The post that started it all is viewable on boards.ie here.

So apparently the timetable for the new Dunboyne rail link has been posted by Irish Rail.
Only the timetable shows that every single Dunboyne train serves Docklands and not Broombridge, Drumcondra or Connolly.

This is fucking retarded. I know a good few people who would be using the new train line who would want to go to Drumcondra as part of their commuting journey. This move by Irish Rail was made without any research or any consultation with people in the area to ensure a satisfactory service for the majority of it’s commuters.

See the timetable here.

After a very quiet Friday (which was the actual day itself), with just a trip down to the bar in TGI Friday’s in the Centre for some bar food, cocktails and watching the Dutch dump Brazil out of the World Cup; I met up with a few friends for most of the day on the Saturday, with some general hanging around and doing whatever came to mind. One thing of note was the odd trip to the Asian market grabbing some very cheap Pocky, which I unfortunately munched through rather damn quickly after getting him, seeing as it’s so damn addictive. I really need to make some plans to go get a crate of so of them and start stocking them up in the wardrobes before Eirtakon…

Speaking of that, I really need to go sort out my plans for Final Form Sora now that I have time – and money.

Dinner with family later on that night was a massive affair – sixteen of us in all squeezing into the restaurant part of Ho Wun here in Dunboyne. It was a great night, getting everybody together for a night out to celebrate not only me, but my aunt Paula as well (whose birthday was the day before mine!), before heading home for more drinks and cake. And unfortunately no dog seeing as a couple of my aunts have some issues with canines.

Felt great the next day after a great 24 hours prior to it – and maybe a little bit because of the “personal ATM” feeling I had in my wallet following it.

So, what’s left in the summer? Well, finding a damn Blackmagic Intensity Pro somewhere in this country would be a great start, as I want to get into streaming my 360 online and maybe doing a Let’s Play of something on it – specifically Naughty Bear, which I was given on my birthday itself and I haven’t yet played it because I want to LP it blind if I can…

It’s also a case of the fact that very little seems to help alleviate the effects. Daily doses of Zirtek don’t seem to do much, but without it my nose’d be snivelling and running like a tap, and I’d be practically unable to open my eyes. The accompanying unrelated really annoying chesty cough isn’t helping procedures either.

Anyway, Friday and Saturday. That’s all I’m looking forward to. I just want to get to those two days already – and preferably not be suffering from this crap! If that means it pisses down like a monsoon, then so be it!

Despite the fact that my sister’s father kind of fills the father role (despite not having to), I still wouldn’t consider him my proper father.

That’s really all I have to say about that. Now, back to making the bear popular.

So my plan for Eirtakon in October this year is to go as Sora from Kingdom Hearts 2. But not just in his plain self, I’m going to go as him in one of his “Drive Forms” – basically alternate coloured costumes. However, I can’t pick which one, so I’m asking for a little help with this

All five of his Drive Forms can be found here: http://www.finalfantasyworld.co.uk/khextreme/kh2/kh2_drivemode.php

There are the three more basic options in the Valor, Wisdom and Master forms.

However, there’s also the more complicated choices in his Final form, and finally the biggie – his Anti form.

Any ideas what you think would go well? I’m not going to say what one(s) I think would work best until a bit further down just in case it influences your decision

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Right, this should be far enough.

While I would love to try Anti form, it’d be too much work, especially with the all-black might mean the character is unrecognisable!

Personally, the two I’m thinking of doing one of are firstly Final form, and if that doesn’t work out Wisdom form.

Either way, I seriously hope I can get this sorted for October. It might seem like ages away but it’s closing in really fast

Although really, to be perfectly honest, there’s not much when it comes to this. It’s a chicken burger, small fries and a small amount of soda pop for four quid. And I was hungry and needed something quick to pick up and eat while I was on my way home from college tonight. The Crispy Chicken is nothing more than chicken in a bun with lettuce falling out of the sides as the guy who assembled it probably couldn’t have bothered, and rather a little too much mayo. And the chicken isn’t exactly top of the line either, it’s like a mix between a McChicken Sandwich and a Chicken McNugget. Or at least, it’s Burger King’s version of that cross-breed.

