Courts n Michele over here

And so our friends FINALLY decided to come and stay with us...

Which meant we had to take them out and show them the sights of Cork...

First up, UCC - University College Cork...

And the view from UCC:


Cath and Courts - arch- rivals! (Dear God, that was corny)

Still UCC...

And some decent trees meant a spot of (regular Cath sport) - tree hugging...

And a bit of modelling... GRRR!!!

And then, of course, a look at the modelling photos.

Inside UCC

I thought these geezers looked very 'Lord of the rings'-ish

While this poor lady must've been pretty cold...

From UCC we headed to St Finbars where the models were back...

Especially once they found the statues of the five wise virgins...

Sigh...

Oh well - we found it interesting that the girls went to the right of the door where they posed with the wise virgins while Michele and I headed straight to the foolhardy virgins. Oh well... no comment.

Courtney found this photo HYSTERICAL!

The gargoyles thought it was only vaguely amusing...

Once we got back home, Courts got all serious and got into Irish dancing mode...

And while we did a few other things too, we weren't about to be taking our camera with us everywhere!

South African in Canada

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS...
and even if it isn't, it's still better than being somewhere else!

I got this as an email from someone. Tons of South Africans (mostly old whites who fear that they're going to lose all their money as the ANC destroys their country) run away from the Motherland to greener pastures in Australia or somewhere else they can get a passport for.
This one tried Canada...

WARNING: This email contains language not best seen by the faint of heart!


South African in Canada ...

This is an excerpt from the diary of a South African who moved to Canada to get away from crime.

November 14th
It started snowing. The first of the season and the first real snow we have ever seen. The wife took out buttered buns and sat by the window watching t he soft flakes drift down, clinging to the trees and covering the ground. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL.

November 15th
We woke to a lovely blanket of crystal white snow covering the landscape. What a FANTASTIC sight! Every tree and shrub was covered with a beautiful white mantle. I shovelled snow for the first time and loved it. I did both our driveway and sidewalk. Later, the city snowplough came along and accidentally covered up our driveway with compacted snow from the street. But the driver smiled and waved and I waved back and shovelled again.

November 16th
It snowed an additional twelve centimetres last night and the temperature has dropped to around four degrees. Several limbs on the trees and shrubs have snapped due to the weight of the snow. I shovelled our driveway again. Shortly afterwards the snowplough came by and did his trick again. Much of the snow is now brownish grey.

November 17th
Warmed up enough during the day to create some slush, which soon became ice again. Bought snow tyres for both cars. Slipped on my arse in the driveway, paid $130 for the chiropractor, but fortunately nothing broken. More snow and ice expected.

November 18th
Still cold. Sold my wife's car and bought a 4x4 in order to get to work. Slid on the guard-rail and did considerable damage to the right quarter panel. Had another 15 centimetres of white shit last night. Both vehicles covered in salt and crud. More shovelling in store for me today. That damn snowplough came by twice yesterday.

November 19th
2 degrees outside! More f%$£ing snow. Not a tree or shrub on our property that hasn't been damaged. Power was off most of the night. Tried to keep from freezing to death with candles and a kerosene heater, which tipped over and nearly burned the f%$£ing house down. I managed to put the flames out but suffered second degree burns on my hands and lost all my eyebrows and eyelashes. Car slid on the white shit on the way to the hospital and was totalled.

November 20th
Mother f%$£ing white kak keeps coming down!
I have to put on all the clothes I own just to get to the mailbox.
If I ever catch that son of a bitch that drives that f%$£ing snowplough, I'll chew open his chest and rip his heart out. I think he hides around the f%$£ing corner and waits for me to finish shovelling, then comes down the street at about 160km/hr and buries our driveway again. F%$£ing power still off. The shithouse froze and parts of the roof have started to cave in

November 21st
Twelve more centimetres of f%$£ing snow and f%$£ing ice and f%$£k knows what other kind of f%$£ing white shit fell last night.
I wounded the f%$£ing snowplough p%$£s with a pick, but the bastard got away.
The wife has f%$£ed off and left me.
The f%$£ing car won't start and I think I'm going f%$£ing snow-blind.
I can't move my f%$£ing toes, haven't seen the f%$£ing sun in weeks and there's more f%$£ing snow predicted.
Wind chill is 30 f%$£ing degrees below zero!!

