Room by Emma Donoghue, and some useful links

I read Room, by Emma Donoghue, a couple of months ago. It's one of the books that stick in my mind, like the Life of Pi, or Sunday at the Pool in Kigali - well written, well driven and to reuse an oft-mentioned word, compelling. Room tells the story of a young boy who lives with his mother in a small room - this is (for most of the book) the entire realm that these 2 characters exist in.

The story is told from Jack's 5-year old viewpoint, so everything has a character and is anthropomorphised in the way that 5-year old boys do (well, as far as I can remember anyway) so well. But you can probably guess that Jack and Ma aren't in the room naturally, so to speak, though as usual I'm loathe to give away much of the plot as if you haven't read it I'll spoil it on you.

This book raises your heartbeat and is truly edge of your seat reading. I read it in one sitting, pretty much, only putting it down half way through to catch my breath. Definitely one for the must-read pile. Shouldawundabooker.

So, while you're reading that curled up next to a fire while the weather outside continues to freeze and snow and do unspeakably wintry things to us, you might be looking for some information on roads and stuff. These links below might be of use:

Kildare Co. Co. Emergency News webpage

Bus Éireann's travel information

Met Éireann's interactive 5-day forecast (winds, precipitation and temperature)

Irish Weather Online

Dept. of Transport Scary Weather Information Page with other links and stuff

AA Roadwatch (as if you didn't know this one already)

RTÉ's weather and transport feed

The exciting world of home upgrades

We fitted a brand new toilet seat today, to replace the rather wimpy affairs that come as standard. What an exciting life this is, eh? Off to a family party shortly, then we have guests later on. Watch out Monasterevin!

We were in the Porterhouse the other evening with some friends, in the spirit of the season. Some people had spirits, the others had beers and ciders. Some yummy beer was had, I started with a 14% lager called samichlaus beer. Austrian Santa Claus beer, which is brewed but once a year and aged for 10 months. Serious stuff, and one bottle is more than enough.

Also had some Hoegaarden, which is nice. They put lemon in it, so must remember that for future weisbeer (sorry, not sure about the fancy german B-s) consumption. Nice burgers too. A good place to meet up. Got the bus home to Kildare then a taxi. Bit of a pain in the behind, but then we did get a lift up which helped.

Actually, while there are regular buses to and from the big smoke, you are getting on the Limerick service, and the last one leaves at 20:00. What that means, is that another ticket is required to get onto the Kildare service. While that makes sense in somebody's head, it meant we couldn't get a return ticket on the bus up and use it on the way back, on a shorter journey? Thanks to Bus Eireann for that one.