Because I live in Dublin and work in Naas, I have to travel on the (three lane) Naas road every morning (against the traffic mind you). It was always irritating to be stuck doing 80 behind somebody in the outer lane who refused to pull in while the inside lane does 85. However the middle lane hoggers are worse, much worse. I do try to keep to the rules of the road which means staying in the left lane unless I need to overtake and once I have overtaken, I move back in. I regularly come across a line of cars in the middle lane doing 90 with no cars whatsoever in the left lane. Am I meant to swerve across three lanes in order to overtake legally? Am I meant to stay where I am because they happen to be in the wrong place and then I blithely sail on past them on the left? Who do you think the guards will be pulling over if they happen to see this? It is very common (especially when inbound in the evening) to see the right lane being choc a bloc with cars doing 95, then you will have about half that number of cars hogging the middle lane at 90.00001 and finally you get the people doing the right thing and driving in the left lane at 90. Every car trying to get past in the outside lane is jammed up each others' hole so if somebody brakes, there's going to be a huge pileup. It's damn dangerous and the reason it happens is because Irish drivers seem allergic to the notion of driving in the left-most lane unless you're overtaking. If the guards make a high profile campaign to pull over lane hoggers on the Naas road lasting one week, people will stop doing it forever! Instead they are too busy clocking people doing 105!

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I'm only here a day and already I have a moan about it. Comments. When I want to make one, I scroll down to the bottom of the blog I just read and notice a big ---------------------- dividing line above the comments link which makes it look like that's to place a comment for the blog below so I scroll back up like a good lad to make my comment which of course ends up as a comment in the wrong blog. Any chance the format could be changed to make it a bit clearer or have the blog printed on the reply page. This would also have the side benefit that you could copy & paste to quote from the blog you are replying to.

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The gig was good-ish but the sound was terrible. They'd want to fix that before the remainder of the gigs. The tunes were great. AF belted them out and got the crowd going wild. The intro video stuff is quite surreal and the stage was nearly as full as the floor right in front of it but Arcade Fire put on a decent show. And the smokers... There were smoking signs everywhere and we still had to put up with the plumes of throat-bothering reekiness. Did the event staff make any attempt to get people to smoke outside? Not a chance. Respect to those smokers who did go outside to light up. €3.50 for manky chips? Err no thanks. Many thanks to the promoters for putting up no signs whatsoever at the Ashtown gate to direct pedestrians to the shorter route (go right after the gate and not left).

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When you go to see a cave, you go expecting to see something like this: http://www.mabinay-caves-hotel-camping.com/images/hcave.jpg Instead we got to stare in awe at six inch stalactites which were badly lit having paid €12 each for the privilege. The "tour" lasted only 10 minutes and the guide was at the front of a large group so nobody at the back could hear her. To add insult to injury, we were expected to buy stuff in the trinkets store at the front. Myself & Eims felt conned as we left the place. Do yourself a favour, don't waste your money here. Mitchelstown caves is far far better and you get to see something like this: http://www.tipp.ie/placesofinterest/mitchelstowncaves/mitchelstowncaves.jpg

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You have to wonder what these guys are smoking sometimes and what fools the electorate are for voting them back in. The facts: http://www.independent.ie/national-n... Dig out Bertie was lecturing union leaders & workers about the need for "wage restraint" at the same time as he gave himself a raise higher than the average industrial wage. I understand that he needs to insure against having to be dug out of future financial difficulties by builders & plasterers but does he really need to be higher paid that the president of the US? You wouldn't mind if he said it and led by example himself because we do actually need to cop ourselves on. It's only six months since the election and already we've got hairshirts popping out of 1980's vintage wardrobes with all the pre-election promises forgotten. The economy was going to be knackered whoever won the election but sending FF back into power for a third term for mediocre government is just pulling the piss. The electorate made it quite clear that they wanted the PD's banished to Outer Mongolia but we've got the ghoulish spectre of Mary Harney looking to finish off the job she started on privatising (gutting) our healthcare. We also have the "class act" Beverly Cooper-Flynn not only sitting on government benches but possibly in line for a ministry. This was after the Irish taxpayer got caught with half the bill for her failed bid to sue RTE who rightly reported that she aided tax evaders. Why on earth is this woman eligible to stand for election? For the guys who lost their seats in the election, help was at hand because Bertie appointed them to the senate instead. Ivor Callely of the free house painting scandal, we're looking at you. Bertie doesn't give a hoot as he won't have to face another election and based on past form, the electorate would still vote him in anyway. They only received the votes of 28% of the electorate and they get to sabotage the country & line their pockets for another 5 years. Is it that we are blind or is it because we don't care?

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