Category Archive

On July 25th to July 27th of this year I am going on a sponsored walk in aid of the Cork Cancer Research Centre - a local charity. We will be walking part of the Ring of Kerry, from Caherdaniel to Killarney - a distance of 71 km.

I can’t wait! Hiking, fresh air, good company, nice photographs and the scenery of County Kerry all in one weekend. It will more than make up for any bad weather or sore feet along the way. 

Cancer research features very highly on my list of worthwhile causes. Good friends of mine are currently battling it, two family friends have recently been lost to it, and I had a close brush with it myself last year in a very minor way.

I set up a web page to get some sponsorship and already I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of all the contributors after just two days. It’s been amazing! The donations have already exceeded my initial expectations. All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you! 

You can sponsor me online at this page. Every penny goes to the CCRC, and I promise I will post up some nice photos of the trip when I get back. 

I’m not a huge fan of internet memes, however after reading Truce’s entertaining memories, I thought I would give this one a go.

1. My earliest memory is falling off a swing in Shandon Park. I think I was three years old. 
2. In 1978, my family took a boat to France where I danced to Gloria Gaynor sing “I will survive” and the Village People’s “YMCA”. It was the first time I began to take an interest in pop music. Of course, another song I was into was the “Chicken Song”, so I had a long way to go..
3. When I was 11, I directed an audio movie featuring me (as hero), and my sisters (as villains). I had to coax, cajole and threaten them into performing in my masterpiece. The result was a mixture of bangs, screams, and shouts, with me (as hero) saving the universe while my sisters (as villains) cackled and died repeatedly. The marvelous thing about it was how awful my acting was - I stuttered my way through - compared to my siblings. Hollywood got away lightly.
4. I played my first hurling match (at under-14 level) for my local parish in a pair of wellies. One of the players was never turned up, so I replaced him that day, complete with novel footwear. I wish I could tell you I went on to score 4 goals, but unfortunately I could barely hit the ball in those days. Despite never really mastering the skills of hurling, I managed to keep my place on the team for 2 years. Maybe having a father on the selection committee had something to do with it. Hmm..
5. I went to an all-Irish boarding school for a year before I went into secondary school. It was a rather unpleasant experience as this was back in the days when teachers whacked kids with impunity any chance they could get. Nevertheless I managed to learn a lot of Irish. I was the first guy in my secondary school to ever get 100% in his Irish Entrance exam. 
6. I never went to hospital during my childhood. This is despite driving a toy tractor out onto a busy road in the middle of traffic; nearly getting knocked over by a train while running after a small dog; falling off a tree in front of the house; almost drowning in Butlins Mosney; missing a bullet from a guy shooting magpies; and narrowly avoiding electrocution from a bar heater. I did however manage to cut the top of my finger off while making papier-mâché with a paper guillotine. 
7. I was on holidays in Galway when Elvis died. Not that I knew who Elvis was. Another memory of Galway is locking myself into the boot (trunk) of the car. Is there a pattern emerging here?  
8. Star Wars. I used to think that my white Liam Brady Texaco ball was the Death Star and that I was Luke Skywalker single-handedly fighting the Evil Empire. This was a time before plastic light-sabres or any of those fancy things. Nope, my Luke Skywalker had a hurling stick. There’s a thought.
9. My cousins from England used to come over every year, regaling us about amazing TV programs such as Blue Peter, Doctor Who and the Magic Roundabout. They couldn’t believe that we had never seen them. The games we got up to brings back great memories. I remember pouring a full bottle of ketchup over myself in an attempt to pretend that I was grievously wounded. It would have worked perfectly except for the fact that they could smell the stink from a hundred yards…
10. My granddad lived with us throughout my childhood. He frequently entertained us by spitting into the fire and going berserk any time he heard the words “divorce” or “abortion” being mentioned on the telly. We dreaded going on walks with him so we would often hide out in the wardrobes and under the beds. It’s strange though: the walks were invariably interesting as he told us about things like life during the War and his memories of the Titanic disaster. He would give us a few squares of chocolate at the end of each walk. 

That’s me done, how about you?

There. I’ve done it. “Colm” it is. I’ve been itching to use my proper first name for a while.

It’s not as if it is a huge secret anyway. The Irish Gaelic word for “woodpigeon” is “colm choille” - dove of the woods, just in case you were interested. “Colm” means dove, or pigeon. It is derived from the Latin word “Columba”.

