March, 2012

Curiosity

Noel Farrell

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Occu-Splattered
March 8, 2012

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Enda Kenny signed the new euro scal compact treaty while in Brussels at the weekend. It has me scratching my balding head again! Just last week he called for a referendum on the issue - but it seems he has his own mind made up already. As me old granddad used to say, 'Actions spake louder that words.' There have been plenty of views on the subject from within the ranks of high government and some of them suggests divisions. If it's not passed then this government falls - softened by cushy pension plans - in case the current chief instigators are not returned to 'serve.' A super-tax of 75% on pensions would sort out who's there to serve Ireland and who's there to serve themselves. One wonders why it is never discussed. The established order in this country should be ashamed of themselves. Michael Martin said 'sorry' to the Irish people over the weekend for the last governments 'ineptitude' but rendered it useless by offering excuses before he even uttered the word. With a room full of ex-ministers and taoiseagh, I doubt very much the ghtback is on. Bertie and Brian were there. Martin suggested Bertie's days might be numbered in the party if the tribunal ndings go against him. Then he lavished praise on Brian Cowen? He clearly needs to step aside now if the party are to have any chance of surviving. It was almost ironic that the parties Ard Fheis was held at the same time as 12,000 Irish people queued for miles to attend a foreign jobs expo at the same venue. A further 5,000 lined up in Cork yesterday. As the government announced who'd be junketing where for the Paddy's day festivities, Garda removed the Occupy Dame Street camp during the night. In scenes sure to further diminish Ireland's reputation abroad, it took over a hundred Garda and council ofcials to remove the protesters at Ireland's Central Bank.
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There still has not been one charge against anyone for the catastrophe that befell the Irish people - it seems light-touch regulation has a place in our democracy - but light-touch protest is driven from sight. Our forefathers must be turning in their graves. ************* In America, the Super Tuesday primaries in 10 states weighed in on the GOP presidential nomination race. Mitt Romney won six states. Rick 'The Sick' Santorum clinched three. Newt looks mute now after only picking up one. It all means that Romney is closing in on the nomination, but it's still not quite over. If Gingrich throws himself behind 'The Sick' then the homophone war-mongering side of the once great GOP may still think they have a chance at another term in the White House. But that's just them, and the media that back them to the hilt. In reality, these kind of people have ruined their party and more and more ordinary Americans are tuning into that with each passing week. As Obama entertained Israeli leader Benjamin Netenatu this past few days, the talk was all of Iran. The American president was saying all the right things as would be expected from a commander and chief - but he is uncomfortable. You can tell by his speech. It's broken, and not delivered with the same clarity and divisiveness which he's famous for. With thousands now dead in Syria the region is ultra-volatile. Iraq is unstable and it would appear the shift to democracy hasn't exactly gone to plan in Libya or Egypt either. After I walked into a door earlier, I had a bit of an awakening. What if all nuclear bombs were de-commissioned, say like, immediately.
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It can be done. We went to the moon. Let's just takes nukes out of the 'whose got the biggest military dick' equation. It's not like there's a huge military complex of psychopaths proting from it all or anything... Then the world could work backwards from there? If countries say 'no' to the decommission, we will then really know who's rogue and who isn't. I wonder how Fox and that capitalist leech Bill O 'Reilly would spin that one?

Happy Women's Day!

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Environmented
March 11, 2012

