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 Charlie Knox26, m, resident of spa, northern ireland, a thinker, who tries to be real, enjoys the company of nala(left), indebted to jesus for his grace and instruction in life and whose, amongst other things, studying sports science at UUJ. enjoy rugby a whole lot! |
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Wednesday, June 30, 2004 Another Dilemma Tag rugby is going to well. Playing two nights each week, on Wednesdays at Lisburn with Hinch Allstars and on Thursdays in Belfast with Maulers. The problem now is that both teams have qualified for the All Ireland finals in Dublin and technically could play each other. I've now got to decide which team to play for. Torn. posted by charlie | 9:12 AM | Monday, June 28, 2004 Ears Update In H.E. last Thursday the technician here in school poured some warm olive oil into my ears. Glorious feeling nevermind the other benefits! Didn't work immediately but left ear unblocked at 7:00 that night. Right ear didn't unblock until Sunday evening at 6:30. Now hearing properly but still got itchy ears! posted by charlie | 9:00 AM | Wednesday, June 23, 2004 Blocked up Alongside spending a fair bit of today soaked to the bone at an Athletics meeting with school, I've also spent today in what has felt like a cocoon. Last night i had itchy ears, and much like the athlete's feet days of old, I couldn't help but scratch them. After fighting the temptation i caved in and grabbed two cotton buds and twisted them round and round in each ear and managed to do away with the itch. However in the process i must have pushed wax further into my ear and blocked both ears. I can now hear very little apart from the internal working noises of my body and my own voice. It has become a little frustrating. Now i know how you all feel! Hopefully they will right themselves within the next 24 hours or i think i'll have to go back in with the ear buds to sort things out! posted by charlie | 10:28 PM | Turned 23 last week. Mother tells me that's the age she was when she had me. Weird thought. posted by charlie | 10:27 PM | Never worry about the bag! Last weekend in prep. for the rugby tournament, myself and Pete Edgar went to Primark for some cheap t-shirts for our team. At the checkout after paying for the shirts the girl at the counter started to put the shirts into a plastic bag, but i asked her not to bother and said 'Wake up to waste and all that!' I thought it was a fairly simple (and graciously put!) request but she really didn't seem to get the deal and then proceeded to ask me if she could put them into a smaller bag, obviously missing my point.I replied by saying 'No, just leave them the way they are.' She then exchanged a bewildered look and said. 'Oh, ok i'll just give you a reciept then.' Judging by her reactions it would appear that this wasn't a very common procedure for her which saddened me a little - it would be great if some of these stores would lead the way and encourage their customers not to take bags! I still think we need a 10p levy on bags to remind people like they do down south. Anyway after leaving the store with 8 T-shirts 'not in a plastic bag' we headed in the direction of the car. Just as we were nearing the exit two police woman on the beat took exception to Petie carrying these T-shirts 'without a bag' and pulled him over insisting he showed his reciept (obviously suspecting him of a shoplift - personally i can think of more subtle ways of stealing!). Of course we were able to the reciept, explain ourselves and move on. Again it was just another little example of how people aren't really thinking along the waste reduction line. Maybe someday. posted by charlie | 10:08 PM | Mountain Boarding Was up for a scoot around the Mournes on Sunday and called in at this place. I've seen it advertised in the local press a few times and thought it looked like good craic. Some of the tracks and jumps looked like fun and the prices aren't too bad so I think i'll head up for a run sometime over the summer, although I'm not too optimistic about how i'll get on! posted by charlie | 10:02 PM | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 Plastic Silverware Entered a charity TAG rugby tournament at the weekend (the money funding a team going with EXODUS to Romania/Moldova). We kinda had a strung together team comprising of a few Americans from JBU, myself, Johnny, Gregory, pete edgar, johnny manning and one or two others. Considering how inexperienced we were we did alright in the group stages winnning one, losing one(against a team with an ulster player and a few AIL 1 players!)and drawing one. After a decision made on points difference we finished 3rd in the group and went into the subsidiary plate. At this stage half our team had left and we had to recruit a few new players in the shape of John Gunson and Nicky Craig. After a long wait we played our Semi,won and then immediately the final which we won 4-1. Was nice to pick up some plastic silverware! posted by charlie | 5:14 PM | Monday, June 21, 2004 Another fella from my school who seems to be doing well for himself. posted by charlie | 9:11 AM | One to keep an eye on Ryan Maginnis is heading back to Thailand this summer for 2 months and he's set up a blog for the journey. Sure to be worth a visit every so often. posted by charlie | 9:08 AM | Tuesday, June 15, 2004 Dilemma. 