Reading!

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? 

I've a little x beside the ones I've read - most before the age of 17? Have I lost my love of reading? Or just steered away from the classics? At least it's more than 6? Joining the libraby tonight! 

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen -         x

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - X

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte -         x

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling-X

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - X

6 The Bible - There are lots of bibles... x

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte -X

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell –

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - X

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - x

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - x

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy –

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller –

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare-

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - x

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - X

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk -

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger -X

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger-

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot -

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell-

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald -

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens -

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy -

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - x

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky -

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck -

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll- x

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame- x

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy -

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens - x

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis -X

34 Emma-Jane Austen - x

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen - x

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis -X (

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini -

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres -

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden -

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne -

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell - X

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown -

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez -

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving-

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery-X

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy -

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood -

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding -

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan-

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel-

52 Dune - Frank Herbert -

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons-

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen – x

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth -

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon -

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - X

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley -

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddonx -

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez -

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck -

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov-

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt -

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold -

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas -

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac -

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy -

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding- x

69 Midnight’s Children -

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville -

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens- x

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker - x

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - X

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson -

75 Ulysses - James Joyce – x hated it though?

76 The Inferno – Dante -

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola -

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray-

80 Possession - AS Byatt –

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - x

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell -

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker-

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro -

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert -

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry -

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White - X

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom -

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton- x

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad -

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery - x

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks -

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams- x

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole -

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute -

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - X

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare- x

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl -X

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo- x

 

Dribble really...

Haven’t blogged in awhile – have been busy in my own not getting nothing much done way. Quick recap on me:

 

• Went to Limerick last week to visit my sister’s lickle dog Sophie’s new puppies (very cute). Heading home again tonight til next Wednesday for another weekend of being treated like a Princess by my parents (all part of their “lure Sharon home” from Dublin plot) whilst “my friends” slag my Dublin accent shame.
• Been having really bad nightmares all the month of July and now have terrible bags under my eyes but have discovered the Cooling Eye Balm from One Cosmetics “8 hours sleep in a bottle”. It actually works!
• Back to WW’s – lost like 9 pounds. Figure I’ll gain a bit over long weekend but hi ho…
• Got started on the Buffy Season 8 comics, finished Sculduggery (kids book but I like it!) and am enjoyed TW’s Bay of the Dead.
• I got an iffy’s haircut – kinda lopsided but I don’t hate it so much now. Next time I get my hair cut I’ll just have to have an actually idea in my head of what I want.
• Really upset about Borders closing – my whole Sunday routine is up in the air now. No more strolling to blanch to spend too much time and money in Pet Stop, then Borders then Starbucks – perhaps a good thing…
• SNAILS – bleedin’ everywhere. I’m like a ninja these days avoiding them walking home – our garden has a really nice snail bush as well.
• I do love TodayFM… can’t decide if I like Facebook though.
• I officially hate RTD – argh his so rude (I hate rude people) I may well watch Supernatural as well as go to THE HUB 3 in October (yes well I hate RTD not Torchwood and I’ll never get a chance to embrace Torchwood of old again!) as GDL has been announced. This might set back my Cardiff at Christmas plan however…
• And finally do `I want one of Eve’s pup’s? Not really into small white fluffy things but aw a puppy is a puppy!

 Ps I love my new glasses?

RIP Ianto Jones

You should have seen me the last few weeks counting away the days (literally) until the 5 part series 3 of Torchwood - my one surviving and beloved TV show. I'm not one for soaps or reality TV - it's re-runs of Star Trex, Buffy, X Files and Angel or the odd box set of now defunct series like Battlestar or Firefly that I would have missed. Bit if a theme? Yes I'm a geek - I wouldn't achieve a high level of geekdom perhaps if tested but a geek all the same.

 Early last year the John Barrowman biography was given too me by someone in work. I like bio's but I didn't know who John Barrowman was. I didn't expect to get past the first chapter but strangely I intrigued. Not only was this man involved in Musical Theatre (I do love Jazz hands), on some Sci-Fi programme called Doctor Who (I do love Sci-Fi) but he was a force of nature so focused, positive and driven how could I not like him.

 Off I went to investigate Doctor Who and Captain Jack Harness. I might seem odd I didn't know too much about Doctor Who at this stage but in Ireland Doctor Who hasn't the same status as it does in the UK. In Ireland we have The Late Late Show or Bosco - only people living on the East Coast of Ireland could pick up the BBC (illegally). 

