Didn't it fly?...

Jesus it flew for me anywhoo...
Time flies when your havin' fun and all that malarkey - guess it's true!

Meself and Annie went ta Fionas wedding in Kinnity Castle, twas great day. We did some of the music in the church which went down well. Annie did O Holy Night which sent a few shivers down a few spines - my opinion the best Christmas carol.
That night later on I was a wee bit funny in the belly which carried on for a few days - but didn't get sick so the record lives on!!

We'd a load of gigs over the Xmas and a load more ta come. Fi is goin' on her honeymoon tomorrow so we gotta organise people to fill the next 7 or 8 gigs - already got 4 done so that's a start.

Well Happy New Year! Hope 2007 sees you all happy and healthy and spits you out the far side of it alive.

Ye Olde Bug

The Winter Vomiting Bug.
God the sight of that sentence fills me with dread.

As some of you know, and others may not, I've a phobia of getting sick.
I'm 23 years old, and have not vomited since I was 13.
A whopping ten years.
Not bad eh!?

To put it bluntly, it scares the shit outa me.

Yesterday Annie was complaining of stomach cramps and pains, we put it down to girlie things...
Nah.
We were wrong.

By late last night, Annie was feeling very bad, and upon arriving home from the Brideswell session, she was vomiting every half hour or less.
Now at this point I should've been very concerned for Annie...
I was.
But pathetically limping alongside that feeling was a decrepit voice saying "Oh God I'm scared of being too close to Annie incase I get it...."
I felt awful that I felt that way, but it just goes hand in hand with the fear of it all.

Well today I've been a lot more helpful to Annie, the poor auld divil.

God I just have to get over it and hurl don't I?...

Thee Ahlowan

Has been a wee while.
Mostly gigging these days which is great.
Have only two days off until next year, and they're both saturday nights...which is strasnge when ur playing music. I guess its so busy on them nights at xmas you don't need music.

Well, I found out Annie is comin to Texas with me in Feb, delighted about that.
We might be able to do boggle team tournament when we get there (A game I just thought of in my head)

I must shtick a few photos of the flooding here in Athhhhhhlone on me pics page.
Tis fierce high.

All me Xmas shopping is done, and all me cards sent.
Awwwwlriiiiiiiiite.

Dunno if I'll be posting over Xmas, so if I don't:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

- we'll talk before the new year, probably on my saturday off...

Dreams

OK, so before I go into this I want to apologise for the underlying theme of the dream.

What is it?

Fucking reality TV based.

I don't know why this dream came to me. I don't watch TV, I don't even have a TV in my apartment!
The only good thing I can say is the dream is bordering on satire.

Here's how it goes:

I'm part of some sort of genetic-scientist-stemcell-findthemissinglinkofevolution group, working in some sort of hospital.
We've got our own reality show.
What happens is someone with cancer (In the dream its a big fat balding fifty-something man) took a photo of themselves.
Now we're not allowed to see it.
After a few weeks, he dies and the hospital give us his skeleton...

Yes that's right.
His skeleton.
Stripped of the meat so to speak.

And the reality show is "Can we make a model of 'what-he-would-have-looked-like' look like him"

Questions are being fired around like:
"Will they get his fat size right?"
"Will they get the balding right?"

Bit sick but more mad than sick.

Another day, another blog

For those who enjoy a good travel blog this one should be good.
It's my friend and neighbour, Fergal Killalea.

I can't guarantee it'll be good, as he's only started out and I've only one post to judge him on (Which looks like the rest will be good!) but he's one guy that'll do it right, and will provide some good reading if he shticks it up on the blog.

Man yersoilf Ferg!

What happened to the economy?

Nah, that's a boring subject.

Let's take something else....

"Yes"

"Yes you, up there in the back..."

Bebo.
Is it good?
Is it bad?

Bullshit.
It's neither.

If you're a stalker, or someone who gets addicted to watching British soaps, chances are it's not for you.

If you are traveling, out of touch with friends for along time, on the net most of the time anyway, it's probably a good thing ta shtick a bit of time into.

My point? It's how you use it.
I for one, got addicted to it for a few weeks; gawking around, finding people I knew, working up a decent friend list so I don't look like a loner - oops! Didn't mean that at all!
But being the way I am - i.e. I get bored of things and move on - I got over it.

Yeah I'll log in every now and again to check the auld inbox, or type something to an overseas friend, or even just to some joker who it's not important I say whatever it is quickly enough to warrant a text (Someone smell a cheapass?)

I've not been on in two weeks, and I'm getting shit over it!!!

Someone, who won't be named, left a shite load of comments.
12 separate entries in the space of 4 minutes.
I don't know why...

