My Year in Review

So what with it being 6:30pm on December 31st, I figure that if I want to get this Year in Review posted in time, I better do it fairly sharpish. Following the format of a few other bloggers that I have seen, here are a few things that stand out in my mind as being 2005.

1 - Live 8. In the past year, I enjoyed concerts from both U2 and Coldplay and they were both fantastic. There is something great about seeing a band in their home city or seeing the last night of a tour and in these two aforementioned concerts, I did just this. Live 8, however was on another level altogether. Whereas generally a regular concert is emotional for about 30 minutes, Live 8 was a full 8 hours of something that I really just can't find the words to describe. Culminating with Robbie Williams, The Who and Pink Floyd, the day was something that I will never forget.

As I have said before the day was certainly contrived and even to an extent tacky. Futhermore, I must have been at least 200 metres from the stage. But all of that didn't matter one little bit. For the first time in my life I was a part of a large crowd which was together almost entirely because it wanted to see something positive get done. And did it ever get done!!

2 - My Car Accident. This was probably my closest brush so far with death in my life. I have played down the event many times, particularly in this blog. However, the reality is that I was extremely fortunate to walk away from the accident. Nuff said about that.

3 - Law School. Many of my elder peers have told me that once they got to Law School, they found the whole thing a little disappointing and that it never lived up to their expectations. I would have to say that the exact opposite happened to me. From my first day in class until graduating last June, I relished what I learnt and the subject became alive. It was hard work and there were times that I wanted to pack it in but it was also an incredible experience. The ironic thing is that my marks weren't exactly the greatest and indeed my average was far lower than it was during my economics undergraduate degree. But what the heck, I loved it and I even got a job out of the whole thing. And whilst I am still not a fully qualified lawyer and have even deferred that part for at least a year, I am on a career path now that I love and surely that is half the battle.

4 - Champions of Europe, We are the Champions. This is the chant that has echoed around most Liverpool games over the last months and has it ever been sweet. I have waited most of my life to see Liverpool win the European Cup. Why do I care so much? I have no idea but I don't think I can ever recreate such a sporting high as what happened on that memorable night in May. If you ever want to know more, I have the DVD and believe me I will watch it with you over and over again.

5 - Canada Holiday. I spent 5 weeks this past summer doing a wedding tour. This was a very worthwhile trip and one that I love. Don't get me wrong, I still love Canada and all signs point to me still living there eventually. However, going back there having been away for a year taught me a lot about what I loved and I what I did not love about the country. Believe me Blue Jays Security Guys, watch out for next summer.

So there you go. A year summarised into 5 events. I'll be the first to admit that I have left out many important things but hey, you've gotta draw the line somewhere.

What about 2006? I have the feeling that it will be one of the most important years in my life. I don't know why exactly but it just seems as though things are going that way. I expect to hear something back from Immigration Canada towards the end of the year so I will have to make some sort of decision then. For the first time ever, I am working a full time job and on top of that it is one that is challenging and giving me some great experience.

Other goals for the year include
1 - Beat Stuart more at golf
2 - Make the Agape starting lining up.
3 - Get the weight back to pre car-accident levels.
4 - Get more surfing in.
5 - Get re-acquainted with old high school friends
6 - A little more success with the ladies. Apparently I am not getting any younger!!


My last goal would be to develop my Christian faith yet further. University in Canada was the best thing that ever happened to my faith but it has perhaps made me a little cynical over many Christian things. I have been unable to tackle these issues successfully in the last year but hopefully this year, I can start to make sense of these things a little more.

With that in mind and bearing in mind that I have to post this without actually checking spelling, etc I wish all readers a very Happy and Peaceful New Year.

What it might mean to be Liberal

I have just read Steve-o's blog and it has helped remind me of why I originally enjoyed writing blogs. Steve has written as thoughtprovoking piece on the tragic Toronto shootings and it has been fascinating to watch the debate between himself (a liberal)and Tyrone (who I have always thought to be somewhat conservative, correct me if I am wrong Ty).

It got me to thinking how easy it is for all to slip into what we are told to believe in terms of our political thoughts (and believe me guys, this piece is not meant to knock you both. I am only too aware of the fact that you both can out-debate me most days of the week!!).

This is a sin that I am only too guilty of myself. Today for example,I was chatting to a friend about the rights of affirmative action programs. By way of explanation, there is a policy in many jobs in Ireland stating that there should be a 50-50 hiring split in terms of Protestants and Catholics. This has always been a policy that I have agreed with as I thought that it helped promote Catholic interests which most people agree have been over-looked for far too long. However, this friend told me today that he had been passed over 5 times for a position in the police force in N.Ireland and he claimed that it was this policy that was responsible. I questioned him a little more on it as I assumed that the situation must have been that he was judged to have exactly the same degree of qualifications and therefore he didn't get the job because they couldn't separate him from any other applicants without looking at religion. However, he claimed to me that in reality he was more qualified that the individuals who did get the job and that it was because he was Protestant that he didn't get the position.

I left this conversation confused. Its not like I haven't heard this argument before and normally when I do hear it, I put it down to someone who is bitter about not getting a job. However, I have known this individual for many years along with all of his family who I respect immensely. So based on that reason, I am going to take him at his word.

My point is that Liberals are quick to promote welfare programs and initiatives such as these and I think that it is great that they do. However, a certain amount of realism must be maintained and in this case the reality is that a program with a worthy aim is screwing over a particular individual.

I do like to consider myself liberal but it is important that I and my leftist friends do not become become as robotic as we often perceive those on the extreme right. So the next time that you hear an individual talk about how gun control isn't necessarily the answer or how maternity-leave cripples small businesses, don't just dismiss it. Listen to them - they probably have the same ultimate goal as you do and between the two of you, you might just achieve it.

If you don't listen then I fear that the right wing joke about Liberals producing nothing but hot air may end up becoming more real than we like to believe.

Time to blog methinks

It has been quite some time since my last post, the main reason for this being that my old Dell Laptop decided that it was going to give up the good fight and leave me stranded without a computer. Now, I know that it may not have looked that way seeing as how I was continually signed into MSN but let me assure that the reason for that was that if I ever signed out of the program, there was a fair chance that the computer would freeze and it would take a good hour of my time to actually get the thing to work again.

So what has happened since my last post. Well, Christmas has come and gone and I have to say that I really had a lovely time building up to it in N.Ireland. It is kindof strange becausethis is my first ever Christmas at which I have been a working man leading up to it. The bad news about that is that you only get about a week off work but on the other hand one really starts to appreciate those days off that you do get.

There is something very nice about Christmas at home. The majority of readers here will know how much I love Canada but I have to say that when it comes to Christmas, I think we do things a little bit better. People seem a little less stressed out and we don't play the whole 'holidays' vs 'Christmas' name game. Now, if we could only have some more snow, things would be good.

That's all I've got for now. I will aim to post soon again though with some thoughts on the year that was 2005.