blog.padraigoconnor

Day 1 – San Francisco

September 18th, 2009 1 Comment

United States Trip, Day 1

San Francisco

Ok.. started off a very very early day, went out on tuesday night (as you do) after puttiing on a load of laundry for the trip. Came home at about one in the morning only to find that the dryer didnt work.. Swiftly threw everything onto the clothes horse and got myself thhe standard *2 Hours Sleep* Woke up about half four, straight downstairs to tend to my still horribly damp clothes.. gave them a quick run of the iron and threw them in the bag, minus my sopping wet boxers and socks which i bought over here

Anyway off to the airport at 6.30 for a 10 to 10 flight.. oh the joys of standby.. got up to the standby desk at like 7am and was told to come back in an hour as they had to check if there was enough feul for me.. never heard that one before so i was kind of worried, but heh im here anyway at least

Got through security quickly enough, lacking in money so i diidnt really purchase anything in the duty free i did stop to take a few very interesting photos though..

Midleton Very Rare

Midleton 20th Anniversary

Midleton 1973

On the plane.. well has everyone seen the episode of the simpsons with the really tall guy in the mini.. well yeah that was what it was like, i was using my blanket as a cushin for my knees as they were jammed against the seat in front of me. that and the kid behind me with his well timed kicks meant that my flight was taken up almost entirly by movies..

Oh and before i leave it out, just before takeoff they were humidifying the plane and i heard a women say;

“omg look look at that smoke, i think it might be vaporised air”

I think i know what she meant but just the way she said it and my sleep depervation made me chuckle a little

I have one solid rule when it comes to food.. nothing is worse than hospital food.. except maybe airline food at least hospital food is cooked less than a day before you get it.. i might be wrong (correct me if i am) but although the food was reasonable it felt like i was eating defrosted aldi bolinase (which isnt a bad thing but paying 6-7 hundred euro for a flight you’d expect different )

It was a long 11 hour flight but when all was done and dusted i was in san francisco, this is where the real fun began.. Customs.. They were not a fan of my variable return date, not at all.. I do not suggest standby in the states.. took me about 5 minutes to talk my way into the country irish charm and such

When in the airport i realised i needed a bit of cash to get into town, this is when a horrible realisation hit me, ive no money in my current account, its all in my savings account.. sounds simple, go on net transfer money.. yeah but how to do this with no money in the first place to get on the net.. DISASTER!! Cheers to Gar for transfering a bit of cash to my account…

Jumped on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) into the city, took me about an hour to find my hotel only to discover that my reservation had been cancelled due to me being two days late. From what i can see (so far) there is only one reasonably tempered staff member here, but the others are prob finding it difficult to be short with me as im being (prob annoyingly) over accomadating My accomadation was sorted in the end

Now im over here with my laser card and only my laser card.. if i loose my laser card im screwed.. Well on Day 1.. i lost it!!! Well for about half an hour… THANK FUCK! i dropped it in the hotel, but i never noticed till i was in the center.. Thankfullly the afformentioned staff member found it

It was from here i went to Radioshack and picked myself up a 500 dollar HTC Magic.. soo fucking cheap!! its a class phone really is.. dont know what else i can say..

It was at this point i realised i hadnt slept in 23 hours so i promptly returned to the hotel for some sleep

15 minute lunch

August 4th, 2009 No Comments

Don’t know weather its spending money on sandwiches or sandwiches themselves… although, i didn’t like the prospect of eating one today.. Have 2 baked potatoes in my lunch box as well as some beans and some cheese.. The baked potatoes, preparation taken from this previous post only take about 15 minutes to prepare, and with a few beens and cheese make a very appetizing lunch..

Guinness 250 Brew not in Ireland

July 31st, 2009 No Comments

Ok, havent really posted anything here in a while but i think this merits it..

Basically, Guinness have launched a 250th Anniversary brew for well their 250th Anniversary.. Only thing is.. This brew is only available in the States.. I would voice my opinions here but instead i will post the correspondance i had with the Diageo Care Team..

————————————————————————————————–
Dear Padraig,

Thank you for your recent email regarding the 250th Anniversary Guinness Brew.


