Ireland and Northern Ireland have made it through the Group Stage and are into the Round of 16 at the Euros.
I repeat, BOTH MY TEAMS HAVE MADE IT THROUGH!!
WHO FUCKING CARES IF WE WIN OUR NEXT GAMES?????!!!!?!?!? WE MADE IT TO THE ROUND OF 16!!!!!!!!!! BOTH OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I follow a couple of Irish people (not just Irish family) on the old social medias and the Snapchats, Instagrams, Tweets, Facebook statuses of the Ireland-Italy game were incredible. (That's how Ireland made it through, by the way, beating Italy 1-0. We were third in our group, but we... you know what? You probably don't care.)
To be honest, I didn't have a whole lot of hope that even one of them would make it out of the Group Stage, never mind both of them. I immediately went to the desk of my English coworker and started singing (quietly). There are not a lot of people in my office who would understand my excitement, but he did.
While it might seem like an overreaction to be this excited about teams that still haven't actually won anything, it isn't if you're Irish. Either one of these teams could go on and win Euro 2016 and we probably wouldn't be as excited as we are about this. "Oh great, yeah, won the Euro, BUT WE WEREN'T EVEN SUPPOSED TO MAKE IT OUT OF THE ROUND OF 16!!!!!!" Dare I say it, it is almost as exciting as another unexpected Ireland result 26 years ago...
As my dad said on the phone tonight, "I've never seen so many grown men cry."
Northern Ireland faces Wales on Saturday and then Ireland faces France on Sunday. This will either be the best weekend of my entire life (and that includes any potential future wedding I may have) or it's the weekend that I will spend the rest of my life pretending never happened. (Or they split the difference and I'm both elated and depressed at the same time.)
Regardless of this weekend's outcomes, it is going to su-uck to work with me on Monday.
I mentioned in Monday's post that the Euros are currently on with France playing host this time round. The event has been marred with the actions of some groups of English and Russian supporters. (Should I even say supporters? If you really support the team, would you go to an event with the intent of fucking shit up?) The sad thing is you know it's a relatively small fraction of the English and Russian "fans" that are doing this. Sadly, their actions may have real world consequences with both teams now having the threat of disqualification hanging over them.
How disheartening that must be for the players. You've possibly played your best soccer in your life... and you're sent home because some asshats don't know how to behave like decent human beings.
Anyway, I said this was a happier post than the last one and it is. Not only are both Ireland and Northern Ireland in the Euros, but the Irish fans are being praised in France for their behaviour during this tournament. Honestly. The French actually like something not-French, and that something is Irish fans!
From pictures of Irish fans helping a French couple change a tire, to singing "Stand Up for the Ulstermen" during the Ireland-Sweden game in memory of a Northern Ireland fan died on the weekend, to reciting "Our Father" to a nun on a train, to singing and dancing with Swedish fans in the streets after their teams tied, to cleaning up their own beer bottles (while singing) after a night of drinking, to singing Boyzone songs in the street... WITH A MEMBER OF BOYZONE, the Irish fans have represented their country with pride.
I am so proud of them!
And the French have been so impressed with them, they went ahead and did this:
Heck yeah! Irish tri-colour on the Eiffel Tower. Photo originally found here
(In the time it took me to write this, reports have been posted that tensions have risen between English and Russian fans again and the riot police are already on the streets of Lille. The day has barely started there and already they're at it.)
I just want to backtrack for a moment and acknowledge the death of Darren Rodgers who fell to his death Saturday night. After a day of drinking in Nice, he got past a barrier at the edge of a promenade and fell 8 meters. Darren was reported as 24 years old (some reports are now putting him as 25). At the 24 minute mark of the Ireland-Sweden game, Irish supporters sang "Stand Up For The Ulstermen". The song is the cheer for the Ulster Rugby team (as you'll see in the video below), but as an Ulster descendant (just from the other side of the border) I'd be hard pressed to think of a better song to sing. The Northern Ireland team publically thanked the Irish fans for their gesture.
The actions of the Irish fans? This is what sporting events should be about.
Note: I'm not ignoring the events of the weekend; I just need to be in a better headspace before I say anything about it. Right now, I would just be screaming incoherently and crying.
The Euros have started. For the first time in... well, in my lifetime (I'm too lazy to go look it up). both Ireland and Northern Ireland are going to the competition. Northern Ireland lost to Poland on Sunday. (And rightly so. They played like a Sunday fun-league team.) Not a great start.