“Christoper Columbus” is translated as “Christy Pigeon” in English. Lucky he didn’t come from England, or many places one the American continents would have different names today - “British Pigeonia”, “Pigeon University”, “Pigeon River”, “Bogotá, the capital of Pigeon-land”, etc.

I’ll get my coat…

For many years I have not made any New Year resolutions. I’ve always felt that this time of the year was the worst time for changing my ways - something to do with the pitiable lack of sunlight in this part of the globe.

I made no explicit resolutions this year either. However, despite myself, I have changed a few things over the past weeks that might conceiveably improve my quality of life.

• I have cut down considerably on fries, jambons, breakfast rolls and other heart-cloggers for breakfast in preference for granola bars and apples.
• I have also cut down on snacking. I’m eating 3 meals a day and nothing in-between.
• I have given up smoking. Not that I was ever much of a smoker, but I have given it up completely now and I feel no craving for the stuff whatsoever.
• I have cut down greatly on caffeine. Strong coffees and teas were not going down well with me, so I’ve gone decaf.

I already feel a lot better. My stomach has settled down a lot and my body seems to be dealing better with stress. I also hope to do more exercise, particularly during the weekends.

Life is good.

My twins were in great form this morning. I had to deal with the drama of not allowing one of them to bring in his blankie into the playschool. Later he broke down in tears and then tried to do a runner from me, complaining that he didn’t have a dinky toy that the other guy had. Upon arriving at the playschool, I had to wrestle one of them to the ground in order to put on his slippers, while the other lad jumped onto my back. They grabbed onto my legs when I tried to leave, and I got a lick in the face (instead of a kiss) from one of them as I tried desperately to extract myself from their grasp.

Upon leaving the playschool, I looked at their teacher and said “I didn’t bother to send them to sleep last night - I just fed them large doses of sugar all night instead”.

She understood.

Some of you are aware that, these last few weeks, I have been going through a health-crisis that had the potential to change my life dramatically. One minute everything was plain sailing, the next minute I was plunged into a world of anxiety, where control over my future had been placed, quite literally, into the hands of other people.

I’m glad to report that I was given some good news over the weekend. Hopefully now, I can put these events behind me, even if it means that I need to face the future somewhat more tentatively than I did in the past.

I have been overwhelmed by the goodness in people who heard about what I was going through. Friends, family members, colleagues and Internet friends all conveyed their concern in different ways. Many people, I know, felt more worried than I did myself. They reacted to my news in a way that often surprised me. I could see in their faces, their tone of voice and the words they used, that it affected them on an emotional level that I haven’t quite managed to reach myself.

How did I get through it? Simple really. I didn’t get a chance to think about it. It all happened far too quickly. Over the coming days and weeks, maybe I’ll have more time on my hands to consider how this little soupçon of mortality has affected me. I’m beginning to appreciate that my time on this incredible planet, with all its fascinating fellow travellers and its sights, sounds and stories, is very brief indeed.

This is going to be a crazy week.

I am back in work in Dublin today, trying to compress a full week’s work into one day. Then I have an internal training conference to attend on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday I have to be down in Cork to meet my doctor (and hopefully get the thumbs up), and then I scoot back up to Dublin so that I can attend my graduation ceremony!

And all this could change in an instant..

Well, I don’t have a pain quite yet. Give me a few hours though.

I had a routine operation today to have a mole removed. It wasn’t a big thing - just a routine procedure under local anasthetic with a small area of skin removed for further examination.

I realise I’m a total wimp though, when I read Phred’s recent blog entry.

You can all squirm now.

After a prolonged period of avoiding the task of managing the domestic budget, I have finally succumbed to the pressure. I’ve spent some time over the last few days rummaging through the bank accounts and figuring out the current financial situation.

It turns out things are OK (ish), so, always the engineer, I began to figure out some way to keep an eye on expenditure that makes sense to me. What I have come up with is something quite nifty, well to me at least.

Now most of you are probably one of two types: the first type (the Surfers) don’t care too much about money: so long as there is some loot sloshing around somewhere, everything is fine and dandy. The other type (the Turfers) are ultra-organised: with discrete, and closely monitored categories for expenditure: clothes, petrol, groceries, dog shampoo, I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-butter, that kind of thing. I firmly belong to the first group with a small proviso: I worry, every so often, about how close I am to there being no loot to slosh around. I’m a Surfer with a small “s”.

