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I was in town yesterday for the Ireland vs Italy Six Nations rugby match in Croke Park. I was there with my cousin, a friend of hers and a couple of Italians she knew. It wasn’t a great match by any stretch of the imagination but we had good fun all the same.

Walking back from Croker to my car, I passed along Summerhill Parade where a samba band was playing. An Italian fan decided to help them out and provide us with even more entertainment by popping a horses head mask on and doing a little dance… This was the result:

Tonight is the night that the Christmas FM crew finally get a chance to have a get-together and enjoy themselves after “bringing the magic of Christmas” to Dublin and Cork for a month. I’ll be there, as I featured on the station, reading Christmas Stories on Keith Shanley’s Breakfast Show (along with my college classmate and friend Suzanne Scollard) and presenting a show on Christmas morning itself.

The station, which broadcast from the D4 Hotel in Ballsbridge, managed to raise a whopping €70,000 for their most Christmassy of chosen charities, the Simon Communities of Dublin and Cork – an incredible achievement – while helping bring a bit of Christmas spirit and joy to it’s many listeners.

Here’s a brief documentary video (by Jen) about the station, that even features me…

I find myself in the all too familiar territory of agreeing entirely with something Twenty Major has said… the Irish blogging scene does feel a little dead at the moment. It’s like we’re in the middle of a lull. A sort of blogging recession, if you will.

Mind you, it’s not like I’m doing much to combat that as my own blog has gone a bit quiet of late… I guess I’ve just not had much to say, really… must work on that. Especially if I’m going to be in with a shout at the 2009 Blog Awards (ha!), which are being held in Cork.

Here’s what Tommy Tiernan thinks of the Cork accent, by the way:

So… um… what’s happening with me ?…

Well, I scored a few goals tonight,- real ones,- playing football down in our local sports & leisure club, before coming home and being beaten 10 – 4 in FIFA ‘08 on the PS3 by my brother. He was Argentina, I was Liverpool (with newly added Robbie Keane ).

Saw The Dark Knight on Saturday in the VIP cinema in “movies @ Swords” and there’s very little I can say about it that hasn’t already been said. It. Was. Awesome.

Not much else going on with me… how are you?

RTÉ’s new “News Now” streaming video service service (as discussed on Mulley’s site, here) is pretty good – it provides rolling news from the state broadcaster with repeats of the latest bulletins and special live events… except, of course, when they go and do this:

This evenings episode of that hilarious home grown comedy Killinaskully was streamed on the news service.

They followed it up by leading up to the 9 O’Clock news with “Disasters”, an RTÉ Factual department production. It’s a documentary about the loss of life on trawlers off the Donegal coast and so clearly fits the “news channel” bill.

No explanation for Killinaskully though… It would appear though that either they somehow consider it to fit that bill too, or someone was just asleep at the wheel this evening in RTÉ…

I went to the Ireland Vs Wales rugby match today – my first time to be in Croke Park for an actual match (the single only other time I was there was for the Billy Joel and Elton John gig – a full decade ago). Was nice to have some father-son time (with my dad) and do something FUN. Pity Ireland lost.

Anyway, doubtless, if you’ve seen my last blog entry, you’ll realise that what I’ve gone through recently (with my four year long relationship with my (now ex-)fiancèe falling to pieces) hasn’t been easy and it’s meant that I’ve pretty much had to go ahead and reinvent myself and decide on creating a whole new life for myself from now on. My ex would probably admit that what I say is true – that the disintegration of our relationship was essentially down to her losing faith, losing respect and just basically not trying any more. So now here I am – starting from scratch again at age 31. Many people would think that’s too bloody hard. To be honest, I did at first – but the hell with it – I said in January that 2008 was going to be MY year… I still say that.

There are a few possibilities that have come up for me. All of them will mean me finding my way one way or another – with a new home, new job and possibly a pretty new location somewhere else in the country. I’m totally open to moving anywhere. For now, I’m in Dublin… and for now, I’m starting fresh;- kick-starting my life with a new way of thinking, a new way of living, and probably (on a smaller, less important scale… sorry…) a new look to my blog… soon… ish. No more “Crunchy Links”. No more bullshit – just straight out writing. Life’s experiences, my thoughts, my words, my pictures… and all that. The way it used to be when I started the blog… only better. I promise.

Thanks to all of you who either posted sympathetic/helpful comments on my last blog entry (seriously – I appreciate it) – and to those of you who wanted to but couldn’t (seriously, I understand), and those of you who spoke to me in person, took me out for lunch, helped me out, etc. etc. (seriously, I’ll never forget ye). It’s been a rough week… just as I knew it would be… and it’s not totally over – I still have to go back there to ‘finish off’ moving out (get the rest of my stuff, basically).

In the words of Coldplay (euch!)… “nobody said it was easy – nobody said it would be so hard – I’m going back to the start”.

Photos (click for larger versions):