Archive for January, 2007
Exciting reads for 7-year olds in Irish?
Posted on January 25, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Family, Kids.
Oscar is a bright kid who loves to read. His favourite novel is Le Catalogue d’Argos. In fact he loves the Horrid Henry series (and other similar ones). The only subject he is weak in is, surprise surprise, Irish. Unlike Oisín and Sibéal, he never went to Naoinra so started on it cold in junior infants. We’re hoping to get him into Irish as a bit of a challenge but the books have to engage him.
Anyone out there have recommendations for good exciting reads in Irish for kids aged around 7? Catherine found this site but most of those descriptions sound a bit boring e.g. where is Mamo’s tooth? Does something old fashioned like the equivalent of The Secret Seven or Famous Five even exist in Irish?
Technorati Tags: Irish, Books, Gaeilge, Adventure, Kids+Books
12 Comments
I didn’t even know they had split up
Posted on January 25, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment.
Just spotted on the BBC that The Jesus and Mary Chain are re-forming to do some festival. I bloody loved that band. Psychocandy is in my top ten albums of all time. I remember playing it to my friends in 1985 and they all laughed at me. “But it’s just noise Conor”. “Wait, just wait, you’ll see. This is genius”.
Any movie that uses their music gets an instant thumbs up from me. I think that’s why I have a soft spot for “Lost in Translation” - they played “Just Like Honey” in the closing scene.
One of my favourite lines from a song:”Sometimes I walk sideways to avoid you, when I’ve annoyed you”
Now I’m just going to have to go off and listen to Psychocandy for the 4 billionth time. Gonna be hard to get any work done.
Technorati Tags: The+Jesus+And+Mary+Chain, Psychocandy, Lost+In+Translation, Just+Like+Honey
3 Comments
Traffic Lights on Food - give me patience.
Posted on January 25, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Commentary, Cooking, Food, Politics.
It appears the opposition parties have started their campaign to lose the next general election with their latest himbo/bimbo scheme which they picked up from the UK. They want traffic lights on food to indicate the levels of salt, sugar and fat. Not only are the stuck in the 1980’s with the fat obsession, but they show such a basic mis-understanding of human nature that the scheme was obviously devised by a marxist.
If I want to buy fat-laden, carb-laden, salt-laden Tayto, I bloody will and they chances of me looking at some insulting graphics are zero. When I smoked, you could have put pictures of sliced open cancerous lungs on the box and I’d happily have puffed away.
Information is only useful to those seeking it. If we want nutrition information then we’ll use the amazing human ability to read to find out what is in the box. “oh but people don’t know what a safe level of salt is, so our traffic light system will enable them to figure this out without actually ever having to think”. “Next year, we’ll be bringing in a system which does an instant analysis of your blood and won’t let you buy anything with too much salt or sugar”.
I was pleasantly surprised that FF told the opposition to get a clue and that they would not be bringing in such a scheme.
The first political party which starts a campaign to destroy the ever growing nanny state gets my vote.
You want people to eat properly? Then make Home Economics, Social & Scientific, Cooking compulsory in schools for both boys and girls starting around age 7. Hell, you could do a double whammy and teach it through Irish.
Technorati Tags: Traffic+Lights, Food, Labour, Fine+Gael, Marxism, Nanny+State, Nutrition, Intelligence, Cop+On, Information, Knowledge, Cooking, Tayto
11 Comments
Please don’t spam the Irish Blog Awards
Posted on January 24, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Blogging.
It looks like fans of certain blogs (and I hope I’m not one of them) are nominating those blogs in every category. Please don’t as it just makes Damien’s life a lot harder.
Technorati Tags: iba2007, Irish+Blog+Awards, Spam
No Comments
More in the long list of Oisín gems
Posted on January 19, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Humour.
Yes I know it’s just another “kids say the funniest things” post but this wee 5-year old thinks deeper than most.
