atoast2toast.com

I was waiting for the luas and a skanger asked me for a cigarette. I was getting a ticket and said “yeah, wait a minute”. He spend the time between asking and receiving thanking me in advance. He was looking for his lighter from his mate but I let him use mine too. They were joined by two girls and a pram. It appears they wanted the cigarette to roll a joint in the 5 minutes before the train came. One of the girls was on the phone and had the speaker activated. The taller of the two dudes was shouting about “yer man on the phone” and his ethnic origin was described as something to do with smelling of curry. I walked a bit away but could still hear her on the phone and it occured to me that she was the perfect cross between a d4 and a skanger.

The stuff she was saying was purely functional unlike the crap I heard while getting my hair cut somewhere in dublin 4 yesterday. One girl there was telling the down to earth hairdresser all about what she had planned for the rest of the day and the rest of the year. She had gotten tickets for the rugby from a goy she knows who is a barrister. That was all that was said and you could tell she was a bit taken aback that nobody there was impressed enough to tell her what a great human she was. The time was nearly 2pm and with kickoff in thirty minutes and five miles away she would be asking people to move aside by the time she got there.

Read more…

Ronan O’Gara dramatically kicked out in Irish shake-up for showdown with South Africa

People are finding this blog every now and again by searching for

“why do people hate ronan o’gara”,
“ronan o’gara drunk”,
“ronan o’gara wife / wedding”,
“ronan o’gara rides your wife”,
“brian o’driscoll ronan o’gara wife”,
“ronan o’gara moustache” (wtf)

Somebody in Australia looked to see if “ronan o’gara is dead”.

It does seem from todays match that he is replacable. I personally think it was a big problem that Eddie O’Sullivan made almost no changes to the side the he inherited from Warren Gatland. This and the fact that there was no suitable replacement for a long time made O’Gara the choice as out half. I have seen O’failing pressure and excelling with a 40 point lead. He is afraid of tackling and of being tackled resulting in the ball never making it far down the line. Nobody except the New Zealand press points out his massive flaws.

Read more…

I am off to Cork this weekend. It is the real capital or you could call it the fillet of Munster.

I asked a colleague who recently moved from Cork if there were any issues with what he had just done. He said “of course, they hate you up here and then they hate you back in Cork”. I told him it serves people from Cork right. They abused people from Dublin every time they visited Cork and as soon as the tables are turned they get very paranoid. When nobody really minds them in Dublin they still cant get away from it at home. This never really happened to me. All I ever got was “are you still above in Dublin” and “I don’t know how you can live there” and “its so bloody expensive”.

The peoples republic of Cork with its tongue in cheek asks “Is it acceptable to live in Dublin?”

Only for work – you should not enjoy yourself there and you should socialise within strongly Cork circles to keep up to date on external revolutionary movements. We recognise that it is not the fault of Cork Citizens that they must travel to the pale to find employment or education but rather the oppressive regime that centres everything in the Irish State around the capital is to blame.

Read more…

Unlike many of the people I saw yesterday I did indeed manage to stay conscious and mostly dry and mud free. The choice of options for getting there lead to some confusion. Bus Eireann didn’t feel like bringing anyone to the festival on Saturday and they had given up selling tickets online.

I found out the last dublin bus departure was at 5 from parnell square. Trying to get on the bus I had to remind some conductors who were busy chatting with some drunken nordies that people were standing waiting in the rain.

An hour later I wondered why we were still miles from Punchestown. The gps on my phone would’nt work but I recognised Lucan which is west of Dublin and I knew we were supposed to be going southwest. To make it worse there was a cocaine dealing rugby fool from Cork talking out loud all the way. Duncan was shouting his name into the phone to his friend Vincent who was near some speakers it seems. We had to endure his commentary on the fools and easy mingers (sure how baaaad) he has encountered all over Ireland.

Dublin Bus have decided that the most direct route between any 2 points is a straight line, but that doesnt apply in the daytime. This is the route we took to the festival:

Strangely at 1am they returned the most direct route. Maybe it was their way of justifying 20 euros return. It was still better than what happened to the people in Slane.

Read more…

I have been thinking about the concept of exclusivity when it comes to club membership in Ireland. This is following where the streets have no name.

dictionary.reference.com defines exclusivity as some of the following:

incompatible

shutting out all others from a part or share

noting that in which no others have a share

disposed to resist the admission of outsiders to association, intimacy, etc.: an exclusive circle of intimate friends.

admitting only members of a socially restricted or very carefully selected group: an exclusive club.

Catering to a wealthy clientele; expensive: exclusive shops.

Ok, hands up! I am currently a member of an “exclusive gym”. The “exclusivity” like most things comes with expense. I paid over the odds to join. I was primarily motivated by the desire to work out in a bright, clean and spacious environment. My rationale for joining was that I hoped this place would be free from many of the meat head bouncer types I saw in the pay-monthly gyms in town. I had also seen enough briefs and red pubes and aldi bags to last me a lifetime. I was sick of seeing guys inspecting themselves like an Adonis a few inches from the mirror after lifting some lead.

Read more…

O’Gara who came on as a sub in the 2nd Lions vs SA test and fucked it up with a mid air tackle gone wrong. I would like to have seen him finish the kick he gave away under pressure.

I will leave it up to the nz herald to do the talking:

“Ireland have been unable to find a quality first five-eighths for years to mount a genuine challenge to Ronan O’Gara. The fact that Argentinian Felipe Contepomi has held down the No 10 jersey for Leinster, the powerful Irish province, is hardly unconnected.”

Read more…

I heard “Tony Tone” was outraged that I apparently threatened to punch Rocky Elsom in this post: http://atoast2toast.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/leinster-fan-says/. At 3am one morning
Tony Tone was flamin and decided to write his own blog to prove to everyone how easy it is – I am still waiting on the outcome.

This is the same Tony Tone that slept in my bed in my parents house (thankfully I was’nt using it at the time) and he called me “Evil Simpsons Baby”

Read more…

They played really well yesterday and I was very happy that they won.

Is it any wonder people dont like their supporters with attitudes like this:

Rocky, Rocky, what an absolute legend. Just give him the ball v Munster and make sure y’all follow him to the line. And for Gods sake when dOC, O’Gara and Leamy start mouthing off early on, punch their gob- end of story. Not you Rocky- we need you on the pitch for the full 80

This guy sounds like he needs as punch in the mouth too.
http://leinsterrugby.wavenex.ie/players/152-rocky-elsom-flanker

Ronan O’Gara did’nt snub the queen and neither did he say prince harry the nazi was a nice guy and BOD was’nt even laughing at anything in particular.

http://u.tv/UTVMediaPlayer/Default.aspx?vidid=120769&chapid=100533&arti_id=01b8d373-a2a2-404c-8714-c27c4366c576

Yes, I do have a lot of issues with ROG but so do a lot of other people.

Take the picture on the front page of The Irish Times last week of Ronan O’Gara with his hands in pockets meeting the Queen, while Brian O’Driscoll seemed to giggle with his hand over his mouth behind her back, as if to say: “Isn’t this funny?” Both men were wearing very nice suits. And Ireland is so proud of them that they were being presented to the Queen with whom the Irish have an ambivalent relationship.
Read more…