much, which was quite nice after a few non stop weeks. Actually, come to think of it, i was on the go pretty much non stop from the 1st til the 21st July, with a smaller amount of sleep inbetween.

Anyways, i got home, and again did nothing much. Met up with people i hadn't seen for a while, all that sort of thing, hung about in town, played some rough footie and played some pirate golf, which i went to dressed in my pirate shorts & bandana, all that sort of fun. I'm almost sure i went to some sort of party around the 30th, but i can't remember!

On the 1st August, i made my way up to Lisburn for the Irish Nationals. As you all probably know, i was due to swim but had to pull out becuase my right eardrum didn't exist, because of, well we'll leave that one there, that story has probably been heard enough. You're forgiven, as it is (almost) better. The advantages to not swimming were that i didn't have to go training at 6am in the morning, and i had totally no pressure on me or nerves or anything. I originally went just to watch for one day, but i got recruited to help out as an official, which i wasn't looking forward to at first - but it turned out to be one of the best things i spent that week doing. Also on the plus side, i got to see & talk to many of the Ulster & Irish swimmers who i've met over the past year, many of whom are from down south. So the gala went ahead, i timekeeped, turn judged, and got people in their races and whatnot, while having a laugh throughout, and meeting even more people. For some reason i just kept wanting to go back every day, as i felt pretty relaxed and happy up there, just watching the swimmers do their stuff. Come to think of it, i probably would've wasted all those days away without the Nationals. Course, at times it was annoying to watch races that i should've been in, but overall i enjoyed it loads, and even missed being there on the Saturday!

Yea, i came home from the evening session of the Nationals on the Friday night, threw some stuff in a bag, and got ready for heading to Limerick.

6th - 20th July

2005-10-05T22:05:00.000+01:00

Right, since the last post was ginormous, i'm going to tackle the rest of this is a relatively small nutshell...

So i left SM at about 1am on the final night, went home, slept, got up, went into town to get some stuff, ran into guys from school, got wet in the rain. It didn't really seem that in less that 24 hours i'd be cruising to NYC at 500mph, but there you go. That night i must've hit the pit at about 12 midnight, and got up at 4.30am. Of course at this time it was pretty much light, so i grabbed my stuff, hopped in the car, then picked up Jamie & Stevie and went to the international airport, where we got our lovely green T-shirts. So we dossed about from 6am til about 9, when we got on the plane, which then got delayed for at least an hour as the check in PC's crashed. Lovely. As for the flight, well i'd never been on long haul before, and i'd predicted that i'd be bored out of the sky by about 3 hours in. Funnily enough i wasn't, and the flight was pretty good. I remember Stevie, who had decided not to go to bed the night before, sleeping like a full on tank literally the whole way there.

Since our plane had been late, we missed our connection from New York to Raleigh. So we had a few hours in the airport, where i paid $2 for a giant slice of pizza. It was great. So then we got on the plane, went to Raleigh. It was about 8.30pm when we arrived, and we were smacked in the face by the 30C heat and 90% humidity as we walked out of the airport. Myself, Jamie & Reuben ended up with a host family called the Ricks, who took us home and offered us mountains of food.

Next day we went to the NC government buildings, and the Capitol building. We got to watch the politicians debate on whether they raise the limit to alcohol content in NC beer from 6% to 15%, which they couldn't decide, but it was funny anyways. Emmm elsewhere that day, we went to Matrin Lancasters big rich house for lunch (he's something like the 6th highest earner in NC), though his house lacked a nice ginormous TV! That day we also got told about all that things in NC that could kill us, then we had a movie + pizza night with the Americans. Oh yea, there was also an awesome thunderstorm that night, which we drove home in (:.

The next few days consisted of hanging about in pools, malls, eating pizza & seeing movies with some of the Americans. The guy who we were staying with, Hunter, is one hell of a funny guy, who would love it over here i rekon. He's only 17, but he keeps a full on shotgun in his room! Over those few days we also went hiking up Stone Mountain in the west of the state, the views were awesome at the least. On the Sunday we gave a talk to everybody about our homeland, which for some reason i loved doing. Keeping with the Irish theme, the Ricks took us to an Irish pub for lunch. I haven't said much about them yet - The Ricks were my first family, and they were some of the nicest people i've met. There were only 3 of them - Hunter, who was always up for a complete laugh, Susan & Walter. Whoever heard Susan will obviously remember her awesome southern accent. And whoever saw Walter at night will obviously remember him sitting in the same armchair, watching war movies, with an open can of Budweiser at his side!

So during the next week we starting helping to build the house, 9am-2.30pm, in the 35C heat. Doesn't sound like it, but it was great fun, and every day Becky Everett brought us a big tasty lunch (and giant coolers with ice, which i stuck my head in many times). Hard work, but all good fun and laughs. I remember well the time when Jimbo saved my life, because Lynn let go of my stepladder! Remember that one all who went?!

For the rest of the time when we weren't working, we just had pool parties, shopping & meet ups with the americans. Unfortunately Hunter was away in West Virginia so me and Jamie couldn't go do stuff late into the night! But anyways, half way through the trip we changed families, and i ended up staying another week (with Jamie again >:(.....) with some people called the Claytons. Now, how can i describe them? The dad, Jack, is head of some American bank and is rich, the mom, Mary, is just a really nice person, and the 3 kids are just crazy. One of them (Zach) had got himself stuck in Italy when we were there, so it was just John & Will, who were 18 & 16. The thing with these guys was, they could both drive, they were always up for a laugh no matter what time of day, and they seemed to survive every night on 4 hours sleep. Oh yea, the Claytons also had a huge house and a 60" TV. Of course, i was shocked to the full when i first saw that one.

So, as our "working week" drew to a close (on the Friday), we did such things as go see a play in the middle of nowhere (getting lost in the process!) and chilled & all. Friday night, however, was probably my best night of the whole trip. We went to a minor league baseball game, in a really nice stadium. For anyone who things baseball is boring: it is not. Go to a game! You just cheer, play games, and eat bigtime. In a baseball park, for every 100m you walk, there would be 4 food stalls :) They also had fireworks at that game, and then all the Irish & Yanks sped off back home and went to....the Harry Potter launch party!! Others will say differently, but it was a right laugh! What with costumes, loads of people, and the Go Harry Go! chants....
We must've been the last to leave at about 12.45, but we weren't going home yet. That's the thing with Will & John Clayton. We all agreed to go on a mission to change their friend's liscense plates on his new "truck" to John Deere ones. So we got a spanner, sneaked into his front yard in the dead of night, did the deeds, got into the car and drove for it. Haha, doesn't sound funny, but it was good fun, just typical of those guys!

Over that weekend we went to see the various universities with Mary & Jack, and on the Saturday i discovered two gems. 1 is Cold Stone Creamary. Great Ice cream and singing staff! What more would you want? Number 2 is SchoolKids Records USA, which is the best record store i've ever been to. This is a proper record store, only located in 3 places in America (& the World). At this point i still had a lot of cash, so over the next few days i went cerazy, spending $235 on CD's, and $115 in SchoolKids in one go (i had many visits!). Oh, i ended up with about 20 CD's, because everything over there is like half the price of this ripoffland, so i took good advantage of it. Anyways, on the Saturday night around 30 people (half Irish and half Yanks) went to Battlezone. It was like Laser Quest except better, and we shot at each other for 2 full hours. Oh yea, i don't usually boast or anything, but in our Free for All game, i kicked everybodys ass well and good. My trigger finger destroyed everybody and made me win by over 3000 points :). I tell you, i celebrated, in fact i still am......