Today, Group E - Ireland, Sweden, Belgium and Italy - start their Round Robin. Given that Belgium and Italy are ranked 2nd and 12th respectively and Ireland is ranked 33rd, I'm not very hopeful about their chances of moving to the next round. Still, if Italia '90 taught me anything, it's that I should never count Ireland out until they're actually out. (We beat Romania on penalties. It was kind of a big deal. You can see a retrospective on the penalties here. If you have a spare 20 minutes, you can watch the penalties in their entirety here. If you want to hear the greatest song ever written about that moment, you can watch it here. I so clearly remember watching this game. I remember how nervous I was during the shoot out. I remember my dad throwing his full glass of red wine against the just-painted white wall when Ireland won. I remember screaming and crying and singing on the phone to the family in Ireland. It will always be one of my favourite memories.)
But we're not here to talk about Ireland's past sporting glories (everyone one reading this "we're not?"), but for the Euro they're currently in. As has become tradition, Ireland has put out a song for the competition. A rallying cry for Irish fans everywhere to get behind.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Irish Roar.
Good luck to the Boys in Green against Sweden tomorrow.
UPDATE: Ireland tied because of an own-goal. Nothing like an uphill battle to spur them on to victory ;)
(I want to take a moment to acknowledge that Irish rugby had a fantastic weekend. The Under-20s beat New Zealand and the National Team beat South Africa. Both are pretty big freakin' deals for us. So proud of the other Boys in Green.)
I just finished watching tonight's episode of Game of Thrones. If you want to know my response, click here. It's not really a spoiler but it kind of is so you may not want to click if you haven't seen the episode yet and desire to have your heart ripped from your chest and held, still beating, before your eyes as you die.
I don't know how to handle these emotional episodes of Game of Thrones now that the series is entering territory beyond where the books are at. How did the non-book readers do this for five seasons?
In an attempt to make myself feel better about what happened in a fictional world tonight, I present "Random Things That Have Been Rattling Around in My Head".
First, if you ever need to Rickroll someone but, like, in a classy way (I'm sure that's totally a thing), I present Postmodern Jukebox:
I encourage you to go check out more of their videos on YouTube.
While I was sick with teeth pain, I was up at all hours which meant that I was actually awake when the Hillsborough verdict was announced. I'm guessing that few of the people who actually read this blog - hi Mom! - but I tried to write about it and it turned into this long depressing paragraph and I'm not ready for that after tonight's Game of Thrones. If you want to know more, here are the Google results. What I did want to share was the video of the crowd singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" at the memorial.
I mean, YNWA makes me cry on a good day. I was bawling - but in the best possible way - while watching this. (By the way, 'seeing a LFC game and singing YNWA' is totally on my bucket list. Someday!)
I have seen Captain America Civil War. Seen it more than once, actually.
Hello, my name is Andrea. I'm a little obsessive over movies.
I stand by my original assessment that I like Winter Soldier better, but in the way that I like rashers better than streaky bacon. They're both bacon and I'm not complaining if you put either of them in front of me. Bacon in any form = fantastic. Captain America films = fantastic.
Having said that, I do have a complaint. (Just one, mind you.) The map of the Wakanda people - Blank Panther's tribe. Keep up - clearly shows them in what is South Sudan/Ethiopia. In that region, one of the most predominant languages in Nuer. It is even spoken in Ethiopia. But no. They have T'Challa and his father (T'Chaka) speak Xhosa with each other. Xhosa is spoken in a region of South Africa.
Google Maps says you can drive this in 69 hours. Google maps is ridiculously optimistic. I've seen those roads.
Yes, many of the languages spoken in the area of the mythical Wakanda are Bantu (I will note that Nuer is not a Bantu language) and Xhosa falls in the Bantu family, but French and Italy are both Romance languages but speaking one doesn't mean you speak the other. AND THEY SHARE A BORDER!!
Still, I doubt there are many people in the theatre pulling apart the movie because it used a real language that occurs nowhere near the real location that a superhero movie gave to a fake people.
Hello, my name is Andrea. I'm a little obsessive over movies.
I lied, I have another complaint. When [someone] doesn't want to hear [that other person] say [something], why did he try and escape? Why not just, oh I don't know, stick his fingers in his ears and say "la la la, I can't hear you" repeatedly?
Despite this, I did come away from the movie very excited about the Blank Panther movie set for release in 2018.
More of this? Yes, please!
