I found myself exposed to the innocence of communism a few times. I had never seen Eastern Europe before the wall came down. But I had savoured the drab, greyness of a growing Varshava in 2005. I also strode my skeleton through the streets of Beijing in hope of finding an answer to the question Read more about The bleakness of communism…living differently in similarity[…]
It’s a great honour and a privilege to play sport and to take part. What is an even bigger honour is to tell people that you were the champion at that sport in your country. I was and we were. I am proud to say I was and really, I wouldn’t have had it any Read more about 10th Bangor Boy’s Brigade⚓: Northern Ireland🔴✋️☘️Champions🏆1997 – 1998[…]
I’d watched Big Brother since series 1 in the year 2000 (wasn’t it strange that we were all fully grown?). I even applied to be on it, sending in a video of me cutting meat in Steenson’s butchery (I’m going to have to find that video sometime and fire it up!). I also appeared in Read more about The Lock In Part One: Auditions, Voting and The Big Night![…]
I had been to Southampton a few times, sometimes to fly from the airport back to George Best Belfast City. Other times, as band manager of the waves, I had been to rehearsals and gigs there. It is a big city, and much less busy than London. It was only a matter of time before Read more about Hong Kong Army Alfred! Southampton FA Cup Final Day (May 2006)[…]
Back in 1998 in those glory days when simply watching Northern Ireland playing football or getting pished down the Wins (Bangor) or the Monico (Belfast) I happenned to help with an election campaign. It wasn’t by chance and it wasn’t because I wanted to. It was just because I had just turned 18 and life Read more about “Everybody Has To Lose Sometime” – The Jack Beattie Campaign June 1998[…]
Selling our self-produced ‘Here We Go…Again‘ fanzine (for the Northern Ireland national team) next to Marty Lowry for years had meant we chatted about all sorts of random things, including Marty telling me about Shaun with an H. This man was Shaun Schofield, who had been attending every single Northern Ireland home and away match Read more about Book Review: There’s Always One by Shaun Schofield[…]
“Hey you, up in the sky, learning to fly. Tell me how high will you go before you start falling” – Noel Gallagher. It was never an ambition to do a Sky Dive. It was too scary for me. Imagine jumping out of a plane from thousands of feet up in the air and relying Read more about “That’s me, Up In The Sky”: Sky Diving🪂Over Lake Taupo, New Zealand🇳🇿[…]
I had the pleasure of working in a busy Bournemouth Hotel for six months in 2004. It was a strange destiny that ended me up in there but anyway, I’ll give this blog entry my thoughts on it. Just another one of those jobs in a long line of ones I’ve tried and enjoyed for Read more about Six months in a hotel[…]
Back in 1991, while in P7, final year at Kilmaine Primary School we often had football matches at lunch and break time. To this day, only one match from that period sticks in memory and what a cracker it was. The primary school used to let us eat lunch in the classroom and in warmer Read more about Kilmaine Lunchtime Premier League 1991 – P7R 3-3 P7T[…]
The question which really needs to be asked at this point is: how the fuck do you do a ‘countries of the world pub tour’ in just one day? The answer is easy go to London. You’ll notice that place names in London are named after countries quite a lot, obvious examples are China Town, Read more about Thirsty Thursdays: Countries of the World Pub Tour in London (10 nations in one day)[…]