Twenty-one years later...

Yesterday, I went for a bit of a skite up to Northern Ireland. I hadn't been there in twenty-one years...

...last time I was there was in the aftermath of a wedding in Monaghan in 1988. The sister of a friend's wife was getting married there and we were farmed out, accommodation-wise, to one of my friend's relatives over the border in Tyrone.

Although my nationality and my religion of birth should have indicated that I was perfectly safe "up there", I was never more scared of anything in my life. Everybody (almost everybody) looked normal - at the wedding, in the pub, in the homes - and yet things couldn't possibly have been normal under the circumstances. Everybody seemed to be committed to a particular cause, but I got the distinct impression that had one had the inclination to discuss beliefs with people, there would have been some people with whom you just wouldn't have dared have a frank discussion. They had a look in their eyes that indicated that they had either just come back from doing something significant or were planning something equally significant for the next day. Dark and brooding just wasn't in it...

Back in those days, a lot of alcohol would have been consumed, but some instinctive sense of self-preservation meant that I kept a very tight control over what I said and to whom. One particular evening in a pub, one of the more approachable of my friend's relatives asked me what did I "think of the session up here then". I knew exactly what he meant - politics. Luckily for me, there was some guy in the corner belting out rebel songs with a guitar. I commented that "your man had a pretty good singing voice". We both knew that I was evading the real point of the question and the matter was discreetly dropped.

Later on that evening, while taking a comfort break, one took great care not to accidentally bump into anyone on the way in or out of the jacks, for fear that that person might be inclined to take issue with my presence in his local in a manner similar to how he might have taken issue with the presence of foreign troops in his particular "green field". A total exaggeration, I know, but I was rather under the influence and incredibly self-conscious of where I was and what the consequences of talking or acting out of turn might have been.

We spent the night in another relative's house - the wife was nice - the husband had been away all evening at a "significant" funeral. My old car was parked around the back of the house just by the bedroom window. All night I heard strange and troubling noises. It might just have been the dog snuffling around the back yard. Or someone of the other persuasion planting a booby-trap bomb under my Southern-registered car.

I was never so glad to get back to the Republic, bad and all as things were down here at the time. I never told my old man about going up North - years before, he warned me that if I ever went up there, he'd disown me. So if you thought I was nervous about being up there, what must have been going through his mind?

Yesterday, twenty-one years later, I'm standing in a queue, waiting to be served at a car breaker's store. I am surrounded by locals who look just as "normal" as do the folks down my way (which probably means that there's just the same mixture of decent people and gougers as you'd find anywhere). The one thing that's freaking me out is the fact that a dozen people are talking at the same time in the same Northern accent. It reminded me of one time when I was in the departure lounge in Shannon Airport when a planeload of US troops disembarked from a transport flight from Iraq. Two or three hundred troops, males and females, of various ethnic groupings and with some variations in general physical appearance, but all shaven-headed and dressed in desert fatigues. Some are wandering around the duty-free shop, some are in the bar, some are going to the toilet, some are making phone calls. Everywhere you look, shaven-headed, fatigue-clad troops standing, sitting, walking. Like the restaurant scene in Being John Malkovich. Back in the queue in the car breaker's store, the dozen simultaneous voices sounded like the audio equivalent of that restaurant scene.

So what did I make of my brief spell in Norn Iron? Everything seemed fine apart from the brief moment driving through the outskirts of Newry when I passed the boundary of a Loyalist estate with its particular forms of street decoration. I'd only ever seen stuff like that on the telly. It sends a shiver up the spine to someone of my vintage. But things have to be different from the way they were in the last century. When you see people sharing power who were sworn enemies ten years ago, then things must have improved.

Here's hoping, eh?

Regards,


djp

Feeling a little bit tired today...

...and here's why...:-)

Regards,


djp

And the ringtone for April 2009 is...

..."Robot" by The Futureheads, from their self-titled debut album. Great stuff!

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 010409

1. (3) - Float - Zomby
2. (1) - Liebesfreud - Zino Vinnikov
3. (2) - Dream Dream Dream - Zion De Gallier
4. (5) - Brighton Rock - Queen
5. (-) - All My Friends Are Crazy - 500 Miles To Memphis
6. (4) - Filling In For Clowns - 7evenwords
7. (-) - '39 - Queen
8. (-) - Man Become Me - 31 Knots
9. (-) - Sedition's Wish - 31 Knots
10. (6) - Think - The 5 Royales

Regards,


djp

Snow...

...didn't last long though.

Regards,


djp

And the ringtone for March 2009 is...

..."Helicopter" by XTC. Why this brilliant track was never released as a single, I'll never know...

Regards,


djp

On the lake beneath the shoreline...

Just had my first trip of the year to Portumna Forest Park. Spent a nice hour cycling around and taking photographs...




...et voici M. Uglimugg...



I hope to make these trips to Portumna a regular feature of the Spring, Summer and Autumn of 2009.

Hope - great word...

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 010309

1. (5) - Liebesfreud - Zino Vinnikov
2. (6) - Dream Dream Dream - Zion De Gallier
3. (7) - Float - Zomby
4. (8) - Filling In For Clowns - 7evenwords
5. (-) - Brighton Rock - Queen
6. (9) - Think - The 5 Royales
7. (-) - Every Day - 60 Watt Kid
8. (-) - No Way Of Knowing - A. Tent
9. (-) - You Say You Don't Love Me - The Buzzcocks
10. (-) - Fly In Me Chablis - Daniel Prendiville

Regards,


djp

Somewhat unnerving...

I had an experience today which was - well - somewhat unnerving...

I was off work today doing a spot of musicing and afterwards was listening to music on my iPod via my PC.

One of the albums I was listening to is called Ballard Landscapes 2 by a group called Cousin Silas. It's an ambient album but it's not entirely benign in an Eno-esque way. Some of the tracks have a rather dark edge to them and, as they are all rather similar in style and construction, there is a sense of continuity throughout the album, even if you listen to it in reverse order, as I was today (don't ask why...).

About half-way through the album, I noticed myself getting decidedly edgy and ill-at-ease. As the album progressed, so did my feeling of discomfiture. At one stage, I felt a little nauseous and had to go outside for some fresh air.

To make matters worse, when I came back inside, I noticed that Panther, our cat, was uncharacteristically burrowing behind a cabinet in the room where the music was playing. He never does this. I had to manhandle (or cathandle) him out of the way before he did some damage.

Now, on further reflection, it might have been all the cups of coffee I'd had this morning, allied to the disorientating effect of the ambient music, which had me the way I was today. But how does that explain Panther's behaviour? He doesn't drink coffee - or at least he's never told me that he does...

Regards,


djp

I'm not right, I tells yah...

Last Sunday, I went out on what might be described as "a bit of a lash" with two work colleagues. We went to a local hostelry to watch the Italy v Ireland 6 Nations match, and afterwards repaired to a different watering hole where I could watch the lads playing pool (I don't indulge, thanks for asking).

All told, I was out for at least 9 hours. Got home. Went to bed. Got a relatively decent night's "sleep" and went in to work the next day. Not a happy camper.

