hoo-boy, men in shorts

I've just had some news that I'm a little ambivalent about. On the one hand, I've been promised a much-coveted ticket to go see the GAA Gaelic football fan in Croke Park. On the other, I'm not so sure that it's my thing. In theory, I'm all for Gaelic games -- they're fast, they're exciting and I love the fact that there are so many years of history behind them. But I feel like a bit of a fraud taking a ticket and going to stand in the stadium with all the fans! I guess I'll try to get swept up in the excitement of the whole thing. I've been in Croke Park before, and it's pretty nice. And I do like the buzz in the city when there's a big match and all of a sudden the city centre is chock full of culchies up for the day. Just last week, there was a massive hurling match and the streets were full of supporters wearing blue (Tipperary) or black-and-yellow (Kilkenny). When it was all over, the Tipperary fans celebrated and the Kilkenny fans drowned their sorrows in the same pubs all over the city. It's pretty cool the way the fans don't get mad at each other! And as a culchie myself, albeit not an Irish culchie, I'm on their side when it comes to deflecting sarcastic remarks tossed in their general direction by the Dublin crew.

If you ever needed proof of the wonderful Irish ability to poke fun of themselves, check out the Culchie Festival, an annual event. You couldn't make this stuff up!!

Tonight's a rare occasion: me and my flatmate are both off work at the same time and as despite working in the same restaurant and living in the same flat we've hardly exchanged a word for weeks, we're gonna put on our glad rags and head out. I feel like going somewhere fancy, so I'm thinking maybe the Church (which is also convenient for the quick stagger back to our place) but he's more a sports-boy, so if I'm not careful I'll end up in one of those places where thousands of sweaty guys raise their pint glasses and shout at the high-definition TV, and we still won't have exchanged more than a couple of words by the end of the evening!