Pretty soon I was up to date on both Doctor Who and Torchwood. Torchwood in particular tipped my interest. I love Doctor Who but it's easy viewing mainly like enjoying a good Disney movie. I trust it's going to deliver. I know that they might kill Bambi's Mom but in the end that heartache will be forgotten and I'll have a nice warm fuzzy feeling. On the other hand I want the under dog Torchwood to deliver but I don't trust it will (and that’s somehow more exciting). I've thrown my hands up in disgust as much as I've punched the air with joy.

Character development in my humble opinion was always Torchwood's downfall not dodgy storylines about alien necklaces. Everyone was introduced but never explored. It was always a rush job - quickly tell loads of stories before we get cancelled. Gwen the heart of the Hub? She's the viewer's point of view? (No that’s Rose in Doctor Who?) She's caring and connected to the outside world - blah blah blah. Gwen was never the Hub's heart in fact the big mistake they made in Series 1 that made her so instantly unlikable was her affair with Owen whilst making puppy eyes at Jack. Ianto's character was more confused than complicated. He managed to catch a dinosaur on his first day yet Jack gives him a job making coffee? Cyberwoman (some people love it some people hate it) had no set up and no follow up. Jack is going to shoot Ianto for keeping his Cyberwoman girlfriend in the basement - the next time we see Ianto on screen Jack gives him a pat on the back for checking weather patterns. One minute Ianto is telling Jack his going to get revenge when he least expects it and the next his dangling a stopwatch. There simply isn't enough pieces of the puzzle for the viewer to get a clear idea of who these people are or what the want. All the relationships are strained or forced or simply misunderunderstood. In Fragments we take a step back and see how Jack recruited Tosh, Owen and Ianto. It was a show all fans loved. A simple bit of back-story can make the world of difference. Of course Tosh and Owen die the next day but it wasn't a waste. Now you cared when they died because you knew a little bit more. Killing them was harsh but fair. The show was sluggish - weighted down by too many people and subplots needing airtime. At least they went out with a bang and two amazing performances.

Watching Torchwood COE I thought WOW they've actually got the balance right. They have carefully backtracked. Gwen is better suited and better written as a kick ass action hero who’s happily married with the slight complication of a baby on the way. Bringing in Rhys for a bit of light comic relief was a stroke of genius. PC Andy though is still sadly under used. Jack is a lot darker which is great because being buried alive for a few hundred years isn't something you should take lightly. Ianto's puppy love for Jack feels genuine. (However Ianto's speech in the radio play "The Dead Line" was far superior to the "Bloody Beans" scene) The introduction of Rihanna and Alice brings a new depth to Ianto/Jack but are both pretty great characters in their own right. Ianto's Brother-in-law in fact stole the show for a brief few moments. Torchwood 3 has three members, that we are finally getting to explore, who are finally stable with great chemistry. The storyline is epic - creepy alien wants 10% of the kiddies while Torchwood is down but not out thanks too the dodgy government (the Doctor should of let Harriet Jones stay in charge we wouldn't of had a recession or 4 dead PM's and the year that never was). 

Another reason I was looking forward to this week was because I was going to see the new Harry Potter film (will post review after Irish Premier on Monday or link from my Film Blog) but that actually left me cold. I'll explain why in a tick but I'll say Torchwood cheered me up considerably after my disappointment. Then last night in my opinion RTD threw it away - he killed off Ianto. This not only made me cry buckets but also got me highly annoyed. His death was bloody useless. It hadn’t a scratch on Tosh or Owens’s death last year in terms of emotion. Jack didn’t even say I love you back? That’s so rude? Buffy was polite enough to tell Spike she loved him when he was dying to save the world?

Now we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. You can’t bring Ianto back to life – it’ll be silly? But how is a S4 possible with just Gwen (who people were coming around to but now will just resent her and blame her for RTD killing off Ianto) and an even darker Jack with some tag along minor characters from Children of Earth or Who rejects like Martha. It’s like your in the middle painting something and it’s going to be your best work and then someone comes in and pours black paint over it. Why start again? It’s ruined.

The one good thing was at least it affected me and everyone I know who liked the show – the last minutes of the latest Harry Potter I should of being crying like my new puppy got run down but it fell short. It was limp. Torchwood was able to deliver that heart-wrecking blow that has me talking and thinking of Torchwood the next day. It’ll go down in popular TV History with powerful scenes such as Buffy stabbing Angel and sending him to hell or Jen dying in Dawson’s Creek not because the scene was particularly good but for the love of a character.