Now for some proper damn junk food chicken that doesn’t make you feel bad about yourself, walk another thirty seconds or so down Grafton St. to McDonalds itself and pick up some Chicken Selects. Great quality, not too overly fried breadcrumb coating, and premium dips to go with them. Worth the price tag of four quid for 3, or 6.20 for five. Probably not worth the so-called "5 minute" wait when you only got off the bus at Trinity at 2110, and have to catch your "sweet feck all of a service" bus back to Dunboyne back down outside Ulster Bank at just after twenty past. Smokey barbeque dip is good though

On a less food-related note, I decided to succumb and set up a Formspring page. Not that I couldn’t already have done something like this with a page on my site, but… meh.
Find it here: http://www.formspring.me/TheChrisD
Don’t expect prompt responses, if any response at all.

So, last Thursday morning (the one with the random snow) I was heading in towards college, hitching a life with my mom who at the time was going… well, somewhere. Half expecting to get off somewhere in Blanch and get a bus to town, firstly I realised the time, and then the fact that she was going via Carpenterstown. So I then decided to give the train a shot, since it would get me into Drumcondra much quicker than a bus into town and then back out would have.

Walking up into the station, fumbling around trying to figure out which pocket I had my pass in. As I’m going by the side windows of the ticket office, I see them shut, which I find to be quite odd, as it’s only 9.20. Round the corner – and the main shutters of the office are closed as well. Well, that’s just fucking brilliant…

The one annoying thing about train travel with the Free Travel Pass, is the absolute need for a manned ticket office to be open in order to get a ticket, as there’s no way otherwise to get through the ticket barriers onto the platform (well, except for hopping them of course). It’s also annoying how the ticket vending machines have no option for people with their pass to get their ticket from it. It’s as if Irish Rail haven’t put any thought into designing their system for passholders.

So I did a little searching around to try and piece together some things. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t seem to have a decent enough result for "irish rail free travel pass ticket office closed", and rather annoyingly has links to the Irish Rail website which just says "Free Travel Pass". However, I did find some half-decent links out there with regards to others in a similar situation.

• Firstly, a link to Irish Rail’s "Guide for Rail Passengers with Disabilites" (PDF). On page 4 (really page 5…), it states:
  

  Free Travel Passes must be produced at the ticket office in order to receive a valid ticket to travel on the train.

  Fat lot of fucking help when there’s no open ticket office.
  The same sort of thing is repeated on the passenger charter.

• A link to a thread on RailUsers.ie, detailing how Irish Rail were forced to pay compensation to a visually impaired man in possession of a Free Travel Pass as well as review their policies on the matter – because of the fact they don’t provide social welfare tickets for any day other than the one you’re getting the ticket on.
• A link to a report on the accessibility of public transport in Ireland for people with disabilities. On page 14, section 2.2.2:
  

  All People with disabilities in Ireland have a free travel pass but must get a ticket for travelling on both long distance and intercity trains. Ticket vending machines are not accessible for disabled people.

  Nail on the head right there.

• And finally, the least "on topic" of all of these, a link to a thread in the Commuting and Transport forum on Boards from three years ago. While not necessarily about the Free Travel Pass, it still highlights the fact that passengers might not have a choice in the matter when there’s no way to get a ticket at the station, either by the office being closed or vending machines being out or the like; and how staff at Irish Rail react to such a situation.

All in all, stuff giving out shit about this.

Oh, in the end I ended up just buying a single ticket from the vending machine there, as I wasn’t going to try "fare-dodge" and risk getting caught – which I wouldn’t have by the way. Thankfully I actually had enough change in my wallet to be able to buy the €2 ticket…

And on a related note, I see Dublin Bus are still sticking with the whole "you need the photo ID, period" sort of attitude after another ticket inspector on the 70 recently; all despite the fact that it is specifically mentions living in Dublin, not Meath. They really should get it changed to say something along the lines of "In order to utilise Dublin Bus services, and Bus Eireann city services in (whatever the other cities are), you need this photo ID". Although at least the inspector was a bit more passé about it and just kindly mentioned to me that I "only have to go to O’Connell St. It’ll take 3 minutes." Rather than the situation of the driver almost not letting me get the last bus back home from town one night.