November 22nd
Ff%$£K THIS! I am moving back to South Africa !!!!!!!!!

How Naas

That'll do Naas-ly...

And so, with my buddy Dave (who I used to work with at Enterprise Ireland) and Sinead getting married, we headed off to Dublin and County Kildare for a long weekend to a place called Naas (which is pronounced 'Nayce' and not the way we say the name of a certain Springbok flyhalf who had something of a reputation for never needing to wash his sparkling white shorts).

Haven't heard of Naas? Not surprising really, I think the biggest thing about it is this ball (above), which is a good monument, I think, to the state of Irish roads.

But I digress.
We hired a car and drove up on Saturday morning, even though the wedding was on the Sunday, so that we could see some of our buddies beforehand.

The roads near Cork were a bit slippery what with the ice and snow.
What's that? Yes I said snow in Cork.

It doesn't normally snow in Cork I think, as the weather is normally a bit warmer here than in the rest of Ireland and the UK, but this time it did...

Now snow may not be a big thing for many people, but Cath and I think it's a big deal - so much so that on the way up, we had to take a detour to go and make a snowman!

We took a detour up towards the hills. The roads were tiny but it was beautiful up there surrounded by white. The snow was fairly deep too so it was the most I'd ever seen cos the last time I saw snow, there was barely enough around to scrape together a snowball.

We found a field and I managed to open the gate. There were no sheep in our field but there clearly had been cos one of the snowballs that I threw at Cath definitely stank of some sort of animal crap.



Speaking of snowballs, while the plan may have began as 'operation snowman', it quickly became 'operation biggest snowball', and we took great pleasure in pounding each other. Usually resorting to punches, tickles, slaps, dead legs and other means, snowballs were a welcome respite from the usual abuse we inflict on each other.

Cath then decided it would be a good idea to try and kick up some snow...



... before we eventually got down to the real job of building 'yer man'. Notice, not only did Cath get my gloves for the task, but yer man also got my hat. Alas, we were not prepared so we didn't have a carrot for his nose.

We really took to Yer man and while i got an arm around the shoulder and a manly hug, Cath got a smooch. I heard he wasn't a good kisser though, his kisses left her feeling cold.

And then, Cath got my jacket to make a snow angel...
which pretty much left me freezing my ass off in the snow!

LOOK: A SNOW ANGEL!

Anyhoo. It was 6 nations day and with our Italian buddy Michele now firmly into rugby, we met him at a Dublin pub to watch the Italy vs Ireland game. Italy played well but away from home, they just didn't have enough.

After the rugby we went out for coffee and caught up with Courtney. Michele enjoyed being sandwiched between his ladies in red!

Not having seen enough of the two of them, we decided to ask Nur if we could bring the two of them along for supper at Nur's place.
Now normally we wouldn't drop a surprise on someone like that, but the last time we went round to Nur's place for a cup of tea, she supplied us with a full (brilliant) meal, drinks, pudding and snacks - so we were pretty sure there would be enough food.

In typical Nur fashion, she had cooked us a massive, delicious chicken and mushroom pie - which we did great damage to!

Courtney put on some music and proceeded to 'shake her booty' in Nur's living room with Michele. It was a good night and we ended up hitting the sack late after talking into the evening.

Once again, the girls just couldn't resist his Italian accent... either that or they were posing for his new Facebook profile picture!

The next morning, we slept in and made our way downstairs to where Nur was already up making pancakes for us. If anyone ever needs a place to stay, I can whole-heartedly recommend Nur's - great food, the offer of a cup of tea every few minutes and a fantastically comfy bed. We didn't want to leave!