And even now, six days later, I'm still not right. Oh, the aftereffects of the imbibing have been sorted days ago, but I seem to have caught a cold on the day which is hanging around. A general "stuffed-up" feeling, allied to a hint of a sore throat. No cough, thank goodness...

Normally, I'd take some form of remedy to deal with the cold, but for some reason I haven't done that on this occasion. As a result, I feel tired and a little listless all the time. On Thursday, I had the joyous task of installing a new washing machine and getting rid of the old one. Do you think I could get my brain to function properly in order to carry out that reasonably logical sequence of tasks? No way. Even bending over was difficult - a vague dizzy feeling came over me.

I reckon a good walk in God's clean, fresh (apart from the whiff of slurry) Spring air would probably do me a power of good. But I just can't be bothered...

Regards,


djp

Telephonics for the troops

Mrs. P just got a copy of the new Bruce Springsteen CD today from Barnes & Noble, and here's what came in the package with the disc:-

Now I have no problem with US citizens being proud of their troops (provided they don't do anything silly like commit war crimes'n'stuff - the troops that is, not the citizens). And if people want to give them a dig out by sending them pre-paid phone cards to call their loved ones Stateside, that's fine too...

...but Ireland is a neutral country* and a large number of our citizens are sensitive about certain alleged actions of the US government, things like extraordinary rendition. So you can imagine the indignation they would feel if they got one of these items in their mail**. A bit more cop-on on the part of the mailroom staff in Barnes and Noble probably wouldn't go amiss.

Regards,


djp


*Ireland was neutral during WWII, but we were "neutral" on the side of the Allies. That mindset is as much Joyceuitical as Jesuitical...:-)

** For the record, I'm not particularly bothered by this issue - I merely find it amusing that the US assumes that everyone who isn't against everything it stands for is actually in favour of everything it stands for. Some of us find sitting on the fence quite comfortable, once the initial splinters have been removed...:-)

My faith in the youth of Ireland has been restored...

This is a long and involved tale, so you may wish to take a wizz or something before you settle down to read it, OK?

1. Last year, I took Mrs. P's Yaris for its NCT. In order to prepare for the test, I had to remove those horrible plastic full wheel covers that are held in place by cable ties. These are removed so that the tester can poke around with the wheels or something. After the test (the car passed - thanks for asking), I drove the car home and replaced the wheel covers. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any long cable ties - the short ones I had were useless and within a day or two, we'd lost two of the wheel covers. I'd tried a number of locations for proper replacement covers (not those horrible ones you get in motor factors), but without success.
2. For my birthday, and having no real idea what to get me as a gift, the family bought me a €100 gift card from O2. I'd been thinking of upgrading my mobey for a while, so I used the card to get a new Sony Ericsson model with GPS and everything.
3. Today, I decided that I needed another 2-pin to 3-pin electrical plug adaptor. I keep buying musical kit from Thomann in Germany and they keep sending over items with 2-pin power leads. Now, back in the old days, one used to cut off the 2-pin plug and replace it with a 3-pin, but we don't do that type of thing nowadays. As I only have one 2-pin/3-pin jobby, and I want to use a number of gizmos at one time, I thought I'd better get me a second adaptor.

Now, here's where the story (finally) gets interesting...

I went over to my local branch of Woodys to see if they had an adaptor. No joy. I then went to the nearby Expert Electrical store to see if they had one. Nothing there either. I decided to go into downtown in Nenagh to try one of the electrical stores there. The Expert and Woodys stores are in a retail park, which one exits via a roundabout. As I was heading towards Nenagh, I noticed in a gateway a single, solitary wheelcover for a Yaris. It had obviously been jolted off the wheel by a pothole (and God knows we have plenty of those in Nenagh). Having looked for wheel covers for ages without success, I decided I might as well have that one, but I wasn't in a position to stop there and snaggle it. So I kept driving up to the Centra roundabout, did a yewie and drove back to park opposite the gateway. I ducked out of the car and ran across the road to claim my prize. But as I did, I heard something fall out of my hoodie and hit the road. It was only when I was back in the car with the wheel cover and driving away that I realised that my new mobey was missing.

So I had to drive back to the retail park roundabout and do another yewie to return to the gateway from the opposite direction - all the while cursing my stupidity and imagining that my poor phone had been ground to dust under the wheels of a juggernaut. My road rage, which is never far below the surface, emerged in all its ugliness as I swore at all the stupid motorists who were driving at a needlessly slow pace and preventing me from reaching the gateway...

...hours (well seconds, actually) passed and I was parked outside the gateway, looking desperately for the mobey. Nothing to be seen. Obviously somebody had recognised it for what it was (a brand-new mobile phone with GPS and everything) and had, let's face it, nicked it.

I was just about to head for home and start ringing the phone to see which bastard had trousered it, when two schoolboys, maybe 13 or 14 years old, approached me. One of them held out something in his hand and asked "Hey, is this your mobile?"

Well, of course it was. And I thanked him most profusely. I offered him a financial reward, but I had no notes, so I have him €5 in coins. It was as much as I could give him without delving into tiny coinage.

No doubt my young saviour will attain a more impressive and satisfactory reward in later life. He might even become President of Ireland. After the gender re-assignment, that is...:-)

Regards,


djp

A grand stretch in the evenings...

The lengthening evenings are noticeable now. About 2 minutes per day. It's great to be able to get home from work in daylight...

...mind you, that's not such a remarkable achievement when you realise that I live only 5 minutes walking distance away from the office...:-)

Regards,


djp

Oh be de hokey...

Just discovered that I've sold my first track on my page at Downloadmusic.ie. There's a shock...

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/02/2009

1. (-) - Cyn'd Dc : For David Cortner : In Memory Of Arthur Lee From Bido Lido's... - Z'ev
2. (-) - Python Snake Man -Zilch Fletcher From The Ninth Dimension
3. (-) - Fat Dub - Zoot Sims And The Aggrovators
4. (-) - Test Tube Baby - Zilch Fletcher From The Ninth Dimension
5. (-) - Liebesfreud - Zino Vinnikov
6. (-) - Dream Dream Dream - Zion De Gallier
7. (-) - Float - Zomby
8. (-) - Filling In For Clowns - 7evenwords
9. (-) - Think - The 5 Royales
10. (-) - Cloudy Night At The Observatory - Daniel Prendiville

Practically all the "Z"s, then...:-)

Regards,


djp

Magazine have reformed!!!

Check their Myspace page here...

Regards,


djp

Unashamed to say...

...I went out and bought the News Of The World today, but only so I could get the free Life On Mars DVD. The paper went straight in the bin...:-)

Regards,


djp

Janus

Today's my birthday. 46 today. Yay.

Some people I used to know were fans of horoscopes and would try to apply the alleged character traits associated with persons born under particular zodiac signs to actual people they knew who were born under those signs. Thus, in my case, being a Capricorn, I was supposed to be a cautious, considered, "political" type of person. Not so sure if that is the case with me, but then maybe I'm too close to the subject to take an objective view.

But one thing I can say for a fact:- if the month of January was named after the Roman god Janus, then, on the basis of a particular habit of mine, I could only ever have been born in January.

