Craig Bellamy is coming to Liverpool

He's got the pace we need, and he was a Liverpool fan growing up so he's likely to have the passion (he's taking a wage cut to come to LFC too). I just hope he gets on well with Rafa. Could be a good signing.

Cisse move still on for Marseille

There is still strong interest from Marseille to by Cisse to try and avoid Lyon signing him. The Marseille president was in liverpool yesterday to talk about a loan deal. via

Suicide biggest 'killer' of under 35s in Ireland

In an article here I see that Ireland continues to have a huge problem with suicide. What this article doesn't mention is that the ratio of men to women committing suicide is something like 7 to 1. So most of this figure is made up of young men.
I know this has been a growing problem over the last 10 years because I've heard the increasing number of stories. What concerns me is that little seems to be being done about it.
I've read in another article that fewer people are being admitted as inpatient to psychiatric care, this being because of a trend towards community psychiatric facilities and a drop in mentally ill people being treated in hospitals.
I find the whole thing very concerning and wish that someone would start to take this issue a bit more seriously. There is a distinct problem in Ireland that occurs no where else in the world.

Try not to laugh...I dare you!

Jon sent me this the other day...if you can watch it without laughing then you are a better man than me. It's in Flemish but you need the sound on for this one!

Lord of the rings meets Anne from Little Britain

Saw this over at TCAL, almost made snot bubbles it's so funny:

Roy Keane announces retirement

See BBC SPORT for more info

Didi Hamann poised for Bolton switch

See icLiverpool - Hamann poised for Bolton switch for news on the posibility of Hamann leaving Liverpool after 7 years.

Look at the cut of ya!

3 boys yesterday were told that their haircuts were against school rules and that they couldn't sit their exams in the school. The boys have 'skinhead' haircuts. They were given the option to sit the exams in another school, but one of the boys refused on principle.
I remember when I was at school, many moons ago, and it was a hot topic even then. It's always going to cause controversy when you’ve got teenagers wanting to push the boundaries of the rules set on them by the school.
I myself had a mullet which was frowned upon and my friend Finbar had lovely flowing locks too, but nothing was actually said to us about it. Then I grew a beard! It was the summer of the first Feile and I was feeling quite cool about it at the time. Anyway, I’ll never forget the look on the principles face when he saw me in the school yard the first day back. It was his first day as principle and he was a sound fellow so he said hello and had a big smile and looked very happy with himself in his new position until… he realised it was going to be his job to tell me to have a shave. Then you could physically see his stomach churn and his face drop. I found it quite amusing at the time. I new I’d have to have a shave and only waited to see how they would handle it. They didn’t know I didn’t really mind so it was three days before they came up with a game plan.
I was told that while “my beard was great and I’d done a fine job of growing one…if I was let keep it then other lads that wouldn’t be able to grow a decent ‘tidy’ one would still try, and would end up making them look scruffy so for the good of the school, I should have a shave”. I thought this was a fascinating way to have approached me. Great psychological manoeuvre. However, being one step ahead I said “well as you agree that strictly speaking my beard is fine, and it’s only if the beard makes someone scruffy looking that they need to shave it off, then surely it’s your job to deal with those people and not mine?” Hmmm…well the debate went on for a while but eventually I agreed that I would have a shave but only because I felt like doing it myself.
The key thing here was that the man was capable of speaking to a student in an adult way and we came away from the situation having a respect for each other. This is often not the case; 16 year old boys are often not capable of having a rational debate and unfortunately neither are many of the school principles. This has been proven once again by the ignorance of the principle in this news item. Some things will never change!

Driving Tests in Ireland

I was listening to NewsTalk 106 on the internet yesterday and heard all about the meeting yesterday that meant that 1300 driving tests had to be postponed while a decision was made on the option of bringing in a private company to help the problem of the 40,000 people on a driving test.
I've had a look at the info on the Department of Transport website to see what the figures were like. The shortest wait is 23 weeks in Clifden and the longest is 60 weeks in Raheney. The average wait works out at 43.3 weeks. That's nearly 11 months! Jesus that's mental.
But I've got a question...the average pass rate is 53.6%, so why is it that someone that has 11 months on a provisional licence to practice driving that they still manage to fail the test?
Anyway, they have decided to get the private company in until they reduce the waiting list down to 6 weeks.

Ratatouille the next one from Pixar

Click here to see the trailer. It looks great!

A few memories to get you in the mood...

Ireland in the World Cup 1990
We got our revenge on the Italians the next time round in 1994. Good ol' days perhaps someday we'll get to relive them...someday...

Cisse's broken leg

As you can see in this video, the first break being the most recent and the second the first break...

This had completely ruined his world cup dreams and Liverpools dreams of selling him. Or so it seemed...but he's expected to make a quicker recovery this time as the fracture isn't as bad as the first one and there might still be interest from Lyon to buy him, but for how much? that's the question.
Many expected liverpool to only get 3 million for Cisse, they origonally paid 13 million. He was bought by Houllier when he was manager of Liverpool and now he's manager of Lyon and still has faith in the Cisse and wants him there. The latest report before the leg break was they would pay 8 million, which was great news for Liverpool. But with a broken leg? who knows what they would offer.
It looked like everyone expected the transfer was off yesterday but there seems to be more optimism today...let's see how it pans out.

Pierced Eyeglasses

I saw over on TCAL this guy's Pierced Eyeglasses. Check it out...it's a bit freaky as he's a weird lookin geezer anyway but the idea of accidentally catching the glasses on something and tearing half your face off is enough to put most people off this idea. I hope.

Thank you for smoking

It’s a brilliant movie. It’s so funny and it doesn’t have any cheesy ending. I loved that. I hate cheesy endings.
It follows ‘Big Tobacco’s’ top spokesman (Aaron Eckhart), who is a master of spin, through a range of adventures as he tries to keep true to his choices in life while trying to be role model for his young son (Cameron Bright).
Eckhart is just fantastic. This movie is going to do a great deal for his career. He carries this role off with the subtle humour that gently flows from the screen and massages you with true wit and intelligence that only a brilliant script and fine acting can do. There is nothing obvious about this movie and I think that it operates on many levels giving enjoyment to people with all levels of wit and sarcasm.
Cameron Bright is also very good. I’ve seen him once before in the movie ‘Birth’ with Nicole Kidman. I wasn’t a huge fan of that movie as I can’t usually stand Nicole Kidman, and the movie was a bit weird. But, Cameron Bright was very good in it and it was good to see him again.
I’m tipping this as the ‘Sideways’ of 2006.

Esunday Bloody Esunday

As I spend a fair amount of time in Spain I've subjected to their equivalent of "I think I'm a great singer so vote for me or I'll cry and have a tantrum and tell you that, even though you are a millionaire music producer, you haven't got a clue" type programmes, I believe it's called Operatión Triunfo. I think it's hilarious when one of the contestants who don’t have a word of English tries to sing a song in English. It's understandable when someone from Spain sings in English that they will have an accent. That's perfectly ok and normal. But...when they are just making noises that are supposed to sound like a language that they don't understand then it's just too much for me to stand.
Anyway, I saw this over on the TCAL blog and it reminded me of watching the Operatión Triunfo.

the broken laptop i sold on ebay

I'm sure this has been done to death by now but for those who havent managed to see this blog yet here it is "the broken laptop i sold on ebay".