ganked from jawnbc (who ganked it from catdraco. And so on...and so on...)

Go to wikipedia and look up your birthday (excluding the year). List 3 neat facts, 2 births and one death in your journal including the year.

4th May 

3 neat facts
1776 - Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.
1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. 
1991 - In Rome, Italy, Carola wins the thirty-sixth Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden singing "Fångad av en stormvind" (Trapped in a storm wind).

2 births
1008 - King Henry I of France (d. 1060)
1929 - Audrey Hepburn, Belgian actress (d. 1993)


1 death
1984 - Diana Dors, British actress (b. 1931)

Vomiting is never fun.

Well there's a picture of himself and myself, taken at Alternative Miss Cork last weekend. So yeah, the boy who outed me to my housemates is turning into something more serious. Isn't he a fla? :-)

AMC was great craic this year. The wonderous talent that is Hairy Scarey Mary Harness was once again denied victory but a silver medal for second place proves that she is still a major force in the world of drag. I was absolutely hammered for most of the evening... I ended up accidentally head butting Maeve at one point... we both had bruises to show for it later in the week!

I'm incredibly busy with Surgical Prof Units at the moment. Two weeks left with Prof Redmond. Enjoying this placement a lot more than my time in the Mercy though. Seeing a lot more, learning a lot more and the team are really friendly. Getting up at 6.30am every morning is a bit of a bitch though.

Pancake Tuesday was great fun in our house. The four of us (Brita is in Andorra) made complete pigs of ourselves. Kind of disgusting really!

Was messing around on flickr this morning and I had to upload this picture of Ger and Jane I took in Instinct last Christmas. Aren't they cute?

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Well shortly after yesterday's entry I ended up meeting him for lunch which turned into a four hour pseudo date. Which was quite nice. And there was textaul analysis last night. Don't really know where this is leading to if anywhere but at least I'm back in the world of dating real life people I guess :-)

Didn't get to see much of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony last night. Finally got around to seeing The Motorcycle Diaries. I really enjoyed it; in ways it reminded me a lot of my time in Africa last summer. It's very hard not to enjoy a film starring the beautiful Gael Garcia Bernal but there was a lot more to it than the fla. Almost as beautiful was the landscape and scenery in the film and the portrayal of the friendship between Ernesto and Granado. It surprised me for how apolitcial it was; it sketches a trip that seems to have sown the seeds of Ernesto's later politcal incarnation without becoming propaganda like in the least. Definitely the best "road trip" movie I've seen in quite a while.

Bought Buffy - Season 1 on DVD today. A naughty purchase given the fact I have but eight weeks of college left in this my final year but what the hell. I'll pace myself ;-)

Yeah well I was stupid to think somebody liked me anyway.
Nobody ever likes me in that way.

Stupid Micheál. Time to get back to my books.

Saw Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto last night. It was quite an entertaining pastiche and very enjoyable to watch but by the time it had come to a conclusion I did feel a little flat. Yes lots of genuinely funny humour but no character development whatsoever and a narrative that gets lost two thirds of the way through. Cillian Murphy is frighteningly feminine in his role as the cross dressing Kitten and it's a nice feather in his CV hat but I don't get all the praise that's being heaped on it. I guess it goes to show how poor Irish film-making has become.

Scotland surprised everyone by putting in a fine performance in Murrayfield yesterday to beat the mighty French. The French badly underperformed and I expect they'll come out all guns blazing next weekend in Paris in order to re-assert their superiority in the Championship. After the first weekend it's hard to pick a winner, but I would wager there'll be no grand slam this year... if the odds were good!

Speaking of odds the Euromillions jackpot was finally won last week. So we can stop dreaming of joining Dolores in Ireland's rich list for another month or two.

I've been neglecting my fitness lately so went to the gym on Saturday. Felt kind of sluggish after a couple of weeks boozing and stressing over surgery/the project. Went for a run last night and felt a bit better. My left knee is playing up a bit today but I don't think it's serious.

Schumi the cat is missing presumed dead by the way.

Schumi was our first ever family pet. He arrived as a tiny kitten on the evening of the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis in 2000. We decided were Schumacher to win the kitten would be named Schumi; were Hakkinen to win he would be christened Mika. Hakkinen's Mercedes self detonated on lap 19 and despite an unforced spin late in the race Schumacher won and set up his claiming of his first Driver's Championship for Ferrari.

