Friday, December 28, 2007

Ross O'Carroll-Kelly: The Orange Mocca-chip Frappuccino Years by Paul Howard


Ross is repeating first year for the third time when there's an embarrassing incident in town and his old pair, we're talking Dick Features and the stupid wagon, end up throwing him out of the house. For, like, nothing! Thank God that Fionn let him stay at his flat and JP got his Dad to give him a job and all the guys wanted to buy him beer, or else it might have been really awful. But, is Ross growing a conscience?

Thursday, December 20, 2007

The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Suzanna Clarke


A book of fairytales, rather than short stories. I was really pleased with myself when I described the book as being like the Brothers Grimm rewritten by a Victorian lady with a wicked sense of humour. I was a bit disappointed to see one of the reviews on the back of the book had described it as being like the Brothers Grimm by Jane Austen, so I wasn't as original as I had thought. Nonetheless, this was an absolutely FABULOUS book. I loved it. Read it.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Ross O'Carroll-Kelly: The Teenage Dirtbag Years by Paul Howard



So, roysh, Ross has gone to college on a sports scholarship and he's still, like a total orsehole. More interested in booze and birds than studying. Unfortunately, UCD isn't as understanding as Castlerock College was about that. Anyway, while he's in America on the J1 for the summer, we find out that he slipped one to his best friend's, we're talking Christian's, mom. Will Christian find out? Not as funny as the first book, but still entertaining. Hasn't put me off reading the rest of them either.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

After Dark by Haruki Murikami


Another weird and wonderful tale about a woman, a man and the people that their lives cross with in one night. As per usual, the story is beautifully crafted, nothing is resolved and yet everything is as it should be. Perhaps that's the key to Murikami's genius? Just like in real life, the loose ends don't get neatly tied away, but there are enough possibilities and potentialities that the story itself is enough and it doesn't need to be neatly boxed away.

Friday, December 07, 2007

I did it!

I've been threatening to do it in my head for a couple of days, but today I finally went and did my first 15 km run - that's just under 9 1/2 miles in old money - hooray! I went from Celbridge to Leixlip towards Maynooth and back to Celbridge. That's pretty far in anyone's map!

It took me slightly longer than my target of an hour and a half, but only by 4 minutes, so all in all I'm pretty proud of me.
Can I just mention that it was freezing cold this morning, with a blustery wind (that I was facing into for the whole 6 to 10 km points, which, incidentally, was all uphill.
I'll say it again - hooray! Go me!

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Ross O'Carroll-Kelly: the Mis-education Years by Paul Howard


Oh! My! God! This book, loike, TOTALLY focking rocked, mon! The worst of it was, that Oi've actually spent the last four, loike, months actually troiying to teach these goys. Oi really, loike, enjoyed the story. It was SO funny. And Oh! My! God!, that Ross O'Carroll-Kelly dude, is loike, the biggest focking orsehole Oi have ever, loike, read.
Enough of the phonetics - you get the picture. Great fun. Would even consider reading the rest of them... High praise indeed!

Does that put the fear of God in you, Gerry?

I've been listening to too much radio, with the ad for GiftGrub where Mario whatshishead is ripping off Ben "Does that put the fear of God in you, Jackie Skelly?" Dunne. Anyway, it seemed like an apt opening line.

Gerry has decided that he is going to become the guardian of the physical health of the old Shantallians. He is trying to shame us all into getting into shape to run the Dublin marathon in 2009 and is dangling a crazy money fund before our greedy little eyes as some form of Carrickmacross-carrot.

There are a few problems with his crack-pot scheme. One is that Amo has been involved in athletics for years, is really fit and has already done the marathon (in 3 hours 45 minutes or something equally incredible), so she's pretty much guaranteed the prize, or at least the major share of it. James (aka Jim) is too busy playing happy families and walking the dog. According to Gerry though, James is wavering. Gerry thinks he can get him on board. Another problem is that my husband (or wuss-band as I must now call him, apparently) isn't really interested in engaging with the whole process. The boys may be calling him yellow, but he stands by his woeful tale of shinsplints. Ow.

Suzanne has agreed to participate. So has Amo, but then of course she would, seeing as she's most likely to win. Gerry's got to because it was all his crazy idea. And I'm in. But I've got a sneaky plan.

I'm going to do the marathon in 2008. Ha! Training is in full swing. My first test will be in April when I do the half-marathon in Connemara. I'm reliably informed that it's a demon. The last three miles are all uphill. I figure that if I can manage that, I'll be good for the full jobbie in October.

