Don’t you just love Bank Holiday weekends? Or whatever your particular version of them are. I know I do. And even more when it means that I only have a three day working week as I’m off on Friday too. Yay for half-arsed working weeks.

Most of yesterday was a lovely day, weatherwise. Sunshine, warmth, a nice August day. But as I walked past the cinema on my way home from town, I felt a few drops of rain, and, just after I got home, I heard the first roll of thunder and next thing you know it was lashing. cats and dogs weren’t even in it. Good timing on my part.

Anyway, enough about the weather, I’ve been tagged for the first time in ages, Alan wants me to reveal the Soundtrack to my life. Hmmmm.

1. In 1983/84 I was4/5, so I may not have seen the video to Michael Jackson’sThriller but I do remember the next-door neighbour hiding behind the couch.
2. B #1, being older, was more into music at the time, so we’d listen to his tape collection. Hits 5 was a favourite. You Can Call Me Al, Don’t Get Me Wrong, Thorn In My Side, and True Colours are the ones that stand out in my memory.
3. Alan mentioned Lady in Red over on his site, but I have to list it too, that was the song of the year. My cousin, and many many others, dressed up as the Lady for a fancy dress competition.
4. I’ve mentioned him before, that’s right, ladies and gentlemen^[1] it is Johnny Logan and Hold Me Now from 1987. I was 8. It was great.
5. Madonna’s Like A Prayer was also huge, mainly because it got banned. How cool was that?
6. In 1988 the song everyone was listening to was Kylie Minogue’s I Should Be So Lucky. And of course who could possibly forget her The Loco-Motion and the duet with Jason Donovan Especially for You No more dreaming about tomorrow, forget the loneliness and the sorrow classic.
7. Black Box’s Ride on Time, that song was at number one forever. Or so it seemed at the time.
8. In the early 90’s it was all about the New Kids on the Block. I think that their Hangin’ Tough was probably the first album I ever bought.
9. The year I went to the Gaeltacht Shaggy’s Oh Carolina was huge. Oh, and No Limit by Two Unlimited.<
10. In secondary school the big debate was, as Father Damo^[2] once asked “Blur or Oasis”. Personally I wasn’t big into either. But I thought Oasis had better music, but Blur had better personalities. Let’s go with Wonderwall, just because.
11. While I was at college in Galway I started listening to Ben Christophers. Bit fan of My Beautiful Demon. That was also when I first started listening to Dead Can Dance.
12. Listening to Snow Patrol or Keane will bring back memories of exams. Library exams. How boring, but that is what I listened to when I should have been studying.
13. At the moment I’m mostly listening to Bill Callahan, otherwise known as Smog. But I’ve also been listening to Declan O’Rourke, Martha Wainwright, Thea Gilmore, and the soundtracks to various films.

Almost forgot, I’m supposed to tag people, well I wouldn’t want anyone to feel left out, so you’re ALL it.

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Title is from Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5, because I amn’t Tags: 2 Unlimited, B#1, Bank Holiday, Beautiful Demon, Ben Christophers, Bill Callahan, Black Box, Declan O'Rourke, Don’t Get Me Wrong, Fr. Damo, Hangin' Tough, Hold Me Now, I should be so lucky, Johnny Logan, Keane, Kylie Minogue, Lady in Red, Like a prayer, Madonna, Martha Wainwright, meme, Michael Jackson, New Kids on the Block, No Limit, Oasis, off work, Oh Carolina, Ride on Time, Shaggy, Smog, Snow Patrol, Soundtrack to my Life, Thorn In My Side, thriller, True Colours, Wonderwall, You Can Call Me Al

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So the voting is over, and the counting is over, and bloody FF got in again^[1] Friday morning was not a good time to be around de mudder as the meeja were all saying that FF would get in with an overall majority.

Luckily that turned out to be not the case, they’ll still need someone’s help, maybe Labour, maybe the Greens. Who knows.

B #1 voted FF. But everyone else in de family went for the others, and wasn’t there much rejoicing^[2] when Michael McDowell wasn’t elected.

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Remember when I may possibly have aided and abetted a mouse murder?^[3] Well on Sunday I may have done enough to redress the balance. Whiney cat came racing towards the house, pursued by two thrushes and carrying a third in his mouth. We’d've ignored the drama outside but then spotted that thrush #3 was still alive. A wee baby bird. Well, not too much of a baby, it had feathers and could flutter a little. So I nabbed the cat and brought him inside while we waited to see if the parents would return. Whiney cat was not at all impressed by this development, and he wanted everyone in the world to know. Whiney doesn’t even come into it, he moaned and demanded to be let out for half an hour, running from one window to the the next and then to the door.