I guess Bebo is not for them :)

Save Our Sea Trout

Here's one to think about:

If you immediately know the candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked along time ago.

Around the world in waaaaay longer than 80 days

Boo-urns

I've got a wee flu, but I'm mindin' it! The auld fire is on.

So if one was to go on a round the world trip again...

How does South America, then New Zealand, then onto Oz sound?

Is it a good route?

Any recommendations on places to stop in these places?
I've never been to South America, have been ta the others, but only a flying visit in NZ and with OZ no two peoples trips have been the same, so all comments welcome!

Or even any recommendations on other countries in my flight path?
Like lets say....Hawaii, or Fiji, or other cool places to visit....

Shitetalkin'

How long do ya have to use those energy saver bulbs before you get any savings outa them?
Now, I know they dont use as much electricty, but they do cost 15 times more than the other feckers.
I'm just wondering because I'm planning on staying in this place for a year before I'm off again. Is that enough time?

I've gone through over 16,000 photos now to come out with 750 that I want for printing.
Not bad eh?
Here is a site that does 9c prints - awwwwwwwwwwlriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite
Plus they are in Ireland!

I got an original music support gig last night for a band on a tour of Ireland. Jericho is the band name.
Anyone heard of them?
Nah
Me neither.

Oh yeah, and here is an interesting take on juggling 3, 5 and 7 balls, in a cone!

Regions

So for all those who wathc DVDs on the auld computer, have you ever gone to the Shtates or somewhere else, bought a movie hten brought it back to find you're no longer in the right region code?

Well if you have, download this : VideoLan

Cheers

Dublin next saturday

Anyone interested in going to Dublin next saturday to the Porterhouse?
Fine beers, good cheers, no fears, no jeers, its not here, but its in the shorter days of the year.

Missed out

After all my mouthing off about Dave Matthews, I missed getting a ticket for his Irish show.

What a bloody arsh.

Feck it.

I'm gonna keep my eyes peeled (Horrible saying isn't it) for tickets in the buy and sell magazine and on eBay and all that. Loads of time!

For any who don't know him here is his website, and go listen and watch, oh and do it over and over again until you're addicted.

Thank-you-and-good-day

Linky-ma-bob

OK, so in relation to the drunken first gig of Amber Moon on Sunday:

Click here, and hopefully you dont hear how drunkwe are in the clip of us

Taken from the travel site www.irelandlogue.com - organised by Sean.

Links

If you like Family Guy, have 2 minutes to spare, and have speakers, click this link:

Feck it, you don't even need to like Family Guy

Now the first kid ain't bad, but he ain't great. The second guy is amazing:

Robot Dance

If you've any interest in surfing:

Big feckin' wave

And lastly, if you haven't seen my Bebo video:

In future I won't think I'm safe if I sit in the middle of the surfboard, thinking the Shark will bite one of the two ends in the belief he's going for the auld jugular.

Amber Moonshined up

Twas the first gig for the amazing up-and-coming band, Amber Moon, yesterday in Seans Bar.
We rocked!
We were drunk!
We played hours longer than we should have!
- tis a 1.00PM to 2.30PM Sunday afternoon gig, a great wee gig it does be.
But we played until 7 o'clock,and only stopped then because we were very drunk... :)
What better way to start the band off; playing four times longer than you had too. It's a good sign material-wise too, at least we aren't worried about not being able to fill the slot.
Although Ronan Hardiman sang a good few songs and the Lightholders sang a few, the rest was all Amber Moon.
Go us.

Stay tuned for more dribble...

Infiltration

It's finally happened.
I got a mail in my inbox on Bebo (For all who don't know what Bebo is, it's a stalkers heaven, but everyone in Ireland has taken to it like a pig to shit) and I thought
"Who is Stormy?"
Getting regular mails and comments from people I haven't seen in awhile, or haven't been in contact with until they recently found me on Stalker Heaven - I thought nothing of it, and proceeded to log in and see who was the real person behind the alias.
Well my friends, it was a very attractive girl who thought she might be coming over to my part of the world and wondered could we meet up...
Bullshit I thought.
You guessed it, the porn ring has got into Bebo.

Feck them.

Bathing

I had my first bath in feckin' aaaaaaages today.
I had a crappy cold one in Melbourne at the beginning of the year. But if that one didn't count, it's been years.
It was great, I'd candles around the bath and everything.
I was very careful not to burn me dreads in them...and not to wet them too much, as it takes hours for them to dry, and I don't like going ta bed with a soakin' head.

