The art of travel

This really made me laugh. H/T Twenty Major...



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Barbecues, Gemma Hayes, and Guinness

I'm still recovering from the weekend. I had my last exam on Friday afternoon and it was all go until Monday evening. I'm just not up to that level of debauchery these days, approaching the 30 mark and all that. Friday was a beautiful, sunny day so it was all about barbecue and beer out our back garden with about 30 or 40 friends from college. I started drinking about 4.30pm and wasn't really in the mood for burgers and sausages - big mistake. By the time we got into town about midnight I was already way too drunk. That said, I did nothing to shame myself but I did have a number of those heated (and completely futile) arguments about politics that go absolutely nowhere, but you're drunk and stubborn and you don't want to back down. Actually to be honest, I never want to back down even when I'm sober.

I ended up staying somewhere else and had to make my way back home on Saturday evening. As it went I only had about 15 minutes at home before I had to head back into town to get to the Ireland v Serbia match in Croke Park. The match was awful and we were bloody freezing as we were in row Z of the Canal End, in other words up in the sky. A few beers on Harcourt Street afterwards turned into a night Whelans (an old haunt that I still love)and a party back in someone's flat near Trinity. We 'danced' quite a lot and it was morning before I knew it. Grabbed a taxi home at 6.30am in a crusty old state.

As I had tickets for a gig on Sunday I was back in Whelans. Whelans is better than ever now. It's much bigger and has lots more little nooks and crannies. Gemma Hayes was playing in the new Upstairs venue which is a very weird L-shaped design and not really a great space. It's basically the old green room made a little bigger by knocking a wall but as a cosy, intimate venue it doesn't work. Despite this Gemma Hayes was breath-taking as always and her current band (Joe Chester, Karl Odlum, and Binzer) really did the songs justice.

When Gemma finished I thought the shennanegins might end there as two of the three people I was with were up for work in the morning. But no! We stayed in Whelans until closing time and then headed back to one of their houses where we drank red wine, watched 'scary' movies, and generally lazed about until about 3.00pm on Monday. I have to say I'm still finding it hard to think straight but at the same time it was all pretty damn good.

I have loads of news related to the fairer sex but have decided not to comment about it here as doing so has tended to jinx me in the past!

Oh, and one more thing. When I got back home on Monday evening I was lucky enough to spot this amazing red sky from the back of our house. You just can't beat the summer...

"Our Defense Forces, our war crimes, our terrorism"

"No more" writes Bradley Burston in Haaretz. Israelis must take responsibility for their war crimes, their terrorism.

Manners

I was mildly amused this morning on hearing on the radio that Green Party leader, Environment Minister, former activist, and king capitulator John Gormley had comdemned Chinese abuses in Tibet, called for dialogue with the Dalai Lama, and referred to Tibet as a country at the Green Party Conference in Dundalk. No sooner were the comments out than the Chinese Ambassador Liu Biwei and his translator stormed out in disgust. Boo hoo.

Then with a broad smile, Liu made thugish and threatening remarks to the media about business relations between our two countries, expressing "hope" that these could continue. All through his translator of course.

Sorry Liu, but we say what we like in Ireland. We can walk into Fagans of a Tuesday evening and call Bertie Ahern a gobshite if the mood takes us. This may be hard for you to fathom but if you find you don't much like it I'm pretty certain we'll be alright without you.

Speaking of bad manners though, what is more insulting; Gormley condemning gross abuses in Tibet which all decent people are disgusted about, or China sending a senior diplomat to Ireland who cannot even speak English? It's a no-brainer that.

17/04/2008 - Edit:
I'll add the last paragraph from an excellent letter in the Irish Times today from Neil Steedman of the Tibet Support Group - Ireland. It is in response to a previous letter (from a Kevin Lynch) claiming Gormley's comments were "a disgrace" and insulting to the Chinese.

Mr Lynch expresses concern that the Chinese ambassador (who knew of Mr John Gormley's criticism in advance and attended the Green party conference merely to stage a walk-out protest) was "insulted". He labels Minister Gormley's remarks "a disgrace". On the contrary, it is those worldwide - and particularly in Ireland, given our history - who choose to turn a blind eye, deaf ear and dumb mouth to what the Chinese Communist Party is doing in Tibet who are a disgrace. If the Chinese ambassador, or Kevin Lynch, feel "insulted", then: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn". - Yours, etc,

NEIL STEEDMAN, (Tibet Support Group - Ireland), Arklow, Co Wicklow.

As ridiculous as the 45 minute claim?

Raed discusses some of the ridiculous and unsubstantiated claims made by Petraeus and Crocker in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Protests

I have very little time to post these days and today is really no exception but I wanted to throw up this quickie.

This from today's Irish Times:

"The Paris procession was as violent and disorderly as London, despite 3,000 police on foot, roller blades, bicycles, motorcycles and on horseback"

The fact that there were police on roller blades didn't deter the protesters? The spirit of May 1968 is alive!

I'm glad that some attention is finally being paid to the Tibetan question. I think it's not an exaggeration to say it is an issue that has been close to my heart for a long number of years, ever since my friend gave me the Dalai Lama's inspirational autobiography - Freedom in Exile - to read.

I love that so many of the French protesters were elected representatives, including the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, who hung a pro-Tibet banner on the facade of the Paris town hall, prompting the Chinese embassy to cancel a planned stop there "for reasons of security and image." They could have left the security bit out.

I love France.

Easter