It's now officially December 26. I'm watching the Holiday Special of "Have I Got News For You!", pure hilarity:
"The Large Hadron Collider was supposed to prove that there is no God. So far, a man has been killed by a magnet, there's been a radiation leak and I'm pretty sure a plague of locusts."
The 25th was a good day for me. My brother and I stayed up on the 24th and watched "Into The Wild", which I had bought in HMV the same day for only €6, so I ended up going to bee at 12.30am. I tried every trick in the book to get some shut-eye, including downing a mug of Horlicks, but to no avail. I eventually gave up at 4am and just waltzed downstairs to open my presents.
I first opened my brother's gift to me, a fantastic new velvet guitar strap and some mini colognes (I love cologne!). Next up was my biggest present, Guitar Hero World Tour. The drums were a little awkward to set up, but I ploughed on. Next I slapped in Resistance: Fall Of Man which turned out to be a big bag of "meh", but it'll probably get better. I only bought it so that I'm understand the backstory in Resistance 2 (which I also bought). After Resistance, I tried Fallout 3. You know when something just "feels right"? This felt so right. It's honestly one of the most stunning games I've played so far. Some of the animation could be better, particularly in the third-person view; is my character wearing the 'Hover Boots' from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time? I wish I could start Fallout again though, I killed The Overseer, let Blake's mom die and then I killed Blake afterwards to spare myself some guilt. Blake (my childhood bully, apparently) asked me to help his mom who was being attacked. I said no, to which he hurled comments like "sick, twisted bastard" at me. I eventually cracked and said I'd help to which he started crying and started apologizing for bullying me as a kid. I was too late and so he was distraught and blamed me... it's easy to get sucked into these things.
I also got various other bits n' bobs such as the colognes mentioned in my previous blog entry. My aunt got me a gift voucher for Modern Music, guitar pedal here I come. Another game I bought is Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, but the location of that, along with my new belt, is anyone's guess...
It turns out that I make really good roast potatoes, so that was a nice feature of my likewise scrum-diddly-umptious Xmas dinner (Willy Wonka's was on).
I just arrived back from my aunt's house, where we spent the best part of two hours discussing our favorite comedians!
How was your day?
Friday, December 26, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Xmas Shopping
Argh! Sorry I haven't written to this in a while, Jason will already know of this. Between crapping-up my French oral exam and my lack of PC access lately, I haven't been doing much internetting. Today I went Xmas shopping. I went with my mother, as I always do, but mainly do I could point out what things I want!
So far I've gotten (for PlayStation 3), Fallout 3, Resistance: Fall Of Man, Resistance 2 and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I bought myself two colognes as well, Tommy Man and 212 Sexy Men by Carolina Herrera. The latter was bought because of my affection for the original, 212 Men, which Eoghan will remember me buying in Boots many aeons ago.
Speaking of Boots, Boots is crazy during the Holiday Season. I'm surprised they haven't declared it a war zone; people pushing and shoving to get certain products before they run out of stock, it's an odd site. But why wouldn't they? Boots are the true pioneers of PRE-Christmas sales, where you can find the most awesome products on sale at 50% off or more. For example, Tommy cost me €14, down from €30.
Since everyone loves some vibration every now and then, I'll be picking myself up a DUALSHOCK3 as well, hopefully tomorrow. It feels good, because I accidentally dropped my sole SIXAXIS onto a bare concrete floor a few days ago and while there are no visible scratches, I have a feeling of disownment towards it, but that's just me. I bought my mother's Xmas present too, Viva La Vida by Coldplay, she loves those guys.
We just did our Xmas grocery shopping. We were originally going to drive out to Joyces365 in Knocknacarra, but decided to shop in our local Dunnes instead. I won't dwell on this one, they're just groceries...
That's about all I have to say on this one. Merry Xmas, Happy Holidays and to all a good *sober* night.
If anyone out there has a PlayStation 3, my PSN ID is TheCosmicFrog. Feel free to add me!
So far I've gotten (for PlayStation 3), Fallout 3, Resistance: Fall Of Man, Resistance 2 and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I bought myself two colognes as well, Tommy Man and 212 Sexy Men by Carolina Herrera. The latter was bought because of my affection for the original, 212 Men, which Eoghan will remember me buying in Boots many aeons ago.
