And the Oscar goes to.....(how I did on predictions!)

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond), Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), Peter O'Toole (Venus), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

SHOULD: Leonardo DiCaprio & Forest Whitaker
WILL: Forest Whitaker
DID: Forest Whitaker

Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine), Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children), Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond), Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls), Mark Wahlberg (The Departed)

SHOULD: Djimon Hounsou & Alan Arkin
WILL: Alan Arkin
DID: Alan Arkin

Best Actress: Penélope Cruz (Volver), Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal), Helen Mirren (The Queen), Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada), Kate Winslet (Little Children)

SHOULD: Helen Mirren
WILL: Helen Mirren
DID: Helen Mirren

Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza (Babel), Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), Rinko Kikuchi (Babel)

SHOULD: Abigail Breslin
WILL: Adriana Barraza
DID: Jennifer Hudson

Animated Feature: Cars, Happy Feet, Monster House.

SHOULD: Happy Feet
WILL: Happy Feet
DID: Happy Feet

Cinematography: The Black Dahlia, Children of Men, The Illusionist, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Prestige.

SHOULD: Pan’s Labyrinth
WILL: Pan’s Labyrinth
DID: Pan’s Labyrinth

Costume Design: Curse of the Golden Flower, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, Marie Antoinette, The Queen.

SHOULD: Dreamgirls
WILL: The Queen
DID: Marie Antoinette

Best Director: Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Queen, United 93.

SHOULD: Martin Scorsese
WILL: Martin Scorsese
DID: Martin Scorsese

Documentary: Deliver us from Evil, An Invonvenient Truth, Iraq in Fragments, Jesus Camp, My Country My Country.

SHOULD: An Inconvenient Truth
WILL: An Inconvenient Truth
DID: An Inconvenient Truth

Film Editing: Babel, Blood Diamond, Children of Men, The Departed, United 93.

SHOULD: Babel
WILL: Babel
DID: The Departed

Foreign Language Film: After the Wedding, Days of Glory (Indigénes), The Lives of Others, Pan’s Labyrinth, Water.

SHOULD: Apocalypto
WILL: Pan’s Labyrinth
DID: The Lives of Others

Makeup: Apocalypto, Click, Pan’s Labyrinth

SHOULD: Apocalypto
WILL: Apocalypto
DID: Pan’s Labyrinth

Best Picture: Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen.

SHOULD: The Departed
WILL: Little Miss Sunshine
DID: The Departed

Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Children of Men, The Departed, Little Children, Notes on a Scandal

SHOULD: The Departed
WILL: Notes on a Scandal
DID: The Departed


Writing (Original Screenplay): Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Queen

SHOULD: Little Miss Sunshine
WILL: Little Miss Sunshine
DID: Little Miss Sunshine

And there we have it....another year, another Oscar. Some of my shoulds turned out to be dids, and I was happy to be put right on a few - who could have seen 'The Departed' doing THAT well? I'm delighted for Scorsese...it is a well deserved sweeping!! Disappointed that Pan's Labyrith didn't get Best Foreign Language, and wasn't bothered on costumes anyway. I'm also disappointed that Jennifer Hudson got Best Supporting Actress, even though I haven't seen the movie. Don't really know why!! And as for Best Documentary? It could never have gone another direction - well done Al Gore!!

Can't wait to see the highlights tonight, as no terrestrial channel showed it last night, so I couldn't stay up late to watch them. See how Ellen got on...

Until next year............

Barca bow down to superior Reds!

Bellamy: "You couldn't make up what has happened tonight. "I've not been reading the papers so I've not been too bothered what people say. All I wanted to do was make the most of the special atmosphere and the build up to the game. I've been reasonably lucky in football, playing for my country and other big clubs, but this is my best moment in the game."

John Arne Riise: "We knew we needed to enjoy it out there and believe in ourselves. To be fair we started the game very well. They scored but we knew that if we worked hard we would get a goal back. The boss has shown tonight that, tactically, he's one of the best around."

