Seachain an duine a bhíonn ina thost

Well I see Sam beat me to it, but I'm going to talk about our lovely evening too. Mostly because I haven't really done anything else this week.

Yesterday was a nice day. My dissertation is almost completely finished: I still need to re-read it afresh on Monday and make some minor changes my tutor suggested, but I'm taking a break from it until then. I emailed my final draft to my tutor at 10:30 yesterday morning, and didn't do any more work all day. I'm SUCH a rebel.

Instead I went on a lovely walk to PC World. I could barely contain my excitement. No, really, it was a nice walk, good'n sunny. I froze my gym membership (I'm not going to be here for about five of the next eight weeks) and booked a haircut at the same time. Which reminds me to confess: I spend THREE POUNDS on a hair magazine yesterday. I know, I know, I am shocked at my own actions, but I'm so terrified of having a bad haircut that I thought I should spend some time and money trying to decide exactly what shape thing I want on my head before going to the hairdressers. That way there's less chance I'll be bullied into having a fringe again.

Much of the afternoon was taken up with things like my last ever Storm FM Exec meeting as a committee member *sob*. It was fun: Spencer allowed us to deviate from the point quite a lot. Actually I'm normally as pedantic about it as Spencer, but it was nice to just chat randomly since it was our last meeting. We had a nice debate about whether the Student Radio Association should hold their awards in Birmingham (=yes). I'm going to go find the stated aims of the SRA and see if I can find anything about representing the entire nation or anything.

Then I went back to my house for a music team meeting. Also not very focused but a lot of fun. I'm now member 16 of Holly's new cult. I don't know if you'll be able to see the post if you're not a Bangor student ... Spencer also very kindly delivered a delicious chicken and garlic pizza to my house. Deelicious.

Sam was very easily persuaded to go for a drink in the Tap & Spile (my summer pub). He brought along the lovely Mel and Luke. I love meeting lovely new people. Sam says he's not as much of a fan, so I'm going to be in charge of vetting the new people we meet next year. Spencer also turned up and, yes, both of them drank alcohol. Don't listen to Spencer trying to blame his weaknesses on me. I merely had half a pint left which I couldn't drink as quickly as I needed to, so he offered to help.

It was a really lovely evening. Just the type of evening I needed, actually. It wasn't too hectic, there were no Old Boys running around like idiots (the Tap & Spile's far too civilised for them), and we chatted and laughed for hours. Then Sam & I went to Spencer's house for quite a while until he kicked us out. Nick, Robbie and Chris were still up when I got home, and Nick was quite drunk so he spent about half an hour picking hairstyles for me from my hair magazine.

Unfortunately, Chris claimed that our house phone doesn't read out text messages, a claim which I disputed, so I sent a text message to the house phone to text his theory. The phone didn't ring, so I thought no more of it until 7am this morning when the phone rang and kept ringing every ten minutes until I finally managed to answer the phone on time just to find a stupid voice reading me my text message. Served me right.

I've been chided for not updating, so here we go. I tried to think of something fascinating to blog about last night when I was going to sleep. I really wanted to rant about why Conservatism is just plain wrong, but I'm too tired and stressed to have arguments with people so I'll leave it until after I've finished my dissertation. I did try to talk to Sam last night about why I would vote Lib Dems (which reminds me .. must go try to register so I can vote in the local elections), but nobody ever wants to engage in a serious discussion about the poor party, immediately writing it off as a joke. Look, they may not be the most organised, efficient party in the world but their policies are far far better than either Labour's or Conservative's. In fact, I'm sometimes tempted to vote Plaid Cymru, who also have good leftie policies.

Oh I didn't mean to write a paragraph about that. Ignore it, don't argue until after the weekend.

So rhubarb. Our garden, which usually only sprouts dandelions and chip bags, has grown a fine healthy crop of rhubarb over Easter. The rhubarb plant's been there all along, but it miraculously grew from a little stump to a huge plant in just a few weeks. We've harvested two crops so far and it still looks huge. We had rhubarb crumble on Tuesday, and Chris made rhubarb and ginger jam yesterday. It smelt quite nice, despite using lime instead of lemon (he claimed they taste practically the same -- SO untrue!).

Anyway, this exciting gardening achievement (like we actually put any effort into it) combined with the discovery of the pack of sunflower seeds I was given for my birthday has inspired me to take up a new hobby. I call it Renegade Gardening.