Speaking of Boots, Boots is crazy during the Holiday Season. I'm surprised they haven't declared it a war zone; people pushing and shoving to get certain products before they run out of stock, it's an odd site. But why wouldn't they? Boots are the true pioneers of PRE-Christmas sales, where you can find the most awesome products on sale at 50% off or more. For example, Tommy cost me €14, down from €30.
Since everyone loves some vibration every now and then, I'll be picking myself up a DUALSHOCK3 as well, hopefully tomorrow. It feels good, because I accidentally dropped my sole SIXAXIS onto a bare concrete floor a few days ago and while there are no visible scratches, I have a feeling of disownment towards it, but that's just me. I bought my mother's Xmas present too, Viva La Vida by Coldplay, she loves those guys.
We just did our Xmas grocery shopping. We were originally going to drive out to Joyces365 in Knocknacarra, but decided to shop in our local Dunnes instead. I won't dwell on this one, they're just groceries...
That's about all I have to say on this one. Merry Xmas, Happy Holidays and to all a good *sober* night.
If anyone out there has a PlayStation 3, my PSN ID is TheCosmicFrog. Feel free to add me!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Bye-Bye WiiLoaded
Short blog update today.
Today represented something big for me. I've resigned my position at a website which I have been faithful to for over 18 months now, WiiLoaded.com. During that time I reported news and wrote general opinion articles. I had to leave though, due to being bogged down by other duties, namely the Leaving Cert.
Today represented something big for me. I've resigned my position at a website which I have been faithful to for over 18 months now, WiiLoaded.com. During that time I reported news and wrote general opinion articles. I had to leave though, due to being bogged down by other duties, namely the Leaving Cert.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Wi-Fi in Galway
This has been on my mind for a while now, which you'll know if you hang around me.
The lack of Wi-Fi Hotspots in Galway is a complete disgrace. As a proud owner of an Apple iPod with internet browsing capabilities, my natural instinct is to use it whenever I want to check my emails, update my blog, check to see if Seán has left me any more irrelevant, poorly grammatized comments on Bebo etc. But to no avail. Wi-Fi in Galway City is as scarce as potatoes were in 1850; it's not of any value to me.
At the moment my prime hotspot is the benches outside Mothercare in Eyre Square Centre, which is usually infested with "'oul wans" anyway, leaving me to stand outside the 3G Store (which is where the Wi-Fi signal originates from) to peruse my doings.
So, you'd think that there would be free Wi-Fi in Eyre Square, right? The hottest, most social, most open-plan area in Galway City? Forget about it. There's four SSIDs called "Free Galway Wi-Fi" 1, 2, 3 and 4 around the Eyre Square area, but each of them fails the connection test every time: they're useless, and they've never been maintained.
Then there's Eircom. The now private bastards that make us pay for a high-speed 802.11b signal from their own ADSL phonebooth lines. It's an absolute joke. I emailed our former esteemed mayor, Niall Ó Brolcháin, with my thoughts, including a recommendation to install high-speed networks on to bus and rail services in and out of the city, to which he replied that he'd "pass on my ideas". Pass on my ideas to who, Niall, a brick wall? Would it sway you if I spray-painted it green?
New York City. You can't walk too far in NYC without bumping into a hundred different hotspots, run either by the thousands of offices that color the streets or the New York City Council itself. That city is truly electric.
Galway already has a firmly established 3G network, so what's the problem with Wi-Fi? If anything, Wi-Fi is more primitive in a technological sense, yet is utilized by so many more people.
Why is it that I can't sit in Eyre Square, sipping a Starbucks caramel frappuccino and browsing the web on my iPod?
...and don't blame the weather.
----------------
Now playing: R.E.M. - Man-Sized Wreath
via FoxyTunes
At the moment my prime hotspot is the benches outside Mothercare in Eyre Square Centre, which is usually infested with "'oul wans" anyway, leaving me to stand outside the 3G Store (which is where the Wi-Fi signal originates from) to peruse my doings.
So, you'd think that there would be free Wi-Fi in Eyre Square, right? The hottest, most social, most open-plan area in Galway City? Forget about it. There's four SSIDs called "Free Galway Wi-Fi" 1, 2, 3 and 4 around the Eyre Square area, but each of them fails the connection test every time: they're useless, and they've never been maintained.
