Yum!

I have just finished two slices of Bram Brack and a mugful of hot apple cider (to the sound of detonating fireworks from around the neighbourhood). Col and I are now running out to a Halloween party at her brother's house. Pics to follow... :) Bye!

Stolen, But Sooo Worth It!

Someone posted this little piece on a messageboard I frequent and I just had to put it up here. It is said to be by John Cleese, and it had me smiling the whole way through. :)


AXIS OF EVIL WANNABES
by John Cleese

Bitter after being snubbed for membership in the "Axis of Evil", Libya, China and Syria today announced that they had formed the "Axis of Just as Evil", which they said would be more evil than that stupid Iran-Iraq-North Korea axis President Bush warned of in his State of the Union address.

Axis of Evil members, however, immediately dismissed the new Axis as having, for starters, a really dumb name. "Right. They are just as evil... in their dreams!" declared North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. "Everybody knows we're the best evils... best at being evil... we're the best."

Diplomats from Syria denied they were jealous over being excluded, although they conceded they did ask if they could join the Axis of Evil. "They told us it was full," said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"An axis can't have more than three countries", explained Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "This is not my rule, it's tradition. In World War II you had Germany, Italy, and Japan in the evil Axis. So, you can only have three, and a secret handshake. Ours is wickedly cool."

International reaction to Bush's Axis of Evil declaration was swift, as within minutes, France surrendered.

Elsewhere, peer-conscious nations rushed to gain triumvirate status in what has become a game of geopolitical chairs. Cuba, Sudan and Serbia announced that they had formed the "Axis of Somewhat Evil", forcing Somalia to join with Uganda and Myanmar in the "Axis of Occasionally Evil", while Bulgaria, Indonesia and Russia established the "Axis of Not So Much Evil Really as Just Generally Disagreeable".

With the criteria suddenly expanded and all the desirable clubs filling up, Sierra Leone, El Salvador, and Rwanda applied to be called the "Axis of Countries That Aren't the Worst But Certainly Won't Be Asked to Host the Olympics".

Canada, Mexico and Australia formed the "Axis of Nations That Are Actually Quite Nice But Secretly Have Some Nasty Thoughts About America", while Scotland, New Zealand and Spain established the "Axis of Countries That Want Sheep to Wear Lipstick". "That's not a threat, really, just something we like to do", said Scottish Executive First Minister Jack McConnell.

While wondering if the other nations of the world weren't perhaps making fun of him, a cautious Bush granted approval for most axes, although he rejected the establishment of the "Axis of Countries Whose Names End in 'Guay", accusing one of its members of filing a false application. Officials from Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chadguay denied the charges.

Israel, meanwhile, insisted it didn't want to join any Axis, but privately world leaders said that's only because no one asked them.

A Bit of Irish Insight

Back in the pre-comment days (a long, long time ago... some time earlier this week...) I expressed puzzlement at the strange coralation in Ireland between fireworks and Halloween. Well, a pal o' mine here in Dublin emailed me to shed some light on the subject. I just thought I'd share this interesting tidbit with y'all. (By the way, be sure to stop by and visit her blog: But Seriously Forks...) ;)

In answer to your pondering re Halloween and fireworks, I think it's probably because of Bonfire Night (Guy Fawkes Night) in the UK, which is a few days after Halloween. Fireworks are a symbolic part of that, and I reckon it caught on here in the 1980's - my parents claim that Halloween was just about the bonfire and firework-free for the most part until then. This also coincided with my youngest brother turning 9 and developing an unhealthy interest in explosions and all things fire-related, so it was a real firework-fest around home at this time.

The kids around town that feck bangers at people are little shits though, I'm staying in next Monday night and only distributing sweeties through the letterbox!

More info on this Bonfire Night business to come...

"Oh, BEHAVE!"

Try to ignore the above Austin Powers reference, and look at the shiny new feature here at Snowflakes to Shamrocks... I have enabled *dun dun dun...* COMMENTS! That's right! Now y'all can leave a little note whenever you feel. But children, BEHAVE YOURSELVES! Don't make me take your new toy away... ;)

"I Could Have Been A Contenda..."

