still in work. have been averaging 12 hour days for the past few weeks. work for a bank and living in interesting times.
last few sundays have been fun with my friends banks' being bailed out last minute (all across europe!)

hope to be able to make it to gym later but doubt it as it only stays open to 10.30pm.

had dinner of protien drink, dark chocolate and an apple. balanced diet my left knut!

johnfás wrote:

Might have some tickets to Ireland v Canada in Thomond on 8/11/08 if that would cheer you up Bear. I applied for them but subsequently found out I can't go so they'll be up for grabs to the face value bidder when I discover whether or not I have them.

Do you go to much rugby yourself? Rugby and Cricket are the sports of johnfás kings .

In spite of having Welsh forebears, I've only ever been to three rugby matches. I was reminded of charging rhinoceroses. The testosterone levels were exceptional. I'm told a spotty youth by the name of B. O'Driscoll stayed in our house once, but I have absolutely no recall of the occasion: he merges into a sea of faces I've seen in the kitchen over the years across the rising fug emanating from a large morning fry up.

johnfás wrote:

Might have some tickets to Ireland v Canada in Thomond on 8/11/08 if that would cheer you up Bear. I applied for them but subsequently found out I can't go so they'll be up for grabs to the face value bidder when I discover whether or not I have them.

Do you go to much rugby yourself? Rugby and Cricket are the sports of johnfás kings .

In spite of having Welsh forebears, I've only ever been to three rugby matches. I was reminded of charging rhinoceroses. The testosterone levels were exceptional. I'm told a spotty youth by the name of B. O'Driscoll stayed in our house once, but I have absolutely no recall of the occasion: he merges into a sea of faces I've seen in the kitchen over the years across the rising fug emanating from a large morning fry up.

zakalwe wrote:

still in work. have been averaging 12 hour days for the past few weeks. work for a bank and living in interesting times.
last few sundays have been fun with my friends banks' being bailed out last minute (all across europe!)

hope to be able to make it to gym later but doubt it as it only stays open to 10.30pm.

had dinner of protien drink, dark chocolate and an apple. balanced diet my left knut!

regret the dark chocolate, currently farting like a cow (no offense to cows but they fart a lot).

johnfás wrote:

Might have some tickets to Ireland v Canada in Thomond on 8/11/08 if that would cheer you up Bear. I applied for them but subsequently found out I can't go so they'll be up for grabs to the face value bidder when I discover whether or not I have them.

Do you go to much rugby yourself? Rugby and Cricket are the sports of johnfás kings .

I do like rugby, it's my favourite sport to watch. I may take you up on the Canada offer; I've been thinking of going to a match in Thomond for a while, as I've never been there.

My family will watch pretty much any sport, with the possible exception of darts. My boyf's family (who all play cricket - High School alumni) think that they introduced me to the sport, but I'd been watching it long before I met him. I'd never met anyone who played cricket previously, though. What club do you play for?

zakalwe wrote:

what kind of car, bear. thinking of upgrading when i pass my test. i had my heart on the A5 but my wallet and gf said no. also think its wiser to put the money into a better house when we find somewhere.

Renault Clio '02, 3 door. So it may not be an upgrade... The boyf also wants an A5, or any sort of Audi really. We saw an R8 in town recently. People were actually stopping to take photos of it. €180k second hand! That'd fairly blow the house deposit out of the water.

zakalwe wrote:

regret the dark chocolate, currently farting like a cow (no offense to cows but they fart a lot).

They do. Strangely, quite a bit of the research here in UCD is into making them fart less.

TheBear wrote:

johnfás wrote:

Might have some tickets to Ireland v Canada in Thomond on 8/11/08 if that would cheer you up Bear. I applied for them but subsequently found out I can't go so they'll be up for grabs to the face value bidder when I discover whether or not I have them.

Do you go to much rugby yourself? Rugby and Cricket are the sports of johnfás kings .

I do like rugby, it's my favourite sport to watch. I may take you up on the Canada offer; I've been thinking of going to a match in Thomond for a while, as I've never been there.

My family will watch pretty much any sport, with the possible exception of darts. My boyf's family (who all play cricket - High School alumni) think that they introduced me to the sport, but I'd been watching it long before I met him. I'd never met anyone who played cricket previously, though. What club do you play for?

zakalwe wrote:

what kind of car, bear. thinking of upgrading when i pass my test. i had my heart on the A5 but my wallet and gf said no. also think its wiser to put the money into a better house when we find somewhere.