This product is not available in Ireland. This product was launched in the United States only to commemorate the 250th Anniversary of Guinness.
I'm sorry if this causes you any disappointment.
If I can be of any further assistance to you in the future please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind Regards,

Diageo Consumer Careline
————————————————————————————————–
,

Oh ok, that seems a little strange.. i know Diageo are a worldwide company but i don't really understand this at all.


Guinness is an Irish brew and has been for 250 years, Arthur Guinness himself was a Celbridge man, who opened his first brewery in Leixlip in 1755 before moving up to Dublin in 1759 to open his James Gate Brewery.
Guinness is not only a large part of Irish culture but also a large part of of our lives as well, and i cant help but wonder why this

monumental brew to mark the quarter millennium of Guinness isn't sold here in Ireland.
Taken directly from your US Site
"GUINNESS® is GUINNESS® - wherever you are. We always use pure, fresh water from

natural local sources for the GUINNESS® stout brewed outside Ireland. That said, in blind tests (with a bunch of highly

cynical journalists) none of our sample could tell the difference between Irish-brewed GUINNESS® and the

locally produced variety. All the GUINNESS® sold in the UK, Ireland and North America is brewed in Ireland at

the historic St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin."
This leads me to believe that not only is the special brew not sold here but is produced here in Dublin only to be specifically exported to the States. How does that even make sense?
I can understand if this was a sales thing but your site again lets you down..
"GUINNESS® beer is available in well over 100 countries worldwide and is brewed in almost 50. In the year to 30

June 2004, the biggest-selling markets for GUINNESS® stout were (in order): Great Britain, Ireland, Nigeria, US and

Cameroon."
Great Britain, the UK, and Nigeria are all above the US in sales (which i presume are per capita) why is it that they get

the sole privilege of this momentous brew?

Regards, Padraig O'Connor

————————————————————————————————–
Dear Padraig,

Thank you for your recent email.


The Guinness 250th Anniversary brew is produced at St. James's Gate as is all canned or bottled Guinness exported to the United States.
There are a wide variety of Guinness varients produced that are not available in Ireland. Irish consumers prefer Guinness Draught over other varients of Guinness. Due to this preference a decision was made not to launch this product in Ireland.
The United States was chosen as this market as other markets prefer one varient of Guinness over others such as Nigerian consumers prefer Guinness Foreign Extra Stout and British consumers prefer Guinness Original or Guinness Extra Stout as it is known in Ireland.
I'm sorry if this causes you any disappointment.
Kind Regards,

Diageo Consumer Careline

————————————————————————————————–
,

Thank you for clarifying the reasoning behind this decision, and i do agree that Ireland hasn't responded well to introductions of alternative brews in the past.. Its just a shame that we wont get a chance to even just taste it thats all..


Thank you again for your time,

Regards, Padraig O'Connor

Revised Diet

June 8th, 2009 2 Comments

I seem to have been very ambitious about my allowances for my diet regime. After reading further into it i need to keep myself below the 1800 calorie mark if at all possible. I also need to get into a regular “5 small meals a day” routine. Going on my current timescale and work schedule I’m probably going to work from a small breakfast at 9am in 3 hour intervals. This gives a 300 calorie limit for meals, but I am going to sacrifice my lunch and a snack down to 150-200 calories to allow for more calories in my dinner. Anyone got meal or snack ideas?

On a quick note, when exercising make sure you stretch fully before hand, i missed my calves last Tuesday and today is the first day since that i haven’t been in pain..

Simpsons, Paddys Day Episode, Re-visit, :(

June 3rd, 2009 130 Comments

The episode.. what can i say, i wouldn’t mind a little slagging if it was at least the slightest bit accurate. Just in case you are wondering i was bored in work and going through Simpsons clips on Youtube. Seriously though, why, why, why. Dunkilderry… WHY! Ok, just a quick surmise, red buses.. the ‘Police’… Giants Causeway Game.. And i don’t know about anyone else but for me the one part that made me leave was throwing the 25 year old brandy down the sink.. there are a load of other parts of that episode that made me a little annoyed..