2 mates. 2 Stag doos. 1 Saturday evening. what to do? posted by charlie | 10:09 PM | B.@ B.B. Went bouldering at Bloody Bridge last night with Al and Nala. Wasn't expecting there to be very much water due to the lack of rain we've been getting but the pools had plenty in them and even better the water was also relatively warm for Northern Ireland standards. Always a fun time, and i think Nala loved it too. posted by charlie | 3:05 PM | Hayfever is getting me bad - itchy throat, sneezing all the time and all bunged up. Thankfully, it'll be gone by the end of June. posted by charlie | 3:03 PM | Top Notch action Rally was fun on Saturday. Entry field had over 12 World rally cars and then the usual mkII's, Toyota Corrolla's etc.Got to watch 4 stages, 3 in the forest and one out at Cooley. Forest's were great - dead close to the action - only a couple of metres away from the cars at high speed. Also got to see a woodpecker in the forest - never saw one of them round here before. Out at Cooley the action was brilliant with the cars taking on a few high speed jumps. We did see one crash out there too, with a boy not slowing for the corner, hitting the bank and then rolling his mkII four times. The only downside of the day was a few midgies who took a severe liking to my arms. posted by charlie | 2:56 PM | Friday, June 11, 2004 Unusual problems for Northern Ireland posted by charlie | 11:23 AM | Tempting posted by charlie | 11:15 AM | Thursday, June 10, 2004 A reluctant step Applied for my first credit card today. This is something i've not been that keen on with all the horror stories you hear about people either getting ripped off or steering themselves into severe debt. However I decided a card could be useful and convenient if managed with a little caution and completely paid off each month. I'll now be able to purchase more stuff online like flights and books(instead of borrowing Dad's card and paying him in cash) and it'll also come in useful in America this summer. Especially on the upside, i was able to get a Tearfund Visa Card from the Cooperative Bank. Basically at no cost to me, Tearfund recieve £15 when i open the account, £2.50 if i use the account within 6 months and then regular inputs as i continue to use the card. On top of all that the Co-operative bank hails itself as being ethically guided and genuinely seems to be from the information provided - a pleasant alternative in today's 'profit at any cost' commercial climate. posted by charlie | 5:36 PM | Crazy figure 'Direct and indirect costs related to alcohol abuse in Northern Ireland is £777m annually and alcohol related mortality has more than doubled since 1986.' from BBC article on Alcohol education posted by charlie | 11:30 AM | Saturday, June 05, 2004 One to watch Heading up to Newry's Mourne Rally next Saturday. In my opinion it's one of the best spectator rallies in the NI rally championship. It's all run on tarmac and includes a couple of stages run through forests which makes for an exciting combination. It also includes a stage over Cooley mountain that has a few jumps giving a bit of airtime. Starts around 9:30 usually although you probably need to be up there before 9:00 in order to get a programme and then plan the day's spectating. If you've never done a rally before i highly recommend it -you get a pretty big kick just watching it - pack yourself up a lunch and you'll have a great days craic. posted by charlie | 4:06 PM | Wednesday, June 02, 2004 'Because we can, we must' Bono shares a few thoughts.... 'There's a truly great Irish poet his name is Brendan Kennelly, and he has this epic poem called the Book of Judas, and there's a line in that poem that never leaves my mind, it says: "If you want to serve the age, betray it." What does that mean to betray the age? Well to me betraying the age means exposing its conceits, it's foibles; it's phony moral certitudes. It means telling the secrets of the age and facing harsher truths. Every age has its massive moral blind spots. We might not see them, but our children will. Slavery was one of them and the people who best served that age were the ones who called it as it was--which was ungodly and inhuman. Ben Franklin called it what it was when he became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. Segregation. There was another one. America sees this now but it took a civil rights movement to betray their age. And 50 years ago the U.S. Supreme Court betrayed the age May 17, 1954, Brown vs. Board of Education came down and put the lie to the idea that separate can ever really be equal. Amen to that. Fast forward 50 years. May 17, 2004. What are the ideas right now worth betraying? What are the lies we tell ourselves now? What are the blind spots of our age? What's worth spending your post-school lives trying to do or undo? It might be something simple......more' posted by charlie | 9:41 AM | |
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