Every Day is Election Day

I know, I’ve been off the face of the earth for aaaaaaaages. Apologies. However I’m not as bad as Herr Reilly who is… wait, who is he again? If I know our site viewers, and I don’t want to, you lot are a smart bunch and have noted his absence from this opus… I’ve moved from being a co-blogertee to being on my Tobler in cyberspace. Reilly has been lost to the seductive duo of the Affordable Homes Partnership and the UCD communications department, both of whom he is trying to drag kicking and screaming into the 21st century technological age (I fell victim to him this way too, what can I say, he’s Firefoxy).

Frequent visitors to my Bebo / Bookface / Twitter / home are more than well acquainted with my ways of going all Bermuda triangle on your face due to study/work/family commitments. So get used to it, dear readers. I disappear, but I return wiser, fulfilled and laden with ridiculous photos and stories. I’m like the godmother who forgets about you till your communion/confirmation, when she arrives in with a Hallmark card stuffed with fifties.

Study is steady, but I’ve been a little tied up with crossover training with next year’s officers in the Union in the evenings. It’s been going well, all have got a good command of what to expect… the unexpected. I was less emotional leaving the office than I thought I would be, but I know I’ll be in and around the office next year and never too far away from next year’s lot. Luck would be a fine thing!

Started work in Croker this week too. It was ridiculously busy from the start, a honeymoon period I had not! Prince refunds took most of the week, but I’ve also started on that feasibility report I was yakking on about, so I will keep you updated!

Other olds (too outdated to be called news!) include the following: USI HQ (and Reilly’s website!) was officially opened during the week, and cheap wine and sambos were had by all. I got a new phone, Nokia E65 (the BlackBerry is just a reminder of being mugged. Twice). Neil Diamond came and went and the parentals enjoyed it a lot. See an interesting Flash Box on my Bebo!

Hmmm. I just got a text from a younger Brennan type telling me ‘OMG next Irish My Super Sweet 16 is being filmed tonight… in Kilkenny. LOL’ Expect a K4 Bebo-generation orgy of excess… on the same night as Dolly P reaches das Hurlingkapital. ‘Tis a classy place to be sure… loike, totally, Jolene.

I’ll be back anon with more funs.

PS - She has a heart! Lauren Conrad Darfur video:

PPS - Just realised I’m an excuse for a female blogger. I did NOT REVIEW SATC.

Viva la Vida on repeat in work, at home, the iPod… tad ridiculous. And even more ridiculous that I just heard an ad on the radio announcing that it’s out on Friday… aaaaaaaaaaand I still squealed. Breaking the law can be good for the ears.

Juno is [finally!] out on DVD… Hurrah! Pizza night ahoy friendies. WATCH THIS MOVIE. The dialogue is phemonenal and Ellen Page is tremendous in it.

If you haven’t been before, visit www.rarebooks.ie. Fabulous. Just as a real musty bookshop should be, and if you buy online, they send you your book wrapped in old newspapers! Spiffy.

Softening to Damien Dempsey through his recent album ‘The Rocky Road’. Luke Kelly is alive and well folks…

We’re going to Neil Diamond on Saturday with respective parentals. Both sets are equally excited, and it should be yet another fabulous family occasion in Croker. President McAleese shall be in attendance so it’s a night for the glad rags…

Kilkenny kick off the championship season this weekend… WIN!

Davy Fitz in Waterford… I feel I must restrain myself here. I won’t say what I really want to for fear it will come back and bite me in the ass.

Home to vote tomorrow, how quaint. Driving home with Nickey and using the occasion to hang with Darmo on Thursday. I won’t lecture you, but I’ll be voting yes.

Oh, and Prince is cancelled. That’s the secret I couldn’t tell you the other night buds.

Meanwhile here are two photos of Reilly and I at Radiohead, and one of the boys themselves to boot:

Ps. I don’t really follow BB (I swear *cough*) but I will miss Dermot O’Leary from BBLB. Here is one of his best (Irish) moments. G’wan ya yellabelly!

Radiohead in Malahide Castle: Superb. Venue, Act, Company. All excellent. Need to see them indoors soon. It’s on the list!

Cork loss? As good as a Kilkenny victory. I’m singing Slievenamon.

(nice hair Louise…!)