/rant

The Diet

May 27th, 2009 3 Comments

Ok, gonna try get myself back into full fitness… DCU are paying me friday and im going to give half what they give me back to the gym, on top of the gym im looking at a diet.. which is looking like its going to consist of the following..

Breakfast:
Breakfast Drink 415
or
Wheetabix with milk 300
Lucozade 250

Lunch
Wrap (occasionally Hot Chicken) 500/600
or
Brown bread sandwich 450
and (with either)
Soup 120
7up 140

Dinner
Unknown as of yet

Snack
Brown bread sandwich 450

The bold numbers are the average calorie count in each item, dinner is really up in the air, but calculating the highest possible calorie count in a day and subtracting it from my current burning rate which is below (for what im doing now, not factoring in added gym work)
4046-1975 = 2071
This gives 2000 odd calories over burn, i’d estimate my current dinners being between 1200 and 1800 calories.

Resting (basal) metabolic rate: 2743 calories per day
Typical daily activities: 1303 calories per day
Total calories burned: 4046 per day

Anyway thats the planed diet, and even at that im loosing weight, not much but 400-800calories a day isn’t too shabby. For every 3500 calories i burn thats half a kilo and im hoping to increase my daily burn substantially in the gym.. lets see what 4 months can do to start..

http://www.politicalcompass.org/

May 21st, 2009 1 Comment

Been a while since i did this test and to be honest i cant remember my previous result but my current one is,

Economic Left/Right: -3.00

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.51

Take the test at http://www.politicalcompass.org/

Week 6 (Mainly Doomy’s 40th)

May 13th, 2009 1 Comment

Its been a while since my last entry, i’d lie and say i was busy but everyone knows im far from it in this place… The job is finally starting to get to me, ill delve further into this (being the thing that has prompted me to write this) later.

The weeks since, well i suppose crank 2, have been very interesting. That weekend i went to Grimsby central England to go to a Doomy’s 40th. for those who don’t know Doomy is the guy who runs the online community im a part of, its more of a drinking group than anything else tbh… The trip itself was epic, met up with a load of the lads some of which ive met before, whether in Belfast or in Manchester as well as meeting some new peeps.

Arrived in on Friday evening and made it to the bar for maybe 9pm, Doncaster’s Robin Hood airport is about an hours drive from Grimsby. Dave, the taxi driver, gave me some advice for my weekend ‘Grimsby is violent at night, Cleethorpes not as bad i suggest heading out there’ to this i could only listen and comment occasionally. I wasn’t really heading over here to head out, i was over for the 40th and its related drinking Arrived in the bar anyway at 9pm and got me a carvary dinner for £3.50, and some of the cheapest drink I ever paid for.. Eoghan also attended the ‘pissup’ and it was good to see him. After dinner we returned to the house and continued drinking. At about 12 myself, tit, gee and blob hit the centre of Cleethorpes, and we got the grand tour/pub crawl from blob.. Being honest though i was up from 6am and was completely bolloxed.. so this night may as well of been a write off..

Waking up on Saturday, i found out all about the scandal from the previous night, a person who shall from now on be known as ‘Person X’ pissed himself in bed.. And two pissup regulars had an ‘altercation’ that resulted in one being concussed and having face mangled, some would think this a little harsh but from all accounts of the night he deserved it if not more.. So anyway the day kicked off with.. well.. beers, what else Chedz made breakfast and Detox distributed it, blob (who was still awake from the night before as part of a ‘competition’) made the mistake of asking detox to pour his brown sauce got a healthy portion on his head. The day itself was a lazy day of relaxing and drinking and ice bucket challenges, honourable mentions go to sub who holds the arm in ice bucket record of 2 minutes and Nickeh who holds the head full submerged in bucket record of 10 seconds. So as we slowly made our way through £130 of alcohol and a bbq cooked by myself and detox (the baked potatoes made a great addition) time just seemed to tick by… Also there was the Game, Leinster vs Munster, with Leinster having a convincing win and progressing through to the Heineken cup final. It was about 7pm when we headed to the pub for the function, good night had by all involved, as always it was riddled with drinking challenges, and fair fucks to chedder for completing the 10 pint Guinness challenge, although i dont think he took kindly to myself and detox doing 2 pints in 2 minutes… Post pub we returned to doomy’s to continue the party.. (en-route we bumped into a guy robbing a car, he continued as if we never happened on him) the session continued until the early morning.. i ducked out around 3am..