What do I mean by this? A few examples:-

1. I'm 46 today ( I know, "Yay"). I started work when I was just about 18 years old, say 28 years ago. In 28 years time, if I'm still alive, I'll be 74 years old, which will be three years older than my father was when he died and around four years younger than my mother was when she died. In those few sentences, I've spanned 56 years - longer than I've lived. Since I can remember starting work like it was only yesterday, will I feel the transition to 74 like it will be "only tomorrow"?
2. Similarly, I will reach retirement age in 19 years. Around 19 years ago, Elder Daughter was born. Can I honestly say that at 27 years of age, I ever gave serious consideration to retirement? No, but I will reach that landmark soon enough. It'll certainly feel as quick a canter through life as the journey from being a new parent to paying university bills.

I have this compulsion to put myself at the centre of a particular scenario and count the years backwards and forwards from this particular point in time. I find myself thinking, almost simultaneously, "where did the time go?" and "where is the time going?".

Not that this is anything to get depressed about. But it does bring home the fact that time is only running in one direction, that there is a limited amount of it available, and that ever day you live is one day less that is available to live. So "get on with your short life", as Brian Kennedy might say.

Having said that, a person I know is currently recovering from a heart bypass. On the assumption that the op was required to prevent imminent death, then every day that person lives is a day extra. Until the days run out, of course. But you have to think that this gives one a new perspective on life. Provided the op is a success, that is...

Regards,


djp

2008 vs 2009

Here's how I did with last year's New Year Resolutions:-

1. To eat sushi for the first time - OUTCOME - cracked it! Elder Daughter and I put our lives in our hands and gave it a lash. Not bad. Not something I'd try everyday, but at least I can say I did it - finally...
   
2. To get to see Arsenal play at least once this year - OUTCOME - did it. Unfortunately, Arsenal's season so far has been shite, so I hope I didn't jinx them by turning up on the day...:-)
   
3. To visit a country I've never been to before (this one is looking good...) - OUTCOME - mission accomplished - Czech Republic and Poland. Not a bad haul, really.
   
4. To start cycling again as soon as the weather improves (this one is not looking good...) - OUTCOME - abject failure. I did manage to get a few runs up to Portumna Forest Park, but the weather was so bad this year (particularly during the summer) that I might as well have stayed at home. Disappointing...:-(
   
5. To generally get the oul' bod a bit more together - OUTCOME - total disaster. If anything, I've gone "backwards" if you know what I mean. Frankly, I don't know why I bother at this stage.
   
6. To move house - OUTCOME - didn't swing it this year.
   
7. To either change my car or keep it for longer - OUTCOME - kept it, so I guess that counts as "boo-yah!"
8. To have a better year at work than I had last year (which wasn't bad, but had its "moments") - OUTCOME - 2008 was marginally better than 2007. Had a flat patch in the middle of the year but ended pretty good.
9. To see friends more - OUTCOME - some small successes, but must try harder
   
10. To stop wrecking me own head - OUTCOME - absolute failure - definitely must try harder!!!
    

And as for 2009:-

1. To get to see Arsenal play at least once this year - unlikely this year, as the mortgage for our new house will start kicking-in, so self-indulgent skites like popping over to the Emirates may have to be deferred for a while - we'll see...
   
2. To visit a country I've never been to before - this one is not looking good as the economy takes a downturn and budgetary expenditure has to be reined-in...
   
3. To start cycling again as soon as the weather improves (this one is not looking good...)
4. To generally get the oul' bod a bit more together
5. To move house
6. To either change my car or keep it for longer
7. To have a better year at work than I had last year
   
8. To see friends more
9. Not to volunteer to do anything for anyone under any circumstance - I had two scenarios in 2008 where I offered my services, as it were. Both scenarios ended rather awkwardly. The situation will not be repeated.
   
10. To stop wrecking me own head

That will do for now...

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/01/2009

1. (-) - She Said (live) - Barclay James Harvest
2. (7) - Light Of Your Love - Carlene Carter
3. (-) - Le Garage - The Futureheads
4. (-) - The One In Seven (XFM session) - Jah Wobble
5. (-) - When I Close My Eyes - Natacha Atlas
6. (-) - Good Bait - Nina Simone
7. (-) - One Train - Pete Francis
8. (1) - Death and Night and Blood (Yukio) - The Stranglers
9. (2) - No Way Of Knowing - A. Tent
10. (3) - She Really Wants You (acoustic version) - Aimee Mann

Regards (and Happy New Year),

djp

Not a New Year's present to you as such...

...but you might like to stream this, which is my 1999 CD, TANTRUM EGO, now available for paid download for the first time. Give me a shout if you want to buy a copy...:-)

Regards, and Happy New Year!


djp

Like clockwork...

I was lying in bed this morning, listening to the news on the radio.

Every year around this time, the government releases files which were formerly confidential. This is done under something known as the "30-year rule". Since 2009 is almost upon us, the files relating to 1979 have now been released and the news bulletin was reviewing some of the historical issues covered by the files now released.

As a musical accompaniment to the review, tracks from the Boomtown Rats' 1978 album "Tonic For The Troops" were played, and I was transported back to my teenage years. "Tonic..." was a great album and was released just when the Rats were poised to conquer the UK charts. The first track played on the news was "Like Clockwork", which, to me, has to be one of the great pop singles of all time. Tight punchy playing with a clear Sparks influence and clever lyrics - what a great song and one which should have been a huge hit. Ironically, the track that was probably the worst on the album, "Rat Trap" went on to be No. 1 in the UK...

I recall buying "Tonic..." in a record store on O'Connell Street in Dublin, known as Harmony Records, in the summer of 1978. If memory serves, I also bought Pink Floyd's "Ummagumma" album there that day. I seem to remember that Harmony was a fine big store. No longer there now - I think the first Mc.Donald's in Ireland took over the site pretty soon afterwards. I don't remember Harmony being there in 1980 when I started working in Dublin.

I have very fond memories of "Tonic..." Unfortunately, my copy of the album came to a bad end. We had a lodger living with us at home who fancied himself as a DJ. He persuaded me, against my better judgement, to lend him the album to play at a disco. He gave it back to me a few days later, horribly scratched and, to my OC ears at the time, virtually unplayable. I lost all "meas" in the album and gave it to one of me mates.

Such is life...

Regards,


djp

Oh yeah, Merry Christmas...

...as above.

Regards,


djp

Well, duh...

Got this in an e-mail from a mailing list today:-

"THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT DIE: The remarkable story of 'Lucky' Herschel McKee - Barnstormer, war hero, test pilot, motor racer, scoundrel
Herschel McKee's remarkable life story reads like that of a comic-book hero. A daredevil, a leader of men and, above all, a survivor, McKee fought in both World Wars, suffering numerous skirmishes with death. His colourful life included spells as a Foreign Legion soldier, fighter-pilot ace with the elite Lafayette Flying Corps, prisoner-of-war escapee, racing driver, WWII bomber-wing commander and test pilot. His amazing resilience led to him being nicknamed 'The Man Who Would Not Die' while he was still alive."

