Pints with the lads and Strange Brew at the Roisin Dubh

Okay, I have a couple posts to incorporate into one here. Surprisingly enough, even though I already posted today I have more material!

Tonight I had football training (soccer practice). Somehow my team got all the runners and we won handily for the hour. I was compared to Ian Rush, a former Liverpool player. Basically the original ‘fox in the box’. I was happy with the comparison as this is a small side 5x5 venue. So the fact that I am the guy that scores a bunch of close in goals is hard to recognize in this venue. I think my Junior Year in High School I had six goals from a cumulative total of about 18 yards out, thank you Chuck Slutten. That is pretty much the role I have settled into considering my advanced age.

So the training went well, and for the first time after the football, WE WENT FOR PINTS! I was so pumped up to be included. But of course it couldn’t go that well. Somehow I had my Guinness glass on the table and it slipped as I was putting it down. I tried to catch the glass on the way down, but apparently I did more harm than good and somehow pushed the glass down and accelerated its decent. So the end result was that I shattered my Guinness glass into more pieces than I thought possible. But, don’t despair, the glass was empty. So I was just embarrassed and felt like a little of a klutz.

In addition I made a friend, well okay an acquaintance. With friend potential. One of the guys I play with just moved to Galway like us, but from Chicago. So I thought, ‘cool another American’. Negative, he has lived in the US for about six years but is originally from Scotland. Good enough, I am going to call him my Scottish/American friend.

But the funny thing was I was talking to my Scottish/American friend and telling him that I had joined a golf club here in town. And he said that he already knew that. How I asked? From the blog. I had sent him a couple messages while trying to get on another team and he checked out the blog. This confirms my suspicions, that many more people are reading the blog than are actually leaving comments.

So the moral of the story is that if you are reading this or another post on the blog and are even mildly entertained, please leave a comment!

Tonight after the training and the pints I came home and changed. Then I went to the Roisin Dubh. That is the concert venue really close to our house. It is actually a really cool place. They have something every night. Wednesday is comedy and Thursday is what they call ‘Strange Brew’ and is free. The rest of the nights they have bands with a cover. Mainly up and coming Irish artists and such. Last week Director was their big show. This week the big name is ‘I’m from Barcelona’. But they have bands every night. And they also have a late license, meaning they are open and serving liquor until 2 AM every night. If we actually get anyone to visit, I imagine that I will take them to this place at least once per visit.

Here is the website with the fixture list, if any of you are ‘down with the music scene’ and see someone that you think we/I should see, let me know. This place is literally about a 15 second walk from our apartment.

http://www.roisindubh.net/

Tonight was one of the Strange Brew nights. Basically a free night where they get whatever talent they can get to play. Ham Sandwich opened. They had one good song, but mostly they were just loud. The lead singer was a girl, while the rest of the band was made up of 5 dudes. The girl was sporting the requisite super short sequined dress. Reminded me a little of the No Doubt girl, without the talent and husky voice. Again, they were mainly loud. They did have the one single that I liked for sale on CD for 4 Euros. I should have bought it, just so I could actually hear the words. Again, the overwhelming impression was loud.

The main act was ‘The Cartoon Thieves’. They were actually pretty good. Maybe even better than that. They were also loud, but enjoyable.
For those of you keeping track at home, my internet is still having problems. I called NTL and they recognize that there is a problem. They are going to send a technician on Monday. I hope that clears it up. Additionally we are still having phone problems. Our home land line is still not working. Yesterday I bought a new phone thinking it might be the problem with the phone itself. Nope, it is in the line. So now I am stuck with two phones and no working line to plug them into.

I was able to get the Eircom people on the phone, they are going to send a technician. But they could not give me an ETA, only that it would be in the next 28 days. And the technician was going to cost 107.43 Euros for the call. While we are not paying the bill, I don’t see how we should be responsible for the installation fee as it is a brand new building. The offshoot of all this is that if you are expecting a phone call from us, we really have no way to call until the internet gets dialed in.