Apologies again for the lax blogging. My Nana's sudden illness sent the whole family and I into a bit of turmoil.
I'm still finding it hard to believe that she's gone. Less than a year ago she was at my wedding and two days later was dancing around the floor at her 80th Birthday Party. She was a woman that was so full of life and so vibrant that it was difficult to see her suffer and in a way her death was a relief as had she lived she would have been ill and bedridden. That's something she most certainly would not have wanted.
Nana was unlike most other grandmothers. She refused to go grey and continued dying her hair until the very last. She wouldn't be seen outside the front door without her hair curled, her nails painted red, her make up on, dressed to the nines and wearing a "bit of bling". She could be told anything and not judge. Nothing fazed her - she took us and our problems are we were and helped as best she could.
She had a tough life, she endured domestic abuse, had seven children, survived a daughter's death, survived cancer, survived her husbands alzheimers and death and yet remained an eternal optimist.
She loved getting out of the house, going shopping or going to markets and she would do anything for a bargain. She loved to laugh and go on nights out, and it was often difficult to get her to go home after. She loved weekends away. She loved music, primarily country although she was partial to a bit of Dire Straits! She harangued DJ's on local radios to play songs she liked and was known on a first name basis everywhere she went. She was great fun - slagging was often fast and furious and she was never out done in a battle of wits. She was generous - if you so much as complimented a necklace it was yours there and then. And arguments over who would pay a bill almost resulted in Mrs. Doyle like fights. She collected nick-nacks particularly ones that made noise, her house was a menagerie of singing, dancing animals.
Nothing came above family. Children, grandchildren and great grandchildren - she loved them all among her last words were that she loved everyone equally. She was willing to do anything for family. Her walls were testament to that love. Every free wall space was adorned with family photos, and a mirror of Rod Stewart that she bought but no one wanted, she felt bad for him and so he took his place on the wall too :)
She was the grand matriarch of a huge family and she is and will be sorely missed.
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Monday, 13 February 2012
The Ol' celebrity obituary
Yes, yes I know the blogging has been very lax these days so let's jump back in with a celebrity obituary. No, not that singer one Whitney what's her name, she's going to be lauded all over the place. In fact Sky News seem to have no other news apart from Whitney Houston's death this morning.
No let's have a look at David Kelly, poor David has had the unfortunate timing to pass away on the same weekend as Whitney so no one seems to have noticed.Granted David died at the grand old age of eighty two so it appears that his death isn't as tragic. However we have still lost a great actor and comic genius. And we have a lost a man who used his talents to the full rather than wasting them! One of the first times I saw Kelly on television was as the inept builder O'Reilly on Fawlty Towers
As a child (and now) I was always a fan of Fawlty Towers, to the delight of my Dad who had viewing partner and much to the chagrin of my mother who's not a huge fan of slapstick comedy - we outvoted her every time Fawlty came on! In fact Kelly himself once said "I've been 52-53 years on stage, and yet Fawlty Towers, those full 9 minutes, make me recognized anywhere in the world."
David Kelly managed to light up the screen regardless of what roll he played and regardless of whether that screen was big or small.Throughout the likes of Strumpet City, Fawlty Towers, Into The West, Waking Ned, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Stardust he seemed to effortlessly fill his screen character’s with a lovable, empathetic charm – and that charm seemed to have stemmed from the fact he was a genuinely likeable man. Who can forget his Grandpa Joe dance of delight, or the naked motorbike ride in Waking Ned? For a man who's screen career has spanned so long it is slightly disappointing that's reduced to a paragraph in most newspapers today.
David Kelly has left behind a wonderful legacy. How proud his family must be of a man who has enriched our culture and our tradition of producing amazing actors and story tellers. He will be sadly missed. A great man has departed from us, but with so many entertaining moments left behind he will always be remembered.