However killing off everyone’s favorite character whilst shocking and even interesting isn’t either clever or brave. Like Ianto accompanying Jack to visit the Alien to tell them “not one single child” without a back up plan or counter threat or the common sense to run for a suit or even to open the air lock to shot it might well prove to be a fatal move. 

RIP King of Pop

I love tv and film. I've mentioned before Music is not so much my thing. My first ever memory is my Dad bringing home The Smurfs. I don't know what age I was but I remember hugging his leg and I came in just about under his knee. I thought for the majority of my very early years that my Dad knew about a secret channel on the TV that made my favourite cartoons come on (I loved the bady muppets) and I remember being gutted when I got my head around the idea of a video recorder. My Dad wasn't magic after all he was the only one who knew how to set up the video recorder. My parents owned a chain of video stores when I was a kid so I always got to see the latest films first. I started helping out there at 11 my parents couldn't stop me from going in there and soon I was nearly full time - it was my own personal play ground. When I was 6?7?8? I came across Moonwalker the first video I liked that wasn't a cartoon- no one ever rented it. I watched it over and over and over and over with my legs crossed and nose touching the screen (no wonder I now need glassse). The thing had no plot I could follow but all the dance routines had me spellbound. Moonwalker being a film got me interested in music - if it'd been a tape or on the radio I'd of paid no attention. My first CD bought a few years later was Thriller, my first concert was Michael in the RDS in 97? I even had a poster with lip gloss marks? Ugh I think my sister kissed it to be honest. I'd completely forgotten all this until I turned on Sky News to find out Michael Jackson had a heart attack and TMZ were reporting he'd died. It was a different kind of saddness then when Heath Ledger died - then I'd been in completely shock and immediately gutted but with Michael it wasn't really shock. I wasn't been the only one to predict Michael wouldn't complete the upcoming tour. Then after a few days that fact that at some point I was actually fan hit me. I listened to Thriller when my first boyfriend dumped me, my sister could moonwalk (kinda) on the fireplace, and my Dad let me think my confirmation money was enough to buy us all tickets to go see him in concert - it wasn't! my Dad got them but pretended to me I'd bought them - I probably hadn't enough to buy my own but I remember waiting in line in Empire Records in Limerick with my Dad to get them. 

Michael Jackson was really dodgy and I don't know how history will judge him but I'll just remember I was a fan lucky enough to see him live. I might buy Moonwalker if I see it.

Who were you...

Do people change much after school. I had an old school mate around for Tea at the weekend and we dragged out the old school yearbooks to try and remember some faces.

Out of 90 girls in our year about 10 girls to my horror I couldn't remember at all. The rest of faces came flooding back with juicy gossip and some long forgotten rivilary. Once we had the faces we then needed to combine who was in what group. It's amazing how much like a bad American kids tv show we had "the quiet, nerdy girls", "the beautiful, popular girls", "the edgy, gothy girls", and then you had stand out individuals "the attention seeker" and "the annoying know it all".

Those beautiful, popular girls are still that - whenever I'm out in Limerick I see them - all still one big intimating group somehow taller, slimmer and better dressed than everyone else. They were the girls who had stepped out of a sweet valley high novel with straight A's, a gorgeous boyfriend in college and who's shirt collars were always chrisp, white and prefect. The gothy girls still haven't lost their edge I see them only on facebook living their bohemia lifestyle. The rest I don't see so can only presume or imagine what they are like.

What was I? A floater I think. I could wear pink floaty tops with light coloured jeans and then pottered off to Doc's but also could wear a velvet purple corset dress with too much black eyeliner and potter off to Termites. I was more a geek than nerd and managed to get detention a lot dispite being a good student and getting on quite well with the teachers. People still describe me with the same words "cuddly","nice" or "mad?". All these descriptions I hate but most people hate tags on their personality.

I find it interesting to think of people I work with as "who were they in school" - you can spot the ringleader, the follower, the loner, the nerd, very quickly.

To Spoil or Not To Spoil

Last night at about 2am I found a blog with massive spoilers for ep.1 of S3 of Torchwood. I didn't blink and had read the whole thing in 5 seconds flat. It was one of the best spoiler experiences of my life! Torchwood (like my fav. non cancelled show) ep.1 was meant to air at Easter but the cruel BBC have been pushing and pushing it back - until (we hope) settling on July 20th (a slot you give a programme if you want it to die a horrible death may I add - what are the BBC up too?) The trailers have been brilliant so I just couldn't help myself when I found the spoilers. I never do - Bones, Ugly Betty, Battlestar G, in fact every other Torchwood Series I'd read ahead- I simply can't help myself. Would I enjoy the programme more if I didn't know the juicy gossip (and it's really juicy)? Yes.