The idea of classical budgeting sends me into goosebumps. Who says I can’t buy the latest book on Japanese toe-painting because I have already overspent on my monthly Oriental Book Purchasing Budget? Gaaa!

Instead I have come up with the concept of a “run rate” - how much dosh is available to be spent on a daily basis, and how am I doing against this figure. The run rate is calculated by subtracting all non-distretionary expenditure (bills, in other words) from my monthly income (salary, wages), and then dividing this remaining amount by the number of days in the month.

I exclude bills because I don’ t have much control over them. I could, of course, decide not to pay them, but then burly people would come to my door and start stamping on my flowers. Or worse. Not nice.

So, if my monthly salary were 1000 euro, and I knew I would need to pay rent, electricity and cable next month of 400 euro, then my run rate would be 600/30 = 20 euro per day. If I go over this amount any day, that’s bad. If I can stay under it, that’s good.

That’s pretty much it. A small elaboration is where I look at my last week’s expenditure compared to the total weekly run-rate (20 euros x 7). I do that just so I don’t feel guilty about blasting money on a 180 euro book on Japanese toe painting if I so wished. (I also use a monthly run-rate, but as I said, I’m an engineer at heart).

What’s nifty about this is that I don’t need to keep too many figures in my head, and the whole analysis thing can be done on a computer in 5 minutes or less. It means I can monitor frequently how I am doing, thereby changing my spending behaviour in mid-course if that is what is required. I don’t need to wait until the end of month to start pulling out my hair. It also means I can decide very quickly if I can afford something or not.

That’s the idea anyway. The practice may be different but we’ll see.

So what about you? Are you a Surfer or a Turfer? How do you manage your budget?

The whole experience of my Masters results has taught me to be suspicious of reasons and justifications, even when they seem blindingly obvious.

Had things not gone well with my thesis, I would have been able to fall back on a some very plausible reasons as to why I did not succeed. People would have understood, sympathised and consoled. I would have had a convenient comfort-blanket at hand to justify my failure. No-one would have been any the wiser, including myself.

The thing is, though, that I succeeded despite these set-backs. The obstacles put in my way were not, in themselves, sufficient reasons for failure. Huge though they were, they didn’t stop me from getting such high honours.

What I have learned, therefore, is that it is sometimes possible to succeed despite external adversity. Blaming other people or the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune is not always the most honest means of justifying failure. Often, perhaps, failure comes from within.

That’s a very good thing, too. Failure from within provides an opportunity to learn. While I can’t always do much about what happens around me, when it comes to me and my behaviour, change is possible.

I think I have learned more from this experience than just the subject I studied.

First the good news - I’ve just been informed that I have graduated with first class honours from my Masters degree course. Both my thesis and course work seem to have made an impression. I’m pretty delighted about it. It was a lot of hard work for me, often in more than trying circumstances, so I feel a genuine sense of achievement in having managed to get this result.

Now the bad news. My mother-in-law is unwell. Very unwell. It’s likely that she will be spending a lot of time in hospital over the coming months with a very uncertain outcome in prospect. She has been an incredibly warm, caring, supportive and strong figure within the whole extended family. She has touched the lives of so many people, I struggle to know where to begin. I really wish her the best in the time ahead.

I’m giving the final presentation of my thesis to my academic supervisor and second reader today, and then that’s it. It’s all over. I finished my thesis about 2 months ago, so it’s been something of a challenge re-reading it again in preparation for today.

Even though it was a lot of hard work, I enjoyed writing my thesis. I was fortunate in that the subject I chose was very interesting to me. I don’t think too many people have written about my chosen subject before - it’s certainly a first for the academic body I am presenting to. This makes it even more special to me.

Hopefully it will be an interesting day and not too challenging! I’m really looking forward to my graduation day in November.

Ooh, ooh, ooh! I just had to do this, even if they don’t actually have a country called Ireland listed… I had to sign myself in as a Brit to do this! Generations of my ancestors are already spinning in their graves no doubt..

Here’s the finished product: what’s yours?

Here’s where you need to go.

