Word: septic
Meaning:

1. Of, relating to, having the nature of, or affected by sepsis (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)

Usage: Septic Flesh
Comment: B asked what septic means after thinking about the word anti-septic in Wales due to its excessive usage on the trip

Word: sepsis
Meaning:

1. The presence of pathogenic organisms or their toxins in the blood or tissues.
2. The poisoned condition resulting from the presence of pathogens or their toxins, as in septicemia. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)

Word: sprog
Meaning:

1. a new military recruit
2. a child (Wordnet 2.0)

Comment: Used during a meeting at work but I can't remember why.

Word: fudge (adj)
Meaning:

1. To fake or falsify
2. To evade (an issue, for example); dodge. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)

Synonyms: avoid, dodge, evade
Usage: We have to fudge that point and concentrate on the rest

Word: discombobulated
Meaning:

1. To throw into a state of confusion (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)

Synonyms: confused, baffled

Apart from this word wisdom listening to all this English is starting to amuse me sometimes. So let's try this experiment, put on a smile and say these phrases and check whether you'll laugh at their sound

• "you cheeky fucker"
• "Frankie" … like "Hello Frankie" when greeting someone who's not named Frankie

powered by ODEO

Most people will not find anything funny in this picture but those who do will find it hilarious. Check out the trip to Wales here.

The Opeth gig is probably the metal event of the year for me, in fact I had purchased the tickets on the first day they were being sold, so you can imagine my shock when I realised the gig was in jeopardy because of a work presentation. The first thing I did on Monday morning after the boss asked me what I did on the weekend was to tell him that there was a great gig tonight and being the good man he is, he took the hint that I had to leave on time. The thing didn't stop here though, as between 6.00 and 6.45 only one bus passed and it was full so to avoid problems I got a taxi to Vicar St. where the Swedish gods were playing.

I arrived in time to form part of the long black line with other metal fellows ready for the concert and in about 10 minutes I was inside looking for my first pint which never materialized because it was an all ages concert. I found the t-shirt selling stand where I got an Opeth tour shirt and a flag which is already hanging on my door perfectly place to be the first thing I see when I get up of bed every morning. There was a gorgeous girl at the stand wearing a Samael girly shirt which is the first Samael shirt I've seen in Ireland … fine stuff.

At about 7.45 the supporting Irish band Primordial started off their set. I couldn't really pin point the music into a particular style although I think it's somewhere in the pagan black metal region with some cleaner vocals. I had already heard some songs from the last album The Gathering Wilderness and it was nice watching them performed live. The vocalist was full of energy and anger though sometimes he didn't really seem sure where to direct it.

As soon as Primordial finished their 45 minute set, the crew dismounted everything in few minutes and at about 9.00 Opeth's kit was uncovered. The light on that lovely drum kit twinkled and the crowd filled the place and began shouting, "Opeth, Opeth, Opeth". Out they came with Mikael starting off with "Ghost of Perdition" the first track on the new record Ghost Reveries. From now on everything minute kept getting better. The people were really having fun and some proper moshing and headbanging set the atmosphere. I think the sound lacked some depth (even for Primordial) but it could be because of the acoustics of the room. That said however, it didn't make much of a difference.

After each song Mikael was enlightening us with some of his wisdom like what are the good things in life "the corona is cold, the Guinness is cold, the snickers bar has just melted", or else saying that his job is a cock, or that he has a big dick (we were supposed to have said that in Swedish).

His second song was from Still Life but I forgot most of that album and I didn't catch the name of the song. Next came "When" from My Arms Your Hearse. At each songs Mikael and Peter Lindgren kept changing their guitars from their supply stand behind Peter. There was a great vibe, a very responsive crowd and in an uncharacteristic metal attitude Mikael was smiling most of the time. He seems to be a great guy and he's prettier in real life than on the photos. (I've already said that I'm no gay - I just recognise beauty). I'm sure there were some female metal-heads who would agree with me – you could read it on their face. I didn't manage to take a glance at the drummer who was well hidden behind his drums. The keyboardist was also a cool guy who headbanged heavily at some songs.

Next came the songs "Bay of Hounds", "Under the weeping mood" (from Orchid), "The Grand Conjuration" and a one from Blackwater Park. This ended the show but deservedly we wanted more so they come back for one last one. In the mean time we had a small quiz, where we had to guess some famous songs, as a prelude to "Deliverance". This was probably the best song of the night and the crowed really rocked hard. A fantastic concert … definitely the best band I've watched till now.

Tomorrow I'm off to Wales for a long weekend. I'm supposed to be meeting my village friends who have been there for the last couple of days, so I've planned absolutely nothing about this trip except to confirm the timings of the train from Cardiff to Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire. Watch this space for a list of things I forgot to take with me and what I ought to have done ...