Over our last few days Hunter came back home and chilled/messed about as usual. Our bedtimes were getting later & later (for me anyways) as i decide to make the best of the time we had left. That was all no problem as John & Will never hesitated to sit up well into the early hours of the morning. We visited a predominantly black church, which had a cool preacher. Oh yea, some of us went to see Joesph again, but it wasn't as good as the Belfast one! On our last full day everybody took off to the beach on the East Coast. In the 4 hours that we were there, we all got fried well and good (i used suncream and still got fried), but nobody really cared (til the next day!). The bus journey home was one of the best ever, with lots & lots of singalongs, especially by The J-Man, who was in an incredibely funny mood. He is damn funny. Later that night we all got a leaving service, where Walter turned up from out of nowhere! (him & Susan had been on holiday) He's such a legend, and a typical American in many cases. That night we hit the road with the Clayton kids again, and ended up at the Everetts house (becuase they have a pool table). We stayed for ages, played stupid games (Fluffy Bunny!), then we picked up a gallon of vinegar from the supermarket, and i went and had a bath in it! We were told it helped sunburn!

By the next morning though, vinegar hadn't really helped. I guess i got off lucky, as certain people.....were lobsters! We all said our goodbyes ,unforunately, and sped off to the airport. We ended up sitting about Newark airport for hours, and left for Belfast at around 9pm (late again!). I'm very proud of the fact that i was only one of three who stayed up the whole way home overnight!! Score! I saw the sun set & rise and all that. I had to sit beside Stevie..again! Except he slept like a tank again apart from when i brushed his sunburn, when he let out a yelp which shook the plane :P. I didn't want to leave, i could've gotten plenty more outta the two weeks, but i just chillaxed the whole way home.

So, that was my trip to America. Sitting here now i know i've done it no justice - i've missed out so many bits, so many funny things, all the things i saw, all the things i did, it's hard to tell it all. But i had great fun, i met new people, and i'd defs go back, and i hope they all home over here! I do get asked from time to time if i'd life there. To that (at the minute) i say no. Because 1. it wouldn't make visiting it as cool, and 2. i already live on a kick ass island...

So there we go! By the way, one of my ambitions is to drive across the states, from West to East. Let's see if i do that one.....

On with the blog holiday!

Friday Time

2005-09-29T22:56:00.000+01:00

Yea i know, i'm still only on the 6th July. My excuse is that i've hit a spot in school where i seem to be working quite a bit more than usual. In otherwards i'm learning some new stuff. Add swimming & lack of sleep into that and you have a disjoined disorganised me. But it's Friday tomorrow, and for some reason, no matter how late i hit the pit on Thursday night, i'm usually great on Friday's. What'd i do without them?

I have half of the America trip blogged, when i get round to it i'll post it, followed by the next post 2 days later, and the next 2 days after that, and so on.

June 21st - July 5th

2005-09-17T23:10:00.000+01:00

So, first "section" of my summer. June 21st i remember rightly, sitting in a Physics exam with like 25 mins to go, with most people finished and starting to party. And so my GCSE's ended and at the minute i can't remember at all what i did for the next 4 days. I'm guessing i just got about the place, chillaxing to the extreme and taunting everybody who still had exams/was still at school.

Oh yea, i haven't forgotten the "All nighter" on Xbox live with Jamie & Stevie. Play starts at 1am, ends at about 5am. The whole plan was to watch the sun rise, except it was crap, because it was cloudy, and so it just got light at 4.30am. So at around 5 we decided to stop, and so i went and fixed myself a snack, and began watching 24. It was a fun night anyways.

Around that time i also embarked on a completely random trip to Dublin with Anne & Stevie. You see, i'd been to Dublin lots, but never really in the centre. And so we went round the place for a day, took the bus tour, saw plenty of place, including that random spike. Grafton street was the best, and i will go back there one day to busk. Oh yea, we also got nicely sunburnt.

Then there was also our B'day party at mine on the 25th. That was great fun, and i got many lovely pressies, even though i didn't ask for any. Thanks!

Again, for the next 5 days i don't have a clue what i did. I probably just hung about and had fun. On the 28th June i went to see Joesph & the Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Opera House, and how good it was. It got a standing ovation (on the 2nd night), which apparently is rare in the Opera House, and it was full of good music, jokes, and fun. It was the best musical i've seen to date. Not that i've seen many.

Now we're getting to times when i know what i was doing. July 1st was Summer Madness time, and this year kicked ass. We arrived early afternoon, & helped set up the Youthlink tent, as well as scoring pitches on the staff site! (we were supposed to be on concrete :P, so i'll thank JP for getting us out of that one).
Funny bits i remember from that day were Scotty climbing 2 metres up the tent & standing on a pole while trying to tie stuff together. Up comes the Chief health & safety guy, who says:

"Do you realise you are breaking just about every health & safety law possible?"

Scotty replies:

"Yes!"

That was him told. Bloody health & safety. Of course Scotty ignored him, and went on to doing plenty of "dangerous" things.
Our living areas consisted of 3 tents, one for the Bergins, one for Jamie, Phil E & myself, and Scotty's tank of a tent for Bemerson. Matty was also in another of the camps, living with the one and only Goggles! and James Magill!!
Our Telecommunications Device also must be noted. It stretched between two tents, so we could communicate at night. (It was basically a tube). Genius it was.

Now, if none of you knew, Jimbo and this guy from Ohio called Shane were running a "Comedy Club" from 10.30 - midnight every night in the Youthlink Tent. It was basically Xtreme, and it was awesome. It's the most popular i've ever seen it, and all the nights (especially the first two) saw the tent packed to bursting, and we certainly did love the stuff that went on. This was also the fist appearance of "Hanz und Franz"! I'm proud to see i've seen every single performance of them.

So the next few days were all SM, living on scraps of food & generally having a full on hoot. By day 2 our tent was a full on tip, as everything we used was just dumped behind us into the tent. Like we cared though. We were never bored.

One guy who has to be noted is Tre Sheppard. Also a Yank, he hailed from Georgia, and talked in the big do's in the King's Hall in the evenings. He always had a funny story to tell. Whoever was there will fine well remember him doing an imitation of his dad. "I'm going out to see the storm". He never imagined he'd get struck by lightning. But surprise surprised, that night as he stepped outside, he puts his foot in a puddle and holds onto the doorhandle while the house gets struck. And so he gets frizzled, which Tre said he found halariously funny, coz it was coming to him. Also worth note is the story about when they were burning trees, and decided to chuck a hell of a lot of petrol on it.

One of the best things to happen however was on the Saturday night. Everyone was hyped up, and they got this group on stage to represent peace in Northern Ireland. On one side was a Bodhran player, on the other a Lambeg Drum player. In the middle was a line of African Drummers. And so the Bodhran & Lambeg Drum exchanged passages, playing on and off, until they merged together with the beat of the Djembes, while pics flashed in the background of Nationalist & Unionist related stuff. It was bloody unbelievable, and it's one of the greatest things i've ever seen. The crowd went friggin wild & Tre got all emotional! The man himself then proceeded to make a point of everybody shining like lights, then got all the main lights turned off, and got everybody to get their fones out and shine them. Oh my god, that couldn't be put into words, it was amazing. After that one of the other guys decided to get the band playing again (we were way over time), but Tre interrupted and told us to get out and get partying, and so everybody did. It was electric.

