Sport yet again......

Most of my blogs recently have been about sport, and this one is no different. On Tuesday I played yet more cricket with people from work. It's a great way to hang out with people from work outside of the work setting. There were 4 teams of 7, so we had a little tournament.

Anyway, if you've read my previous posts about indoor cricket, you'll know we've always lost and at times gotten beaten really badly! But all changed on Tuesday. We won both matches quite comfortable, scoring 180 runs and conceding about 60 runs in total between the 2 games.

In the first game, we managed to win in spite of the umpire's best attempts to completely and utterly screw up the scores and also his changing of the rules for our fielders to try and even the game. On a few occasions, we had the batsmen out, but because we hadn't thrown or caught it with our left hand, he didn't give it out!

The second game was much better. We scored 98 runs, almost our first century, but we just missed out. The best thing about the second game was when were fielding. Towards the end of the game I tried to make a catch, but it only deflected off my hand. But Ben a team-mate caught it. A few balls later, the exact same thing happened, except Simon caught it. This was beginning to get weird, but got even worse when I did it again and Ben caught my deflected catch.

I just started laughing when it happened the 3rd time. It has never happened me, and then within about 3 minutes, it happened 3 times! Even the opposition even clapped us for that play. I had calls of "Butter fingers" thrown in my direction, but I feel I actually pulled those catches out of the bag and deflected them upwards for a team mate to make an easy catch!

Billy, my flat mate was playing against me in the second game, so anytime we played agains teach other, the play had extra meaning. It was all good fun though. Afterwards we went for a few beers with the other 3 teams. A great evening all around, and more importantly we banished our cricket demons!

We Kicked Ass

What goes around, comes around as the saying goes. It was never more true than yesterday, when my hockey team dished out a fair beating to Romford Hockey Club, by beating their 4th team 6-1! We hockeyed them off the pitch, you could say, a total turnaround from last week.

In what was essentially our first real game (because last week we only scraped together 5 players), it was critical that we play well. And thank God we did. We scored early in the first half, but only went into half time 1-0 up. We had a hatful of chances, but couldnt finish them. I had two real chances, one of which shaved a layer of paint off the goalpost. I really should have scored. Next week maybe!

In a vast improvement from last week, we had 14 players, so we had a good squad to choose from. We did have the graveyard shift, playing at 4pm meaning it was dark by the time we finished. Yesterday it is was Guy Fawkes day so there was loads of fireworks going off which was cool. But, I think the fireworks going off around the pitch were actually celebrating our victory!

Not surprised really!

He just seems to attract attention no matter where he goes. Ol' W himself is in Argentina these days trying to set up the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) but is meeting resistance from all quarters, including Maradona!

I'm not going to get into a political debate about it all, but I'm following the story quite closely, mainly because I've been in Argentina and enjoy reading about the wonderful country. From my travelling around there, it comes as no surprise that they're protesting. When I was in Buenos Aires, there was a protest every second night. My grasp of Spanish isnt the best so I could never make out what they were protesting about, but they sure as hell made enough noise.

It must be a hobby at this stage for some people: "what are you doing tonight?", "oh, I'm going on a protest march again tonight" Nice way to spend the evening I guess. Out walking in the fresh air! The only downside of this hobby is the tear gas and batons of the police, but I guess that adds to the enjoyment of the hobby!

Argentines (or Argentinians, never sure which) have had a rough time of it recently. I was reading the country profile on The Economist and it makes interesting reading. The countries history is quite interesting and the article on Wikipedia is worth a read if you get a chance. The map of the Argentine territory includes the Falkland Islands and part of Antartica. Which reminds me of something else I need to add to my wishlist of things to do: go to Antartica. I can do it after my trip from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego!

Hockeyed at Hockey

For the regular readers amonst you, you will probably remember my Hockeyed at cricket blog a while back. In case you don't understand the expression hockeyed, it basically means getting the crap kicked out of you at a sport. I surprisingly found definitions of it on the internet here and here.

Anyway, I recently became captain of the new 6th team at Wapping Hockey Club. They decided to enter an extra team in the league because there are so many extra players in the club. And they asked me to captain it, to which I said yes.

So our first game was away to Clacton 2, in Clacton-On-Sea, Essex, about a 2 hour drive from London. Not an ideal place to start your campaign. Nor was it ideal that we only had 5 players available, in spite of our squad supposedly being 19 strong. The club in general was short players this past weekend, which had a knock on effect on us. So we borrowed some players from the 5th team to make up the difference.

The game itself was pretty uneventful, except for us conceding 2 fast goals, before we drew level, before we conceded yet another goal. And all this before half time. They got 3 more lucky goals in the second half before we got one goal back near the end. Ended up 6-3, even though I thought it was only 5-3.