...well, duh. Bit late to give him that nickname after he'd popped his clogs and handed in his dinner-pail, eh?

Regards,


djp

Season of good cheer and bad teeth

If it's Christmas time in Ireland, then it's prime time for the wall-to-wall broadcasting and performance of "Fairytale Of New York" by the Pogues and Kirsty Mc.Coll.

If there's anything that's going to depress me about Christmas, it's that damn song. It may or may not portray a reasonably accurate depiction of the experience that some people have had (or continue to have) in the run up to Christmas. However, for me, it perpetuates the tiresome stereotype of drunken Irish emigrants in America - ironic that neither Mc.Gowan nor Mc.Coll were first-generation Irish...

It's particularly galling for me to think that any expression of distaste for the song is met with remarks questioning one's "Irishness". That's a bit like saying that a dislike for the recorded works of Chas & Dave means that one is in some way less "English".

Of course, over in Ireland, we take things a step further - around Christmas time, our national broadcaster plays a version of the song performed as a spoken dialogue. As if this makes things any better.

The one thing I will say in favour of the song is that it acts as a foil to all those mindlessly positive and optimistic songs one hears at Christmas time. This needed to be done. But did it have to be done within the context of a negative cultural stereotype?

Regards,


djp

Futureheads supported by 28 Costumes - Dolan's Warehouse, Limerick - 16 December 2008

Brilliant, brilliant gig. The Futureheads evoke the spirit of 1978 and 1979, channelling XTC's Go2 and Drums and Wires albums.

I was delighted that the recent "post-punk" revival came about, as I always felt that new wave music expired around 1980 with a lot of unfinished business on the agenda. Bands like Editors, Interpol and Maximo Park have done much to explore the uncharted regions of post-punk music, but the Futureheads are the best of the lot. Sassy and shouty with more angles than a dodecahedron and bags of provincial attitude to boot. One of my two favourite bands of the moment (the other being Elbow, who performed in a rather more mature, less "spiky" but just as distinctive style).

This was the loudest gig I've been to in a while, possibly too loud for the small venue and the mix was rather muddy, making the distinctive bass and drum parts rather indistinct. But the energy on stage more than made up for that.

Supporting were Liverpool group 28 Costumes who plough a similar furrow to the Futureheads, but they are less angular stylistically and have a certain cabaret feel to their songs. Well worth checking out.

Regards,


djp

Happy Days In the Gulag

You might enjoy this. If you follow the link, then I won't have to explain myself...:-)

Regards,


djp

And today's new word is...

... ANHEDONIA.

I came across this word for the first time yesterday when reading Ian O'Doherty's article in the Irish Independent on Roy Keane's departure from Sunderland (that's a lot of hyperlinks, folks...).

O'Doherty (God bless his chubby cheeks) usefully defines anhedonia as an inability to gain pleasure from normally pleasurable experiences (which, as it happens, is almost a direct quote from the Wikipedia article referred to above). While there seems to be a sexual element to this condition (isn't there always?), it can also manifest in normal everyday events. O'Doherty refers to Keane's "disgust at the joy of some of the (Manchester) United players after they won the long lusted after Champions League trophy" as displaying "an obsession verging on anhedonia". Now, winning sporting trophies is not exactly an everyday event to me (although I do seem to recall winning a gold medal as part of a Castleisland Town League soccer tournament sometime in the mid 1970s), but it would have been more commonplace for Keano.

I am always surprised when I find, quite often after years, that there is a "name" to describe a feeling I have experienced and wondered just what the hell it was. I'm sure that I don't suffer from full-blown anhedonia, as defined in Wikipedia, but there are certainly moments when I have felt an inability to "join in the fun" with friends or colleagues. For instance, I have a real problem with the usual office social activities. Christmas "do's" are pretty much a thing of the past for me - I prefer to go for lunches rather than evenings in the pub, on the basis that the requirement to provide cover in the office gives me the perfect excuse to bolt down my food and dash back to my desk. On occasions where I cannot avoid an evening meal, I whizz through the nosh as quickly as good manners allow and can be homed and hosed (that sounds a bit rude, doesn't it?) in around 90 minutes. The shortest office party I ever attended lasted (for me) about 30 minutes. I declared in advance that I wasn't going for the meal, arrived in time to buy a round of drinks for my staff and buggered off home. I appreciate that this is an irrational way to behave - it's almost as if I willed myself not to enjoy the evening. As an example of this, at that 30 minute outing, I didn't even buy myself an alcoholic drink - I bought a glass of sparkling mineral water and - wait for it - I didn't even drink it...

It's not that I don't like my colleagues - I do like them a lot. It's just that, for some reason, I can't cut loose and live in the moment, as it were. I am always conscious of the morning after. In the past, I have spent too many evenings over-intoxicated and misbehaving, leading to horrendous hangovers and deep depressions as I realised that yes, I had said/done that... So somewhere along the line, I took a decision to sort that crap right out.

Here are a couple of things I've noticed over the years:-

1. If I am socialising with people with whom I don't have a natural affinity but who do have a natural affinity with each other, then I quickly discover that there is a set of rules for how the various members of the group behave. These rules are almost instinctive for the group members, but only become known to me retrospectively when I have breached them. So I now try to avoid socialising with people where my presence is more of an obligation than a natural desire on my part.
2. If there is an office "do" in honour of particular individuals, I tend to weigh up in my head whether that individual is "worth" the inevitable hangover. If s/he is not, then I tend not to go. Notice I said "tend" - this rule doesn't apply in all cases...:-)
   
3. The night I enjoy best the morning after is not necessarily the night I enjoyed while experiencing it. These can usually be classified as "grand nights out" where imbibing, talking shite and unseemly behaviour is minimised, if not completely eliminated. Obviously, the converse applies.
4. One can neither undo what one did (particularly if the doing involved "undoing", if you follow), nor unsay what one said. I still get the shudders at what I called a former boss of mine, to his face, while in me cups, over ten years ago.
5. Finally, and most importantly, if something can't happen, then it won't happen. If one could only stick to that mantra, one could go through life with a clear head and conscience.

Of course, all of this means is that I miss out a lot on all the "fun" that people seem to be having. Most of the time this doesn't bother me, although I do occasionally feel a pang of regret that I can't just learn the rules, apply them and get on with enjoying myself like everyone else. But hey, I am what I am, or as another former boss once said of me, in my presence, "He can't help the way he his." That's not true, of course - I can help the way I am. And I do...

Regards,


djp

So...

...I went and bought a Stylophone...

Well, I mean, if I can't have a Mellotron...

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/12/2008

1. (-) - Death And Night And Blood (Yukio) - The Stranglers
2. (1) - No Way Of Knowing - A. Tent
3. (6) - She Really Wants You (acoustic version) - Aimee Mann
4. (-) - Berstein/Candide Overture - Andrew Litton/Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
5. (-) - Fantasy - The Blizzards
6. (10) - Light Of Your Love - Carlene Carter
7. (-) - How Long Have I Got, Doc? - Daniel Prendiville
8. (-) - Bullets (live) - Editors
9. (2) - My Kind Of Soldier - Guided By Voices
10. (-) - You Can Live At Home - Husker Du

Regards,


djp

Top Gear Show, RDS Dublin - 2008.

