It was with a certain amount of sadness and a lot of disappointment that I saw Munster’s unmatched Heineken Cup home record finally broken by Leicester at Thomond Park on Saturday. The fact that it was the last game to ever be played in Thomond Park before it is demolished to make way for its redevelopment makes it doubly upsetting.

But records are there to be broken.

You would think that it would be easy to find a good reasonably priced universal remote these days, given the plethora of gadgets hooked up to our television sets. If you’re like me and have 2 TVs, video player, DVD player, analogue satelite receiver, and digital Satelite receiver then you will know what I mean when I talk about the “which remote control is which” nightmare or the more common “where’s the *$#**ng [tv/video/dvd/analogue/digital - substitute which ever applies] remote gone?” headache.

So I went out in search of a universal remote and parted with euro20 for a One For All remote. All went well for a few weeks and then the damned thing started acting up - no amount of pressing buttons would get it to work. Upon closer scrutiny it became obvious that the problem was with the crappy battery compartment of the same that had the batteries constantly coming loose - see photograph on right. This was a total waste of money and I would not recommend you buy this remote.

In desperation my partner purchased a Tevion universal remote in Aldi some weeks ago as she could no longer take any more of the “which remote/ *$#**ng xyz remote” nightmare.

I must say it was an excellent decision on her part, as not only is the Tevion not giving any problems, it is also much more solid and can be programmed quickly and easily to work with any of a multitude of gadgets that use remote controls.

So if you’re in the market for a universal remote, get yourself down to the nearest Aldi and treat yourself to a Tevion universal remote control.

I’ve just heard today that An Post have closed down our local Post Office. This is terrible news for everybody in the locality. It means that we now have to drive 10 more miles to Ennis to do our business. Not only that but we will have to queue at the Ennis Post Office, as there are nearly always queues there.

I have my own business and am pissed off with An Post, as I will no longer be able to nip down the road to post off invoices, nor purchase stamps. Instead I’ll have to drive to Ennis.

But it’s much worse for pensioners who will now have to travel an extra 10 miles to collect their weekly pension. This is disgraceful. This is yet more proof that the powers that be don’t give a goddamn (never mind two) about the people in this country. All they care about is profit or should I say PROFIT. Profit is the king and is the only thing that matters in this cold-hearted capitalist nihilist globalised world we now live in. People don’t matter any more. We only matter in so far we can be exploited for what money we have in our purses.

Those of us who still live in the countryside are being squeezed more and more, are being actively discriminated against by the Government and all the other big entities (banks, An Post, et al). It’s as if they want to denude the countryside and force us all to live in the increasingly gridlocked overpriced towns and cities where we would have to pay exhorbitant rents and breathe in the increasingly putrid “air”. So much for community, so much for democracy.

I only hope that people remember this when they next go to the ballot box, and even more importantly remember this everytime they buy petrol, or shop at the supermarket.

Work on the house began last Friday, when the roofers came. The front of the roof was whipped off on Sunday morning - the old slates needed replacing and had no felt underneath! - and new felt and lats were on by late Sunday evening.

The plumbers have been in 2 days now, installing the 300 litre tank for the solar panels that will form part of the new roof. There’s still a bit more to do.

The electricians have spent all day today sorting out the total mess of wiring that was in the attic, and installing power points and lighting in preparation for the attic conversion. They will wire up the solar installation as soon as the panels are put on the roof by the plumbers sometime tomorrow.

The plasterer has stripped the plaster from the chimneys as it was old and cracked all over the place. In the process he had to take down the tv aerial. As a result the reception for TV3 and TG4 is now pretty crappy. Hopefully the aerial will go back up very soon.

The result of all this is that the house looks like it was hit by a tornado outside, and isn’t much better inside. I’m willing the work to be done quickly …

Add to that an out-of-commission satelite dish that was blown backwards by the recent storms. The technician won’t be able to come until the end of this week at the earliest.

I’m glad to report that the very heavy physical work of removing the wall from inside my attic has been completed. I finished it last Wednesday in fact, but have been so busy since that I haven’t had a chance to post here.

This is a photograph of me in full regalia with half the wall removed. Note the dust-mask and goggles - no use running any health and safety risks is there! Though the dust-mask fell apart after a couple of days and I had to dump it without a replacement. Statistics of job: 5 days duration; 192 buckets of stuff removed which at a conservative average estimate of 20kg per bucket gives a whopping 3840kg of stone and old mortar removed.

The photo on the left is of the attic after the wall has been removed - I left the last 8″ or so as it is flush with the top of the exterior walls of the house and will make a lovely feature when cleaned up.

I’m currently hauling tons of stone and rubble from a wall I’m dismantling and removing from my attic in preparation for an attic conversion. It’s very heavy physically demanding work, as I have to use a large plastic bucket to haul the stuff through a small trapdoor in a bedroom ceiling. So far I’ve moved 110 buckets of material and the wall is now three quarters removed. I’ve been at it for 2 solid days with another couple to go. To prevent any damage to the back and muscles I’m using my Tai C’hi for correct balance and posture when lifting and moving. So far it’s been very effective, except for my knees which are both quite painful at this juncture. In any case I won’t be posting again until Thursday afternoon at the earliest when I hope to put up some pix of the operation.