An interesting point I learnt at sales training back with SOS - Deferred gratification or delayed gratification is the ability to wait in order to obtain something that one wants. This ability is usually considered to be a personality trait which is important for life success. Daniel Goleman has suggested that it is an important component of emotional intelligence. People who lack this trait are said to need instant gratification and may suffer from poor impulse control.

The marshmallow experiment is a famous test of this concept. In the 1960s, a group of four-year olds were given a marshmallow and promised another, only if they could wait 20 minutes before eating the first one. Some children could wait and others could not. The researchers then followed the progress of each child into adolescence, and demonstrated that those with the ability to wait were better adjusted and more dependable, and scored an average of 210 points higher on an IQ test.



I'd of ate the marshmallows...

InspiredByRebecca

Very few people in these recessionary days are inspirational. So I do have to blog quickly about my good friend Rebecca Thorn.

The majority of us mill about like giant ants all our life (and there is nothing wrong with it) commuting to 9-5 jobs to come home to our now devalued houses to watch reality TV before eventually reproducing new ants - 80% of which won't study higher level maths. A few people however are always thinking, plotting, planning and being creative will stand out from the ground. To have the self belief, patience, talent and interest to try and succeed at something outside the norm is admirable which is no doubt why the rest of us who don't have the self belief, patience, talent or a big enough interest enjoy the likes of Britian's Got Talent or The Apprentice. Part of us likes to see an ant like us succeed - while the other part of course gets out the magifying glass like in Susan Boyle's case. 

Amongst the Grasses - DesignedbyRebecca would of made an excellent reality show. How one talented woman but amateur gardener came up with an excellence garden design, submitted her entry to InBloom and was a success. Work done? Roll credits? Nah! I "helped" on one or two occassions during the 3 week dig and by help I mean I brought my hardworking boyfriend - The interesting thing I watched was as with all first timers (whether it be putting on a concert, a debate or a garden) - nothing goes to plan - when where what how is not out of a book or part of a carefully plotted to do list but an improvisation or a piece of advice acted upon. 

So I haven't spoken about the third & fouth kind of ants - I've covered the main type of ants who use facebook at work and eat a lot of ready meals and the few and far between ants on the other end of the scale who are talented and pro-active but somewhere inbetween there are ants who try to stand out for one brief minute but when it gets too hard they give up and then there are ants who try and try - again and again - and then succeed. 

So at times during the 3 week dig at Bloom amongst the grasses it rained really hard - so Rebecca and her volunteers wore rain gear, no one knew how to operate a digger so they learned, they didn't have enough plants they somehow found more, so many mini dramas one after the other and Rebecca didn't give up and just go home she finished her garden and it was bloody great. Best described as a movie set - I could imagine Kiera Knightley sitting in the garden with a nice cup of tea(in the end it was Mary Kennedy). I really had this amazing urge to run through the grasses obviously I didn't but it was calling me! Better still it was garden that taught important lessons - now you could say "wouldn't it have been boring if it'd gone smoothly and the right amount of plants had turned up". Rebecca is now armed with experience and thats a stepping stone between talent and a gold medal in the years to come if you ask me. 

Torchwood

Why does the BBc torture me so? Why are we still waiting to hear a release date for the season 3?I have a two predictions which I hope are wrong - first that either Gwen or Ianto must die and Jack must choose who he helps second that Ianto dies in a cement related incident! Teasers look gr8 - Gwen Jack Ianto with Rhys and PC Andy are a gr8 combo. I hope it starts after the apprentice finished or I'll be seriously moody.

Also pictures of John dressed as captain jack filming for Xmas was prob filming for Tonights The Night would love John or TW to be in Who again.

Boyzone Better 09 - oh Yes

Went to see Boyzone two nights in a row at the O2 this week. Retro-tastic- as ever I'm an avid believer in the "catch the consumer young" vein of thought and both nights proved I was no exception. Boyzone makes me happy and I have a few theories as to why! 

I always hated music as a child - I would kick and scream if the radio was on or God forbid that nasty Top of the Pops was switched on ZZZZZzzzzzzzzz even in College when I studied Radio I always took on talk radio projects and never did a music show once (no wait I did infact I did two The Specials and my own Classical Music hour? (yes indeed random memory) for the last broadcast but Graham picked the music so I don't think it counts) - in fact I was not allowed near the CD player because of my apparent bad taste in anything musical, my boyfriend owns ten guitars and I've never asked him to play a tune for me even watching x factor I make tea while they sing and come back in to see what Simon says. Music is plain not part of my life. (Film/TV I could happily make that the focal point of my life...)