As I have the CBC website set as our homepage, I was aware of a growing lotto fever sweeping Canada. The Lotto 6/49 Jackpot was a record-breaking $40 million dollars. I was going to join in and ask someone back home to by a ticket for me... just in case. You never know, right? Well, when I logged on today the site announced that a) the jackpot actually was more than the estimated total... a whopping $54 million and b) the winning ticket was sold somewhere in the praries.

So far, the holder of the winning ticket has yet to come forward. But if this ticket was sold in Calgary, say... in the proximity of my parents' home? I will be most frustrated with myself. :)

Woo-hoo!

The quiz night at Yello on Friday was great. The trivia was good (Col was a fiend, and certainly our team's strongest player) and the host, Yuri Vision (the stage alter-ego of a friend of ours), was in flying form (the pic is Yuri in all the gear). While we didn't come in first place, the Spuds did come in second! Yey for the Spuds (a team from a Potato-tastic online messageboard site)! Yey for Clicky singing the Pussycat Dolls' Don't Cha in a heart-pounding tie-breaker round! :) Well, we did end up winning something though. In the raffle, we won a dvd player and a Sponge Bob Square Pants dvd. Yey!

Random Note: The BBC program Animal Rites is very very interesting! That is, once you get over the strangeness of the first-person narration. It shows the role of various animals in religions, mythology, and cultures throughout the world. It charts an animal's role throughout history. Today's is on The Pig. To try and draw a pig, go HERE. This was my effort:

Noises in the Night

Last night I had a pretty rotten dream. I won't go into details, but in the end of it a lot of innocent people were getting shot and there wasn't anything I could do about it. Anyways, when I woke up around 6am I was still a little freaked out but mostly calm. Then I heard a series of bangs from outside. You see, in Ireland (for some strange reason) Halloween is connected with fireworks (the kind you buy illegally from roadside vendors). Kids set off a bunch on Halloween night, but they have also being going off intermittently every evening after sunset. Well, lets just say that this morning those bangs were badly timed.

Head Scratchin'

Two little language absurdities have occured to me over the past few days...

When we were out at the restaurant on Saturday (after the Blessing of the Marriage), someone turned down dessert because they 'were watching their figure'. Isn't it more that they were trying to get other people to watch their figure, and thus they were trying to lose a bit of weight?

And just now, someone was telling me how an alarm has gone off at their place of employment. By this, of course, she meant that the device which creates the warning noise had actually turned on. So what will she say when the loud noise stops. That the alarm has gone on again?

Hmmm...

Can't Talk!

No note today! Buzzing around... Going to a quiz night tonight at Yello (hosted by our delightful friend, Uri Vision!) and then tommorow there is the Blessing of the Marriage at Col's parent's place. After that, a flurry of the last bit of paperwork being sent off to Calgary. So, I might not be back here for a little bit...

*still out of breath after that last one...*

In an effort to be more brief (and current!), I decided to write a little something about what actually happened today! Not a week ago... Not a month ago... Today! I know this doesn't happen to often. After all, I don't want to spoil you lot.

Well... today actually wasn't terribly exciting, but two noteworthy things did occur:

1) I actually learned how to iron! Okay, all of you snickering in the back... Give me a chance to explain! I rarely iron my clothes. Anyone who knows me would be forgiven for thinking I'm part pug... They are often that wrinkled. My usual methodology involved saturating the garment and then ironing it until it was dry (usually burning bits in-between). My usual method sucked... It would take me a good 20 minutes to finish. However, I have just learned of a wondrous little creation known as the STEAM SETTING! Oh, the power of steam. It's so quick now. Stop laughing. It really was exciting. Well, I thought it was exciting...