Renault Clio '02, 3 door. So it may not be an upgrade... The boyf also wants an A5, or any sort of Audi really. We saw an R8 in town recently. People were actually stopping to take photos of it. €180k second hand! That'd fairly blow the house deposit out of the water.

zakalwe wrote:

regret the dark chocolate, currently farting like a cow (no offense to cows but they fart a lot).

They do. Strangely, quite a bit of the research here in UCD is into making them fart less.

a good friend of mine did his phd in bovine nutrition in UCD. indeed, i lined out for the "AG postgrads" XV while a fresher in arts!
is there something in irish grass that makes them fart more?

Faculty of Arts is too large for much faculty sporting involvement, to its detriment really. I lined out a few times for the UCD Vet XV on a number of occasions. They have a great set up as there is only a few Vet Schools in Britain and Ireland so they regularly compete in Rugby and other sports (tetrathalon and the like).

I used to play in school Bear and thereafter a bit for YMCA and increasingly for Trinity during the summer months. Trinity can't field as many teams as they would like so there are a few of us who play for them. I don't play as much as I once did. I would like to get into Taverners Cricket which always sounds like great fun. You all have to bat and bowl and the whole thing is very relaxed. There are some senior lecturers at UCD who are taverners and in fact very good cricketers in their own right but I wouldn't want to name names .

I'll let you know on the tickets when I hear about them. We have 10 year tickets for all home games which means you get them automatically sent out for the matches in Lansdowne (or now Croke Park) but when they play in smaller venues you have to apply for them individually. We applied for them but parents are abroad that weekend and it is my DIT graduation so won't be able to go. We haven't got our allocation of tickets yet so don't know what the story with them is. Will let you know when I know.

eoinmn wrote:

Congratulations zkalwe!

My health is fupped, or least will be for the next six months. But my employer is very understanding, which helps.

Sorry to hear that eoinmn. Good luck with the recovery and hope that you get some mileage out of the time out - lots of reading, thinking and listening to music ?

zakalwe wrote:

yep. assuming she walks through those doors as the appointed time!!!

Congratulations zakalwe: best of luck and have a happy day.

cactus flower wrote:

zakalwe wrote:

yep. assuming she walks through those doors as the appointed time!!!

Congratulations zakalwe: best of luck and have a happy day.

Seconded, zakalwe. May you be very happy together.

A word of advice though; don't get hung up on the 'appointed time' - I was (not my fault), half an hour late and surprised to find anyone left in the church when I arrived.

Crap is seeing our beautiful old chestnut trees being cut down - disease has struck due to too much wet weather. Climate change striking home

It always seems to balance, whenever my worklife (student life or whatever) is going well, my love-life seems to founder. Life at the moment seems to me to be a tight sequence of pick up and put downs, but never picked up so much as to be truly happy content and worriless, or never put down so much as to be completely distraught and miserable. The week I broke up with my last ex (which I did even though I still liked him) my scholarship came through, which made my current situation of living on campus and hearing plaintive birdcalls in the middle of dublin city possible, yet my love life is still shite. Starting to hope it stays that way, because if it does pick up and I'm truly happy, I know something is around the corner waiting to kick me in the nads.

riadach wrote:

It always seems to balance, whenever my worklife (student life or whatever) is going well, my love-life seems to founder. Life at the moment seems to me to be a tight sequence of pick up and put downs, but never picked up so much as to be truly happy content and worriless, or never put down so much as to be completely distraught and miserable. The week I broke up with my last ex (which I did even though I still liked him) my scholarship came through, which made my current situation of living on campus and hearing plaintive birdcalls in the middle of dublin city possible, yet my love life is still shite. Starting to hope it stays that way, because if it does pick up and I'm truly happy, I know something is around the corner waiting to kick me in the nads.

Life is always waiting round the corner with a sock full of wet sand.

This is day three off sugar in solidarity with brother and sister giving up the smokes and another brother giving up the drink in solidarity too. I'd kill for chocolate now, it's making me distracted.

Quote :

It always seems to balance, whenever my worklife (student life or whatever) is going well, my love-life seems to founder. Life at the moment seems to me to be a tight sequence of pick up and put downs, but never picked up so much as to be truly happy content and worriless, or never put down so much as to be completely distraught and miserable. The week I broke up with my last ex (which I did even though I still liked him) my scholarship came through, which made my current situation of living on campus and hearing plaintive birdcalls in the middle of dublin city possible, yet my love life is still shite. Starting to hope it stays that way, because if it does pick up and I'm truly happy, I know something is around the corner to kick me in the nads.