But we had to - and we made our way to Naas for the afternoon wedding.

I knew Dave was anti-religion, but it was interesting to note in the ceremony booklet that he was a 'humanist' - a group "with a joyful, life-affirming non-religious outlook on life with a strong ethical and moral dimension, based on a concern for humanity and the natural world".

Dave's a really cool guy, and even though the two of us totally disagree when it comes to God, we've had some pretty good chats over the years about it (and other stuff)- he pities me for my naiive religious views, and I just tell him, 'That's okay, I'll pray for you'.

He is also one of the nicest guys I know. In this photie below, Dave (on the right) is waiting next to his brother Paudie, for Sinead to enter the church. You should have seen his face light up when he saw her! Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!

While the fact that he doesn't believe does make me feel a bit.... well.... like he's missing out, I do never-the-less respect him for having the balls to go against what is such a massive tradition over here - the big church wedding!

So there was no Mass, but they did keep some traditions from the Catholic ceremony - namely a white dress, two candles signifying the two of them lighting a new candle signifying them as a new couple, exchanging vows and rings, etc - oh and of course, "you may kiss the bride".

The weather was pretty crap so there was no going outside for photos for them and we spent a few hours catching up with some friends from EI that I used to work with.

This is John, EI's entertainment guru. I think he may be the only man in Ireland not to drink any alcohaol, something he's never actually done. But he's another really cool oke and is often the last man to leave a party.

The couple returned from their photos elsewhere in the hotel and we made our way through for food, etc - the wait was worthwhile! The place was stunning and the food was great

The cake was cut...

And the speeches were about to begin when we were reminded of another great Irish tradition... betting on the length of speeches. The Irish will bet on pretty much anything... The Oscars, Big Brother, sport, etc. But this time, we were passing two euro coins around in an effort to get the kitty up. In the end it was about 20 bucks - which I WON!!!!

Woohoo, now I know, 20 isn't THAT much, but the fact is, I WON! - I never win anything!

My bet of 31 minutes and 17 seconds ended up being 3 seconds out. Next closest was Cath - who thought she might sneak it at the end. Oh well, she'll raid my wallet realistically anyway!

Here's cath with 'the betting card'.... No chance sweetie, the money's mine!

After supper there was the throwing of the bouquet...

... A bit of dancing...

... and time for another photo or two...

... before it became time to leave. When we did eventaully leave, our car was pretty-much frozen so we first had to melt the ice off the windscreens before we could drive off. We then headed to our bnb at about 2am and slept like logs!

All in all, a pretty good time. Only problem was - seeing our friends again has just made us want to see em even more - and now we're planning on going back soon!

The US elections - why do I care?!

Okay, normally I don't do this sort of thing - comment on political issues, etc - but in an attempt to be more in tune with issues, etc, I've decided - what the hell!
So what follows is a bit of insight into Alan's view on the Democratic and Republican party nominations...

THE US elections. Well, not really. Actually, they're only the party elections for a presidential nominee, but they've drawn my attention like never before. And I don't really know why.

Well, I have a clue, I think it may be because I feel that in Barack Obama, the US has a chance to turn the corner and this time, choose a leader that they could be proud of, that the rest of the world might actually take seriously. Of course, first he needs to get elected as his party's nominee - something that looks unlikely!

Few people get at me like Obama - Tony Blair did, Mandela always does. Obama is just someone that you can look at and... believe in - which for a politician is a big thing! While Hillary Clinton, Obama's rival for the Democratic seat, seems forced and fake, her rival has inspired people - so much so that the Kennedy's have come out endorsing him, the daughter of JFK saying recently that she hasn't seen anyone inspire like Obama since her dad was around.

The other thing is, he's black - which would make him the first black president if he was to go all the way. Of course, Hillary is a woman, so the Democrats should be making history either way this time around.