2) I went to a movie I have been looking forward to for a while, Domino. It's a movie that's (sort of) based on the life of Domino Harvey, daughter of actor Laurence Harvey and Vogue model Paulene Stone, who turned her back on the life of the privileged life of the Hollywood Elite to become a bounty hunter in Los Angeles. It was actually a pretty good little movie. While I felt the director was trying too hard, it was one of those movies I watched without once being aware of the passing of time. The star power that turned up (even in smaller roles) in this film was a treat. Christopher Walken was really very funny, even though his role was rather small. The big story here though is Keira Knightley. It's always exciting to see actors or actresses do something that is a bit outside of their usual fare. While she does usually play the tom-boy (with some action-bits through in to boot), the persona she had to take on here is half-crazed and much more violent than we usually see her. Anyway, it's actually quite a good performance. It's not exactly a thinking movie, but the action keeps it well-paced. On a sidenote - I have been convinced for months that this movie (and her name) was pronounced 'Do-MEE-no', and even tried to correct Col when she pronounced it as 'DOM-in-o'. I was wrong. Very wrong. Embarrassingly wrong. I learned that within the first 2 minutes of the film. Col was right. It just has to be said... *grin* Alright, later!

The Death of Sanity: Irish Mobile Born 20 Years Ago Today

I was listening to the Irish equivalent of CBC Radio One this morning, Ryan Tubridy announced that 20 years ago (to this day) cell phones were introduced to Ireland. I never really was into the whole cell phone thing back in Calgary. I would just borrow the 'family cell phone' on the few times I was going to be out late. Once I got over to Ireland though, it seemed like everyone and their grandmother had a 'mobile' here. I don't even have a have home number for most of my friends in Ireland. I have their mobile number. It seems that 24% of the Irish population has joined the mobile craze. Mobiles are used 50% more here in Ireland then Europe on average.

Evidence of the infiltration of cell phones is all around. Ring tones, everything from your favorite movie line to the latest release from the evil Crazy Frog, have became one of the latest definitions of individuality. They can be heard everywhere. People, it seems, can't bear to be without their phones. One or two go off each time I go to mass. Even when flying, it seems that as the plane lands and the 'all-clear' is given for mobile use, half the cabin on their phones, yakking about the in-flight movie... the airplane food... I'm not so convinced that some of these individuals aren't talking to other people on the same flight. Two of the three leading cell phone companies, Meteor and Vodafone, are currently running competing advertising campaigns in Dublin Airport to try to get visitors coming into the country to select their network when turning on their cell phones once off the plane.

People have created whole businesses to cater to cell-phone users. Customizable covers & cases, decorative charm for your antennae and battery compartment, every kind of ring tone one can imagine, wall papers... You can enter competitions, get your horoscope or tarot readings, get the news, jokes... all through text messages.

The business next-door to our apartment is an internet cafe. Recently, they introduced a line of cell phones (by Meteor) available for sale. The owners have told us that the display of phones in the window have brought in almost more customers that they can keep up with. Much of their time is spent repairing phones, or changing SIM cards. Other businesses, from gas stations to candy shops to the post office, offer Top-Up services. These allow anyone using a Pay As You Go plan to add more credit to their phones on their network of choice.

Many phones are equipped with cameras (allowing for great photographic opportunities as well as the threat to privacy that is evident in some of the uses of this feature). Internet access is fast becoming a standard feature of the average mobile phone, which only introduces another element that contributes to the swell of over-information (for an example, look the the trailer that runs along the bottom of a CNN broadcast). It's hard to complain about the lack of personal interaction or the lack of respect that sometimes goes along with cell phone use. This is because the phones are so common and so integrated into our lives, the best we can hope for is a little cell phone etiquette.

This little rant is one-sided, I know... and was only bourne out of a bit of pent-up frustration on the issue. If anyone wants to discuss the matter further, you can reach me on my cell.

We're Baaack...

Well, Colette and I have sucessfully (and safely) navigated our way back to Dublin. It's seems we have made it to Europe just as H5N1 (bird flu) arrives. Fun... Despite my personality, I will try not to be paranoid. I promise. If I stock pile a little Tamiflu, just smile and go on about your day. Just tap me on the shoulder if I start wearing a SARS-style mask.

Well, I know you are all probably demanding photos. And stories. And other such updates. But it's 5:20 am, and I am only online because I can't sleep at the moment. Stupid time difference *seethes quietly at self for sleeping in so late today*. I promise I will be back onto this blog again, at a more humane hour, to give you all the gossip.

Until then, be well. And pop in The Birds to creep yourself out a little.