Eventually, as we couldn’t spot the bird we let him out. Can you guess what happened next? Yeah, he caught it again, and once more dragged it towards the house, again being chased by the parentals. So we said we’d give it one more chance. And put up with the non-stop griping from the cat. It may have worked this second time as there was no sign of the bird after that, and on his next trip outside there was plenty of searching but no finding.

Course, one of the neighbouring cats could have got the bird either. But you know, I think we deserve marks for effort.

The cat has now also been collared and belled. Though what difference that’ll make is hard to say.

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Oh, and I’ve also installed a plugin thingy that’ll publish these posts across on the livejournal as well. Because, sure I might as well.

Tags: B#1, cats, election2007, Fianna Fáil, Irish politics, mouse murder, politics, whiney cat

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Not too long ago, a certain someone left a comment asking about why my various brothers should never, ever be left with anything vaguely resembling explosives.

My quick answer would be, have you met my brothers, but then just as quickly you all would say No. No we haven’t^[1]

I’m not sure how the conversation began, I was in the pub teaching de gasur^[2] all about the flashy lights of pub quiz games. But when I came out B#2 was reminiscing about the time he gotten a tube of some pipe or other, and filled it with the heads of thousands of matches, as well as some other form of explosive. To which [tag]B#1[/tag] commented, “That’s a pipe-bomb.” B#2 nodded, as though it is the most natural thing in the world.

And of course once the stories of explosives began they had to continue. B#1 has gotten some sort of souvenir from an uncle. He had served in the Lebannon^[3] and had brought back some presents. As you do, you know the sort of thing I’m talking about. Amour-piercing shells^[4] and the like. It’s still around, although at one stage B#1 was going to take it apart. For once sense seems to have intervened and he didn’t.

Then there were the stories about the potassium. And how easy it was to remove from chemistry class, and how he wondered exactly what’d happen if he threw it in a puddle. And how a first year came out just as the water began to fizz, and jumped over the puddle just in time. Not to mention the neat trick of getting repeating banger type things^[5] and sticking them in someone’s schoolbag to watch them hop about as they tried to escape.

And those bangers prompted B#4 to recall the time he and the cronies had rolled up 100^[6] of these repeaters and stuck ‘em in a tube to see what would happen^[7]

Remember Homer Simpson and the hose incident “Hmm, it doesn’t seem to be working. I’ll just raise the pipe to my eye -” Yup. That is exactly what the ever so smart B#4 did. Luckily enough it was after he had taken a glance and then left the pipe down again that the last of the bangers exploded.

Such a surprise, as he was never a pyro as a kid, and never ever used to light almost every match in the box just because. Or have fun putting his finger through the flame, or messing with aerosols and flame^[8] And then of course he had the story of how, when setting off some fireworks, decided to light one in his hand. All was going well. Fuse lit, he was looking away so it wouldn’t blind him, and he let go. Only then he heard something funny. The firework had gotten caught in his sleeve and was still hanging there, by his hand.

How on earth he still has his hand I don’t quite know.

So B#1 comes back with his story is sitting in the back of class one day, scraping the gunpowder out of a shell^[9] So, the busy little bee is using a metal something-or-other^[10] to scrape out the [tag]gunpowder[/tag]. Has almost all of it out when oops, scraped a litte too hard and bang! Cloud of smoke over his head.

B#5 had no stories to share. A point that B#4 was keen to point out. Saying that the younger generation of locals^[11] are too into their sport to drink and mess about.

My brothers, suspended? Never. All as good as gold they were.

Tags: B#1, B#2, B#4, de brothers, de gasúr, explosions, Lebannon

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What does one wear to a baptism? Cause that is where I am now^[1] at B#1’s kid’s christening^[2] and not only are clothes an issue, but also gifts. What does one buy a 3 month old baby? Not like he’s going to remember is he? And seeing as I’m to be godmother there’ll be plenty of time for future purchases.

I suppose I could name a star for the baby, but wouldn’t it be a lot easier to name a baby for a star? Or a constallation^[3]

B#1 is 3 years or so older than me^[4] and when we were kids he was definitely the leader of our little gang. This is when we lived in Dublin and hung around the estate and park. There was B#1, B#2, the boy next door, the boy across the street, and boy around the corner and me. Yes, being surrounded by brothers I was a bit of a tom-boy. And as the oldest B#1 was responsible for all our entertainment whether that was climbing on shed roofs^[5] messing about, or invading the nearby building site^[6] He was also responsible for the yellow reg game. We used to travel between Dublin & Sligo quite a bit, and being squashed in a car for over three hours mean you need to play games. Or read books. Anyone else play yellow reg? Back in the day^[7] the only yellow license plates were those furrin English ones. So not a whole lot of them around. When you spotted one you’d thump the person next to you saying “Yellow reg, touch my foot” and then touch your foot, meaning they couldn’t hit you back. Course B#1 figured out before all of us that any car that had a single letter, then some numbers and then more letters^[8] was a British car, and so would have a yellow rear plate. I’m not sure why they didn’t/don’t have them at the front, but they didn’t. So obviously once he learned this he got really good at spotting yellow regs.