I went down to Seans bar this morning and haggled over the price of gigs for an hour or so, with the owners, twas fun.
Why?
I got 110 gigs out of them from now to the end of 2007 - a shit load of moneys worth of business.
Amber Moon - consisting of meself, Annie and Fi Ducke, took those, and I just realised I haven't got a number for how many more that meself and Sean (Five Finger Discount) will get.
Wahoo!
Seans Bar - the bread and butter of many a bands gig calendar.

To go out or not tonight?....

Grated or sliced....

Everyone knows grated cheese.

Everyone also knows how good it tastes.

What some people don't know, or aren't as up to speed on, is how to cut cheese.

You know the "Triangular sandwiches taste better" theory.
Well this is the same principle i.e. the shape/size makes it taste better.

How to cut cheese:

• Start with a very sharp knife, preferably without a serrated edge.
• Take the block completely out of the wrapper.
• Place it on a cutting board, or if you don't have one, a plate with low sides. (High sides inhibit the proper cutting procedure)
• Next we begin the cutting, the thinner the better. Actually that deserves its own bullet point.
• The thinner the better.
• Here's the trick: Turn the block on one side (making it taller and thinner for cutting)
• Start the cutting about 2mm (Width of the lead of a pencil) from the edge.
• Most people overcompensate for being so near the edge, and end up with 2mm slice gradually getting as wide as a gate.
• No.
• Bold.
• Just go with it. If the blade happens to get too close to the edge half way down the cheese tower you hold in you hand, just go with it. If it gets too thin and bursts through the side of the tower and you think all is lost. It's not.
• You've just made the perfect slice of cheese.

That's right.

The slice is like an extremely thin pie cutting.

Perfect for every setting you find cheese in (except toasted sandwiches - allow thicker slices for these usual 3mm, but often 4mm, and sometimes 5mm if you've been drinking)

On top of something hot on the plate, the thinner end melts into the hot item, allowing for multiple texture densities of cheesey goodness.

In a sandwich, it's like a pick and mix for cheese "Oh I got a good bit of cheese in that bite" or "Hmmm... is there cheese in this sandwich too? Cool. I love cheese"

I could go on for days showing the advantages of the slimline-pie-cutting-cheese-slice-from-heaven.

Try it sometime.

Shackward

For those who read my travel yoke, you know how much I missed the shack. Twas a good session in there last night - so glad ta be back jammin' in there.

I've gotten over the news of Dave Matthews coming and now I'm gonna go about the ticket pruchasing, which happens later this month when they come on sale...
Stay tuned...

Today wasn't as eventful as I'd hoped. Never got round to getting gigs, there's a window you gotta get the pubs between, and I missed it! Dunno how, maybe I was playing boggle at the time.

Anywhoo, think I'll shtick a few more photos up on the auld blog. Hopefully I don't get too lazy and leave that until tomorrow too!

Dave in Dublin

Dave Matthews is coming to Dublin.
I've waited for this day for 8 years or so.
On his own too, in a Luther College way.
This means nothing to most.
But it means a shit load to others!

Plumeting Pumpkins

Whats new since yesterday?
Well I suppose today is old at this stage....

Last night I went ta see me wee girl sing her heart out in The Bounty (Athlones Rugby club pub with good grub and no snug) - she was great as usual, backed by me auld bandmate Fergie Milton on guitar and Ellen Costello was there with her accordian doin tunes with Milo as well.
Good craic, Ronan Hardiman came in to see who was there so I had some company in cheering them on. Quiet night in there except for the drunk distant friend of Roni who joined us from the bar, to escape someone else (If only we could have escaped her!) Well she made Annie laugh - how I will not say, but twas a good night.

I realised the pumpkins on the balcony were starting to grow into the cement today so I decided the best thing was to get Annie to wheel the wheelie bin round the front, underneath the balcony, and I could gracefully tip the pumpkins off into the bin.
Genius eh?

No. You guessed it, I missed the bin with one of them and it exploded like the illegal fireworks at Tims house.
Well worth it though. I cleaned up most of the mess, it just looks like a saturday night drinking stain out there now.

Tonight will hopefully see me jamming with Tony Henshaw, Jim Byrne and the legend that is Slats (Mick Slattery) down in Seans Bar.

I must go now and shlap up a few pics on the pics site.
You can click that auld link on the right saying Beans Pics if you wanna see them.

Awwwwwwwwwwlllllllllriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite

Some news

...only some as I'm not able to type it all right now. Too much has happened in the last few months.
But I expected that.
I always heard: "You'll settle back in to Athlone in no time, and feel you've never left"
Part of its true, I'm settled in, but it feels like I left!