All Hail Rafa!

Could this be another year, another song needed?

We won it six times........

we won it six TTIIIIMMEEEESSS........

In Atheeeeeennnsss.........

We won it six times!

We all dream of a team of Carraghers!

Carra hoping for another Barca blowout...And so say all of us, J.C.!!

Liverpool's excellent record at the Nou Camp sets us up nicely for a confident game tonight!

From www.liverpoolfc.tv:

'The club have never conceded a goal on three previous visits to the famous stadium and Carragher knows a similar shut-out in the first leg of this year's last 16 clash would provide the Reds with a great chance to progress.

"We've had some good results in the past and I'm sure 0-0 would be considered a good score this time as well," he said. "We're playing against the European champions and against a side who went close to becoming world champions as well, so we know it's going to be difficult.

"We've had ten days since our last match and we went to Portugal to prepare for this game, so we are ready. The important thing on the night is to play well and stay focused because Barcelona have top quality players. "It's going to be a great occasion for everybody involved and we are all looking forward to it."

Despite Barcelona's poor result at Valencia at the weekend, Carragher isn't subscribing to the thought that this is a great time for the Reds to be taking on Frank Rijkaard's men. "I've been watching them a lot lately and I don't see much wrong," he said. "They controlled much of the game against Valencia and were probably a bit unlucky. They're still top of their league so there can't be that much wrong.

"They're a top side but, as with every side, they have weaknesses and that's what we've been working on trying to exploit. We know what we have to do on the night and now it's up to us to enjoy playing in one of the world's great stadiums and make sure we get the right result."

COME ON THE POOL!!!

Shame on you BAFTA!

Memories of school come flooding back....it's not as if I've ever had to find 'x' in my adult life.

On the upside to life, watched 'Pan's Labyrinth' on DVD last night, and a brilliant episode of Top Gear on BBC.

Then watched the BAFTA's. I've to write a thingy on it for the BBC website, and had a 'winning' line, which Alan says I can't use..."ugly back-slappery that rears it's colonial head at times like these"

...because, basically, he says that I'm being 'down' on the British, and the BBC is pretty much Britain's flagship of media.

Ah well, I have a blog to vent, so vent I shall!

Paul Greengrass Best Director? The ugly back-slappery that rears it's colonial head at times like these completely invalidates any further awards the BAFTA's see fit to hand out. To say that United 93 - a 'made-for-telly-tearjerker' - was the best directed movie of 2006 calls doubt on any system of encouragement the British establishment creates.

Shame on you, BAFTA!

Ode to the train journey that is slowly slipping away from me...

Train 4 from Moscow to Beijing was surprisingly modern, clean and comfortable. With at least 50 westerners aboard, as well as plenty of people from Russia, China and Poland, there was a pleasant party atmosphere all the way.

For the first 3 days, the train travels across the vastness of Siberia, passing from Europe to Asia 1,777km east of Moscow.

On day 4, the train rounds Lake Baikal, the deepest fresh water lake in the world, with excellent views of the lake. In summer, the countryside appears green and pleasant, though in some parts the permafrost lies only inches below the surface.

On day 5, after passing through Mongolian customs late at night, you wake up to a complete change of scenery: Grassy steppe, covered in dew, giving way South of Ulan Bator (Mongolia's capital) to the open wastes of the Gobi Desert. Look out for camels and 'yurts' - the circular tents used by Mongolian nomads.

Reaching the Chinese frontier at midnight to the sound of triumphant martial music played at full volume over the station loudspeakers, the train is taken away and jacked up to have its bogies changed from Russian 5' gauge to standard (4'8½") gauge. You can remain on board or wander round the station while this is being done.

A Russian restaurant car (left) is attached to the train for the first four days, a Mongolian restaurant car (middle) is available for day 5, and an excellent Chinese restaurant car (right) is available on day 6.

The next and last day, the train crosses the mountains north of Beijing, passing through the Great Wall of China itself at Qinglongqiao.

