Hilary R.I.P.

Sad to note the passing of Hilary, my Garmin GPS.

I accidentally dropped her on her head Thursday evening, and although she had been seeing stars afterwards, she was unable to acquire satellites. And a GPS which cannot acquire satellites is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard/ashtray on a motorbike/tits on a bull.

Being the sentimental type of fellow that I am, Hilary has already been replaced. But since we haven't yet decided on the new GPS' gender, it will remain unnamed for now. Selena looks like a runner, however.

Regards,


djp

And the ringtone for June 2010 is...

..."The City Is Here For You To Use" from the Futureheads' brilliant eponymous debut album. Yowza!

BTW, I forgot to mention that the ringtone for May 2010 waas "Leisure" from XTC's 1982 album ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. Caused a few funny looks around my house and no mistake...

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 010610

1. (-) - Daddy (Aaron Warren Remix) - I.U.D.
2. (-) - Satellite - 2020 Soundsystem
3. (-) - It's Coming Down - Cake
4. (-) - All Ones And Zeroes - The Early Years
5. (-) - Starling - La Strada
6. (-) - A Woman In Winter - The Skids
7. (-) - Python Snake Man - Zilch Fletcher From The Ninth Dimension
8. (-) - Black Bible Night - C.R. Avery
9. (-) - Lights - Editors
10. (-) - Blood - Editors

Regards,

djp

Critter cadaver update...

The latest instalment in Panther's one-cat killing spree...

I don't like it when he kills birds, but it's an instinct thing, so what can one do in the face of nature?

Regards,


djp

...just sayin'...

...it's been over a year since I played anything on Last.fm. There's just so much stuff up on the net and it's impossible to keep up with it all...

...so I don't!

That puts me in control of the situation, I reckon...:-)

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 010510

1. (-) - Do What You Wanna Do - Acid House Kings
2. (-) - Halluzination Guillotine - Amon Duul 2
3. (10) - Gulp A Sonata - Amon Duul 2
4. (-) - Flesh-Coloured Anti-Aircraft Alarm - Amon Duul 2
5. (-) - Spooks In Space (Luke Howard & Felix Dickinson Filthy & Foolish Edit) - Aural Exciters
6. (-) - Talk - Coldplay
7. (-) - My Imaginary Friend - The Divine Comedy
8. (-) - Fine For Now - Grizzly Bear
9. (-) - Cheerleader - Grizzly Bear
10. (-) - Something I Learned Today - Husker Du

Regards,

djp

The end of the line for the Sun Goddess...

Had to do a very sad thing today. Poor old Poppy, our tabby cat who was at least 10 years old (we've had her five years and she seemed ancient when we got her), finally reached the point in her life where her medical condition had deteriorated quite badly. She'd become anaemic and dehydrated and had lost control of her hind legs.

There was really only one thing left to do - take her to the vet for "last orders". The vet examined her, suggested that her kidneys had failed and agreed that she had to be put to sleep. It was all over very quickly - 5 seconds after her injection and she was gone for good. Just come back from burying her in the back garden of our old house. All a bit teary, to be truthful.

Poppy had been a fat and ungainly cat, and while she was affectionate, she had a very strange way of showing it - it was a toss-up between which was her most unpleasant attribute when she sat on one's lap - the painful digging-in of claws or the hairs she'd shed on one's trews. And while she would definitely get into the litter tray in order to do her business, her butt hole was invariably pointed over the edge of the litter tray and onto the floor...

...oh, and she couldn't move more than five yards without stopping to scratch herself...

...but we loved her anyway.

The move to our new house didn't go terribly well for Poppy. She kept returning to the old house and I kept having to go over there and fetch her back. After about five days, she finally copped that all the food was in the new house and not the old one. I recall one particularly amusing moment last Christmas where I went over with the car to bring her home. She insisted on sitting upright on my lap while I drove, her head peering proudly through the driver's door window. I gave some old geezer a shock as I turned out of the old estate - all he could see was a middle-aged man and an elderly cat driving a car (it was actually funnier than how I've just described it - you really had to have been there).

She seemed eventually to have adjusted to her new digs, but over the last month she got noticeably thinner and slower. She'd even stopped yowling (and believe me, she could've yowled for Ireland). The really scary thing was the staggering - her hind legs were not operating in co-ordination with her forelegs. In the last few days, she fell over quite a lot, and today, when I attempted to feed her, poor puss just fell over on her side. And that was the end, as far as I was concerned. Even today, she was still quite alert, so while she way not have been in pain per se, one would imagine that if she were human, she'd've known that all was not quite well with her.

This afternoon, at work, I decided to call the vet to see if I could make an appointment. 5.30 was agreed as H-Hour.

In case you're wondering where the term Sun Goddess came from, I gave her that nickname a few years ago. There was nothing Poppy liked better than to roll around on her back on a hot sunny day, toasting her fat belly, a big silly feline grin on her face. True to form, when I came home this evening to take her to the vet, she was sitting on the front doorstep, enjoying her last rays of sunshine (not that she was to know that).

