Monday, June 26, 2006

Weekend Wonder

I was down home this weekend. There was a wee political gathering in Killarney unfortunately Johnny was unsuccessful this time out. There was also a Harley Davidson gathering in the town. As a result there were bikes all over the Ring.

After the previous week of moving about I was incredibly tired and slept quite late on Saturday. Well to about noon.

I went down town for a walk and the progress on the new town centre and AIB is quite impressive. Apparently, due to finish sometime in July.

As for the World Cup, the Germany - Sweden fixture was quite flat, while the Argentina - Mexico game was very entertaining. Mexico were very unlucky in facing Argentina at this stage. I missed the England - Ecuador game and perhaps the less said about the Portugal - Netherlands game the better. It was awful stuff, and from a country with such a great tradition in the game.

Monday, June 19, 2006

People who care.

I had to attend a function over the weekend of a grouping I belong to, let's call this grouping - the House. Well, the folks in the House are nice people. Terribly nice people.

There is a famous quote about the Church of England being the conversative party at prayer, and some of these folks are a little like that. You get the impression there is something that ties them together which is separate but not entirely from their membership of the house. There is a certain corporate stateness about them, a permanency. The middle managers of history.

These folks are certainly well meaning. They are for the most part a group of mostly slighty more than middle class and even even slightly more than middle aged, folks who 'care'. I've always had a difficultly with people who make it their business to 'care' whether because it is part of their job to 'care' (those in the poverty industry) or because they believe it is their role in society. This caring class are symptons orientated, root causes tend not to be their bag, baby.

We had this gathering, well let us call it an AGM. There being only one of these gatherings a year you would expect that there would be a big deal made of it. Instead, there was a GMO-free conference arranged around and in parallel with this AGM. There was press piece about the GMO conference but nothing about our little gathering.

I'm afraid I was my usual vocal self and by the time it came to lunch I was beginning to gather some followers. Thankfully, they already had some individuals lined up for a sacrifical run at high office so I able to avoid getting to involved in the House's problems.

Our President who does a remarkable Mary O'Rourke (gran-aunt of the nation), was all indulgence and order for the most part but suitably patronising too.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Happy Birthday, Pops!

It's my father's birthday today. So the best of birthday wishes to the Y parent. I rang home and wished him a happy birthday, 'oh same to you boy' he says. And to think I say he never listens to a word I say! Still, he sounded in good form and he was even somewhat forgiving of Charlo. That would be gran's influence in the background I reckon. And we're saying good bye to Charlie today too.

Today is also Bloomsday! In honour of which I had a fry for brekkie, no kidneys or liver for me mind.

Friday, June 09, 2006

My world cup tips

Another World cup rolls around

Group A

Germany - Solid, fit, athletic, somewhat dull to watch in action...hang on I think that was Heidi Klum I was thinking of there.
Costa Rica - The country that is international renowned for not having a standing army. Not much of a defense either I suspect. Wanchope might get their only goal of the
Poland - If the poles do well, could really aid the atmosphere in Ireland. At this point the most populous national grouping in the Republic.
Ecuador - I've always mixed Ecuador up with El Dorado.

Group B

England - '66 and all that, prada bags for goalposts, slappers for girlfriend. could win it though
Paraguay - hmm, the terrorist wing of Uruguay.
Trinidad and Tobago - Personally, I think that not picking Brian Lara in Libero position in front of the back four would have been only inspired.
Sweden - Probably passed their best. And that wasn't great still will probably get out of the group ok.

Group C

Argentina - potential winners, now that they aren't lombarded with trying to drag the country out of a depression.
Côte d'Ivoire - apparently their jerseys have sold like hotcakes in Ireland, either because there is a significant population we were unaware of simply because our flags are mirror images of each other.
Serbia and Montenegro - another country we won't see at the competition again, not sure they'll be missed.
Netherlands - My personal team all due to uncle Dan's colour telly and the Iveragh road cousins and that '78 World Cup, and the van der Kerkof brothers sometimes a military junta isn't so bad is it?

Group D

Mexico -
Iran - They'll drink the place dry if they get out of the group!
Angola - Mary Harney's team should find it hard to cope with the conditions, I mean it's an event involving larges numbers of people and it is well organised. It's all so unfamiliar!
Portugal - Great ould country, lovely people, some very good players, as a team ...yeah... did I say nice people?


Group E

Italy - another corruption crisis leading into a European based world cup, so who's the Paolo Rossi this time?
Ghana - Could surprise especially if Italy are as in a mess over the little bother at home.
USA - They've told us that they have a good team and we've no reason to watch them in action to see if it is true or not.
Czech Republic - Hmmm....Prague after a world cup win, Nice!

Group F

Brazil - Ah, the Kerry of soccer, the looks, the ladies, the talent. Did I mention we have 33 All Ireland's? And a hurling title too!
Croatia - I've got them in the draw
Australia - soccer in Oz is a bit like it is here, the 3/4 sport in terms of interest. What is Viduka likely to do against the ould country?
Japan - If they could beat Croatia then it is


Group G

France -
Switzerland - That could have been us that could! We'd have lost to Korea and beaten Togo and then held the French to qualify.
Korea Republic - I like Korea, they have more of a footballing pedigree than Japan and I was glad to see them. Lovely people too, Irish of the orient and all that (there again it's the yanks that christen them that so I'm not so sure that reflects well on either of us.)
Togo - To go is right.


Group H

Spain - If they make the usual mess of this, they should do the decent thing and split the country and let the Catalans or Basques field a full national team.
Ukraine - A one man band perhaps but what a dude. And have you seen his missus?
Tunisia - could sneak around Spain, something of a local debry that one. Not that too many Spaniards will admit that.
Saudi Arabia - I'm not going to be all Michael Moore about this, but I beat the pilot was scared playing them over to Europe.

So, I'm going to be hoping the Dutch do well. All down to uncle Dan and the Iveragh road colour telly mob in '78. I'd like to see Ghana and Tunisa get out of their groups. I suspect Argentina will win it, though I think England might actually live up to the hype of the tabloids press. And if they are 0-3 at half time, and Gerrard is on the pitch then get ready for something really special.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Mr Domesticated Man

You know there is something up when you travel to the shops and come back with an water inlet hose and feel good about it.

Got some electrics delivered and am awaiting a call re: Bed no.1

Also, my mother who is somewhat away with the fairies at times maintains that the significance of the number 67 to me, the fact that I had an gran-aunt called Abby and have cousins called O'Dwyer's means everything should proceed smoothly.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

The clean winners

We got 64 in the pub quiz out of 80, which isn't exactly a landmark score. In fact, we shared the score with one other team which had been leading us by 3 points at the half-way point. The two teams above use were also a tie on 66 points. And they had a play-off to determine a winner.

There were some suggestions of phone and google assistance in some of the other teams, so as we were clean, we feel pretty good about our performance.

And we didn't win a dog in the end, which was just as well as dividing it up between the 4 of us would have been a bloody business.