Arrival at Beijing's main station on day 6.

Adapted from www.seat61.com

Heeeeeeere's JACKY!!

No Oscar nom for my man, but he's still my favourite...can't wait to hear him laugh in the front row come Oscar night (hopefully there WILL be some laughs - Oscar host Ellen Degeneres is NOT that bloody funny!!).

Got the photo from perezhilton.com, and he did his usual little stupid 'coke' thing on the face. That guy's a sap!! But I loved Jacky's espression SO much, that I decided to use it anyway!!!

LOVE YA JACKY!

Reaction to the Oscar Noms

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond), Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), Peter O'Toole (Venus), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

Hmmm – this year’s a toughy! I want Leonardo DiCaprio AND Forest Whitaker to get it…and they both deserve it! Ryan Gosling is a welcome nomination, but he won’t get the Oscar – he’s just too darn Canadian and low key in his brilliance! Will Smith and Peter O’Toole are both slight spanners in the works, as Smith is just DYING for that Oscar, and Oscy-baby knows it! O’Toole, on the other hand, is just plain dying (ba-da-boom-chiiii)…always the bridesmaid, never the bride!

SHOULD: Leonardo DiCaprio & Forest Whitaker
WILL: Forest Whitaker

Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine), Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children), Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond), Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls), Mark Wahlberg (The Departed)

Oscar is just so unpredictable when it comes to sentimentality…we could see Eddie Murphy getting this damn statue JUST for doing something that didn’t involve the ‘Axel Foley’ laugh!! However, I think it’s a three-horse race between Alan Arkin, Mark Walberg and Djimon Hounsou. Of the three, I though Djimon’s performance is most Oscar-worthy, with Alan Arkin coming in second, and Mark holding up the rear with a brilliant-but-just-not-Oscar-worthy jobby. Mark will only get it if Scorsese doesn’t bag director or picture. Again, I’m tied for shoulds!!

SHOULD: Djimon Hounsou & Alan Arkin
WILL: Alan Arkin

Best Actress: Penélope Cruz (Volver), Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal), Helen Mirren (The Queen), Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada), Kate Winslet (Little Children)

Well, who are we kidding here? It’s gonna be Helen Mirren. And, for once, I’m gonna agree! Her portrait of an icon was by all accounts touching and emotive, but reserved and disciplined – a hard act to follow! Obviously I’d be thrilled if Penélope got it…or my little fav Kate Winslet, but I really think things are gonna come up Mirren on this one!

SHOULD: Helen Mirren
WILL: Helen Mirren

Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza (Babel), Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), Rinko Kikuchi (Babel)

Right. Firstly, Abaigail – was there anything cuter in cinema this year? Or more earnest? But Oscar doesn’t do child actors very often, so my money is on a tight run between the two Babel girls. By all accounts, Rinko’s character is a tightly wrought piece of controversial acting, and Adriana’s is beautiful and distraught. Hmm – toughy! I don’t think Jennifer Hudson will get an OSCAR for her performance…Golden Globe sections are one thing, where they reward musicals and comedy, but Oscar is quite another.

SHOULD: Abigail Breslin
WILL: Adriana Barraza

Animated Feature: Cars, Happy Feet, Monster House.

God, crap year for Animated Features, eh?!?!? I reckon the penguins will sweep it. They probably deserve it too…I wouldn’t know, because I haven’t seen any of them!

SHOULD: Happy Feet
WILL: Happy Feet

Cinematography: The Black Dahlia, Children of Men, The Illusionist, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Prestige.

God, what a pile in there! And where’s Apocalypto?? Mel really shot himself in the foot with that outburst during the year!! I think probably Pan’s Labyrinth will get it. I’m a big fan of Children of Men and The Prestige, but I think they’re just in this category for the hell of it.

SHOULD: Pan’s Labyrinth
WILL: Pan’s Labyrinth

Costume Design: Curse of the Golden Flower, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, Marie Antoinette, The Queen.