Then there's Eircom. The now private bastards that make us pay for a high-speed 802.11b signal from their own ADSL phonebooth lines. It's an absolute joke. I emailed our former esteemed mayor, Niall Ó Brolcháin, with my thoughts, including a recommendation to install high-speed networks on to bus and rail services in and out of the city, to which he replied that he'd "pass on my ideas". Pass on my ideas to who, Niall, a brick wall? Would it sway you if I spray-painted it green?
New York City. You can't walk too far in NYC without bumping into a hundred different hotspots, run either by the thousands of offices that color the streets or the New York City Council itself. That city is truly electric.
Galway already has a firmly established 3G network, so what's the problem with Wi-Fi? If anything, Wi-Fi is more primitive in a technological sense, yet is utilized by so many more people.
Why is it that I can't sit in Eyre Square, sipping a Starbucks caramel frappuccino and browsing the web on my iPod?
...and don't blame the weather.
----------------
Now playing: R.E.M. - Man-Sized Wreath
via FoxyTunes
Monday, December 8, 2008
The Right-Hand Blog
This entire blog entry is based on notes I scribbled on my right-hand throughout the day:
As for Xmas, I think I'll just go around buying random crap, as I did one happy Xmas a few years ago. I saw a nice jacket in Pariah (love that store!).
- We didn't get a day off of school today, unlike every other school in the county. We were all pretty down-and-out, and needed a lift. Our delightful prinicpal deicded he would do the honors. He came on over the PA system and informed all of us that, although we weren't off today, we could still go to mass during our lunch break. Thanks Jimmy!
- I bought a new coat today. It's the first coat in years I am not embarrassed to wear. I bought it in Great Outdoors and it set me back €99.
- Andrew's breath smelled awful today.
- The Irish pork withdrawal means I can't get sausages in Elle's.
- My Irish teacher was out again today.
As for Xmas, I think I'll just go around buying random crap, as I did one happy Xmas a few years ago. I saw a nice jacket in Pariah (love that store!).
Saturday, December 6, 2008
I Can't Believe It's Only Saturday
Seriously, it's been one day and it feels like it should be Wednesday already.
It was an average Friday. We went to Ag. Science. I got a surprisingly good 60% on my test. We then had study with Egghead in 306 with the juniors, all two of them. It was gawd-awful. People kept taking cracks at various things and he didn't give a shit.
The highlight was when one of the 5th-years looked at the ground beside my chair and said, "That is one messy bag...", which was promptly answered with a "That's what she said!" from the other side of the room :D
I glided through Biology grinds with Frank. That ninety minutes goes weirdly fast.
I was collected by my dad afterwards with information on our weekly Chinese takeaway. This time, "Michael the Electrician" was joining in, which was a nice addition to the dinner table, seeing as how my brother rarely graces dinner time with us anymore. Then again, "when we have dinner" is debatable. It's usually a, "Does anyone want dinner tonight?", sort of affair. I finished my Beef Fried Rice and turned on my phone. Then, the most wonderful thing in the world happened.
I noticed I had a voicemail. I never get voicemail. I never leave voicemail. I hate voicemail. So I checked my voicemail. It was a voicemail from Paul. The voicemail said to call him back "whenever". I replied to the voicemail with my house phone, which he didn't answer. I didn't leave a voicemail...
He called a few minutes later. It turned out that he was in Galway. I thought I was in for another cyclic weekend routine, but not anymore. I met him in squareyes, where I decided not to pay on until Rory came along. Paul kept asking if I would stay the night at his sister's house in Claregalway. I made my uncertainty very clear, until the clincher was belatedly announced by Paul...
It was an average Friday. We went to Ag. Science. I got a surprisingly good 60% on my test. We then had study with Egghead in 306 with the juniors, all two of them. It was gawd-awful. People kept taking cracks at various things and he didn't give a shit.
The highlight was when one of the 5th-years looked at the ground beside my chair and said, "That is one messy bag...", which was promptly answered with a "That's what she said!" from the other side of the room :D
I glided through Biology grinds with Frank. That ninety minutes goes weirdly fast.