Other things we did at SM was take part in a MakePovertyHistory thing, watch Live8, went to seminars about peace in Ireland, ate pizza, went to comedy clubs & had a general laugh. One Sunday afternoon i spent the entire time jamming with a group of African Drummers and percussionists, which was great fun. Of course we had our late nights, especially myself, Phil & Matty. I got my acoustic guitar in on the Sunday, and spent the next few days jamming all the time, with whoever i could find. There were quite a few late night blues jams & the likes of that! So it was all a full on 4 days of fun. I'm pretty sure that Jamie, Phil, Rach, Helen, Matty & myself (& Bemerson, when he appeared) had a great time in our lovely campsite. Of course so did Niall Stevie & Jimbo, but they chose to be unhardcore and sleep on sofas inside coz they were helping Youthlink. We also met a bunch of people from Sligo, who were really cool. Oh, and another good thing was one night when (i think) me, Phil Matty & Jamie were walking down the side of the King's Hall at like 2am, to discover a group of people with a huge catapult, firing waterbombs into the middle of the SubCamps!! So it was all good, plenty of fun and late nights, and we all loved it.

I ended up leaving at about 1am on the final night, as i had to head to America, and if i'd stayed, i wouldn't have gone to bed, and ended up screwing my body clock to the full as i was going to go back 5 hours.

UPDATE!

2005-09-14T21:11:00.000+01:00

Maybe it's time for an update. I would've updated in the last 2 weeks, but i was just too lazy. If i had, it would've been about swimming, how crap school was, jazz music, bands, going mental about Northern Ireland whooping England, or bitching outright at spides rioting here in Belfast. So what shall i write about??

At the min school is pretty good, today one of my maths teachers taught us the basics of computer code! You know, all the 1's & 0's and that crap. Apart from that these days i'm bloody tired and weird mooded, y'know. Myself needs a bit of sorting out.

Anyways, since this blog post sucks bigtime (coz i'm lacking inspiration right now, unlike the last Gladiators post), i'm thinking in future posts i might blog about the kick ass stuff that went on this summer. Like Joseph, SM2005, NC, 2 weeks at home, Limerick, Xtreme and the likes.

If you would like to see this, vote yay. If you wouldn't, vote nay.

P.S. - Even if you all vote yay i may still be too lazy to do it.

One of the best shows of all time!!

2005-08-31T16:07:00.000+01:00

You know when you discover something that you'd totally forgotten about? Well i just have, and it's reminded me just how amazing TV can be.

Do you remember the UK series of Gladiators?? If you don't or don't know what it is, i'll safely say that you've missed probably the greatest show of the 90's, and some of the greatest TV ever to be made.

Now, how did i come about remembering this? Earlier, i was watching some crappy CBBC show, where "warriors" (10 year old kids) tried to beat eachother off platforms with "beaters", to knock their opponent into the water 10 centimetres below them. It sucked, coz they didn't wack each other like they should have, they poked and brushed. It was crap but good to take the piss out of, so i happily did.

But suddenly, a memory flashed across me. Of two platforms raised about 10m up. Then there was a full built gladiator in spandex, beating the crap out of a weedy (in comparison) member of the public, with a big chunky pole the size of themselves. One word, awesome.

So, some of you are probably thinking of what the hell i'm on about, loving a defunct TV show so much. I just like it, and after reminding myself of some of the games they played, i think it was one of the best things ever to happen to TV. Anyone remember Hang Tough? Where a gladiator & contender swung across the arena holding onto suspended hoops, met in the middle, then got fully stuck in with some mid air combat in order to win. Or Pendulum, where the gladiator chased the contender around a huge Pendulum swinging in mid air?? They did the sort of stuff that Health & Safety love to oppress these days (those people need slapped by the way, because they can't handle a few risks). Life needs a few risks.

Anyways, back to Gladiators. Anyone remeber the referee John Anderson? Or Wolf, the crazy long haired guy who always got the yellow/red cards? This was no normal "games" show. What i also like about it was the way it was also steeped in controversy. Affairs all over the place, some gladiators banned for doing steroids, presenter John Fashanu getting involved in court cases, and gladiators picking fights all over the place. It was hardcore, although in the end a load of fun, which entertained live audicences in Birmingham National Arena of 7000. Saturday night TV was awesome, and at it's peak the UK show had 14 million viewers - 25% of the UK population!

It's a pity it ain't here anymore, so for now i'll have to make do with Family Guy, Reno 911, Late with Jools Holland, and 24. Oh, and all the gladiators now do stuff like run gyms & coach olympic teams. Apparently it is still on Challenge TV at 9am on weekends, so someone can SkyPlus it for me. In the meantime, if you want some 90's TV ecstacy, go to:

http://www.gladiatorszone.co.uk

In short, it inspires me. I love it!!

P.S - The theme tune kicks ass

^^^^^^^6

2005-08-26T23:53:00.000+01:00

Thanks for looking up my blog kade245felip. Yours is cool too. Let's stay in touch.

Anyways, i'm bound for Donegal tomorrow, where i will chill out my final days of the summer. Back to school next week, which sucks, but at least i can plan some fun things to do during it again.

Piano Dude

2005-08-23T13:27:00.000+01:00

So what does everybody think about all this Piano Man stuff??? I agree with one guy who commented on the BBC website. Basically he asked if we'll ever know if this guy is a virtuoso or not. If he is, then he'd still be the Piano Man to him. I share his view on that one, although i don't know what the hell is going on with all this, cause the English media are weirdos. For some reason they are now saying that he could only play "one piano note". Surely anybody can play any note on the piano, regardless of whether they know the note names or not. What's going on?!

Stairway to Heaven vs Bohemian Rhapsody

2005-08-19T00:17:00.000+01:00

This question was asked over a year ago. Which is better? Stairway or Bohemian? Well, after a long time i've made my decision........

....Stairway. Let's get this straight. Bohemian Rhapsody is a great song, and Freddie will remain one of the greatest musicians ever. But everybody knows it inside out, and to be honest, there are better Queen songs.
Stairway to Heaven is beautiful, always great to listen to, and whenever you play it a chroal sing-song resembling the preciseness and tuning of a football crowd won't break out over it. It is a masterpiece and a work of art. If you want to argue, go for it, but i ain't changing my mind over it. What'd i do without music??

Standing Room are going to the studio next Monday to record hopefully a 5 or 6 track Demo Album. I'm actually looking forward to it. It's costing us, so we're going to have to sell the CD's, but don't worry guys, we're going easy on the wallets. Expect around £4/£5 for a 6 track CD.
And i promise you, if all goes well, we'll have a good sounding CD. I know we sound crap live & all that, but of the songs we're recording, everyone has only heard 2 - the other 4 are under wraps, and they are good, i promise that. I'd describe it as high energy, interesting rock music with some damn awesome guitar solos along the way. If you don't like it, tough, but it is quite interesting.

On the subject of interesting, i've seen and talked to some pretty interesting people so far this week. Bethany from Limerick was in Belfast came up today, and it was great seeing her. To think she wasn't going to talk while down there was just weird...but i rekon many would agree she's come to be great fun. And that she looks way older than she really is.
The others are from that classy city called Dublin, and basically it's a couple of the swimmers again, from one of the relay teams i was timing. I discovered tonight that they have good taste - Led Zep & Thin Lizzy, Oh yea......

