Ceol agus Craic!!

Every year around the 7th December, in my old secondary school, we used to have a big Céili. An equal number of boys and girls tickets were distributed every year with some people left disappointed as the tickets were like gold! Unforunately, this year I won't be taking part as I have officially left the school! I would particularly like to go this year as it is the 30th Céili in the school. The Céili normally starts at 9pm and finishes at 12 midnight. With the live band playing 'The Walls of Limerick' and the like, and 3 hours non-stop dancing it sure does get you into shape for Christmas!
Although the Céili sounds old-fashioned, everyone in the school enjoys it immensely and looks forward to it every year. This event looks set to continue many years to come as long as Gerry and PJ (Irish teachers) are still in the school!!

Poor Heather Mill's leg falls off in 'Dancing with the Stars'

Poor Heather Mills! Can her life get any worse? Between her marriage split from Paul Mc Cartney and her leg falling off on live TV what more can go wrong?!

The best holiday I've ever had!

The best holiday i've ever had took place over 3 weeks. I clearly remember leaving my house at 3am on the 28th of June 2005 and made my way to Dublin airport for a flight to Los Angeles. This was my longest holiday and I sure was looking forward to it, apart from the bus journey, although I knew I would miss good old Dundalk!
The flight to Los Angeles was long-11 hours, but enjoyable. We flew with Virgin Airlines and were fed almost every 2 hours! And I must say the food was actually really nice. When we arrived in LAX airport I couldn't believe the heat, it nearly killed me! It seemed as glamorous as i thought it would be as limo's pulled up every few minutes at the airport. But as we made our journey through the city to get to were we were staying I nearly cried at the sight of some of the places as there were a lot of homeless on the streets. It sure was no Beverley Hills!
Finally we arrived at our hotel and who did I meet at breakfast the next morning only one of the boys in my class at school and about 20 other people from Dundalk!! I knew they were going as I heard the week before but it felt surreal as we were so far away from Dundalk!
While we were in LA, we saw Beverley Hills, went to Hollywood (where we saw Magic Johnson and rapper Omarion), Universal Studios (what a brilliant place!) and Disneyland. We also drove down Sunset Boulevard!
Our next stop was the Grand Canyon, which was the most spectacular view in the world. From there, we flew on a 20 seater plane over the canyon to Las Vegas. There's not much to do during the day as the heat is unbelievable but we did venture out to the pool a few times! Nightime is amazing though. We went to watch a show and saw the amazing hotels/casinos and also saw the dancing fountains.
Next we made our way to San Francisco. This was my least favourite place and it was quite cold so I had to buy a coat! There wasn't an awful lot to do apart from taking pictures of the Golden Gate bridge and a few museums.
Then we made our way back to LA passing through Malibu-it was amazing! We saw all the mansions and we were told to look out for Pamela Anderson running along the beach!!! In LA we said our goodbyes to all the Dundalk people who were heading home after their 2 weeks but we had decided to stay on for an extra week. From LAX, we flew to Seattle to see my Auntie,Uncle and Cousins. We stayed there for 3 days and saw all that had to be seen such as the Seattle Needle. After our short stay there, we flew from Seattle to New York. There we saw all the sights such as Ground Zero, the Empire State building,the Statue of Liberty and went for a spin on a speed boat! Unfortunately as it was so hot I didn't get to do much shopping. Maybe next time! After 3 weeks being away from home I sure was delighted to get back on that plane to Dublin!

X Factor

I don't know about you but I'm finding the X Factor dull this year. Maybe it's the contestants aren't as good as last year, maybe it's the new judge Danni Minogue or maybe it's the new host Dermot O' Leary. There's no one on the show near as good as previous winners Shayne Ward or Leona Lewis. Oh and what is up with Rhydian? Yes that's his name! I've always been a fan of the show but no one really stands out this year. Nikki, a mother of two and mentored by Louis Walsh, has quite a powerful voice but would she be able to cope with a hectic lifestyle and motherhood?

Poor Sharon has no acts left in the competition with the other judges having 2 acts each left. In my opinion Louis Walsh is nearly always right in what he says. He may always look and act like a fool but look at the successful acts he has managed: Westlife, Shayne Ward, G4, Girls Aloud and Boyzone. That sure is a lot of number 1's and cash in his back pocket!

Check out Rhydian in this video if you haven't seen him before! He's only 24 but looks much older. To me, he looks scary! And no that is not his normal hair colour!!

Croker here I come!!

When I heard earlier in the year that Westlife would be playing Croke Park in the Summer of 2008 I couldn't wait! Seeing as Croke Park can fill 80,000 people I wanted to have the best seat in the stadium so I kept checking ticketmaster to see if details were announced. Then, over three weeks ago the date was finally announced-June 1st 2008. Ever since, I've been checking ticketmaster for tickets for the hottest concert of 2008! On Wednesday morning, I got my hands on front row standing tickets for the golden circle right on front of the stage! I couldn't believe it! All I can say now is roll on the 1st of June!! I'm Already There!!



Check out their new single 'I'm Already There'

Christmas countdown has begun!

Yes, we can now officially say the word Christmas as it is only 36 days away!! These cold, dark mornings sure make it feel like Winter but the fact that people have their decorations up make it even more Christmassy! One person around my street has their decorations up the past 2 weeks! Just a bit too soon I think! It really didn't feel like Christmas until I went up to the Marshes yesterday to buy my brother a birthday present. Boy was it packed! The carpark was full to the brim, the shops were packed, decorations everywhere, Christmas music filled the centre and people coming with bags from every shop! Christmas definately is the best time of year for me as I get double the presents because my birthday falls three days after it! And this year it's my 18th!! So with Christmas and my birthday just around the cornor, I have every reason to be smiling!!!

