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I'm going to dedicate this page to whatever the hell pops into my mind, shakes it up, confuses it, or enlightens it on any given day. It ings going to be random and hopefully thought provoking. I schaven't got the discipline to keep a journal, but I just dont want to keep adding on bits and pieces, to the other main topics.

Sunday 17/8/08 Dolores Claiborne

One of my favourite films of all times is Dolores Claiborne. Having scoured everywhere for it, I managed to get it sent from london via the zavvi store's internal online service. Pick any film you want, and if they don't have it in the shop, they will send it to your home address for only €12, p&p free. I ordered my copy late on a friday evening in the square, and was amazed to have it the next wednsday via post from london.

Its a brilliant poignant story, multi layered, with some great and haunting lines and plots. I loved the whole euthanasia story. Give power and control of ones life back to the individual, I say. I remember watching it on video back in '95, and thinking, as I still do, that this woman had great guts. But surely it would have been much better if she could have had professional assistance, rather than relying on her own half baked attempts. Why are humans treated worse than dogs?

Having a lazy morning reading "god is not great" by Christopher Hitchens and looking at the dvd extras for "la vie en rose". Religion certainly can ruin everything. How obnoxious it is to believe that only your own particular cult has all the answers, and everyone else is wrong. Spoke to a woman yesterday, and I think she thought joe's death might have made me more of a believer. Death is an inescapable part of this life process, and whether you die of leukemia at 7, a car crash at 25, or snugly in your bed at 80, it ultimately makes no difference. There is no divine order to things, chaperoned by some maniacal magician in the sky, and thank fuck for that!

Friday 8/8/08: Ryanair, wedding dvd & Jo!

Even for me yesterday was a great day. The issue with my friends wedding dvd was happily resolved, thanks to a great man in newbridge (he does'nt have a company, and its very much a home enterprise, so contact me if you want his details). Imagine damaging the master copy of such an irreplaceable and precious day as a wedding day! This has been a seriously sized ball and chain around my neck, since my friends told me in spain two weeks ago, that the company that made the dvd originally has now gone bust, leaving me with the master (and unfortunately scratched) dvd. I had a vhs tape of the day, which I had taped over two chunks of, and the dvd copy, which they had given me in malaga last year, with the reception part skipping and scratched, despite all the cleans that it professionally got.

Anyway, long story short, he married the two versions together into a seamless and professional dvd (minus a few minutes of drunken reception dancing, which I can live with), that I'm sure they will be thrilled with.The dvd cover and menu are personalised, and look great. I won't be as careless with a dvd again, and certainly will never accept the master copy of anything! Just too much unneccessary hassle and headache should anything go wrong.

Last night was the book launch of my good friend Jo Wardhaugh Doyle's book "Labyrinth through the elephant grass" in kilcullen town hall. I was lucky enough to be a witness to this story, when it was still in unbound manuscript form, and to see it now all professionally produced, and edited, is very gratifying.

Jo has certainly lived a colourful and rich life (so far) that can be of great benefit to others. From her twenty years as a nun across africa, to an independant thinking reiki practitioner,counsellor, farmer etc, she puts people like me to shame, people that could honestly write their autobiographies on the back of a postage stamp!

It takes guts to reveal your sides, vulnerable and strong, to anonymous readers, I think it has paid off for jo. As they say, the best way to overcome your fear is to face it. I quite like the idea of writing your life story, in your own words, and from your perspective. One of the things I did'nt like after joe's death, was the attempt to eulogize or sanctify him, often by people who could have come happily under the umbrella of "strangers".

I just remembered to email vincenzo in italy, to let him know that I would'nt be going to pisa in september, to which I got a curt reply telling me that he had already read it through this blog. The power of the net!

Have booked my flight to manchester with aer lingus, but that still leaves me €213 in credit with ryanair. Surprise, surprise, while they sell return tickets to manchester through their site for €76, they want over €313 from me to reschedule my flights. Someone advised me today to draw a line under this episode, and move on. Even though I am loathe to add to mr o'leary's already bloated coffers, maybe this is the universe telling me to get out now, before I really get burned.

Wednesday 30/7/08: For Suzanne

The ease of being able to do this blog in the comfort of your bed, on your laptop is brilliant! I can now at least keep my fingers working and when I think of my friend Joe, in his nursing home in Naas, with his by now sausage like fingers, bloated by years of living with multiple sclerosis, it motivates me to keep on banging on the keyboard!

I'm now engaged in another saga with Ryanair. They seem to have no customer telephone service whatsoever. They keep you on hold for ages then cut you off. This happened to me eight times today. They obviously want everyone to use the web only, which might be ok if their damn server wasn't constantly down, and riddled with errors. There is meant to be some new EU law in now about passengers with a disability and airlines. At the back of my mind, I am nervous that because I will be travelling alone, I will get to the Ryanair doors and be turned away, as happened to a guy with cerebral palsy a few weeks ago.

As far as I am concerned, Ryanair are fine if you are ok with being treated like a herd of cattle, but when their prices can be higher than Aer Lingus, a certain level of customer satisfaction is to be expected. Originally, I booked my ticket to Pisa with them because they are the only airline that flies there, and I wanted to reserve my seat and notify them, as they only accept two wheelchair users per flight, on a first come first served basis. Now Pisa is dropped because it is too expensive (€4500 without spending money) and I have found an assistant in Manchester, who won't bankrupt me!