I can't think of a title

You know when you are so annoyed you can't think straight? Well this story in the independent has got me.

It talks about congestion increasing along with respiratory illnesses and general misery. Ok, nothing new there really. Nothing to be extra annoyed about but then Minister Noel Dempsey had his say...

He has a report that is nearly ready to be signed to start a public consultation... Blah Blah and that we can't rely on Transport 21 to solve all our problems...

The fact that Transport 21 is nearly 2 years old and nothing is in place yet and there is still deadlock in getting new buses out on the road...

I know infrastructure takes time, but brand new buses sitting in garages because of a legal argument is farcical. Make a name for yourself minister and get something done! Anything!

Back Running

Today was my first attempt at running in a while. Even though I had the wrong runners, I went out for a short run. I did a 1k run in 5.13. The first run is always the hardest so hopefully they improve after this.

I'm going to try and get out tomorrow. Wish me luck. Maybe I will get as far as a 10k this year!

Buyer Beware

I went into the Arnott's Sale this morning to get myself some half price Asics. I got a pair of GT2130 and Kayano and it was a nice price. Got the boxes, went on home.

I opened them up to go for a run and what I had actually got was a paid of gel1130 and gel evolution. I'm peeved to say the least. By the time I can bring them back the one's I want will be gone...

Arg!!!

It's the afternoon before Christmas

and all through the house, everyone is buying 70 cans because the pubs are shut for 1 night.

The amount of queues and shopping going on is amazing and people's stress levels are going through the roof.

Sit back enjoy your dinner and take it easy people!

It's Alive! Alive!

I've been having bike troubles (when are you not having bike troubles I hear you say!) , what's new? So my bike didn't want to accelerate past 60kmph, which is all well and good on most of my journies but there are times when I would like to (and need to) go faster.

I rang 5 or 6 mechanics in Dublin today and all were booked up well into the new year. I decided to take matters into my own hands, so I oiled the chain, got the WD40 out and I lubricated manies a joint and I fiddled with something at the front of the chain (I don't know what it was!).

I went out for a ride, to the local shopping centre, I had to pick up some gifts, and on my way back I decided to pull back the throttle on a long straight road and low and behold, she roared. She roareth the roar of a bat out of hell and accelerated like, well a 250 maurader.

It's great to have her back!!!

Big Whoop!

I read today that the EU had just got bigger. Way to go EU. Keep eating your greens.

To quote the Slovak Prime Minister (Robert Fico, a youngster, fair play to him): "From midnight tonight you can travel 4,000km (2,485 miles) from Tallinn in Estonia to Lisbon in Portugal without any border controls."

That is of course true if you don't dare go to an airport. I recently flew from London to Dublin and had my passport checked at least 5 times. And Ireland and the UK have a free travel agreement, as well as both being member states of the EU.

So to recap today we are free to travel all around Europe, so go travel, leave the passport at home, there's no need for it.

Breakfast of Champions

It's Kris Kindle time of year. Which is Secret Santa to some of you and Amigo oculto to my good friends in Brazil.

I decided to go with a book this year and the one I chose is Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. It's for a guy I work with who loves Sci-Fi and old fashioned horror films. I thought this book would suit him down to the ground due to it's surreal nature.

It's the strange story of Kilgore Trout a Sci-fi writer and Kilgore Trout, a depressed car salesman. I've read it twice and to be honest you can't really summarise it. Well I can't. I can just say it is surreal, weird wonderfully written and shows you many side to human nature.

For me it is one of Vonnegut's Best. Enjoy

A picture from Sapa

On my recent trip to Sapa in Vietnam (on my honeymoon) I took this cool photograph. It sums up the versatility and craziness of the country.


Yes it really is a man carrying a motorbike on the back of his motorbike.

In Ireland, most of the things you do in Vietnam could not be done because of regulations and health & safety but come on people. Stop living in a bubble, go fall out of a tree!

Eco Fuel

Would you do anything for the environment? Would you power your car on human fat? Thought not, but it is great to see that some people are thinking outside the box.

Although they are so far outside the box I don't think they can even see the box anymore.

Maybe putting all this weight on will help the environment

Christmas Nonsense

The BBC had cut certain words out of a fairytale of new york when it was playing it on radio. I don't think I have to spell out what words were cut.

They've decided against it in the end, but was it for publicity or is it just how the world is these days.

I understand that some words are offensive to some people, but commonsense (if it still exists), should prevail.

My Hittail experiment

I was looking through my hittail and as usual it throws up some weird and wacky results. Normally I just read them and think 'that's odd', or 'that's very very odd'.

I've decided to see what hittail can actually do for me. It claims it can help boost traffic and hits to your site by identifying how people find your site, what keywords get them in.

I'm going to take the number 1 from my hittail and write a few articles on it. I'm also going to take some of the suggestions and write articles on it.

I am going to give it until the end of January to check the results. So I will give before and after stats from my Google Analytics.

Wish me luck.

A load of hot air.

Pressurized air to be precise. Ever since my little spill I have been very wary on my bike. The last 2 days the back wheel felt erratic and I just couldn't trust it.