So anyways, welcome home anybody who's just got back, good to have you home. Everybody else, keep having a chillaxed summer......

P.S. - Get off Jamie's blog, you weirdo advertisers.

Here we are!!!

2005-08-15T12:20:00.000+01:00

We made it a good one. We sure did. The previous week has rocked greatly, i've had fun, i've learnt, i've made new friends, and i've drunk some "Megamass 2000" which Hanz & Franz gave me. You do not want to know what was blended up in that drink....
But yes, it was great fun. Having the Limerickans staying with us was a good idea, cause they were all up for a laugh and all up to help. Plenty of photos and stories, memorable and downright funny moments, i can say this year's trip was definatley on par with last year's, if not a bit better (:.
Thanks to y'all who were down there, you know it was great fun, and that was one of the best weeks of the summer!

It's weird being home, and now i have a pretty much free week. SRO are going into the studio this time next week. We went & visited today, it's a homemade studio, and the guy who runs it is really cool. Also, if you want to see some stunning live music, get "Live at the Budokan" by Dream Theatre. It is unbelievable.

So that's what i've done so far today. I'm waiting for tiredness to kick in, cause i only got a nice small amount of sleep last night, but it's summer, so i dont care!! Free pizza & free bowling tonight, looking forward to it.

Also, joewp04hclando, you can take your damn advertising and go home. I don't care about money lending! I'm not even 18 and if you learnt how to read you'd see that i live on that green island where leprachons roam and where everbody lives in big fancy castles, or so some people think. And we don't use dollars, and i'm glad we don't, because from what Americans told me in NC, dollars suck. Don't mess with my blog, or i'll get Hanz & Franz to personally crush you with their buttocks.

Here we go

2005-08-04T23:15:00.000+01:00

Lately i've been spending a lot of my time up at the pool, watching, turn judging, timekeeping & whatnot. It's been fun though, i just like it up there, and i don't know why. It's just the way swimming is, and i rekon the majority of people who do swim keep it up because they just like the galas, the atmosphere, the good craic, the people, and the general friendliness. In all the swimming i've seen there has always been competitiveness, but never hate. Everybody is good friends, and maybe that's why i like it, cause i know a few good fun ones from down south. But anyways, i'll get back into it in like September/Oct, and try to get pretty good again.

Right, Limerick in two days time, and if it anything like last year it's going to be one hell of a trip. I have the feeling that it certainly is going to be one hell of a trip, i don't know why, but i'm so hoping so. Here's some of the random stuff i'm looking forward to:

Many, many games of Asshole
Learner Drivers
Plenty of yellow cars, and not as many red vans (:
The Limerick beats blasting down the entrance hall
The Windowsill
The kids club & extreme, which hopefully will be even more than last year
The Limerickans
Abrakababra
Getting the hair dyed
Limerick Olympic swimming pool
The road trips
Random afternoon trips

Let's make it a good one. If i don't blog before i go, have a good week....

Reno 911

2005-07-30T02:03:00.000+01:00

The summer is going nicely. Plenty of fun and chillaxing. Going to the USA has helped me discover quite a bit, so i'm going to tell you about a few of the less important, but equally great and funny things.

Cold Stone Ice Cream - The greatest ice cream chain on earth

SchoolKids Records - The greatest record store i have ever seen

and finally, Reno 911.

Actually, Reno 911 is the only reason i've decided to post. It is basically a complete pisstake of the show COPS, and it is great fun. A team of cops who crash their cars, get thrown out of their cars, get ambushed with paintball guns, have parties, and bascially just screw around while doing a bit of law-keeping. Excellent.

The American CD Cases

2005-07-25T01:35:00.000+01:00

You've just bought yet another classy CD from an American record store. You've snapped it up for half of the rip off prices that they charge over here. So you have it at home. First you spend at least 10 minutes trying to get the damn plastic wrapping off without scratching the case. After that, you are so close; you can almost feel the music. You go to open the case: but it won't open. Why won't the case open? You scan around it, and notice that there is a big, clear, plastic seal clenching over the top of the CD case. You begin to mutter with agitation as you spend the next 10 minutes of your life getting the damn thing off. After all that time, your CD is ready to go, and you can rock out.

Yup, that's the American CD packaging. I ended up with 18 of these CD's in my hand luggage coming back from America, a good few hundred dollars lighter. Still, since they were all a tiny price of the what the money-snatchers charge over here, i can't complain at all.

I'll take it everybody got the hint that i'm back from the land of the States: and how awesome it was. Highly entertaining for the full 2 weeks that i was there. Maybe i'll highlight some of the best bits soon, along with my 80-odd photos.

Anyways, i have 2 weeks of doing whatever i want now, cause i can't swim in the Irish Nationals because of my right eardrum which resembles more of a polo mint right now. Ah well, i'm off to listen to some of my Electric Six CD. Guess where i bought it?!

2005-07-08T04:40:00.000+01:00

While i'm in Yankeeland, i'll probs use this:

http://usa2005tnm.blogspot.com

Also note that my posting times are crazy because i'm currently 5 hours behind all the home ppl.

Summer Madness 2005

2005-07-05T18:14:00.000+01:00

Currently Listening to "Jailbreak" from Thin Lizzy's live album "Live & Dangerous", which i picked up in HMV today for a cool £4. This will easily waste away 75 mins on that damn long flight tomorrow morning.

But anyways, the last 4 days have dragged. In fact they may have been 4 of the draggiest days i've ever had. However, they were good draggy days, coz i spent them at Summer Madness, which this year was easily the best one i've been to. Our little campsite ruled supreme over the ones who decided to settle for sofabeds, or even go as low as caravans (:.
But yea, sharing a site with JME, Rach, Helen, Phil, occasionally Matty, and that other dude was great fun. Our telecommunications devise was a great invention, greatly helping the need to communicate without having the security guards clamp down on us like they were scared of noise. Actually, none of them came near our pitch of grass, probably because they'd seen my bigdaddy of a supersoaker, which would turn them soggy in seconds.

The Jimbo & Shane show shall be hailed as a big success. I've been to Xtreme since it started, but there is still plenty of material to keep it as funny as ever. H&F must make a return sometime, as must some of those damn funny video clips. And Shane from Ohio should make a return too...

What else happened?? Well there's Tre Sheppard, who is one of the greatest speakers on earth. The 3 stories along with impressions of his father were damn funny, and coz of these every time he spoke he got a point across. Also, his idea with the mobile phones on Saturday night was one of the greatest things i've ever seen. As was the African drums/Bodhran/Lambeg Drum thing up on stage, promoting unity across the people of Ireland. Whoever had that idea needs to have their hand shaken.

That drumming group on Sunday afternoon was also awesome, it was just a full on freelance improv thing with whatever sorta percussion you wanted. I signed up for more info on them, and i certainly hope to get it.

Apart from all that, we just chilled, messed about, ate, slept, stayed up late, beat each other up and played guitar. It was totally awesome. When i remember more of what happened (i'm kinda sleep deprived), i will post it.

Anyways, i'll be in the States for the next two weeks - have fun, stay safe, and don't set anything too dangerous on fire!

***

2005-06-27T22:34:00.000+01:00

This may be my last post before i clear off to Yankeeland, or it may not be. Who cares. Thanks to everybody who's hung with me over the last while, and especially for Saturday night's party. While i won't see quite a few of you guys for a while, i'll still be living it out here once everybody get's back. Let's make it a good one everybody!!