Basically, this is how it works. You carry seeds and a spoon around in your pocket (people might notice a trowel), and randomly plant seeds in public places (probably on your way back from the pub). I obviously can't tell you where my first target is because that wouldn't be very renegade, but if you see any sunflowers growing, please take care of them instead of digging them up. See, there's no point planting them in my garden because by the time they flower I won't live there anymore. So I need to use public spaces.

I think once I've successfully planted sunflowers I might move on to bigger projects, like trees. I like trees. And I think I'll make myself a window box next year, but that's not very renegade either. I feel like Fotherington Thomas: hello trees! hello sky! hello flowers!

I've been thinking about boycotting things, and how Sam doesn't like it. And Sam has good reasons for not liking boycotting things, like that students should make up their own minds about that kind of thing. But I do like to think that the SU should inspire students to take action about injustices.

So I know this is only a little idea, but wouldn't it be nice to have a poster space outside the SU shop where we could have, say, a poster with a big bottle of Coke in the middle with the debate about whether or not we should boycott Coke all around it? Then people could make up their own minds about whether or not they want to buy the product. Underneath perhaps there could be a letter to Coke, and anyone who felt suitably inspired could sign their name to the letter.

Apart from anything else, it'd be quite fun designing the posters.

Just had a long chat with the very lovely Managing Editor of Radio 3. I feel so important! I had emailed him with questions about my dissertation, and he suggested I phone him at home. So I did. We had a good old chat about public service obligations, live music and performing groups. He said he normally ignores all requests for help with undergraduate dissertations, but that I seemed so knowledgable and informed that I merited some help. He wants me to send him the finished product and pop in to say hello if I'm ever in London. Woohoo! I'm going to take him up on that offer, you know. Somebody organise another demo in London, quick!

Went for a drink with a few people from Lyric last night. They're all so lovely, we just sat there nattering for ages. It's nice feeling part of the gang, you know. I popped into Lyric itself for a few minutes before we headed to the pub. It looks just the same except that there's a digital radio on the coffee table. Not that digital radio works in Ireland yet.

I don't really have an awful lot to say today. Just working away, you know. I'm going to get my dissertation finished on time, which is a nice feeling. Just about, but it's going to work. I might even be granted a couple of days' extension because I was sick. Although it's not all that much use since Monday week is a bank holiday, so I can't go getting my work bound or anything.

Oh, and apparently if I was a world leader I'd be Mother Theresa. So not particularly leadership or even alive. But it's nice being someone nice, not Saddam Hussein (haha). Back to Bangor on Saturday.

I've been reading the BBC Royal Charter and let me tell you, it's a giggle a minute. Apparently it has been represented unto Us by Our right trusty and well beloved Counsellor Virginia Bottomley Our Secretary of State for National Heritage, that it is expedient that the Corporation should be continued for the period ending on the thirty-first day of December two thousand and - six. Glad to hear it.

The BBC charter is a completely different kettle of fish to the RTE charter. The Irish government just doesn't put as much effort into the language of the RTE charter. It's nowhere near as grand. No flowery introduction, just straight into the nitty-gritty: RTÉ, as the national public service broadcaster, shall reflect the democratic, social and cultural values of Irish society and the need to preserve media pluralism. Great.

I went to see The Spinto Band last night. Very enjoyable indeed. They're a mighty energetic bunch of people, dancing all over the stage and doing fantastic knee-swivel moves. Four guitars, two lead singers and four backing vocalists (six people altogether). And a sparkly drumkit. Their inter-song banter fell a bit flat though. That's just the kind of venue Dolan's is upstairs: people don't want to shout out 'yes! Dr Cox was also in Office Space!" or make up a limerick for them. Although they were delighted when Baz went up to tell them about Dr Cox. They'd just seen their first epidose of Scrubs.

It was so lovely seeing my friends. We just sat and chatted for hours. The people in Dolan's had to ask us to leave because we were just sitting there chatting and they wanted to close the pub, so we went to Costello's (a nightclub near my old primary school). Not an experience I recommend on a Monday night: it's so empty you can see how horrible the room actually is. We just sat there reading the graffiti written on the walls.