Never promise a bed-time story and then renege:
“Dad when I grow up, I’m going to get married like you, and have babies like you, and forget things like you”
Recent obsession with death:
“Dad, when we all die, does that mean someone else might live in our house?”. “Yes they will Ois”. “So like, they’ll get all our DVDs?”
At least I’ve taught him to say “I’m going to be an engineer when I grow up, like my mum and dad”. Of course he thinks that means he’ll be fixing airplanes and computers. I’m having a hard time explaining the word design.
4 Comments
It’s a pity my granny isn’t around for the Irish Blog Awards
Posted on January 17, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Blogging, Family, Personal.
My Dad kindly voted for this blog in several categories in the Blog Awards earlier. He mailed me to say that it reminded him of my Granny (Mary O’Neill) who voted for Dev eight times in the 1932 elections on both sides of the bridge in New Ross. Could you imagine if those old Cumann na mBan women were around now and decided to help the blog result?
Technorati Tags: iba2007, Irish+Blog+Awards, Cumann na mBan
7 Comments
Irish Blog Awards open for Nominations
Posted on January 12, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Blogging.
I’m gutted, no “Best Vasectomy Blog”!
Head on over and vote for all your faves. And as you ponder your choice for Best Personal Blog or Best Specialist Blog, you might think of Bandon……..
Technorati Tags: iba2007, Irish+Blog+Awards, Damien+Mulley
4 Comments
Your Sinclair Rock n Roll Years 1987 is out!
Posted on January 6, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Technology.
As with all the previous episodes, this one is a zinger even if you were a C64 or (god forbid) Dragon user. I had stopped my involvement with home computers by 1987, what with being in college and discovering drink instead. So I found it particularly interesting that they mention a game called “Head Over Heels” which was considered by many to be the greatest example of its genre ever created.
I’d never heard of it so I’ve just grabbed it from World of Spectrum to play on ZX Spin and they weren’t joking. They did this with 48K of RAM. I think my watch has more than that. Never a huge fan of the 3-D isometric games but this is bloody good.
Download it here or view on Google Video:
Technorati Tags: YSRNRY, Your+Sinclair+Rock+n+Roll+Years, Head+Over+Heels, 1987, ZX+Spectrum, ZX+Spin, World+Of+Spectrum
5 Comments
Thank You Dave
Posted on January 6, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Personal, Purchasing, Restaurants.
We discovered over Christmas that you can in fact put 5 children, 2 adults and all their stuff in a Zafira+Roofbox and go from Cork to Kilkenny to Cavan to Cork. Hurrah.
On our trip back from Cavan on the joke’s of national routes known as the N55 and N62, we got to Roscrea and Oscar decided to puke. We caught most of it in a nappy bag and then I dropped the bag as I exited it from the car. We pulled into the McDonald’s carpark at the roundabout and proceeded to change both Oscar and Fionn.
A McDonald’s employee appeared and asked if we needed any help, we did. He headed off and got black sacks and a roll of kitchen paper. He introduced himself as Dave and stuck his card in my pocket. He then apologised for heading off but his shift was over. Two minutes later he reappeared with a cup of water for Oscar to wash out his mouth and another one of 7-Up which he told us to shake flat so it would settle Oscar’s stomach (a trick we’ve used many times in the past).
Dave then left with the message to give any of the bits to staff and to just say that he had said so. I was so impressed with this guy. All of this help was unprompted and was deeply appreciated by us. I thought he was just one of the new-style Helper’s in McDonald’s which are a fantastic addition but when I checked his card later, I found he was the manager.
Anyone who thinks McD’s are going away any time soon had better wake up and smell the lattes they now serve. McD’s are finally realising that customer service is just as important as the burgers to retain customers. It’ll be employees like Dave who make that seachange happen.
Promote this man fast - he’s capable of far more than Roscrea!
Thanks again Dave.
Technorati Tags: McDonalds, Roscrea, Ireland, Dave+Green, Customer+Service
19 Comments
You may feel a small prick
Posted on January 5, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Babies, Family, Health.