Dublin, Home to finish exams, Dublin

2005-06-22T23:40:00.000+01:00

Down to the Aer Lingus pool at Dublin Airport on Sunday with the Ulster swim team. Somebody cancelled our bus randomly, but we carried on in cars and went to swim. After an Ulster record for our relay team & a trophy for most guys points, the team were done, and so was i. I'll still be training, but a break from competition til August will do me good. Too much pressure gets to the head.

Anyways, the gala was great in the fact that i met up again with some of the legendary Irish people that i know from them. They go by the names of Burdy, Joe, James, (another) Aoife & Lucy. Had a great time chillaxing before races, if i can do something like that before a race.

Back to school on Monday & Tuesday, to finish the exams off nicely. No more work til September. Tuesday saw some drumming and hung out with a great friend!!

Today = The Dublin Trio 2005. Now i've properly been to that city which is only 2 hours down the road. What can i say, the Guinness Brewery is a full on town (5 million pints a day), Phoenix Park is amazingly big & cool, St. Stephen's Green is one of the best city centre parks i've ever seen, that big needle monument is cool, and Grafton Street is one of the great places for busking ever. It's a new ambition for me to go there with Rory sometime to busk.....

It's also pretty big, 3 times the size of B'fast apparently. And it is a totally buzzing city. Can't describe much more of it right now. Trinity College is cool, may keep it in mind. We got the perfect day, and got nicely fried! & finding filling stations was good fun too!! And we saw quite a bit of the suburbs while Stevie got lost, but his car held up nicely. It's a tank.
It's good to have a place like Dublin only 100 miles down the road.

Also, the motorway from Dundalk - Dublin is immense. I don't know why, it just is. Never any traffic jams, and it flows like a true motorway should.

Time for 24 series 3!

TheNightMonkey

2005-06-18T12:35:00.000+01:00

Everybody's ok now, right?? Good, cause that was scarey. Glad it's alright now though, and that life is back to normal. I apologise!!

I still have two exams left, but when i hit tuesday afternoon i'll have to make sure ending exams ain't as big an anti-climax as people have said it'll be. I'll be different i think.

There are currently two things putting me under pressure before i hit the freedom. One is of course resisting not to ditch revision for the last few days, and the other is swimming in Dublin tomorrow. Sure i'll be swimming against my three good Irish mates, but it'll wreck me!! Even so, i'll begin celebrating once i've finished that 100m freestyle race tomorrow, whether i end up feeling like throwing up or not. Then no more big pressure competitions til the Irish Nationals in August. In the past few months i've had a lot of big swimming things, so hopefully a big break from competition will help clear my mind.

So after Tuesday afternoon i don't have to do any type of schoolwork til August. What am i going to do?? Well, properly celebrate my B'day first. Take a "Road Trip", & perhaps eat that weird food called Sushi. Also, a full on night of Ownage with the Americans on Xbox live wouldn't go amiss. That's a full night as into the early hours of the morning. Coz bedtimes no longer matter. Seeing the sun rise at about 4am would be pretty cool, and i'll have to dedicate a day or two to the immenseness of "24" series 3. Then B'day party on Sat, which everybody is welcome to for some hopeful fun & chillaxing.

That's my plans up til exactly a week from now. Better get started at planning for the next week. A full on "Crazy Tuesday" at the Movie House also has to be taken into consideration. As does chillaxing with some schoolfriends, and Mr Nick, before he possibly descends his wrath into Methody, taking that school by storm. Thing is, he won't have our funfilled jazz band or crazy music department anymore. He'll just make Methody's crazy. The War of the Worlds premier is also in there somewhere.

After July the 1st i'm pretty much sorted for the next 3 weeks. SM 2005 should have it's late nights, water fights and craziness just as usual. I'm being hardcore and staying for the last night, which will probably be a late one, packing up the next day, going home to get a few hours kip, have a funnish day, going to bed, and getting up a few hours later to go get on a jet to the US, putting me back 5 hours and totally screwing up my sleep patterns. Sounds immense.

The 2 weeks following that will hopefully be great. Follow that i don't have a clue of what i'm going to do until the Irish Nationals. Currently i am getting hold of cool looking photos of B'fast for Nialls slide show, to show the Americans that all of us don't live in Castles/Huts and drive crap vehicles. As for leprechauns, i'm not even going to try and prove that they don't exist. My "Irish charm" needs to get me some free stuff. (:

While doing this i've been continuously listening to "Got Me Under Pressure" by ZZ Top, which is such an immense song. It's full on Texan Rock, and it rules. And their beards are super-cool. I've said it many times, but their music kicks ass. This must've been one of my longest posts i've ever done! If you've read down this far...! Now that i don't do English anymore i'm not supposed to write long essays....but until next time....

P.S. - I just realised that that ZZ Top song is so relevant to the early parts of this post!! Woohoo!!

17p14 17 14 16) 14h17p14

2005-06-16T12:17:00.000+01:00

I'm going to copy Anne, who also has her b'day today :P. Currently:

I've done 21 exams

I've got 2 left

I've completed 9 subjects

I've got 2 subjects left to complete

By the time i'm done, on the 21st June, i'll have spent about 35 hours doing exams

So, when they end, i'm free and i should be aiming to use it. I might use some of that time to watch the sun rise at about 4.30am. Crazy me.

I've said this before, but i'm going to say it again. Kirk Hammett is one of the greatest guitarists on the face of this planet. I've seen him rip it up live. Woohoo.....

Score.....

2005-06-11T18:36:00.000+01:00

Score Number 1: Y'day i got a new phone. With gd quality camera & bluetooth. For £52.50. Which is a complete bargain. Now i have bluetooth to tease and annoy people within 10m of me (if i want to), and a camera to take as many pictures of Stevie as he has of me. No really, he has enough of me to dedicate a wall of his room to, and that is one huge breach indeed.

Score Number 2: Had another swimming gala today, and managed to prove to myself that i can still swim even though i haven't been training. Without bragging, i came 2nd for 100m freestyle (in open age groups), and did it in 54.87. I've only hit 54 once before, that time was down in Limerick in February, when i was at the height of training. So yea. Id have to make the point though that swimming would suck if you had no team mates.

A big juicy proteinous steak is waiting for me on the BBQ, so i'm going to go gobble it up.

Let's get Political........

2005-06-07T17:48:00.000+01:00

Right, let's make it clear that i don't have much against America.

I have loads against the US government though, mainly because they are so reluctant to co-operate with the rest of this planet. Especially this year. "Make Poverty History", was supposed to aim to cancel third world debt i thought??? If i'm wrong correct me. As the days go by now it's looking more and more watered down.

Tony Blair still seems to be strong and with it, which is fine, but it is the American government which is tearing this whole thing down. They constantly refuse to pull their weigh in fear that it'll harm their own country. They refuse to donate for a vaccination programme. They refuse to give 0.7% of their national income to Africa each year. At the minute all they are doing is donating tiny sums of money, in otherwords, they ain't doing much to help because their politicians are too damn concerned for their own welfare. Selfish comes to mind.

Then there's global warming. Our friend Bush won't keep his side of the Kyoto agreement becuase he's scared it'll damage the US economy. Instead of making an effort to prevent global warming, America instead is choosing to take the approach to deal with the consequences. That translates as putting billions more into stopping cities such as New York and LA from flooding if sea levels rise. Or paying for storm damage if storms really do get worse.