It's funny, people keep asking if they can come visit me in Wales over the summer. I've been trying to get them to visit for three years, but I suppose it's much easier to visit during the summer. I'm delighted: I hope they do actually come over. I've suggested that they come to the Faenol Festival at the end of August (if it doesn't coincide with Electric Picnic): we'll see if we can gatecrash the Westlife gig. Kev was telling me he got free tickets to see Enrique Inglesias which was a real treat.

I've been having conversations with potential Seren editors about where they could get news from: the list's as long as my arm. They're very nice, and they're approaching our little conversations very openmindedly which I really appreciate. I've mentioned the fact that someone needs to provide coverage of what the Union is doing, and if Seren doesn't feel that there's a place for that in their newspaper, then I need another newspaper. By the way, their AGM is on the 27th: anyone want to come along? Since they don't seem to have a constitution, they presumably also don't have a definition of who or what is a member, so any student can vote ...

.. from a short break. First I got a nasty, nasty tummy bug on Friday evening. Then we went to the barge on Saturday. I managed to sleep through most of Saturday (probably 18 out of the 24 hours), so I'm feeling mostly better today, but still not 100%. The boat was probably nice (it usually is) but since I mostly slept, it's hard to tell.

I actually don't have a lot to say. I'm having interesting discussions with a couple of people from Seren who say they'd love to have more issues of Seren but that there isn't enough news in Bangor. Opinions?

Tomorrow I'm going to see The Spinto Band with some friends I haven't seen for ages. It's in one of those nice venues with seats and stone walls, so you're not expected to jump up and down or anything. And The Spinto Band list Burt Bacharach as one of their influences, so you can't go wrong really, can you?

I've also decided to knock an entire chapter out of my dissertation. I think that'll help. But my sickness break means I'm 2000 words behind in The Plan. I'm probably too tired to be stressed about it, though, so I'm going to go to sleep instead.

Oops .. I accidentally turned on post moderation thinking that gave me the option to moderate posts if I wanted to. Nope, it means I actually have to moderate each and every one. It's done, the feature's turned off, I'll stop messing with settings.

Goodness gracious there's been a lot of chatting about what we're going to do for the SU. I'm really quite excited. Roll on July. I had a lovely chat about it all with Sam this afternoon, and I'm feeling quite inspired, but I have to put it all to the back of my mind while I get on with this dissertation. Although I'm averaging 1000 words a day, so we're getting there. Slowly but surely.

I made nettle soup this evening. I know it sounds odd, but it's one of the nicest soups I've ever eaten. Nettles taste very .. green. A bit like spinach. Add some nutmeg and cream and it's just beautiful. Very cheap (just needs an onion, garlic, some potatoes, stock and maybe some cream) and extremely good for you. Loads of iron and vitamin C and stuff. Easter's the time to make it: nettles are only tasty when they're young. Go make some now!

I think I might go see The Spinto Band on Monday. The Chalets are playing in Limerick on Saturday, but I want to go to the boat so I think I'll have to give that one a miss. But The Spinto Band on Monday in quite a lovely venue would be just the thing.

I've just posted a message for Seren on their Intranet board. They've announced the upcoming elections on the board, so I thought I'd better mention my ideas to them before the AGM (which is on the 27th). I must stop being so scared of inconveniencing people.

Today was a research day. I did lots of counting and sorting and calculating percentages and whatnot. I found out some interesting (to me) things about the playlists of Lyric FM, Radio 3 and Classic FM. And I rang my new landlady. But none of that is particularly interesting to talk about on my blog so I'll have to think of something else.

So let's think about media. I'd really like to see Seren become a fortnightly newspaper next year. At the moment it's sort of in limbo: it has news stories in it, but it doesn't come out regularly enough for the news to actually be new. And it has features, but they're mixed in with the news fairly randomly.

It'd be an awful lot more work having a fortnightly issue, but I think it'd be worth it. I haven't examined the internal politics of Seren in detail, but I understand that two competent people are running for editor next year. What about having a joint editorship? One person gets to be editor and the other deputy editor in the first semester, and they swap for the second. That'd make the workload more manageable.

Also, people might be more enthusiastic about putting work into this sort of thing if they could earn credits for extra-curricular activities. I know Andy's looking into a volunteering module, but why not make it an all-round extra-curricular module, like DCU? I'd like it because it'd mean people would be professional about societies. Frodo'd like it because it'd mean departments recognising that involvement in sport is a good thing. Andy'd like it because it would encourage people to volunteer. And the University'd like it cos it'd forge better links with the local community.

