Galway United Pre Season Launch

The Pre Season launch for Galway United's upcoming season was this afternoon. Here are a some of my fellow Management Committee members. The launch gave fans the opportunity to meet the manager and team, get autographs and have their photo taken. It was held in Elvery's Sports and was a big success!

Members of the Galway United Management Committee. (l-r) Morgan O'Brien, Vincent O'Connor, Bertie O'Leary, Mike Daly, Noel Connolly, Mairtin O' Mochain, David Flaherty, Sean Rafferty. Front: Ronan Coleman.

Saturday Walk...

Neen and I went for a walk together this afternoon. Although we live just three miles from Galway city centre the countryside is literally on our doorstep. In truth we didn't know where we were going, we just decided to head out and see where the fate's brought us. We found a small country road we hadn't traveled down before so we thought "why not?!"

We walked until we reached a crossroads and to our detriment we chose left. A narrow low-lying road turned out to be impassable as a 20 foot patch of road was flooded. 

We re traced our steps, took the right turn this time and stumbled across this friendly fellow. Neen was filming a video for her Youtube channel at the time and he immediately walked up to us and the camera to say "Hi" I rubbed his coat and after a couple of photos and a chat we moved on.... 

But the horse decided to follow...The wall on this end of the field was higher than he remembered!

Neen took a quick photo on her phone and for a second time we said our goodbyes.

The horse however had other ideas. Unbeknownst to us he made his way from one field to another and eventually found his way to the farm yard entrance for one last rub. It's a shame we didn't have a carrot or apple with us...next time though!

I find it pretty cool that on a day I found a mysterious horse shoe in our garden (check previous post) I also met a super friendly horse so close to our home. Neen eventually dragged me away from my new best friend and our walk continued...

We also met quite a few cows along the way...

Although they proved quite uninterested...

if not a touch suspicious...

I leave you with one last photo to ponder over...

Who or what lives in this absolutely minuscule house?

(PS If interested, Neens video of our walk can be seen here on her Youtube channel.)

I found a Horse Shoe!

For the first time in months it was finally nice enough weather to go outside and kick the ol' football around. Sora came too, mostly to watch although she did "attack" the ball a couple of times just for fun. I wasn't out for long, maybe 40 minutes or so when I found this; a metal horse shoe, slightly eroded and embedded in the ground. I'm really not sure how long it has been there.  Nor can I fathom how exactly I haven't stumbled across it before. It was literally right smack in the middle of the garden. The amateur archeologist in me would love to think it was considerably older than I'm sure it actually is. Still cool though!

Big News!

Remember a short while ago, I mentioned I had just bought a season ticket for Galway United's upcoming Premier Devision season? Well what a difference a few short weeks makes. I approached the club early in the new year offering my design and illustrative services on a volunteer basis, should they have a need for them. You see, the vast majority of professional football clubs in Ireland are struggling on a weekly basis to stay alive. If I could help in any small way, I wanted to. Well they got back to me and I've worked on a couple of small pre-season design jobs thus far, not too much. Well Monday last, a few mere weeks before the start of the new season, Galway United were notified that they would not be granted a licence to play football this year. An appeal was possible but things looked pretty darn hopeless to be honest. The club naturally agreed to an appeal and had a few short days to compile their case before the hearing early Friday morning. It became clear that the failure to grant a 2011/12 Premier Devision license stemmed from a simple piece of paperwork that due to exceptional circumstances, hadn't been submitted on time.

Thursday night on the eve of the hearing an Extraordinary General Meeting was held by the Galway United Supporters Trust. All fans were invited so I went along. In a brave and selfless move GUST have taken over the job of running the club. All on a completely voluntary basis I might add. The prior management had run the club into a loss making rut and if the club was to continue trading, this drastic move was it's last hope. 

Long story short Thusday night at the EGM a management committee was being established to run the club in the event we won the appeal. Chairmen, Secretary, FAI Liaison etc. Approximately 10 specific positions needed to be filled along with an additional 5-7 title-less committee spots. 

Well you might have guessed where this is going. I am now one of  the members of the 17-man Management Committee, tasked with running the club for the foreseeable future. It's a huge honour. I'll be working closely with the PR officer Sean Flaherty and his assistant officer Vincent O'Connor Jr. specifically in relation to marketing and the club program.  I can't wait. I have a lot of ideas, and genuinely feel I can contribute a lot to the club in the years to come. I've said this already but I am honestly very honoured to be in such a position. Especially considering the fact that a few short weeks ago I was just another fan.

Are we addicted to the internet?

Are we becoming addicted to the net? I don't know about you but I definitely spend more time online than I'd like...What websites do you frequent the most on a daily/weekly basis? Do you have an online routine? Fruitful, fruitless or downright embarrassing - feel free to leave your list below? My sites in no particular order are...

Blogs

My Art Blog: 

My Personal Blog: 

My wife's blog:

(Plus any newly updated blogs on my blog list)

For Fun

DeviantART: 

/Film: 

Youtube: 

Auto Express: 

Football Shirt Culture: 

Comic Book Movie: 

My Nintendo News:

Bulbapedia: 

Work

Google Search Engine (.ie and .com)

Wikipedia:

Thesaurus:

Dictionary: 

Wordhippo: 

Gmail log-in:

To Shop

Book Depository:  (Books)

7-Digital: (Music Downloads)

Ebay: (Stuff I don't need)

CD Wow: (CD'S and DVD's)

Lego Pokemon

I stumbled across this project by Filip Johannes Felberg. He has created over 100 Lego versions of popular pokemon characters and has done an amazingly brilliant job...I am genuinely in awe of his creative ability. If you appreciate the art of Lego construction or are simply a fan of pokemon, be sure to check out his Flickr or Youtube accounts. (Illustrations © Nintendo - Lego creations © Filip Johannes Felberg)

Thorns

Sora our long haired cat is always coming home with all sorts stuck to her. This weekend was no different. Saturday morning as usual she hopped onto our bed.  Groggily I rubbed her back from fluffy collar down to her bushy tail. I noticed a clump of fur in-between her back legs so I sat up, found a scissors and proceeded the cut it off. In doing so I pricked my finger. Obviously I wasn't dealing with a run of the mill hair ball. Sora calmly and cooperatively flopped on to her side. (She is quite used to me removing knots from her coat.) I snipped off the unwanted accessory and on examination found she had a cluster of thorny branches matted in her fur...It must have been pretty uncomfortable to walk with.

Found Ya!

First Lizard of the Season

Today started pretty crappily. I have a cold and didn't sleep much last night. It was lashing rain and windy when I woke up and I was very aware and worried about Neen walking to work. I hated seeing her go...I also got a letter in the post I was in no mood to receive, especially today. 

On the plus side I was greeted with the first lizard of the season. He was in the middle of the kitchen floor when I entered to boil the kettle this morning. I'm not entirely sure if it's normal behavior for all lizards but the ones I've encountered play dead when you first find them. They don't budge at all. If they are accidentally overturned they will lay floppy and lifeless on their backs until they no longer deem you a threat. This poor little guy had blood on his nose. Not much, just a dry faint stain. I'm not sure if it was the cats....After a minute or so of lying lifeless and comatose in my hand he suddenly sprang to life and started walking all over the place. He was very friendly and appeared to be in perfect health. I snapped a quick photo and then put him out side in the coal and turf bunker. From my experience it's one of their favorite spots, which they also happen to share with the snails.

Another nice surprise was I received some art from a young talented fan...if interested I uploaded images on my Art Blog here. Off to make some dinner...have a great night!