I was collected by my dad afterwards with information on our weekly Chinese takeaway. This time, "Michael the Electrician" was joining in, which was a nice addition to the dinner table, seeing as how my brother rarely graces dinner time with us anymore. Then again, "when we have dinner" is debatable. It's usually a, "Does anyone want dinner tonight?", sort of affair. I finished my Beef Fried Rice and turned on my phone. Then, the most wonderful thing in the world happened.
I noticed I had a voicemail. I never get voicemail. I never leave voicemail. I hate voicemail. So I checked my voicemail. It was a voicemail from Paul. The voicemail said to call him back "whenever". I replied to the voicemail with my house phone, which he didn't answer. I didn't leave a voicemail...
He called a few minutes later. It turned out that he was in Galway. I thought I was in for another cyclic weekend routine, but not anymore. I met him in squareyes, where I decided not to pay on until Rory came along. Paul kept asking if I would stay the night at his sister's house in Claregalway. I made my uncertainty very clear, until the clincher was belatedly announced by Paul...
...FREE HOUSE!
Of course, that changed everything. I jumped straight on to the bandwagon, as did Rory. Paul and I got a cab back to my house, where I gathered up some clothes and where we waited for Rory. We were all ready to walk back into town and order a cab out to Claregalway, splitting the fair. Instead, my dad offered us a lift, so we gladly accepted. First though, we went to the 24h Tesco in Galway Shopping Centre. Paul picked up some biscuits, milk and dog food, Rory bought a 2l bottle of Pepsi and I bought a can of Rockstar to compliment all the Rock Band which we planned on playing.
When we got to Claregalway, Paul let us in and introduced us to his sister's dog, Deuce. Deuce is now officially the bestest-dog-in-the-world. He can sit, stay, roll over, give individual paws and high-five on command. The rest of the night was pretty much a blur of pizza, Rock Band, Texas Hold-'Em, and trying our very best to watch Road Trip, before eventually giving up. The whole thing was filmed on handheld cameras, which annoyed me immensely. Also, Tom Green's acting license should be revoked and cremated. By 6.30am, we were all bored so we decided to hit-the-hay. I dibs'd the bed, so Rory had to make due with a sleeping bag. I slept soundly until 8am when I started feeling sick, so I got up. I'm one of those guys who, once he gets up, can't go back to bed again. So I ended up staying awake the next five-and-a-half hours until Rory woke up, spending my time watching Jokerman: Tommy Tiernan in America, Short Circuit on Blu-ray Disc, and playing Rock Band.
Eventually, the other two woke up, so we grabbed the 2.30pm bus into the city. €1.80 single-fair, not too shabby. We were all starving at this stage, so we headed down to squareyes to see if Jason or Tim wanted to go for lunch. Both were working until 4.30pm at the earliest, so Rory, Paul and I went to Ed's and got Meatball Parmigiana's etc. We migrated to Butler's Café shortly after, where I got a White Hot Chocolate with Caramel. Paul bought a Mocha for himself and Tim, something which Paul refers to as a "mutual understanding between Tim and I". We paid on for some cumputers and played some CoD5 Nazi Zombies. We reached Round 11 before we were dumped. Prior to us, a bunch of five-year olds got to Round 20, before they were cut-off from a mistake at the front desk. Apparently they "would have gotten way further!". Brats...
Eoghan and Andrew eventually wobbled in, and so joined us with Paul's awkward "forty-five minute" time slots for €3.75. James came in soon after and told us all about the gig he been at in The Gaf.
I finally got to watch my recording of the Final of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. Disappointed that George Takei didn't win, but happy for Joe Swash. Always good for a laugh!
When we got to Claregalway, Paul let us in and introduced us to his sister's dog, Deuce. Deuce is now officially the bestest-dog-in-the-world. He can sit, stay, roll over, give individual paws and high-five on command. The rest of the night was pretty much a blur of pizza, Rock Band, Texas Hold-'Em, and trying our very best to watch Road Trip, before eventually giving up. The whole thing was filmed on handheld cameras, which annoyed me immensely. Also, Tom Green's acting license should be revoked and cremated. By 6.30am, we were all bored so we decided to hit-the-hay. I dibs'd the bed, so Rory had to make due with a sleeping bag. I slept soundly until 8am when I started feeling sick, so I got up. I'm one of those guys who, once he gets up, can't go back to bed again. So I ended up staying awake the next five-and-a-half hours until Rory woke up, spending my time watching Jokerman: Tommy Tiernan in America, Short Circuit on Blu-ray Disc, and playing Rock Band.