Things like:

• Writing more blog posts
• Writing more blog posts from the bear
• Commenting on other blogs
• Continuing my SoulSilver LP now that my sister returned my DS
• Making an effort to go see people that I haven’t seen in a while
• Upgrading my crummy laptop from the Windows 7 RC before it starts expiring
• Redoing my site. Or at the very least get a new header and redesign the front page.

All that stuff, and the new dog on Saturday doesn’t help.

Oh right, did I mention my mom and sister are getting a dog? Probably not…

So for the first one, I’m kinda lazy and just used it as an excuse to give some more details about that bag of copper change money contest in the last post. Ummm, yea. Watch it and then make your guess on the previous post

Also, 1080p hells-yea

When what seems like every second blog post I read, every fifth tweet, and every radio new bulletin I listen to mention Haiti, it’s more a case of jumping on the bandwagon rather than genuine concern. Now I can deal with that no problem (I just ignore you…), but what irks me is that the majority of these things also involve somewhere an attempt to get you to go donate money to some random charitable organisation that claim they are going there to use that money to help rebuild and rescue and whatnot.

Bullshit.

And it’s made an absolute fuckton worse when every third e-mail I get is from some random site I’m on sending a circular to all members bugging them to go donate.

I can deal with this thing poisoning my feed inbox, infiltrating my Seesmic, and being blared out by my clock radio beside my bed – but when it starts to get shoved down my throat in my inbox, now that’s just crossing the damn line. If I was going to donate to this crisis, I’d do it of my own accord out of the goodness of my heart. But when you’re agonisingly bugging me – almost to the extent of shunning me when I do nothing – then I don’t see the point in bothering, when all I’m going to end up doing is jumping on this bandwagon.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? How about everyone else on earth living their life as normal, versus a country that doesn’t seem to have prepared for this sort of situation, despite being located practically right next to the edge of the Caribbean Plate, which has had a fair few quakes over the past few decades? (Provided these images on Wikipedia are anything to believe.)

I’m sick of it. All of you bugging me about it have caused me to close my wallet back up and put it back into my pocket. Well done.

If your first instinct right now is to scroll right down to that comments box and ask me “Why?”, I’m just going to say right now “Why not?”. There’s not much different to a normal fancy dress or costume party (especially when it’s one of Elly’s!) – you’re just being someone from anime, manga, video games etc.. It’s along the same lines as LARPing (Live Action Role Playing games, for those of you who are uneducated), just not with a game in mind, only fun. So I’d like to see you turn around and tell me it’s not normal.

I’ve already started planning for next year’s anime convention schedule, so that I can hopefully go as part of a cosplaying pair or group, and possibly even have skits prepared for some of the more major cons. Why start planning so early? Well, everyone else seems to be doing so as well. Plus, the more time I have available, the more time I have to actually get something made for it, and that doesn’t look like crap. Or so I can just continually go on about how much time I have left, only to procrastinate and realise two weeks before the con that I’m royally fucked. The latter option is very likely to happen, unless those who I’m cosplaying with start beating me with sticks to get me to get stuff done.

I would start arguing about why should things like this be limited to conventions, but the main thing about that is the point of view of the public, who may not exactly consider this sort of thing to be normal or acceptable behaviour. Yes, this is something probably best kept to group meetings with like-minded people who are actually into this sort of thing. Doesn’t mean that meetings can’t be arranged though. Several times throughout the year I hear of cosplay photoshoots wanting to be held, that would interest me, again if I was actually half-decent at costume creation so that I’d look good on camera – and if that one decent picture of me I found from Eirta this year is anything to go by, I sure as hell don’t!