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It only took about two-and-a-half years, but I nally have an ebook version of Booker's World online. Minimum purchase - 1 million copies! Don Booker started out as a character from a book who sets out to write his way through a troubled time. He shouldn't have bothered - he should have been buried in servers by now - if only things had worked out to plan. He heard Ireland's call to keep things on a positive note and answered - until Booker found out it was just a load of shite! Another year steeled him up and although he remains rmly glued to a wooden chair in an Irish attic, the character will stick around and form some future part of whatever writing hes left inside me. The Irish side of life anyway. My writing needs to get out of Ireland for a time I think. For sanity sake. Over the past number of months, I've put together month-on-month musings from Booker since he rst appeared around here. A gonzo-type character written in real-time - but mostly with a ctional background. As I read back over the musings this past while, it still stuns me what has happened here in Ireland. A shock doctrine if ever there was one. But it's not all doom and gloom. I lie. It is! Booker has a certain humorous grace to certain darker readers I've been told. Without that, I don't think I could have written this blog. It is a great thing about us Irish. Our sense of humor. I hope we never lose it. The works here may be ction - but the times are real. A proper spin-free zone. Fair and unbalanced. Isn't that right, Bill O'? All the ebooks are now available on the blog. I've serialized them monthly - and into years. You can nd the timeline by clicking on any of the Booker's World ebook series at the top of the page at the blogsite, The Writing Life & Other Absurdities. They're free to read or download and all that is asked is that if you nd any use for
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them - then consider making a donation to a service in the area of suicide prevention. I'll nd other uses for them as the time goes by. The plan going forward is to write here twice weekly in the same style as the blog has environment-ed into. Then each month add an ebook based somewhat around the realities of the time as written about here - but intermingled with the ctional life and world of Don Booker. My contribution to the creative commons - for whatever that's worth. It's been a natural evolution to this point. It didn't set for here - but when you bear witness to the shyster-ism Ireland has further descended into, well, it seemed wrong to walk away from it. So at least that's one direction settled on. I've been a long while directionless. Good time to nd it again. Build up a few reserves before we get hammered further. 'At least you're alive,' said Leon. Indeed.

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The Curious Case of the Missing 3

March 16, 2012

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From time to time the blog has offered suggestions to the power in Ireland. Sometimes they are even taken up. You all remember the Curious Case of the Fuel Allowance. Last weekend seen the re-emergence of Sean Gallagher into the public domain after his loss to President Higgins in the race for the ras last year. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland recently upheld a complaint made by the ex-Fianna Fil runner over the bogus tweet that came to light during the infamous Frontline debate when Gallagher said he may have picked up 'an envelope' from a former fuel smuggler. The tweet may have been bogus - but it was his own admittance that proved to be his downfall. Over the weekend a member of the audience on the Frontline that evening suggested that he was schooled by RTE researchers into the questions he should pose to Gallagher on the night. I smelled a whiff of compo in the air. Passing time like the unemployed do - I went seeking a source for the people who funded Gallagher's run for presidency. I believe under Irish law this information has to be passed into the public domain at some stage. After a half-an-hour I was having no luck. I'm sure it will appear at some stage. Then I stumbled across this site. 'Ooh,' I said. 'That's strange. I didn't think that would be live still.' So i decided to take a look around.

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Some of the links were failing to load. But the main page - it was alive and well. 'Surely not,' I thought, focusing in on the main page. After a wrestle with the nancial end of things, I decided to part with some cash. I hit the Make A Donation Using Paypal button. Hey, the election ended nearly six months ago. I surely wouldn't lose my wad. Five minutes later my fears proved founded and I was down the sum total of 3. Conrmation emails accepting the massive donation from PayPal entered my inbox. Not to worry, I thought. It's just a minor oversight. I mean, the chap had just lost nearly 300k a year for seven years - with the option of another seven - as well as a guaranteed bestseller - How a B-celebrity rose to become the President of Ireland. It only seemed fair of me to assume that he had left the public stage in a hurry after he lost, and who could blame him? I mean shutting down your online donation porthole would be the last thing on any one's mind - assuming of course it's his. I expected to be contacted about the mistake. Three days later. Waiting...
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I'd have brought it to the attention of Team Gallagher, but like I said, links for contact and the such aren't loading from the site. The only part of it that works is the donate page. Oh well, it doesn't matter. He can pass it on to charity or one of his Youth groups. In the great grand scheme of things, it's a tiny sum of money. It's not like Booker has anyone to blame this time. Nobody forced me to donate to a campaign that has been over for nearly six months now. I mean that was just stupid. It's why I write this blog in an attic in a council estate and not from the shoreline of Lake Como. Anyway, it's not like us here in Ireland aren't used to having money taken from us. On the world stage, it's part of what makes us famous. Happy Paddy's weekend!