I’ve recently been getting lots of contraceptive advice from men my age. It seems the only logical route is vasectomy. One of my best advisors had his done quite a while back with no adverse effects. There is only one guy in Cork who does it, Dr Pillay on Patrick St and he highly recommended him. He also (quietly) mentioned that performance would not be affected and I wouldn’t be shooting blanks for the first thirty. Important tip!
My old workmate C told me all about his on a trip to Dell in Limerick the day after it had been done and he seemed fine. Mr B in Paris last week concurred that it was not such a big deal. I also saw the documentary last year where that brave man from Galway bared his knackers for all to see as his tubes were cut. The valium made him collapse in fits of giggles and I wondered if this was standard practice.
Add to this the gentle encouragement of Catherine’s sister Claire “I’ll come after you with garden shears if you even think about another baby” and we decided that enough was enough. I visited Dr Pillay at the start of December to talk it through and once he heard the number “5″, he didn’t probe for motivation any further. It all sounded pretty straightforward: snip snap, bish bash bosh, few days of discomfort and off ye go and climb Everest.
Catherine checked multiple times that I was ok with the idea and that I wasn’t rushing in. I guess I must be deeply shallow because in my mind it was at the same level as a root canal or deviated septum op. No concerns about emasculation or man breasts (I have those already), no “what if my entire family is killed in a fire and I want to have more kids when I’m 70?” type questions. Just simple basic “my wife cannot take the pill until menopause” and “Five is enough. Enough. Seriously tho, enough.” Maybe I’ll wake up one day and scream “oh dear jesus my testicles are no longer connected to my vas deferns” but I doubt it.
The only prep that had to be done was hair and the major question to be answered - blade or cream? Blade - are you mental or something? Veet it was. Hmm, that’s an interesting look for me, sort of a comb-over effect. Why does no-one ever mention that Veet burns? Ahh, small print, avoid genital area. Ow ow ow.
I headed in on Friday 14th and unfortunately forgot about the goddammed Christmas shoppers and arrived 15 minutes late, totally stressed and sweatin. To quote my buddy Eoin, the following bits may be TMI for you. So stop reading now if you are of a delicate nature.
I’d had the heating on full blast all the way in to avoid the Atlantic Swim Effect but the stress of being late negated all of that. Dr Pillay was lovely and asked me if I wanted to relax for a few minutes. I didn’t. For some idiotic reason I thought I might be able to read during the op and brought “The Wisdom of Crowds” with me. He found this amusing.
So up onto the couch in the corner of his office, keks off, iodine on and we were in business. He warned the local would hurt but it was fine. The incision began and all was well. Throughout the entire thing he had Cork’s 96FM on with that horrendous gobshite who does the chat in the mornings. He had on some blokes who have been doing panto since the 50’s and it kept me nicely distracted the whole time as the only thought going through my head was “This is where Radio Jay on Gift Grub gets his material from”.
Some warnings of pressure from the doc, then, jesus fucking christ man are you trying to kill me, arggggh. “Oh did that hurt?”. Did it hurt? Did it hurt? Would you like me to stick a rusty nail in your nuts so you can get some sense of it? He added more local. Still no joy, so he added some more. At this point I was going to ask for an epidural but the last jab seemed to sort it out. I guess this is where the word numbnuts comes from.
Finally, the big stitches went in, I relaxed and he said “now we’ll do the right one”. Noooooooooooo, it can’t have taken that long to cut a tube and fold the two halves back. It turns out that “things kept tensing up” making his life very difficult. G’way, a man has his scrotum cut open and shockingly, it doesn’t relax into a giant fluffy balloon. Now I know why the guy on the tv was given the valium.
Liathróid a dó was complete, he sowed me up and I felt pretty ok. Lots of advice about not being too energetic. Like that’ll happen - I pulled a muscle putting a child to bed the other night. He gave me some Betadine ointment, put everything in a hammock and gave me an ice-pack for the journey home.