And Schumi was born.

Being a Tom he's always been fun and fiery but he had mellowed significantly over the last coupe of years. For a family which had never been known as animal lovers it surprised many people how much we came to adore the troublesome Tom. Schumi's bobbies included being warmed by Mummykin's hairdryer, fighting with floorbrushes, stalking the ever feared vacuum cleaner, trying to sit on our laps if having chicken for dinner and dominating the open fire in our living room.

I now understand why people feel sad when they lose a pet.

*sniff*

Warning! Fans of Kate Bush could well find this video extremely offensive. In fact were Kate Bush dead (perish the thought) she would probably spin 1080 degrees if she knew of this video's existence.

One of the few interetsing things about the gay scene in Cork is Scary Mary Harness, a troubled and little loved drag queen from Sheffield who has made a name for herself by insulting, alienating, causing controversy and extolling the benefits of Cork city establishing a light rail network.

All the queens despise her but I think Scary Mary is the most entertaining thing to ever grace a stage in a gay bar in this town.

Of course I have a very low opinion of gay bars.

Anyway, ladies and gentlemen I give you Scary Mary Harness' very first music video; Withering Wuthering Heights

Coming soon the The Blizzard of Odd, presumably...

Well I finally watched Brokeback Mountain last night. Surprisingly I thought it lived up to all the hype. I was even a little choked up at the end although I can assure you that no tears were shed. I guess I shouldn't talk about it too much for fear of spoiling it for those of you haven't seen it (i.e. any Irish person outside of Dublin) but yes it is a beautiful love story, yes the leads all turn in wonderful performances and yes I can imagine watching it and crying a little. The scenes at the end of the film were the most poignant for me.

Ireland were disappointing agaisnt Italy yesterday. They won but with the help of an extremely dodgy try and anyone who wasn't Irish would surely have been rooting for the Italians yesterday. Their game is improving all the time; based on yesterday's showing I wouldn't be surprised if they beat Italy and might even give a weakened Wales a scare.

Well I better do some more literature reviewing. Smoking baaaaaad. But I have to say that in 2.500 words. Blah.

I was named in the Guardian today... well, the Nenagh Guardian! Mairead's successful medical mission to Malawi