Eventually, the other two woke up, so we grabbed the 2.30pm bus into the city. €1.80 single-fair, not too shabby. We were all starving at this stage, so we headed down to squareyes to see if Jason or Tim wanted to go for lunch. Both were working until 4.30pm at the earliest, so Rory, Paul and I went to Ed's and got Meatball Parmigiana's etc. We migrated to Butler's Café shortly after, where I got a White Hot Chocolate with Caramel. Paul bought a Mocha for himself and Tim, something which Paul refers to as a "mutual understanding between Tim and I". We paid on for some cumputers and played some CoD5 Nazi Zombies. We reached Round 11 before we were dumped. Prior to us, a bunch of five-year olds got to Round 20, before they were cut-off from a mistake at the front desk. Apparently they "would have gotten way further!". Brats...
Eoghan and Andrew eventually wobbled in, and so joined us with Paul's awkward "forty-five minute" time slots for €3.75. James came in soon after and told us all about the gig he been at in The Gaf.
I finally got to watch my recording of the Final of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. Disappointed that George Takei didn't win, but happy for Joe Swash. Always good for a laugh!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Religion Rules... or something!
Today was a bit of a breather for us. We didn't have to go to school, but instead to the Society of African Missionaries House in Claregalway.
Our host was Fr. Benny McHale, an eccentric, trendy, upbeat old priest who genuinely did everything in his capacity to give us an "alternative" view on spirituality. This was the first time that we've ever had a religious retreat where I didn't fell "pushed" into any common feeling. That made me happy. One thing that definitely caught my attention, we didn't pray, once!
He started off by asking us, "What do we all need in life?". The answers he got were the usual ghey, nancy, "love, peace, happiness" etc. until Gerard Hanley said, "God". At this, Fr. Benny replied, "Ah feck off, God has no meaning in stuff like that!". If this were any other era he would be excommunicated from the priesthood and hung on the roof of Kilmainham Jail.
We spent the first part of the day talking about general life-related things. Benny made us all laugh hysterically at his bashful ripping of various accents, "Ze Jairmans, zay are gut at ze English, jah?". Almost every conversation ended with a, "did you ever the here the one about...", where he would tell us either a sexist, racist, secretarian or taboo joke.
We were taught the fundamentals on why we should "never hit a girl"; how we should never confide anything overly emotional in a girlfriend due to their natural instinct to share it with the world and much more.
The second part was more based around "why we need spiritualism", to which I found myself pretty lost. He posed the question, "if you knew there was no God, would it makes a difference?", leaving said 'difference' up to the imagination. If I can quote my friend Jason,
There's probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life
The lunch break was fun. About forty of us sat around playing and listening to guitar playing and singing. I played the only thing that could come into my head, Letters to God by Box Car Racer, which coincidentally seemed to fit the mood. Damn Mr. Doyle for tuning down his e string to D. Gerard never ceases to amaze me with his crowd-leading skills. All he had to do was play three power chords, sing the first verse of Wonderwall and he had most of Claregalway singing with him. If I wasn't so dumbfounded with on-the-spot embarrassment I would have played My Name is Jonas, a song I could have played from start-to-finish, but I'm not bitter about it, it was just some fun we had which nobody will remember after some heavy drinking sessions on Friday night.
The third and final section of the talk was focused around the demonic side of spiritualism. Intense, heated discussions on the Ouija Board and other black magic arts pursued. At this stage, we were all so tired that Fr. Benny assumed we had gone quiet due to the subject matter.
And now, I'm going to bed at 11pm, just like Fr. Benny told us to. But before I go, let me just post this picture of Niall Sweeney wearing a funny hat:
Our host was Fr. Benny McHale, an eccentric, trendy, upbeat old priest who genuinely did everything in his capacity to give us an "alternative" view on spirituality. This was the first time that we've ever had a religious retreat where I didn't fell "pushed" into any common feeling. That made me happy. One thing that definitely caught my attention, we didn't pray, once!
