Your Independence Level: High

You are extremely self reliant and autonomous. You are definitely into doing your own thing. But you also wouldn't turn down help if you needed it. You follow your own path, but you don't do so blindly.

People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have.

Anne Tyler, Celestial Navigation
US novelist (1941 - )

I have a hairy jumper addiction. I’ve been in denial about it for a while but not anymore. I was in a clothes shop recently and almost gave myself whiplash when I saw a pink hairy jumper. I immediately went over to it and started rubbing the sleeve. Then I gave myself a good talking to about how I didn’t need it and how hairy jumpers are a disaster to keep and eventually I walked away without purchasing it. But low and behold the next time I was in the shop I bought the bloody hairy jumper. The thing is I love the feel of the jumper when I’m wearing it but I hate the fact that it sheds and generally destroys other clothes with its fluff. In the past I’ve had a hairy blue jumper that I shrunk in the wash which thankfully made it unwearable. I’ve had a hairy blue cardigan that destroyed all other clothing within a fifty foot radius. I’ve had a hairy winter white jumper that I used to wear to work except fluff kept floating off the jumper and landing on other people during lunchtime. I mean fluff and food is just not a good combination! The same jumper did strange things to my car. If I wore it while driving it looked like a yeti had been sitting in the driver’s seat. I thought I had weaned myself off hairy jumpers after I gave the last one to a charity shop but looking at my recent purchase I think I may need to go to hairy jumper rehab. I should also probably mention that the addition extends to scarves too. :-)

You Are Softball

While you do like competing, you like cooperating even more. You find working with a group to be much more invigorating than going solo. You are a true team player. You like contributing to the win!

I was in Keanes’ Jewellers recently with my cousin and we noticed a little read book on the counter. The title of the book was ‘The Little Book of Romantic Proposals’. The book starts off with a page called ‘Help is at Hand’ which states that Keanes ‘have searched the world for some of the best and most alluring marriage proposal ideas to help you create a moment never to be forgotten’. They also advice that you ‘take some inspiration’ from their suggestions and ‘prepare for the perfect moment’. The book is split into two main sections, romantic proposal ideas for men and another section for women. Some of the proposal ideas are fairly simple but some are ridiculously convoluted. A lot of the ideas were awful but I think the worst one is in the section where women are encouraged to ask men to marry them. The title of the suggestion is ‘Application for Love’ and involves the woman writing a cover letter and CV applying for the position to be her boyfriend’s wife. In the cover letter you are supposed to say why would like the position and why you are qualified for it. Then in the CV they suggest that you put in a history of events and times you spent together over the past number of years. At the end they suggest that under the skills section you ‘list special things you do to make him happy’! I don’t know whether this book was made especially for Valentine’s Day or whether it is a year round initiative. :-)

The absence of flaw in beauty is itself a flaw.

Havelock Ellis, Impressions and Comments (1914)
English sexual psychologist (1859 - 1939)

Sat 23 Aug 2008 10:00PM Helios Jive The Pavilion
Thu 28 Aug 2008 9:00PM Mick Flannery De Barra's
Thu 04 Sep 2008 9:00PM Aaron Dillon The Roundy
Fri 05 Sep 2008 8:00PM Mick Flannery & band Crane Lane Theatre
Sat 06 Sep 2008 8:00PM Fred The Pavilion
Tue 09 Sep 2008 9:00PM Colm Mac Con Iomaire Cyprus Avenue

When you build bridges you can keep crossing them.

Rick Pitino

Prandial – adjective (formal)

During or relating to a meal.

ORIGIN from Latin prandium ‘meal’

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

Robert Frost
US poet (1874 - 1963)

José González played in the Savoy last Monday night and he was excellent. I wasn’t really familiar with his music except for stuff that was played on the radio. He is an amazing guitar player and initially played a numbers of songs on his own. Then he was joined on stage by Erik Bodin (percussion) and Yukimi Nagamo (backing vocals). He announced to everyone that it was Erik’s birthday and people cheered. They played songs from ‘In Our Nature’, his second album and some songs from ‘Veneer’, his first album. Check out his website for some great videos and music. They played a couple of covers like ‘Teardrop’ by Massive Attack and ‘Hand on Your Heart’ (originally performed by Kylie) which were really good. He made ‘Hand on Your Heart’ sound totally different to the version that Kylie did, so much so that although I recognised the song I didn’t remember it as something Kylie had done!

I went to see The Dark Knight on Saturday night and although I enjoyed it, the Joker really gave me the creeps. I thought the gadgets were excellent and the scene with the motorcycle was one of my favourites. The film was quite long but I had been warned beforehand that you think it is about to finish several times and then there is more. Christian Bale did a good job again as Bruce Wayne/Batman and I love both Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. Heath Ledger gave a truly creepy and disturbing performance as the Joker. I think I’m going to have to watch a happy Heath Ledger film soon to counteract the Joker images!

I’m not sure what the first two pictures are about but they were taken in a tent at the edge of the festival area before you head into the camping area. Early on in the night people were just wandering in and out of the tent but later on there was a small crowd dancing in it. The rest of the photos are all of various totem poles that were dotted around the place, there seemed to be a bit of a totem pole theme going on!

The Cork X Southwest music festival was on in Skibbereen last weekend and it was excellent. What could be better than great music, yummy food and good weather? This was the second year of this festival and after the great day I had at it, I’ll definitely be looking out for it again next year. We got to the showgrounds shortly before six o’clock and caught the end of Jape on the main stage. Then we nipped over the De Barra’s Sitting Room session area and saw Juno Falls. The hunger sort of set in then so it was time to get a gourmet hot dog and caught a bit of the dance company doing some tricks. This was followed up by Helios Jive from America and they gave a lively performance which included a tanned topless guy in the background painting on a large canvas! Then we went back to the Sitting Room session and caught Armoured Bear and Luka Bloom. They both gave good performances and we also got to see Gavin Moore perform with Luka Bloom. Although there was some family squabbling about whose song they were going to play, I think they comprised and ended up playing one of each. We spent most of the rest of the night back at the main stage listening to Cathy Davey and the Walls except for one small visit to the Sitting Room sessions to catch the end of Rosey. There were lots of food stalls offering delicious organic and non-organic treats from local producers. I was also impressed by the Rula Bula Tent which had lots of good DJs playing music all evening. It was a good place to pop into in between other music acts.