There was one funny bit though. There was this little kid, about 15 who was quite handy and managed to score a few goals. I was doing a bit of defending and ended up marking him. Just to let him know I was there, I walked next to him, and kind of got my legs tangled up in his. He didnt fall, just stumbled a bit. He wasnt too happy about that, but nothing major.

Two seconds later he got the ball and I tackled him, putting the ball out over the sideline. Straight away, he flipped. I thought it was hilarious, this 15 year old getting annoyed and trying to stand up to me! I just walked away, knowing I had done my job: piss him off! He got spoken to the referee for retaliating, which was a bonus.

At this stage we were losing 6-2, so I started to amuse myself other ways. And yes, I chose to pick on a little boy. But it was fun! I had to amuse myself somehow to take my mind off the score!

After the game, he didn't shake my hand, but I annoyed him even more, by going out of my way to shake his hand and prove that I am an honest sportsman!

I need to keep my trap shut

My last post was about the consultancy industry and about my ex-employer who is in this industry. Following my last post, I've received a few comments and an e-mail about the content of my post. I had another post about them too, which wasn't all praise.

So, I would just like to set a few things straight. Thing is, I was only working for them for about 6 months and left because I got a better offer. I was happy staying on working for them for the forseeable future. An opportunity that I couldn't pass up came my way. I didn't leave for any other reason.

They (I wont say who. This is for the benefit of people who read the last post, when it had the company name in it) are actually a really good company and I enjoyed my time there. I don't want to bad mouth an ex-employer because I don't usually say bad things about anything.

I would like to say though, that consultancy isn't for everyone, me included. A number of the comments that I've received have come from recent graduates thinking of working with them. If you are interested in working in the consultancy industry, then they are one of the best companies going. They are really good at what they do (well, to a certain degree!), they pay you well and everyone there is really nice. I had a great time working with really nice people. They do have their problems, but so does every company. It is the consultancy industry in general that I don't like.

If you like what you see, then go for it. I wouldn't like to be reason for anyone to decide not to work with them.

Well that's it. You can ignore this post if you haven't a clue what I'm on about. But I think a few people will make sense of it.

What A Ripoff!

When I was back home, my Dad showed me this book, which he was reading. Its called "Rip-off!: The Scandalous Inside Story of the Management Consulting Money Machine" I'm going to read it after him.

I was talking to him last night and he mentioned the controversy about the HSE project which is after costing upwards of €165 million, €50 million of which has gone on consultancy fees. I hadn't heard about it, but when I searched for it, I found loads of articles (here, here, here and here) Turns out it was Deloitte that is ripping off people, but I wouldn't have been surprised if it was my beloved ex-employer, another consultancy firm.

Having worked in consulting, and didn't think very highly of it, I can totally understand what happened though. I heard that my ex-employer were charging about €2,000/day for my services. Now I can assure you, I wasn't earning anywhere near that. It's crazy that a recent graduate can command that cost, considering I knew crap all.

My Dad was saying that people were earning that same amount a day, so God knows how much they were charging the company for their services.

It's projects like this that give IT a bad name. When really it's just stupidity of the project owners in not realising what the consultants are charging for. Consultants are very good at exploiting weaknesses in the companies and telling them how great the result will be, and then leaving them very short of what they said.

In my one project at the consultancy firm, it was about 3/4 weeks late, when the total project was only about 5 months. I could explain in great depth why it was a total sham, but I won't. I'd be here all day. It was just one of the reasons I left the industry. The money is great there, but I couldnt sleep well knowing my work was a complete joke.

P.S. I love my ex-employer, and I think their legal department is one of the finest in the world. But hopefully I won't get a call from them!

Ever wondered.....

....why when a lift arrives at a floor it "dings" once for going up and twice for going down? Did all the lift manufacturers of the world sit at a table and make this decision?

Next is a car!

Recently I bought a pair of rollerblades, which is great when it's dry and sunny, but as we head towards winter, it's becoming an increasingly dodgy proposition. The slightest bit of dampness on the footpath is enough to send you flying.

So, in order to get to hockey I bought myself a new bike at the weekend. I love it. It's a really nice bike, but man it's expensive. And then you have to add accessories on top of that. But I think it's worth it. Its a great bike and should last me for years (assuming it doesn't get nicked, but I got insurance just in case!)

I have a number of forms of transport, so all I'm missing now is a car, but I think it'll be a while before I get one of those!

Things To Do In My Lifetime

Ok, this is something I've been meaning to do for a while. I've seen a couple of books that tell you what you should do before you die, but I think it's better if I figure them out for myself. I'm going to start the list now and add to it as I go along. If I manage to complete any one of them, then I'll let you know.

