It's "Amazing" allright

Their here! Mosquitos in Ireland

Q:  Are there Mosquitos in Ireland,
A:  Yes

P.S. Thats not my hand. I don't wear gay rings!

Siamese Milky Bar

I could not believe my luck today when I bought a Milky Bar. There was 2 bars in the wrapper (1 was a bit scaldy). WIN!!!

How not to bother branding, aka "shur its grand"

Yesterday I walked past a Fujitsu marketing stand in work, and I did not stop and even bother to look at what they were showcasing. Why, you may ask.
Well its simple, the stand consisted of:

• A sofa
• 2 Fujitsu branded backdrops
• 2 desks
• A large 52(ish) inch tv/display screen

The screen they were using was a Sanyo, Fujitsu are using a Sanyo display screen.
Well in my mind if you don't use your own product then neither will I, so what your displaying is totally irrelevant.

Stung

You know its not very often I get caught out, but I can remember when I was got lovely one night by Dave O'Reilly.
We were working in Fibber Magees in Dublin in 96, and for some Fibbers reason the DJ had an argument with the boss. He then decided to grab all his records and CDs, and fuck off leaving the venue music-less halfway trough the night.

Fibbers was a heavy metal, rock, grunge & goth scene, and the boss constructed a hasty rescue plan. This plan consisted of moving me from the bar to the DJ box (cos I was the only one who knew how to use the equipment) to DJ for the night. I remember telling him that I had no music, and he told me that there was 4 CDs in the DJ box. Oh great 4 CDs and 2 of them were the current "Now thats what I call music" albums, and the other 2 were free from magazines.
After 2 dancy tunes and a nasty vibe from about forty Goths who came in to act depressed I turned to Dave in my hour of need and asked would he recommend anything from the 2 free disks.

A few seconds into the recommended track I could see Dave breaking his shite over a pint of Snakebite across an empty dance-floor, it felt like that scene from Father Ted.

Ghost town by The Specials... Thanks Dave you ruined my DJ career!

Irish wit is far superior

Spotted at a filling station in Portlaoise

Seriously, it is just like a shopping trolley!

PIMP MY RIDE pt2

 Spotted in Blanch

Yes that is a skull painted on this car.

PIMP MY RIDE pt1

Closer look at the "master craftsmanship" Double click for close up.

Spotted in Clondalkin.

Summer 1992 -

In the Summer of 1992 I met Paul Joyce trough my brother, and joined forces on a camping trip to Coolderry. The guys had found this old Church of Ireland Church that was no longer used, and it was decided that this would be our shelter for the night. After we all met up we arrived at the Church in the evening with our supplies.  I cant remember how we got there, but back then we cycled or "thumbed" everywhere. Thinking about it we "thumbed" all the time and never had any problems, this is something I would never let my kids do. 

We set ourselves up in the Church for the night singing, "dancing", and "generally acting the goat". 

While trying to cook sausages on sticks and boil water for tea I remember Paul chilling out munching on his endless supply of Pepsi & crisps. Every trip we ever went on I think that's all he ever packed, there was always a packet of discos on the go.

We made a hasty retreat from that Church the next morning when some angry local took exception to our presence.

That summer and many summers after we would be seen all over the place on our bikes, none of which deserved to be on the road they were in such a state. Paul with his little white & red BMX laden down with crisps and fizzy drinks wobbling all over the road much to the horror of local drivers on little country roads.

Glassderry woods at the back of Gloster convent was a favorite haunt of ours where we knew every track and path in there like the back of our hands, and usually navigated them in the pitch black of night.

I have so many memories of Paul that make me laugh, and he always made his own fun and brought out the best in people. Once 4 of us went to Dromineer camping, and we split into 2 groups of 2 so we could get a lift easier. We had to get 2 lifts and walk about 3 miles to get there, while Paul got on so well with the random girls that picked him up they went out of their way by about 9 miles to drop him off. Our faces must have been priceless when the arrived in Dromineer with music blaring out of their car, smoking cigarettes and laughing out loud, a huge contrast to our journey.

We spent a lot of time together over the early 90s watching vhs tapes on a video player the size of a small suitcase, and we always likened ourselves to the guys from "Stand by me" the movie. Paul had a vast range of movies, and we practically lived in each others houses for that period of our lives. When we were not smoking, camping, slicing water containers with Paul's ninja sword we were immersed in Paul's collection of martial arts movies. The movie that most springs to mind is American Samurai, and re-enacting scenes from it on the streets of Cloughjordan, and then sleeping in hay sheds while we were supposed to be in each others houses.  

I have far to many memories of Paul to ever recall, all of them good. I had planned on taking a time out this summer, and going home to catch up with people I have not seen in far too long, and Paul Joyce was top of my list.

We all for get our mortality and utter soundbites such as "time is precious" or "live every day like its your last", and its only at times like this that you really understand them. 

Paul may have had no brothers or sisters, but in reality he had many.

Paul Joyce 1978-2011

Year of the Rabbit 今年兔

我所有的朋友，祝你新年快乐。今年五月是你的一年。我希望这将是我的。我的妻子和我都期待我们的小宝宝兔子七月，这将是和我一样的迹象。

Gordon 木兔

Manchester Montage

click picture for larger view