I'm up to 12.5km, 3 times a week. This week, I'm going to bring it up to 15km, which is three-quarters of the distance of a half-marathon.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka


Please don't think I'm being facetious when I say that this is a lighthearted tale about the funny side of illegal immigration and human trafficking. It sounds shallow, but that's what the story is about. The story itself is very entertaining: funny in spots and quite sad and poignant in others. But it glosses over some very serious issues (the conditions of illegal workers, selling young women into prostitution, exploitation, etc.). Why bother raising them in the context of the story if you're not planning to make some sort of relevant point about it? All in all, a good read but don't be expecting any serious social commentary. Not as accomplished as A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, imho.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Oooh! New Hair?

So, I got my hair cut off. It was annoying me. Also, since we'd cut David's hair to stop him from eating it, he'd taken to eating mine.
Ursula suggested that I put up before and after pics to showcase my new 'do, which would also go towards bringing up my blog total for the year.

I don't much like getting my photo taken. Not very photogenic, donchaknow. (This is why the only half decent photo of me gets used for everything, cf My Profile.)

So, I did what any sane and normal person would do... I Simpsonised myself! Those good folks at Simpsonize Me, who aren't using the interweb for a shameless marketing ploy on behalf of BurgerKing and the Simpsons movie, gave me a makeover. And here I am:

It's quite a good likeness, I'm told...
And a lot better looking than a photo!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Going metric

Further to the whole running thing - I'm really taking it seriously now. I've set myself an actual goal to do the marathon in 2008, rather than the wishy-washy 'maybe someday' line I've taken previously.
I'm trying really hard to go out 3 times a week now (definitely twice) and I'm up to 11 km (I've gone metric, that's around 7 miles in old money) in just over an hour. Sounds great to me!
There's a problem though. The marathon is 42 km (26 miles). At my current pace, I'm looking at a finishing time of 4 hours. That's crap. I'd be embarrassed. I'd probably not admit to doing the marathon at all if that was my time.
I've been running regularly since mid-September and I've been cranking it up every week or two since then but to be honest, I really don't see much of an improvement. I mean obviously I'm increasing my distances, but my pace doesn't seem to be getting any better. If there happens to be someone reading this with some useful tips or advice, please pass 'em on.

Up the ante

I was fiddling about with the layout of my blog this evening, rather than summarising an article for my college assignment, like I was supposed to be doing. (Conor, if you're reading this, I was working really, really hard all night and didn't get distracted even for a brief second.)

Anyway, I realised that my bloggage has been very sporadic lately. In fact, I noticed a pattern. In 2004 and 2006, when I was in full-time employment, I blogged quite regularly. About once a week, it appears. In 2005, when I was writing my master's thesis and then on maternity leave, I blogged five times. All year.

I spent most of 2007 on maternity leave also, but with the advent of wireless broadband at home, I have managed to keep the blog rate up to 24 posts (25 when you count this one) so far this year. Strangely, I have only posted 4 times (5 when you count this one) since going back to work and study. I am obviously incredibly busy now. (See, Con?!)

So, here's where the blog entry ties back to the title. Sort of. There are about 6 weeks left in 2007. 40-ish days. I am not going to try and blog every day because that is pointless and boring. But I will bring the total number of blogs up to 40 by the end of 2007. That is 15 more blogs (after this one) this year. I can do that easily if I post twice or three times a week. If I push it to four times (frice?) in each remaining week, I might even come close to matching the good-blog years.

We'll see. No point making it a chore, eh?

Afterall, I am really busy!

Monday, November 05, 2007

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon


I remember really enjoying The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night (same author for those who don't know), so I was expecting much the same here. And I wasn't disappointed. Funny, disturbing, funnily disturbing and disturbingly funny, sometimes all at the same time. It's great.
George has just retired. He thinks he might have cancer and as if the stress of that isn't enough, his daughter is getting married (again), his son is going to bring his boyfriend to the wedding (what will everyone think?), his wife is having an affair (with a former colleague) and to cap it all, he is having a nervous breakdown of his own.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Running on empty

I started running again last month and I'm taking it a bit more seriously than I used to. Granted, I'm still not very fast and I don't go terribly far; but I'm paying a lot more attention to how fast and how far I'm not going. Why? I've decided that I want to run the Dublin City Marathon. Not this year (it's on in 2 days, so I've left it a little late to train!) but maybe next? At any rate, it's on my list of things to do before I die (see my50.co.uk).