He started off by asking us, "What do we all need in life?". The answers he got were the usual ghey, nancy, "love, peace, happiness" etc. until Gerard Hanley said, "God". At this, Fr. Benny replied, "Ah feck off, God has no meaning in stuff like that!". If this were any other era he would be excommunicated from the priesthood and hung on the roof of Kilmainham Jail.
We spent the first part of the day talking about general life-related things. Benny made us all laugh hysterically at his bashful ripping of various accents, "Ze Jairmans, zay are gut at ze English, jah?". Almost every conversation ended with a, "did you ever the here the one about...", where he would tell us either a sexist, racist, secretarian or taboo joke.
We were taught the fundamentals on why we should "never hit a girl"; how we should never confide anything overly emotional in a girlfriend due to their natural instinct to share it with the world and much more.
The second part was more based around "why we need spiritualism", to which I found myself pretty lost. He posed the question, "if you knew there was no God, would it makes a difference?", leaving said 'difference' up to the imagination. If I can quote my friend Jason,
There's probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life
The lunch break was fun. About forty of us sat around playing and listening to guitar playing and singing. I played the only thing that could come into my head, Letters to God by Box Car Racer, which coincidentally seemed to fit the mood. Damn Mr. Doyle for tuning down his e string to D. Gerard never ceases to amaze me with his crowd-leading skills. All he had to do was play three power chords, sing the first verse of Wonderwall and he had most of Claregalway singing with him. If I wasn't so dumbfounded with on-the-spot embarrassment I would have played My Name is Jonas, a song I could have played from start-to-finish, but I'm not bitter about it, it was just some fun we had which nobody will remember after some heavy drinking sessions on Friday night.
The third and final section of the talk was focused around the demonic side of spiritualism. Intense, heated discussions on the Ouija Board and other black magic arts pursued. At this stage, we were all so tired that Fr. Benny assumed we had gone quiet due to the subject matter.
And now, I'm going to bed at 11pm, just like Fr. Benny told us to. But before I go, let me just post this picture of Niall Sweeney wearing a funny hat:
Monday, December 1, 2008
Birthday Update
I was so tired after Saturday that I couldn't find any will to update this blog at 1am. Yesterday I just forgot...
Saturday was a really great day. I gladly accepted James's offer of a free ticket to a Battle Of The Bands competition in the Róisín Dubh, presented by Jack Osbourne. The bands who played had a lot of guts, I'll give them that. You'd be hard-pressed to get me up on stage with my guitar. For the first fifteen minutes-or-so my eyes were transfixed on the singer of the first band. She was absolutely gorgeous!
The second band came a little unprepared. The lead guy wore a funny hat, which he took off for the second song. That left me with an empty feeling inside.
Next up was who we referred to as the "all-girl band". In actual fact, there name was "Full Moon at Noon", which promised something big. They were awful. But, as I said previous, I bowed my hat to them. They were the only all-girl band in the competition and that's no fun. My biggest chunk of pride goes to the lead girl, who had to play the whole first song by herself, just her petite voice and three power-chords to play with.
Next up was a hardcore punk band. Their tradition is for the crowd to shout out that "they suck", which of course we all did without reluctance. The main-man was the drummer. He had a punk attitude which got him into more trouble than it did get him admirers. Everyone thought he was a bit of a tool. His place in the band, besides being the only "punk" guy there, was debatable. I had meant to inform him that being a "drummer" doesn't just involve hitting the closed hi-hat at 1,000bpm. Still, they were good fun and the only band whose music I could relate to...
Last on the stage was the local favorites, "Trans-fucking-gress". "We are Transgress, we are from Loughrea, and we play rock n' roll music" *insert over-the-top guitar riff here*. They were meh, but James liked them and he has more of a taste for this stuff than I do.
I learned one valuable lesson that day. I don't like mosh-pits. My one little threat to Andrew now seems a little harsh, "I swear Andrew, if you push me into one of those I will punch you straight in the nose". At 4.45pm, I left the Róisín Dubh to go meet Paul off the train, which it turns out was delayed until 5.15, so I had plenty of time to go get a cup of tea, a jelly donut and play some Lux Touch on my iPod. Paul's train eventually arrived in at bang-on 5.15. When I saw him, I walked up to meet him, only to be blocked by that stupid barrier gate at Ceannt Station, but I saw him go out a side exit, so I ran outside to greet him. As far as Paul was concerned, a man with a blue-and-white striped shirt and unjustifiably short hair was running towards him waving and calling his name. When he realized that this was, in fact, Aaron with a horrible hairdo, we lovingly embraced with open expression; "hey", "hey", "squareyes?", "yeah".
