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Back to pre-Internet-crash lifestyle: No college and a job! Fun and games! | 23 June 2003 | week 325
Sarah and Eadaoin at Mick's 21st.
32501.jpg Pickin' a winner: Susan and Eadaoin at Shelbourne Park
32502.jpg Fun and games: Johnny and Liam at Shelbourne Park
32503.jpg Summer lunch: Michal at Rathfarnham Castle
32504.jpg Steve on the phone: Steve arranges a keg for his barbeque
32505.jpg Bubbles: Gillo and Tessa blow bubbles
32506.jpg Bottles: The bar in The Garage
32507.jpg Stairs: Kate and Elaine at Kirsty's birthday
32508.jpg Eyes: Guy with mad contact lens at Mick's 21st
32509.jpg Kiss!: Sarah and Eadaoin at Mick's 21st
32510.jpg Sleep: Steve tries to get the guests to sleep inside the appartment at Mick's 21st
32511.jpg Wake up!: Margot, Mick and Donnagh wake up after Mick's 21st
32512.jpg Asleep: A couple sleep on the balcony at Mick's 21st
32513.jpg Asleep: The aftermath of Mick's 21st
Top Stories
Waltzer finishes college, passes
I was out with the college crew the other night to celebrate finishing the year, our lecturer was there and he told us that we all passed, but he couldn't give us any more information. I'm delighted to have passed, especially since I was considering dropping out and Michael Durand persuaded me to stay in school! I'll be exhibiting my images at the birthday party if I have the mounted ones back by then, in any case, I should be putting scans of the finished works onto this site some week soon.
Fun and Games
Mick has 21st in WaltzerLounge
Mick Brady, Steve's architecture friend invited the entire class to a party in WaltzerLounge the other day. The night went well., just a few hiccups here and there. Record number of cigarette burns and spills, but we'll overlook that for the moment. The next morning every available space was taken up with bodies! As is usual at our parties, something happens to end the music, this time a pint of beer was spilled into the mixer, so that fairly ruined the fun and games, as nobody was up dancing later on. As you can see from the photos, some aspects got a bit out of hand! People had to be called in from the corridors, it was a mess. Hopefully the next one will be more civilised.
Kirsty and Conor!
It's Kirsty's birthday again and she's still waiting for me to put up the pictures from last year onto the site. We'll try again this year! Going to a party in her new house in Kilternan. I was telling Molly this the other day: When I was 9 I used to hang around with Kirsty. I remember saying to her "we have only three more summers together cos then you'll be 16 and you won't want to be friends with me any more. She's 30 this weekend and we're still friends.
Update: Kirsty's pary was a great laugh, I was talking to the beautiful Caroline and Niamh, and it was great to see all the crew again: Janet, Michelle, Suzanne… And of course Angie, Jean and Kate! And little Conor! I was at Conor's birthday the other day and it was cool. He got about a hundred Yu-Gi-Oh cards!
WaltzerLounge to host WaltzerBirthday03
I'll be having a birthday party on July 25th. Hope to see you there! I was thinking of going with a retro or 80's theme, as the arcade machine is there now playing hundreds of old games. I invited some of the photography class, some from company P, some family, some of Steve's friends, and some from company S. So it should be a nice evening, where you can meet all my other friends.
Triona Returns
Triona, the cool, funny and mad young one who has been in Oz the last year, returns to us this week. Her arrival is eagerly awaited by Waltzer, Mairead, Brian, John, Mandy… Back to the old-school!
Mandy and Billy get married
Our favourite couple Mandy and Billy are finally getting married. An extremely styley invitation was received the other day, with pictures of Mandy and Billy as kids. Shockin' haircuts!
Tickets for Bowie
Tickets for David Bowie sold out on Friday in a few minutes, but I was one of the lucky ones. I got two tickets for €123, so I'm looking forward to seeing him in the Point, my least favourite venue!
Gillo off to America
I was in Shelbourne Park recently with Mo, Bulb, Noddy, Berno, Darragh, Trish, Viv and all the Swords crew to see Gillo off. He's going to the States for a few months. He has moved out of 32, and a new girl has moved in now.
Scotland Special
Waltzer and friends go to Scotland
Here's a story I wrote after we came back from Glasgow a few weeks ago. Also check out Mairead's site showing Brians photos.
The other day I went to Scotland with Molly, Marie and Ruth from 32. When we got to Glasgow we met Brian and Ben, who had had a few jars at this stage.
The guesthouse was a bit dingy, Ben's room was a bit smelly and the phone wasn't working. The rest were ok, better than the Generator in London, but not exactly the Westbury Mayfair! Once we freshened up we went out to a pub by the name of Yates's. The prices were deadly: three double vodkas and coke for about a fiver. We had a few there and headed to some other places, each more unusual than the last! Then we ended up in The Garage. That was a cool club. After a wander about, we were standing at a massive bar with a huge display of bottles behind it. There were loads of tellies on the top of the bar, with old-school round edges. Unfortunately they were only showing ads at the time.