I was watching a comedy show called Dan & Becs a couple of weeks ago, and Becs was talking about a website called 'mapmyrun.com'. I thought it was part of the joke, but checked it out anyway. Sure enough and lo and behold, there it was. A great way to keep track of all my runs and how quickly I don't do them and how far they're not. It's made me feel so inadequate that I'm pushing myself a bit harder so that I don't look like a total loser if someone happens to look at my profile/runs/training.

So, now I'm almost up to 6 miles, at least 2 mornings per week. It's a start.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

A Coffee for the Teacher

I think one of my students asked me out yesterday. It's been a long time since anyone has asked me out, so I'm not sure if he did or not. In my day, you wouldn't ask (or be asked) in front of other people. Perhaps the fear of rejection outweighed the mild interest in the actual answer?

Anyway, I was helping a group of students work on a web assignment and I suggested that I should start charging for extra tuition, but said that a hot cup of coffee on my desk before the next class would suffice. Then he said: "Forget the coffee, will you come for a drink with me instead?"

I just laughed. "Aha ha ha!" The other students laughed. He laughed. I said "You need to make sure the link is relative, or else it won't work when you put it up on the server", desperately trying to change the subject, or at least get back to safe ground.

Is it really conceited to think that he might have been asking me out? Still, I do hope he wasn't actually serious. Oh God, that would be awkward.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak



Oh wow! This book was great. Death tells the story of a teenage girl growing up in a small town in Germany in the build up to and the early years of the second World War. There's an accordianist, a Jew in the basement, a boy, a library and a Fuhrer. I won't tell you anything else about this - just say READ IT!

Friday, August 31, 2007

Being a student isn't as much fun as I remember

So I've been out of work for two weeks. I kinda like it. I'm supposed to have one more week off before I start my PhD and lecturing schtick, but coz I'm such a sad little go-getter, I've signed up to do a seminar course and a consortium next week. I may have slightly underestimated the amount of work I'd have to do to prepare for it.

The result of this was that I spent the last fortnight, allegedly on holidays with my family, ignoring my husband and yelling at my kids to "shut up, mommy's reading", or "be quiet, mommy's working", or just plain "go away and annoy your dad, mommy's busy". I'm not proud of it. I'm just saying, is all.

Anyway, I've 2 days left before the seminar course begins and I've read 10 of the required 16 papers. I also need to meet up with one of the other students and prepare a presentation based on 3 of the papers I haven't read yet. I've also got to read a bunch of research proposals and prepare another presentation based on my own for the consortium. And I still haven't had a chance to review the course material for the lectures I'm supposed to start giving on Monday week...

Busy, busy, busy.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Sick again!

This is just so bloody typical. I've only been back in work since last Tuesday and I've only got to keep going until Friday and I'm properly sick again. I have the stinkiest throat infection - my third this year! I haven't eaten for two days and I can't even drink water, because it hurts too much to swallow. Also it won't stay down and if I thought it was painful going down, it's way, way worse coming back up! I've lost 7 lbs in the last 3 days. (Normally, I'd be quite pleased about losing 7 lbs, but there's something deeply unhealthy about this particular weight loss, I feel...) The doctor reckons I may need to consider getting my tonsils out. Boo hoo! A double dose of antibiotics has been prescribed. Yuck.

Get well soon to me.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Things to do in work when your brain is dead

So, I've been back in work for a day and so far I have successfully managed not to actually do anything that could be construed as work.
I have had some serious personal internet time, caught up on lots of emails, played spider solitaire for an hour or so, updated my blog, read other people's blogs...
You might think that I would be very proud of myself for sticking it to the man. But I'm actually having a small crisis of conscience and I am so bored right now that it's not even funny.
I'm about to go for an extended coffee break and then make a serious effort to find out my login ids for various applications and even try to do something constructive for the rest of the day.
Maybe.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Lots of stuff

I have just come back to work this morning after nine months' maternity leave. It's a bit of a bummer, but I can now finally reveal my news to the world: I've quit my job. I'm going to start a PhD in September and I'll be doing some undergraduate lecturing to keep a bit of cash coming in.