I suppose I've been thinking about what Andy was saying about the protests in France, and wondering how we'd communicate proposed action to each and every student if something like that happened here.

Because that's our problem: the University is so spread out that it's hard to communicate with everyone. Seren can't reach everyone, Storm can't reach everyone, and most people just blank half the stuff on the Inranet. But we have to try to make each medium as far-reaching as possible, so we at least increase the likelihood of everyone hearing what's going on.

And I'm going for a run in the morning. I need to destress: I'm clenching my teeth in my sleep which is making my jaw hurt. Also, Race For Life is approaching fast so I'd better at least try to get fit.

I've written over a thousand words today, so I'm feeling virtuous and have awarded myself a break. We get lots of Sunday papers at home, so I've nabbed all the magazines. I love reading magazines. It's awful, really, because it stops me reading educating books, but you learn so many random things from magazines. For example, I didn't know that Jodie Kidd's sister is a Countess and a make-up artist. That's an interesting combination of careers.

I'm actually a bit disappointed that people aren't continuing to debate the relative merits of the Students' Union on the debate boards. It smacks of apathy. I really want people to care, to know enough about the Students' Union to form an opinion, good or bad.

It's quite nice sitting in the same place for more than an hour. It means I have time to listen to music. Today's recommended band (actually make that the third recommended band of the day) are Gogol Bordello, a gypsy punk band from New York. You can hear their most wonderful tune, Start Wearing Purple, on The Best in Pop Rock And Dance Storm 87.7FM. Haha, what a plug. Anyway, they're extra-cool, and you can download their music here.

For cheap and sort-of-well-mostly-kind-of legal downloads, try AllofMP3. It's a Russian website, and they're not really big on copyright in Russia, so the tunes cost about a tenth of what they do on iTunes or wherever. The law regarding importing music is a little hazy, far far too hazy for any record labels to want to challenge it in court (I looked this up because I wanted to not break the law). If you feel guilty about depriving artists of money, stick a cheque in the post for £4. That's more than they'd get for the CD anyway, and still much cheaper than buying a CD.

There's horrible yellowy-brown smoke coming out of my neighbour's chimney. I hope their chimney isn't on fire. That happened to us once on Christmas Eve 2004. It was terribly exciting cos you see Santa comes and visits our road around 8pm every Christmas Eve. He gives everyone presents their parents have given him in advance. There's mulled wine and it's all very jolly. Except when you get to around ten it's a bit tedious. So we livened things up a bit when a big shiny red fire engine pulled up across the road from Santa. You should've seen how excited all the ten year olds were (okay, I was excited too).

Obviously it was a bit distressing having a chimney on fire, but Dad had valiantly put out the fire before the fire engine got here anyway. It's important to call the fire engine anyway, though, because the chimney could reignite and if it does that and you haven't called the fire engine in the first place it affects your house insurance (so the fireman told us).

Actually there's a thing that bothers me about some student houses. Where are the fire extinguishers? The fire blankets? The things for putting out fires? I'd rather not have to wait for a fire engine if something went on fire. It's scary. Fire alarms are all very well, but fire extinguishing devices are also very useful. Wasn't Sam suggesting something about having certificates for extra-good landlords? It would cost something to acquire these certificates because people would have to go out and examine the house and things, but it'd be a nice thing to do I think. Fire safety measures could be included.

AGh, so much work to do so just quick musings.

While I'm working I've been downloading music from a wonderful Swedish (I think) record label called Labrador. It's free and legal, get over there now! I've ordered two CDs from them (an entire CD delivered from Sweden for €15): Suburban Kids With Biblical Names and Acid House Kings. I highly recommend both bands, especially Rent A Wreck by SKWBN and This Heart Is A Stone ... or maybe Sunday Morning since that's what it is ... by Acid House Kings.

