Only in Ireland

Usually at coffee break in work, around 11am, we all sit around and have a chat. Today Jeanne, a colleague, told us a story which I decided was too good to kept inside the office. And when I heard it, I just thought there was something so Irish about it.

So the story goes like this. Jeanne from my office decides to send her friend in England a somewhat novel birthday present - a pink feather duster (in fairness, I missed this part of the conversation so I don't quite know why she picked that).

Anyway, she brings the duster, all wrapped up, to the GPO (General Post Office) to send off to her friend. The fella at the counter insists that she fill out a declaration form for said odd-shaped object so she carefully states on the sticker - '1 x pink feather duster'. When she hands it back in, the fella takes one look at it and says 'oooh, the dirty bitch!' Jeanne just laughs and thinks nothing of it.

A couple of days later she gets a phonecall from her friend in England to say thanks for the present and for the handwritten note on the envelope. Jeanne says 'but I didn't write anything on the envelope!' It seems the fella at the post office decided to add his own little something to the present by writing a ditty on the envelope:

One feather is erotic
A whole chicken is perverse

As I said, only in Ireland!

Heroes

Well, as some miserable ol' sod said, "all good things come to an end". Yes, that's right, we have finally finished all seven seasons of The West Wing. It took us less than the expected year to finish them all and I must say it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

But rather than shedding any tears over Josh, CJ, Donna and the gang, we have decided to jump straight back into dvd boxset world and are now watching Season One of Heroes. For those of you not in the know, this is a kitschy, comic-book style series about a group of people who find themselves with superpowers. It has a totally implausible plot, several different characters, some very dodgy acting, and we love it! It is the ultimate in guilty-pleasure television.


On a completely different note, but on the same subject of heroes I have been listening to a series on RTE Radio One about whistleblowers. It was produced by a guy I went to school with. It just finished up over the weekend but I thought it was an excellent series.

The last programme was about Frank Serpico, the police officer that exposed corrupion in the New York police department. He made for a great interview and told his story well. He's in his 70s now, a real straight-talking New York Italian-American. He was a total character - I thought he was quite funny (though I'm not too sure if he was meaning to be).

He told of one incident, when his colleague were finding out that he was going to go public, where a shady character pulled him aside. The guy said 'Do you know, one of these days your people are going to turn on you?' Apparently Serpico replied 'Who? The Italians?' !

I was amazed by how he managed to keep going in the face of such pressure and was impressed by his sense of integrity. It was a real David and Goliath story, about how one small man fought a huge organisation. And won. About how one person can make a difference. Very inspiring.

For those of you interested, you can still hear the programmes online at www.rte.ie/radio1/whistleblowers. I would also recommend the film, Serpico, with Al Pacino (pic above).

Lost: One Al Dente

Well it has been a couple of crazy weeks for myself and Eric, which has meant that I have been totally neglecting this blog. Eric has been gigging like mad, we had the lovely Moeller brothers come and stay, and in the midst of it all we both got colds (all better now though).

Also, I have to say that the blog-part of my brain has been strangely vacant since we came back from Cork. Usually something happens during the week and I think 'ooo, must do a blog on that!' but in the last couple of weeks it just hasn't been happening.

Funnily enough this vacancy has coincided with a strange phenomenon which I would like to share with you all. You see, I'm usually pretty good at cooking pasta just right (yes, back to food again) and I can usually judge the precise point when it is cooked but still has a bite. But lately, I haven't been able to do this at all. I have lost my al dente!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not overally worried. Other than eating a lot of overcooked pasta it has not had an adverse effect on our lives. But it is very strange. Maybe, the act of writing this blog will lure it back. In the meantime, any tips to help Kusi get her al dente back will be gratefully accepted.

Moeller Brothers visit

Recently, we had the lovely Moeller brothers come visit us, all the way from the US of A. Chris is an old friend of Eric's - they went to school together. And being the generous brother that he is, he brought his brother Frank, who had never been out of the States, on a trip to Scotland and Ireland as a 40th birthday present.

I have to say it was a pleasure to have them. They were both very easy going and really seemed content just to sample the Guinness in Dublin's many pubs, with a happy Eric in tow.

We did of course show them around to some of the sights, both in the city and out our area. Above is a picture from their last day with us. It was a glorious day, in fact one of the best this year. We brought them up Killiney Hill to see the views across Dublin. There happened to be a group of people para-sailing off the top of the hill and we stayed and watched them for a while. It was really quite relaxing. There are a couple of other photos, which I have posted on Flickr.

There was one last thing I wanted to mention. I'm really not to sure whether this is an American thing, or even a nature-nurture thing (Eric and Chris grew up very near each other), but I was struck by how similar Chris and Eric are. Not so much in looks but in how they act. It is really quite remarkable. Below is a picture of them both when we were in London last year - isn't it uncanny? I mean come on, matching outfits!