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Bound
March 19, 2012

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I remember days when Bank Holiday weekends were most welcome. Any extra few days off from a soggy Irish building site was always a good thing. Days and even weekends over the past number of years have all felt the same. Unemployment can make things feel a little like Groundhog day. One after the other. No real parity between what goes on during the week and at its end. I don't know what other Irish site workers days were like. Mine for the most part involved anything between a 1-2 hour journey into Dublin - depending on what side of the city we found ourselves working. The shift was usually 8am to 6pm with a breakfast roll at 10am for 15 minutes and at 1pm for half -an-hour. That was it. Saturdays, when available, were from 8am to 1pm. If you were sick you didn't get paid. If you missed a day, you didn't get paid. If you refused to work in the rain, at times, you didn't get paid. You'd wonder why we were part of a union half the time. Then there was the journey home through the trafc. That endless trafc. Most days accumulating to 12-14 hours. Hardly living life, hey? I worked for some decent people and also for those 'cowboys' that sprung into the saddle when cheap money became available. A bit of political favour at the back of it didn't do any harm either I imagine. Bad and all as it was at times, especially during the rainy season which usually lasts in Ireland for about 10 months, it did give a structure to the day and to the week. It also meant the money was there for those extracurricular activities we all like to delve into in our free time. I delved!

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The government were happy because they were getting their weekly cut. On average about 40%. The banks were happy because they got your money rst and could charge you for handling and dispensing your own money to you - at the very least! And the bills were being met most of the time. Despite the rat-race element to it, there was a small bit of freedom involved. A little more than what's around today - that's for sure. Practically the entire cabinet left for foreign shores this St. Patrick's Day weekend. Pushing the Irish cause where ever an ear could be found. Always felt these junkets were always just abuse of the public purse. I still feel the same. With no measurement to what these indulgent trips abroad actually bring to Irish society, it just seems like a case of the establishment here in Ireland helping themselves once more at tax-payer expense. 'But they're tax payers as well,' I hear old Larry cry from the grave. I'm sure the expense accounts and junkets ease the blow of that burden somehow, Lar! In return we get the usual fear-mongering to the Irish people over Household Charges and how to vote in the upcoming scal treaty. Banks over people. Seems a travesty to me considering all that's gone on here since September, 2009. Enda Kenny said over the weekend that he can see a return of Irish sovereignty next year. Does this delusion never end? Our banking debt is unmanageable. That's a simple fact! Without that establishment saving noose around the whole islands neck, we'd be singing. Like a lot of debt, it's unsustainable. Nice little life control mechanism all the same, isn't it? I see no reason to change my mind on how I've always seen things playing out.
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Without some pretty far reaching ideological development on the banking debt issue there is no other outcome. Default! Our national media are not bound by a re-mitt to put a positive spin on national affairs. Yet, that's what they do. Instead of chasing down into every dark crevice to nd out just what went down here in Ireland, they instead carry these stories about Enda's chants of the impossible, or polls suggesting that Irish emigration is in fact just a lifestyle choice. It may be the case in certain cases - but 59%! Please... There's no easy way out of this for Ireland. If the scal treaty is carried then there will be a continuation of this austerity drive over many years. A lose of national decision making. On present form, that may not be a bad thing! There will be issues with the corporation tax. Not a problem for me either. Corporations for the sheer purpose of prot is heading for the dustbin sooner or later. Best to rid ourselves of them now and attract a more socially minded corporation here based on some ideal more than a volatile casino that destroys people and societies. You know - position ourselves for when an age of sense comes. If it comes... There will be a slow erosion in standards of service and into wage packets - public and private. The gap between rich and poor will continue to enlarge. Communities will struggle to hold themselves together such could be the social backlash. That will happen what ever we choose - though it will be more manageable if there's a bit of national pride, goodwill and humanity around the place. I wonder could Enda address the people again. In plain and simple terms. Tell them the truth. Short term pain - Long-term gain or Short-term gain - Long-term pain.
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That's all Ireland needs to decide come referendum day really. There's no easy x. It's possibly the nal chance for Ireland to strike out on her own again or decide to hang on to coat-tails forever more. I thought Ireland would change how she operated since the collapse. Felt kinda good that maybe we'd be part of some change that honours parts of the Irish constitution sometimes forgotten about. But Ireland's not changing. It's exactly the same - if not worse.You'd wonder why life is made to be such a struggle for so many, while these systems of power and inuence that affect us all are rarely held to any sort of account for their illactions. Because, that's what's happening, and more disturbingly, it's being allowed to happen. If I'm proved wrong eventually - I'll eat my book! ************* In the race to be defeated by Barack Obama over in the United States, Rick Santorum took the bible-belt states of Alabama and Mississippi as expected. Santorum seems to be moving away from the economy and pushing various rights buttons on the electorate, whether it be women's rights, gay rights or just about any one's rights. Whoever made him God, I don't know. People were born free. Who gives anyone the right to lecture another on their rights? Oh yeah, we do, by voting for them! So, no-one to blame really. Mitt Romney took Hawaii and Puerto Rico. He goes into tomorrow's Illinois primary with a huge lead in the polls. Home & hosed barring some divine intervention for Santorum.
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Bin liners
March 25, 2012