ADVERTISEMENT Arriving in Kamuzu International Airport in Malawi in the mid afternoon sun, none of us really knew what to expect. My friends, Elaine from Mitchelstown, Micheal from Ballydesmond and I, had our first taste of Africa the previous night in Harare, Zimbabwe. Our connecting flight to Malawi was cancelled at the last minute. Zimbabwe is going through a major period of upheaval and our unplanned 24 hours there were not the most relaxing as various rallies and protest marches against Mugabe's regime were on going. Malawi, happily however was a different story. Also known as the "warm heart of Africa" Malawi certainly lives up to its name. We were collected at the airport and whisked along the main road towards the Zambian border. The little village of Namitete (pronounced Nami-tet-tae) is situated five kilometres up a dirt track off this road, about an hour from the Malawian capital, Lilongwe. The village itself is tiny with St. Gabriel's Hospital at its heart. The locals lived outside the hospital grounds in mud huts with thatched roofs and water taken from the well. The catchment area of the hospital has a population of 200,000 people. Many of the patients walk miles and days to get to the hospital but they have no choice as many of the closer state run clinics have extremely poor reputations for care. The hospital is run by an order of nuns from Luxembourg, their main representative being Sr. Justina, a tall proud woman always impeccably dressed in her white garments (a feat not to be sniffed at in rural Malawi where the earth is dusty and the colour of rusty leaves on an autumn day!). Dr. Kiromera was the main doctor. A man of incredible skill in the clinical field, he is originally from Burundi and trained in Brussels. We started at 7.30am each morning at the staff meeting where the nurses' reports from the previous night were read out. There were five wards in the hospital complex, male ward, female ward, children's ward, malnutrition ward and labour ward adding to a total of 170 beds. There are only two doctors and approximately 20 nurses to cater for this amount of people. There are also 10 clinical officers, who are trained to diagnose and treat very common conditions such as malaria and meningitis. Staffing is a huge problem in African hospitals as a rule, the health system unable to keep up with the comparably huge wages in Europe and the USA. While in Malawi I learned that there are more Malawian doctors in Birmingham than in Malawi, a truly shocking statistic. Out-patients began at 8am every day. This was an experience to behold when usually approximately 200 people would squeeze into a narrow corridor with their various illnesses. A consultation cost 5 kwacha, an X-ray 20 kwacha or approximately 20 cents. The average daily wage in Malawi for a normal job was about a dollar a day. If people could not afford this care then they just paid what they could in kind. Nobody was turned away for lack of finance. Until 6pm a steady stream of people would file in looking for cures. We sat in on these consultations and were asked our opinions by the clinical officers or were quizzed by the doctors. We went on ward rounds with Dr. Kiromera. The wards were often overcrowded. If there were no beds available the sick would have to take up residence on a mattress on the ground between beds. However despite this constant daily influx of people, the place was far from an area of squalor. In fact the hospital was spotlessly clean thanks to the dedicated cleaning staff. Frequently family members would accompany the ill to tend to their needs. They would usually sleep under the hospital beds. TB is still a major problem in Malawi mainly as a secondary illness to HIV. HIV has a prevalence of approximately 5% in Malawi and is a steadily growing problem. Luckily for St. Gabriel's however, Dr. Kiromera has a special interest in HIV and the most up to date treatment regimen and prevention. During our stay the first batch of free anti-HIV medication was distributed to HIV positive patients giving them a chance at survival that was unthinkable previously. The hospital places special emphasis on the education of all patients about HIV and the importance of testing and compliant treatment. However I will never forget some of the terribly tragic things I saw. Malnourished and dehydrated babies, people on death's door with pneumonia and malaria. Devastated young families left without their parents, orphans due to TB and AIDS, events which luckily are extremely rare in our first world society. The Labour ward was indeed an experience in itself, a world away from my experience in the Erinville Maternity Hospital in Cork this past month. Pain relief and even midwife support are extremely lacking due to inadequate funding. Again if the labour ward was overcrowded women would have to give birth on the floor. Most births resulted in times of great joy, however we also experienced extremely sad cases. One day a woman was brought to theatre for a Caesarian section due to the premature delivery of her twin pregnancy. Tragically, the twins did not survive due to their prematurity. The hospital at the time did not own an incubator. However, with the funding we brought over they were able to purchase an incubator and it is now happily installed in the maternity ward giving premature babies that extra push they need in order to pull through. We brought over approximately €15,000 with us and a further €1,500 worth of drugs. Of that about €6,500 was due to the kindness of the people of Ballywilliam, Newtown, Nenagh and surrounding areas. The support I received from everybody was absolutely amazing. All my colleagues on the Surgeon Noonan Committee could not believe the extent on the generosity. Sr. Justina and Dr. Kiromera in St. Gabriel's were also amazed as the fund was €5,000 more than they received the previous year. In fact it brought a tear to the formidable Luxembourgish nun's eye, a sight we did not think we would behold! It is incredible what this amount of money achieved in the little village of Namitete and the appreciation with which it was received. All of our hard work during the year was forgotten in a second when we got to this little red earthed place and realise how lucky we are to live where we do. However, it is not a cause for depression as these people were amongst the happiest I have ever met. They always had a smile and the vast majority seemed quite content with their simple lives as long as there was enough food on the table. Unfortunately a famine is currently ravaging this country and the ears of the media seen to be deafened to the screams. Five million people are currently at risk of severe starvation and very little is being broadcast about the situation. It is vital that we not forget these kind, friendly and simple people. Theirs is a life many of us cannot even imagine. To anyone thinking of giving their time to work in Africa, my advice would be a definite "go for it". To those who support charitable causes who do Trojan work on the African continent I say "well done" and once more Thank you. Every contribution, large or small, makes an unbelievable difference and is really appreciated. So much can be done with so little resources. It was an experience I will never forget, one that will live with me for the rest of my life. And I definitely would not rule out returning at some stage in the future when I will be fully qualified. Namitete has found a place in my heart.

I don't quite believe it either!

Cameron given blunt warning over MEPs

Nicholas Watt, European editor

The Guardian
Thursday February 2, 2006

An unlikely alliance of the frontrunner in next year's French presidential election and Britain's most prominent opponent of the EU are putting pressure on David Cameron to abandon plans to sever Tory links with Europe's main centre-right parties.

As Tony Blair prepares to hail Europe's "new generation of leaders" in a speech this afternoon, one of the young stars in his sights is reported to have issued a blunt warning to Mr Cameron to think again.

