I’m back. But first to business, Sun marked week 174 of Luna Nina’s Unconscious Mutterings and she said

1. Fraud ::
2. Cure ::
3. Slate ::
4. Pretentious ::
5. Splendid ::
6. Geek ::
7. Blister ::
8. Pizza ::
9. Revive ::
10. Visionary ::

mine are under the cut.

So how has everyone’s week been? Have to say my timing was fantastic because for all of my week off we’ve had sunny weather. And no rain. Actually that is a lie. I distinctly remember bringing the same load of washing in off the line twice last Monday because of sudden showers. But still, since then I don’t think it has rained at all. And let me tell you, that is some achievement when you are staying in the North West of Ireland.

But enough about the weather.

Let’s see what have I been up to. First off there was the meeting the parents on Sat last. It was the aunt’s birthday. Well not really, her actual birthday was earlier in the month, but her party was on Sat., and as the parents were going I headed off to Dundrum to meet them and then over to her house. Loads of the family were there, plus the in-law family^[1] and a lot of meeting and greeting. And catching up. Met the cousin’s kid for the first time. She’s almost a year old now.

And, as nearly everyone was from Limerick there was a lot of rugby talk going on. One of the in-law family members was actually a big Leinster fan, but he’d gone over as a “Langer for a day” to see the match. And all in all a good time was had by all. I took the the sister back to my place to stay for the night, although the bus did break down on our way in. Classy Dublin Bus The driver got it up and running after a few minutes^[2]

We headed up to Sligo on Sun afternoon, after the sister bought her first ever mobile. And called in on brother #1 on the way, mainly to drop off a couple of gifts from aunts, or grand-aunts to the gasur^[3]

And then had a whole week of doing nothing. Which was lovely.

Took the dog for a few walks. Played a bit of tennis. Went to the beach. But mainly, did nothing but enjoy the sunshine.

NM’s birthday was on the 31st so we met up at the weekend and went to see Mission: Impossible III which was okay. Although shouldn’t Tom Cruise’s characters be making those stupid “I’m too old for this shit” jokes at this stage?

Course I really should be unpacking now. Or at least figuring out if I have clothes for the morning. But that all sounds too much like work, and there are so many blogs I have to go visit.

Read the rest of this entry »

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So many topics, so little inclination. Nevertheless^[1] I shall write something, about something. I could bring up the high speed bus chase through Dublin^[2] yesterday, which resulted in one fatality and many injuries, and some people asking why the gardaí didn’t shoot the driver, but other people are already discussing it.^[3]

Then there is the possible sabotaging of poor old Tottenham. Did an Arsenal supporter spike their lasagne with Clostridium perfringens^[4] or whatever was the cause of their food poisoning that hit at least 7 or their players. But the premiership is over and done with, so despite Scotland Yard^[5] having been called in, it won’t make much difference. Spurs did not finish fourth and so have to make do with a UEFA place.

I could mention that Badminton was won by Andrew Hoy on Moonfleet^[6] A horse owned by Susan Magnier. Yes, the horse-racing Magniers whose horse George Washington won at the weekend. Though they didn’t have it all their own way as Rumplestiltskin lost the 1,000 guineas. But Horse-racing is a little boring really isn’t it^[7]

There is also the fact that Mayo are the All-Ireland U-21 champions, beating Cork 1-13 to 1-11 yesterday^[8] but to talk about that would be to make this post pretty full of sports stories wouldn’t it?

I could mention the fact that last night’s Top Gear was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. But the fact that it seems to be turning into more and more of a Jeremy Clarkson acts like an overgrown irresponsible teenage boy with his anti-environmentalist jokes is a bit off-putting. Who’s he going to love when the petrol finally does get far too expensive to run his cars? Hmmm, yup. Environmentalists who are working on alternate fuels. Still, seeing [tag]The Stig[/tag] crash that ultra-expensive koenigshklhafkljablerker^[9] car was worth it. And watching Jeremy huddling in the back of their home-converted-convertible-people-carrier while monkeys danced around on top was fantastic. Plus the whole teams escape from the above mentioned excuse for a vehicle as they tested it in a car wash, and succeeded in setting the car wash on fire… genius. In a mad, crazy, foolish way.

Hmm, I seem to have run out of subjects…

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You’d really have to wonder what some people have to complain about. Recently there has been a string of letters whining and moaning about Dublin Bus. First off, and for the record, I have never ever had a problem with a bus driver, apart from the crazy russian dude who tried to do his route at light speed, shouting to all his customers and listening to classical music as he went, but even he was amusing. And yes I have waited and waited for a bus that never came, but for the most part that had to do with the fact that the line only had one bus every 30 minutes and it took longer than that to make it through traffic depending on what time you were travelling at.

Anyways, the most recent complaints to The Irish Times have been about the lack of change. See Dublin bus don’t give change. They ask you to have the exact fare, and if you don’t you’ll get a little bit added on to your ticket that you have to bring along to O’Connell st and exchange it for the cash.

Shane O’Sullican writes (sub’s re’q):

Madam, - 2005 has seen a flurry of comment about “Rip-off Ireland”. My vote for “Rip-off of the Year” goes to Dublin Bus for its continuing mistreatment of customers who do not have the exact fare.

According to Dublin Bus over 150 million passenger journeys will have taken place on their buses this year. If even one in every 15 of these journeys is undertaken by someone without the exact change and who pays 10 cent over the going rate, the surplus to Dublin Bus is over €1 million this year alone.

While paper refunds are produced on request, the unfortunate bearers must make their way to O’Connell Street to claim their refund, a pilgrimage that I doubt many people bother to make. - Yours, etc,

What a moaner. The surplus to Dublin Bus, as he puts it, can’t be kept by them. There is no best before date on the ticket, so you can go back in 10 years with your horde if you so wish. Or at least I think you can. And even if they did get to keep it, so what? The actual surplus would be nothing like €1 million, I’ve been in to exchange my change tickets, and I’ve had to queue. Therefore people do make the long and ardous journey down the main street in the city and collect their money. I doubt they do it for every single 10 cent, instead they do the sensible thing and wait til they add up. The in you go with bits of paper and come out with a fiver, or a tenner.

Honestly what is the big deal?

And if he doesn’t want to face the ordeal of Dublin city centre he could always give the fare to a charity and let them go in with a bucket load of paper slips to be exchanges for cash.

I wrote most of this yesterday, just before leaving work, and then wandered around the shops, left my overdue and still unread copy of Anansi Boys back to the library^[1] and then purchased a couple of books in Chapters^[2] I got Twenty Years After by Dumas; the first book in the Sarantine Mosaic trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay; and The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. this last one because NM has mentioned these Philip Marlow books are worth a read. And it was cheap.

Found myself up by the kino, so popped and the only thing I hadn’t seen that was on at the right time, and that I actually didn’t not want to see^[3] was Merry Christmas, and the only thing I knew about that film was that it was in one o’dem furrin languages, and set in WWI. I went anyways.

Only for some annoying woman to walk by and knock over my popcorn^[4] luckily only spilling a tiny bit, but still, that stuff expensive man. Anways, was really thinking I shouldn’t've bothered when the credits started and the seemed to go for ages. But I’m really glad I went. I’ll stick a review up over at Moving Pictures eventually, but I just thought I’d tell you all here that if you have the chance you should go see this film. Really great. Although you will be required to read some subtitles. The film is in French, German and English^[5] and is based on the accounts of the unofficial truces during World War I over christmas along the trenches.

So if it is showing near you off you go and take a peak. It’ll put you in a really good mood.

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