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There was this old friend of Larry's called Bert Mahon. He worked the bins for Patsy Carolan, back in the day when bins were made from steel and could be stuffed with banger TV's. Back when it was all manual lifting and discarding said bin was a matter of choice for the bin man. Before there were rules about such things! Bert served his master well. He smoked cigarettes as he dispensed with the garbage. Food, ashes and nappies clinging to his overalls, all which made him smell like a dump. 24-7. A man of simple tastes was Bert. Never could settle until he did. For six pints of bass a night and a chipper on the way home. The grind gradually wore ol' Bert down over the years. Lungs start giving way. Trouble with his back. Inamed joints. Eye-sight went on the blink. His hair began to fall out. His cheekbones tried to escape from the sockets of his eyes. He even went a little yellow if I remember correctly. Though that could have been just wet ashes that sometimes screeched across his face on wetter days. Patsy's son Dave, a right little bollocks, used to take pics of old Bert and stick them up on YouTube. No-one knew he did it, apart from the thousands that tuned in to voyeur for what ever reason. Bert certainly didn't know. He wasn't a YouTube kinda guy. He continued to wear thin. He won a Hunter S. Thompson look-alike contest two weeks before he departed. Ringer he was. He was proud of that. Then it all came to a head. One day, when no-one was looking - in he went. Using that very head of his that was shrinking with each passing week, he arrowed himself into the back of the lorry one miserable wet Thursday in the middle of summer. 2005, I think! 'He must have slipped,' they said. They were wrong.
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'He jumped,' Larry told me, recalling a conversation Bert and he had one evening on the late Hugh Everett III. 'He told me he'd do it. It's where he wanted to go!' Those other world's.
*************