So how did I start listening to Boyzone - Was it peer pressure? No it was my own need to fit in and belong to something (popular). I think I was in 4th or 5th class and everyone was gathered around a poster of Boyzone - of course I didn't know who they were too the sheer shock and horror of the girls in my class. Which one did I like? "Stephen?" ugh... I'd make an unapproved of choice but I was unfortuately the type of child who never backed down and prehaps it's still true today that I prefer to be different. So I had to do my research I wouldn't be caught out not being cool again (I would often be uncool again) - oh no not only would I know who they were I would soon in fact know everything about them, Boyzone Posters were placed on the inside of my wardrobe (I was not allowed posters on the wall incase I damage the paint - a rule I broke during my George Clonney phase), my diary had Boyzone sellotaped to it with I heart Stephen written everywhere and soon I would have over 90 Boyzone Pen Pals??? I loved swapping everything and anything about Boyzone and taping TV appearances kept me endlessly entertained but I rarely listened to my growing selection of Boyzone CD's/Tapes which sat beside my one other CD Michael Jackson Thriller. Being a Boyzone fan was rewarding enough without having to listen to their music as well. Of course the main hits I know but album tracks erm... It's nice to be part of something as a kid esp. if like me you lived in the bleedin' middle of no where (I'd of been really bored without 90 penpals keeping me busy)! It's a bit like a cult or hmmm is there a nicer way to put it - like supporting a football team. In fact in First Year of school I introduced myself as "I'm Sharon I like Boyzone and cats" on the first day. How I made friends I've no idea apart from Limerick people are very polite.

I don't think I'm really in love or ever was with Stephen Gately  but repetitation simply works. There is a reason your teacher makes you write "I will behave" a hundred times - I wrote I love Stephen Gately prob. a million times over a two year period no wonder when anyone mentions Boyzone I yelp "I love Stephen" I'm like a programmed robot - thanks Louis Walsh (oh what an advertising career he would of had - years wasted). Music, melody, repetition of course is linked with memory and while my fandom really doesn't reflect any music or even strike any memories Boyzone music does strike a lot of memories with my own family - crazy car rides to Dublin with my poor poor Father who was dragged to every concert even ones that weren't Boyzone like Childline or 5ive? generally with a gaggle of girls. (I've tried to make up for this in recent years by going to concerts he likes - how I'm going to sit through Simply Red I've no idea but he did it for me) the "find Sharon & set the tape to record" frantic moments when Boyzone ever appeared on TV and my family would jump off the couch and run about yelling so I wouldn't miss anything. I even used get phonecalls off friends "Network Two now now go go" and my Mother trying to get involved whenever I went to a concert getting me "an outfit" together whilst wisely steering me away from face-painting and cowboy hats! Every Christmas had a Boyzone theme to it new CDs, Videos, annuals, concert tickets - anything they could find. Worst for them I then couldn't wait to watch them so I'd bang on the video while everyone would be pretend it wasn't so bad even though they knew they were missing really good Christmas TV the only time of year RTE had anything to offer. 

Boyzone is a massive part of my childhood - my comfort blanket - and lucky I'd a great secure loving childhood so it's still a great comfort if  I'm having a bad day and being that I live far away from home and can't curl up with Mom on the couch while she tells me how great I am - I can instead go home make a face at Chris that maybe only him or my Mother would understand, go to the top of my wardrobe grab my dusty Boyzone videos, pop them in (our video recorder was bought and placed in the bedroom with this purpose in mind) get into bed, curl up in a ball and revert to a child like state (if I'm a deep deep depression I have to listen to Shooting Star on dubbling speed). It only ever happens once or twice a year maybe it'll increase with the recession I don't know.  By the end of the video I'm in a different place stress free, worry free and completely relaxed. It's like if I'm sick I need Lucozade - nothing else will console me simply because my Dad always brought home Lucozade when I was sick of course it tasted better then and came in the cool glass bottles. 

Of course not all my Boyzone memories are good - their last single "Everyday I Love You" I found in the bargain bin in Golden Disc's in Limerick a week or so after the release I was so ashamed I bought them all. I just couldn't leave them in the bargain bin - it was insulting? Ronan's speech at the The Point in 2000- the last concert before the break up - he said they weren't splitting up. HE LIED. 

The reunion came as a life saver last year. I hated my job - every second every minute was horrfic and damaging to my mind and soul after a year and a half there I was not myself. The RDS concert (which I needed to get my head straight and revert to normality) was the weekend I left there to go work where I am now which is a shiny happy place except on copy deadline day. Boyzone are back and things are Better which is in fact the name of their new tour which is well worth seeing. I have!