NiallOK’s Blog

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Here’s some photos I took with my phone in London the weekend before last… Click any thumbnail to see the full picture…

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Okay, I’ve been away for a few days (went to visit my brother and his housemates in London) and now I’m having problems with my laptop (which I’m slowly sorting out) so I’ve been away from blogging for a short while and will be for a LITTLE bit longer. Took some nice photos in London,- I’ll probably post them.

In the meantime, here’s a video a friend’s sister showed me recently that made me laugh out loud… Achmed, the dead terrorist.

SILENCE! … I KILL YOU!

Recently I got back in contact with someone who reminded me of some stuff I used to write (poems, short stories and the like) and I’ve been looking back at some of it with a mixture of both warm and sad feelings.

So… anyway… six years and four days ago (when I was twenty-five), I wrote this poem called “The Clare Way”. It was influenced by a time when me and this young American lady who I was utterly in love with and had a strong spiritual connection with, stumbled upon a quiet secluded little corner of County Clare with a mansion next to a lake which was found via a mossy tunnel of trees, well off the beaten track, and it was written in - oh  about 10 minutes. Make of it what you will:-

The Clare Way The leafy glades some gods had made And put aside as beauty, The mossy treet of make-believe All overgrown and rooty. The ruined house in freedom dowsed And full of lifes loud glory, Where every stick or crumbled brick Could tell an endless story. The slanted flights of golden light Strike down on a moss-made carpet The hiding creatures of the night Their ne’er-discovered target The wind dies down, cold circles round, The woods are dead alive. - An idyllic spot - amidst the rot Where life and love now thrive. And in the verdant vibrant green Two tangled souls now tread, This dusk-walk won, trapped from the sun To dreams and hopes ahead.

As reported on RTÉ News, it’s the end of the road for (unaccompanied) unlicensed drivers as it’s now illegal (as of midnight, Monday night) to drive on your own unless you’re fully licensed - and damn right too.

That’s not to say that Irish people won’t moan about this - sure where would we be if we didn’t have something to moan about?
(… Jersey?) One common excuse is bound to be the old “we didn’t get enough warning” chestnut which, I’m afraid, is bollocks. The longest driving test back-log that I’ve heard of was 6-8 weeks (it’s come down a LOT recently) and this new law was announced over 6 months ago, so the truth behind that excuse was being too forgetful or lazy to bother applying for the test not not having enough time !

As I said last October, I’m glad I have my full license myself. I felt sorry for learner drivers back then, but that was because it seemed as if the laws were going to be introduced very quickly and not in fact many months later. I don’t feel sorry for them now as they’ve had a more than adequate chance to sort themselves out with a test.

We’ve always had one of the most lax “ah sure it’s grand” style attitudes towards learner driver laws in the world. As I said in a recent TV interview, it’s always been a case of “just send away for the piece of paper, it arrives in the post and out you go on the road”. This law plugs a gap that has been open for far too long. I’m sure it’ll reduce the number of cars on the roads (better for the environment!) and will annoy a lot of people - well, unlicensed drivers (who have no excuse anyway…) but as long as it helps reduce the level of carnage, it’s worth it.

In related news, I’m closing ShiteDrivers.com. The domain name is due to expire on July 18th and unless someone takes it off my hands well before that, that’s the end of it.