So that went well...

Last saturdays party was a success anyway judging by the state my house is in and the general feedback. Myself and paul went out to the house on Friday evening to prepare the house, which took a total of about an hour or so. After that we were laying around the house and boredom set in and there was a large amount of beer laying around the house for the day after. Predictably enough we had a couple, a couple turned into a few and before we knew Conal had arrived and there was a full on drinking session underway. Conal thoroughly showed us up. Myself and Paul had been drinking about 5 hours at this stage and were fairly together. Conal, 4 hours behind us, suddenly stands up, picks up a kiwi fruit, runs outside the door and smashes it off the kitchen window. We had 40 beers in the house, 6 were left the next day. Not bad for a pre-party warm up.

The next day I press-ganged the lads into working, Conal mowing the lawn and Paul putting together the marquee. We had a bit of detour around town picking up Billy and Lynch and arrived just before the Lions kick off. People were there waiting already and we settled into the business end of the weekend. Beers were opened, the game was watched. Vickery basically cost the Lions the tour in my opinion. Not one solid scrum while he was on. That said I would not want to face "The Beast". It was strange that he got away with such an illegal binding technique though. Great comeback and it made for entertaining rugby. Roberts and O'Driscoll is the best combination of centres in world rugby (I TOLD YOU JOAN! remember what I said was going to happen, it happened step for step on Crofts first try) .

Then we fired up the BBQ, thanks to Paul and Dave for cooking and everyone seemed to get a bite anyway. More beers were consumed before heading for a quick snamh in the canal. Very lovely, the water was savage. Back to Newtown for the most epic game of Garden Download ever. Bmac, Paul, Twomey and Dave basically put on a show for the crowd, big hits, technical grappling, see-saw battles and a dramatic ending. More people arrived and the music and beer all increased. The old Kareoke machine was fired up and amazingly steve didnt dominate! Eventually the decision was made to depart to Costellos and the designated drivers did a job. We only had to get one taxi and it was mahoosive. It fit 8 or 9 of us but thats not all. There was room for people to do pre-club in taxi push ups so that they look mad buff. Not naming any names here but my chest was looking superb in Costellos hahaha. The Costello Phenomenon was great, stayed downstairs for a while and drank the arse out of it. Good laugh. Then went upstairs and the usual amazing music was on. We tried pimping out Ben, danced the crap out of it, made Mongol faces at people and generally had a good time. Some had better times than others.

I had the great idea of inviting everyone back to my house after the club, probably a bad one on reflection. First, we had our priorities straight, Chut was hit up. Then we picked up some very random people who we hadnt met since primary school on the way. We party partied till the very early hours of the morning and most details are blurry. Good times though. Thanks for all that showed up and enjoyed themselves.

The big Two Five!

What is up my negros? I've been in great form the last while, things are going really well at the minute. I've decieded on a plan of action for the next while and hopefully it works out. I'm not going to tell people coz thats usually the best way to jinx a plan. Its not terribly exciting but I'm looking forward to it.

At the minute the parents are in France living it up so I have the house to myself for a month which is nice. In time honoured tradition I am having the "free house" style party on saturday in case your around. Watch the Lions game, go for a swim if the weather is nice, bbq, beers, play some lips, possibly head to costellos. Should be fun.

The football season is going well, we beat Cork 45-0 there on Sunday, our best ever win over them. Coeny is back and he brought one of his mates Guti with him who is a beast as well. Im back at QB which is well gay but I scored 3 TDs so I cant complain. We have the Rhinos in Munchins in three weeks and then we are into the playoffs. We will almost definately have Carrickfergus at home for the semi and if we beat them we will play the winner of Cork and the Rebels in Belfast on August 9th. I'll keep you abreast of proceedings anyways (not that ye give a shite). I have my balloon knee back, knee bursatitis its called. Its a grand injury, just annoying.

Work is mental at the minute, my boss is on holiday for the week so I'm the acting Quality and Environmental Manager for the entire N7 site for the week. Im getting really awkward questions about Non-conformance reports, method statements, environmental audits for sub-contractors and other fun stuff. Most of it I have answered with a combination of common sense and google hahahaa. Who needs a proper degree??