And if you think I’m already off my rocker with all this, I’m probably going to make me sound even more insane to you right now – I’m even thinking about having a cosplay party for my 21st. Yes, consider me sad if you will, but I would certainly enjoy a party where everybody is in a character not them. Sure it’d probably alienate a fair few of my friends and would probably be just eirtaku peeps attending, but all I’d say to that is that anyone not being there would be missing out big time.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off back to deviantArt to go gawp at people…

Other than the con, there’s also a bit of work we on the Games Soc committee will be doing to get ready for the BYOPC LAN the weekend after. So the majority of Friday will be spent in the Helix checking out the space that we have (which, rather handily, is known as the space ) and just making sure that everything is running fine. Most important thing is to check the Internet connection and to make sure that all the ports are available for use, as we can’t have people arriving with their machines and then finding that half of the competitors haven’t got all their games and Steam up-to-date. And there may also be a general issue of overall room, but that really does depend all on numbers and whether we get them or not. Still it should be a good weekend, as this is the first LAN we’ll have had where I have an actual decent computer. <3 TheAlmightyBear!

If you’re looking for specs of the machine, apparently Xfire has them.

As for the con itself, I should be there for the whole weekend. I’m definitely going to be there Friday night for the quiz (since I’m around campus that day anyway!), although whether you will see me as Hibiki like you will both other days, I’m still not sure about. But yes, I’ll be there the whole entire weekend, from opening Saturday to closing Sunday. How long I spend in the middle is the real question, although I think one of my friends who lives nearby is loaning me his couch for the night so I don’t have far to go after whatever trip out Saturday night, and I can actually make it in on time Sunday morning

I still have a couple of things I need to do for my cosplay, but for the most part things are done. I say for the most part, because I’m not entirely too sure if I can be bothered to finish it off – and it’s not like I’m going for full-blown accuracy or anything. Then again rushed jobs never hurt people. No sneaky previews still (because I’m not arsed trying to photograph myself), but no recoiling in horror when you do see me. One problem with trying to do a circa ten-year-old kid is that your body’s physiology is much different.
Brrr, my legs are cold

One good thing that I did manage to come across yesterday, while in Penneys exchanging down a size for my costume (while the size I had was fine for me personally, it didn’t work too well for the actual costume itself) was in Smyths with a whole bunch of little plastic Pokémon figurine sets going on BOGOF. So, now my con bag is filled with them, just in case people still have no idea who I am. Also, I think Fiona is loaning me her Togepi plushie for the weekend (that she had when she went as Misty for Halloween), which will definitely help! Now, I just wonder whether or not I’m going to make the bear into a Teddiursa or something…

Starting this week is the RedBrick Halloween Intersocs Ball thingy. Tbh I’m really not sure what point there is to it other than to go to a bar, get buy one get one free drinks all night, and have an excuse to wear your Halloween costume again. None of which really helps me since I don’t drink, generally go to bars unless they serve good food (like the nuBar!), nor did I have a Haloween costume, since I laid low this year. Well, technically I could go in the costume that I’m planning for…

Eirtakon – the weekend after next. Otaku and other anime, manga, and possibly video game nerds congregating in the Hub to do what we would usually do, parading around pretending to be people we’re not, and making the place smell so bad that everyone will notice it on Monday morning

I’ll hopefully be there for the whole weekend, or at least that’s what my pre-registration ticket is saying to me. I actually found it a little scary that my reference number was number seven, and I’m not even a bigger nerd than some of those who frequent the Eirtaku forums, and IRC channel that I always lurk in when I even get the chance to connect because the server the channel is on doesn’t like so many connections from Redbrick at the same time… No matter what, I’ll be going as Hibiki from Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, even if my costume is half-assed and nowhere near as accurate as some people have managed to do.

Please no glomping, as I may be carrying my laptop in that bag, as well as having my DS in one hand playing some Pokémon game, and my internet tablet in the other tweeting my way through the con via LapLan. That is, if they keep LapLan on. They better fucking keep LapLan on, else I’m breaking into either Clubs and Socs or the Mezz and then tweeting my way through.

Then the weekend after that again is the Games Soc BYOPC LAN, which will be the first one I’ll have attended with an actual desktop computer of mine that can actually run Source! Sure, it’s not going to be the most blinged out thing there (I’m looking at you, you Alienware-purchasing knobheads), but at least it’s something half-decent. Don’t expect much tweeting as I’ll be too busy gaming

And finally in the last weekend of the month, several of us from Games Soc are going to Video Games Live. It will be epic. Maybe I’ll se some of you there, provided you’re going on the 29th?