... Back in reality. Its taken 15 years. It cost in the region of a quarter of a billion euro. Its ndings hasn't surprised anyone. A year or thereabouts to the day since Irish politics last great day of shame when the Moriarty Tribunal reported, the Mahon Tribunal nally published its ndings today. The 3,200+ page report found ex-taoiseach Bertie Ahern, 'untruthful' in matters surrounding his personal nances. No allegation of corruption were laid against the former 3-time taoiseach. Other members of Fianna Fil were not so lucky. Ex-Minister Padraig Flynn and ex-Fianna Fil TD, Liam Lawlor, were both found to have sought and received corrupt payments. Former Fianna Fil and government press-secretary, Frank Dunlop, was found to have received 1.8 million from developer Owen O' Callaghan. O' Callaghan earlier today dismissed the reports ndings and called for a judicial review. It doesn't end there. 11 county Councillors have also had ndings of corruption laid against them. Fianna Fil's Finbarr Hanrahan, Cyril Gallagher and GV Wright, Fine Gael's Tom Hand, Labour's John O'Halloran and Independent Pat Dunne. Five cannot be named because they are before the courts.
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It would appear the problem is not systemic to any one party these days. Where else is it going on? To what level? How do you get in on the action? We'll never know. The day of a tribunal cash-cow is over in Ireland. We're bankrupt! The report found that corruption affected 'every level of Irish political life and was allowed to continue unabated.' Damning statement, no doubt about it. 'There's a crook in us all,' as Leon used to say. As was the case with the Moriarty Tribunal just one year ago, the Government have referred the report to Garda Commissioner, the Director of Public Prosecutions , the Revenue Commissioners and to the Standards in Public Ofce Commission. I said what I said about that back then. I have seen nothing that makes me change my mind since. Michael Martin has promised a swift response to the ndings, to which he said earlier he accepted. It would appear Bertie's days as a Fianna Fil member are over. Unfortunately Martin - and I do like the man - is on a fast track to no-where given his ties with the previous Fianna Fil government. He was one of many ministers who took a stab at the tribunal and its questioning of Ahern at the time in question. Dick Roach, Willie O' Dea and Dermot Ahern were others. I remember Ireland pre-Bertie Ahern and know the Ireland of today. His hand in things stretch far and wide, for better or for worse, depending on an individuals standpoint. There's no doubt what he brought to Ireland. Before his vision blurred. Before ours did too.
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Ahern's legacy unfortunately will forever be tainted by these payments, dig-outs, loans, horse winnings, whatever they were. We've all dug-out a mate at one time or another. Not that I'm making a comparison. He could come clean and account for the money in full. Might step on a few toes though. It doesn't appear lightly however. He maintained in a statement tonight he never received a corrupt payment and he still intends to pursue avenues to vindicate his name. Ahern's a man who got to caught up in his own hype and perhaps even that legacy that he worked hard to build before it turned sour. His contribution to peace on the island can not be denied. Making Ireland feel a little good about herself was also good while it lasted. However, he also authored her present downfall with giveaway budgets that deed belief when commentators were saying a brake needed to be applied. He did it for an historical third term as taoiseach. It worked. We all bought it. Like Bertie, we got carried away also. It's easy to blindfold a willing nation. Some beneted more than others - but who would deny it was fuckin' great while it lasted. All the goings-on in Anglo, the share xing investigation, events surrounding the back guarantee, the potential opening up of NAMA have all still to come. If you're looking for light at the end of a tunnel, look for another tunnel. It's enough to make you want to retire into a bottle of a certain Russian substance with a little Arctic Ice shipped in especially for such occasions. Smoke cigarettes and write about vampires. Till dawn. Then lie in bed all day and think about it. Between naps and episodes of Jeremy Kyle. Let it all just slip on by. I really need to get around to that way of livin'.
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How do you change a system that's rotten to the core - and quickly? Unfortunately, you can't. Hopes a devilish fuck to have to contend with by times. We get whiffs of it. Around election times - but it quickly disappears. You read these reports and the damn headlines day in and day out. Nothing changes. It's a self-serving circle. Despite it all coming out - little is ever done. There's no desire for fairness or equality in the circles that have the power to shape that. It's a nod and a wink, crony capitalistic culture. It's there to see with every day that passes. What change does Ireland ever get? The change they vote for? Don't make me laugh. I'm sure me face would crack. Nope, we get teachers like 'Big' Phil Hogan talking down to adults in this country like they are school children and criminals because they dare question the fairness of the utterly wrong Household Charge. After what politics has done to this country? Pure arrogance. If it's not him it's Varadkar or Creighton. And even Gilmore at times. No change! Just another bad day for Ireland. Worse, because from where I sit, it won't change much. It cost a quarter of a billion euro to bring these things to people's attention. Might be a bad day for Ireland - but it's a good day for someone. I wonder if Bert and Hugh ever met in a dump somewhere. Lost out there with the rest of the garbage. Been a lot of garbage lately though.
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Conversations From A Dump. by Don Booker. I read a rumour on a forum earlier that Bertie Ahern would be signing copies of the Mahon Tribunal Report in Eason's tomorrow in aid of a Children's Hospital. Crazy Daze.

