Friday 9th June - FREEDOM!!!

I hadn't slept in days. Partly from studying and partly from the sheer excitement at the prospect of being college forever. Sure enough the day finally came and I could barely sit still in the exam when the invigilator announced there was only 40 minutes of the exam left. Once it finished I just couldn't get to the Pav quick enough! But first we went to centra for a crate and another coors light cooler. Finally we got down to some drinking in the pav. Clare and her mates were there as well as half of MSISS. Col turned up shortly before two. I was half way through my 4th can when I got a call from Bank of Ireland telling me I'd got the job I went for in internal audit. How fitting! A job offer on my last day of college! So now it was really time to celebrate. At about 6 we headed up to Clare's for a BBQ. On the way we bought the ingredients for home made burgers. When we got there, it turned out Clare was not feeling the Mae West so she went to bed and left me as hostess! YES! The novelty of having to answer her phone and direct guests to her place soon wore off though and I was relieved when she re-joined the party after a lie-down feeling much better. We ate food, drank beer, watched world cup, had the banter and played buzz. Buzz resulted in quite a competitive relationship developing between me and Mark. Col left around 11.30 to meet soome of his mates in town. After another hour and a half I decided to join him. After all, the mates he was joining were my future work mates! I only intended on going for one as a 13 hour drinking session was beginning to take its toll. However when I arrived in The Oak, I felt a lot better. The tiger beer went down well. Bumped into Trish there and had a good auld chat about girls, the weather and the state of the nation. After that, more shots and beers with the lads and we were on our way to Iskanders for the obligatory end of night kebab. This went down well and before long I was on a 7N bound for Loughlinstown. A great night to finish off four years of Statistics.




Now away with ye...

Friday 2nd June - Second last exam ever!

The majority of MSISS finished MSISS today forever and I had completed my second last exam ever and the worst one of this year. For this reason, we were at the pav from 1 o'clock tucking into an inflatable Coors Light cooler full of the beautiful Bavaria. We chilled out on the grass playing multiple rounds of "Homer Simpson" and getting nicely toasted in the hot June sun. Come late afternoon I decided to go home and shower and change before heading back in. As I arrived at the pav for the second time, I was greeted by a refreshingly drunk Alard. After much general bantering around the pav including a streak by none other than Luke Keily we decided to head palace bound. As it was a little early for that we stopped off in O'Neill's for a quick one. As usual, this turned into quite a few and there was no chance of us getting into the palace. At this stage our group consisted of Me, Fi, Wig, Danny and Trish. Alard had bailed on account of an already impressive 11 hours boozing under his belt while Lenny quite characteristically
headed home early. On the way to the palace, Fi encountered an individual for whom she had a letter in her bag stamped and ready to post. Being the practical guy that I am, I insisted on posting the letter even though the person it was destined for was right there. I was later informed that this individual was Rónán and I don't recall recognising him at the time. Being
refused admission to the palace meant we had to settle for Flannery's which quite frankly is a damn sight better anyway. It was also named after a certain world class Munster hooker (possibly untrue). Nothing major occurred here just having the craic. Shortly after 2, Fi left on account of having to be up early to go to Austria in the morning and Danny Trish and Wig left soon after that. I was about to (again) go home unsatisfied with an early night when Colin pulled through as usual. He called me from a payphone outside the palace and therefore outside Flannery's too and I told him to get his ass inside Flannery's post haste! At that moment JennieFlynn turned up with her mate Aisling and the party got started! When Flannery's closed, we headed out for a taxi. While Jennie and Aisling were trying to hail a taxi Col and I decided to head across the road to chat to the large congregation outside the palace. As we were chatting to Caroline Lenehan and Mark Moriarty I looked up and saw a taxi speeding past containing Jennie and Aisling. Thinking quickly I grabbed Col and dragged him up the road chasing the taxi. We managed to catch up with it although Col had no idea what was going on. I peered in and recognising Jennie I proclaimed to Col "Yep. This is the one! Get in." So we did and arrived momentarily at Teach Jennie. Thanks to her generous supply of alcohol and homemade homous we had a proper party with her flat mate Carla and her boyfriend. Not a great lot of what happened next resides in my memory but I know at one stage Col was on one couch and Jennie and I on the other. Col ws telling us something and right in the middle of a sentence, at exactly the same time, both me and Jennie fell asleep! A short while later I woke up and was convinced there was a spare bed somewhere in the house. I got up to go in search of it. As expected, my search proved fruitless and came back to the sitting room to find Col asleep ono my couch. Grrrrr! Thankfully, being the great guy he is, he surrendered it back to me. A few hours later I awoke and looking around the room noticed a plant had been knocked over and the earth on the carpet all around it. As I exclaimed that it was a "proper mess", Col filled me in that I had been the mess maker. It was definitely time to get out of there. I told Jennie we were leaving and notified her that although I was the maker of the mess I would not be cleaning it up. And so we left and after dropping into temple bar for a quick hamburger we headed home.

Now away with ye...