We had just missed Jason, ohnoes! Not to worry, Christian gave us Jason's number and I texted him about the birthday soirée. We agreed to meet out in City Limits at 7pm, what an oversight...
Paul and I took the bus back to Newcastle, where my family greeted my buddy with open arms; "Paulhowsitgoingwillyouhaveacupofteayoumustbestarvingafterthetrainjourney
areyousure?". Good old Irish hospitality as Jason would say, and who are we to contest it? Rory refused to answer his phone on three occasions, so when he eventually did call Paul and I just screwed with him for ten minutes. Paul put on a Dublin accent and I played my harmonica into the mouthpiece. Next, Brian called down, so we hopped into my dad's car, collected Rory and drove to City Limits, where we were greeted by the angelic mugs of Eoghan, Andrew, James (who organized their own lift out, thanks again!), Jason and his girlfriend Mairéad. I payed for an hour of bowling spread over two lanes and the fun began!
As there was nine of us, the groups were uneven, so (thanks to Eoghan's advice) I decided to put Jason and Mairéad on the same lane, which made it seem less unbalanced. The groups were: Eoghan, James, Paul and I, & Jason, Mairéad, Brian, Andrew and Rory. I think that's right, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!
Jason (being your typical American) mauled us all at bowling. But it didn't matter, we all had fun. Paul's philosophy was "If I'm not going to win, then I might as well lose looking as stupid as possible and having the most fun while doing it." I'll savour that forever Paul. You found out the hard way that "backwards bowling" doesn't work as it well as it could.
At some stage during bowling, after all the cards had been given out from my school-friends, Jason and Mairéad surprised me with a gift which meant so much to me. They had baked pumpkin bread and decided to give it to me. Andrew was first to exclaim, "All right, hash cake!", which gave everyone a good laugh. I hadn't expected anyone but my school associates to give me gifts, so the gesture from Jason and Mairéad meant more to me than you could possibly imagine. Thanks again guys, the pumpkin bread is amazing!
After we finished bowling, we spent about thirty minutes walking around City Limits playing a few arcade games. On three occasions I failed in Ghost Squad by killing too many hostages. Oh come on, I only shot three of them! Paul, rather abruptly and with no pre-emptive warning, had to leave. It made me sad, because I thought were would all be going back to squareyes together for some dual zombie bashing in CoD5 and Left4Dead. We did eventually go back to squareyes, due in part to Mairéad offering lifts in her car to three of the guys who had been stranded for reasons I am unwilling to discuss andrew. Brian, Eoghan and I went to get pizza up in Ed's, where I was given a warm "happy birthday" by all the staff. That place really feels like home now. Brian, James and I played Guitar Hero World Tour, while the others played some CoD5 and L4D. No party poppers for me Greg? Poor show...
Thanks to all those who turned up, I hope you had a great night!
----------------
Now playing: R.E.M. - Orange Crush
via FoxyTunes
Saturday was a really great day. I gladly accepted James's offer of a free ticket to a Battle Of The Bands competition in the Róisín Dubh, presented by Jack Osbourne. The bands who played had a lot of guts, I'll give them that. You'd be hard-pressed to get me up on stage with my guitar. For the first fifteen minutes-or-so my eyes were transfixed on the singer of the first band. She was absolutely gorgeous!
The second band came a little unprepared. The lead guy wore a funny hat, which he took off for the second song. That left me with an empty feeling inside.
Next up was who we referred to as the "all-girl band". In actual fact, there name was "Full Moon at Noon", which promised something big. They were awful. But, as I said previous, I bowed my hat to them. They were the only all-girl band in the competition and that's no fun. My biggest chunk of pride goes to the lead girl, who had to play the whole first song by herself, just her petite voice and three power-chords to play with.
Next up was a hardcore punk band. Their tradition is for the crowd to shout out that "they suck", which of course we all did without reluctance. The main-man was the drummer. He had a punk attitude which got him into more trouble than it did get him admirers. Everyone thought he was a bit of a tool. His place in the band, besides being the only "punk" guy there, was debatable. I had meant to inform him that being a "drummer" doesn't just involve hitting the closed hi-hat at 1,000bpm. Still, they were good fun and the only band whose music I could relate to...