I'm not saying that will happen though. But it is worth investing in alternate energies. Even if pollution didn't contribute to global warming, it'd still be nice to have a cleaner buzzing planet then a dirty one. But anyways, i'm sounding like a Greenpeace person now, so i'll stop. Do note however that i'm not against fossil fuels or anything like that. I think things like Oil Rigs rule.

One fact: America produces 21% of daily Carbon Dioxide emissions, but has only 4% of the world's people.

They need to start pulling their weight!!

judet klomar; eftut sezar

2005-06-01T22:52:00.000+01:00

Interesting things that happened today:

I did my second R.E. paper, made up an entire section on Capital Punishment which was fun.

Went home, made myself a lovely chicken & cheese bageutte for lunch.

Dossed about then did some work.

Then Mark came round with his big funky hard drive so i could "borrow" quite a few songs of it for my own listening. Cheers Mark, it's appreciated, and i'm glad ur car didn't roll into another incoming car :P

Now i'm about to hit the pit and get a good 8 hours sleep for once. 8 hours is the daily recommended average for us, which i hardly ever keep. (That's both good and bad)

Anyways, the "One Word Story" rebellion on the message board is going nicely. I didn't even mean to start it, i just wanted to kill that crappy thread that for some reason i started. But now it's better than that. Keep rebelling against the spammer everybody.....

"Mark who?!"

2005-05-31T10:47:00.000+01:00

Yes, Stevie, Mark Knopfler. You're old enough to know who he is. He's 56 and can sing better than Britney. Also, he's richer, cooler, more skilled, and more of a legend. Don't worry, i'm only having you on, as usual.

There is Mark Knopfler:

While i'm sitting here i've decide to compile a list of the greatest drum intros ever, inspired by Mrack getting me to play them on Saturday. So far i have a top 3:

Metallica - Enter Sandman
Guns N' Roses - You could be mine
The Stone Roses - Elephant Stone

But since my music collection got wiped ages ago, all i have is a stack of about 40 CD's. No worries, i'll get more.....

Let's go with the crowd....

2005-05-25T17:13:00.000+01:00

Haha.

If you read this, post a memory of me, can be anything you want, good or bad, so long as it happened, blah blah.

This post may soon be replaced by some quality pics of Mark Knopfler....

I've just had such an idea

2005-05-19T14:26:00.000+01:00

Why don't they show "24" box sets on long haul flights?? Movies only take up two hours, but sitting watching through something like 24 would make the 7 1/2 hours to NYC fly. That was one class unintended pun right there.

Mind The Gap

2005-05-14T21:28:00.000+01:00

So, just back from London where we finished a good and successful school swimming year. All team events this weekend, and the bronze medal was added to the tally. If we'd had our strongest team out & no injuries, we would've won it. But we gave the english guys a good scaring.

We were staying in a pretty grand hotel, with the Campbell & Colraine guys, which was good as everyone knows each other. London is a pretty cool place for tourists. Last night saw us land on Planet Hollywood for a big meal to celebrate. I didn't mean for that pun to be in there by the way, but it's going to stay there now, coz it's actually a good pun. So anyways, out came the party poppers on the tube for a bit of fun.

Also now officially off on study leave, with 2 exams next week. Also jazz band is over for this term, which sucks, as it is immense. I gather Davey Howell pulled off some pretty cool sax solos today....

The Button

2005-05-10T22:58:00.000+01:00

I have just discovered such a cool button. On Windows Media Player. And while typing i've just discovered that it's even cooler. It's a "fast play" button. One click speeds the song up 1.4x. Another speeds it up 2x. Then another up to a crazy 5x faster. It is good fun, and will entertain me for weeks. I'm now listening to "Learn to Fly" sped up by 2x. How cool.

Time for another update........

2005-05-09T18:12:00.000+01:00

..except i can't think of much to say here. Currently listening to Shine On You Crazy Diamond Pt.1 by Pink Floyd, and now i'm off to do another ad maths paper. When i think of something decent i'll stick it up here........

This post has no title

2005-04-26T22:54:00.000+01:00

And so the concert was great. Plenty of compliments, and a hell of a load of fun. And don't compare, cause we are unique. Anyways, a CD should emerge soon.

So what am I doing right now?? I am listening to the original Maceo Parker version of The Chicken, which makes me think want to sit in some jazz bar listening to some jazz band. Or playing in some jazz bar. Now that orchestra is over I don't have as much drumming to do, so perhaps I could start some "side projects". Haha, you never know.

I am also reading the BBC news, where I have come across that story about the Chicago mobsters. They have a picture of Joey "The Clown", who actually looks like a pretty cool mobster. He has the big cheesy smile, and the huge glasses. And he probably has a lot of dosh somewhere. He is currently being chased around the big USA by their cops. But his pic is cool.

The Monster Raving Looney Party

2005-04-20T17:24:00.000+01:00

First of all, i won that race. Whoopdedo. That was good. Second of all, my PC's hard drive decided to crash last night, probably losing me all my coursework (which i don't need anyways), and over 24 hours of music. Now i'm spending my time 'reacquiring' that music.

Anyways, with all this election crap going on, i thought i'd share the manifesto of The Monster Raving Looney Party. By the way, why on earth is it called 'manifesto'?? It's such an annoying name for it. To me, that word resembles closely to 'shambles' for some reason. Like it tells me that a politcal party are putting together some big piece of shambly crap to tell everyone about. Why not just call it "The Plan"??

Enough of that. For those who don't know, the Monster Raving Looney Party are an official political party, who are standing for the elections in May. They are such a great Party too. Here's some of the best of what their 'manifesto' for this election includes:

Income Tax will be abolished. Some of the left over money will be used to block up the French end of the channel tunnel without telling them. The rest will be placed on a horse at the 3.30 race at Haydock Park.

A 99p coin will be issued to save on change. Britain will not join the Euro, instead Britain will invite all european countries to join the Pound.

Any cabinet minister caught telling lies will be shot across the channel in a 'high velocity' circus cannon, put at the right trejectory by expert British engineers.

Bright pupils will be provided with dimmer switches so that they don't distract the rest of the class.

Any pupil who constantly uses Americanisms will be made to go and stay with George Bush for a week, in order to put them off using any further Americanisms.

The House of Lords will be replaced with the House of Cards, in order to make the government easier to deal with.

Four wheel drive vehicles will only allowed to be drive off road, therefore preventing rich parents clogging up school streets as they drive 100m from the house to pick up their offspring.

Any kerbs that are caught crawling will be arrested and the council will be fined £100.000.

The party originally had the idea of keeping pubs open for 24 hours, but since other political parties have stolen that, they've had a new idea. The Monster Raving Looney Party now thinks that 24 hour drinking isn't enough, so they propose to make the length of a day 32 hours so that the pubs can be open even longer.

Half the grey squirrel population will be painted red, in order to increase the red squirrel population.

All fast food will be clearly labelled: "May contain traces of real food".

All footballers will be made to wear slippers to make the game more interesting

That's all i'm doing now, but i rekon you should all go see for yourself. Go to www.omrlp.com to find out more about them, and read more of their manifesto, which has so much more good stuff in that. Above isn't even half of it.

And another thing, these people do actually get voted for. Which is quality.

Showdown

2005-04-16T23:12:00.000+01:00

I suppose most people have heard about Battle of the Bands last Saturday night. Even without a bassist we rocked, and how on earth the other band won we don't know. More about that later though. Just that last Saturday put us on the up, improved our rep a bit, and gave incentive to keep churning out good music.