Anyway, I’m off to go source out a supplier of very cheap energy drink, since I’m going to need a hell of a lot of it to keep me awake this month…

So, seeing as I had to leave very quickly this morning and wasn’t able to clean up the kitchen downstairs before I left, I told myself I’d go back home much earlier than normal tonight and get it done, as well as maybe making something for dinner with the random crap lying around in the fridge or freezer. With the aim and intention of getting the 1950 to be home by around nine, I left at around a quarter past seven.

Now while services from DCU to town are plentiful and regular, they still tend to come in a clump. And when those clumps generally mean that you only have twenty minutes to get into town and you have no idea how bad the traffic and/or demand for the bus will be, you have the hard choice of risking it in town, or going through Phibsborough and then hopping on one from there to Cabra where you can meet with the bus you actually want. Which is what I did, since I wanted to actually get back home.

So, I arrive in town at just before a quarter to eight, and check the timetable for the 38, which shows one having left town at 1940. Grand so, it’ll be here in about ten minutes, and I can be up at Cabra Cross within another five, meaning I’d only have about a ten minute wait for my 70. Ten to eight – no sign. Probably just slow out. Five to eight – nothing. Eight o’clock – still nothing. OK, maybe he’s just around the corner and I can’t see him and it’s been a torrid night getting out. Five minutes past fucking eight (actually 8:04 to be precise) and he shows up, not even half-full. Right, let’s get on and get the fuck up to the top of the road already. If I’d have known it would have taken so long, I probably would have gotten the 122 that went by about ten minutes ago.

A very slow drive to the top of the road, not helped by a bunch of old ladies (obviously a bingo party) getting on halfway, and we reach Cabra Cross – only to see a bus coming from Stoneybatter-way and going ahead. As I was near the back of the bus, I couldn’t make out the number on the back too well (from far away 39 and 70 do look alike), and was seriously hoping that it was the one I didn’t need.
A minute later when we got close to the back – fuckit. It was my 70. The 38 lost those ten minutes to the 70 somehow for some unknown fucking reason on the way to Phibsborough. At least I was hoping that we’d eventually catch up to it while stopped somewhere, or even overtaking it.

Well, that plan got off to a high when the 70 stopped at the next stop up, outside the Navan Road entrance to Coláiste Mhuire (where I used to get on/off the bus to and from Blanchardstown every morning for the last three years of my secondary education) – and was scuppered almost immediately when the guy who got off it flagged down the 38. And it was only made worse and worse, so that by the time the 70 had arrived at the last possible stop I could have changed at – the stop outside St. Brigids GAA Club on the dual-carriageway – we were stuck down the other end, passing by the Phoenix Park racecourse apartments.

So I give the parent a ring asking if she can drop down and pick me up since I’ve no chance of getting back soon – and I get a response saying there’s not a chance of it happening as the place was left in a state and that I should probably just get a taxi back.

Which destined me to at least an hour and a bit wandering around Blanchardstown while I waited for the next 70 to come, which leaves town at twenty past fucking nine. After wandering for said time frame, including getting dinner in KFC since I knew I’d be home late. So, I sit down at the stop at the Blanchardstown Centre at about nine-forty and wait for him to come.

And wait.

And wait some more.

Until at ten past ten, me and two others who had been waiting on it, give up resigned to the fact that the driver was a lazy ass and decided not to to through the Centre, despite that fact that every normal 70 after seven is supposed to go through it since the fucking 270 stops service at seven for some unknown fucking reason, even though it runs all the way through to midnight on Sundays! – and end up splitting a taxi home, which I could have just gotten myself originally, as despite the fact it was split with one of the others in the car, as the other one was only going to Clonee, I ended up paying him full price anyway since myself and the driver were both having a bad night with the maths.

This shit really pisses me off. Really.