Call me bitter, but it was Tipp’s first victory against Cork in the Munster Championship in 85 years. Shame the Dubs couldn’t be finished off. Just a week before Kilkenny kick off their Championship season against Offaly now! Three in a row is so close…! Seems the hangover from Justin McCarthy’s resignation is ongoing. Parallels between this and the Offaly situation of Michael Bond/Babs Keating is silly and futile. Difference between now and then is that the Offaly team had public support, something I think the Waterford team are lacking. In fact, most struggle to see their reasoning and distinguish it as a cowardly, sneaky move. I maintain my position that it is a bad idea to hand the players that sort of power and let them decide who manages them. That said, I’m not anti-player, I just think that a clear administrative line needs to be maintained. Perhaps the players just panicked, and the idea of a bridesmaid year yet again was just too much for them to conceive, but he didn’t deserve what he got in the end. I wish Justin McCarthy all the best. *GAA rant over*

Anyways. Equipped with a fabulous new kitchen in chez Reilly/Scally/Brennan/Troy, I am now domesticated beyond belief, serving up feasts at any available opportunity. I give it a week for this nesting to settle down. But Friday night was spent ironing, cooking, cleaning, hovering and mowing the lawn. Well. Gav moved the lawn, but I was uber supportive.

Curves is ongoing. And yes, I still love it.

Moving onto the week ahead however, this is my last week in the office. I’m ok for now, but emotions are bound to overtake me at some stage… I suspect I’ll break Friday lunchtime!

Right, I’m off to more classes, tonight it shall be Constitutional and Contract ftw. Contract is fabulous, compact and concise… and Constitutional is anything but. It’s long, intense, emotive and difficult. But it’s still my favourite, so I’m looking forward to it! Val Corbett is the new James McDermott in my life… more anon!

PS - Booked tickets for The Panel for the National Concert Hall on the 22nd June. Win!

Back in the game!

It’s been too long, dear readers/stalkers from Bebo/Scally! One shouldn’t be excused for abandoning you during such stuffy times as exam season, but I’ll try to redeem your faith in me. Reilly and I have been getting our stress on in a big way (more anon) and blogging was impractial, nay impossible. That said, I’m back for good now (with your lipstick mark still on your coffee cup, or at least on one stolen from the office… I see it as redundancy)

So. Where have you been, Mama Brennan? To what reasonage for your abandonment shall you cling to now? Well, in no particular order, I have, in the past fortnight:

1. Returned from Slovakia
2. Survived two job interviews
3. Begun work (-ish) with said job
4. Continued to moonlight as a Sabbatical Officer in UCDSU
5. Moved house
6. Rewritten the Class Rep Constituency make-up for the next academic year (hack-a-doodle)
7. Registered for my new evening course to prepare me for FE1 Death
8. Begun studying for said Death
9. Enjoyed a catch-up weekend in Wexford with the Ladies GAAfia
10. Begun Curves in Donnybrook (there are plenty blogs in that one!)
11. Realised that the Mini-Marathon will be Epic Fail
12. Sat in the RDS for a cold and miserable week during the UCD exams, looking after all you real student types
13. Purchased tickets for even more gigs/concerts (Dara O’Briain, Muse et al)
14. Endured yet another Sligo/USI weekend of debauchery
15. Enjoyed my fabulous Mother’s birthday celebrations
16. Co-ordinated a fundraiser for the Chinese Earthquake victims, raising over €10,000
17. Celebrated the Munster win in style
18. Celebrated, with equal aplomb, the beginning of the Championship
19. Begun crossover with next year’s team, albeit with a certain degree of “Jeez, I’m bitter nobody was this nice to me, this time last year…”
20. Dealt with an issue with a friend that’s been on the horizon for a while now, and has finally been put to bed, and all is well.

Basically, to phrase my father (Habeus Papam Nickey), “She’s been hitting the ground in spots”. Our world of late has a habit of swallowing any spare nanosecond, but I’m back on the blogging bike and all normality shall resume anon.

Take this as an update to take the edge off, I’ll be back soon!

We booked our tickets for the Kilkenny Cat Laughs festival earlier today. Regrettably due to work/study/Croker concerts/Mini Marathon commitments we’re not going to be able to volunteer/work at the festival like previous years, but it’ll be fun to enjoy some laughs from the crowd! Consecutive years have been spent doing artist liaison, tinkering with lights, cataloguing ticketing and such, but this year we’re looking forward to heckling and enjoying the jollity with the best of them.

On our list to see are:

Lee Mack: (watch out for the mispronounciation of ‘chicken’ at the start!)

Arj Barker: (with a bit of Google antics for Reilly)

David O’Doherty:

We had the nice fortune of sharing a pizza with DOD and his missus earlier this year, nicer folks you couldn’t get. Hilarious to boot.

Roll on the June Bank Holiday weekend!