Showdown tomorrow morning, Ulster Age Groups 100m freestyle. My mood then will show whether i have done well or screwed up. Time to get some sleep.

A Bit more of the Irish Craziness

2005-04-07T15:03:00.000+01:00

The band that i'm currently listening to is The Dropkick Murphys. It goes like this. Stevie comes round to my house to "chill" before we go to the Stars in Yer Eyes thing last night.

So, he's sitting there, trying to work out my "split style/Matrix style" keyboard while browsing through my all my music, looking puzzled as he doesn't know who on earth half the bands in there are, when he comments on the "Irish drinking song" i was playing (The original folk song version of Whiskey in the Jar). He mentioned at how his American buddies were playing a band called Dropkick Murphys down their Xbox live microphones. So we got downloading some of their stuff, then left the house at 7.27, aiming for a 7.30 start up at Lagan College. Excellent.

For some reason, i'd always known about these guys, and i knew they were something to do with Irish music. But i didn't realise how class they are. It's sort of Irish punk, and i think Stevie will agree with me that it fully rules. The band are from Boston funnily enough.

I'll also take this moment to apologise for putting up the spam-encouraging thread of the "One word story" on the message board. When i posted it i sorta forgot that it would be pretty pointless crap. Which is why i don't bother posting on it. Anyways, it'll make good old Stevie happy, as it is an excellent excuse for him to continue his campaign for complete domination of the message board. With 26% of all the total posts, he's well on his way. Be scared people.

Movie House vs Warner Village

2005-04-06T00:00:00.001+01:00

Warner Village is in a classier area, and you can leave the movie and go spend more of your money on 10p machines and bull horn games. The seats in the cinema are also nice and comfy, and rise up with each row, which is cool. And there are also Orange Wednesdays, but since i'm not on Orange, it is irrelevant.

However, lately the lovely people at Warner Village decided to rise the price again to fleece people like us out of more dosh. Now you have to pay up to £6.40 to see a movie. I could rent 3 movies for 3 nights for that. Even with a student card it's £4.

Movie House is more like it. £3.50 for students. Even if you forget your bigtime dosh saving card then it's £5. And they have Crazy Tuesdays, which rule supreme. £2.50, any movie, all day.
This Crazy Tuesday i went to see Hotel Rwanda, which is a damn good movie with a damn good point. Go see it. Take a hint Western world. Enough said.

I won't be all horrible to Warner Village though. After all, they do get premiers at midnight, and lots of late night showings, which for some reason i enjoy going to from time to time. I don't know why but who cares.

It is now Wednesday, so i'm off to get some sleep for once.

Time for an update

2005-04-05T00:42:00.000+01:00

This year i hadn't really had the time to think up any April Fools pranks, pretty much because i decided to go spend 5 days in a house in Donegal with 20 or so crazy people. Rightly so. Anyways, i will very happily pull off pranks on any of the other 364 days of the year, so it doesn't bother me. And another thing, are April Fools pranks supposed to stop at midday or not??

The Donegal trip was immense, and I would easily do that one again. Might write sepearate things on it later. Or i might not. Becuase now i'm sitting here at 12.30am with my plate of crackers & cheese and my drink of apple juice, scoffing away at it happily while typing. In otherwards i can't be bothered right now (:

What else to write...well, i'm off school for another week, which is great. As Jamie predicted, a large amount of it has been spent on Halo 2 by certain ppl, because it still hasn't got boring after 6 odd months on the go.

Oh yea, the dawn service. It was cool, though it was in the dark most of the time. Getting up at 3.30 GMT/4.30 BST was actually fun. I don't know why, it just is sometimes. Anyways, most it was in the dark, but i didn't really care, as i could see all the lights across B'fast, which looks cool at night. I know some people really hate here, but: 1 - It can be said to be in Ireland
2 - It is home after all

And anyways, if i lived in a huge tourist filled city it probably wouldn't make visiting other big places as much fun. Living here then going away somewhere totally different is a good thing in my opinion, as this place is actually a pretty kick ass place anyways. I'm probably making no point, but it all makes sense to me (:.

Battle of the Bands this Saturday at Knock, 8pm i think it is. Come and support/throw stuff at us. Though i'm not promising we won't throw it back. Better be careful ;)

Let's clear this time thing up...

2005-03-24T21:17:00.000Z

Thinking about all the clock stuff is kinda confusing, but I'm just proving to certain people that Switzerland is never 2 hours ahead of us:

Winter Time:

UK = Same as GMT

Western Europe = GMT +1

Summer Time:

UK = GMT +1 (BST)

Western Europe (including Switzerland) = GMT + 2

As you probably know now, i was in Switzerland during the summer, and we were only 1 hour ahead, so no Stevie!!! Switzerland is never 2 hours ahead of us!!!! I'm totally wrong am i?!?! Get with it!!

The Irish in Welshland

2005-03-20T22:45:00.000Z

To fill you in on my last few days, Ireland came 2nd in the U.K school's thingy. That is pretty much as good as winning, because in all 34 years it has been there England have won it every single time.

This is because England have 45 million people to choose from, lots of cash and 6 team coaches.
Ireland has 5 million (including the North), not half as much cash, and 1 team coach. So in perspective we totally whooped England. Anyways, if you win it easily every, single time, then where's the fun in competing in it??? Ireland have only come 2nd in that competition 4 times to date, so it was all good.

I'd never been to Wales before, and all i can say is that Welsh is one damn weird language. This would be a rough translation from a motorway sign:

"Reduce speed now"

"Wydd cshedw y tdsypydd"

That one speaks for itself.

My hosts were nice, and i was up with a guy from here, and another from Galway, who turned out to be the guy who beat me in the Irish School's finals in the 100m freestyle. He was totally sound, as were loads of the other people in the team, and like all the Irish, always good fun.

Today the Leinster and Connaught swimmers went away home at like 5pm, while the Ulster and Munster swimmers had to kick about at Birmingham airport for around 5 hours. That didn't really bother me, as it was good fun kicking about with them. So anyways, it was all good fun, now i think i'm in contact with a few more Irish people, who will return in the next Irish gala. Also, it may not sound like it now, but i know i've sort of gained more of an Irish accent from spending 3 days with 37 crazy people. It rules.

Whiskey in the Jar

2005-03-17T01:02:00.000Z

Happy St. Paddy's day everyone. I've never really taken the 17th March as a big deal of a day, but it seems this year i've realised what a cool day it actually is. Also it makes me think that the Irish culture is a pretty kick ass one too. I like it, and a lot of other people around the world seem to like it too, which is pretty cool.

I'm currently in the mood, listening to the original version of the folk song 'Whiskey in the Jar', which is just as good as Thin Lizzy's or Metallica's version of it. Plenty of twiddle de dum music will be played over the next 24 hours.

As for tomorrow (today), i don't know what i'll be doing. I could be all Irish and go see the rugby, or i could be all Irish and go see the happenings in town. Or something like that. Unfortunately my "wardrobe" doesn't contain a matching pair of green trousers and shirt, which i wouldn't mind having, along with a great big oversized green hat.

So, have fun today, even if your school (Methody) do get trashed in that rugby game!!!

