Tickets went..

The tickets on offer for the match last night between France and New Zealand went for face value.

And i'd say it was some game to be at as it was very exciting to watch.

Irish Rail Watch

For my 200th post I thought that I would post about something that is close to my heart....how much Irish Rail suck.

On Wednesday last, I travelled to Dublin by train for the first time in about 4 years. And they didn't disappoint. For all the published items on the amount of trains that depart and arrive on time I took three trains and all were late.

Train 1, Cork-Dublin: Due to depart on Wednesday morning at 10.30am - left at 10.33am (you may think this is pedantic but it is still late)

Train 2, Dublin-Cork: Due to depart on Friday afternoon at 12pm - left at 12.22pm. The tannoy system in Heuston station is poor and it was not only hard to understand the accent on the man speaking, but also what he was saying.

Train 3, Cork-Cobh: Due to depart on Friday afternoon at 3pm - left at 3.17pm. The funny thing about this, is that at 3.02pm they announced that this train was running late (really???) by about 15mins. A bit shoddy.

So, I am getting the train again this afternoon and will see what happens now.

Anyone want tickets to the rugby quarter final?

So, I have a friend with 4 tickets to the World Cup quarter final in Cardiff.

Does anyone want to buy them? If so, then leave a comment.


I dont think I will comment on the fiasco that was our performances as better writers than me have already done that.

Hobo no more

...and my days as a hobo are ending soon.

Coming Soon

Everyone else blogged about this when he released the cover so I thought I'd be different and only mention it now. Twenty's book is nearly there.

One can hope that it makes it big, is put into a movie and grosses more than Harry flucking Potter. Feck it I cant stand those mind controlling movies and books.

One then one can hope that with his newly found fortune Twenty decends into a life of living it up, sleeping with numerous supermodels and other such fit birds and blows his entire fortune in a very short space of time and is back blogging then.

Maybe he could just live of his name afterwards like Chesney Hawkes.

More Politics Stuff

As you may or may not know, Damien owns a few websites (when will the madness stop). One of these is www.politicsinireland.com. This has been newed up a bit, jazzed a little more, and is now ready for re-launch is grand Windows 95 style.

Go an have a look or we will set Gerry on you.

Must See Movie - Mischief Night

If you liked 'East is East' or kinda liked 'The Full Monty' then you must get out another English movie called 'Mischief Night'.

This is a really funny and well made movie set in Leeds in northeast Eng-er-land. The basic idea of the movie is that each year in Leeds they celebrate a night, sort of like Halloween, called Mischief Night. On this night anything can happen. The story centres around a women with three children each by different men. Mischief Night is on the Friday night but the movie starts the previous Monday and builds up to the Friday.

Its really funny but be prepared for some crass language and some drug-related scenes and it is defo an 18 rated movie.

Go get it out...

House Husbandry

You know, as much as it pains me to say this but I have really enjoyed having the last four weeks of work. Sure the house has to be clean and the dinner made for the good wife when she gets home, but its great hanging around the house.

Its also mighty for pretending to be cleaning the house when really on the interweb and watching Liverpool DVD's.

In all seriousness, I can see why parents that stay at home with kids do have a full time job. I don't have any kids but each evening you wonder where the feck the day has gone. You ask yourself: what have I done? Where did the day go? Did I achieve anything? In most cases you don't think that certain things take the amount of time they do or maybe in this day and age we all just want things done now and the quicker the better.

So I raise my hat and tip my glass to all those housewifes and househusbands and say fair play to ye.

Now, Im off to surf the web and then twill be dinner time.

Contacting Moi...

Everyone else seems to be doing this so why not I, I thought to myself.

I am at the moment looking for gainful employment. For possible employers my CV can be found on Monster.ie and also on RecruitIreland.com.

You can also see me on LinkedIn:


If you want to add me to FaceBook then look at my profile:

ShiteDrivers.com

Following the launch of ShiteDrivers.com not so long ago, some great publicity has been forthcoming over the last few days.

Yesterday, an article appeared in the Sunday Tribune, coutesy of Miss Una Mullally, about the website with comments from the Road Safety Authority's Noel Brett.

Also this morning Niall was on the Ray D'Arcy show on Today FM, with Marty Whelan on 2FM and also on Tipp FM and NewsTalk.

While there are some who will rubbish this site (one person on Ray's show thought that it was a forum for people to record their bad driving and become famous through the site for it - nope, that is what YouTube is for) I think its a great idea.

I always feel that we, the Irish, are shocking at issues like this. When something happens we never feel we can make a difference and wait for someone else. When someone does decide to do something all we do is give out about them and say that they are never happy.

So I say, feck ye bugrudgers and embrace this site. It it makes even 2 people a week think more about their driving habits then its better than none.