All the costumes are quite similar in this little group, apart from The Devil, which is more contemporary. Musicals tend to be the most lavish, so Dreamgirls is certainly in for a shot, but I wouldn’t put it past The Queen to get this one.

SHOULD: Dreamgirls
WILL: The Queen


Best Director: Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Queen, United 93.

Come on! The Departed, obviously!! Brilliant stuff that no sitting-on-a-bloody-plane-terror can surpass! Babel could sweep in there, but another cut-and-paste jobby would wreck my head…give him editing instead! And by sweet bippy, if Clint gets it again then this is the LAST Oscar ceremony I’ll bloody watch!!!

SHOULD: Martin Scorsese
WILL: Martin Scorsese

Documentary: Deliver us from Evil, An Invonvenient Truth, Iraq in Fragments, Jesus Camp, My Country My Country.

An Inconvenient Truth needs to win this! It is a fantastically put together documentary, as well as giving a wonderful insight into the world that could have been were it not for a botched Florida count.

SHOULD: An Inconvenient Truth
WILL: An Inconvenient Truth

Film Editing: Babel, Blood Diamond, Children of Men, The Departed, United 93.

God, Babel should definitely get this. Stringing together three diverse stories into one coherent tale needs a strong hand in the editing room. However, things could go towards United 93, just to give it something. Hopefully not, though!

SHOULD: Babel
WILL: Babel

Foreign Language Film: After the Wedding, Days of Glory (Indigénes), The Lives of Others, Pan’s Labyrinth, Water.

Where the hell is Apocalypto?? Or Volver??? OK, Pan’s Labyrinth deserves it, but could we not at least have some appropriate competition?

SHOULD: Apocalypto
WILL: Pan’s Labyrinth

Makeup: Apocalypto, Click, Pan’s Labyrinth

Hmmm. Apocalypto could get this little pat on the back just to give it something. Pan’s probably deserves it more, because it has that character’s evolution.

SHOULD: Apocalypto
WILL: Apocalypto

Best Picture: Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen.

I have my suspicions on this one. I really think that Scorsese’s gonna get director, which means they may not give him this one. And, actually, I think that Little Miss Sunshine IS a better ‘Best Film’ for this category, even though I loved The Departed. I think Oscar will want to give it to the little-engine-that-could of Little Miss. Of course, things could go horribly wrong, with Oscar divided on the two, and it could slip between two stools and go to one of the others! Aaarrrggghhh!!

SHOULD: The Departed
WILL: Little Miss Sunshine

Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Children of Men, The Departed, Little Children, Notes on a Scandal

It’s not going to go to Borat, that’s for sure. I’m thinking a toss up between The Departed and Notes on a Scandal. And I think The Departed was a great script ,so I’m gonna hope for it to win!
SHOULD: The Departed
WILL: Notes on a Scandal

Writing (Original Screenplay): Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Queen

Wonder will they give it to Clint, so as the film gets SOMETHING! Hmmm….they could do it, the slimey fecks!! Of course, Babel has the complicated script, so they could feel intellectual voting it. I think Little Miss might take this one. It’s a very funny, quirky script in the indie-type movie Oscar just falls in love with.

SHOULD: Little Miss Sunshine
WILL: Little Miss Sunshine

OH....and P.S.

I also got a mention on the homepage of the Film Ireland website for my review of the Darklight Compedium Vol. 1 DVD.....

www.filmireland.net

As Nerea said, I'm on FIRE this week!!

Ha ha!

Blowing my own trumpet...

Well, yet again I have my boyfriend to thank for another progression in my life!! He constantly pushes me to do things I wouldn't normally do, so THANK YOU ALAN!! He sent me a link to a competition on the BBC website for people to write a piece on movies of 2006 with a view to becoming an online Oscar panelist for the BBC website. Well, just as the whistle blew on the fantastic Liverpool whoomping of Chelsea on Saturday, I got a phone call from the BBC to say that I am one of the six.