(Via Friendly Atheist)

Teuchter has tagged me on the question of why I blog, and I’m happy to try my hand at answering them (in between wrestling with the complexities of software distribution).

1. I like writing. When I write, my thoughts seem to come alive. Writing helps me to make my mind up about things. I’m an introvert, so thinking on my feet doesn’t always work so well. So, if you ever want a decision from me, give me a couple of hours, a laptop and Internet connection.. (only joking - well, almost).
2. It’s a good way to stay in contact with friends. I am lucky to have Internet friends who have a lot to say about the world we live in. What’s fascinating is that they often have very different interests to me - so much for the Internet limiting everyone only to their own narrow obsessions.
3. I have had some spare time in the recent past to blog. With a new job imminent in the near future, this may well change. If my future blogs start waxing on about supply chain management and business process re-engineering, shoot me quickly.
4. Judging by the amount of times I check out the WordPress stats page, I must secretly crave celebrity! That’s me folks: yet another cheese eating recognition monkey.. Anyway, I’m so far down the Long Tail it’ll be a cold day in hell before I become a household name..
5. I blame this guy. He launched an online community back in 1999, and I took to it like a duck to water. I became a blogger last year when it seemed to me that h2g2 was not keeping up with the times. Anyway, I wanted a place to show off my photos.

So, in strict compliance with the laws of memespace it stands to me to pass this question on to the following three lucky people:

• Ophelia, who is one of my blogging friends that I have met a few times in real life.
• Edward: this man always has something fascinating to say, even if he doesn’t like U2..
• Azahar: She has sold me, lock, stock and barrel on Seville.

Oh yes, and anyone else who wants to give this a go, I’d love to hear why you blog!

I’ve been tagged by Teuchter, so here goes..

1. I have four kids, including two identical twin boys. They are three years old - how the house is still standing is beyond me..
2. I have experienced a 7.6 magnitude earthquake (Turkey, 1999).
3. I was in Australia once - for 2 days.
4. I love astronomy - I have seen the aurora borealis, an incredible meteor shower and the space shuttle jettisoning its tanks shortly after take-off.
5. I love walking along coastlines - particularly rocks and cliffs. The scarier and more dramatic, the better.
6. I used to speak the Irish language quite fluently.
7. I got married a few hours before Princess Diana died. Whatever Mohammed Al Fayed says, I don’t believe there is a relationship between these two events :-)..
8. I wrote a full adventure game, based on Shelob’s Lair in the Lord of the Rings, at the age of 14. Only two people ever played it.

And now, on to Pirlam, who might have a few things to say..

I originate from this part of the world. On the south side of the river is Waterford, a small Irish city with a very old and venerable history. On the north side, where I come from, is County Kilkenny. As you can see, one side of the city is relatively well developed, the other side not so much. It’s something of an urban planning nightmare - a city caught between two local authorities who, to put it mildly, are not great admirers of each other.

I was was watching a TV documentary last night that focused in on this particular issue. Waterford badly needs to expand its boundaries and as a result it would like to take over a large tract of South Kilkenny, mainly in my home parish of Slieverue.

The proposal has met with huge opposition from the residents and politicians of South Kilkenny. In 2005, about 10,000 people objected to the plans, but the pressure continues. The issue is very much one of what we Irish might call Tír Grá - love of the homeland. Kilkenny people could never see themselves as Waterford people. We support different GAA teams (hurling being something akin to a religion in Kilkenny), we have strong ties to other Kilkenny communities, and we’re even part of a different province to Waterford.

Nevertheless, there is a contradiction of sorts: Most South Kilkenny people work in Waterford, shop in Waterford and socialise in Waterford. (In truth, because the maternity hospitals are in Waterford, most South Kilkenny people were probably born in Waterford too - but let’s not go there). Waterford, in a sense, is the reason why they live in South Kilkenny in the first place. So, despite loving Kilkenny and wanting to remain part of Kilkenny, from an economic perspective Waterford is the centre of the world for most people in South Kilkenny. Kilkenny County Council has done little to develop the area of South Kilkenny, and the Dublin road is one of the worst in the state. You have to drive on it to believe how bad it is. Most South Kilkenny people owe Kilkenny County Council nothing, and despite people wanting to stay part of Kilkenny, they would be happy enough to benefit from Waterford Council services.