I live really near to the River Shannon (across the road and through the hotel), so we walk the dogs there every day. There's a lovely wooden footbridge (though it's not as nice as the old one but it was rotting so they had to do it up a bit), and lots of swans and ducks and sometimes geese and herons and cormorants. And oodles of salmon, apparently. Anyway, I'm quite excited because there's all these little islandy things in the middle of the river by the bridge, and one of the swans has built a nest on one right beside the bridge. So you can stand on the bridge and see right into its nest without it feeling stressed or upset because you can't actually get at the nest. I noticed the nest on (I think) Tuesday. On Thursday there was an egg in it. On Friday there were two eggs in it. Dad says they're going to get bird flu so I shouldn't get too attached, but I think it's lovely. I feel like Bill Oddie. I took a picture but blogger isn't being helpful.

Back to work.

I've found a great way to make myself focus. I need to go to the toilet, but I'm not allowing myself leave this seat until I've written another 200 words. Of course, here I am blogging instead of working, but I've nearly reached 200 in record time.

I've just posted a defence of the SU Exec on the Intranet debate board .. I hope I'm not going to annoy people before even taking office. It just annoys me when people say something's rubbish without thinking about the reasons for making decisions.

Anyway.

What I really want to talk about today is Academi. The issue sort of came up on Spencer's blog, and it's a really big thing I'd like to sort out next year. I want to get people back into the SU, and I think we need to open Academi during the day to sort that out. But we also need to convince Undeb Trading that it's going to be profitable. So we need gimmicks to draw people in, things like showing Neighbours (although Yellow does that, and it's only across the road, so we need something unique).

So what are we going to do? I think we need to move the pool tables back upstairs. Pool is a nice thing to play in the afternoon. We just need to find a nice way to store them in the evening. Shoving them to one side isn't really ideal; people will spill pints on them, end up crawling under them when drunk, that kind of thing.

We need to have nice things on the TV like Murder She Wrote, PMQ, Neighbours, maybe even This Morning (depending on what time Academi opens at).

We need to encourage people to buy food in Freddies and take it through to Academi so they can eat and drink at the same time.

A jukebox'd be nice too. A really good jukebox.

Then we need SIGNS telling people that it's open during the day.

And we need to start a debate about whether it should be open during the day or not on the Intranet. Get people listening.

Send in your suggestions on the back of a postcard.

I haven't just spent the day getting annoyed with RAJAR. I've also continued my semiotic analysis of the fourth movement of Janacek's first string quartet. It's quite fun: you basically print out a copy of the entire melody (it's too complicated if you print all the accompanimental parts too), then you chop it up into little bits and stick it onto pages so that the similar bits are lined up vertically, but you have to still be able to read it like a piece of music. It's complicated and fiddly but more fun than writing text and arguing with RAJAR.

Tonight I'm going to the Wicked Chicken with Joan and several other people from Lyric (and all her other friends) because it's Joan's birthday. It's also Steve's birthday. I think it'll be good for me to get out of the house and stop working for the evening, although I probably won't stay to late so I can get working again bright and early tomorrow.

Does anyone have an A2 scanner? And what about this binding our dissertations malarkey? I have several A3 sheets and one even bigger sheet that I need to include .. how's that going to work? Suggestions?

.. are bad lads. RAJAR stands for Radio Joint Audience Research (I don't know where that extra A has gone either). They have listenership figures for all the radio stations in Britain. I need these listenership figures for my dissertation. In Ireland these listenership figures are gathered by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) and are called Joint National Listenership Research (JNLRs). The lovely Andrew in BCI is incredibly helpful, and invited me to their offices to have a look at the figures myself. There's no charge, you know. It's free.

RAJAR, on the other hand, want me to pay £1,680.25 to look at the figures. How very unhelpful!

The problem, as usual, is the nasty British habit of privatising everything. The BCI is a public body and a very good choice for collecting listenership data. But RAJAR is a private company set up by the BBC and the Commercial Radio Companies Assocation.

Why? Why do you need a private company to do that? Why not Ofcom? Having Ofcom collect the information would be the sensible course of action. For a start they wouldn't go charging me loads of money, but also I think that listenership figures should be in the public domain. You .. actually we (I pay the BBC licence fee too!) pay for the BBC, we should be able to find out how many people listen to BBC radio if we want to. It's called accountability.

I think I have a house now too. The people in the house beside the SU have offered me the room. Of course one never really has a house until the contract is signed, so let's not count our chickens, but I'm very pleased. That's one less thing to worry about after Easter, and one beautiful (and clean) house a mere skip across Deiniol Road away from the SU. I can have lunchtime naps!

