Thursday..or is it?

I keep thinking today is friday - I hope I remember that I have work tomorrow. It was kind of a dead day, but it actually went by surprisingly quickly.

Got paid today...woohoo! Always a good thing. And with a slight increase too. Hmm...I feel a shopping trip coming on!!!

***********

Jen, I am so sorry to hear about Jake. Hope you're ok!

Calling all Google Earthlings...

Google Earth Beta release is already having problems. Why? I presume because everyone is trying to download this freebie at the same time. I want it...NOW!!!

In other news, MAL is back. So pleased. Now that it is though, I find I've forgotten all my little rants. But don't worry...they will come back to me. Oh yes, they will.

Ahhh...Black Books tv series...
Review on IMDb

Meet Bernard Black. Bernard is an anti-social, heavy drinking chain-smoker who owns a small London bookshop - an unusual vocation, given that he detests customers and delights in physically and verbally abusing them at every opportunity. His best (and only) friend in the world is his lunch time drinking partner Fran, a neurotic and boyfriend-desperate woman who owns the pretentious arts and crafts shop next to his. Bernard is cynical, abrasive and lazy, and is perfectly happy that way - but his life takes an unexpected turn when he sells 'The Little Book of Calm' to hyper-stressed accountant Manny Bianco, who against all odds ends up swallowing it. When the dust is settled, Manny will have a new job, Fran will have a new friend, and Bernard's life will be far more surreal (if that's possible). Scott

Customer: Those books. How much?
Bernard: Hmmm?
Customer: Those books. The leather-bound ones.
Bernard: Yes, Dickens, the Collected Works of Charles Dickens.
Customer: Are they real leather?
Bernard: They're real Dickens.
Customer: I have to know if they're real leather because they have to go with the sofa.
[Bernard looks confused]
Customer: Everything else in my house is real. I'll give you two hundred for them.
Bernard: Two hundred what?
Customer: Two hundred pounds.
Bernard: Are they leather-bound pounds?
Customer: No.
Bernard: Sorry. I need leather bound pounds to go with my wallet. Next.

///////////////////////

Fran: Ok, if I told you that the walls of my flat were actually moving in, would you think that I was strange?
Bernard: No, I'd ask you to come round and look after my small children.
Fran: If you don't believe me you can come round tonight and we'll watch the wall.
Manny: Don't be ridiculous, we'll be staying in, watching the thermometer, won't we Bernard? Won't we?
Bernard: I don't know, it's an impossible choice. Walls, thermometers... I'll just have to hope when I flip the coin it somehow explodes and kills me.

Dé Mháirt (Tuesday)

It's Tuesday. 2 more days to payday. Yay!

Saturday turned out to be a good day. Not weather-wise - it never brightened up - but in terms of it not being a total waste of a day. I went shopping after work. I had to get a new battery charger, because I seem to have lost the other two. I know they're in my room somewhere...I just don't know where. This has being annoying me for ages now - my digital camera eats normal batteries like popcorn. Anyhoo, mission accomplished. (Doh - just remembered I never plugged out the charger - the house will probably burn down...damnit!) I wandered around HMV too...but there were just too many people on Grafton St and I was starting to overheat. I went home for a while and then popped over to Glasnevin to visit my brother, John. Finally I was able to give him the Firefly series on dvd that I picked up for him during the week when I bought the Evil Dead Trilogy. As I was going out to Glasnevin, I could hear the U2 concert in Croke Park beginning. The buzz in town with all the people heading out to Croker was electric. Kinda sorry I wasn't going. Anyways, John made me watch the first 3 or 4 episodes of Firefly (created by Joss Whedon of Buffy and Angel fame - not a bad series. Pity it got cancelled).

Sunday turned out to be a stunning day. John had suggested the Botanical Gardens in Glasnevin if it was a nice day. I rang him at 2.30pm and discovered he didn't know that it was a nice day because he was too engrossed in Battlefield 2, which he purchased on friday. I finally made my way over to him around 4pm. There were hundreds of people attending some sort of open air mass in the beautiful Glasnevin Cemetery, which is opposite John's estate. I wonder what it was for.

The Botanical Gardens are...lovely. Not spectacular or stunningly beautiful, but I think that's because there's little in the way of flowers, but there are lots of trees and shrubs. There is also a pretty pond, the river Tolka flows through it, it borders Glasnevin Cemetery, there's a poisonous plant section (with info on which part of the plants are poisonous - so thoughtful of them), and stunning Victorian glasshouses filled with exotic plants. It was quite an enjoyable day out.











