2013 Thoughts

The other night I was falling asleep when the Budget drifted into mind. No, I did not watch it live, I don’t think I ever have, that’s like voluntarily listening to Joe Duffy to me. I did follow it on Twitter for a bit but everything seemed to be overshadowed by people lamenting the 1 Euro charge on a bottle of wine (oh Ireland, we’ve come a long way if it’s bottles of wine we’re worried about!). This was not what popped into my head though. What did was the new car registrations for 2013.

For 2013 cars registered in the first half of the year will end in ‘131’ and car registered in the second half of the year will end in ‘132’.  Just like buildings skip the 13th floor, it’s being done so that people won’t fear having a ‘13’ number plate. Seriously. Superstition is still alive and well people! Let’s ban black cats too and send everyone a 4 leaf clover for good luck!

Though to be fair, it’s hoped that it will help spread out the sales of new cars into the second half of the year, as most new car purchases are done in the first few months. And it will also help age the car as cars purchased at the beginning of the year are of course made the year before, but later on in the year cars are built in the current year. I just wonder if they will continue using this into 2014. But that of course is another year away!

The story of Snowy the Inflatable Snowman

So first off, sorry I haven’t posted much. I guess I got a burst of inspiration and then life got in the way. Hopefully I’ll be able to post a bit more now!

So when originally researching stories before I set up this blog, I was reminded of the last Christmas, when the statue of the Baby Jesus was stolen from the manager in Waterford City before being returned to the Gardaí (RTE link here). It got me wondering what the ‘crazy’ Christmas story would be this year. And sure enough, when I was watching the news earlier it came up: the story of Snowy the 60ft Inflatable Snowman.

Last week, Snowy disappeared from Wicklow Town centre, a story which somehow escaped me entirely. Today’s story however was that Snowy had been found, returned to the centre of Wicklow Town, deflated, with a hand written ‘Sorry’ note on top.

I just love the way The Irish Time wrote up the article, containing anonymous phone calls, people arriving on the scene to investigate and the Gardaí not planning to pursue the matter. They also dispelled the idea that this was a publicity stunt. Part of me kinda wish it was one!

Harry Potter and the Minor Trophy Cup

So Donegal won the All Ireland Football Final against Mayo on Sunday but Dublin beat Meath in the minor final, securing their first minor win since 1984. And boy did they party! They had a magical time by the looks of it, partying away with none other than Daniel Radcliffe (a.k.a. Harry Potter himself)!

Apparently he joined them at a house party after they decided to continue their celebrations. Good man yourself Daniel!

Looks like he knows how to have a good time! I wonder if this is how they celebrated winning Quidditch games?

Pictures from Joe.ie and https://www.facebook.com/uniladpage

You Know You’re Irish When…

This imagine is doing the rounds on the internet at the moment so I thought I’d stick it up here. If you know who the original source of the image is please let me know so I can add a link.

Do you have anything else to add to this? Leave a comment below!

Land of Leprechauns

Starting from 09:47, Blair talks about leprechauns and how she truly believes they exist and that one day we’ll find them. That there’s a town in which they sing and dance. However she does not go as far as believe they ‘bake cookies all day’. Oh no, as that would just be ABSURD!! Cos no one believes in leprechauns and thinks that they wear green, say ‘Top O’ the Morning to Ya’, have a pot of gold AND begorrah they can bake a mean cookie too. That would just be wrong!

However I can tell you that leprechauns do exist, they live at the bottom of my garden and for the absolute bargain price of $999.99 I will show them to you…

All Ireland Replay

Barack approves anyway!

Best competition ever?

I don’t usually see the Facebook ads as I use Ad Blocker. However I’ve disabled it on SongPop (look,I’m addicted and I wanted to earn some free coins ok?!). I kinda like seeing the ads every now and again as Facebook likes to tailor what it targets you with based on what you’re searching and posting. For example, if you change your relationship status to engaged suddenly you get a load of wedding ads. If you change it to single you get ads about online dating. Once I searched some information about transport in Norway for my brother and then all the ads were in Norwegian. So I wonder why Facebook decided to target this ad at me.

I have not been searching for concrete or any other building supplies. Nor do I own a farm. I wonder who sees this ad and thinks ‘Yes! Just the competition I wanted to enter!’?

Enda Kenny

I came across this image on JOE.ie’s Facebook page. A picture of Enda Kenny at the Notre Dame vs US Naval Academy college American football game in the Aviva Stadium (sigh,I hate calling it that. Lansdowne Road ftw!) yesterday. Oh dear, number 7 does not seem to be very impressed to be shaking the hand of the Irish Taoiseach one bit! Maybe he wanted to meet Michael D Higgins instead?!

It reminded me of this clip though, in which former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown shakes the hand of former Taoiseach Brian Cowen and then leaves him standing there looking stupid.

There were many comments under the Enda Kenny photo, most of which slagged him off and called him shite and a few saying the football player should have showed more respect. But my favourite was probably this one ‘Charlie Haughey would have stolen the ball’. Classic!

Shamrock

I was informed that my previous blog background had one reader feeling ‘oddly Canadian’ due to the maple leaves. He thought a picture of a local pissing on the Blarney Stone would be more ‘real real’. Unfortunately I don’t have an option for that but I do have shamrocks. Is that Irish enough for you?

Snakes in Ireland!

 I’ve had the idea for this blog floating around my head for a while but the motivation to start it up wasn’t coming to me. Until I woke up this morning and saw the news: Snake found in the Guinness Brewery!!
The news came from the RTE website, a small article with a photo. A non-poisoness corn snake was found in one of the empty kegs that arrived from Texas. It was the final paragraph that cracked me up.
“The juvenile snake is said to be underweight and dehydrated and will be cared for by the vet who identified him.”
I don’t know why it set me off into a fit of laughter but it did. If my boyfriend is anything to go by after a night of Guinness, of course the snake was dehydrated! I later found out from this Newstalk article that the snake was called JR. It’s nice to see that it’s not just the Irish being stereotyped.
The article has been stuck in my head all day. Or rather, the music and video that the article set off has been stuck in my head. The Après Match do the Badger Badger Badger song and the ‘A snake, a snaaaakkkeee’ line has been stuck in my head all day. I had to watch the video as I love 'Eamonn Dunphys’ pouty face, it sends me off into giggles.

The other thing that this whole thing had me thinking about was how the kegs got back to Ireland. I’m sure they probably went by ships but part of me is wishing they went my plane so there was a snake on a plane. And thanks to that idea, I came across this.

(picture from here)

Ah yes, St. Patrick himself. Sure, I couldn’t round out the first post on here without him!