Two years ago yesterday I attended the third Electric Picnic in Stradbally, Co Laois. It was my first ever music festival and my only one to date. After I passed through the festival security checks I arrived at the gates to the campsite. It was here that I was fitted with a trendy colourful armband for me to wear for the weekend signifying that I was a fully paid-up attendee of the event. The armband was made of some kind of cloth which was the first of its kind I’d ever seen. Normally at events like this you get an irritating plastic armband which you can’t wait to rip off you as soon as it’s no longer needed. Once I arrived back in Dublin after the festival I decided to leave the armband on for a bit as it looked pretty neat.

I guess I never really thought about how long I would keep it on for but time went on and one day I realised I had been wearing the thing for a year. I decided at this time that it was now a challenge to keep the armband on for as long as possible. Soon after the one year anniversary, however, the armband began to go downhill. The colour rapidly faded and the whole thing in general went into a state of decay. Friends and family began to moan about how unhygienic it was but they just didn’t understand. This was my trusty armband that had stuck by me for an entire seven month round-the-world trip.

I remember one particular occasion when I was in hospital having an operation. I was about to go under general anaesthetic when the nurse advised me that no loose jewellery or accessories were allowed in the operating theatre and I would have to remove my armband. I stared at her in disbelief and protested that once the armband was off, it would remain off.
“Well”, she retorted. “It will just have to come off then.”
“Over my dead body”, I thought. I argued with her for about ten minutes and when she realised that I would literally rather not have the operation than to part with my beloved armband, she compromised. I was allowed to keep it on as long as it was taped up with about six layers of masking tape.

However, I was conscious of the fact that the armband was gradually becoming more and more flimsy and so a few months ago I made the decision to cut it off on the second anniversary of the day I was shackled to it. I would like to have seen how long I could keep it on for but I fear that it might get ripped off some day when I wouldn’t notice. What an unfitting end to our journey together that would be! And so, today, the first day of September 2008, the second anniversary of Electric Picnic ’06, I am removing my best friend from my wrist. Below is a list of some of the more memorable moments we’ve shared as well as a couple of pics from the detachment ceremony. May the armband rest in peace in Electric Picnic memorabilia heaven.

Memorable moments shared with the armband
A holiday with 5 friends to Bodrum, Turkey where I took my first scuba dive and danced in drag on a stage in front of several hundred English holidaymakers

The aforementioned operation to have pilo nidal sinus removed from my lower back under general anaesthetic

Riding a horse up a dormant volcano in Banos, Ecuador

Trekking the four day Inca Trail through the cloud forests in Peru to the ancient city of Machu Picchu

Journeying three layers deep into the Cerro Rico mountainside to visit the silver ore mines, the walls of which were thick with asbestos

Exploring the tropical wetlands of Brazil known as The Pantanal

A trip to Ushuaia, Argentina – the southernmost city in the world

A visit to the weird Moai statues of Easter Island, one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands

Diving to a depth of 18 metres to explore the underwater life of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia

Hiking along a portion of the Great Wall of China

Taking the famous Star Ferry in Hong Kong

Investigating the ancient Temples of Angkor in Cambodia

Struggling to reach the top of highest peak in Indochina – Mt Fansipan, Vietnam

Tubing down Nam Song River in Vang Vieng while enjoying a bottle of refreshing Beer Lao

Partying at the world famous Full Moon party on Haad Rin beach, Ko Phangan, Thailand

Travelling an approximate total distance of 88,975 km (55,287 miles) around the world in seven months

Being part of the great sporting moment that was the Heineken Cup Final 2008 - Munster 16, Toulouse 13

The many trips I took to London in ’07/’08 to visit my girlfriend Aileen

Cruising the River Shannon for three nights with my housemates

Countless booze-fuelled nights out on the town with a variety of very agreeable people

“I read the news today, oh boy…”

So here’s the deal: Ali went away to Portugal last week on a family holiday. Usually we take opportunities like this when he’s not around for an extended period of time to play a trick on him, say wrapping random items in his room in clingfilm, general bog-rolling of his room, eating all his food…ok thats lame but you get the picture. Anyway, this time round I wanted us to do something pretty decent, something that would take a while to achieve, something that we could be proud of. Dan and I threw a few ideas around but we didnt settle on anything. Cue last Wednesday - I decided it was time to start something or we’d end up doing a rush job 2 hours before he came home on Saturday. Armed with an armful of newspapers, a large bag of maltesers and a cold six pack of Corona (courtesy of Mike), Dan and I set about covering everything in Ali’s room in newspaper. Grum and Aily shortly followed and we spent the next few hours morphing the room and its possesions into an art piece. Everything got covered or “papered” if you will - chests of drawers, bin, chair, some clothes, wardrobe, radiators, bathmat, shower thing that holds gel + shampoo, toilet seat… the list goes on. Over the course of the next three days we completed the room. Anything that couldnt be covered (plant, guitar stand, dumbells) was moved away into a different room for effect.

Anyway, enough… here’s the short video that Dan put together from all the footage we took along the way. Check it out, and enjoy!

(or you can view the video on YouTube.com HERE!)

- wig -

I finally got around to edting a video together for our 4th of july party we had a couple of weeks ago!! Check it out on youtube!

Howdy all! Thanks so much to the people who came to the party, especially all those who gave us some kitchen towel Hats off to Ian who supplied us with some great tunes and entertainment too! Great news was that it wasnt actually too hard to clean up the next day incase you were worrying about me and the lads :p

Wig went around for a bit with my camera, so when I get some time I’ll put something together and I’ll post it.

Here’s a little video Clem took during the strobe rave You can hear Grum begging in the background for “One More Time” along with some random screaming!

I’ve noticed over the past few days that there’s a bunch of photo’s floating around FaceBook from the party. I put a bunch of them in the photos section so check them out!

- 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.

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…

If you know us, you know that we love Guitar Hero and just over a week ago a new game called Rockband was released and was delivered straight in the loving arms of Gaffbhala. The game is exactly the same as the GH series only that RB comes with a mini drumkit and microphone enabling 4 people to play at the same time on drums, bass, guitar and vocals! A perfect game for me and my fellow housemates!

I’ve been playing it quite heavily over the past week or so and the other day I managed to complete the solo tour on the drums on hard mode. I sat my self down for a few hours every evening after work and ploughed my way through it.

My next step is to step it up a notch and try and complete it on expert difficulty Which should be fine for half of the songs but there are some pretty tough ones once you get into the tour! What I’m looking to though is that after I complete the drum solo tour I have the whole guitar tour to look forward to!