NOT RIP

I am not dead and neither is this blog. I apologise for the lack of posting but I have fallen under stressful times. I came back from holidays and realised that I had to make some big decisions, i.e. what to do for the next year of my life, so far I have looked for jobs as a bike courier but there have been no opportunities, I have also applied to be an eco cab driver and I have dropped in CV's into loads of other places. I am wondering whether I should do a fitness instructor course or a TEFL course then run away to Sarajevo to teach English and hid in the war scarred mountains. I will catch you all up fully on what has been happening but you will have to wait a day or two because I am limited with my Internet access but don't worry I still love you guys and hope I can regain your readership.

Eric Out (and about)

Cluj & Buda

I felt joy rising from my stomach, my legs felt light and naturally bouncy, I was back in the city I loved so much, Budapest. I was scared of returning because i didn't know how i felt but as soon as i got back into the city centre i felt at home and i welcomed the late evening heat, running up to finney's apartment to hug my travel compatriot phil.

We went to an old haunt stex where i got my usual, the transylvanian platter, 4 types of meat, oh yeah baby! We spent the next day hanging around Budapest organizing our trip to Transylvania. We decided on Cluj as our first stop and I am writing this from a hostel there, the retro hostel. I met up with some friends and then philip and I went to Momoto Ramen where I enjoyed my favourite chinese food, if you're ever in Buda with me I shall take ya.

We left on Friday and got the 13.15 train direct to Cluj. We bought some oranges which turned out to be grapefruit and 6 2lr bottles of water, we ate 1 and drank two respectively. The train was hot but not as bad as last summer on our way to Sarajevo, we were getting bored when suddenly the train was stopped, after a while we heard there was an accident, and later we discovered it was a suicide, a guy had dived in front of the train. We managed to find two other native English speakers who were from californi A, January and Brooke, both were really cool and we hung out in the canteen carriage playing kings and talking shite, it helped past the time.

There were no problems at the border and soon we were passing through the most beautiful countryside I have seen since Bosnia last year. Beautiful forests draped over high hills with small villages scattered along the railway track, a gorgeous river accompanied the track for a period.

We didn't get into Cluj until 11.30 or so but we had a hostel booked and when we arrived we got to see the end of the turkey game. Phil woke me this morning with a 7.30 rising and we were out the door at about 8, I could tell it was going to be a scorcher of a day. We wandered about the city center hitting a few museums and sights but we knew it wasn't going to be long before we ran out of cultural activities. No worries though because we invented a game of Caca Milis, which shall be explained at a later date.

I am a sweaty mess and I really hope I adapt to this heat before I start crying over my own stench. We are off to Bucharest tomorrow night where we shall sample some of Ceausescu brilliance of lack thereof.

Philip's highlights so far:

1.that waitress in the cafe. all else is but futile moments in her shadow. truly she was a goddess

London: Day 1

Last week I was in London and it was only the second time I have ever been, last time I was there I was 13 and went with my brother, gran and mam. This time I was visiting a friend from erasmus Katie Bates. I hadn't seen her in over a year and she was too lazy to come over to dublin, typical brits eh? ha ha only joking but yeah I went over last sunday the day after my last exam and it was an early morning flight with Ryan Air to Gatwick. Thankfully I got an emergency seat and I was sitting next to a gentleman who looked as though he belonged in the scenes of lock stock. The flight was perfectly on time and arrived early, how do RyanAir manage to always be early?

When I landed in Gatwick there was no security and I didn't have to wait for any baggage, so I just walked straight into the station where I got a ticket and jumped onto the train straight away, everything was flowing, one of those days. I arrived at tower/london bridge and jumped onto a tube heading to angel. 15 mins later I was saying hello to my long lost friend katherine who's hair was a good 2 meters shorter. I was worried that things might be weird/awkward for a while cause we hadn't talked that much and hadn't seen each other in over a year but it was grand, it was like the old days back in Buda.