I remember having interesting stuff to write about on this a few days ago but the topic has gone completely from my head. Stupid head.

Congratulations to Jamie and Hannah

Jay and Hannah are having their civil union today which makes Jamie my first close friend to get married. I wish the two of them the very best. They are really well suited, obviously in love and I'm absolutely delighted for them. The celebrations are on in the stables afterwards with John O'Sullivan and Jay singing, should be amazing.

Thats the first one anyway, we will all probably start spiralling into a spin of debauchery with weddings, baby births and 30th birthdays all ahead of us all. UUUUUUGHHH :)

huzzah for exercising ones democratic right!

had a bit of an old vote there today. i was shocked at the crap nature of some candidates on the ballot paper. One guy didnt have a photo and wasnt in a party so all you had was a name to vote on. another guy shouldnt have had a photo. he was striking was im sure he thought was a dynamic and striking pose looking off into the distance. In reality he looked like a scruffy unemployed farmer who was desperate for work and had problems focusing his eyes. I read his manifesto and one of his policies was "to sort out immigrant legislation to make it fairer to honest taxpayers". Ridiculous!

The campaign was pretty shocking, apart from the usual posters i havent seen any activity from candidates. Did any call to your doors? I think they are all scared of what we will say. Especially Fianna Fail who are ashamed to put the party logo on their posters. They got graphic designers to make the logo smaller than usual on their posters.

Feel bad story: A chinese PhD student had her two laptops and harddrive stolen from her house. Every single piece of information from her 4 years of PhD study on HIV was on those and some drug addled scobe in Dublin probably wiped them to sell at a shitty market for a few quid. depressing.

Feel good story: A guy in galway gets laid off. He looks for a job around Galway, no use. He applys for jobs in Dublin and gets a few interviews. Goes up for the day to do the interviews. Brings his wife as the day is sunny. Went for a walk out in Dalkey afterwards and bought a 4 euro quick pick. Last night they won 13 million euro.

Lights over Limerick

What upski? I dont really have a plan for this post, so lets just see how it goes.

Dubai. It was lots of fun, lovely weather, great hotel, lots to do over there. Its a bit of a mad country though. Definately the fakest place in the world. All around the city is a massive sand desert and the city then is depicted as this plush oasis. There is no natural source of water around so they have to import it or process sea-water. Water costs more there than petrol which is ridiculous. Especially when you take into account there are two water parks and a load of golf courses that use millions of litres of water every year. There are thousands of unfinished or unused buildings all over the city and something like two thirds of the worlds cranes are in Dubai. There is still a lot of building going on but its that that is the worst thing in the country.

The construction teams are huge in number and they work long shifts in 40 degree or more heat. They are mostly Pakistani and Indian men who are promised excellent work in Dubai with good conditions, pay and free time. They move to Dubai and immediately their passports are taken from them and they are taken by bus to a concrete village outside the city. From there they are then taken by bus to whatever construction site they are required to work on for 12 hours a day in the ridiculous heat then bused back. They recieve very little pay and and definately the lower class of citizen in Dubai. The exploitation of these guys is completely ignored by most over there, it is like a fact out of life there. All the locals brag about how quickly buildings are built over there (Tiger Woods Westin Hotel over there was built in 8 months).

The gulf between rich and poor is ridiculous. Our hotel was very posh, Aston Martins, Masteratis and all sorts pulling up outside it. 100 yards away a couple of thousand poor souls were slaving away on another hotel in the sun with no shade let alone air conditioning.

I can see Dubai being held up to future generations as the talisman of the era of wastefulness, exploitation and greed we are in at the minute. I got the impression that the cost of upkeeping the pretense of the Dubai image will become untenable soon and the place will start to fall apart. It may have made more sense to make it a smaller resort type city for millionaires but the scale of the project was over-ambitious in my opinion.

Mood: Tired
Music: Ray D'Arcy talking about how to rob cars.

Back from another lengthy hiatus

Well hello there my legion of fans. I have decided, under duress from all the fan mail, to kick start mr. bloggo again.