Ah, fuck it anyway...

Here she is in happier times:-

Regards,

djp

Powerwashing...

...is probably one of the more tedious domestic chores that one has to undertake, but it does have its lighter moments...

Regards,

djp

What WERE they thinking...? (part two)

Ladeez and gennelmen, I bring you the Vanden Plas 1100 (or perhaps the Vanden Plas 1300 - hard to tell from a distance).

Information on this "classic" BMC model from the 1960s can be found here

Regards,


djp

As seen on TV...

...so last night, I was at the Munster v Leinster Magners League match in Thomond Park. Don't believe me? Well, then...

Good job I wasn't on a sickie (or misbehaving in any other form...).

Pictures courtesy of Setanta Sports, BTW...

Regards,


djp

And the ringtone for April 2010 is...

...the album version of "Club Country" from the Associates' 1982 album SULK. Insane music - insane singing. Most enjoyable!

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 010410

1. (2) - Natty Dread Time Dub - Queen Tiney & The Aggrovators
2. (6) - Pop Art Blue - Zero 7
3. (9) - Baader Meinhof - Baader Meinhof
4. (-) - I've Waited Ages - Colin Newman
5. (-) - and Jury - Colin Newman
6. (-) - Seconds To Last - Colin Newman
7. (-) - Bass Trap - U2
8. (4) - Cyn'd DC - For David Cortner : In Memory of Arthur Lee...- Z'ev
9. (5) - Everything Up (Zizou) (Mock 'n' Toof Remix) - Zero 7
10. (7) - Gulp A Sonata - Amon Duul 2

Regards,

djp

Mayo/Galway 2010

Various pics from around Westport, Achill Island and Killary Harbour. Enjoy...

Regards,


djp

What a day...

I'd had my day planned nicely - spend the morning in my studio and then go to the dump - sorry "civic amenity" - in the afternoon to empty my wheely-bin (scheduled collection was on St. Patrick's Day, and we hadn't checked that in light of the public holiday, the collection was due to take place last Saturday). Even when Mrs. P asked me to post a letter for her, I thought to myself that I could accommodate that request fairly handily in my day.

Halfway through my studio session, it suddenly occurred to me that I had to take Mrs P's Yaris for its NCT in the afternoon. I needed to get the car's registration certificate for the test - a trip back to the old gaff was called for. The test taking place in the afternoon scuppered the idea of going to the dump after lunch. So I decided there and then to go to the dump right away and swing by the old house on the way back. I knew exactly where the cert would be...

...except that when I eventually got back to the house, I couldn't find the damn cert. I searched high up and, indeed, low down. I searched the "obvious" places it should be and the "obvious" places where it might be if it wasn't where it should be. No dice. So I was faced with the prospect of cancelling the test (and suffering a cancellation fee) and then the hassle of replacing the cert.

Got back to the new house tired and very cross and rang the NCT to see about cancelling the test. When I told them I was cancelling because I'd lost the cert, they said that the test could be carried out anyway but that I'd be asked to present the replacement cert within 30 days. Excellent. Then I rang the Department of Transport office in Shannon which issues the certs in the first place and they said all I had to do was go to my local motor tax office, get a particular form from the office, complete it and get it stamped by les flics and then send it off to Shannon (with a small fee). The replacement cert would issue within a "few days".

Feeling much better about things, I presented the car for its test (after giving it a hard - but totally legal - run up the M7) and it passed with flying colours. And the gas thing is that the guys at the NCT never asked me to present my cert within 30 days.

Everything worked out well (I even got to post Mrs. P's letter), but I could've done without all the sturm und drang...

Regards,


djp

What WERE they thinking...?

And speaking of things you don't see every day, I offer for your delight and enjoyment an Austin Maxi.

The history of the Austin Maxi can be found here. Go on, you know you want one...:-)

Regards,

djp

Critter cadaver update

Now, here's something you don't see every day. A dead rabbit in an urban gutter. Possibly a family pet. Sad really...

Regards,

djp

40 shades of green? I DON'T think so...

The recent harsh winter we've had here has played merry hell with the grass, as can be seen from these pics:-

So next week, when our international friends are dyeing their rivers green and trying to be more Irish then the Irish themselves, they might like to take note of how conditions actually are back in the "Old Country".

Regards,

djp

The doors...

I've been trying to flog a few doors on bendunne.com this last while. And the only responses I'm getting are variations of the old e-mail "send me your details" rip-off scam. People, eh? Should be a day in the week for shooting them - and in parts of West Dublin there are...

Regards,


djp

I know people who'd pay good money to see that...

The circus is in town and one of their posters advertises a "perch act". Really? Circus tricks performed by freshwater fish belonging to the family Percidae? What do they do? Swim through fiery hoops? A tightrope act without nets? A fish knife throwing act?

How would you rate that on a scale of 1 to 10?

Fin,

djp

And the ringtone for March 2010 is...

..."Chain Of Command" from the CD version of XTC's 1979 album, DRUMS & WIRES. Ace stuff...!

Regards,


djp