So here goes:

• Go into Space, or at least 20km up, which is lower space and you can still see the curvature of the earth, possibly with Space Adventures or Virgin Galactic
  


• Travel the length of the Americas, starting in Alaska and going all the day down until I get to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina by the Cape Horn
  


• Go on a expedition to Antartica
  

NYTimes Do it again

I must say, the New York Times is one of the best, if not the best newspaper around. Today I read an excellent article about the melting of the ice caps in the Artic Circle. It's a long article, but very well written and very informative. There are actually some positives from the melting of the ice caps, including opening up new and shorter shipping routes.

I'd highly recommend reading, not only this article, but registering with the NYTimes and reading it everyday. Thing is, they're after introducing Times Select which is a subscription for some of their content, which is annoying. But you still get a number of good article for free.

Ikea & Swiss Army Knives

So, for anyone who doesn't know me (which is probably most!), I recently moved into a new unfurnished apartment. This meant that I had to buy all my furniture, and where else would I go, but Ikea. It was really expensive, but you have to hand it to them, they really do good quality stuff and they have such a range. I've been to Ikea before in New Jersey when I had to furnish my apartment there too, so I knew what to expect. But I still can't get over the scale of it. The amount of money they must make is amazing. When I went most recently, it even prompted me to research the history of the company to see where it came from. It's worth a read if you have some time.

Sidetracking a bit, before I went off on my holidays to South America I bought a Swiss Army Knife from Victorinox. It was probably one of the handiest things I brought with me. Myself and my flat mates also make good use of it when we first moved in and didn't have any bread knife (we still dont, but we got a really sharp knife Ikea one that does the trick). The Swiss Army Knife is so handy, I gotta hand it to the person who invented it.

So, back to the present where the Swedish and Swiss combined forces to allow me finish building my chest of drawers. I was going to bring them back to Ikea, but turns out I have so much clothes I actually need it. But when I went to build it on Thursday night, I didn't have any tools with me. The ones I used to build everything else were taken back by my flatmates brother. So, I turned to my Swiss Army Knife to get me through it. And low and behold, the ease of assembling an Ikea item and the genius of Swiss Army Knife allowed me build the thing really easily. I was missing a hammer though, and as great as the Swiss Army Knife is, it was no substitute. I had to improvise.

In summary my point is, you gotta love Ikea and the Swiss Army Knife. Just goes to show Sweden isn't just good for it's good looking women and Switzerland isn't just known for stashing money and gold to avoid the tax man!

Hockeyed at Cricket

As I've said before, cricket is actually good fun. Well, it's also bloody hard. The actual cricket tournament was on last night and we were blown away. We played quite well last week amongst ourselves, but playing against the other teams was a different story!

I was batting first in our first game, which I didn't mind. I didn't know at the time, but opening batsmen usually face the best bowlers, so they bowling team can try and get a few early wickets. My God, were these guys good. They were bowling at an incredible speed. Luckily, we didn't manage to go into negative figures (as our team did later for a time before we went positive again!) so it wasn't too bad. They were just so much better.

We ended up losing both games by quite a decent margin both times, but it was good fun. Most other teams had a number of people who regularly play cricket, so we were at a huge disadvantage when we had one guy who played a few years ago! He was still our best player though.

It was a fairly good indication of how good the team was, by the number of people wearing cricket whites! We had none, so my my theory, we were crap. And we were. So therefore, my theory holds true.

Even though we were well beaten, we all enjoyed ourselves. We stayed behind after and had a few pints, so all's good. We would have won an award for most spirited team (if there was one!)

Downright Weird

You know the way, you can never remember any dreams you have. Well last night I had a really weird dream: that a Concorde crashed outside my home in Ireland and I saw the whole thing happening. It all felt really weird, but very real and couldn't believe it was happening.... that is until I woke up!

Now that's just downright weird! Not sure what it's mean to mean. Prize for the best explanation left in the comments!

My name catches the world attention....yet again!

It's amazing what comes out of blogs. A while back my blog ALMOST got me a mention on CNN This time, something just as weird. Within the last week, I have got 2 e-mails as a result of my blog asking questions about my name. The first one was someone who had seen some actor who's first name was Ciaran, and she wanted to know how it is pronounced. But last night, I got another email from a couple who are expecting a son and want to call him Ciaran, but were unsure of how to pronounce it. They're from the USA and so didn't want to call their son Ciaran, if they didn't know how a "real Irish person" pronounces Ciaran!

I e-mailed them back, and it kind of feels they're naming him after me, but they're not at all. It just happens to be the same name as mine. But Ciaran is a rare name so I feel some attachement! If you type"Ciaran" in Google, my blog comes up as the 9th result, which is kind of cool!