A lot has happened in the last while and I'll try to go back over some stuff.

So I was on the dole for 4 months, it was an experience. Lots of free time, no money and no responsibilities. It was fun but I dont really want to do it again. It has also given me a bit of a kick up the arse with regard the dreaded C (areer) word. Anyways, I'm back working in Birdhill and those sly dogs basically laid me off for four months, let the work pile up and then get me back to work through the backlog without having to pay me for the 4 months. Very smart in these recessionary times.

I got up to a lot over the time actually, Snowboarding in France was great. We rented a camper van in London and drove to Les Deux Alpes which was amazing. The snow conditions were unreal and we carved the crap out of that mountain. Craved Burger King for the entire holiday tho for some reason.

The weekend in Dingle was hands-down the best weekend I've had with the Vikings. Treated like VIPs, great bunch of lads down there, great location, good game, spectacular night out afterwards with the Blue Flame guys. Just a great, great weekend. We lost 22-0 but that was pretty good as no Irish team had held an american team under 50 previously.

The football season is going only OK. We have one loss to the Rebels at home, we lost by 5 points and I threw an interception in the end zone at the very end of the game that could have won it. Very disappointing. We beat the Trojans well and we drew the second Rebels game in a real tough one. We are at the half way point and third in the league. Hopefully we can up it a bit and get the few wins we need to make the playoffs. We have Cork twice and Carrick in Carrick coming up in close succession so those will be big.

I paid a visit to Coentron and Jim Davis in Valencia for an extended weekend back in April as well. Excellent time. The lads are playing semi pro football over there for the Valencia Firebats. They are at a very high level, playing the best teams in Europe. Class to see two Vikings get there and it was great to get over and see the boys. Also it was a kick up the arse for me with regards getting in good shape and being a better football player. So far I have put on a reasonable amount of muscle and am going to the gym regularly. Still at it and starting to enjoy it so its all good.

I'll write about Dubai at some stage. I have a load of shizzle I want to start discussions on as well but as it is nearly time to go home I am out of here.

Later biznatches.

Mood: Fresh start?
Music: Hello, Goodbye. The Beatles.

p.s. BLOG MORE!!

A few football photos... just coz

Vikings Defence vs Rebels Offense on our goal-line

I was the happiest man alive to see that ball into my hands

Le Wikings

Christmas time

Above is rather camp photo of Conal, Paul and I. I thought I would include it in this post, it seemed to fit. I am having a bit of a nostalgic think about stuff at the minute. Conal is back blogging and the discussion has turned to what shall we do over the Christmas break. I am liking all suggestions at the minute, Settlers of Catan is currently leading the polls but steve has suggested some breed of card game called munchkin. Im as nerdy as the next man so I will play either or, or a complicated hybrid of the two....

So anyways, recession update. I am finished the job on the 19th of December, arse around Clon for the Christmas and then Im off with Elastic Girl on the 27th to London where the plan is to rent a camper van for 10 days, drive to the alps and have a bit of a mini tour down there snowboarding.... Cannot wait!!

I just got a pair of sweet snowboarding boots, i have all the gear ready, its going to be mega. its 9 hours drive from london to the alps so after that it will just be a question of following the snow... Hopefully we dont freeze to death.

The plan when I get back is kind of fuzzy then. Im not sure what the requirements are for getting a grant for the masters I am looking at, if I am required to be on the dole for 6 months beforehand then thats what I'll do. If it is a year or more then I will have to get a job and save my little ass off. That said, I am not dead set on the masters either so if anything else comes my way I am going to take it.

Then there is the football... Any job I get will have to have no weekend work, be in the Limerick area and be 9 to 5. Which cuts down what I can get pretty substatially. Ah well, it isnt every day you get to play the NYPD Finest...

Stupid Recession

Well??

So all we have heard the last few months is Recession this, economic slowdown that...

Well the big news this financial quarter is not that there is a 2 billion euro tax shortfall, its that I, Liam Ryan, have been made redundant. I'm finished up at the end of the month. Elaine has convinced me that it is a good thing so I am looking optimistically at it. I have come up with a number of plans and I would appreciate feedback on them if you dont mind...