After that we went to Eddie Rockette's for food. What a disaster. Over-priced food...and they lost our order. Muppets! I was starting to overheat at that stage so I decided to head home. It was great to do something different for the day.

Monday was also gorgeous, weather-wise, which made it hard to be in work. But I ended up having lunch outside, in the garden of the Russel Court Hotel. Sounds posh, but isn't. Gorgeous lunch though and it was great to catch up with the people I had lunch with. After work I ran over to HMV and finally got Scrubs Season 1 on dvd. I loved that series when it first started, although I drifted from it, and ended up missing loads. I'm not great with watching tv on a regular basis. I ended up missing episodes all the time. I think that's why I stopped watch Six Feet Under - I loved it, but I hated that my time was tied up at a certain time every week. Plus, I could never be guaranteed that I'd have access to the tv at the crucial time - the joys of sharing a house with people! Anyways, I also bought the box-set of Seasons 1, 2 & 3 of Black Books. I was watching the first 4 episodes of Black Books last night...I had forgotten how funny they were, and how utterly ridiculous. I can't wait for Green Wing Series 1 to come out on dvd, if they ever release it. Now that was hysterical. (Both Black Books and Green Wing star Tasmin Greig, who also had a cameo in the movie Shaun of the Dead, which co-starred Dylan Moran, who stars in Black Books. See, I'm not mad! Everything does connect!)

And that brings us up to today. Dull outside and a lot cooler. Allergies gone bananas and I just had another nosebleed. Why am I allergic to the summer?

I can't believe I'm in work...

It's saturday. I shouldn't be here. :( And yet I'm surprisingly awake. I guess getting up at the same time every morning is a good routine for a body. Tomorrow I'll probably wake up early too. The bus only took 11 minutes to get me into town this morning. I love when that happens. So I actually had time to have breakfast in work before 9am.

Weather still hasn't picked up. It's dark and cooler and looks like rain. Maybe it'll pick up as the day goes on. Only 3 more hours of work.

The first of 3 U2 concerts were played in Croke Park last night. Apparently the concert was superb. I, however, was curled up in an armchair at home watching tv. Not sure I'd have paid huge money for a ticket, but I would like to see them eventually. They've had some good songs over the years and apparently put on quite a show.

Who I want to see are Nine Inch Nails. Their last album is out of this world and they really need to tour it here. All the UK gigs are sold out. COME TO IRELAND!!!

And Rammstein are working on the second album from the Reise, Reise sessions. I will definitely go to London to see them in concert again.

And that's all my ramblings for now...adios!

Schwing!

Friday...at last. Unfortunately my alarm clock will still go off at 7.25am tomorrow morning. And then the second alarm will go off at 7.50am. And finally my third alarm - a watch - will go off at 7.55am. Why? Because tomorrow I have work. It's perfect sleeping weather. It's wet, and dull, and warm. And I really want to sleep tomorrow morning. Damn. At least it's only til 1pm. Work, that is, not the sleeping weather.

In other news, my Grandad took another turn last night. He had a stroke at Christmas and he seems to have had another one at 9pm last night. My Grandmother was out socialising so it was a while before she got home and found him. She called my Dad, who stayed with them til 4am, bringing them up to the hospital once the Medicare doc checked him out. I hate hearing that this is happening to my Grandad. It serves as a stark reminder how frail it is to be human.

What am I going to do all weekend? I could catch up on the movies. Sunday is supposed to be a fantastic day, but I have yet to find my battery recharger for my digital camera's batteries. I can't do ANYTHING without my digital camera. Hmm...we'll see.

Oh and our work system has gone down til 11.30am on Monday...so I'll have to practice my apologetic voice for all the 'customers' who come in tomorrow. Luckily we'll still have the network. There's nothing worse than have no system AND no network. That's just...EVIL.

73ºF / 23ºC

What a day! High temperatures, beautiful blue skies...dying from seasonal allergies. I hate being so congested! Everyone takes a step back because they think you've got some sort of contagious disease.

End of the day...not in the mood for the trek to the UGC...need to get anti-histamines and eye drops. So, I guess that's what I'll do...

FYI: Sick of hearing about Tom Cruise...who the hell cares?

Plan this weekend to see Batman Begins, Episode III, and Mr & Mrs Smith, but then I'm working on Saturday morning, so we'll see if I have any energy after that!

All stuffed up!

