- artwork by Dan

The lads will tell you that I have been playing Donkey Kong Country non stop for the last 2 weeks trying to get 101%. In order to get 101% you have to complete all levels, all bosses and uncover all bonus levels. Finally, this morning, I achieved my goal. Check it out!!!

Last week Dunnes were selling half price pork steaks so I bought one, cut it in half and froze it. Last night I decided to cook one of the halves for my dinner. It worked out a beaut! If anyone else is interested, here’s what I did.

First you’ll need 1×300g pork steak, 6 streaky rashers, a few slices of bread, an onion, a stick of celery, an apple, some fresh thyme and 4oz butter.

First, cut two of the rashers into small pieces and fry until crispy. Set to one side.

Next, chop the celery and onion into small pieces and fry in the same pan as the rashersfor about 10 mins until they are soft.

Next, make breadcrumbs out of the bread and mix in with the fried rasher bits, the celery, the onion, the butter melted and some thyme to make stuffing

Next, cover the pork steak in a sheet of cling film and use a rolling pin (or like me, a beer bottle) and stretch out the pork steak. This will tenderize the meat as well as making it easier to stuff.

Then place the stuffing inside the steak, roll it back to its original shape and cover with the remaining rashers. It is a good idea at this point to leave the steak sitting in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Finally, heat the oven to 190 degrees and bake the steak for about an hour. Just before it is done, peel and slice the apple and cook in a tablespoon of water in the microwave until soft. Then mash with a fork and serve with the steak. I also decided to have some stir-fried broccoli with it too.

Jack of Speed on BalconyTV!

Here’s a fantastic short of some breakdancing ninjas directed by the one and only Aiden Gibson. Breakdancers are P Kean and Horse Henderson! The song is Europa by the James Taylor Quartet.

Check it out! We were all in Merrion Square last weekend at the street entertainment festival and we saw this really really tall woman! Well… technically it was only a young girl on the shoulders of a man as the second photo shows. But from where we were standing, it looked like a really tall woman! What do you think?!?

Well well. Yes, I know I never make any posts here and yes, I know everyone keeps telling me to do so. So - here we go.

In case you were not aware, Alastair “not so cross” Cross turned the brand spanking new age of 24 (who’d ‘ave thought it?!) on Sunday. We celebrated it in the usual style - romantica with pink, blue and yellow birthday candles, 2 flavours of jelly, party rings and bucks fizz. A joyous occasion all round!

As is the usual way with birthdays, we got him a present. Here it is…

WOW!!! What a game! I can honestly say that I havn’t laughed as hard as I did when we played this in a LONG long time. Here’s a tip for Buckaroo fans - remove the base of “Roo”, play normal rules and se what happens - absolute genius! Heh

Ended the day with “play time” in the basketball courts near the gaff. Amused ourselves with a combination of football, bike, skateboard and a belt. Fun!

I noticed when Ali was sitting down having a rest that there was something amusing on the wall behind him, so couldnt resist a piccy. Can you see it? Heh…

Well thats all from me for the moment. Happy Birthday dude! Cheery-bye, until next time…

Saturday was one of those days that any radiohead fan would have had trouble sleeping the night before. I can’t include myself in that list, primarily due to a healthy concoction of pints baby guiness’ (guini?) and silver bullets (Thanks Paddy!) the night before, and so it was with a heavy lids and even heavier head that i was roused by a scorching sun blasting though my so-called curtains.

So as we all know now, it was the perfect day for an outdoor gig! In our case, a fairly complex plan of action was called for to ensure that all guilty parties were assembled in or around the right time and place for some pre-gig fun. There was a theoretical group of 8 of us who were to head up to a mate Roisin’s not-so humble abode in Malahide for a BBQ and drinks. Kudos goes out to Roisin at this point, who very graciously permitted myself and Dan to show up with 6 of our smelly friends without so much as asking what area code they resided in or whether they would be bringing anything to the table other than their hungry, thirsty selves.

Eventually a troupe consisting of myself, Dan, Wigs, Clem and Amel was assembled and we piled onto a dart at about 1pm. Along the way we picked up Fi and Ignazio-a friend of mine from work. Mike, the supposed 8th member of the group was, as usual, not to be heard from. I still amaze myself that I find this surprising even after 6 or 7 years…

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Every morning, I am woken up by my alarm at 7am. I turn over, hit the snooze button and grab an extra 15 minutes of sleep. Once my 7.15 alarm goes off, I’m out of bed and into my dressing gown. I walk downstairs and prepare my morning juice. With my juice in my hand, I head back upstairs and on the way, I turn on the pump for the shower. I spend the next twenty minutes beautifying myself with a shower and a shave and a scuab of the old fiacla. Following this, I quickly get dressed and head to the dart station. This is when I start to get annoyed.

As I approach Glenageary dart station, I am confronted by two young foreigners – one male one female - but both with the same agenda. They both want to burden me with a copy of the daily rag that they are paid to hand out. Yes I’m talking about the Herald AM and the Metro “newspapers” – the scourge of the morning. Actually, the girl who hands out the Metro is fairly cute and I enjoy smiling at her every morning but my mood quickly changes to irritation when she forms a barrier to the entrance of the station with her Herald AM counterpart. The idea is that they make it difficult to enter the station without acquiring one of these rags however I pointedly refuse to accept one – even if the cute girl smiles at me. Read the rest of this entry »

• oh no forgot my waterproof trousers for my moped journey home… #
• oh and some learner almost drove straight into me on the way to work #
• currently researching how to make video podcasts for city channel’s weekly news review #
• @krodnoc well done! #
• i’ve got about 8 more songs to do on the expert solo tour on the drums in rockband cant wait to have a bit of a bash when i get home! #
• woooo home time! lets hope it doesnt rain on me #
• just completed rockband on the drums on expert mode! yay go me! #