fucking christmas

christmas balls

i don't know, maybe i'm just getting old, but i find myself angered by all the talk of christmas, and in particular the emphasis on "what are you getting?"

since september people have been talking about what to get the kids for christmas, and asking bethan (who is two) what she is getting from santa.

now, i have heard the gibberish talked for years about the commercialisation of christmas and putting the christ back into christmas. i am tired of listening to people shouting about councils in england putting up signs saying "happy festivities". (i think that usually prompts a "it's political correctness gone mad"). i don't particularly care about those things, anymore than i care about the commercialisation of hallowe'en.

but my daughter is two. do you have to encourage her greed, coveting, and consumerism so early in life.
honestly, she would be happy enough with one toy, so why is she taught that she needs everything in the fucking argos book?

apparently, it would be unfair and mean to limit the huge volume of toys, clothes, sweets, and novelty items that she gets to an amount that she could actually enjoy.

i think there is probably a reason why they call children who get everything they want "spoiled" or "ruined". these are not good words, and they are not something that we should wanting for our children.

it all seems very ugly and immoral to me that we are all going to get and eat so much. at the same time if we don't consume our economy might collapse and people will be out of work, so maybe there is a future in promoting shopping as a socially conscious way to act. maybe not.

i don't to be all "grumpy bastard", but i really don't think this whole thing is healthy. what's the answer - i don't know.

maybe things like present aid are the way forward. or freecycle. what do you think?

load of balls

in rainbows

i think i might pee myself

belfast beards salutes you...

sebastian chabal

rugby world cup

here's hoping this string of shit doesn't ruin the world cup for ireland.

whatever the weather

hello again

this summer, maybe more than most, people have been talking about the weather quite a bit.

i find it amusing and bewildering as to how many people actually believe angie phillips and her gang of weather guessers. the fact that the forecast changes between the lunch time bulletin and the tea time one surely is an indication taht they are talking out of their arse.

i don't know why they put the time on the "forecast", like saying at 8am tomorrow the weather will be...whenever they quite clearly have no idea what the weather will at 8am tomorrow.

but people continually fall for it, saying things like "it's supposed to get better on tuesday" or, "the forecast said it was going to rain, and it's lovely" .

i was in sligo at easter time and a guy said to me "they say it's going to be an amazing summer - the best for years", i was back there near the start of july, and teh same guy said "they say the rain's going to be with us all summer".

the fact that they clearly didn't know what they were talking about at easter, didn't stop him believing totally what they said in july.

anyway, i'm beginning to sound like one of those shit tv programmes about thingsthat really annoy people - did anyone ever see brassed of britain. maybe i should just phone big stephen nolan and tell him about it.

found this profile on angie, if anyone is interested..http://www.randomshite.co.uk/angie-phillips.html

proud to be...

i had a quite weird day on saturday.

bethan (my daughter) was away with my sister and her family to see fish in portaferry, so the rest of us (ruth, my wife and joe, my baby son) headed into town to relax, have lunch, spend some hmv vouchers, have coffee and stuff.

on the way into town, we spotted some people dressed very unusually, but didn't really think anything of it. then we realised that it was the annual "pride" march in belfast.

i have never been in belfast for pride before and am more used to seeing old men in collars and flute bands marching, so i found the whole thing very different.

i was surprised to see a couple of things,
firstly, there where loads of people parading. i had no idea that there was such a large gay community in belfast.
secondly, the response of the crowd was seemingly one of cheering and acceptance, and i didn't see anyone heckle or shout abuse at the parade.

these were both pleasant surprises. i thought that maybe belfast is becoming a more tolerant place and maybe even a more fun place.
i am sure that there was some free presbyterians condemning everyone to hell somewhere, but i didn't see them.

i don't know what the ethos of the pride parades is, but it made me ask what i am proud of.
i seem to have spent a lot of effort feeling anything but proud of my culture, class and faith - certainly not proud enough to parade declaring it.

i don't know what it is that makes me want to hide, or run away from, these things. i guess i am thinking that pride isn't a good thing and puts others on the defensive and judges others.
maybe i am reluctant to declare myself an evangelical christian because i am not proud of some of the attitudes and statements that come from people calling themselves this - particularly about sexuality.

maybe rg, will explain the psychology behind this, but maybe there is no real explanation other than i am a chickenshit who doesn't want to be labelled and defined.

i was proud to be from belfast on Saturday though.