Here's the 100-word max. entry that got me a place on the website:

2006? Blockbuster Bond returned with brightened hair, smashing pre-conceptions that blondness means blandness. 'Little Miss Sunshine' wowed cynics with a musical display mixing humour and a squirming mortification not seen since 'Napoleon Dynamite'. Politically, 'Syriana' astounded, 'United 93' overwrought, 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley' stung...we still care, even though we are doomed (according to Gore!). Documadness from 'Grizzly Man' and 'Borat' elevated a filmtastic year – not to mention a Scorcese return to form with 'The Departed'. A ferocious mind-bender, this was my definite movie of 2006 – golden statue finally beckons? Maybe if Dirty Harry stays home this Oscar night...!

So, post phonecall I had to write a short piece on my predictions for the Oscars. Thanks to being snowed in on Monday, I had to do it from home, and use a crappy picture from my laptop...not my best side, let me tell you!!

Here's a link to what went up on the website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6286925.stm

Now I've to write my reaction to the predictions - so I'll publish that piece here too. Woo, and indeed, Hoo!

Love, huh?

Why do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

...how you always make me laugh
...how cute you look ALL THE TIME
...how funny you can be (subtly different to just 'making me laugh')
...how much of a good time I have with you
...how intelligent you are
...how even the fact that you don't want to talk to people or learn about their lives doesn't stop you from being a bloody friendly guy (ha ha)
...how gorgeously sexy you are
...the way you make me feel
...the way you earn more money than me and sometimes do stuff like pay for my train ticket

There's my little 'ode to Alan'. Feeling good about my man on a Friday morning!

Love you Al!!

Come on the Garden County!!!

For the first time in a laaaahhhhooonnnggg time, we can be proud of Wicklow GAA! Bloody hell - when have we faced Dublin before with such hope (and with such a manager - go on Mick!)?? Not in my lifetime, I can tell thee!!

So, come on Wicklow - make us proud!

Go on Beckham!!

Ha ha ha - tis all over the internet (well, someone clean it up then!!) I'm sure they'll like it over there........

Kila Gig Photos - har de frickin har!

The two happiest eejits in Rush!!

Check out my sexy boyfriend (on the right, obviously!!)!! The two cockiest feckers in Rush, eh?! Can you read the poster??? Well, Kelly (who is on the left) stands next to a poster advertising his band, and my gorgeous Alan (on the right) stands next to a poster advertising HIS DJing set!!

Oh, the synchronicity of it all!

St. Stephen's Night '06 - a delightful night spent in the company of these two delightful men!!

Why my whistle-blowing Brion is a hero!!

The Sunday Times December 10, 2006

Doubts over charity worker 'delay' humanitarian award
Colin Doyle

AND the winner of the Meteor Humanitarian Award for 2007 is . . . not Mike Meegan. The prestigious award, previously won by Bono, Elton John and the aid worker Adi Roche, was to have been bestowed next February on Meegan, an international director of Icross, a developing-world charity. But organisers have told the aid worker that he will not be given the prize, which comes with a €100,000 cheque, at next year’s Meteor Music Awards. He may be given it in 2008 instead. Organisers say they changed their minds due to concerns that Meegan is about to part company with the aid agency he founded. But the charity boss was also embroiled in controversy earlier this year when it emerged he overstated his academic qualifications in an attempt to win a €2m grant from the US National Institutes of Health, for a study into home care for Aids sufferers.

Justin Green of MCD, the music-promotion company that organises the awards, has denied Meegan was passed over for the award because of the controversy. “The award recognises people who change lives, not people with postgraduate degrees. It didn’t have an influence. We hope to be able to give Mike the award next year,” Green said. MCD confirmed that a different winner has now been chosen for the show on February 1.

Meegan said he was disappointed that Icross’s infant mortality and child survival programme won’t benefit from the award, but vowed to continue his work. “I was delighted to be considered, but we are not in Africa for awards,” he said. Rebecca Burrell, a director of Icross, confirmed that the charity is currently restructuring. “We are a small charity and €100,000 is a huge donation, but the award is given in a personal capacity, not to a particular charity,” she said.