In other news, it was my birthday last weekend (boo-hiss!) and Conor gave me the best birthday present in the world, ever (yeay!). A 1969 MGB GT. Gorgeous! These aren't actually pictures of my car, which is blue, but they look exactly the same. Except for the colour. Which is blue.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling


So, I read the last Harry Potter book and I will admit that I enjoyed it a great deal. Not to spoil it for anyone, but I had kind of guessed the twist when I read the sixth book. I am a little disappointed in JK though - I think she wussed out at the end. Though I suppose it is really a kids' book...
Anyway, for all you Potter fans out there, I don't think you'll be let down. It's exactly what you would expect. Anyone who doesn't buy into the Potter phenomenon, don't bother reading this, because it's exactly what you would expect.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Pottery

Well, I didn't quite line up to get a copy at midnight, but I did go to my local Tesco's on Saturday afternoon and buy the latest (and last) Harry Potter book. And I interrupted myself reading 'The Book Thief' to start it. I'm four chapters in and so far, it's just as Pottertastic as any of the other books (take from that whatever you will!) Review to follow...

Thursday, July 19, 2007

News still coming...

Sorry to be such a tease. I haven't got the official confirmation I've been waiting for so I'm still not ready to reveal my new life plan to the huddled masses. It is coming soon though. I promise. (I hope!)

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Camping

I got back yesterday afternoon from a week's camping (yes, camping. In tents. In that weather...) with the Girl Guides. It was an International camp, hosted by IGG (that's the Irish Girl Guides, to the uninitiated) at Tattersalls in Ratoath, Co Meath. We had 25 Guides from Counties Kildare and Dublin and 2 from Singapore.

It was awful. It rained every day. Several times. Except for Friday, when it only rained once. It just didn't stop all day. I spent most of the week damp or wet, with rain running down the back of my neck.

We're currently planning on where to go next year. Iceland or San Francisco, maybe...

Monday, July 02, 2007

Lost Girls by Alan Moore & Melinda Gebbie


OK, so I read this months ago and never put it up as a review. Why? Well, there's lots of stuff that I read that doesn't get reviewed on my blog: magazines, newspapers, trashy romances, and (apparently) porn. Now, it's not that I'm embarrassed or anything; just that it never really crossed my mind to include this with all the rest of my reading material. Anyway, Con outed me on his blog (in a post not called "My Wife Reads Porn") for reading this and wanted me to post my comments on it, so I figured I go one better.

So, Lost Girls is a three volume boxed set of graphic novel/coffee-table-porn, in which Alice (in Wonderland), Dorothy (not in Kansas anymore) and Wendy (without the Lost Boys) each retell the story their sexual awakenings, with plenty of shagging in a wide variety of positions, locations and partners. It's pretty hornsome in spots too.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

There's news coming

I'm not saying anything yet because nothing is official, but there's some news coming. Big news. It involves work and the rest of my life. Watch this space...

Monday, June 25, 2007

Book Reviews - Amended

Just in case you're wondering what's happened to my book reviews, I've broken the one big entry into seperate ones for each book I've read. That way, "BOOK REVIEW" will get a massive citation in the label cloud and my favourite authors will also get noted...

Any comments that had been left will stay with the first book review post...

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Gamer-scores and Wife-points

I used to play lots of N64 when I was in college. I was pretty good at Mario Kart and Mario 64 and Wetrix and Bust A Move. Quite enjoyed them too. I was never much good at the shoot 'em ups though. I could never get the hang of the way they worked: couldn't find my way around; couldn't move in a straight line, or around a corner, or through a door, as required; couldn't aim; couldn't shoot; certainly couldn't select, prime and fire a weapon under pressure...

Anyway. I don't play anymore. I skipped the whole PS2 thing and it looked like I was going to similarly avoid Wii and x360.

Until Conor got Kororinpa (Wii) and Hexec (x360). Not that I'm proving a threat to anyone's gamer score or anything, but how much fun are these games??? It's a shoddy truth, but these days I can't wait for the baby to go for his nap, so's I can spend an hour or two playing. My biggest daily dilemma is now which game to play: should I spend an hour on each? Or play them on alternate days? What if the baby wakes up early and I miss out?

Apparently, I was getting a lot of wife-points from Conor's mates for letting him play so much. Does my new-found obsession increase these points or nullify them? Do I care? I'm having too much fun!

Friday, June 01, 2007

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde


...and Goldilocks ran off into the woods and was never seen again...
Jack Spratt and Mary Mary are called in to investigate to disappearance of Goldilocks and uncover an unlikely conspiracy involving Quang-Tech, SommeWorld, the Gingerbread Man (is he a cake or a biscuit?), Dorian Gray, Virginia Kreeper and extreme cucumbers.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Euro 2007

How close was that?!
We nearly got null-points.
I wish we had.

What monkey let that tone deaf foundling sing for our country?
She was out of tune and off-key for the whole miserable experience.