Some pics for your possible enjoyment. I hope to get some videos up on Youtube too. Most enjoyable - the kids loved it...

Regards,


djp

Korky AWOL

Last seen Saturday night...:-(

Regards,


djp

And the password is...

A couple of days ago, I had to ring Sky because I was having trouble with my reception. After waiting a while to get through to a customer service wallah, and having answered a number of preliminary questions, I was asked for my password. I couldn't remember it.

Some years ago, I had to ring Eircom Phonewatch because our monitored alarm system kept going off at around 4 in the morning. Every morning for like a week. The only respite I could get was to turn off the alarm entirely, which defeated the purpose of having the system on. In desperation, I rang Eircom asking was there anything that they could do to help me out. The representative was very helpful right up to the point at which I was asked for my password. I couldn't remember it.

Passwords are the bane of my life. I have one password which I use for most of the sites I visit. It's a six letter password - all lower case. Occasionally, I use variants of that password when I am required to mix letters and numbers, or where I am required to use a password with no less than eight characters. I also have a password where I am required to use letters (upper and lower case) and numbers. So far, so couch...

I have two main problems with passwords. The primary one is that there are some passwords which I only use on a very infrequent basis (Sky and Eircom Phonewatch would be two good examples of this). And because of that, I tend to forget them. Of course, I could just write the passwords down somewhere, but then the words "purpose" and "defeat" spring to mind.

My other main problem is where sites generate a password for you and don't give you the option to choose/amend a password to suit yourself. Almost invariably, the generated passwords will be a random character string, comprising upper/lower case letters and numbers. Occasionally one might come across a requirement for special characters. I can never remember these damn passwords, and because I can't trust my eyesight 100%, I tend to copy/paste the passwords from whatever e-mail the site sends when one initially registers with it. Which is all well and good, except that doing this removes the immediate necessity to memorise the damn password. And then you clear your cookies one fine day, re-visit the site and find that you can't remember your password. And you can't find the relevant e-mail so that you can repeat the copy/paste process.

One final comment on passwords:- some months ago, I was involved in an online collaborative project with an individual. Now, my idea of online collaboration is that you e-mail me your files, I'll do my bit on them and then e-mail them back to you. That's how people born in the 1960s do it. However, my collaborator seemed to be involved in the internet security business, so my chosen methodology was obviously not "comme il faut". This was going to be online collaboration in the true sense of the word - live and online. All of this required me to have a password. In our initial correspondence, a particular word was used which caught my collaborator's eye. He suggested I use that word as my password. Reluctantly, I agreed, but I requested that he would not generate a password which substituted number for letters in that word, 1f y0u s33 wh4t 1 m34n. So what did he go and do...? It was a bad start to our collaboration and some weeks later I withdrew from the project altogether.

Now, I'm not saying that the collaborator was wrong to do what he did. Since he seemed to work in the internet security industry, then I am sure that his actions were perfectly "natural" and in order for him, just as much as it would be for me to favour one hand over another when scratching my itchy bits. But I'm getting too old to remember passwords. Whatever steps can be taken to make the process easier for me are most welcome, whereas any steps taken which make the process more difficult for me are almost acts of provocation.

But that's just me being a curmudgeonly old 801106k5, I suppose...

Regards,


djp

Blogospherical odyssey

You may or may not know that I have a new album out. It's called RAW MESH, and if you want to stream it, you can do so here.

In the past, when I've been trying to promote an album, I used to burn up a number of CD-R copies and send them to various newspapers/magazines/radio stations/labels. This was very time-consuming for me, and, more often than not, was almost totally non-productive. I got very little response from the traditional media and the CDs most likely ended up in a wastebasket, unplayed.

Given that someone like me is most unlikely to get any kind of exposure in the traditional media, this time out I decided on a different approach. I chose to prepare an electronic press kit, comprising of the entire album in MP3 format, some jpegs and a "virtual" interview. I sent the traditional media an email with a link from which they could download a zip file containing the kit. As an alternative, I also sent them the streaming link above which you've undoubtedly already accessed. My thinking is that since the traditional media is going to ignore the album anyway, they might as well ignore it in a manner which is cost-effective to me.

But I went a step further - I found a blog from an Irish "rock" journalist and followed all the links from that blog, sending them the same email that I'd sent to the traditional media. But I went a step even further than that. Each of those links is itself a blog, so I'm now following each of the links in those blogs. To date I've sent close to 500 e-mails using this methodology, with perhaps as many again to follow. Even if I conservatively estimate the average cost of burning a CD-R. printing the packaging, buying jiffy bags for each CD and posting them at €5, I will potentially have saved myself around €5k...

...of course, the reason I say "potentially" is because I would never ordinarily have sent out 1000 promo packages to the traditional media. But I most certainly would have sent out 50 packages, so realistically I've saved myself €250. Not bad, eh?.

I think PR via blog is the way to go for me in the future. In spite of the amount of reportage the traditional media carries on downloading etc., they still insist in reviewing hard-copy albums. Since I can never raise enough sales to justify a large enough print run of CDs to justify sending a meaningful number of PR packages out, I would never have covered as much ground as I have done in the last few days alone. That's one thing I'll say in favour of the blogs. Almost invariably, they will insist that you don't send them hard-copy albums -sending them MP3s or links to download/stream MP3s is perfectly acceptable to them. And that's how I'll be able to send out around 1000 press kits to various locations around the globe by the end of this month. For as next to nowt as matters nowt. I may have to offer up the odd free MP3 here and there, but that may not necessarily be a bad thing (I never would have said that two years ago). I'm getting some small levels of feedback even at this early stage in proceedings, about as much as I normally get from the traditional media but for a fraction of the cost and time.

But one thing has struck me in my odyssey around the blogosphere - the desire to express oneself and to self-publish has never been greater, now that the means of doing so are almost readily available to anyone with cheap internet access. And everyone has something to say - not that I'd ever guessed otherwise, but when you see blog after blog expressing opinion after opinion, most of which are meaningless (and even incomprehensible) to me, it's all a bit overwhelming and unsettling. All those peoples' lives out there - it's a curious thing, but the more you see of their lives, the more you feel excluded from them - "Here's some pix of the party at Johnny's gaff last weekend - oh, sorry you weren't there - you weren't invited".

And I have never felt so old as I do now, looking at the lives of young people through their blog windows. Here's hoping I get to bed before the Ovaltine gets to my incontinence pants...

Only joking. For now...

Regards,


djp

Auto-suggestion

For the last while, I've been ploughing through a book called "Mellotron - The Machine and the Musicians that Revolutionised Rock". The book is written by a chap called Nick Awde.

If you want to know what the hell a Mellotron is, click here.

My principal reason for buying the book was because it contains an extensive interview with one of my musical heroes, Dave Gregory, the former XTC multi-instrumentalist. Apart from Dave's interview, and that given by Andy Mc.Cluskey (or Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark fame), the book is really of little interest (my personal view anyway) unless you like prog rock. And if you want to know what the hell that is, click here.