Five Albums

Ok, before I start I am not on about the band 5 (Get up, when your down) but this band may well come into your reckoning if you so wish. What I am on about here, is just something based of a conversation I had a few years ago with my sister. We were in HMV or Virgin or somewhere and we were on about certain albums that should be in a persons music collection. You know, there are some albums that most people have and if they don't, they should.

I was thinking about this again yesterday as I was also thinking about which 5 movies should be in a persons collection. So without further ado here doth be mine choices (in no particular order):

Music
1. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
2. Nirvana - Nevermind
3. Guns 'N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
4. Radiohead - The Bends
5. Massive Attack - Mezzanine

Movies
1. Braveheart
2. Monty Python and The Holy Grail
3. Blade
4. Star Wars (4, 5 and 6 - otherwise known as the first three movies - and yes this may be cheating but I dont care. These should be together)
5. Shrek

To be honest, I don't pretend to be either a movie or music buff (don't really watch many movies or listen to much music) but these are my choices. And as I never really had much of an interest in music prior to 1987 thats why there is nothing older there.

There are other albums that I think most people have like Fatboy Slim (We've come a long way baby), Moby (Play) and others, but I'm not sure if they are really that influential but were rather just really popular at the time.

So..what would your choices be??

Update Time

I know its been a while since my last update on this Blog. There have been 2 main reasons for this:

1) I have been trying to find a job
2) I have been thinking about this blog.

The first item is a slow moving one with little happening at the moment. To be honest, I am enjoying my time off as it is the first proper break I have had in over 5 years. When I finished work on the Friday, the Saturday morning was the first time in over 5 years that I woke up and didnt have 2 phones beside my bed. Do I miss my work phone? Not on your nelly. Nice having peace for a short while.

For the second item, I think I need to cut back on my, lets say, colourful language. And that means the "F" list has to go...not completely though, just renamed. So Ter, you might make the "Annoyed Me List" (just doesnt have the same ring to it).

Other than that, not much happening in these neck of the woods.

Feel free to leave a comment to spice up me life.

Life Expectancy

Saw this on Rick's page who robbed it from Una who got it somewhere no doubt but thought I'd give it a whirl. Seems like I will live forever especially as I have total job satisfaction right now...class. Here are my results:

Biological Age: 32
Real Age: 17.9

Average Life Expectancy: 74
Your Life Expectancy: 88.1

Give it a go yourself.

Poodwaddle.com

Toilet Humour

I saw on Una's blog that she she has launched a new blog based on images and writings in toilets and tis called 'JacksGraff'. I think this is fab but it will reduce the ratings people give toilets on 'Rate This Toilet'.


Still, make sure to use both of these!

It reminds me of a story I read in Chris Donald's autobiog. Chris is the fella who founded Viz comic. Before he left Viz, the most amazing TV show ever "Through the Keyhole" had Chris on it as it had run out of A-W celebs. When Lloyd Grossman was going through the house he went to bathroom and in his usual drawl said something like "..and heeeerre is where aur guest may get moost of his ideas".

Class. Cue much laughter.

Anyways, go to Una's new blog.

Leaving

On Friday last, Aug 27th, I left Schlumberger Cork as an employee for the last time. I think that leaving anywhere, regardless of the circumstances, can be a very difficult thing to do. I had 5 years and 5 months with SLB and that is not easily brushed under the carpet.

Yes there were bad times but there were also good times and I learned a lot from the 7 managers I had there and also from the project mangers and teamleaders that I worked with. I worked on projects and issues with SLB staff from all levels of the company and to get that type of exposure I thank them.

I also think you couldnt work in a better facility than we had. The location is just outside Cork city, free parking (even if they do insist on reverse parking), free on-site gym, subsidised canteen with top notch food, good social club, free Xmas party and summer BBQ. I think that you can get too spoiled.


And so another era in my life ends. I seem to stay in places for a while as I had almost 4 years in IBM before going to Oz and now nearly 5-and-a-half years in SLB.

What next?

Fluffy things

Some funny things to brighten up an otherwise miserable day...

Little Britain - Andy & Lou Smurf Outfit sketch


Catherine Tate - Lauren meets (ex) English PM Tony Blair.

Padraig Harrington - Open Champion

Well done to Padraig Harrington who won the Open at Carnoustie yesterday.

He beat Sergio Garcia to win the tournament and become the first European to win a major in eight years and the first Irish winner of the Open since Fred Daly 60 years ago.

I like Padraig I have to say. He is always polite and humble, speaks well of others and win's and lose's in a very gracious fashion.

Well done fella...ya made the country proud.

Also a small word for young Irish golfer Rory McIlroy for Hollywood Co. Down who won the best amateur award at the open.

The future of Irish golf looks good...

Monkeygland and Braai stuff

Our next door neighbours, a South African couple, have opened their own business recently called "A Taste Of Africa".

