Why Willie. Why Oh Why?

Having been recently exiled to Limerick my vote has been transfered from Cork South Central to the Limerick East constituency. I received my first call from canvasers yesterday evening and it turned out to be the Minister for Defence himself, Willie O'Dea.

As all canvasers do he asked for my vote. I told him that it would be difficult to vote for Fianna Fáil this year due to the way the Government are treating the doctors and nurses. I cited the bullying by Mary Hearney in the contract negotiations and the insulting comments by Tim O'Malley, where he stated that some people liked to have waiting lists as it made them feel powerful.

And what was Willie's response?

Well I don't know much about that. I'm the Minister for Defence and that's not my area. I'm the lcoal man here and we're looking for your vote.

What an erudite, insightful and strong defence of his party's policies. It certainly wn me over.

Good man Willie. Keep up the good work. Let's just hope that Ireland isn't invaded between now and Election Day.

NCHDs Boycott New Posts

The latest issue of the Irish Medical Times reports on the boycott of the newly advertised consultants posts, which are being offered under new conditions, by NCHDs from all medical specialities.

Junior doctor and outgoing President of Anaesthetists in Training in Ireland Dr Brian Pickering, told Irish Medical Times that their refusal to apply for the posts under the proposed Government contract is not about money, but about “professionalism”. “The overwhelming issue for us is not pay and conditions - the salary that is being presented is difficult to relate to but this is about professionalism and about being undermined by the Government and the Minister in particular. We will not be applying for these posts,” said Dr Pickering, who will finish his training in December and will begin applying for jobs abroad.

“As doctors, we are not in the business of promoting ourselves in the media, we are not seeking re-election, we’re not managers of enterprises, we don’t have the skills necessarily to present our message strongly to the public. It’s impossible to conduct an effective media campaign while doing a busy job and that is the problem. But we don’t want to become people who have to appeal in the media all the time to fight for a cause.

“At the moment we have a professional autonomy that allows us to make decisions we feel are in the best interests of patients and unfortunately the contract as presented to us destroys that, and this is where the strength of feeling arises. It doesn’t arise from €205,000 not being enough, it is down to the future working conditions and our relations with the HSE. They are being aggressive and I don’t think we can work with employers like that.” He said junior doctors who should be applying for posts are now planning to leave the country.

6 Photos On Explore

6 Photos On Explore
Originally uploaded by BobTheCorkDwarf.

On latest check I've got six photos on "Explore" in Flickr. Explore is a collection for the most interesting photos each day.

My photos are:
1. 2006_02_26 Ireland Vs Wales_0082,



2. Antigua,



3. Cruising On The Shannon_0061,



4. Africa 32,



5. I've Got You My Precious,



6. Aerial I

The Road To Granada II

The Road To Granada II
Originally uploaded by BobTheCorkDwarf.

I'm starting the slow process of sorting and uploading the photos from our recent holiday in Andalucia. A complete update on our trip will follow.

First Xbox Live Arcade game to be downloaded 1 millions times is?

Albert Penello, director of global platform marketing for Xbox, has revealed in a little snippet of a quote to Reuters that Uno is the first game to be downloaded one million times from Xbox Live Arcade.



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Kiwi

This is a very cute little video. Very Pixarish.

Ireland 17-20 France

Ruck
Originally uploaded by BobTheCorkDwarf.

Niamh and myself were one of the lucky few (83000) to get tickets for the Six Nations Clash between Ireland and France in Croke Park last Sunday.
This was the historic first rugby match in the G.A.A. grounds.
THe match was a tense affair with Ireland pulling ahead in the dying minutes by four points. Unfortunately France drove down the pitch at the restart and scored a try and clinched the match.
It was like having your stomach torn out, losing at such a late stage and the most galling thing of all was that the French proceeded to do a lap of honour.
Well hopefully Eddie O'Sullivan will now take the opportunity to strengthen the squad for the World Cup and give some of the peripheral players the quality game time that they require.
Although having said that I don't think it would go down too well in the country if England beat Ireland in Croker.

Who Wants a Whack from a Wallaby?

Who Wants a Whack from a Wallaby?
Originally uploaded by BobTheCorkDwarf.

Niamh, my father and myself went to see the A International in Thomond Park last night. The weather was terrible, but fair play to the lads, they managed to play some nice rugby.
Ireland went ahead early on but the Australians got back into the game in the second half and managed to pull ahead in the last few minutes to win the match 24-17.
Hopefully we can reverse this win this coming weekend and keep up the good form shown during the South Africa match last weekend.

Munster 41-23 Bourgoin

Kyriacou Collects
Originally uploaded by BobTheCorkDwarf.

Went to the game in Thomond Park last night with Niamh and Simon O'Connell.
A good result, but not really a great game. It took things a while to get going but Bourgoin never really loooked like troubling Munster. Munster got into the swing of things in the second quater of the game and had secured three tries by half-time. Anything but a bonus point win would have been a disappoinment, so it was good to see Munster score a further three tries in the second half.
Munster have got of to a great start in the group and should qualify from the group, but they'll certainly have to "shift up a gear" for the later stages of the competition.

The Honeymoon

Aerial I
Originally uploaded by BobTheCorkDwarf.

I'm in the slow process of uploading our honeymoon photos to Flickr. Niamh and I went to Alaska for two weeks, the morning after our wedding.
The trip out was terrible, nearly 24 hours travelling. We flew from Shannon to Toronto to Seattle to Anchorage. Our luggage got lost enroute, but was waiting for us when we woke the next morning (Fairplay to United for the prompt return of the bags).
We spent the first week based in Anchorage and did a little bit of traveling from there. It's a nice city, but could do with a little bit of updating. It just feels a little bit out of fashion.
Our second week was spent aboard the Celebrity Cruises' Summit. We had a wonderful week travelling down the Alskan panhandle and the west coast of Canada. Of course the trip was too short with only two weeks to get a taste of Alaska, but maybe we'll get back there sometime again.