Meegan, who is based in the remote village of Majiwa in western Kenya, confirmed he is considering his future role in Icross after an organisational review. The charity boss hopes to play a greater role in lobbying politicians. “We want to Africanise the administration,” he said. Meegan’s work in East Africa earned him an International Person of the Year Award in 2003 and an honorary degree from NUI Galway earlier this year. An RTE documentary, When You Say 4,000 Goodbyes, chronicles his efforts to fight Aids in Kenya and Tanzania. It has picked up awards in America. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland has collaborated on a number of Icross’s African projects, saying it was impressed by Meegan’s “low-tech, evidence-based, sustainable solutions”.

But his reputation was dealt a blow in the summer, when it emerged that Meegan, who is listed with the title doctor on Icross’s website, had received his doctorate from Knightsbridge University, which trades from a post-box address in Denmark and is not recognised by the Danish government.

An official biography prepared for a US conference also claimed that Meegan had a PhD from Trinity College, Dublin in medical anthropology, although the university confirmed last week it could find no record of his place on the course. He eventually lost the American grant over concerns about his academic achievements. The charity boss now says he has a masters in community health from Trinity College and confirms that he pursued a correspondence course with Knightsbridge. “I was in the remote bush in rural Africa with no phones or electricity. It was done in good faith and examined by a qualified supervisor. As it turns out, it was not especially useful,” he said. In 2002 USAID, a US government body, asked Price Waterhouse Coopers to carry out an audit of the organisation’s Kenyan accounts after it became concerned that funds were being mismanaged. The inquiry found that the charity had a number of “internal control weaknesses”. Meegan would have joined an illustrious list of humanitarian workers had he been given the award. Over six years the recipients have included Fr Peter McVerry, Sr Stanislaus Kennedy and Christina Noble, as well as Roche, Bono and Elton John.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

So this is Christmas, eh? And what HAVE we done?!?! Well, quite a lot actually, so there's hope for the human race yet....

We just need to hang on a bit longer, and make a difference in everything we do. Simple as that, eh?

Anyway, Happy Christmas everyone, and remember those less fortunate this year....there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time.

Some pics of the recent (summer) visit to the home of the Weldini

The truth about 911

Last night I watched a movie, and I feel like I've been woken up - that I've been asleep for the past five years. Those of you who know me know that I have a vast array of conspiracy theories and crack-pot ideas as to what governments get up to behind people's backs.

Last night it was all confirmed for me, and in the most shocking way.

How often can you say that something you have seen, or something someone else has done, can change you? In this time of bleak outlook, when the pervading feeling seems to be 'how can just one of us make a difference in this world', this movie marks a stepping stone towards revolution.

How can one person make a difference? Well, for a start, you can watch this movie. Giving the truth, or at least presenting the facts, of what really happened on September 11th 2001 in the most free country on earth. The man who created this movie has set in motion a chain of events that will cause an uprising against the government if it is spread to enough people.

Which is where we all come in. Watch this movie, share this movie. Copy it onto disc, give it to your friends and family, hand it out to strangers in the street.

Contact your college's cinema society and urge them to screen it in your campus.

Get the word out there, and show people what's really happening in this world of smoke-screens and greed.

The truth of 911 is out there, and it's not pretty.

See http://www.loosechange911.com

Do it now!!!!!!

Irish Living

Number 1: There's a European Court case going on at the moment (today) which could end up giving a judgment that people buying alcohol or tobacco in other European countries should only pay the duty of THAT country, and not their own. Basically it will mean, if it passes, that you could order cartons of cigarettes from Latvia, where they are 7 times cheaper than here, and have them delivered without having to pay excise. Or you could order bottles of vodka from Spain, where they cost a third of the price, and have them sent to your over-priced Irish home. You can buy crates of wine from France, where they are about an eight of the price, and have it all delivered without having to pay our over-the-top Irish duty. So fingers crossed on that judgment, eh? Of course, all the governments are arguing the case on health grounds - i.e., it's detrimental to people's health to have access to that much drink and cancer-sticks, so they're only protecting us from ourselves by charging such high prices!!