Folks....if you are having a bbq (called 'braai' over there) then you must, you have to, its written in scripture, that you get some MonkeyGland sauce and marinade your steak in this. It is unreal. Leave for about 2 hours and it will leave your steak so tender after cooking..even if you want it well done! And the taste? I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Go and check out their online shop and their products. We have tried the marinade's for chicken (Lemon and Herb and Honey & Mustard), the Peach Chutney is amazing and you have to try the meat. The Wild Boar sausage is great on the barby as well.

Go and get some stuff. Its all good.

Dirty fuckers..

I heard about VHI on the radio and couldn't believe it and then I see it on Damien's blog so it must be true.

Dirty robbin feckers.

I mean, if its not enough for them to make all the Vivas and Bupa/Quinn people pay for another crap service they now want their own customers to pay more. I can imagine the letter:

"Dear Mr/Mrs Fucked-Over,

In honour of you being such a devoted customer of ours over the last few years, we want to reward you by charging more for the same service.

We are sure that you will agree that giving us extra wages is much more important than lowering the cost for you as we have houses, boats and large cars to keep (not forgetting keeping up with the Jones's at number 47 - 4 holidays they had last year the bastards).

Anywho, you can send a donation cheque also to show your gratitude.

Love,
your €500k per year manager"

Lovely.

Know any shite drivers?

Following on from Niall's blog posts here and here and my own here, Niall has set up a lovely new site called ShiteDrivers.com.

More information about it.

Please feel free to log comments on Niall's blog post or indeed on this one with ideas or suggestions. Really, the state of some of the driving on Irish roads these days leaves a lot to be desired and something needs to be done to address this.

For myself, here are a few suggestions that I think the NRA (National Roads Authority) need to address ASAP

1) Awareness Campaigns.
We need awareness campaigns urgently on how to deal with roads and situations. We have a huge amount of people who have never encountered or had to deal with motorways, dual carriageways or slow/fast lanes and suddenly these are introduced with no training or details. We need TV ads, newspaper ads and flyers detailing these so that at least people might get the idea. To me a 50 year old is as dangerous on a motorway if they have never been on one before as much as a learner of 2 years in the same situation.

2) Driver Training.
The driver training program needs urgent revamp. It needs to include more items like how to deal with cyclists and motorbikes. It needs to include 'zipping' and general road courtesy. None of these things are on the test. Fast roads, decent size roundabouts, traffic...loads of things need to be done during the test and we need to ensure that the people we are letting drive on the roads can indeed drive. There is no point in testing someone in a 50km zone and in housing estates and then letting them off on motorways. They need to be tested on motorways or national roads on which they will regularly drive.

3) More Cameras
I think we need more cameras but not just for speed. People regularly do not use roundabouts correctly and often go into the wrong lane. If we had some cameras on roundabouts and people were fined for not using indicators or using the wrong lane then it might stop people. We need cameras also on motorways and dual carriageways to check people's driving. Speed is indeed an issue but stupidity is as big an issue in my mind. We should also have cameras on roads that have had a high number of fatalities so we could see what is happening. Maybe, with the families consent, they could be shown to learner drivers, and others, to see what happens when you go that bit to fast on a bad road or what happens driving - even at/under the speed limit - on wet/slippy roads.

4) Pedestrian Awareness
People nowadays have no fear of cars. People regularly walk on the incorrect side of the road or cross the road, taking their time, and cause cars to stop. Pedestrians need to be more aware of themselves and treat the road with more respect. I myself had a good grounding in respect for the road from both my parents and teachers and I wonder what is happening now?

5) Cycle lanes and Paths
We need more...much, much more. The proposal for the €30bm is great but I would love to read the whole thing. Its fantastic that cycle paths are to be introduced for tourists but have the ordinary Irish folk been thought off? No. I tried to cycle from Cobh to Little Island but had to stop. The road is constantly being dug up and is crap and car/lorry drivers give you no space or respect. I would class myself as an experienced cyclist so I don't see how kids/families can cycle on that road. We need the whole thing to be assessed and cycle paths but in where we the Irish need them.

We also need more pedestrian paths. It really should be part of the infrastructure plan when housing estates are being created to have proper access in and around and not have to stop at the entrance. More and more housing estates are being built and its great walking around them but when you leave them you are often on a main road or a narrow road (like near our house) with lots of traffic.

6) Statistics
More statistics need to be shown in the media. We need to know the breakdown of what caused the accident. To often speed is assumed when it may have been something else. It could have been a bad road, wet conditions, very inexperienced driver anything. Drink is a concern and so is speed but so is poor driving, ignorant pedestrians and stupidity. Lets see the causes and do something about them rather than assuming everything is drink/speed related.



I'm sure there are other items but even if these could be addressed soon the roads would be a better - and safer - place.