"You are a weak man," the French interior minister and presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy is reported to have told Mr Cameron when they met in Paris last month.
Other leaders have let it be known to Mr Cameron that he will forfeit the Tories' informal contacts with European parties in the centre-right "family" if he goes ahead with plans to leave the centre right EPP-ED grouping in the European Parliament.

The disclosure by Guardian Unlimited of Mr Sarkozy's reported remarks comes days after William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, vowed in Brussels to broker an amicable divorce from the EPP-ED which also includes the CDU party led by the new German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Mr Hague said he would take "months not weeks" to carry out Mr Cameron's leadership election pledge - which is opposed by more than half of the Tories' 27 MEPs - on the grounds that the centre-right group is dominated by fierce pro-Europeans.

Mr Sarkozy is understood to believe that Mr Cameron showed signs of weakness by caving into pressure from hardline Eurosceptics during the Tory leadership election campaign. In a sign of the bitter Tory internal feud over the issue, Mr Sarkozy was told that Mr Cameron fell victim to a campaign orchestrated by the arch Eurosceptic MEP Dan Hannan who has been agitating for years for the party to leave the EPP-ED group. Mr Sarkozy was told that Mr Hannan and his allies at Westminster spoke to newly elected Tory MPs to challenge Mr Cameron over the Tories' membership of the EPP-ED at the leadership hustings.

A spokesman for Mr Cameron today denied that Mr Sarkozy's had accused Mr Cameron of being weak. "Nicolas Sarkozy did not say that he thought David Cameron was weak. It was a constructive and good-natured meeting at which Nicolas Sarkozy said he understood our position, though he disagreed with it. Nicolas Sarkozy congratulated David [on winning the Tory leadership] and said he had made a good start."

The reported intervention by Mr Sarkozy shows that Mr Cameron's pledge is proving more complicated than the new Tory leader had expected. Tory opponents of the plan believe that Mr Cameron thought he could force through the change because there is so little interest in Britain in the European parliament. Since then two factors have come into play:

· Mr Cameron and other senior Tories are having to come to terms with the fact that they will lose informal contacts with the governing parties in France and Germany - continental Europe's two most important countries; · The rules of the European parliament, which means the Tories need to join forces with MEPs from at least four other countries if they are to avoid total isolation, are forcing the Tories to open negotiations with sexist and homophobic parties.

Mr Cameron today receives a warning from an unlikely quarter that he will betray the national interest if he abandons the EPP and downgrades links with France and Germany's governing parties. Nigel Farage, the leader of the United Kingdom Independence party in the European parliament, which wants to withdraw from the EU, told Guardian Unlimited: "While I don't want Britain to be in the EU - and believe that one day we won't - if the Conservatives were to form the next government they would probably serve the national interest better by being part of the family of European governments rather than being on the fringes. If we are going to stay in the EU it would be better to have a government that was in negotiations with other governments in Europe rather than one that has distinctly frosty relations."

Mr Farage also believes that Mr Cameron is inflicting unnecessary political damage on the Tories by negotiating to form a new grouping with Poland's governing Law and Justice Party, which opposes gay pride marches. Graham Brady, the shadow Europe minister, has also spoken to the Dutch MEP Johannes Blokland ,whose Christian Union includes the conservative Calvinist party, which bans women from representing it in parliament.

Mr Farage said: "The opinion polls are indicating that the Conservatives are a potential party of government. In the EPP they are banded together with other parties of government. If they leave the EPP and form their own group they will have to form a group with parties whose political culture will provide a huge embarrassment to David Cameron back home. Poland's Law and Justice Party's stance on abortion and homosexuality will provide Mr Cameron with the hugest embarrassments back home."

Mr Farage, who is deputy leader of the 37-strong Ind-Dem group, which has MEPs from 10 countries, draws a distinction between his decision to sit with such politicians and the Tories.

"In the European parliament we have a completely mixed picture in terms of political culture - to the extent that one culture would often be very embarrassed by another. That does not matter to us very much. Our role has been to link arms with other campaigning groups simply to oppose the constitution. We draw a line at the racist right, so we reject Vlams Blok, the Front National, Haider's Freedom party. But after that we are very happy to link arms with a Polish party that is more Catholic than the Pope, a Dutch Calvinist party which certainly disapproves of some of my social habits and a Danish movement led by the country's former Communist party leader. That provides us with no embarrassment because we are linking arms to fight the [EU] constitution and further integration. However we are not a potential party of government - not in the short term anyway. The Conservative position is very different."