Drive home was ok but the ache started around Innishannon. Do you have to drive at 30mph today you stupid stupid person, movvvvvveee, I’ve just been operated on. Home. Frozen peas into ziplock and I relaxed on the couch. Pain got worse. Panadol my hole, I popped one of Catherine’s Ponstan Forte and soon the pain faded to a dull throb.
Over the next few days I was in a very bad state. As the Ponstan wore off each time, it started hurting like hell and the hammock seemed to add to it. I went hammock free for a day but it was far far worse and I put it back. Getting out of bed each morning was not fun. Wound seemed to take it’s time healing and in fact here we are three weeks later and there is still a scab. Finally one week after the op, the pain subsided and apart from the long journey over Christmas, there was no serious discomfort. I can confidently hold my own in a childbirth pain conversation now, he said, running for the door.
So now that I have put men off it for life, do I regret it? Not for a second. A week’s discomfort for a lifetime of one less major thing to worry about - I’d do it in a second again. And it looks like my best advisor was right 
Just make sure you can get your hands on Ponstan!
UPDATE 1: 1st May 2007 - Just got the all-clear. Woo hoo! This is probably a good thing as we both recently started our usual “ah Síofra is such a wee darling, one more wouldn’t really be that much extra hassle”.
Technorati Tags: vasectomy, contraception, Dr+Pillay, Veet, Betadine, Hammock
62 Comments
Curses - Tagged
Posted on January 3, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Personal.
So Haydn tagged me. Five things you don’t know about me eh? Apart from my Spaghetti Hoop fetish?
1. I was Junior Irish Archery Champion in 1980. Not as impressive as it sounds. Three of us in the competition and other two were beginners. Never improved after that and gave up in mid-teens. Turns out not everyone else saw a blob of colours down the end of the field and I later found out I was short-sighted. My other problem was that…
2. I appear to be what is known as cross-dominant. No not a Tranny Whip Fetishist but I mix use of left and right. I’m not ambidextrous but I write right-handed, am left footed, left eyed and hurl left handed (the twice a year when I hurl). I think I’d be more comfortable golfing left-handed too, if I ever golfed. I switched to using my left hand for the mouse last year and find it more natural than using the right. For fun I’ve starting writing like a 3 year old with my left hand on occasion too. So in archery, holding a bow right-handedly but using my left eye meant that I couldn’t get the “sight” out far enough to the left to line it up correctly, so I always had to aim off centre. I cudda been a contenda otherwise.
3. I have the worlds most awesome wife with whom I am still having a fling 16 years later. “Ah go on, let me stay on your couch” after a night in Kiely’s Bar led to marriage and five loudly opinionated children.
4. I was a thespian for a few short weeks in 1985 in the St Kieran’s College school play. I played the allegedly batty mother, Sybil Walling. It was a pretty dire farce built around a body up a chimney. Still seems to be popular. Personally I thought I was awesome and basically did a cross-dressing take off of Margaret Rutherford playing Miss Marple. And Emmet Cooney still has my copy of the goddammed video of it. I want it back Emmet! This short career diversion was mainly caused by my involvement in Irish and English debating in school (and the No Name Club). I completely dropped debating in college until 4th year when some class-mates decided to properly resurrect Forum, the UCD Engineer’s Debating Society. Not as famous as the L&H but ten times funnier and we whipped their asses in any cross-society debate. Ah fond memories of Jabba The Baby Eater and “Did DoWaDiddy DUM DiddyDoo and did he do so on three separate occasions, twice with a banana?”. Mark Connolly where are you now?
5. I’ve just had a vasectomy. Ouch. Essay coming soon.
Oops, forgot to tag others. So who can I annoy? Emmm: Walter, Curly K (good excuse to start blogging again woman!), Anthony, Kieran and Neal.
Technorati Tags: Five+Things, Archery, Brush+With+A+Body, Vasectomy, Forum, Engineers+Debating+Society
3 Comments