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Batteries
March 25, 2012

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The sun broke through enough today to add a little color to the skin. It felt like that anyway. It's expected to stay for a few days. Might even be an early Summer. For the past few years the summer season has selected a couple of weeks in April, before making way rapidly for the long 10-month rainy season. The exception being the odd rogue sunny day here and there. You'd think with the size of the sun, even we here in Ireland would see a little more of it. It does allow for a different view from the old attic window when it's time to get up in the evening. If it re-appears tomorrow, I might get up in the afternoon instead. Derrito With Bertie Ahern facing expulsion from the party he ran for 14 years - before Brian Cowen ran into the ground - the codger beat present leader, Michael Martin, to the punch and resigned from Fianna Fail late last night. I wonder if this is now the last we hear of Bertie on the Irish political sphere. I very much doubt it. Does he lie down quietly now and hope it all goes away? Or does he answer his own calls of innocence and attempt to explain away the money in a manner that might be believable, and challenge the tribunal's ndings. There may be a bit to run yet on this one, but then again, a year after Moriarty reported, Denis O'Brien was in the US with current leader Enda Kenny over the Paddy's weekend. So who knows... Over the past two weeks the amount of 'heat' being put on the Irish people over the deeply unpopular Household Charge - the gateway to the more protable Property Tax is of a nasty tone.
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There's an air of arrogance and swagger in some corners of government that don't bet the times. Some of them are so far out of touch you'd really have to ask serious questions about Ireland's future. 20% of households have registered to comply so far. There's about a week to the deadline - after which penalties come into play. Minister Phil Hogan is acting every bit the authoritative gures as he threatens the law of the land and house calls from Council workers on rogue citizens. Given the percentage of uptake to date it sounds like Big Phil may have to change his tone a little if he wants to change the populous opinion on this one. Given what's been going on this past number of years in Ireland. These tribunals - if nothing else - have spotlighted a rogue system. I think the day when a jumped-up school teacher talks down to any knowledgeable Irish person is over. Elected or otherwise. We need a higher standard of politician in this country. One's capable of the job. I wondered over scrambled eggs earlier if Ireland's actually nding her voice once more after the shock wave of the past number of years. We haven't even begun to sort out the mess the countries in yet. Maybe Ireland will be a better place at the end of it all. She might if people nd their voices, stand their ground and demand some signicant change. Though, given history, I won't hold my breath. In America, Rick Santorum won in Louisiana on Saturday in his bid for the Oval Ofce. It's an emerging pattern now. Santorum speaks to the Republican conservative's in the South. Unfortunately for him, his brand of conservationism is in decline. It might have an audience, but it isn't big enough to bring him the White House in 2012.
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Still, Santorum will be good for a state-of-the-art touring bus at the end of all this. He can take turns with Palin, Bachmnan and Perry to keep spewing whatever Fox News want them to spew in return for book deals and speaking fees. It's a lucrative corner of the American political market - but it's cheap money. 12-45am - I think a few hours research to start the day might be called for Have to try and nd a small American town. For a setting. For a book. Another failure to add to the shelf. Still, it gets me out of Ireland for a while. If only in the head. Oh, the clock's stopped ticking. I must get a battery.

