The Sigla Blog

Apologies for the tumbleweed state of affairs around here, RSI was the initial culprit but then a holiday kept me absent, even though I spent most of it wishing I was at home due to an illness in the family. Thankfully things are looking good on that front, so when the mountain of work and […]

I don’t usually dare moan about the fact that sometimes I have to read books for a living. BUT.
It occured to me today that it is literally a couple of MONTHS since I read a book that wasn’t work-related.
A sorry state of affairs indeed, especially when too much time is spent reading newspapers, magazines - […]

Birthdays rock. As someone who generally forgets to take days off, being “another year older and deeper in debt” is no greater reason to bunk off for a birthday lunch with some friends. This year’s actual birthday (today) was preceeded by a Friday night out (who wants to tackle town on a Monday night?) to […]

More sparse blogging of late due to the wonky arm situation, but it’s vastly improved this week, thanks to some green mussel lip extract (thanks Simone!). I’m trying to avoid the computer when I can but I have some posts I wanted to put up today, as well as some bits and pieces, so I’ll […]

The light blogging around these parts is due largely to a debilitating bout of RSI type stuff in my arm. Depending on its mood, it moves from my knuckles to my wrist to my tendons to the muscle in my forearm. Even 10 minutes of typing sets it off again so I’ve had to pass […]

In a discussion here, a few months back, about working from home, a fellow hack confessed that he has seperate day time and night time pyjamas as a result of domicile-based situation. The latter for sleeping in (obviously), the former for faffing about in all day as you work at home, away from the […]

Colm reckons I’m bad at self-promotion but I’m sure the world doesn’t need to have me tugging at their sleeve like a clingy child telling them about every time I’m on the radio or TV. However, I need help people. Recording starts this afternoon and I’ve got a very bad throat. It was achy […]

Apologies for the absence of any substantial posting around here, this week I’ve been forced to ditch the pajamas and leave the house in order to work. Between that and wading through the chaos of building a recording studio, I’m being kept off the streets and away from the PC. Normality should hopefully resume in […]

Ok, forgive the sensationalist title, but it’s not wholly inappropriate. Doesn’t a massacre involve an excess of red stuff? Well so does the once religious feast that is Valentine’s Day because every shop and newsagents is splattered with scarlet, dripping with vermillion. From red cuddly toys to shiny foil heart balloons, the feast […]

My dad has just called in to drop in number 16 in the Independent’s Great Irish Writers series. Yesterday, it was

Today is Epiphany, Women’s Christmas or Little Christmas. As Gaeilge that’s Nollaig na mBan or Nollaig Bheag, celebrated mainly in Ireland and Italy. According to Wikipedia:

It is so called because of the tradition (still strong in Cork, though only just surviving in the rest of the country) of Irish men taking on all […]

Like many bloggers, I avoided my computer over the Christmas/New Year period. I’m hoping to blog some more reviews this year, but here’s a lengthy piece I had intended to post in December and it’s especially relevant this week as it’s three years since the leukaemia diagnosis that prompted me to address my own fertility […]