Spice Girls are back!

This is the Spice Girls new single 'Headlines'-the official song for Children In Need 2007. Although I hate this song and the video, it's all for a great cause. What do you make of the Spice Girls re-union? Are they getting to old for the job? Should they all concentrate on being mothers? (apart from Mel C) Is Posh getting all the attention in Hollywood? Let me know what you think!! Also, what do you make of Take That's re-union and also the upcoming Boyzone re-union? What is with all these re-unions? Did they splash their cash too soon and suddenly have none left?

My experiences flying!

I've always had a good head for heights. The first time I was on an aeroplane was when I was six months old so I got a feel for it when I was young! I've always had positive experiences while flying apart from the odd bit of turbulence. The only thing that used to put me off was sitting at the window seat! So when the plane turned to the side I'd have to look the other way and cling to my seat!! But as the years go on I'm getting better at it!

About two years ago my Dad started training to get a helicopter licence. I never thought I would have the courage to go up in a two seater. Imagine what the turbulence would be like? In April of this year I went for a one hour spin and I must say it was the best experience ever! My Dad was flying and I was in the passenger seat! We flew over Slane Castle and a lot of golf courses and although it was a bit hazy the views were amazing. After we landed, I couldn't feel my legs and was shakey but I thought I would be ok on the way home in the car, however, I was wrong! On the motorway my stomach started to feel sick and I thought I was going to have to get my Dad to pull in but after a few deep breaths I was fine! When we reached home my Mam had a chinese sitting on the table for us but for the first time ever I couldn't eat it!! I felt like I was floating on air! However, the next time I went up I felt much better and it just goes to show you the more you do something, the better you become at it!!

The Best Day Of My Westlife!!

It was Friday the 2nd November 2007. At 5.45am my alarm clock rang and I jumped out of bed as I was sure this was to be the best day of my West-life!! Westlife, yes Westlife, were signing their new album at HMV, Grafton Street and to meet them you needed a wristband which were handed out as soon as the store opened at 8.30! I woke my 2 friends who were both lying in sleeping bags on the floor and obviously they weren't too happy as Katie had been out until 3am! It was dark outside and we left my house at 6.40 for the 7am bus to Parnell street. The bus journey was quiet as we were tired and needed more sleep for the long day ahead!
As soon as we got off the bus we legged it up to Grafton Street thinking we'd be first in the queue but how wrong we were!! There were approximately 200 people on front of us and the queue formed around 2 cornors! At this stage we were losing hope of meeting the lads but kept positive thinking about the big fry we were going to have!! Eventually we got closer and closer and each received a wristband to meet Westlife! We were one of the 500 lucky ones!!
To pass the time until Westlife came at 5.30pm we had to think of something to do- we could either sit in the queue to meet them from 9am ( some people had been there since Wednesday!!) or go shopping and have something to eat and the latter is what we did!
Hours passed and it was still only 2 o' clock! We had another 3 and a half hours to wait so we decided to go and find a seat in Stephens Green shopping centre. While on the way in, my friend Sarah shouts "how come you didn't say anything?" Myself and Katie looked at each other confused! Shane Filan's wife (Gillian) and baby daughter (Nicole)and Kian's girlfriend, ex-Hollyoak's star Jodi Albert, had walked passed us! So we turned around and ran after them calling their names! (yes a bit mad i know!!) Gillian turned around thinking she recognised my voice! They signed autographs for us and let us take pictures and while we were doing that Shane rang his wife to see where she was! They looked so young and I commented on that to which Jodi replied "did you think we looked like old hags?!" After about 5 minutes chatting to them we let them go to their next destination which was none other than River Island!
At 5pm we joined the very long queue- there was 500 people in it and probably 350 of those were in front of us!! The excitement was building with people singing all the old favourites like "World Of Our Own". A man in his late 50's walked passed us confused as to what the fuss was about. We told him we were waiting for Westlife and he replied "If f****** Elvis came back from the dead I wouldn't queue to see him!!"
At 5.30pm we heard screams as the Westlife boys arrived in through the front door (we were around the back). Some girls (and may I add a lot of girls!) ran to buy single roses for their favourite members! As the queue got shorter and shorter the more excited we were becoming! At around 7pm we had reached the top of the queue and had our wristbands cut off! As soon as we passed the bouncers (yes big burly bouncers!!) we ran up three flights of stairs to meet the band!
The first person we saw was Kian. He seemed in an upbeat mood as he bopped his head along to one of their tracks on the new album. Then we spotted Mark, Shane and Nicky. We had to wait in another queue which fizzled out in about twenty minutes. Firstly I met Kian who I thought could have been nicer. (Don't get me wrong he was nice) Then Mark who was unbelievably quiet I don't think he spoke at all! Next up was Shane (who I have to say was the nicest) who spoke to me for a few minutes but I cant't remember what he was saying as I was in awe!! Finally I met Nicky who I thought was a very talkative Dubliner but I turned out to be wrong! When I was leaving Shane was the only one who thanked me for coming which I thought was a really nice thing for him to say to a fan. At this stage it was 7.15pm and we had to catch the 7.30pm bus in Parnell Street. As we only had 15 minutes, we had to leg it from the top of Grafton Street to Parnell Street which entailed running out on front of buses and trying to push our way past people on the streets!! When we got to the bus it wasn't long before we got a long deserved sleep after our manic day!!
I have to say, I have been a fan since I was 9 years old and had never met them until this day and it sure was worth the wait! Roll on the big 10 year anniversary gig in Croke Park 1st June 2008!!!! I'll be there!!