One point that is hammered home by the book is the fact that Mellotrons are heavy bastards. It is repeatedly pointed out that roadies hated touring with 'Trons. The risk of ruptured hernias and other physical injuries caused by lugging around these yokes, which seemed to weigh only marginally less than lead wardrobes, was rather high. No wonder roadies took loads of drugs - to ease the pain...

Anyway, the more I read the book, the more I noticed a throbbing feeling in my left foot. After much pondering on the matter, I have come to the conclusion that all these references to heavy 'Trons has awoken some forgotten "memory" of dropping some heavy weight on my poor foot. Possibly a piano (well, not "dropping" an entire piano - possibly tilting it over slightly to move it and then accidentally letting go of the piano), maybe a filing cabinet at work.

The thing is, I can't actually remember this happening to me, but the throbbing feeling is so real to me that it surely must've happened. Unless the whole thing has been caused by some form of auto-suggestion. Either way, it's an odd feeling. Not, perhaps, as odd as a phantom pregnancy would be, but still...

Regards,


djp

Obituary

Please read the Wikipedia obituary for Columb Farrelly.

I met him once. In fact I spent an afternoon in his company sometime around 1989/90, when I was trying to set myself up as a freelance MIDI programmer. I put an ad in the Hot Press or in one of the music shops in Dublin, offering my services. Columb saw the ad, rang me up and we agreed to meet at his house in Stoneybatter. Things didn't go terribly well, basically because I didn't have a clue what I was doing (still don't as it happens). He was very nice about it, though.

Next thing I heard about Columb was the fact that he'd written the original theme music for Fair City. After that, the Wikipedia obituary...

The only other significant thing I can think of was the fact that he'd discovered Sinéad O'Connor and put her in a group call Ton Ton Macoute. I was recording a demo in a studio in Dublin in 1988 and the studio proprietor stuck on a tape and said "Listen to this". It was a Ton Ton Macoute demo that he'd recorded in the studio. It was pretty damn good, as I recall.

That's it. My brief encounter with Columb Farrelly.

Regards,


djp

You know you're getting on in years when... (No. 1)

...you realise that you will never ever get through all the bottles of after-shave lotion in your bathroom cabinet...

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/11/2008

1. (8) - No Way Of Knowing - A. Tent
2. (-) - My Kind Of Soldier - Guided By Voices
3. (-) - A Time To Be So Small - Interpol
4. (-) - She's Alright - Phil Thornalley
5. (-) - Helicopter - Red House Painters
6. (-) - She Really Wants You (acoustic version) - Aimee Mann
7. (-) - Roger's Cheeks - The B12 Boys
8. (-) - Broken - Belly
9. (-) - What Do I Get? (Peel Session) - Buzzcocks
10. (-) - Light Of Your Love - Carlene Carter.

On a point of clarification, the reason why the A. Tent track figures so frequently in my Top 10 is because it's the very first track on my iPod, based on the artists' names alphabetically. It's not like I actually like it or anything, I mean, sheeesh...:-)

Regards,


djp

The world's a strange place, Brendan...

It certainly is...

1. The replacement for my old (now dead) iPod was delivered - twice. Mind you, the first time they sent me an 8Gb iPod Nano instead of the 120Gb iPod Classic. That had to be collected by the courier and then delivered to the lady in the Netherlands who was expecting it. Got the "proper" iPod yesterday, and it's grand. Normal service is resumed. Just expect that the Top 10 iPod tracks for this month will be, like, totally, different from last month's...
2. In renovating our new home, we had to cut off the electricity supply in order to facilitate all the building work. A few weeks ago, the builder suggested that we really needed to get the electricity supply reconnected. In the meantime, building work would be pretty much suspended on the house. We contacted the electricity company and were told that we had to submit a certificate from the electrical contractor to state that the electrical works had been carried out to a certain standard before the electricity company would consider reconnection. We checked with the builder, who told us that the cert had been submitted weeks ago. In the meantime, a van from the electricity company was seen outside the house. We checked with the electricity company later, and were told that since it had now been confirmed that the electricity meter had been moved as a result of the renovation works, this was no longer merely a reconnection - this effectively was a new installation and we would have to get a cert from the electrical contractor...not only that, but the cost of the installation would have to be paid upfront - we'd have to wait for an invoice, send a cheque and then wait for 10 working days after the cheque had cleared before the electricity company would come out to connect us to the mains. Subsequently, they relented and said that the existing cert from the electrical contractor would suffice. On Monday, I had intended to tell the builder that it was likely to take another three weeks before we'd have the lecky at the house, but pressure of work prevented me from making that call. When I got home that evening, Mrs. P told me that Younger Daughter had told her that another van from the electricity company had been seen outside the house. Later that evening, I went over to the house to see what the story was. I found the box for the electricity meter, opened it, and there it was, a brand spanking new electricity meter waiting to be connected to the mains. We still haven't received the invoice to start the process of reconnection, and yet the process is almost complete...
3. Today I got an e-mail from my ISP to say that the debit card which I use to pay my phone/internet bill had expired - 34 months ago... I was invited to update my card details online, but suspecting a possible phishing expedition, I rang my ISP to confirm the position. I was told that my card had indeed expired almost three years ago, but that the bank had kindly honoured the requests from the ISP to make deductions from my bank account. On an expired card. For three years...

What the hell is going on out there...???

Regards,


djp

Good news/bad news/good news?

Last night I went to see Munster play Glasgow Warriors at the newly-developed Thomond Park in Limerick. It was a great game - Munster won 25-17 in a tight match. The new stadium is good, although I was a little bit disappointed that the areas under the stands are just bare concrete. A lick of paint wouldn't have gone amiss.

But boy was it raining. It came down in buckets. And as a consequence, it seems as if my iPod has got waterlogged. I have it in the hot press ("airing cupboard" to my non-Irish readers) at the moment to see if it will dry out. If it doesn't (bad news), then the cash I have spent on buying a new 120 Gb iPod will not have been wasted (I was thinking of getting a bigger iPod anyway). If it does dry out (good news), then I might use the old iPod in the car.

It's not really a question of winning or losing - it's more a question of interpreting a defeat as a victory.

We'll see how things pan out...