Last on the stage was the local favorites, "Trans-fucking-gress". "We are Transgress, we are from Loughrea, and we play rock n' roll music" *insert over-the-top guitar riff here*. They were meh, but James liked them and he has more of a taste for this stuff than I do.
I learned one valuable lesson that day. I don't like mosh-pits. My one little threat to Andrew now seems a little harsh, "I swear Andrew, if you push me into one of those I will punch you straight in the nose". At 4.45pm, I left the Róisín Dubh to go meet Paul off the train, which it turns out was delayed until 5.15, so I had plenty of time to go get a cup of tea, a jelly donut and play some Lux Touch on my iPod. Paul's train eventually arrived in at bang-on 5.15. When I saw him, I walked up to meet him, only to be blocked by that stupid barrier gate at Ceannt Station, but I saw him go out a side exit, so I ran outside to greet him. As far as Paul was concerned, a man with a blue-and-white striped shirt and unjustifiably short hair was running towards him waving and calling his name. When he realized that this was, in fact, Aaron with a horrible hairdo, we lovingly embraced with open expression; "hey", "hey", "squareyes?", "yeah".
We had just missed Jason, ohnoes! Not to worry, Christian gave us Jason's number and I texted him about the birthday soirée. We agreed to meet out in City Limits at 7pm, what an oversight...
Paul and I took the bus back to Newcastle, where my family greeted my buddy with open arms; "Paulhowsitgoingwillyouhaveacupofteayoumustbestarvingafterthetrainjourney
areyousure?". Good old Irish hospitality as Jason would say, and who are we to contest it? Rory refused to answer his phone on three occasions, so when he eventually did call Paul and I just screwed with him for ten minutes. Paul put on a Dublin accent and I played my harmonica into the mouthpiece. Next, Brian called down, so we hopped into my dad's car, collected Rory and drove to City Limits, where we were greeted by the angelic mugs of Eoghan, Andrew, James (who organized their own lift out, thanks again!), Jason and his girlfriend Mairéad. I payed for an hour of bowling spread over two lanes and the fun began!
As there was nine of us, the groups were uneven, so (thanks to Eoghan's advice) I decided to put Jason and Mairéad on the same lane, which made it seem less unbalanced. The groups were: Eoghan, James, Paul and I, & Jason, Mairéad, Brian, Andrew and Rory. I think that's right, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!
Jason (being your typical American) mauled us all at bowling. But it didn't matter, we all had fun. Paul's philosophy was "If I'm not going to win, then I might as well lose looking as stupid as possible and having the most fun while doing it." I'll savour that forever Paul. You found out the hard way that "backwards bowling" doesn't work as it well as it could.
At some stage during bowling, after all the cards had been given out from my school-friends, Jason and Mairéad surprised me with a gift which meant so much to me. They had baked pumpkin bread and decided to give it to me. Andrew was first to exclaim, "All right, hash cake!", which gave everyone a good laugh. I hadn't expected anyone but my school associates to give me gifts, so the gesture from Jason and Mairéad meant more to me than you could possibly imagine. Thanks again guys, the pumpkin bread is amazing!
After we finished bowling, we spent about thirty minutes walking around City Limits playing a few arcade games. On three occasions I failed in Ghost Squad by killing too many hostages. Oh come on, I only shot three of them! Paul, rather abruptly and with no pre-emptive warning, had to leave. It made me sad, because I thought were would all be going back to squareyes together for some dual zombie bashing in CoD5 and Left4Dead. We did eventually go back to squareyes, due in part to Mairéad offering lifts in her car to three of the guys who had been stranded for reasons I am unwilling to discuss andrew. Brian, Eoghan and I went to get pizza up in Ed's, where I was given a warm "happy birthday" by all the staff. That place really feels like home now. Brian, James and I played Guitar Hero World Tour, while the others played some CoD5 and L4D. No party poppers for me Greg? Poor show...
Thanks to all those who turned up, I hope you had a great night!
----------------
Now playing: R.E.M. - Orange Crush
via FoxyTunes
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