All will be well and all will be well and all manner of things shall be well, said Julian of Norwich and I'm with her on that.

She said nothing about socks full of wet sand.

Your last sentence sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

cactus flower wrote:

Crap is seeing our beautiful old chestnut trees being cut down - disease has struck due to too much wet weather. Climate change striking home

Sorry to hear that, cactus flower. I don't like it when trees have to be felled, for whatever reason. Climate change is a dreadful reason.

Kate P wrote:

This is day three off sugar in solidarity with brother and sister giving up the smokes and another brother giving up the drink in solidarity too. I'd kill for chocolate now, it's making me distracted.

Quote :

It always seems to balance, whenever my worklife (student life or whatever) is going well, my love-life seems to founder. Life at the moment seems to me to be a tight sequence of pick up and put downs, but never picked up so much as to be truly happy content and worriless, or never put down so much as to be completely distraught and miserable. The week I broke up with my last ex (which I did even though I still liked him) my scholarship came through, which made my current situation of living on campus and hearing plaintive birdcalls in the middle of dublin city possible, yet my love life is still shite. Starting to hope it stays that way, because if it does pick up and I'm truly happy, I know something is around the corner to kick me in the nads.

All will be well and all will be well and all manner of things shall be well, said Julian of Norwich and I'm with her on that.

She said nothing about socks full of wet sand.

They didn't have socks back in them days, though...

Quote :

Your last sentence sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I find that prospective pessimism and retrospective optimism is a great combination.

Thomas Packenham - he of the amazing tree books, spoke recently on local radio about the deaths of two of his trees, one an old hornbeam, the only one on the huge estate at Tullynally castle, the other is an oak that was damaged in a storm and lies splayed out in beautiful skeletal distress just inside the entrance and has new growth springing from it. Amazing. His wife wants him to get rid of them both but he won't and he's right. Can you do something with the remains of the trees, cactus?

What's the name for those things made up of dead trees and branches where all kinds of wildlife and flora thrive? Prince Charles loves them and has lots of them... If the ground is that wet, cactus, maybe you should have a shore put in or else just go along with what nature is giving you.

Prepare for the worst and get caught out by the best?

Optimism is off-topic on this thread, I suppose.

Quote :

Sorry to hear that, cactus flower. I don't like it when trees have to be felled, for whatever reason. Climate change is a dreadful reason.

Thank you Slimbuddha. To rub salt in the wound, when we moved here ten years ago, I planned for the old trees going and planted new young chestnut trees in to take their places. They have grown wonderfully, but now I look at them thinking "doomed doomed doomed".

If I had known what was coming I would have planted irish oak or ash, both of which like damp ground. I suppose I will have to gird up the loins and get digging again this winter.

Kate P wrote:

Thomas Packenham - he of the amazing tree books, spoke recently on local radio about the deaths of two of his trees, one an old hornbeam, the only one on the huge estate at Tullynally castle, the other is an oak that was damaged in a storm and lies splayed out in beautiful skeletal distress just inside the entrance and has new growth springing from it. Amazing. His wife wants him to get rid of them both but he won't and he's right. Can you do something with the remains of the trees, cactus?

What's the name for those things made up of dead trees and branches where all kinds of wildlife and flora thrive? Prince Charles loves them and has lots of them... If the ground is that wet, cactus, maybe you should have a shore put in or else just go along with what nature is giving you.

Oaks are amazing: they will drop bits off as a survival strategy and keep going for hundreds of years after they look as though they should have given up. Any tree standing in open ground I would fence off and let it fall in its own time. The chestnuts were over 100 years old, but are close to someone else's wall. No chances to be taken there.

In the south east of the UK thousands of old trees have gone in the last ten years because it is too dry and the water table has dropped. Here it has got wetter because of the warming of the Atlantic, and trees that don't like standing with their roots in the wet for weeks on end are succumbing to disease and dying.

You are right that watching to see what grows and thrives would tell us in the end what is the right tree, but that's a slow approach - and who is to say that climate change which is moving very fast would not overtake it? I suppose to plant a few different varieties to allow for warmer/wetter and dryer and hope for the best is all one can do.