Sunday morning lead to more stories of Person X’s night, he disappeared for a few hours at the pub and returned in body and that was about it, only facial movement being the grinding of his jaw bones.. :/ and then top this with him pissing himself again and in the process of trying to clean his pants flooding the back of the house.. Also there was reports of him getting a bollocking later in the morning in which it had been alleged that he was caught ’servicing himself’ on three occasions in the weekend.. this being made all the weirder given the fact that one of the attendees was his girlfriend.. ah well.. It was about 12.30 when people started to move out and go there separate ways the plan was for a carvary lunch before everyone departed but unfortunately detox masterplan and submissive had to head for their train.. We got into the car with gov and headed to the carvary, en-route thanks to some crazy antics we got pulled over by the cops and gov got taken to their car for questioning and eventually a breathalyser.. Now if think, gov stopped drinking 7 hours previous and over the space of the previous 2 days the average alcohol consumption per person was 60-80 units.. We thought he was fucked!! the legal limit in England in a measurement of 35 and somehow he pulled a 13.. Bionic liver.. broken machine.. choice is yours.. After the carvery we all hi tailed back to doomys to watch the end of an epic Leister Cardiff game, seeing Leister through to the final with Leinster and relax with a few quiet beers and wii bowling.. Later that night, those of us left headed into Cleethorpes for a few drinks, not really the most eventful night out but blobs was on the decks and it was an enjoyable session with the lads..

Monday was an early enough day the lads having to be in the airport for 12 midday, i went up with them to try save on cost not really sure what time my flight was at, only finding out in the airport it was at half 9 that night.. if it wasn’t for my laptop, which stayed in my bag all weekend and i was thinking was a waste, i would have went absolutely mad… In saying that though when boarding time came i was very relieved!

The following week was spent mainly recovering.. work droned, on that Saturday though we went to see wolverine and later the new star trek movie.. Both were pretty EPIC, but Star Trek lived up to its hype and was a great thing to see in the cinema and would recommend it to anyone, also when Nyota Uhura asks Spock “what do you want from me” i find it difficult that any heroes fans would think anything other than “Why i want your powers”

This week in work is actually a bit busier… that will change later though

Anyway, day is looking pretty shit, but im going to do this nice and slowly and maybe stretch it out a bit.. i don’t really care anymore.. Outside of this place though, Happy BDay Andrew, don’t study too hard

Week in review (in brief)

April 24th, 2009 No Comments

Well its been an interesting week.. Crank 2 is very very good, little over the top but heh it wouldnt be a sequal to Crank if it wasn’t.. Work, well the best way to describe my week in ITG is, 2 seasons of justice league, 1 season of The Big Bang Theory totalling to 800 minutes of tv unproductive but good. As for the Redbrick AGM, all ill say is BAH!!, LOL and “you must be joking”.

Lions Tour 2009 Team

April 21st, 2009 No Comments

Backs: Lee Byrne, Rob Kearney, Shane Williams, Lee Halfpenney, Ugo Monye, Luke Fitzgerald, Tommy Bowe, Tom Shanklin, Jamie Roberts, Brian O’Driscoll, Keith Earls, Riki Flutey, Ronan O’Gara, Stephen Jones, Mike Phillips, Harry Ellis, Tomas O’Leary

Forwards: Jamie Heaslip, Andy Powell, David Wallace, Stephen Ferris, Alan Quinlan, Joe Worsley, Martyn Williams, Alu-Wyn Jones, Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan, Simon Shaw, Nathan Hines, Gethin Jenkins, Adam Jones, Andrew Sherdian, Phil Vikcery, Euan Murray, Jerry Flannery, Lee Mears, Matthew Rees

Looks like a very interesting pannel, together with Paul O’Connell as the captain as far as ireland should be concerned its a very good year.. Cant wait for the tour but between this and then we have a monumental Heineken Cup to look forward to as well as the rest of the Magners League..