I checked the tyre pressure and it was way too low. So after wrestling with a pump in a garage (why do they have to be so awkward) I sorted the air pressure out.

The bike feels a lot more manageable and I have much more confidence in it. All I need to do is sort the lack of acceleration and I will be sorted but i think that's a problem for after Christmas

What is wrong with the world

I may be a bit behind the times but I have just heard that Dublin Bus have a load of new buses lying idle because of a legal dispute with a private bus company.

So the general bus taking public are missing out because some lawyers and some civil servants can't get arounda table and sort things out. This is what the government is there for so get governing and get us the buses we badly need.

Traffic is only getting worse, let's try and make public transport a viable alternative.

Customers eh?

I had an irate calling me enquiring about why his email had stopped working. I had to think about it for a moment, and then I asked him had he sent the fax to the ieDR to transfer his domain over to my servers?

Yes, of course he had (cough cough). The site was still being hosted with another host and not been transfered over to my servers. So he hasn't transferred to me, he hasn't paid me but he sees fit to call me up shouting at me?

Some people eh?

Technorati Ranking

I have fallen outside the top 2,000,000 again. I need to get the readership up. So if you do come across my blog, let me know what you like and what you don't like and I will sort this out.

I want to be in the top million. Then I will have the power and I will rule you all.... WOOOHAHAHAH!

Tidying Up your PC

I gavce my laptop a bit of a spring clean tonight. I use MsConfig.exe to get rid of all that rubbish that starts up with your PC. Just type msconfig into your run box and then go to the startup tab. Remove anything you don't like the look of and that is a nice start.

Since I use Zone Alarm I've not had any virus trouble but I still use Avast just in case.

Amazing Animal

Check this little fella out on the BBC website. It goes to show there are a lot more things on going on in this world than we know about.

We don't know everything, I don't think we've even scratched the surface!

Gift Ideas

What do you get for the person who has everything? The Cliff Richard Official Calendar of course!

I've got my bike back!

After my little spill earlier in the week my bike was out of action. The mechanic who did the original service picked up the bike, repaired it and dropped it back. I was in no fit state to ride it today but I should be back in the game tomorrow.

The Budget

It's the big day tomorrow. It's the budget. It's a day you wait for with great anticipation and are always disappointed. I'm not looking for more money for me, but to see the money they collect used wisely for the country.

Some decent public transport would be good. So let's see if the Greena Fail TDs (the pun police are going to lock me away!) have had any influence and got the goverment to do something.

Fat chance!

Biker.ie

As you know I am a new biker (it's nearly 2 years now!) and I had a spill (biker speak for a fall) last night. I joined the biker.ie forum to tell them what happened and it was really cool. Lots of like minded bikers out there to run your ideas by.

Check it out.

Moving and a shaking!

Last week I told you about my lowly ranking on technorati. I just checked today and I've jumped over 480 thousand places into the top 2 million.

How cool is that?

I bet you all want to be my friend now!

The cleansheet is gone

Up until tonight I proudly had a cleansheet when it came to bike accidents. Tonight that all changed. I was coming home and at the last roundabout, I heard a pop, and the backwheel went out from until me. I tried to hold it but I couldn't.

Down she went and the engine popped a ball of smoke and dumped my oil all over the road. There were some nice people to help me up and I am fine (so far). A bumped knee and hip and a bit of a twinge in the shoulder from trying to keep her up. Hopefully it won't get worse over night.

What I want to know is what happened. What was the pop before I went down? did my engine leak oil and put me down.

I've gone through that roundabout thousands of times, and I was completely switched on when it happened. I'm going to investigate.

I'll let you know what I find.

August Rush

Last night we went to see August Rush. It stars Freddie Highmore and Jonathon Rhys Meyers, not to mention Robin Williams, Terrence Howard and Kerri Russell.

It is a super sweet film who's plot is like Cinderella meets Oliver Twist. It has some of the worst lines ever written for the screen but you couldn't hold it against it. It is enjoyable and Robin Williams is a really creepy Fagan like character.

Jonathon Rhys Meyers does a really strange Dublin accent. I can't quite put my finger on what is wrong with it but there is something not quite right.

Go to it if you like sweet films!

Ross O'Carroll-Kelly

On Thursday night I went to the Olympia theatre in Dublin to see "The Last Days of the Celtic Tiger". It's a play based on the Ross O'Carroll-Kelly books of which I have to admit, I have read and have liked (although the last few have been a bit too unoriginal).

On the most part the play was enjoyable, the accents were as poor as the people Ross was laughing at and the crowd burst into laughter when he said Ballymun and Tallaght (there was no joke, just the place names) so it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

There was one part of the play which really bugged me. There is a scene when his father has a soliloquy about all countries are founded on corruption and that if you have hidden a cheque from the tax man then you were as guilty as those at the planning tribunals. It was pointless and it struck me of the author trying to claw back some sense of identity other than that of his misguided protagonist (Have I just used that in a sentence, am i becoming one of them ???).

Would I recommend it? Only if you like the books, and if so, you've probably already been.