And by stuffed up, I mean my sinuses. Tis the season, you know! Last weekend was fun. On saturday I did nothing, coz I felt awful thanks to the sinuses. On sunday I accicdently ended up in the middle of nowhere (ie Rathcoole) because I missed my stop when on the 69 bus. The very nice busdriver, Greg, dropped me off at Bewley's Hotel, where two seconds later I caught up with my friends and off we went for food and a fantastic time at the REM concert in Ardgillan Castle. 25,000 people, beautiful surroundings, glorious weather, fantastic views and a brilliant festival-like atmosphere - you couldn't ask for anything else. Even support The Zoutons were good, and Moby was excellent. We missed Ambulance Ltd and The Devlins, but it took us longer to get than than we realised. Great day out.

It's starting to hit me now though...I'm wrecked tired, I'm having weird dreams (might be the fault of the antihistamines), I'm not getting enough sleep coz I think I'll sleep it out and I'm badly stuffed up. Ah the price of entertainment.

Patient update: Mom finally got the cast off. Hurrah!!!

Falling asleep...

Well...it's wednesday. 15th June. Laurence's birthday. Happy Birthday!!!

Weekend update:

Friday's concert was amazing. I got down to the dual-carriageway at 7pm and a 63 bus arrived immediately. I wasn't going to get it and then I remembered that it was one of two buses that go down to the RDS - very handy. When I got to the Main Hall, there were loads of people already up at the barrier and it became apparent that I wouldn't be able to see very much. So I moved over to the barrier beside the pit access, and I could see the stage no problem. So there I remained for the rest of the night.

Shadows Fall started shortly after I arrived at 7.30pm and played til after 8pm. They were really good and got all the kids going mental. Waist-length dreadlocks, and a kind of semi-stage dive later, and the crowd were warmed up.

Around 8.20pm or so Helmet took the stage. Their image is so clean-cut but their sound is so heavy, yet tight. No manic screaming lyrics...just heavy rock. The kids got bored after about 2 songs but I really enjoyed them, moreso than Shadows Fall. Plus, it became apparent throughout their set that members of Slipknot were up on the balcony and the kids were more interested in that!

Finally around 9.30pm Slipknot took to the stage. No Clown, or drum risers, or side-screens but what a show! Corey had the crowd eating out of his hand, and Chris really worked the crowd from the sides. Sid was as mental as ever...jumping up and down off drum kits. Paul, Jim and Mick paced the stage like wild animals...those guys are crazy! I couldn't see Craig from where I was but every-so-often, I could see his spikes head-banging away in the corner. Joey was obviously a crowd favourite, and although he didn't do his solo, he helped Corey work up the crowd, especially during Spit It Out (with Jump the Fuck Up). It's insame seeing a couple of thousand people crouch down in a venue and stay down til Corey tells them to jump up. Madness. Set finished just before 11pm and when the lights went on, you could literally see the steam in the room. It was crazy. The show opened with Prelude 3.0 being piped through, and ended with Danger-Keep Away being piped through. During Danger...Corey came out with the Irish flag that had been thrown up during the gig, with a Slipknot tribal S on the white part, and held it up. Major crowd cheer. Then Joey came down and draped the flag around him. As Joey wandered off, Corey held up Clown's mask on a stick. Then Sid came out and did likewise. Corey mentioned Clown alot during the concert, so it was good that he wasn't forgotten in all the madness! Excellent show.

My only complaint was all the kids that were there...I'm not talking about the teenagers, I'm talking about the pre-teens, under 10 club, who were there with their Dads, two of whom obviously were not into Slipknot at all and just paced the pit area, and frequently got in my way. The kids were ultra hyper at the start and by the end of the night, they were obviously wrecked tired and dehydrated. And many of them spent ages up at the water point, just drinking bucketloads of water and messing. A Metal/Rock concert is no place for pre-teens. They do not belong. Glad to hear Slayer played over 18s gigs. Slipknot have a young fan-base, but do these kids actually know what some of the lyrics mean?

I was at home by 11.30pm but I didn't get to bed til 2am or so...I was wired!!!

And at 9.30am I woke up on Saturday! Doh. I spent the day shopping and I caught Sin City at UGC. Very enjoyable movie. Violence, cannibalism, dark humour - a lot of fun.

On Sunday I was awake at 9.30am but I managed to go back asleep. I was up by 2pm, in town by 4.20pm and in Balbriggan by 5.30pm. Food and lots of walking later, I was on a bus heading into town at 8.30pm.

So, a busy weekend.