About Time

2005-03-15T22:41:00.000Z

It's about time everybody had a big get together for a bit of Asshole i rekon. Last time it was played was Christmas Eve (I think Jamie ended up as the Presi). I'm up for playing it again, like we sat before Xtreme in the summer and did (and numerous times after that). Bet you you're forgetting the "Just like that a'y?!?!" Legendary.

u9fwpjikeg

2005-03-14T20:48:00.000Z

I haven't posted for over a week because mainly, i can't think of anything to post about when sitting here. I can think of stuff when im not sitting here, but when i am i can't. So i'm just writing a load of crap here.

Currently i'm listening to (What's the Story) Morning Glory by Oasis, which is such a song. It is especially good when driving through Limerick on a sunny clear saturday morning on the way to the pool, before having to swim like crazy.

Saturday i went to see the Gerry Rice Jazz Quartet, which was pretty cool. It is such a way to make money, as the four of them just tutor & play most days of the week, so they are getting dosh for it and having fun at the same time.

Anyways, i'll edit this post with something more interesting tomorrow, if i've though of something (:

Shows, Gigs, Festivals

2005-03-06T13:28:00.000Z

I'm feeling the need to conserve some dosh to splash on live shows happening in a couple of months time. Velvet Revolver have been confirmed for B'fast on 8th June. From what i've heard of them they're alright, but then they are half of Guns N' Roses, so they're bound to be good. Yea, it's smack bang in the middle of my exams, but the next day there is only French Listening. Hard exam that one is.

17th June sees Status Quo & Meatloaf play at Ravenhill. I wouldn't be a massively huge fan, but it is good Rock & Roll and it's outdoors, so i might go along for the fun of it.

Then there is the good old Tennent's Vital Festival. Remember the crazy one day festival at Botannic last year, with The White Stripes & The Darkness?? How immense was that. I called it my end of summer party, and if there are good bands playing at it this year i'm there.

So, that comes close to £100 spending on shows. Oh dear...

Drumathons

2005-03-02T22:40:00.000Z

The world record for the longest period of time spent at drumming non-stop was pretty much smashed today, although i don't know if there are separate records for African drums & modern full kits. Anyways, here's something you didn't know: The guy who held the world record for non-stop drumming on a full kit was from Lisburn, which was pretty cool. He went for 57 hours without stopping, while being fed and watered at the same time. As far as i know, at the end he threw up and then slept for 24 hours non-stop. I think he also ripped a muscle in his leg half way through, but kept going. Crazy guy. I'd love to try it sometime.

Back to the new record. This was done in Kenya, by 8 people, who did it in shifts of three people every 8 hours. They went day and night for 100 hours, which would have been great fun in my opinion. What i found even cooler was when they said at the finish (even though they were wrecked) they felt "sweet, healed and cured" afterwards. Sounds good to me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4308555.stm

Livin' in a Pigsty

2005-02-27T22:38:00.000Z

I would have pics for you all to look at (of my room), but it's too hard to do right now, so maybe i will put some on when i could be bothered, and after i've tidyed this place up.

The first update for a while

2005-02-20T00:14:00.000Z

Anyone want any cheese?? I grated a bit too much to put on my big mash of pasta & chunky chicken which i have just devoured for my dinner at 11.40pm. Yea.

Can anyone guess what song i'm listening to?? Go on. Yes, it's Mad World!! I have decided that listening to this song in moderation is alright, but it's still damn annoying all the same. Specially when it becomes your morning wake-up call for almost an entire week....you know who i'm talking about ;).

Anyways, i went to see Bands Battle it Out tonight. It was good, though i rekon SRO could put on a show of quality music with their virtuosoness, and with a bit of practise. There were four bands, some pretty good, some not that great, but the sound didn't help in places. Also, they had a special guest band for the night. Two or three of their songs were good, but two things to do with them were pretty annoying:

Number 1 applies to ALL bands (and of course is only my opinion). "Where is the Love" is not a good song to cover and punk up. It a stupid, annoying song in the first place, and it is still just as annoying with a guitar palm muting the chords instead. I rekon in the last while i've heard 3 bands pull this song off, and it's tripe. One of the other bands there pulled off a pretty good version of "Love in an Elevator" by Aerosmith. Even though this wasn't as tight or accurate as "Where is the Love" was, it was 1000 times better, because that Aerosmith song is a truly great song. So if i'm ever a judge in some band contest, don't play a cover of that Black Eyed Peas song, or i'll have your bass amp blown up and your drum kit confiscated for my personal use.

Number 2 wasn't that annoying, but it's to do with their drummer. I'd call him RoboDrummer. From the name you'd probably guess that he played the drums like a robot, as he used his two arms as if he had no pivots in them to hit those drums. Note that i don't care if he plays the drums like this, that's personal choice, but it was because he started skipping out bits in the rhythm to rest his tired arms. If he didn't play like a robot, his arms would be lovely and muscular and he would be able to play til the cows come home. Even so, RoboDrummer is a pretty cool name, so he is actually got the makings of a legend.

Stevie P needs a technician to play about with his super-fast broadband. Did anyone notice his super-slow transfer speed??

About to....

2005-02-09T23:04:00.000Z

So, i was about to blog and i've forgotten what i was going to write about. I'll kick myself tomorrow when i remember, then post it here.

Limerick hasn't changed much since we descended on it in July, although i wasn't out and about that much. The weird thing was that the place seemed pretty familiar, like i'd been there more than once. The pool was as good as ever, and i spent a bit of time watching some basketball games from the 300m running track balcony in that biggest sports hall in Ireland. An interesting thing in our hotel swimming pool was the plunge pool, a pool of freezing cold water made for when you come out of the sauna or whatever. We used it to see how close we could get to actually freezing by staying in it for as long as possible, which was fun if not sore, but anyways.

Writing all that still hasn't made me remembered. Is there any way to put music on blogs??

Thin Lizzy are Irish legends :P

Take with a pinch of NightMonkey.

IRELAND GRAND SLAM

Indie Music Sucks

Well well

Guess who just won the Bath Cup again....

Legends of the Core

Do you feel the power??!

Bleeehhh

Daft Punk are unbelieveably awesome.

Pink Floyd = Godlike

Bath Cup 2007

.

Last 6 weeks

Prog Jazz

Uni tours

'Sup

Eventfulish

Barvarian Cream Filled Doughnuts

Supercharged

.......

Engeland

There he is.....

$(h00L

Bath Cup 2006

.....

Jazz

.............

0658

Biased Refs

TAPFS

Dublin Calls

St. P

Work Expo

Omphhh

**3 Part Post**

How it all went........

.......

Week in Pics

Ohhhhh

Wow, this steak is red inside

2005

2006

.

Who you gonna call?!?

Ts'day

Take a guess at my "Theme word" for this post....

GBest

Bits

.

dnekeew

Concertingotisdsdkf

TV (sometimes) sucks

Half Term

Belfast goes Boom

Hallo

15th - 30th August

6th -14th August

21st July - 5th August

6th - 20th July

Friday Time

June 21st - July 5th

UPDATE!

One of the best shows of all time!!

^^^^^^^6

Piano Dude

Stairway to Heaven vs Bohemian Rhapsody

Here we are!!!

Here we go

Reno 911

The American CD Cases

Summer Madness 2005

***

Dublin, Home to finish exams, Dublin

TheNightMonkey

17p14 17 14 16) 14h17p14

Score.....

Let's get Political........

judet klomar; eftut sezar

"Mark who?!"

Let's go with the crowd....

3 Part Post