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Summer 2003 antics! | 24 September 2003 | week 339
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Enniscrone 2003!
A gang of us went down to Enniscrone again this summer: Niall, Brian, Mairead, Marie and Ruth headed down and stayed in my boss's huge vacant house for a couple of days. Enniscrone is a cool town, it has some cool old-school pubs, a beautiful long beach, and it's famous Seaweed Baths, which we all availed of (yes even me)! Highly recommended!
We went to a nightclub called "Longnecks" in Ballina, I thought it should have been called "Rubbernecks" but someone in the office suggested "Rednecks!." Man, this nightclub was retro, and not in a good way! There were slow sets, rock music dropped in the middle of a dance set, the floor cleared three or four times cos the DJ couldn't keep the music consistent. There was 70's disco music playing for an hour, in which time nobody got onto the floor from 12 to 1am. Brutal! But of course it was jammers, as there's nowhere else to go. It was quite a motley crew! There were auld lads, young ones, crusties, scangers and yaw-di-daws all dancing together! He he, funny at first but a bit claustrophobic after a while!
The seaweed baths were deadly. A few minutes in a steam box, then relax in a hot bath with a bucket of seaweed, then a refreshing cold shower! Fantastic! We all had one, some of us took two!
We did some paddling and swimming in the sea as well. It would have been cool if Mike from the Enniscrone office was around to show us a bit of surfing, but he was away on holidays.
We had gone to Enniscrone last year with John Grant, Triona, Mandy, Joey and John Owens. At that time, I didn't know the company I work for now, who have an office down there. My boss was kind enough to allow us to borrow his house for the few days, so it was a bit strange to be back in Enniscrone considering it could have been any small town on the west coast!
2003: Music Summer!
It's been a summer of music; I saw Underworld, Coldplay and The Thrills at Witnness in Punchestown, Robbie Williams and Ash in the Phoenix Park, and The Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chilli Peppers in Slane. There's not much point telling you all about the concerts, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Hope you enjoy them.
33901.jpg Ballina Village: Waltzer, Molly and Ruth check out Ballina. Photo: Brian
33902.jpg Niall and Ruth: On the beach in Enniscrone. Photo: Brian
33903.jpg Molly on the beach: Enniscrone. Photo: Brian
33904.jpg Poor aul dog: Followed us around on Enniscrone beach. Photo: Brian
33905.jpg Brian on the beach: Brian draws in the sand on Enniscrone beach
33906.jpg Molly and Ruth: Reading a book in the window of the house at Enniscrone
33907.jpg Mohamed and Brian: Get close at Brian's 25th
33908.jpg Five go to bed: Niall, Ruth, Tri, Mairead, Steve and Marie cram into bed at Waltzer's 26th
33909.jpg Martin with fags: Martin recreates his famous gigantic box of fags photograph
33910.jpg Waltzer Lounge: John, Ciara, Mairead at Waltzer/Brian birthday
33911.jpg Witnness: Pints of Guinness and a Witness phone logo
33912.jpg Waltzer: Pay Here: Waltzer next to the Waltzer booth at Witnness
33913.jpg Inflatable bird: A chap with his long-term girlfriends at Witnness
33914.jpg Bouncey!: Boys throw each other around at Witnness
33915.jpg Sunset: A beautiful evening at Witnness
33916.jpg Underworld: Underworld on stage at Witnness!
33917.jpg Wet girl love: Two girls hold hands at the end of Witnness
33918.jpg Mandy and Billy: The last day we saw them before they travelled the world
33919.jpg Ger and Mairead: We bump into Ger McCarthy at Robbie Williams in the Phoenix park
33920.jpg Ash: The stars of the show!
33921.jpg Ciara: Watlzer bumps into Ciara and pals at Robbie Williams
33922.jpg Praveg at Ash: In the Phoenix Park
33923.jpg Tri and Pals : At Robbie Williams in the Phoenix Park
33924.jpg Robbie Williams: On stage the Phoenix Park
Fun and Games
Waltzer now 26!
Another smashing party was had in WaltzerLounge for my birthday, and for Brian's 25th. (He promises he's going to go on one of those 18-35 holidays when he's 35 and ring me up to gloat!)
There was a good show, including Ruth, Mohamed, Moro, Ciara Noone, Martin, Bobby G, Dee Corbit, Steve, Niall and Triona. (Not to mention the hard core!) I was miss the few friends who are nearly always there: Gillo, Mandy and Billy, and Isobel.
Announcing WaltzerLounge Halloween Vodka Night 2003
To keep up tradition, I've decided to throw another Halloween party! This will be a Vodka Night™. Friends of Steve (Wall)'s will be familiar with the concept: Get a cheesy movie, everyone sits around watching it early in the evening. Every time someone in the picture screams, everyone has to cheer and skull a shot of vodka. Soon everyone is getting fairly drunk on harmless vodka! Trust me, it's great fun, and when the movie is over, the party is in full swing!
Dressing up is encouraged, but not mandatory! This is also Gillo's formal re-introduction to Irish society (after being in America for a few months!) Should be a deadly blast.
Websites
You're rich!
You may think your salary is paltry, but compared with most of the world's population, you're up there with Bill Gates.
A new website, the Global Rich List, starkly illustrates the worldwide distribution of wealth.
You simply plug in your annual income, and the site tells you where you rank among the world's richest people.
Online petition for cheaper concert tickets
From The Irish Times
Thursday, September 18, 2003
A website campaign dedicated to creating a cheaper alternative to Ticketmaster concert ticket sales has won the support of consumer groups and the Labour party.
Ticeidi.com is a website set up by "one very annoyed citizen of Ireland who is fed up paying exorbitant prices for 'handling charges' on concert tickets, sports events tickets, etc".
An online petition was created, which almost 4,000 people have signed so far. The creator hopes to present the petition to his local TD and the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism Mr O'Donoghue to "demand that they take the matter in hand".
Cinema
Ireland!
I went to see Intermission the other day. It's great to see that we can compete with the best of America and Britain when it comes to movie making. While we've been doing it with music for donkey's years, and literature before that, it's great to be up there with films now too. Fair play to us!
Harold's Cross Classic Cinema closed
The second last suburban two-screen cinema in Dublin has closed. The Classic in Harold's cross shut its doors for the last time, after the Rocky Horror picture show, a film it had been showing for 21 years. Due to bad health, the owner Albert Kelly had to close the cinema. Personally I think it's a shame to see small independent cinemas closing. (I'd love to run one!) While the Lyric in Navan was converted into apartments, the Palace has become derelict. In an age of 10-screen multiplexes, I think it's important to preserve these small cinemas as part of our culture and heritage.