Saturday 27th May - Special Brew

The situation was all wrong. It was a Saturday night, I had been out on the Friday night, I had an exam coming up on the Monday and had done feck all study for it and I had just finished my last gig ever with present arms. Yet somehow it seemed so right to go straight to the sugar club and see my new band, special brew playing. So I managed to rope in the 2 tone man himself, Ems and her friend Amy. I met them in good auld Hartigans where they were finishing off some pints before heading across to the sugar club. Even though we were late arriving, the band before special brew had run late so the band hadn't started yet. I had a bit of a chat with my new band members before they went on and as they started into One Step Beyond, Col and I started into our routine. By the break, Col was wrecked and had to make an early exit. No matter though as Emsy and Amy were still up for it. Although they hadn't been dancing in the first half they had been quietly getting drunker and were on top form for the second half. Eoin had asked me to take some pictures of the band for the website. Despite being under the influence, I still managed to take good photos. Unfortunately, the subject of the photography wasn't always the band and was often boobs and lesbian goings on. During the intro to Lorraine, Steveo asked the crowd if there was anyone there called Lorraine. For some reason Amy thought this was her and made it known to Steveo and so the song was dedicated to her. Amy was please with this until the chorus: "When I find her I'm gonna kill her!" Well, Amy was quite displeased to say the least! After the set, Ems and Amy became all star struck and insisted on getting each band member's autograph. Thankfully Steveo managed to set things straight with Amy by signing her paper with "Dear Amy (Lorraine), I promise I won't kill you!" Haha! With that we exited the venue but not before a band photo shoot for the new website. Out on the street, I let Ems and Amy head for food while I returned back to my room on campus. Another good night at the Sugar Club!

Now away with ye...

Friday 12th May - Trinity Ball

What a day! It all started I suppose the night before. For some stupid reason we got it into our heads to have a pre ball drink in O'Neill's. It started off as a quiet one with a friend of Fi's she met in Germany and as you can imagine it ended up being a proper one. After a few pints in O'Neill's it was only natural to progress on to bigger and better things in Doyles. The party consisted of myself, Fi, Cyath-eh, Lenny and his friend who's country of origin is still as yet undecided. After getting kicked out we stalled it round the back of Trinity so that Lenny could sneak Fi in to stay at my place. The next morning we awoke and were far too hungover for the morning of the ball. We headed to Goldsmith to collect our tickets and bumped into everybody we knew on the way. After Fi left, many attempts were made at catching up on lost sleep in anticipation of the ball however this proved impossible as people were calling over every 5 minutes for a variety of different reasons. I gave up and decided to attempt to get my gear over to the stage we were playing on in advance so I wouldn't have to cart it through throngs of drunken students later on that night. After a 3 hour search for the stage manager I gave up and met Col and headed up to Clare's for some pre-ball merriment. This was good and both Ems and Clare were in top form. A while later, my stunning date Joanne arrived albeit with mismatched shoes. Myself, herself and Col all headed down to Trinity for around 10 to collect my drunken band from Doyles. It appears they blatantly disregarded my instructions to not get pissed before the gig which only further eased my conscience on the decision I had recently taken to leave the band. After a brief spell in the "green room" (aka smokey dingy theatre with a few chairs and room temparature budweiser) the bands manager called us to the stage. The gig went better than it seemed to at the time. Unfortunately all I could hear in my monitor were keyboards and Noel's drunken ramblings. Couldn't even hear Tommy's kit! But reports from the crowd were pretty positive. Anyway regardless of how the sound was the gig was still good for several other reasons. Nuala and Andie's carefully made sign lasted about 3 seconds before Dan "c**t" Needham robbed it on them. He spent the rest of the gig waving it around, throwing it on stage, jumping over the barriers to get it, getting thrown back behind the barriers by the bouncers and waving it around back to front. The highlight of the gig, however was an impromptu skanking performance by none other than Colin "2 tone man" O'Driscoll. During Monkey Man, I remember seeing Noel beckoning someone in the crowd. Looking into the crowd all I could see was a very excited black and white blur running round to the stage entrance and flashing a backstage pass at a bouncer. Next thing I know Col is on stage dancing with Noel! Was a great performance and one I doubt Col will forget any time soon. After the gig I just couldn't get my gear back to my apartment quick enough. I was dying to rush out and see the end of Ocean Colour Scene. I only managed to make the last song but it was The Day we Caught the Train so that was good. Saw a few other bands after that but don't really know who they were. The rest of the night was spent bumping into people I knew and chatting to them. The last act I remember seeing was the Guns 'n' Roses tribute act who were, to be frank, dire! After Joanne had gone home I spent a while longer chatting to a few more people before turning in for the night. Thanks to the pre ball drinks the night before I was well and truly ready for bed.















Now away with ye...

The last 2 months of my life

Trinity Ball 2006
Making a proper mess
Ronan getting refused admission on account of his knobbly knees
Yet another special brew gig
Plus a funny story about abortion

Coming soon...