We walked to her house in Islington, I love saying Islington, Islington. The place was exactly as I imagined, cool, it was a beautiful gaff. Huge sitting room and dining room and all the bedrooms were in the basement which was awesome cause I love basements, it's so fucking stupid that most houses in Ireland don't have basements. We hung out for a while and then walked into the city centre or rather one of the city centres. We saw the Tate modern and the Haywood (?) which had a display of posters from the student revolution in France in '68. Then we got some ramen after walking around Soho, then we went to see Joy Divion (the movie) in the price charles which was an awesome cinema. Rather than the seat sloping downwards toward the screen they sloped upwards, weird feeling but nice!

I struggled to stay awake during the film cause I was so so tired, I love the cinema though and afterward we got the bus back to her house, I was so thankful for being back in the house cause I was tired and overwhelmed. I never realised how big London is, how many people there are and how noisy and crowded it is. I was actually scared of the place, it was intimidating, I was happy to be back in the house hiding away from the scary city of 12 million or whatever it is, the fact is that london has more than twice as many people as there are living in the whole of Ireland now that is a scary fact.

When we got home we relaxed for a while before spending like 3 hours baking for the party the next day. We made Banana Bread, Brownies, Flapjacks, Cheesecake, Carrotcake, Buns and Jelly. A lot of baking, it all tasted great! I collapsed on the sofa bed, I was fucking wrecked, Day 1 very good.

Missing Everything

I am missing a lot of things while I am away, so many events are taking place between june 18th and July 9th, here's some of them:

Shamrock Rovers vs Bohemians at Dalymount Park.
The One Man Play of Tom Crean in the Gaiety.
Spencer Tunick.

Could my readers try and attend at least one of these events, especially the spncer tunick one, I am really annoyed that I am going to miss it. Really Really annoyed.

Forceful Taste Requirement

I have started a music blog ---->

it won't contain many reviews, if any, rather if you are bored and want to listen to something different and what I am listening to because that would automatically make you cool! So yes check check check czech it out! ha ha.

My Brother the original

Well Done Ivan on finishing school, well sorta.

The Billion Dollar Don

Priests Privately Advertise?

The Bishop.

They kick ya while your down

Cyclone in Burma, earthquake in China how will the media split it's coverage? Good god one natural disaster after another, I am so very lucky to live in a country which somehow manages to avoid any sort of natural catastrophy. Although I hear that we'll be drowned by the rising tide of global warming within 100 years.

Eine kleine Pause

There MAY be a break in posting for a week or two as I have entered my exam period, I hope that I can squeeze out a post here and there but I may just be too busy, I love you all though, except for damien, so hooray for exams, I wonder who invented exams? Bastard

Art Moshing with the beautiful

Whenever I say Art Mosh I keep thinking of that band Art Brut who used to run around amongst the audience during their gigs because they have so few songs and I guess they depended upon that sort of behaviour to make up for their lack of talent, harsh? Maybe but it's true. Last night I did something artsy I went to a cool, hip, in your face, modern but yet post modern art show. I only went to really see the work of one guy and that was Maser who's blog is linked on the right ---------->

The tickets were free, I just had to ask for them via email and then collect them the day before. I got a plus one so I brought a fellow art lover ;) The show was on in some old terraced house off St.Stephen's Green, it's was a beautiful house which is obviously used for events like this. The show was from 7pm til 11pm. Me being me I made sure we arrived at 6.50 and from previous experience I knew that it'd be a bad idea to go in early, so we chilled in the park until 7.30ish.

We got in and the place was starting to fill up. There were waitresses walking around handing out free Heineken, free wine and champagne. Yet despite all the free booze they had no fucking non alcoholic drinks, fucking typical! Did they not account for people who might have been driving home, should they go drink water from the tap in the bathroom, I am actually not that bothered, I am used to these sort of things by now. I remember I once went to a rowing meet/race and it was in Passau in Germany and they had free drinks and free food for everyone. There was beer galore but also a variety of soft drinks, oh my I love Germany.

