Monthly Archives: September 2009

The Arthur’s Day Petition

Guinness Hands up who wouldn’t like another day off national holiday? It’s just under one week until Arthur’s Day and Guinness have started a petition on Facebook to make it such. It’s already received over 7,000 signatures in the space of a few days. Whilst the hub of Arthur’s Day celebrations will focus on St James’s Gate, and Dublin city, the gigs from St. James’s Gate and the studio venues which will be broadcast live into pubs and bars across the country on Sky TV. Handy. So what are you waiting for? Go sign the petition.

Sydney Awesome Challenge – The case of the mistaken stripe

I’m late with this as the blog was hacked somehow. Damn scammers. :( So….

Picture the scene. You’re a friendly European spider going about your business in a quiet town in County Kildare, Ireland when a curious Australian man rocks up and snares you. What’s a spider to do than freak out? Your cousin, the Australian red-back, has striken fear into this antipodean’s mind. Sooner than you know it you’re been examined by zoologists in Dublin and proclaimed “harmless” by zoo director Leo Oosterweghel. Now being called “harmless” isn’t the worst thing in the world. It is however, a bit safe and boring. Inspired by this case that occurred last week, I came up with the idea for the Ozzipean Party Spider. Combining the best of European traits with Aussie sensibilities, he’s not harmless nor ‘a monster’, he just likes to have good times.

OzziepeanSpider

Likes:
- Fine Italian flies and the odd glass of Sangria (that’s a jug of it by his “right” leg).
- Playing footie with his mates but the ball often gets stuck in webs.
- Backpacking.
- Going out for beers with Troglodiplura lowryi (aka Tom), Badumna socialis (aka Riley) and Misgolas robertsi (aka Bob).

Dislikes:
- Ozzie builders living in Ireland. They tend to get the wrong impression.
- Birds.
- Hanging out at Leo Oosterweghel’s place.
- Biting people.

I actually learned a bit about spiders in Oz while researching this post. The main two to watch out for are the Sydney Funnel-web (Atrax robustus) and the Redback (Latrodectus hasselti). Are they really dangerous? Well, yes but since 1956 nobody has died from a Redback bite and since 1980 nobody from a Sydney Funnel-web bite, mainly because of the development of an anti-venom. That’s two from 240 different species so the odds of being bitten by the one of these spiders is quite low.

A massive thanks to Will Knott for the initial idea and Darren Byrne for Photoshop wizardry based on my sketch. I’ll be keeping my eye out for the Ozzipean Party Spider if I get to go Sydney. :)

I’d asked my contacts on Facebook and Twitter to come up with some suggestions so here they are:

Eric Lalor – Dingo-roo would be pretty fearsome. Imagine one of those feckers leaping towards you !
Darren Byrne – A Cookerburra – a flying oven
Christian Hughes – A duck-billed tree toad
Ben Kenealy – a kangarocket , all said though rockets aren’t an animal but it’d be funny

Kevin & Oana’s Wedding

DSCN1340
Had an amazing weekend in Timişoara at Kevin and Oana’s wedding. We arrived late on the Friday after flying into Budapest and driving the 200 odd miles down to Timişoara. While a few of the lads joined Kev in a local nightclub, the rest of us retired to bed after a few beers at the hotel.

Saturday was spent exploring the city and some of the architecture really is stunning. The Botanic Gardens are in need of a bit of attention though (I doubt Peter would have approved). 36 degree heat means you get tired quite quickly so we headed back to the hotel for a nap before heading to Mario and Anna’s place for a BBQ. The food was delicious and we ended the night playing darts (came first and promptly came last in the next game). We had a nice lie-in on Sunday morning before the wedding at 3. Kev entered to the Rocky theme tune (awesome) and Oana looked absolutely stunning. The ceremony itself was Romanian Orthodox (I think) and was different to anything I’d seen before.

After the ceremony we retired indoors (heat was getting the better of us again) and sat down to enjoy the first of 6 courses spread over hours and hours. That was a major difference. In Ireland you sit, eat the courses and then a band/DJ come on. In Romania, they’re all mixed together. It worked really well actually, even if I was full by the fourth course (seriously good food). We drank and danced the night away after that. They’re a fantastic couple and I wish them all the best for the future. Naroc!
Read More…

1 2 Scroll to top