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Buds
March 28, 2012

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I have one dream in life. A writing room with a huge window that shows the seasons as they come and go. A large garden with an expanse of water at the bottom. A clear view of the sky - which must be blue for at least three-quarters of the year. That's it. I popped my head out the attic window earlier. That view wasn't there. The sun was though. So I left my head there for an hour, watching nothing much, as it came and went with a whispering breeze that I'm nearly sure was saying, 'Don't pay the Household Charge.' I'm lucky. I don't have too. It's Mum that rents this place. Even if they tried to get it from her I wish them luck. In her condition and all. Sonny and his missus nally went south yesterday. It was bound to happen. He popped round earlier for a cuppa. How Irish. "I think we're incompatible," he said. No shit, Sonny! They are going to share their house until Sonny gets sorted or the banks take it. Shouldn't be a problem. They've been at that most their married lives already. He rambled on. Blaming everything from the Dame St. Occupation, his continuing money issues, and his failings between the marital sheets for the break-up. I tuned out early. I don't know how Sonny went from being a motivator to this half-shaved hobo, that was starting to outstay his welcome. I'd things to be doing. Things! Why is this house always invaded by the defeated? Is it because I let them wear the lug-holes off me by nodding and throwing out the occasional 'yeah.'
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I'm glad people don't ask me, 'What did I just say?' I'd be screwed 99% of the time. That's acceptable in most quarters nowadays. Plus, I rarely get screwed. I got an invitation to Denise's latest launch yesterday. Don and Friend. I'm not a launch person. Unless it's on a rocket off the planet. I'm sure it can be avoided. I'll come down with something before then. Gustav, the foreigner from next door popped in this evening. 'Come. We shoot something,' he said, armed with a new camera. 'You want swig with this,' he said, handing me a vodka ask he had in his other hand. There was no-one about so why not. We walked up to Haunted Hill. I took in the surroundings as he wandered around poking his lens into whatever he could nd. Got to admit it. On a clear day, there's no beating this place. For all her faults. Probably why the spirits never leave here. Roaming around like they are supposed too. Like Cirrus clouds. I lay in the lengthening grass as Gustav swapped the camera for the ask, before meandering off again searching. I think i feel asleep. I woke gasping for breath. Gustav had closed my nasal passage with his ngers. 'I spend twenty minutes trying to nd you,' he laughed, as I regained myself. 'Come, I show you on the computer,' he said, walking away back toward town. Once I got my breath back and wiped the water from my reddened eyes, I followed. Once back Gustav made two of his specials. Vodkatae. He began downloading the photos from his camera on to his computer. We came across one he'd taken of me. Asleep. Mouth wide open. Looking auld. Beetroot, I was. That pesky sun.
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Between the misses Gustav had scored a few hits. 'Look at this,' he said excitedly as I made two more specials. I went back to the computer. 'Buds' he said, smiling. Someone happy. How rare. I hope Sonny's alright. I might give him a bell tomorrow. That's if I don't wake in the morning a bleedin' blister.

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Bookers World March, 2012 This ebook series cover events as they happen through the eyes of the ctional Don Booker - an unemployed recluse as he attempts to write himself through personal and social woe in an Ireland in decline. The novel, Booker's World is separate from this series of ebooks, though both worlds do collide at certain juncture as time goes by. An ebook version of the novel is now available. All ebooks in this series may be used for reference and may be distributed freely once adhering to Creative Commons License and crediting the author.

With cuts to depression & addiction services being implemented in Ireland, please consider these when making a charitable donation in the future.

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Also in this series -

Planet Bonkers 45

5 Days in September Deathly Quotes November Nightmares Absurdities Purjurious Times Forgetful Directions Chill Dark The Loaded Taoiseach Independence International Mutha-F*ckrz The Cost of Living

Visitors Dead Peasants The Great Gas Giveaway Celtic Whine Murder by State Mr. President The Casting of the Dye Three Planks & Ron Paul Escaping The Walls

All available to read or download at The Writing Life & Other Absurdities

Last Daze The Artful Dodger

On Scribd

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Also by Noel Farrell

Novel Bookers World

Sonny Strange

Amazon
or

Free download

Contact :jasepub@gmail.com
Noel Farrell 2012

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