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/10/2008

1. (-) - Camera - Wilco
2. (-) - Bruckner - Symphony No. 7 - 1 - Allegro moderato - Chicago Symphony Orchestra
3. (-) - Sunsquashed - Yo La Tengo
4. (-) - The Frozen Lake - Mental Anguish
5. (-) - The Mystery Of Twilight Part 1 (live) - Jah Wobble's Solaris
6. (-) - Kluba Cupol - Cupol
7. (1) - Better Things - The Kinks
8. (2) - No Way Of Knowing - A. Tent
9. (3) - From Me To You - The Beatles
10. (4) - The Ballad Of John & Yoko - The Beatles

Regards,


djp

Ssssh...it happens

Yesterday afternoon was wonderful for me, my friends, just one damn thing after another:-

1. So the weather finally stays good enough for long enough for me to decide to cut the lawns (front and back). It's been about a month since I cut them last, so things were starting to get a little bit out of hands, herb-wise. Having spent an hour or so pushing my decrepit old lawnmower around, I finished up and went to put the mower back in the garage...only to find that the garage door wouldn't close properly. The left and right sides of the door didn't seem to be on the same page of the script, to the effect that the left-side would go down half-way, but the right-side wouldn't budge, ergo the garage door was starting to twist. An hour spent pulling and dragging only lead to the roller on the left-side popping out of its track. Repeated belts of the roller with a lump hammer lead to the flattening of part of the track. I tried to cut and bend that part of the track, but to no avail. I even tried to unscrew the track from the wall - the top screw was seized tight. By the time I finally got the roller on the left-side sorted, the roller on the right popped out of its track. I then realised that the strut supporting the right-side of the door seemed to be seized. By this stage, my priority was to get some way of covering up the opening to the garage (not that there's anything worth stealing - it's the principle of the thing, y'know). But since the door was not budging and was also quite twisted - beyond repair, I should imagine - I took the decisive step of cutting the door away from its supporting struts and allowing it to stand freely at the opening, being "held in place" by reversing my new van into the opening (I knew I'd find a use for it). I'm guessing a replacement door is going to cost a few thousand euro, but what can I do? I have to have a garage door...
2. Then last night, having got a fill of home heating oil, I followed the standard procedure of bleeding the system at the pump. This involves loosening a nut at the base of the bump and running it, so that some of the oil spills out but clears any airlocks in the pipeline. Only there was no oil spillage - I'm guessing there is dirt somewhere at the outlet of the oil tank. And that's way beyond my ability as a DIY-er. Boiler Guy is due on Tuesday a.m.
   
3. And then to top it all, while mowing the lawn, I got stung by a nettle for the first time in about thirty years. It didn't hurt as much as it used to in the old days - I've obviously acquired a thick skin somewhere along the line, but it's the principle of the thing - guys my age shouldn't get stung by nettles, that's kids stuff

Who'd be me, eh...?:-)

Regards,


djp

Van gone, van got...

After over 8 years of ownership and some 10,000 (vaguely) fun-filled miles, I finally traded in my old 1993 VW Transporter. Although mechanically in pretty good nick, it has just failed its DOE roadworthiness test. Without its roadworthiness cert., I can't tax it and the cost of sorting it out would be more than the van itself is worth. So, somewhat regretfully, I've traded it in for...


...this 1998 Toyota Hiace. It won't win any concourse competitions, but it's just the thing for whatever the hell it is I need it for - whatever that is...:-)

N.B., note Korky getting in on the act. That damn cat.

Regards,


djp

Critter Cadaver No. 4 - dead pigeon

"Coo, e's big, innee?"

Some more of Panther's handiwork, I reckon.

This chap was so big that I couldn't pick him up with my garden grabber (a very useful item if, like me, you have to dispose of dead critters from the back garden), so I had to use a spade to pick him up and lob him into the ditch at the back of the house.

I'm surprised that the pigeons haven't been hit before. There are at least two pigeons which have been knocking around our place for the last few years, and I've often thought they'd be fair game (pun intended). Panther eventually came to the same conclusion - well I never said he was the sharpest chisel in the toolbox...

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/09/2008

1. (-) - Better Things - The Kinks
2. (9) - No Way Of Knowing - A. Tent
3. (-) - From Me To You - The Beatles
4. (-) - The Ballad Of John & Yoko - The Beatles
5. (1) - Easter Parade - The Blue Nile
6. (2) - Do It - Buzzcocks
7. (3) - I'm Afraid - The Cardboard Lung
8. (-) - The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver - Elbow
9. (4) - One Day Like This - Elbow
10. (-) - Michael - Franz Ferdinand

Regards,


djp

Technology be damned...

Had a devilish time this morning trying to program a MIDI file for eventual conversion to audio. My PC "doesn't like" Cubase very much (my new laptop fairly likewise), and it has a tendency to add a certain element of "latency" when trying to play MIDI on a keyboard, so I use a free program called MIDI Maestro which is great for programming (no latency) but is lousy for editing. I program using MIDI Maestro on the PC and then copy across to the laptop to edit in Cubase and THEN copy it back to the PC to "play" using MIDI Maestro. I record the resulting audio on my laptop using Cool Edit Pro. Left, right, left, right...

Well, that's the plan anyway...the new laptop has Windows Vista, which doesn't much like DVDs burnt on my PC using Nero Express. And vice versa - the PC can't seem to read DVDs burnt on the laptop under Vista. After about 30 minutes trying to transfer the files physically, I gave up and sent myself an e-mail from the laptop to the PC, attaching the edited MIDI file.

That worked fine, except that when I went to record the resulting audio, my laptop didn't like my audio interface, even though I'd used it a few weeks ago in Castleisland. After much cursing, swearing, plugging/unplugging the interface, starting up/shutting down Cool Edit and eventually re-booting the laptop, I ended up having to re-install the drivers for the interface. That worked in the end and I got all my work done.

The laptop was supposed to solve a number of my technical problems. Not so sure now that it's all going to be a happy relationship - however, I suspect that the real culprit here is Windows Vista rather than the laptop itself...

Regards,


djp

Well, Derrick, water you know?

Came back from a wee shopping trip up in Kildare today and found this little beauty in the space in front of the bungalow we are renovating...

We're installing a geothermal heating system and that involves drilling a deep hole - deep enough to encounter a source of warm, subterranean water. Here's hoping they drill deep enough to find oil, but not deep enough to find magma...:-)

Regards,


djp

Cat-egory

Korky's little secret is out - he, sir, is a "she", sir...:-)

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/08/2008

1. (5) - Easter Parade - The Blue Nile
2. (-) - Do It - Buzzcocks
3. (1) - I'm Afraid - The Cardboard Lung
4. (-) - One Day Like This - Elbow
5. (-) - The Greatest Show On Earth - JP Den Tex
6. (-) - Living On A Thin Line - The Kinks
7. (2) - Ben Kenobi's Theme - Patrick Gleeson
8. (3) - Lullaby - Pugwash & Friends
9. (-) - No Way Of Knowing - A. Tent
10. (4) - Le Soleil Est Pres De Moi - Air

Regards,


djp

The best rock album in the world...ever

As of this moment, that accolade belongs to the 2 CD Deluxe Edition of "Live At Leeds" by the Who.

You can pick up the single CD version handily enough, and it's a brilliant album in its own right. There isn't a duff track on it and the standout track has to be the live version of "A Quick One". Truly awesome. Four artists, three musicians, a righteous racket.

But if you want to do yourself a favour, seek out the 2 CD version, which includes a complete live performance of "Tommy". It takes the album to a whole new dimension of brilliance. Really.

Regards,


djp

Quill legs

(N.B. - not "quail eggs"...)

Yesterday, I was down in Castleisland to visit my cousin Redmond Roche. We had a jam session and recorded some (very) rough pieces of music. It was great crack...