No let's have a look at David Kelly, poor David has had the unfortunate timing to pass away on the same weekend as Whitney so no one seems to have noticed.Granted David died at the grand old age of eighty two so it appears that his death isn't as tragic. However we have still lost a great actor and comic genius. And we have a lost a man who used his talents to the full rather than wasting them! One of the first times I saw Kelly on television was as the inept builder O'Reilly on Fawlty Towers
 |
| Don't hire this man to build a wall! |
As a child (and now) I was always a fan of Fawlty Towers, to the delight of my Dad who had viewing partner and much to the chagrin of my mother who's not a huge fan of slapstick comedy - we outvoted her every time Fawlty came on! In fact Kelly himself once said "I've been 52-53 years on stage, and yet Fawlty Towers, those full 9 minutes, make me recognized anywhere in the world."
David Kelly managed to light up the screen regardless of what roll he played and regardless of whether that screen was big or small.Throughout the likes of Strumpet City, Fawlty Towers, Into The West, Waking Ned, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Stardust he seemed to effortlessly fill his screen character’s with a lovable, empathetic charm – and that charm seemed to have stemmed from the fact he was a genuinely likeable man. Who can forget his Grandpa Joe dance of delight, or the naked motorbike ride in Waking Ned? For a man who's screen career has spanned so long it is slightly disappointing that's reduced to a paragraph in most newspapers today.
 |
| Any excuse for a picture of Johnny Depp |
David Kelly has left behind a wonderful legacy. How proud his family must be of a man who has enriched our culture and our tradition of producing amazing actors and story tellers. He will be sadly missed. A great man has departed from us, but with so many entertaining moments left behind he will always be remembered.
 |
| Would ye like a Rasher with that |
I'll leave the last words to him with his acceptance speech for the Lifetime Achievement award at the IFTA's a couple of years ago:
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Michael Noonan and Emigration
Our esteemed Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has stated that “It’s (emigration) not being driven by unemployment at home, it’s being driven by a desire to see another part of the world and live there.” Now pardon my language but I'm really riled up over this. Have you ever heard such bullshit in all your life? Unemployment is 14.5% leaving over 400,000 people (myself included) out of work in this country. And Michael Noonan thinks this has nothing to do with the increase in emigration. Really? If it was all just because of a different lifestyle how come emigration has only risen during the recession? How come people have to leave their partners and children behind? Is that for the lifestyle choice? How come people so desperately want to come home, if they did it for a lifestyle choice?
The hypocrisy of his statement also sickens me. His party tore Mary Coughlan asunder a couple of years ago when she said something similar.
Fine Gael have tried to project themselves as the antithesis of Fianna Fáil. That Fianna Fáil were out of touch with the real world. That Bertie and his cronies were squandering money (which they were). But judging by Noonan's comments Fine Gael haven't a clue what's going on either. It's easy to be on a six figure wage plus expenses and think that all the little people are having a grand old time of it down below. But are we really surprised by the man who, as minister for health, treated the victims of the Hep. C. scandal so cruelly and ruthlessly? Do we really expect that man to feel sorry for us, as we struggle with financial uncertainty? Do you honestly think he cares that you're missing your family and friends? Of course he doesn't because he has never had to worry about meeting his next mortgage payment. He has never had to toss and turn and wonder if he's ever going to get a bloody job. And he knows when his daughters are fed up abroad he can pay for them to return.
Let us eat cake, let our government eat humble pie!
The hypocrisy of his statement also sickens me. His party tore Mary Coughlan asunder a couple of years ago when she said something similar.
Fine Gael have tried to project themselves as the antithesis of Fianna Fáil. That Fianna Fáil were out of touch with the real world. That Bertie and his cronies were squandering money (which they were). But judging by Noonan's comments Fine Gael haven't a clue what's going on either. It's easy to be on a six figure wage plus expenses and think that all the little people are having a grand old time of it down below. But are we really surprised by the man who, as minister for health, treated the victims of the Hep. C. scandal so cruelly and ruthlessly? Do we really expect that man to feel sorry for us, as we struggle with financial uncertainty? Do you honestly think he cares that you're missing your family and friends? Of course he doesn't because he has never had to worry about meeting his next mortgage payment. He has never had to toss and turn and wonder if he's ever going to get a bloody job. And he knows when his daughters are fed up abroad he can pay for them to return.
