While in Los Angeles, USA on my round the world trip in 2007, I met a young Irish lady from Donegal, Emma McDaid. We enjoyed a very short evening of drinks and chat in the Venice Beach Cotel Hostel the night before my 14 hour flight to New Zealand. As it happened, Emma had just Read more about Zorbing in Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand[…]
The second meeting of the South of England Northern Ireland Supporters Club was held in Torquay on the first Saturday on 2006. The reason for the meeting was that myself, Tim Beattie and Owen Millar wanted to get the club up and running fairly quickly and plan the year ahead. Owen suggested Torquay, because he Read more about Come on You Yellows!! Torquay United 0-0 Birmingham City[…]
I had lived in Bournemouth for the best part of five years before I actually went to watch Bournemouth Football Club! That is probably because Bournemouth Football Club are not quite as high profile as their Boscombe rivals, AFC Bournemouth. They are two completely different teams, Bournemouth Football Club were formed in 1875 and are Read more about Up the Poppies, In All Remembrance Services! :Bournemouth FC 3-1 Alton Town FC[…]
As detailed in other blog posts, during 2005 I helped set up and became chairman of the South of England Northern Ireland Supporters Club. The idea really was just to set up an amazing wee club in the south of England for Northern Ireland football fans, or anyone who enjoys a good day out really. Read more about Is this the way to Weymouth, Dorset??[…]
I always prefer pub crawls to sitting in the same pub for hours on end. Pub crawls provide more randomness, comedy, variety and you meet more people and sample more things. And you get to piss in more toilets. So for my 26th birthday, we stayed in some hotels close to oxford street London and Read more about Thirsty Thursdays: Football Grounds of London Pub Crawl![…]
The first time I saw my country win a match while I was there was this one. I had watched our two previous wins at home with my Dad on TV. They were Malta 3-0 and Uruguay 1-0 in 1989 and 1990 I think. This game was my first international of 1991, and it happenned Read more about Oh he can’t believe it can he???? – Northern Ireland 3-1 Poland (February 1991)[…]
In late 2001, I started working for the Halifax. I worked initially in Dundonald (Belfast, Northern Ireland) but then at the main Gasworks call centre at the Ormeau Road in the centre of Belfast. I wasn’t looking for anything at the time, just another job really and definitely not one I saw myself staying in… Read more about Working Wednesdays: Don’t Bank With The Halifax…[…]
“He wanted Lebensraum in every Polish town” The quote is about Hitler, this blog post is all about my random time at Ards Tech and how the fuck I ended up in England… It was basically by total fluke that I moved to England in 2003. In fact it was because we ran out Read more about Studying Saturdays: Attending Ards Tech 2002 – 2003, Northern Ireland[…]
I had been longing for a Cherries away match since my first visit to Dean Court. It was not a case of picking out a fixture list and hand picking an away match to go to. Everything had to be right. We hadn’t won an away match in 6 months (I think 1-0 at Notts Read more about Wednesday Night Fever…Sheffield Wednesday 0-2 AFC Bournemouth (17.03.2004)[…]
‘Multiples’ is the title of the brand new 6 track E.P. from Bournemouth singer-songwriter Ben Paulley. I’m always intrigued when I hear local music and this is an excellent debut from Paulley, a member of former Bournemouth band ‘The Waves’. Taking inspiration from the likes of Bob Dylan and Embrace, Paulley’s E.P. features half a Read more about “The script will write itself…” – Ben Paulley[…]