Like most Irish people that I know, I don't know how to forage or pick mushrooms. But this week I was invited to go mushroom picking and I it turned out to be far more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Truly, it was a marvel. The quiet of the forest alone was reason enough to go along. Walking in our natural environment, dog
The perfect steak is a steak shared with loved ones. Well, actually no, it's a steak had to oneself. And there are many preferences when it comes to cuts, seasonings, cooking methods and the many other variables. However, there are some guiding principles that can be utilised to achieve best results. Once upon a time I used to only ever eat my steaks well done,
I'm 18 years old. My body isn't, it's 37. And some days it feels 97. But I'm 18, me, the person inside this increasingly rugged shell. Every day I look in the mirror and I'm greyer and somehow I seem to be going through a second puberty right now, wherein I'm getting hair in places I've never had hair before, namely in and around my
That nagging voice in the back of your mind, the neighbours, that bully in school, your boss, your parents, your kids, those people on TV, don't let them get into your head. This is your week and nobody can take it away from you, except you. There's nothing you can't do if you put your head on right and keep the negatives out. Whether you're
My mate John is one of those people that we all wish we could be. He's so committed everything that he does that it's almost sickening. He's one of those people who dives so deep into whatever he is doing at any given moment that he is reading books about it and talking to people who are passionate about it, whatever it is, so soon
Every day we experience Impossible. It walks past us on the street. It cooks our food. It helps our kids across the street on their way to school. We don't know that we're looking at it or talking to it or being driven to the airport by it. But it's right there, churning in the pit of the souls of those around us. Minute by
So, you've armed yourself and gone to the jungle. You've found a tree, a well fed tree. You've made sure it hasn't young that are still suckling, because that'd be unsportsmanlike. Then you've murdered it and dragged its corpse home and propped it up in the corner of your sitting room and decorated it with shinny things and sparkly things and homemade things from your
The office Christmas party, whether we're in a small business or a faceless corporation, the traditional shindig is always a moment of excitement. It's that rare opportunity to get drunk and give the bosses a piece of your mind. Or, better still, watch someone else get drunk and give the bosses a piece of your mind. There's the obligatory over the top drunk too, necktie
Many of today's great thinkers assure us that the statistical safety, security and prosperity of humanity as a whole are improving on a daily basis. They tell us that we have never been better off. And they insist that we have never been happier, despite the now ever present headlines of atrocities and famines and droughts and rampant diseases and bands armed squirrels rampaging through
It's been done since kings went into battle barefoot, because shoes hadn't been invented yet. They might not have known that they were doing it, but they were. All religions and political parties are built on it. Every schoolyard thrives on it. And it lives within all of us, whether we know it or want to admit it to ourselves, and especially to others. Identically, the