Let us eat cake, let our government eat humble pie!
Monday, 9 January 2012
New Year and a cure for cancer - I think not!
Apologies on the delay in writing since Christmas, hopefully I still have some of my four readers left *wave*.
This http://www.sott.net/articles/show/228583-Scientists-cure-cancer-but-no-one-takes-notice has been doing the rounds on facebook over the past week. With some of what I consider intelligent people all up in arms about how dichloroacetate (DCA) is apparently a new medical miracle providing a cure for cancer and no one taking notice because the monsters that are big pharma think it's too cheap to produce and would rather have you dying. Lots of comments thanking the powers that be on Facebook for getting this out there since mainstream media won't.
Two points - firstly don't trust anything you read on the internet or elsewhere without delving a little deeper, secondly definitely don't trust anything you read on Facebook for fuck's sake!
Anyway back to the DCA, if you follow the links from sott.net to the University of Alberta we find an entirely different story. Clinical trials in humans with cancer have not been conducted in the USA and are not yet final in Canada, emphasizing the need for caution in interpreting the preliminary results. Even the researchers themselves say that no conclusions can be made due to the small scale studies they ran, and also said that they didn't know if improvements in patients were due to DCA or other treatments the patients had been receiving. Following its initial publication, The New Scientist later editorialized, "The drug may yet live up to its promise as an anti-cancer agent – clinical trials are expected to start soon. It may even spawn an entirely new class of anti-cancer drugs. For now, however, it remains experimental, never yet properly tested in a person with cancer. People who self-administer the drug are taking a very long shot and, unlikely as it may sound, could even make their health worse. It is clear that DCA is an intriguing drug, and may become part of the oncologist's tool belt but we also have to remember that cancer is a wily little bugger, there will probably never be a 'single' cure for cancer because cancer is a set of diseases that are so diverse that the cures will also have to be diverse.
As to the Big Pharma thing - do people honestly think that it's beneficial to a pharmaceutical to keep a 'cure' for cancer under wraps. Yes they are in it for the money, do we seriously think that any pharmaceutical company in a recession wouldn't see the benefit of being the first company to produce a cure?
Sott is just blowing this whole thing out of proportion in a badly worded and factually confused article that is currently winging it's way to a Facebook page near you.
This http://www.sott.net/articles/show/228583-Scientists-cure-cancer-but-no-one-takes-notice has been doing the rounds on facebook over the past week. With some of what I consider intelligent people all up in arms about how dichloroacetate (DCA) is apparently a new medical miracle providing a cure for cancer and no one taking notice because the monsters that are big pharma think it's too cheap to produce and would rather have you dying. Lots of comments thanking the powers that be on Facebook for getting this out there since mainstream media won't.
Two points - firstly don't trust anything you read on the internet or elsewhere without delving a little deeper, secondly definitely don't trust anything you read on Facebook for fuck's sake!
Anyway back to the DCA, if you follow the links from sott.net to the University of Alberta we find an entirely different story. Clinical trials in humans with cancer have not been conducted in the USA and are not yet final in Canada, emphasizing the need for caution in interpreting the preliminary results. Even the researchers themselves say that no conclusions can be made due to the small scale studies they ran, and also said that they didn't know if improvements in patients were due to DCA or other treatments the patients had been receiving. Following its initial publication, The New Scientist later editorialized, "The drug may yet live up to its promise as an anti-cancer agent – clinical trials are expected to start soon. It may even spawn an entirely new class of anti-cancer drugs. For now, however, it remains experimental, never yet properly tested in a person with cancer. People who self-administer the drug are taking a very long shot and, unlikely as it may sound, could even make their health worse. It is clear that DCA is an intriguing drug, and may become part of the oncologist's tool belt but we also have to remember that cancer is a wily little bugger, there will probably never be a 'single' cure for cancer because cancer is a set of diseases that are so diverse that the cures will also have to be diverse.