It's been a quiet week so far. I've been tidying - both at home and in my office. Roll on the weekend.

RDS...

..on a half day today from work. Going to see Slipknot, live in concert, tonight and it'll be a blast! Can't wait. Must disappear and get myself ready. Toodles.

I am so tired...

I don't know how I'm waking up in the mornings because I am so very tired. I've only been awake 4 hours and all I really want to do is close my eyes and sleep.

Of course I should have gone to bed earlier, but the house badly needed to be cleaned, and I had to buy food. Then cook food, eat food, and tidy up afterwards. The night just slipped away!

This week is working out to be a busy week, catching up with people. And...on friday I'm going to see Slipknot in concert. I seriously cannot wait!!! They've changed the venue from the RDS Simmonscourt (horse-shed) to the RDS Main Hall...that's brilliant! Hopefully the sound will be better.

And I forgot to mention it, and I don't know how that happened, but I finally got my hands on the Nine Inch Nails album, [WITH_TEETH] and it's, quite frankly, superb!!! Out of this world! Amazing! Couldn't live without it! Please Trent, play in Ireland...pleeeaaaassssseeeeeee.

...and then it's over!!!

Yep...I'm back. At least in body, if not in spirit. I just had an amazing holiday, and I can't believe it's over already.

Patient update: Mom went to the hospital before I went on hols and the first doctor she met was Croatian. That was the funniest thing ever! At least this way, he was able to understand all the notes written by the surgeon in Dubrovnik, Croatia. She is now on her second cast, and all stitches are out. In two weeks time, the cast comes off and after that depends on how well the healing is going.

Bank update: After numerous phonecalls and stress, my loan from the bank is finally paid off. Yay. Account closed!

House update: The two girls are now gone for the summer, so it's just me and Ross in the house. It'll be so quiet...and I guess I'll be the only one doing house-work for the summer! And Val got a permanent job, so she won't be moving out! Yay.

And Dee got her contract renewed so she'll be in Dublin another year...yay!!! And this means we can go ahead with our Crete hols too.

And as for my Dubrovnik hols...they were amazing! The old town is gorgeous beyond words. We had 2 apartments - Audrey and Derbhile were in the ground floor, and Helena and I were on the top floor (4th floor). 112 steps to the house on Smokvina, and 30 steps up to our apt. Imagine doing that 4 times a day (up and down x 2). The views from the top apt were out of this world, and with the windows open, we could hear all the budding musicians in the Music School practicing! Surreal. A big THANK YOU to Sergio, who organised our fantastic accommodation, and brought us from and back to the airport.

We did day trips to 3 of the Elaphite Islands( with Harry from the Harbour), Lokrum island (with the gruelling steep trek up to the Napoleanic fortress) and Meðugorje in Bosnia & Herzogovina. There was a very marked difference between Bosnia and Croatia. Poverty is more evident in Bosnia, and there's still a lot of damaged houses and bullet-ridden sign-posts. Croatia is more stable, the tourist industry has revived its economy and the rebuilding is almost complete. Bosnia lags behind, with palpable tensions. Border crossing is strict and all vehicles are checked. No one is allowed through into Bosnia without a passport and a guide (for tourists). Our guide informed us that if the International Forces ever left Bosnia & Herzegovina, the country would collapse into chaos. Fighting would resume between the Croats, Muslims, and Bosnian-Serbs.

I took over 400 digital photos and about 60 APS photos. APS ones were supposed to be a back-up for the digital, but the digital camera really came into its own...the shots came out so well.

Food was gorgeous no matter where we went, and really well priced. Pizza was fantastic and their ice-cream is out of this world. No Pepsi Max, although I did find Pepsi Light. Mainly I stuck with Coco-Cola Light and water(yes...me..drinking water...).

Helena and I adopted a beautiful white cat, with one blue eye and one green eye, who lived near our apt. Clever cat stayed up in its apt on the last day, coz it knew we'd try to kidnap it!!! Audrey and Derbhile adopted a little Tibetan dog that the gallery owner near us owned. She was a sweet little thing (the dog, not the owner) and I think Audrey was planning on taking her home too.

The weather was amazing...it stayed up around 27ºC or so the whole time. Being typical Irish tourists, we went sight-seeing during the hottest times of the day, instead of having a siesta. Well, we had a rest in the mornings, went sight-seeing, then went back for a rest, and then went out for food and drinks. A very relaxing holiday and I managed to avoid getting a suntan the whole time...except for on my neck!

Photos on the way...lots and lots of photos!!! :)