Dublin Bus need to get their fucking act together, before I have to write another letter of complaint…

Here’s a copy of my e-mail of complaint which I have just sent off to the Dublin Bus e-mail that they provide on their website, if you want to have a read at all. It’d be a fucking miracle if they actually respond to it though, let alone do anything about it.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I wish to make a formal complaint to Dublin Bus for the treatment I received from the driver of the 2320hrs departure of the Route 70 bus from Hawkins St. to Dunboyne on the 28th October 2009.

I have a mental disability, and am receiving Disability Allowance, and as such I have received a Free Travel Pass, which entitles me to free travel on your services. On the aforementioned journey, when I attempted to board the bus at Dame St. Ulster Bank stop, I showed my Travel Pass to the driver, ensuring that he noticed it and I proceeded to sit down, when I was called back and asked for my photo pass, which I do not have. After answering that I did not have one because I did not need one, I was told that I was “not going back [to Dunboyne] on this bus you’re not”. After attempting to explain to the driver that the documents that arrived with my Travel Pass specifically stated that I did not need one, I was also told that the pass “is useless without the card”. Only after I briefly showed my Social Welfare card and was rummaging through my wallet to pay the cash fare, I was informed “I said you can go on”.

This experience was distressing and embarrassing for myself, as I have almost never had any issues with utilising my Free Travel Pass on any service from Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, or Iarnród Éireann for the length of time I have had the Pass; and I was also worried that if I was refused travel on the bus, that I would be stuck in town for the night as that particular service is the last service to Dunboyne during the evenings.

After arriving home, I went and searched information regarding the Photo ID for the Free Travel Pass, and I came across the following: http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Publications/SW40/Pages/9DoIneedtoshowevidenceofmyidentity.aspx

In addition, if you live in Dublin, Cork city, Waterford city, Limerick city or Galway city you must also produce a Free Travel Photo ID

As Dunboyne, and thus my address is in Co. Meath, therefore I am not required to possess a Photo ID.

An incident similar to this also occurred within the last month, when a bus inspector boarded the bus I was on and proceeded to check tickets, when I showed him my bus pass, I was also asked for the Photo ID, to which I did also reply that as I am from Co. Meath, I do not require the Photo ID. Only on production of another form of Photo ID was the inspector satisfied.

If the condition is supposed to mean that anyone who lives in the catchment area of Dublin Bus or Bus Éireann city services, then why it is not explicitly mentioned in the condition? Also, why are your members of staff not informed of this fact that passengers from outside of Dublin may not necessarily have Photo IDs for their Free Travel Passes when they don’t need one, and that undue hassle over not having one is unnecessary?

Regards,

Chris Daly

I really don’t want to have any of this shit from them, it’s bad enough that the bus service back in the evenings is a load of shite…

• 11.20: a third of a box of Almond Oats and More

We ran out of milk in the house, so I settled for the old-fashioned "eat straight out of the box without paying attention to how much is actually being eaten". Probably not the best of ideas.

• 14.10: a third of a bowl of chilli beans

Leftovers in the fridge. It was a case of eat them or throw them out. I chose the former

• 16.50: Slevin’s – Tiger prawns in a sweet chilli sauce with oriental veg and boiled rice

Yay for going out for lunch! Food was lovely except all the tails were left on the prawns, making for a very crunchy surprise at the beginning. Fucking expensive though, €17

• 23.05: 5 11 14 17 mini jaffa cakes

They were there. I was craving stuff. Poopy

• 10.05: 600ml bottle of Lucozade, packet of Wine Gums

Sugar rush to wake me up and keep me going for my morning lecture.

• 13.30: Two portions of €2 special offer chicken wings and potato slices

Lunch. I like value.

• 17.45: Two bottles of special-offer 99c bottles of Coke

Needed sugar and caffeine to stay awake…

• 21.35: Packet of Harvest Fare 33% extra free Chilli Nuts

Snack on the very late bus back home. I’m actually quite glad that the bus was very late, since the 11 from college was really slow getting into town. When I saw the masses of people at the bus stop on Dame St., I had some glimmer of hope, but after almost everyone piled onto the incoming 37, my heart sank again.

Thank fuck the 70 came around a few minutes later!