I have signed up for another year of GISHWHES because I have no shame and/or dignity.
My sock monkey hat is ready and raring to go. Bring on August 1st!
I think I've done enough cheering myself up since watching Game of Thrones that I can head to bed. It's a long weekend in Canada so I plan to enjoy my last day off!
Last time I wrote, I was counting down the hours until I left for a camping and wedding weekend on the Cowichan River. The location was beautiful, the group campsite was beautifully set up, and it pissed with rain the entire time.
The roof of my tent and a very wet fly on the first morning.
Okay, maybe not the entire time, but a good 80% of the time.
To give you an idea of how much it rained, we received more rain in 4 days than we did in the 4 months proceeding them. The Lower Mainland more than doubled the amount. Along with all this rain? A wind storm. In a year of recording breaking heat, drought conditions, and double the amount of forest fires, my friend picked the one weekend the weather was shite.
We needed to warm up during the ceremony so we made coffee. This was encouraged by the wedding couple.
At least the Friday we arrived was sunny and hot. Some of the party even got in some swimming. I did not because that morning I tried to break some cement stairs with my back. FYI: the stairs won. It made for a slightly painful weekend with limited movement but I wasn't missing the wedding!
Down at the river.
To top off the rain and the wind, on the day of the wedding, the Malahat was closed due to an accident which left those who hadn't come up on the Friday scrambling to make it up. If you don't know Vancouver Island, the quickest way 'up Island' - to go north - is over the Malahat. There is also a ferry crossing which is a) never on time, b) always late, and c) notoriously unable to keep to schedule, or the 4 hour drive west to Port Alberni and then loop back east. People who needed to make it over the Malahat included friends, family, and the caterer. Eek!
The mantra for the weekend became "this will all make a great story." And how many brides have a photo of their wedding dress hanging in a tent?
I selflessly agreed to bring the giant six man tent instead of the cozy two man tent so it could double as the dressing room. Selflessly.
After the wedding weekend, I met up with my friends who were visiting from Switzerland. It was a wonderful reminder of how awful my German has become. Obviously, I need to make an extended trip back to Germany, Switzerland and/or Austria to practice and improve. On the upside, this was the view from our table.
This isn't even the 'good' view to the Olympic Mts. That was taken by a private party!
The following weekend, my younger brother and I met up at the Irish Times to watch the Liverpool vs Man Utd game. I grew up watching English Premier League soccer but no one in my immediate family had any real loyalty to a specific team. Then B returned from living in Ireland after high school (family tradition) and he was a die-hard Liverpool supporter. By default, the rest of us have kind of become converts.
Walking in, I found a solid wall of red Liverpool shirts. Apparently I had found the unofficial Liverpool supporters club in Victoria. No matter where you go, you'll will never walk alone. It was a fun way to watch a game that didn't exactly go in our favour.
TSN! Hire me for more of this great insight!
Today, I got up at Ass O'clock to watch Ireland play Canada in the Rugby World Cup. I headed over to my dad's, fried up the healthiest version of an Irish fry you will ever see - scrambled eggs, bacon and tomato - and sat down to watch the game.
Yeah. I don't want to talk about it.
At least my dad was happy.
(I expected Ireland to win but I was hoping for a bit more a fight from Canada. If they had played in the 1st period like they did in the 2nd...)
I had originally planned to take a trip to Ireland in the Fall instead of in the Spring. The only reason that didn't happen was because I have a work project that launches in the Fall and I knew that asking for time off would be like asking for furlough from prison.
Why, yes. I did binge watch Season 2 of Orange is the New Black this week.
I did that instead of writing blog posts.
It also means that returning home pretty much meant I had to hit the ground running with work. Time off between now and when this project finishes is going to be a precious, precious commodity. It also meant that after 7 hours staring at a computer screen writing, I've found it really hard to come home and write for fun. It's like being in university again, when you didn't read any 'fun' books because there were so many bloody textbooks you had to read. Also, the World Cup started so there goes a huge chunk of my weekends until July 13th.
New favourite goal keeper: Guillermo Ochoa from Mexico.
That man is the only reason Mexico tied with Brazil instead of losing.
But it hasn't all been work, eat, sleep since I got home. I spent a day volunteering for the UrbaCity Challenge with my friend. We ran the challenge station at the beach volleyball courts on the roof of the Sticky Wicket pub. Six hours spent running around in the sand, laughing with the challenge participants, and raising funds for the Prostate Centre in the lead up to Father's Day and all I got was a lousy shirt, a farmer's tan, and this awesome picture from our set up.