The Tories were unmoved by the threat by some EPP leaders to downgrade informal links with the Tories which was made at the centre right "family" meeting in Brussels in December. A spokesman for Mr Cameron, who missed the meeting because he was on a trip to Northern Ireland, said: "We do not take that threat seriously. It is an ill-advised threat. Once we have done this members of the EPP will be constructive."

I agree completely with Mr. Farage's sentiments. Leaving the EPP will prove to be Cameron's first major gaffe as Tory leader should he go ahead with his plans. I know how deeply Eurosceptic elements of the Tories are but even there interests will be better served be remaining aligned with the other centre right parties in the EPP.

I'm meeting some PhD dude tomorrow to help me with the statistics. 27 days to go. Eek.
***
Spent the morning on a ward round in ICU. Depressing stuff. I found it harder than working in Africa; I think I'm quite down/stressed/fragile or something at the moment.
***
I'm not going to the Surgeon Noonan Ball this Saturday. It could well cause ructions given the fact I sent a class email bullying others in my year to go and support this year's gang. I can't afford to go but I've no particular desire to go either. Mairéad tried to convince me to reconsider by suggesting cute urology reg might be there. Almost worked.
***
The sprint version of the London triathalon is not as demanding as I thought... 400m swim, 10km bike ride and 2.5km run. The 2006 event is being held this August; I'm considering doing it. Then again, it's a long way to go for a triathalon. will look into more local options.
***
Note to self : Need to buy a car in May. Must not forget again.

Final year project.

Possibly the three most evil words together in the English language. Uttered aloud they strike fear and terror into my very being.

*sigh*

I have a rough draft written now but it's not good. A few people have looked at it for me though and with their advice I'm hoping to tidy it up into something half decent. I'm meeting a PhD student from the Department of Government on Friday with a view to getting some help with the stats and data analysis aspect. Met Timmy today to go over it from a scientist's viewpoint. Timmy is a crazy scientist dude. Also somebody I've talked to via email, messenger, SMS for over a year and had previously never met in person. Always liked him though, and he's similar in person. And really good to take a look at my project.

Anyway, it's stressing me out too much right now so I'm taking a break tonight. No more thinking about the project. None. I think I'll go for a run in about an hour's time which is a great way to clear the mind. Taking nights off can lead to guilt but when I'm feeling this stressed I think it's important. Lesson from the weekend is that drinking to excess is not the best escape route.

 

Le weekend was a washout... a wash out of booze that is.

Friday night we got Indian and watched the final of Celeb BB, much to my housemates' disgust. We went out to celbrate Brita's birthday and ended up gate crashing a fourth med class party. Much alcohol was consumed inlcuding sambucas but at least I wasn't as wasted as Freda who spent the best part of Saturday throwing up. Brita, Eileen and I went cruising instead and went to the Munster game at Musgrave. Wasn't great to be honest. Afterwards I was feeling well tired and thought a night on the couch was on the horizon but I decided to meet up with the folks from GayCork.com in the Clarion. Oh dear. Much alcohol was consumed. It was a good laugh though and at one stage the conversation at the table was so lewd that waitresses were making excuses to come to our table and join in. Still it's important to unwind but I think this weekend proved to me that unwinding with alochol in times of stress is not the best oif ideas.

Doing anaesthetics this week and it's not just the patients those guys can put to sleep! I might be completely crazy but I have the feeling that one of the urology regs might possible be sort of chatting me up. It's probably post alcohol excess hallucinations but I got a funny vibe off him yesterday. And he offered me some of his Kit Kat :-)

I have not done any work on final year project since December; this is something I MUST rectify today.

I want it all
I want it right now
I'm gonna get what I deserve
And much more somehow

I want it all
I want it right now
I'm gonna lick the whole plate clean
Mark my words now

I'll take the blame
I'll take the fame and fortune
You wanna kiss my heart I swear
I'm gonna steal the lion's share

Do, do, do, do you surrender
One white flag up there in heaven
Lie, lie, lie, lie here beside me
Baby

You, you, you, you're a pretender
I want nothin' left to remember
Or feel sorry for (I want it all)

Do, do, do, do you surrender
One white flag up there in heaven
I feel sorry for (I want it all)

It's ok to love it, because it's postpostmodern innit? Innit funny? Innit?