At least she didn't make me cringe like the UK entry (or she did, but in a different way). Christ almighty, what was that about?!

The winning song didn't quite capture my imagination like last year's epic Lordi, but you gotta love Serbia's strategy: excellent singing and beauty. The issue was that they couldn't find both in one package, but that wasn't a problem. Enter stage-left, one short-arsed, chubby songstress in a man's suit and runners, with an amazing singing voice and five tall, slender, fabulously attractive women in tailored suits and high-heels, who may or may not be able to sing, but frankly no-one cares. Obvious? Hey, it worked...

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde


Who murdered Humpty Dumpty?
Jack Spratt and Mary Mary of the NCD (Nursery Crime Division) investigate suspected fowl play in the death of Reading's most ovoid figure, while trying to fend off the encroachment of Friedland Chimes... one of the greatest literary detectives since Sherlock himself...

Friday, March 09, 2007

QuizFarm revisited

Just coz it's Friday night and Con's busy playing with his x360 (on-line live - God bless brodband!), I went to play on QuizFarm.com
'Which religion is right for you?' caught my attention first. Apparently, I ought to be a Satanist!


You scored as Satanism. Your beliefs most closely resemble those of Satanism! Before you scream, do a bit of research on it. To be a Satanist, you don't actually have to believe in Satan. Satanism generally focuses upon the spiritual advancement of the self, rather than upon submission to a deity or a set of moral codes. Do some research if you immediately think of the satanic cult stereotype. Your beliefs may also resemble those of earth-based religions such as paganism.

Satanism

79%

agnosticism

75%

Buddhism

75%

Islam

63%

Hinduism

63%

Paganism

54%

atheism

46%

Christianity

42%

Judaism

42%

Which religion is the right one for you? (new version)
created with QuizFarm.com


Coming as a bit of a surprise to me, I discover that I'm a High School Geek. I didn't think my Nerd credentials rated so highly. Also, I found this quiz a little tricky - should I have answered as if I were still in school, or as if I were in college or as I am now? I made a call and answered as me now - but there were definitely a few throwback questions...



You scored as Geek/Nerd. Haha! ok. go computer geeks!


Geek/Nerd

60%

Loner

53%

Punk

53%

Goth

47%

Emo Kid

40%

Prep

40%

Hot

33%

Jock

33%

Stoner

27%

"Ghetto"

0%

What Highschool Clique Do You Belong To?
created with QuizFarm.com


I tried a couple of other ones too: I'm a Fire Demon; I'm Monica from Friends; and my inner animal is a monkey.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Gold, Silver or Bronze?

Back when I was a carefree DINK (double-income-no-kids) I always swore there were certain things I would never do if I ever had children. No soothers, no sleeping in my bed, no talking about nappy contents.

How quickly my notions fell asunder!

So having been fairly warned, read on at your peril. Baby poo is gross. And there appears to be an unending supply of it. It pours from my childs butt like some perverse fountain of stench. Changing nappies is a thankless and pointless task - I'm only going to have to do it again in 20 minutes...

Anyway, I think I've done fairly well to have held onto that particular rant until 3 months into baby #2... and I've also kept it quite tame, so I think I deserve a medal.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman


I loved this. It had just the right measure of fantasy, reality, terror, creepy, weird and wonderful. London will never be the same for me.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

So, what have I been doing?

OK - I know it's been several months since there's been any insomniac blogger action. I was incredibly busy in work for the last few months before I finished up and went on maternity leave in November.

Baby boy number two was born at 8.26p.m. on Wednesday 29th November. He ended up being an emergency cesarean section and I had to have a general anaesthetic too, which was pretty awful. It took me weeks to get back to some semblence of normality after all that, but now (3 months later!) I actually feel like a human being again and I'm really enjoying being Mommy to my two wonderful boys.

I had my first night out with my husband since the new baby was born this week. I'd always wanted to see Dave Matthews playing live and the fabulous Conor had got tickets to his first ever Irish concert. We went with Gerry and Ursula and had a brilliant night. Mind you, I'm not sure which I enjoyed most - the gig, or having a night out with Con...

Anyhoo - now I've got broadband at home and very little excuse for not blogging more regularly, so I will make more of an effort to stay on-line while I'm not in work.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett


Yet another installment from the Discworld franchise. And great as always. Tiffany Aching, the Nac Mac Feegle, Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg along with the usual cast of villagers and misfits try to get the seasons back on track and battle the Wintersmith.