Nothing to do with the 2 billion a year Ireland makes on alcohol and ciggies duty, oh no!

Number 2: The M50 was so bad last night that people were abandoning their cars and peeing in ditches, or running out of petrol and having to just leave the car! One person took three hours to get three miles. Another woman, who I heard on the radio, left Clondalkin at 5.10, and got to her house in Bray at 8.45 that night. How nuts is that?!?! People were going absolutely crazy, and it was all because of a hole in the road to fix a burst water main.........'emergency' works, that just HAD to be done at rush hour!!
Even though they knew about it Tuesday evening.

They informed the Gardaí, but didn't think to tell AA roadwatch or the radio stations, so that people could be warned to avoid the area.

There'll be murder over this!! When will this country catch on to the continental/better way of doing things – roadworks during the night, when there’s no mental traffic!! How much traffic-jams/sanity/deaths would THAT save?

I'm a terrible person.

I wonder does anyone else play psychological games on public transport, to while away the boring commute? You know the kind – a crowded Luas/Train/Bus, and people start to get a little antsy. The leaner – the ignorant git who refuses to hold on to any bar, and just leans against your back. I like to allow the leaning, and then step suddenly to the side. They stumble backwards, and look embarrassed…success. I also enjoy the seat-race, when a seat becomes free equidistant from you and the opposition, and a race-that-pretends-not-to-be-a-race begins as you both move nonchalantly towards it. I could go on, but you get the gist of my sad little world, and that’s really not what this moan is about.

I travel the Luas – Sandyford line, the nightmare run. I’m about to say something terrible, something that will have most people thinking I am a prejudice toad – but this is my only section-of-society-that-I-can’t-stand flaw, I swear! I have a thing about Southsiders…I dislike them on sight, and they are ‘guilty until proven innocent’ as far as being decent people is concerned. I have friends who would be considered Southsiders, but it took some time for us to actually make it to friendship – some time, and some serious effort!

Now, I’m not talking about people from the South of Dublin when I say Southsiders, because ‘Southsiders’ can come from anywhere outside of this postal code – Smithfield, Swords, Wicklow Town, Meath. I’m talking about that West-Brit class of people who say ‘Dort’ instead of Dart, ‘Gorda’ instead of Garda and consider six inches of make-up, heavily-straightened-then-tousled hair, orange tan, and Ugg boots with O’Neills tracksuits the height of style. Those morons typified by their slavish regard for labelled clothes, and their air of money. The type of people who talk very loudly to each other about Fiachra and Marie-Claire, and what they got up to at this, like, totally crazy party they all went to Sunday night. The ones who buy SUV’s for a life in the centre of the city, and proceed to cause traffic every morning by driving their precious one child half a mile to school. Where does this accent come from? What is wrong with their brains that they can’t get past the most superficial of conversation topics? Why do they consider the GHD to be a must-have in any make-up bag?

I have to stand with them every day on the Luas, people who make my skin crawl with their total disregard for world events, or even for happenings in their own country. So sickeningly benign in their superficial lives, they look forward to a life of ease – prep school, followed by Trinners-for-Winners, followed by a year out to travel (paid for by Daddy) so that they can, like, totally see the world, you know? and really live like common people, followed by marriage to a surgeon/dentist/financier/stockbroker for the women, or blond, fake-tanned, lady-what-lunches for the men. It’s a world that beggars my belief totally – how someone can move through life so totally convinced of their own importance, yet contributing nothing to the world around them. Paying lip service to charity and democracy, while simultaneously slipping bribes to the council to add a second extension to their house, and pricing the rest of us out of the property market by buying third and fourth homes. Their world is one of selfishness and artifice, and they will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.

And then I won’t have to squash up next to them on my Luas journey.