Feminists around the US are lobbying behind Hillary - which in a way is a pity cos I think they're knda missing the point. Oprah was slammed by woman's rights groups recently for supporting Obama with comments like "We have the chance of putting a woman in the whitehouse and you support a man - how could you betray us," etc. That kinda says to me that many women are voting for Hillary because she's a woman - and not because of what she's saying / doing. I suppose that might be true for many black voters and Obama too, but I hope not.

Besides, if that's your argument, there have been lots of woman in the white house before - Hillary herself - but never a black person!

It's ironic also, that someone pertaining to be the hero of women is so often relying on her husband to get her support. One sees Bill Clinton on TV talking about Hillary at rallies almost as often as you see Hillary. Who's running again?

Anyhoo, all of this has had me up watching TV into the morning, feeling like a total nerd - but I just have the feeling that something historic is happening - and it's pretty interesting watching to see how white, male voters vote, how female voters vote, how black voters vote, how the young vote, etc - as they break it down state by state. And that's just the Democrats. There are 3 Republican okes still in the running! (Correction: latest development: 2 now)

(The above photos are from CNN.com)

THE FOLLOWING is an article lifted from The Irish Examiner which pretty much explains how I felt. Even though I cheated and went to bed at 1am.

IN THE small hours of yesterday morning a giddy crowd of 250 gathered around televisions at the Lime Café Bar in Dun Laoghaire.

It was the Champions League Final and a Sky Sports Super Sunday bound up in the intrigue of a Big Brother elimination night.

But those of us transfixed to the CNN commentary did not arrive to cheer as football fans or reality television addicts. This was a rare occasion for us who excite at Dáil (Irish Parliament)debates and Seanad shenanigans to come out and bask in the joy of being a "political nerd".

And what better motivation than watching the frequently incomprehensible voting process unfold behind what was America's most competitive Super Tuesday in living memory. The utter complexity of the race and the level of interest in Ireland was almost enough to give most people a legitimate excuse for buying a ticket to the event organised by the Politics.ie blog.

"It is just so close. Last time out we knew John Kerry was going to get the Democrat election and George Bush was going for a second term there was nothing at stake on Super Tuesday," explained Isobel O'Connor from Dublin.

"It is also about the fact we don't get to elect a president who carries the same power and influence around the world."

"It is democracy in action and it is not even a general election. So it is fascinating to see how the people have their say. You can see how they are pulling the numbers together and who they are targeting to get votes," said James Lawless from Sallins, Co Kildare.

Senator Dan Boyle, who spent his early years in America and arrived to Tuesday night's party with a cohort of other Green Party members, attributed the level of interest to the polarising affect of President George Bush and people seeking something different.

However, most in the bar admitted their primary motivation for making the trip to Dun Laoghaire was not to cheer for senators Hillary Clinton, John McCain or Barak Obama.

We were there because we were all political junkies wanting to watch an historic event unfold.

Deep down the results were a sideshow for us political nerds. Either the Super Tuesday Fix could be sourced alone at home in a darkened sitting room or in a bar in south Dublin with hotdogs and debate.

The bar closed at 2.30am and the only stimulant left was the speeches of each candidate, the thundering predictions of CNN's Wolf Blitzer and the occasional cup of coffee.

While the crowd whittled down as the key states of New York, New Jersey and Illinois became clear the party remained intact.

The real die-hard addicts were still glued to the screens after 5.20am when the final predictions were made for the most important state of all — California.

With CBS reporting record turnouts in 24 voting states and American Samoa, it is abundantly clear that people really still care about an election.

This in the world's largest economy, where citizens are supposed to be among the most disaffected anywhere. And this enthusiasm told us nerds it is still okay to care, to be interested and to gather in Dun Laoghaire until dawn — getting excited about who might be selected to try and be elected as the next leader of a country on the other side of the ocean.

Roll on the remainingst of the primaries.