Anyways, despite the fact that none of the family read, or know about the blog^[9] this is to congratulate B#1 on the birth of his son.

Tags: B#1, Baptism, childhood, christening, de gasúr, nostalgia

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Got a text message a while ago, Brother #1’s girlfriend has gone in to hospital, looks like I’ll be an aunt fairly soon. The parents were en route from Tip when I rang^[1] and will let me know whats going on.

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NM stayed over for the weekend, but after she headed off today I wandered into town^[2] and purchased things. My excuse, I got some HMV vouchers and so must avail of their spend over 35 quid and get a fiver off. I did buy

• Declan O’Rourke - Since Kyabram
• Martha Wainwright - Martha Wainwright: Special Edition
• The Breakfast Club ^[3]
• Constantine
• This is Spinal Tap ^[4]

and yesterday I did buy some secondhand books:

• Dancer by Colum McCann a novel about Nureyev
• According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge

Tags: B#1, nothingness, shopping

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So, how did we all get over the christmas and the new year then?
I’ll give you a very brief recap. Went home on christmas eve’s eve, loaded down with presents. Dumped them under the tree and then dumped myself in front of the telly

Went to midnight mass on Christmas eve, only it wasn’t midnight it was at seven, but for some reason it is still called midnight mass. Reasons anyone? Twas very boring, our priest is like that priest on Father Ted with the world’s most boring voice. Only occasionally his Sligo accent will be erased by his Italian accent (He lived there for many years before returning to Ireland). I also got to see the new crib. It came all the way from Italy, and I think may have been designed to bling up the church.

You know the way a normal crib has Mary, Joeseph, some kid in a manger, maybe a few shepherds and a couple of farm animals? Well, this one already had the three kings kneeling in the straw, they are still on their way! Plus maybe five billion shepards^[1] a couple of hooker-looking goose-girls, a whole flock of sheep, a camel in the middle of the stable^[2] and bright and shining angels thrown around for good luck. Plus Mary was blonde. Whats up with that?

Ah well, enough with the boringness of religious ceremony, and on to the pressies. Have to say my gift of the shocking tanks went down a treat with the boys. Not only did brothers #4 & #5 give each other electric shocks, they also crept in on sleeping brothers^[3] #2 & #3 and shocked them awake. Or at least semi-conscious. See you get two remote control tanks, and you fire at each other with laser-type thingies, and when your tank gets shot you get an electric shock through the handset. Fun times! Just like when you used to touch electric fences as a kid for the little kick^[4] And when you lose by getting shot five times you get an extra long shock. Brother #4 was hi-larious, every time he got shocked he’d do this little kick out with his left foot. Every home should have a set of shocking tanks I tell you.

As usual the sister got covered in presents, but her main one from Santa was one that everyone else enjoyed. A keyboard which lit up as the keys were played, but which would also light up the keys so you could play various tunes and so learn them. Everyone had a go.

I got my printer, which we later tried out and yes, it does work, but was too much hassle to try and fit into my bag so the parentals should be visiting various peoples in Dublin in a short while, and I’ll get it from them then.

I didn’t bother getting up to see the Stephen’s Day Hunt this year. Once in a while I’ll pop up to the crossroads to take a look, but wasn’t in the mood this year. I did hear that numbers were very high, so I’m thinking that maybe a few relatives from the UK were over this year?

Which leads me on to Stephen’s Night out. And horror of horrors, the Garavogue^[5] has been renamed, now it is called The Left Bank, which I don’t like. Still went there though. Arrived at 7.30, and got home some time around 5. Thats all I’m saying, oh, that and vodka!

I also managed to take the dog (Can you spot him in the pic over on the right?) out every day I was home. Which was great as he really is getting too fat. The ickle puppy must be 5 at this stage, getting auld so he is. And that leads me neatly on to the latest pointless quiz I’ve taken:

DOG - Your daemon may be a dog if you are loyal and
caring, and like to know what is expected of
you. You probably are very family oriented, and
have a small group of friends that you are very
close to, rather than a large group of
acquaintances. You dislike confrontation, but
you will stand up and fight for the people and
issues that you really care about. You may
prefer someone else to take the lead in a
situation, although you would rather take the
lead yourself than have the situation fall
apart. You probably enjoy routine and order,
but that doesn’t mean you don’t like to have
fun. If anything, your friends probably know
you for getting intense, child-like pleasure in
the small things in life.

What Is Your Daemon?
brought to you by Quizilla Found Via Diamond’s LJ

Tags: B#1, B#2, B#3, B#4, B#5, Christmas, De Sister, mass, slight exaggeration

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