• 11.25: Half a raisin muffin

Mom got one to go with her coffee, since the coffee place in Eurospar were offering coffee and a muffin for €3.50 – which was only 70c more than the coffee itself!

• 12.30: Spicy chicken brown bread sandwich with lettuce, cheese and sweetcorn

On-campus Spar lunch. While expensive, t’was fucking yummy and came with a free bottle of water

• 15.00: Time Out finger, Twix finger, Rowntree’s Randoms; cups of Fanta, Coke, Sprite

Snacks from the refreshments pile at Consoles. It can’t be helped, especially as I’ve technically paid for it until I find Lotta!

• 18.20: Twelve Oreos, Hunky Dorys Cheese and Onion, Kinder Bueno

More STOCS snacks…

• 23.05: Burger King XL Bacon Double Cheeseburger, large fries, large Fanta, medium Onion Rings

I stayed late in STOCS – not by choice, the time completely flew and it was after 9 in a flash – and had to get food in town. Haven’t actually had BK in ages before this, so it was a nice, if very filling and fatty, treat!

• 9.25: Packet of Harvest Fare 33% extra free Chilli Nuts

I have a very weak spot for chilli nuts. I can just sit here all day munching through a bag or two of them and be satisfied. I like peanuts. I like chilli. Together is heaven. At least the Harvest Fare ones are, since it’s the peanut in a chilli shell. Those that are actually just peanuts with a chilli coating are quite a bit spicier and I can’t exactly eat a full bag of them in one shot without some assistance!

• 11.15: Another 1½ bowls of almond Oats and More

Whenever there is epic cereal available, I’ll gladly have breakast everyday – at whatever point in time it happens to be. When there isn’t though, I generally won’t eat.

• 16.40: Cadbury’s Fudge

Went to shop to buy several things that were apparently needed in the house, including more cigarettes for herself. I bought a Fudge while waiting in the checkout queue. Out of the entire €40+ shopping bill, I spent 45c on myself. I’d consider that good, but then again I did end up paying for everything anyway…

• 23.15: Half a bowl of chilli beans with sliced sausages mixed in

Before you ask, no it wasn’t one of those tins that come with the sausages already in it. No, these were actual sausages cooked under the grill mixed in with a normal in of Heinz beans flavoured with an array of spices from the spice cabinet.

Yes, we have an entire fucking cabinet just for spices…

• At some point: Two Three Four SIX packets of Snax

Bought a 6 pack of Snax earlier in Eurospar since they were half price, while I was down there for kitchen roll which had been needed since last night. She gets into a fit when there is anything less than two rolls of the stuff in the press

So, to try and put into perspective whether or not I do eat to much crap, I’ve decided to start a food diary for the next week. I’ll be updating this one throughout the day with what I eat and when.

Those of you with a weak stomach might not want to read on – even though I don’t have any food porn embedded.

• 8.35: 1½ Bowls of Almond Oats and More with low-fat Super milk

My sister bought a box of Honey Oats and More over the weekend at some point, of which I had a bowl. It was epic. I went down to the shop to see if they had any more and more importantly, to see if they had any of the other varieties, particularly the almond one. They did. It was absolutely fucking epic.

Also, I don’t think I can do justice by simply saying a single bowl of cereal, since the bowls I normally use are more related to soup bowls than "normal" bowls…

• 12.50: Footlong Chicken Tikka sub w/cheese, lettuce, onion, peppers and sweet chilli sauce

Sub of the Day. ‘Nuff said. It’s yummy.

• 14.10: 750ml bottle of Lucozade Sport, a packet of Bassett’s Softfruits

To keep me awake during the always fun part of Languages and Computability – the bit about languages itself, taught by the Chinese postgrad whom you can’t understand…

• 18.45: 750ml bottle of Pepsi, two Snickers, packet of Hunky Dorys Scorchers, packet of Hunky Dorys Sour Cream and Onion, packet of Spar mini Choc Chip cookies

STOCS snacks. Don’t judge me, I’m weak

• 22.35: A third of a wok of prawns with noodles and oriental veg in a hoisin and spring onion sauce

Leftovers from dinner the family had earlier which I ate when I arrived home.