I just looked at my blog stats on StatCounter.com and turns out the couple searched for "pronouce Ciaran", which came up as the second result (because of the CNN post, see above link) The funny thing is, that that actor dude comes up as the first result (see here) with this quote included

"Does anyone know how to pronounce Ciaran?"

and

"Anyone for a Ciaran fan club? No, seriously. He's so tremendously cool."

Unfortunately, it refers to Ciaran Hinds the actor, not me :( But I could have a fan club....somewhere!

On a side note, I'm up to 8,844 hits on my blog. Cool!

Gaelic Football for the PS2

I normally hate getting e-mail forwards because usually they are just stupid chain letters, but this one I just have to share. It was a link to an ad for a new Playstation 2 game; "Gaelic Football" I find it hilarious that they're making a GAA game for the PS2.

Anyway, the ad is a classic and can be seen here If you're Irish, then you'll totally understand the ad, but if you don't know about the GAA, then it might be lost on you a bit, but you should appreciate the genius of it!

There's quite a bit of stuff about the game online too, on ElectricNews.net and Irish Abroad. Turns out, the software company, IR Gurus Interactive that made it, based it on an Aussie rules game made previously. Still good to see the game being made though.

Cricket is actually fun!

Last night I went playing indoor cricket with some people from work. There is a company wide tournament on next week in Lords so we went down last night for some practice on how to to play the game and actually allow me hit a cricket ball, something I've never done before! The rules are a little different too, so it was good to try it out.

So, myself and another guy went batting first. I could try explaining the rules, but they're all here But basically, 8 people on a team. 4 sets of 2 batters and each set of batters face 4 overs (6 or 8 balls in an over) Lee and I scored 30 runs which we thought was quite good. So everyone else went to bat, and our total score was 26! So the next 6 batters managed to score a total of -4! Quite funny really, but I enjoyed it. The real thing happens on Tuesday.

We also got challenged to a a match by another team at work, so that should be fun! I'm not sure is it because England won the Ashes recently that there are loads of people playing cricket now, but all 5 courts last night at the venue were all cricket. Last time I was there, it was all soccer. Typical of the English to jump on the bandwagon!

Story behind the story

We get bombarded by the media everyday about different stories, the biggest of which recently was Hurricane Katrina. While it's good to read stories of the

actual news, I always love reading stories behind the news. Today on BBC News there was an excellent article about the clean up of the Superdome in New Orleans after the people took refuge in it.

I would like to point out one particularly beautiful and descriptive piece of the article: "The toilets had faeces three inches above the seat. The bowl was full and it was sitting atop that like ice cream" In fairness, the journalist must have witnessed this because I don't think there's any other way to say that, without seeing it. It's not an expression you dream up!

So on that wonderful image, I will finish up!

Good News

Its good to hear that the IRA have finally decommissioned their arms. Hopefully it will help move things along in Northern Ireland, but not anytime soon I reckon if the Unionists have something to do with it.

I was looking around for the actual report that they released for most of today, but couldnt find it until now. The report which was much shorter than I expected can be found here.

Is it worth it?

Seriously, is drinking actually worth it? I went out Saturday night on a pub crawl with my new hockey club and ended up going to a house party afterwards. I ended up getting home for about 7.30am, so you could say it was a fairly crazy night!

Thing is, I woke up Sunday morning, or rather afternoon and had a pretty nasty headache. Nothing terrible, but still annoying. I dont usually get hangovers, but considering what I drank, then its not surprising. I dont usually go out drinking very heavily very often and get bad hangovers, but I did this weekend. The headache went away soon after, but my questions, is one night out worth losing an entire day of my life? I pretty much slept all day Sunday, and only woke up at about 8pm for a few hours before going back to bed for the night. Admittedly, I was awake until 7.30am, but I think all the drinking make things much worse.

While I can say now I'm never going to drink as much again, chances are I will, but I can tell you that I won't be doing it anytime soon. I had a great night, and didn't expect/want to go on a really heavy night, it turned out that way.

Plastic Bags

Ok, so things are a little slow here these days. I've no major news so I've been forced to talk about plastic bags. You accumulate a HUGE amount of them. It's something I've noticed about living in the UK. In Ireland the government put a 15c tax on plastic shopping bags to reduce the number ending up on landfill sites. It's been a huge success, but it's a shame it hasn't started over here yet. They give you bags for everything, even if its just one small item. In our apartment we gathered loads of them, just for them to be thrown out again.

So in my bid to help out, I don't bother with them anymore and just say no thanks. Some people find it a little strange, but I guess they're used to just putting everything in bags. Hopefully they'll catch on here soon enough as it really is a terrible waste.