Plan 1. Try to get another job and get back on the horse.
Plan 2. Try to get a job in a snowboarding resort and be a bum for a while.
Plan 3. Try out for a semi pro football team and see how it goes...
Plan 4. Travel a wee bit, get back, sign on, get a grant and do a Masters in Business Management...

I'm currently leaning towards number 4 but if anyone has any other ideas let me know.

So work is going to be pretty quiet for the next while. Hopefully I'll post up a bit more, I should get photos and stuff up as well. Other than that, the Vikings are going well, we had a intra-squad scrimmage at the weekend and the playbook I have been installing looked to work pretty well and we have kept a lot of players over the semester. We are playing a representative team from the NYPD and Philly PD now in Dingle at the end of February so hopefully we are ready for that....

Mood: trying to sort out my medium term future
Music: Bomberman theme... still stuck in my head...

Stand up and Fight!

Last night was the best sporting occasion I have ever witnessed. It was the slick juggernaught of world rugby, the New Zealand All Blacks, against the perennial plucky underdogs, Munster. It was a chance for the All Blacks to avenge the defeat at Munsters hands in 1978 (Im sure your all sick of hearing that) and it was a chance for history to repeat itself for Munster. Good thing it didnt or they would have to rewrite "Alone it Stands". To begin with I thought the whole thing had been hyped up by PR people who were probably greedy to get their hands on this clash of two of the biggest "Brands" in world rugby. The sheer pagentary of the whole thing threatened to overshadow the real business which was of course the rugby. There was obviously a lot of thought and effort put into the pre-game from Brian Cowen struggling to open a curtain to the Air Force chopper dropping the game ball to the pitch.

The 1978 team got a good round of applause when they were mentioned, the All Blacks got a standing ovation as people strained to get a look at the best team in rugby and then when Munster came out I'm pretty sure I heard the roar from Clonlara. There was a minute silence for Shane Geogeghan where the emotion it caused in Limerick could still be seen on the faces of the crowd. I'm sure Shane would have been there and it was a fitting occasion to celebrate him. More on him at a later stage....

Then as Munster lined up to challenge the haka, Rua Tipoki, Litemi Mafi, Dougie Howlett and Jeremy Manning stood forward and performed a "Ka Mate" haka of their own and the foundations of the new Thomond Park were found to be structurally very sound. The noise level dropped to nil in respect for the New Zealand haka and every word could be heard around the stadium. At this stage the hair on the back of my neck was standing up in anticipation for the start of the game. I could only imagine how the guys on the pitch felt. I saw Donnacha Ryan staring it down with a look on his face that can only really be described as murderous. He was in my class in Munchins and its great to see him perform like he did on the big stage.

The game was an intense, hundred mile an hour, whirlwind of big hits, tough rucks, thrills, spills and emotion. I was screaming my head off, jumping up and down for most of it. The Munster effort was superhuman with guys like Niall Ronan, Timmy Ryan, Paul Warwick and Donnacha Ryan filling in for the internationals and giving McGahan plenty of food for thought in the future. We made some silly decisions and should really have got points on the board in the second half which would have won the game but all in all the rugby on show justified all the build up and hullabaloo. Munster did themselves proud but fell just short of a massive upset. The All Blacks blooded in a number of new talents in just about as intense an environment you could get and pulled the win out of the bag. I think if they had lost, Henry would have had to answer a lot of questions once the tour returned back to the Land of the Long White Cloud.

The All Blacks to be fair to them were great ambassadors for their country. Their stars were approachable during the build up to the game, they seemed to realise how important rugby was to the region and they came out after the game and acknowledged the crowd. Their full back fielded one ball at the end of the first half and handed the ball to a young kid in the crowd before walking into the tunnel, a nice gesture that shows that the killers in the black jerseys are human after all.

Mood: Hungry for more rugby, or to get back on the football pitch
Music: STAND UP AND FIGHT UNTIL YOU HEAR THE BELL!!!