An Irish Solution to an Irish Problem

Isn’t the answer here obvious? Why can’t Waterford City Council accept that the ancient counties of Waterford and Kilkenny are what they are and best left alone, but that other solutions to the problem are possible? For instance, why not set up a Waterford Metropolitan Authority or some other quango to administer the entire region? Cork, for instance, has two local authorities: the City Council and the County Council - you don’t see people getting too upset when their boundaries are changed (actually Waterford south of the river has such an arrangement too). Powerful super-authorities are not new either: the National Roads Authority is one such example, and a successful one too, I might add. A super-authority would neatly bypass the issues associated with land attachment, concentrating instead on day-to-day administrative and developmental issues. All that would be required would be a bit of restructuring, a name change here, a rewriting of some documents there and a strong declaration stating that the areas of South Kilkenny under WMA control are still part of the ancient county of Kilkenny. Robert, as they say, would be your uncle. Ok, it’s probably a bit more complex than this, but you get the jist.

The remaining issue is more a legalistic one to be fought out between the two councils, and it concerns just one thing really: Moolah. Councils get revenue in the form of rates from local businesses and currently Kilkenny County Council receives income from the small number of businesses that exist in the South Kilkenny, revenue that presumably would go to Waterford once the super-authority was set up. And how do you solve issues like this? Anyone? Yes. With moolah. Find a price, negotiate, pay them off. Everyone is happy.

Similar inter-county issues exist elsewhere in the country and, I’m sure, throughout the world. Limerick City straddles the county of Clare and Athlone (in County Westmeath) abuts County Roscommon. The City of Derry is bordered on three of its four sides by the County of Donegal, which not only is another county, it’s in another state altogether! Can we not learn a bit more about how best to deal with such problems and move on?

Last night in the pub, the conversation to the topic of personality profiles. About 16 years ago, I did a Myers Briggs personality test. I just did it again online, and the results are much the same.

I’m described as INFP - Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, and Perceptive. In essence, I prefer my inner world to the outer world, the big picture over the details, I empathise deeply with other people and I prefer natural order over any imposed order. Apparently, people like me are idealists, gentle in nature, who avoid conflict and seek harmony. They are often inner-conflicted themselves and they never seem to lose their sense of wonder about things. According to this site ” Some INFPs have a gift for taking technical information and putting it into layman’s terms.” Yes, there are definitely aspects of me here. The assessment here is quite accurate.

So, what profile do you have? Does the suit fit? Take the test!

This weekend was an eventful and pleasent one.

I met a friend of mine from years back in O’Hare, and it so happened that he was sitting right in front of me on the flight. Other than that it was a typical flight - about 90 minutes of sleep and the usual clammy, drained feeling when I finally arrived into Shannon.

I was exhausted (as usual) when I arrived home after driving back from Shannon. I really, really should stop doing this: I’m flying to direct to Dublin from now on. After a 3 hour nap, I headed out to Roches Point, the lighthouse at the eastern entrance to Cork Harbour. It was wonderful. There were some fantastic rock structures out there and the seas were raging. The “harbour effect” was quite dramatic - I could virtually draw a line across the harbour mouth where the waters suddenly became calm. Further on in my travels, I came across a pristine beach that has a stunning cave and cliff backdrop. No photos unfortunately. I’ll definitely be back, though.

Today I took all four kids on a trip up to the Nire Valley in Co. Waterford (once again, no photos ) . We ambled a short distance to a place where a small river cuts deeply into the valley. Nobody there but ourselves. Flocks of ravens could be seen fighting the air currents. My eldest was thrilled when we came across a megalithic standing stone on our return journey. After looking carefully at the stone, I noticed that the symbol of the cross was incribed in the rock.

I then took a meandering trip to Ardmore, Co. Waterford, the site of one of Ireland’s best preserved round towers (a defensive structure used by monks during Viking times). We found a terrific playground there quite close to the beach, and I pretended to be a big bad monster while the kids tried to defend their playground castle from me. We spent the time there shrieking with joy. It was great fun.

They were exhausted when we got home. One thing though - my eldest son tried to put on a DVD movie (thinking I wouldn’t notice) and when the Universal Pictures intro started - the one with the world turning - my two youngest boys (age 2) started shouting “Earth!!!” and one of them pointed to a small country on the globe and said “Ireland!!!”

He was quite right.