The art itself well there was an upstairs and a downstairs. Downstairs there was nothing that nice or even appealing apart from 3 pieces. Upstairs there was a DJ who was playing some sort of hip hop version of radiohead although Rory said it might have been dub when he heard me mention it, he's probably right. So yeah the art upstairs was amazing, some of Maser's pieces were beautiful and there was other cartoon or rather graphic novel type pieces which we very nice. They were all for sale and were expensive, if I were rich I would have bought a few pieces.

So some of the art was cool, very cool rather, some was shite. The venue was nice and the DJ was good yet the big thing I didn't like was the people. There was an arrogance emanating from certain parts of the crowd, a holier than thou kind of affair. A lot of people seemed to be too cool for school. I could go on with the cliches but I won't I'll sum it up as follows cause you're bored by now I am sure:

1/2 good art
1/2 shit pretentious art
Free booze but no free soft drinks
3/4 stuck up crowd of snobs
1/4 seemed decent laid back nice folk
100% cool music
97% cool venue

lets just say the event got a b1 or rather a 79.78%

yeah that's everything, i think?

Burma Bullshit

I hate when these sort things happen.

Ireland and the Aspiring Irish

I have just finished reading an excellent academic journal about Ireland and Migration, it is very interesting and easy to read and it's not just about migrancy rather it about Ireland and it's relationship to the rest of the world. Send me an email or leave a comment and I'll send you the article. ewahlrab@gmail.com

Footballers don't deserve what they earn

I am after reading an article about Flamini and how he turned down £55,000 (sterling!) a week from Arsenal so he can go off to Milan to earn more. Did you know a lot of players earn over £100,000 a week? It is fucking ridiculous and I know this has been discussed before on numerous occasions by countless numbers of people but seriously they do not deserve to earn that sort of money. What a doctor might earn in a year Christiano Ronaldo earns in a week.

Now CR does not do anything important, fuck off to all those who say he has to perform blah blah, hopes and dreams, inspirations etc. Doctors work fucking hard and there are other who work just as hard and don't receive as much, Nurses! A player in the English first division earns more than a nurse in a year, that's a fucking disgrace! Fireman earn pittance and yet risk their lives for others, John O;Shea sits on a bench and equals their pay.

I am sick and tired of hearing about these huge wages. Footballers don't deserve them. Now I know it's capitalism and free market and fair business and all that so legally they are doing nothing wrong but shite that does not mean they deserve the huge sums of money they get paid.

FInally Ireland is Bertie Ahern-less

Today is the first day without Bertie Ahern and you know what nothing is different. I woke up with the sun in my face, had a shower, ate breakfast, watched Fraiser, cycled to college and now I am writing this post. Nothing will change with Brian Cowen or rather nothing that we will notice wink wink! Bertie had his moments and he should be applauded for his role in the formation of the good Friday agreement.

Ireland is rich now and there are job opportunities, we have a more diverse society and we are a little more open minded BUT bertie cannot lay claim to any of these "achievements" and I say that in "" because even though we do have so many advantages now we also have so many problems. Now I am not saying I want to go back to the Ireland of the 70's or 80's, no I am just saying that Bertie and his governments have failed in a lot of areas. Fianna Fail may have helped Ireland to get richer but their administration of our development has been awful.

This country has terrible problems with: alcohol, drugs, crime, homelessness, poverty, corruption(!), shite infrastructure, messed up planning, shockingly bad health service (HSE), House prices etc etc. Ireland seems nice but really it's a mess. We have so many deaths on roads, gang crime, anti-social behaviour. What we need is a German! or a Scandinavian Dictator. Obviously without the massacres and loss of freedom which usually accompanies dictatorships.