Some highlights of whats happened since I've been home:

1. My brother got married, in Spain, Ive already written about this I know, but it was deadly, and all the pics are on me pics blog.

2. I'm outa the Elms (My home house for all those from outa town)

3. I'm living with my girlfriend.

What?!?!?

Yep, it's true. One Anne Marie Hynes, amazing person who is able to put up with living with me, she is a fellow musician which is what I need. I'm very happy :-)

4. I'm back in the exact apartment I left before I left! Uncanny that the people were moving out the morning we came down to view a neighbouring apartment.

5. Im back in bands and playing music here.

Bands:

Bean - being me with my original stuff - backed by Amazin Annies vocals for a good few numbers

Amber Moon - consisting of Bean, Amazing Annie and Fiona Ducke (Great flute/whistle player) playing a mix of traditional Irish music and Irish songs and some jazz shtuff thrown in for good measure

Five Finger Discount - Bean and Sean Lightholder, the band we put together about three years ago, but only pulled together properly since Ive been home. Playing the usual pub songs, well not the usual shite, some tasteful covers.

Last Orders - A Trad band; Bean, Neil Fitzgibbon (Fiddle) Laura Murray (Bodhran, flute, whistles) Strict trad here, with some Irish songs incorporating trad tunes inta them

-----one busy Bean!

OK I must go and start to go through the mountain of pictures I have, and pull a few out for me auld blog.

Bye for now!

Updating

Sorry about the two month delay, but as of last night, Ive got internet in my apartment.
So expect updates!

Chat ya'll reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaalll soon...

Are any Turkey farmers left?

Ah well, it didn't work.
But sure what harm!

Traffic

So when I got home , I wondered how many people had went to the site while I was gone.
So this time I went and got a counter thingy, its underneath this post.
But it seems to be some sort of advertisment rather than a counter.
I'll leave it for one day and see how it goes....

A new day, a new site

S'true.
Although this is my new blog page, I've setup a blog page jsut for photos.
Photos are more interesting than shite talking so here's the address:
www.beanspics.blogspot.com
Give it a few years to load all the photos before you scroll down!

The Boda

Just back from the wedding, twas exactly what I pictured a Spanish wedding to be.
I could go on about it for awhile, but I'll jsut shtick up some photos later and ye can see for yourselves....


The next post is dribble:

Child of the eighties...

1 You can sing “Um Bongo, Um Bongo, They drink it in the Congo”
2 You played with "My Little Ponies." or “Action Force”
3 You ever read Nancy Drew, or The Hardy Boys.
4 You wanted to be on "Jim'll Fix It".
5 You wore T-shirts that changed colour with heat (Global Hypercolour).
6 You were upset when She-ra, Princess of Power and He-Man got cancelled.
7 You can remember watching Saved by the Bell.
8 You could break dance (ok, you wished you could)
9 You remember when Amiga was a state of the art video game system.
10 You remember M.C. Hammer.
11 You can still sing the rap to "Fresh Prince of Bel Air"....
12 You can remember when it was Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince and NOT just plain Will Smith!
13 You own ANY cassettes.
14 You have ever pondered on why Smurfette was the ONLY female Smurf.
15 My Little Pony, Gummy Bears and Transformers are familiar to you.
16 You ever had a Swatch Watch.
17 You believed that "By the power of Greyskull, you HAD the power!"
18 Partying "like it's 1999" seemed SO far away.
19 You were led to believe that in the year 2000 we'd all be living in space.
20 You recorded songs off the radio with your boom box.
21 You never questioned why the A-Team were always imprisoned in places that had sufficient tools to build an armoured tank.
22 You ever did the top toggle of your coat up around your neck without having your arms in the sleeves, and you knew you looked like a superhero.
23 You remember watching a house inhabited by a jester, a pantomime horse and a woman who sneezed, and thinking that this was perfectly normal.
24 You've ever had more than 10 sweets in a 10p mix-up.
25 You could have got away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids.
26 You remember Fingermouse and Dangermouse (not forgetting his trusty sidekick Penfold!)
27 You remembered Taytos when they were less than 10p.
28 When 'Computer' Tennis, Pac-Man and Donkey-Kong ruled
29 You got up extra early, especially to watch Saturday Morning cartoons
30 You remember “Pat’s Hat”
31 Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.
32 You remember when Pink Panther choc-ices.
33 You remember when 25p was decent pocket money and you'd reach into a muddy gutter for 10p.
34 Important decisions were made by going “eeny-meeny-miney-mo."
35 Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better and taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin.
36 You wore fluorescent-neon clothing... (if you can call it clothing!)

Welcome!

The new and hardly improved site is here!