As to the Big Pharma thing - do people honestly think that it's beneficial to a pharmaceutical to keep a 'cure' for cancer under wraps. Yes they are in it for the money, do we seriously think that any pharmaceutical company in a recession wouldn't see the benefit of being the first company to produce a cure?
Sott is just blowing this whole thing out of proportion in a badly worded and factually confused article that is currently winging it's way to a Facebook page near you.
Friday, 16 December 2011
RIP Christopher Hitchens (although you'd be the first to point out you have no other option)
I was genuinely saddened this morning when one of the first things I saw on my news feed was the death of Chris Hitchens. While I strongly disagreed with some of his points of view I had great respect for his intellect and articulateness and the whole hearted way in which he immersed himself in his convictions. And he always forced me to think, and think hard and that is one of the highest compliments I can pay any writer. Obviously, as an atheist, I agreed with most of his writings on the subject and was always a fan of his biting humour.
I also think he would have appreciated the flame war on twitter where Christians are behaving in a non-Christian manner (as some of them are wont to do) and threatening violence on those atheists who have begun using God is not Great in a hash tag as a tribute to the man (http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474980917773) . I can't help but think that Hitch would be amused by this one last controversy.
The world has suddenly become a much dumber place over night and I'll end with thoughts the man himself had of death:
"I'm not afraid of death myself, because I'm not going to know I'm dead."
"I have often thought that when I do die it will be out of sheer boredom."
"I do not especially like the idea that one day I shall be tapped on the shoulder and informed, not that the party is over but that it is most assuredly going on - only henceforth in my absence... MUCH more horrible, though, would be the announcement that the party was continuing forever, and that I was forbidden to leave."
and finally, as I'm sure we'll be enduring endless nonsense in the coming days:
"If I turn out to be mistaken [about the Afterlife], at the bar of judgment, I shall argue that I deserve credit for an honest conviction of unbelief and must in any case be acquitted of the charge of hypocrisy and sycophancy. If the omnipotent and omniscient one does turn out to be of the loving kind, I would expect this plea to do me more good than any trashy casuistry of the sort popularized by Blaise Pascal. One could also fall back upon the less-principled and more shiftily empirical defense offered by Bertrand Russell: 'Oh Lord, you did not give us enough evidence'."
I also think he would have appreciated the flame war on twitter where Christians are behaving in a non-Christian manner (as some of them are wont to do) and threatening violence on those atheists who have begun using God is not Great in a hash tag as a tribute to the man (http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474980917773) . I can't help but think that Hitch would be amused by this one last controversy.
The world has suddenly become a much dumber place over night and I'll end with thoughts the man himself had of death:
"I'm not afraid of death myself, because I'm not going to know I'm dead."
"I have often thought that when I do die it will be out of sheer boredom."
"I do not especially like the idea that one day I shall be tapped on the shoulder and informed, not that the party is over but that it is most assuredly going on - only henceforth in my absence... MUCH more horrible, though, would be the announcement that the party was continuing forever, and that I was forbidden to leave."
and finally, as I'm sure we'll be enduring endless nonsense in the coming days:
"If I turn out to be mistaken [about the Afterlife], at the bar of judgment, I shall argue that I deserve credit for an honest conviction of unbelief and must in any case be acquitted of the charge of hypocrisy and sycophancy. If the omnipotent and omniscient one does turn out to be of the loving kind, I would expect this plea to do me more good than any trashy casuistry of the sort popularized by Blaise Pascal. One could also fall back upon the less-principled and more shiftily empirical defense offered by Bertrand Russell: 'Oh Lord, you did not give us enough evidence'."