I am not sure whether we can really or rather can I really just blame Bertie, no I can't, i have to blame Irish people in general and also human nature, sure the people elected him. this post was supposed to be about saying fuck off bertie but thanks for the odd thing but now it's a rant about Ireland, I have issues of course i do but don't we all? I would guess that this rant was inspired by my exam stress or pressure whatever at the moment mixed up with the fear of entering the workplace proper.

Well here's a final note to Bertie:

Dear Mr. Ahern

Thank you for putting in a lot of effort into your job the past decade or so. I would like to hope you did your best. You broke a few rules along the way, took a few dodgy deals but I guess you're human and made a few mistakes. Ireland is doing ok as a country and I guess you should be proud that a lot of change took place under your stewardship BUT there is still plenty left to fix and I think that you are unable to provide the necessary remedies. You should get more involved in the EU and I hope some day to see you as President of the EU. Your best skills lie in mediation, best illustrated by the GFA.

Ireland needs to change more and as I said you're not the man for the job but I am afraid BC might not be either but who am I to say all this? well I am just average joe blogs who sees things the way he is taught to see them. Enjoy your bench at the back and maybe sort out those potholes down in Drumcondra, God Bless!

Yours faithfully,

PW

Just say yes

So the vote on the Lisbon Treaty is coming up and as an Irish man I am privileged to have a vote over the direction of the whole of Europe. Finally Ireland is in the driving seat, not! We are the only country having a referendum over the Lisbon Treaty, why? Well it's because our politicians have no balls. People will talk about various other reasons for having a referendum but really it's because our politicians are cowards.

What a waste of money it is to have a referendum. I say this because it doesn't matter how we vote, the decision has already been made. I mean this in no conspiracy theory sort of manner rather because of the conditions under which we live and rule our society there will be only one option regarding Lisbon and that is a yes vote. Ireland does not have the power to return a no vote and stick by it unless we leave the EU, which WILL NOT HAPPEN!

Our country is part of the EU and there's no going back, we have made a decision to enter and we're there til the end. What this means is that we have another "NICE Treaty" situation about to unravel. Here's what's going to happen:

1. If Ireland Vote NO: there will be another referendum and another and another and another until finally a yes vote appears
2. If Ireland Votes Yes: we'll just go about our daily lives as usual and notice nothing different on an individual level.

So what this means is that we should vote yes, not because we do or don't believe in this or that but because it's inevitable that a Yes vote will eventually be returned. So vote Yes and stop the government from having to spend more money on more referenda (?). It could be better spent on that new government jet that the fat politicians like to have delusions of grandeur aboard.

hopefully I have covered everything.

Ya Big Bollox!

I am not going to write a big long post about loyalty and whether it is expected these days, rather I just wanted to say good riddance to flamini who has decided to leave Arsenal. Arsene Wenger has stuck by him and this year he got his big break, he was amazing this year. Then as soon as he shines he leaves. He is off to AC Milan on a free transfer which always irks me. Although I should have expected it from him, he left Marseilles in the exact same manner. He's all about the money and I say that because he can't be leaving for better football because Milan are shite and Arsenal play the best football in the world. They may not win enough but they play the most attractive and skillful football anyone could find. I am excited to see who replaces him and I hope that wenger does bring in someone new, Cesc needs someone beside him so he can perform, to be honest I'd be much more upset if Cesc left, can you believe he's only 21! OH Flamini I hope you know there is the Arsenal player curse, good luck shaking that off, enjoy the joker Burlesconi's plaything!

more youtube for you!

Tevez reacts to his move to Man United

thank you damien for a wonderful find!

SHOCKtherapy!

Thank you France

Only 30!

30

Gagauz

You all might have heard about my proposed trip to Transdnistria this summer well I was just talking to a professor here in DCU who had been there and he mentioned another separatist state in Moldova, Gagauz, they're turks but they're not if you get my drift. Wikipedia it and you shall find your slightly biased answer. There flag is the image above, isn't it such a cool flag!