...but as I spent about seven hours either standing up playing the bass or crouching on the floor trying to sort out various issues of a sound engineering nature (as in "where does that lead go to?", "where's that buzzing sound coming from?" or "why is nothing working?"), I woke up this morning back in Nenagh, suffering from a bad case of quill legs.

Quill legs is a phenomenon which is not unique to Nenagh, but which is suffered by a significant number of people, mostly men, from the town. The Quill is a famous pub in Nenagh and has been the location for many memorable work booze-ups over the years. These usually involved five or six hours of drinking beer, talking shite and...standing. The following day, one would wake up with a thumping headache, caused in part by the volume of alcohol consumed the night before and also (in the "good old days") by active and passive smoking. And of course, one would suffer from very stiff legs and derriere from all the standing. Quill legs.

Regards,


djp

Pigeon defaecetive

We were up in Galway yesterday, helping Elder Daughter buy a gown for her grad dance (I was helping by doing the driving and getting the hell out of the way).

I spent a nice hour sitting on the ground by the banks of the Corrib with my iPod on. The weather was nice and the banks were crowded with lots of young people. Afterwards, I wandered the streets enjoying the summer throngs - people sitting out in the fine weather eating or drinking coffee (or pints of stout).

Eventually, I decided to contact the other members of the gown-buying party. I stepped out of the throng and stood in front of a shop window. I was just in the process of sending Elder Daughter a text when I felt something warm, soft and squishy hit my left hand. I looked down and saw a glob of slimy mucus oozing down the back of my hand. I looked up and saw a pigeon turning his backside to me. Yes folks, I'd gotten a little "billet doux" from the bastard. It was a pretty good shot, I have to say. If I'd been him I'd've been rather proud of my accuracy.

I spent the next five minutes pushing through the mob, trying to find a newsagents where I could buy a bottle of water to wash my poor handie. I had to be careful not to proffer my money using my left hand - God know what the shop assistant would have thought if she'd seen the pigeon poo...

Of course, we all had a good laugh about it afterwards, but some laughed more than others.

Regards,


djp

Lads, in the name of Jaysus will ye get a life?

Click here and marvel at the capacity of humans to argue about non-essential issues...:-)

Regards,


djp

What's new with me?

Oh, some stuff...

1. We were in the UK for a few days at the end of June. Quite enjoyable, although the weather wasn't great. Some pics of Chester and Liverpool. Chester is a beautiful place - very laid back - I could imagine that if I stayed more than a week I'd turn completely mellow. Liverpool, on the other hand, is a bit of a kip, apart from the Albert Docks area. Sorry, Liverpool fans...
2. Elder Daughter turned 18 a few weeks ago. I am not allowed to post any pics (actually, I haven't asked for permission, but I know what reaction I'd get...). We had a nice meal out in the Peppermill in Nenagh. Gettin' ould, boy...
3. Got two bad soakings a couple of weeks ago and finally succumbed to a bad head cold last week. Just in time for a wedding last Saturday. I don't enjoy weddings much, but this one would've been OK if I hadn't been wearing the internal balaclava. I'm just getting over the cold now. Took a lot out of me.
4. My laptop has finally bought it. Or to be more precise, the adaptor isn't working anymore. Or to be even more precise, it was working this morning, but it ain't now. And the laptop's battery has fully discharged and can't now be recharged. And I've got some valuable data on the laptop's hard drive that I can't extract. I could get a replacement charger, but since I was going to be replacing the laptop in a few months, I thought I'd go the whole hog and get a new laptop now. I'm just as unlikely to be able to afford it in the future as I am right now (possibly even more so...) so what the hey? We got a laptop for Elder Daughter's birthday, so I'm getting an identical one from the same source.
5. Oh, and say hello to the new arrival in the family - Korky

He's quite a handful, and Panther and Poppy are having a touch time dealing with his youthful energy and exuberance. But hey, life goes on, dunnit? I suspect that Korky might have had something to do with the death of the laptop's adaptor. He seems to like cables of all sorts...:-)

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/07/2008

1. (1) - I'm Afraid - The Cardboard Lung
2. (2) - Ben Kenobi's Theme - Patrick Gleeson
3. (-) - Lullaby - Pugwash & Friends
4. (5) - Le Soleil Est Pres de Moi - Air
5. (-) - Easter Parade - The Blue Nile
6. (-) - So Much Love - Dusty Springfield
7. (10) - Grounds For Divorce - Elbow
8. (-) - The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver - Elbow
9. (3) - Wrong Turnings - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
10. (-) - These Winds - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

Regards,


djp

New Year's Resolutions - UPDATE

Shur, why not?:-

1. To eat sushi for the first time - UPDATE - nearly managed it a few weeks ago when we were in Dublin for the Springsteen concert, only the sushi bar in the Dundrum Town Centre just seems to open for lunch
   
2. To get to see Arsenal play at least once this year - UPDATE - I'm booked to see the Gunners play Juventus as part of the Emirates Cup in early August (if I live that long...)
   
3. To visit a country I've never been to before (this one is looking good...) - UPDATE - sorted - the Czech Republic and Poland have been ticked off the list so far, and there is a slight possibility that Slovenia might be on the cards towards the end of the year.
   
4. To start cycling again as soon as the weather improves (this one is not looking good...) - UPDATE - I have gone cycling on a number of occasions in recent times, but not nearly as much as I should have. Still, it's some form of progress, innit?
   
5. To generally get the oul' bod a bit more together - UPDATE - see 4 above. And I have one or two other plans that might (or mightn't) work.
   
6. To move house - UPDATE - looking more like Christmas to be fair, but there has been a sudden surge in activity over the last few weeks. Who knows, eh?
   
7. To either change my car or keep it for longer - UPDATE - so far, it's looking like I'm keeping it, so, result...
   
8. To have a better year at work than I had last year (which wasn't bad, but had its "moments") - UPDATE - this year has been very good on the travel front and not so bad on other fronts, so I can't really complain too much
   
9. To see friends more - UPDATE - met Peter Fitz in Warsaw (how cool was that?) and my mate Jerry Kelliher the week before in Dublin. And I'm going to the Electric Picnic in September with my cousin Redmond, so I'm doing well here...
   
10. To stop wrecking me own head - UPDATE - well, 8 out of 10 ain't bad...

Regards,


djp

"I saw a saw sawing wood in Warsaw..."

Got back from Poland yesterday. Tired after a very busy, but very enjoyable, few days business.

Click here to see a few photos.

Warsaw looks rather like Prague in many ways. It certainly could do with a few bob being spent on it, but it is still rather attractive. One advantage Warsaw has over Prague is the fact that it is less afflicted by tourists, especially in the Stare Miesto area (Old Town to you (and me...)). However, there is a significant problem with poor service in restaurants and an unfortunate tendency to short-change tourists...

...oh, and for some bizarre reason, you can't buy postcards from the usual magazine/tobacco kiosks. Dunno why.

The best part of the trip was the fact that I met my old sparring partner Peter Fitzpatrick (he of the Pushing & Pulling blogsite) who was over from Dublin on business. I haven't met him in years. The occasion was so auspicious that it has been recorded for posterity (Peter's on the right...)

Would I go back to Warsaw. Certainly.

Regards,


djp