It's Dad's birthday today (happy birthday Dad!), so I've made him a party hat which no doubt he'll wear all day. Mum and Ian are away, so I'm in charge of birthday festivities for the day, but really what'll probably happen is that we'll celebrate tomorrow or Sunday (Mum's away again on Saturday) when the others are home. This is the end of birthday season chez Goggin (all four birthdays in one month), and the first one I'm at home for, so we'll have to do something nice.

I slept for eleven hours on Tuesday night, not waking up until 11:30. Far too late. So this morning I set an alarm for myself. It took me a while to get to sleep, so I only got eight hours' sleep and I found it quite difficult to wake up. Nevertheless, here I am, wide awake and ready to write about the fourth movement of Janacek's first string quartet. Hoorah!

Hooray! Just got a letter from RTE telling me I've got a place on their Production Co-ordinator panel. Isn't that nice of them?

The Sunday World has gone too far.

I don't know how much this whole mularkey has been discussed in the British press, but the former head of Sinn Fein's office in Stormont, Denis Donaldson, admitted last December that he'd been spying on Sinn Fein for British intelligence for about twenty years. It was widely believed that he'd admitted it because the PSNI had warned him that he was going to be outted anyway. He was expelled from Sinn Fein and went into hiding.

Until two weeks ago. The Sunday World published photos of him outside a cottage he'd moved to in Donegal. Well done Sunday World. He's just been murdered.

That is press intrusion going too far. Let's not get into whether he was a good or bad person. He simply did not deserve to have his life endangered like that.

As an aside, the IRA has said it had 'no involvement whatsoever' in his death, and Sinn Fein bigwigs are apparently pretty pissed off. I hope it wasn't done by any political organisation. It's just so frustrating that every time progress is made in the North, something like this happens, and we go back to the finger-pointing blame games again. AGgh!

There I was, sitting on the couch, doing my dissertation and half-watching the awful Desperate Housewives. It finished, and I realised there was a programme about Flann O'Brien on the other channel. WHAT was I doing watching Desperate Housewives when that was on? Thankfully I managed to catch the last half hour of it, but I'm annoyed I didn't see the first half hour too.

Interesting fellow, Flann O'Brien. They showed some of what is apparently the only filmed interview of him, and he's pissed as a fart. Complete alcoholic, but when he was feeling sober, so wonderfully lucid. If you haven't read any Flann O'Brien/Brian O'Nolan/Myles na gCopaleen, do it now. I recommend The Third Policeman, then At Swim-Two-Birds if you speak any Irish, but if not you might find the short satirical pieces easier to grasp. Try The Best of Myles.

And in a nice piece of synchronicity, Wikipedia quotes one of his first letters to The Irish Times (which resulted in his long-running column Cruiskeen Lawn):

I am no judge of poetry — the only poem I ever wrote was produced when I was body and soul in the gilded harness of Dame Laudanum — but I think Mr Kavanaugh [sic] is on the right track here. Perhaps the Irish Times, timeless champion of our peasantry, will oblige us with a series in this strain covering such rural complexities as inflamed goat-udders, warble-pocked shorthorn, contagious abortion, non-ovoid oviducts and nervous disorders among the gentlemen who pay the rent.

Now go read some Myles/Flann/Brian. It's wonderfully fantastic.

I can't remember where I read this, but apparently 500,000 people in Ireland have signed up to Bebo. That's one in eight. I must admit that I'm one of those 500,000.

I get millions of emails every day from people wanting me to sign up to these friend-connecty-website-thingies. I had successfully ignored them all until I received an invitation that was actually personalised from my friend Claire who's spending the year travelling around the world. She said I should join her so I could see all her fantastic photos. That won me over.

So I joined Bebo. That was a few months ago, before it became so incredibly trendy. I'm so hip and with it. But I have to admit, I do quite enjoy it. All these people I used to know years ago keep appearing. I don't necessarily talk to them at all when they are added to my friend list, but it's nice to know that they still exist and remember who I am. And you can draw pretty pictures on people's whiteboards. Even better, people can draw pretty pictures on your whiteboard.