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Archbishop Martin urges lapsed Catholics to leave the church
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/archbishop-urges-lapsed-catholics-to-leave-the-faith-2959884.html
Diarmuid Martin has urged lapsed Catholics to have the maturity to leave the Catholic Church. One has to wonder how he expects them to do this considering it is the church who prevents formal abdication in the first place. On one hand I admire his openness and his willing to no longer have cultural Catholics make up the bulk of membership. On the other hand I really think he needs to have a word with the Pope about the relatively recent rejigging of Canon law that prevents people from leaving. Or did Diarmuid Martin not get that memo from his holiness. To me what Archbishop Martin says is eminently reasonable, and can only be a positive for secularists. In fact it is what non-believers and secularists have been wanting for ages, a bit of reality among both believers and lapsed. Let those who are really catholic be catholic, and those who don't really believe be honest about this.
Though I don't think he realises that absolute collapse the church would suffer if all the part-time, uncommitted, wishy washy, only-go-at-Christmas catholics left. They will be left with a bunch of old people and a hard core of fundamentalists, who were much more absolutist than even the clergy.
Diarmuid Martin has urged lapsed Catholics to have the maturity to leave the Catholic Church. One has to wonder how he expects them to do this considering it is the church who prevents formal abdication in the first place. On one hand I admire his openness and his willing to no longer have cultural Catholics make up the bulk of membership. On the other hand I really think he needs to have a word with the Pope about the relatively recent rejigging of Canon law that prevents people from leaving. Or did Diarmuid Martin not get that memo from his holiness. To me what Archbishop Martin says is eminently reasonable, and can only be a positive for secularists. In fact it is what non-believers and secularists have been wanting for ages, a bit of reality among both believers and lapsed. Let those who are really catholic be catholic, and those who don't really believe be honest about this.
Though I don't think he realises that absolute collapse the church would suffer if all the part-time, uncommitted, wishy washy, only-go-at-Christmas catholics left. They will be left with a bunch of old people and a hard core of fundamentalists, who were much more absolutist than even the clergy.
But back to my main bugbear - he needs to have a word about the Pope about this, or is it a mere ecumenical matter.
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Breaded cheesy chicken and cheesy potatoes
I'm of the opinion that there are very few things that can't be made better by either a)breading them b)putting cheese on them or c)both
This is the second time I've tried the breaded cheese chicken combo and it's another staple favourite
Ingredients:
Boneless chicken breasts
Breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
three cloves of garlic chopped
two eggs
3tablespoons of milk
grated cheese of your choice (so far I've tried parmesan and mozzarella but the parmesan was far nicer)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C
Mix up the breadcrumbs, the cheese and the garlic in one bowl
Mix the soy sauce, egg and milk in the other
Place the chicken breasts first in your egg mixture and then in the bowl of breadcrumbs ensuring it is as coated as possible
Place in the oven for twenty-thirty minutes
Cheesy potatoes
Ingredients
Potatoes
Olive oil
2 cloves of garlic chopped
Black pepper
A mixture of herbs
grated cheese of your choice
Directions:
Preheat oven to 200C
Coat the bottom of a casserole dish with the olive oil
Slice the potatoes, place in the dish and coat with olive oil
Add the garlic, black, pepper and herbs and mix to ensure an even coating on the potatoes
Cover with grated cheese
Cook for about 40 - 45 minutes
This is the second time I've tried the breaded cheese chicken combo and it's another staple favourite
Ingredients:
Boneless chicken breasts
Breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
three cloves of garlic chopped
two eggs
3tablespoons of milk
grated cheese of your choice (so far I've tried parmesan and mozzarella but the parmesan was far nicer)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C
Mix up the breadcrumbs, the cheese and the garlic in one bowl
Mix the soy sauce, egg and milk in the other
Place the chicken breasts first in your egg mixture and then in the bowl of breadcrumbs ensuring it is as coated as possible
Place in the oven for twenty-thirty minutes
Cheesy potatoes
Ingredients
Potatoes
Olive oil
2 cloves of garlic chopped
Black pepper
A mixture of herbs
grated cheese of your choice
Directions:
Preheat oven to 200C
Coat the bottom of a casserole dish with the olive oil
Slice the potatoes, place in the dish and coat with olive oil
Add the garlic, black, pepper and herbs and mix to ensure an even coating on the potatoes
Cover with grated cheese
Cook for about 40 - 45 minutes
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