We're ready to rock this station!
I will definitely be volunteering next year, I'm just sad that my partner-in-crime will be off on mat leave. If you're in the Victoria area next June, I strongly encourage you to get a buddy and compete next year. (And say 'hi' if you make it to my station. I gladly hand out free high-fives to participants.)
I tried Crossfit for the first time... and the second time... in the same day... in fact, in the same hour... because my trainer is evil. I did not care for it. (Luckily, my trainer doesn't either.) This pretty much sums up my opinion:
I spent an awesome Thursday night with friends drinking beer for charity (no, really) before taking a dry erase to a certain store front in the name of the World Cup. I was at that same store the next day watching Switzerland lose to France... badly. The upside to watching this happen with them? I got a consolation macaron with every goal France scored. It made up for losing the bet to them on the game.
Like the rest of the known Geek Realm, I watched the season finale of Game of Thrones. I understand why a certain character wasn't shown in the season finale (especially given how much is going on) but said character better still be included in season five. I also did that quiz and ended up with my Game of Thrones name.
I'll take it!
The highlight of the past few weeks, however, was eavesdropping on the conspiracy-fuelled coffee shop conversation of a Putin-supporting, capitalist-loving but corporation-hating, Chavez-defending, anti-media spouting, global-warming-denying, devout Catholic. Seriously. I half expected someone to jump out and shout "Surprise. You're on Candid Camera!" Sadly, it did not happen.
All-in-all, not a bad June.
And I have a few posts actually scheduled for this week so you won't have to wait so long to hear from me again!
Question: Anyone else following the World Cup? Who are you supporting? Favourite moment so far?
The sign above pretty much sums up my view of life. It is rarely the events of a day that determine if it is bad or good, but my attitude towards them. Obviously, some bad days are just bad days regardless of your attitude - my cousin's death is a bad day no matter how bloody cheerful I was prior to getting the news - but someone else's attitude in a meeting? That will only ruin my day if I let it.
I am, generally, a very positive person. I find that it makes life more enjoyable.
It also means that when life starts coming up roses, and you're already a happy person, it's really hard not to walk around doing this all day long:
Oh dancing Nathan Fillion, how I love thee!
What has been so fantastic? Just every day life, to be honest.
I know I said I wouldn't talk much about work on here, but work has been great. I grow to love my job a little bit more every day.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that this happened last Friday:
If you don't know who Eddie Izzard is (what's wrong with you?) then you need to watch this:
Oh, November 29th! You can't come fast enough.
I joined my brother's Yahoo Fantasy Premier League this year. I did it for various reasons but I honestly expected to spend my time at the bottom of the pool (I even named myself GunningforLast FC), stumbling through my picks and hoping that I (re)learn something about a league I love but haven't actively followed in about 10 years. It's early weeks yet, but I've done better than I expected.
That, my friends, is me sitting in 5th place. And that little asterisk in Week 7? That's indicating I was the points leader for the week. Week 6? I was 1 point behind the point leader. I'm feeling pretty darn pleased with myself right now.
Hopefully, I'm still sitting so pretty after this weekend.
On the flip side of feeling 'woo-hoo', Ireland is officially out of World Cup 2014 in Brazil and I can't even blame this guy:
Thierry Henry's handball, seen by everyone in the world except the ref, allowed
France to win against Ireland and knock us out of a spot in South Africa 2010.
Still bitter.
While I'm disappointed about Ireland, both Germany and Switzerland have qualified which means I still have teams to cheer for and will not have to wear a France jersey (because sometimes I have issues keeping my mouth shut) so...
Despite messing up my left tricep and bicep three weeks ago, I continue to love kickboxing and bootcamp. I was seriously bummed when I couldn't make class due to a cold-flu-breathing-issue last week. Unfortunately, I was so excited about getting back at it this week and kicking butt in kickboxing, that I left the gym after class in a haze of euphoria and failed to see the Pothole of Doom so I'm out until next week or whenever my knee scab heals and I can bend my leg again.
*sigh*
The Pothole was totally that goalie.
Finding a gym that has a built in support system (the other girls) and a trainer that holds you accountable has made all the difference in keeping me going back.
That and finding an activity that taps into my hidden desire to kick people's asses.
I guess that's what it really comes down to: I'm happy because I get to punch and kick things and no one gets mad at me.