I've still managed to steer clear of Myspace, though. Apparently it's the way to find out about bands, but I really can't be having with all this talking-to-strangers thing. I have enough people to talk to already. I'm not sure why Myspace doesn't appeal to me. It might be that I think it's silly that people get excited when famous people add them to their 'friend' lists. It doesn't make you actually their friend you know. Or it might be that I'm afraid I'll start looking at it one day and never stop exploring its myriad corridors. Bebo's addictive enough.

In other news, I've been watching Naked Camera. It's one of those shows where several people go around doing stupid things and film people's reactions. I know, I know, it's a tired formula, but I like Naked Camera. Especially the girl. Today she tried to return a positive pregnancy test because she didn't want to have a baby. Well it made me chuckle.

Now it's time to go to sleep. I've just been explaining to Dad that I need to go to bed early because I naturally sleep for ten hours when I'm at home. If I don't go to bed early I end up wasting half the next day. I like mornings. I like to be awake during the morning. But I also like sleeping for ten hours. So I need to go to sleep.

Went for a nice walk today with Mum. It was (mostly) warm and sunny, if a little muddy. We went to the Clare Glens, a lovely walk along the sides of a really deep drop down to a stream. The dogs loved it. Goldie rolled in a muddy puddle (as usual) and Pippa wanted us to throw sticks for her (as usual). I'm nearly finished Classic FM's playlists. Thankfully, they play the same pieces over and over again, so I can just find earlier entries, then copy and paste them in again. Speeds things up tremendously. Good old Classic FM and its tiny playlist.

I've got a plan.

I've decided that it's important to have an ambition. Something I want to achieve during my term in office. And I've decided what it'll be.

Prince Charles.

I'm going to get him to come to Bangor next year. It'll be GREAT. I'll get to wear my ivory jacket and he'll bumble around and it'll all be very grand. He hasn't been to Bangor for over ten years I believe. Maybe he'll bring Camilla. She has ivory jackets too. We can compare notes. Anyway, it's about time he visited.

So here's the plan. We need to open up dialogue by actually sending their toilet roll cover thingy. Then we'll come up with some really sparkly, innovative environmental policy. Charles likes them. Maybe we could have our own organic farm which would supply everything we sell in Freddy's. Charles could come along and cut the ribbon. It'll have to be something environmental, and it'll have to be something which requires a dignitary to unveil.

Okay, so maybe the plan isn't fully formed yet. But the concept is definitely there. Sorted. I feel like I have a purpose. A mission. Perhaps even a quest.

Just eaten a rather large and delicious meal. Oh the joys of being at home. There's so much delicious food everywhere, including a bag of meringues just beside me simply crying out for strawberries and cream.

I spent a large part of the day today shopping. Various relatives gave me money for my birthday, with Gran specifying that her money was to be spent on a new outfit. So I went clothes shopping. It's funny the way it's harder to find things you like when you actually have money to spend. I spent ages in Brown Thomas trying on loads of things, and nearly bought a Pepe Jeans dress with a wonderful 'kick' (as the nice saleslady called it), but it didn't have any straps so I felt a bit bare. I finally bought a frightfully posh ivory silk and linen jacket. I decided that I needed to have at least one posh item of clothing to wear next year if we have any swanky meetings to go to. Perhaps even Westminster if Spencer has his way.

This evening I'm going to spend half an hour at a friend's gig. He rang today, and my parents immediately guessed that he must have a gig on ton
ight. I don't know, I had texted him earlier in the day. It meant I had to text other people to ask if they'd like to come to, completely blowing my cover. I carefully neglect to tell people that I'm at home: it gives me a few days' peace and quiet. I have far too much dissertation to do, so I really can't go hanging around with people.

Munster beat Perpignan today, so we'll be facing Leinster in the semi-final, guaranteeing an Irish team in the final. According to an article in the local newspaper earlier in the week, Limerick would be entirely deserted today, and the last people left were to turn out the lights. It was remarkably quiet for a Saturday, but there are 150,000 people in Limerick and only 16,000 were going to the match, so I think The Post was getting a little carried away.

I've mostly been eating, sleeping and doing my dissertation since I got home. I'm at an incredibly tedious and time-consuming part of the whole thing, which involves listing everything Classic FM, Radio 3 and Lyric FM played for a week in November. Classic FM do rubbish logs, so I keep having to look up track duration, whether the piece is an entire work or just a part, and what instrumental forces it uses. But right now it's time to go watch the gig, so I'll tell you more about how fascinating my dissertation is another time.