The music was fairly cool in there, I first realised this was the case when I heard Green Day! I was like "This is cool, I'm dancing to Green Day in a club, would you credit it?" My Goodness.
The whole weekend we kept saying "Bu' it says Blue, look, it says blue!" and "I'm freaking it by the way" and "Doesnae bear thinking about" after looking at Limmy.com for a few weeks before we went. Limmy has some funny stuff on his site, and we were looking out for him like he was a celebrity. Brian was pointing out the street he works on and all. Have a look at his site.
I took lots of photographs of the kids, some colour digital and some black and white analogue. The b/w ones will be quite a while being prepared cos I haven't got time to print them what with the photography projects to be handed up soon.
Glasgow is a cool place man. We even took a day in Edinburgh, what a beautiful city. I took lots of pictures. I won't say good pictures just yet for fear that I'll jinx them, you know how it is!
I did some shopping there too, bought a Scottish comic book called Oor Wullie, a book on arcade games called Arcade Fever, and one on the Architect Charles Rene Macintosh for Steve. I bought some photo gear in Jessops too. Jessops is great for the cheap photography gear. Also got some presents for the family.
We ate quite well too: We went to an all you can eat Chinese, a nice Indian restaurant, a greasy fish 'n chip shop, a restaurant near Edinburgh Castle, and some pubs. I made it up in time for my complementary breakfast one morning too.
The first morning I was a bit unwell cos I didn't have enough to eat before I laced into the double vodkas and Cokes. Never mind, I felt fine once I gazed at them coming out of me nose in the bathroom the next morning.
There was this mad hailstones shower the last day. We were walking across Georges Square when we got lashed out of it with these sore hailstones. We legged it into this big pub that used to be a bank. Had a deadly feed of bangers and mash. (I know it's a sausage but it looks like a banger!)
The girls were lacing into the Vanilla vodka the weekend wherever they could get it. It was well tasty.
One girl came in to a pub to get us to go the Bamboo club. She was talking to me, Brian and Ben, and I started telling her our joke about the English man, Irish man and Scotsman walk into a bar. The barman says "Is this some kind of joke?" Classic, but Ben stole the limelight by finishing my sentence. Doh! When the girl moved onto our girls she said "Are these with you?" We were like yeah, and she said "And you didn't even ask me for concessions for them?" Neither of us said anything cos the truth is the lads were chatting up the flyer girl, and we had no intention of going to the Bamboo club! But you can't use either excuse, so we stood there dumb, looking stupid. Nightmare!
In case you think all we do is drink, being a graphic designer and amateur photographer, I am always interested in visual stimulus and design, so Brian brought us into the Glasgow School of Art, designed by Macintosh. It's absolutely cool and we got a special tour because Brian used to work there and he knew the security. No photos were allowed though!
I bought new shoes too. I bought CAT shoes cos I've been buying them for years and anytime I don't buy CATs I always regret it when they fall apart after a couple of months. CAT make nice shoes too, no frills, but Ben always slags me cos he thinks they are bog trotter shoes with their big grips. I suppose wearing CAT shoes in the city on the streets is like getting a big Jeep and driving the kids to school two streets away. Or is it?! The girls also bought new shooes, and Molly bought a Jacket. We were all "Geez yer Jacke'."
Scottish girls have Scottish accents. Deadly buzz. What more do you want? Ben was talking to one and she said to Brian "I like him but I can't stand his [English] accent." Too bad mate, they were loving the Irish! Brian also had a bad buzz with a young one: He was telling Dave how he was stopped for ID once. He said to this girl standing next to him "Who do you think is older, me or Dave?" and she goes "Not interested." "What?" says Brian. "I'm not interested in your chat up lines." So Brian left it. He wasn't even chatting her up! She was no looker anyway! Crazy!
I bought a burger and chips next to the Garage club and there was no sauce, mayo, lettuce, cheese, nothing! I didn't notice 'til I was outside but there was none of it on the counter. I was like "What the hell?" And there was no lemon with the fish in the other chipper. Bad vibes man!
We went up to Edinburgh castle and had a look at the crown jewels. Very impressive, and an interesting story to go with it. They were 111 years hidden away and nobody knew whether it was still there or not.
Conclusion
It's deadly to get away for a weekend, especially with your mates, and especially when one of your mates is a local guide. Glasgow is a nice city and we had a blast. Next we have a toss up between going to Lowestoft in England, where Ben lives, or Enniscrone in Sligo where we went last year with a handful of us.