In the last couple of weeks the blog has suffered some sheer neglect but with all the things going on and the good weather that we've been having in Dublin I found it difficult to spend any extra time inside and blog.

For starters last week I've been on my first duty travel visit back to my home country. I went to train my ex-colleagues in the company I used to work for until 3 months ago, and it was a good feeling returning back there in an empowered stately position. The trip went well, and during a day traveling and two days working hard I managed to find some time to catch up with family and friends, celebrate my friend's birthday, and take my first (and probably last) swim of the year. Not that much has been going on in the country but it still was a nice short visit. I'm due to go back again in a month's time for 2 weddings.

The previous weekend I've been to Kilkenny, but since this can be classified as a travel post I'll write about it in travel section soon. (See here)

The previous two weeks were mostly spent in the office coding and preparing for my visit abroad. I also made two important purchases though. At last I got a bicycle and a camera. Both were very hard decisions to choose from but at last I ended up with a Ridgeback velocity bike and a Canon S2 IS camera. The bicycle dilemma was whether I'd buy a racing bike or a commuter bike but since I was advised several times that a racing bike is much more fragile and not as comfortable I decide to head advice and go for the commuter bike. I'm now cycling to work which saves lots of time waiting for buses and serves as some needed training. It takes only about 20 minutes to get to work which is usually less than the time I used to spend waiting and standing in traffic on the bus. The camera choice almost solved itself after a new canon model was released to supercede the S2 IS which caused the price of the camera to fall by about 200 Euros. I found a good bargain on pixmania and got the camera for 460 with a bag and 1GB card. The service by pixmania was great and the camera got delivered by DHL in 3 days.

The shopping mania has taken over me quite a bit and HMV in particular is tempting me too much recently. Yesterday I fell for a special edition of In Flames latest album Come Clarity including a concert DVD. Having watched the band perform live on their album tour I felt the need of owning the album. I've always had a soft spot for special editions and digi packs and now I'm trying to buy only these versions. Another CD for the collection was Satyricon's tenth anniversary box set called Ten horns, Ten Diadems which is a best of collection with an unreleased track and photos.

Renting a car in Ireland is a pit full of daggers. You think it's easy - go into a website select a car and date and get a quote. You think, fine this will cost me 39Euros. Then by mere accident you mouse falls on the terms and conditions and happy Fido happens to hit the mouse button and you start reading.

• A 25 Euro surcharge applies if you pick it up from the airport
• A 25 Euro surcharge applies if you pick it from the city center
• Excess waiver surcharge

Sorry, but from where am I supposed to pick up the car if the only locations available in Dublin are the city center and the airport. Shall I go to Galway and pick it up from there maybe it turns cheaper traveling to the other side of Ireland to avoid a 25 Euro surcharge.

I spent 2 hours looking for a 6-seater van to rent for a day. 1 and a half hours were spent searching the web, trying to understand terms and conditions and computing an accounting exam exercise. The other half hour was spent phoning each company and getting a quote directly from customer service.

The moral of the story – don't bother with the web there are too many hidden factors, to make life easier just phone and ask for a quote. However, if there is a web offer and the calculated price is much cheaper than the one the customer service officer quotes it would be a good idea to ask the agent why his quote is higher than the one on the web, maybe there's a discount.

P.S. From the 4+ companies I tried out to rent the 6-seater for 1 day from the airport Avis was the cheapest.

In these last two years I always wrote something about the Eurovision (see 2004 and 2005) but this year I hoped that I'd get away with avoiding the subject. (Un)fortunately I couldn't resist the temptation and here I am writing about the European Song Festival another year.

For starters this year I only watched the Eurovision. Unlike my impressions here in Ireland people can't care less about the festival, in fact it was a chore in itself finding a pub that was showing it on TV. I watched the show with a festival-ultra in soccer lingo, but even with her insistent requests and charming attempts at convincing the bar-man we didn't get very far enough to listen to any songs except the Irish one and my country's song.

Being the fanatic that she is my friend made it her personal mission to convince all the people within a 10 meter radius to vote for our song. I laughed my heart out watching her conjuring every type of excuse why they should vote for our song. Apart from listening to 2 songs, and laughing out loud I have a recollection that I felt a certain urge to lend my body to the Ukrainian singer which was probably the best element of the Eurovision.

All the work and propaganda served for nothing because our country came last and we didn't even get a single point from Ireland. Actually the only point we got was from Albania probably as recognition for our charity work towards them.

At the end Finland won the Eurovision for the first time with the hard-rock group called Lordi. I only have to say that if for nothing else it was a recognition that rock still lives on, although I feel obliged to ask people who don't usually listen to this type of music and liked the song, to experiment further there's much more to it than Lordi. (Drop a mail for guided tour into this musical world.)