DervSwerveOfficial

Ding. The weekly notification popped up on my phone. “Your social media usage this week was more than last week.” To which my default response would have typically been along the lines of “would you ever feck off with yourself” until the other day when I noticed that my usage had spiralled by a whopping 60%! What the actual … ? “How can that be?” I moaned. Until I remembered a ‘throuple’ of…

In the Catholic calendar, the 6th of January marks the Feast of the Epiphany. In the West, it heralds the arrival of the Magi to honour the Christ child, while in the Eastern tradition, where it is known as Theophany, it commemorates the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. In the not-so-holy Ireland of 2024, the 6th also marks Nollaig na mBan or Women’s Christmas, a day on which domestic roles…

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Shame the same couldn’t be said for Dublin City centre. ’Tis the night before Christmas. 7pm to be exact. Standing at the bus stop. It’s cold, dark, wet and the air reeks of Wintry damp and stale fat from the nearby Guest House. Bus comes. I go upstairs. Apart from a worse-for-wear…

The first bottle missed the television screen by inches. It smashed into the apricot flower patterned wallpaper leaving ice cold streamlets of milk racing down through its satin-effect grooves.  As milk dripped onto the brown and gold carpet, another bottle came hurtling through the air. It sailed with easy grace through roast beef-scented air before crashing into the corner of the living room,…

The care staff carefully turned her onto her right hand side. Slowly and with great care, they hoisted her upwards, propping her upright against the giant stack of pillows that dwarfed her already shrunken size, making her look like a small mouse peeping out from a white fleecy cocoon. The smaller of the two, the one with the pretty smile and West of Ireland accent, put the big red button into…

Recently, I found myself walking within a continuous loop of serendipity. It all started with an innocuous email I sent to someone recommending they read Paul Lynch’s Booker winning ‘Prophet Song’. This someone, we’ll call him Gaustine, is a person I have never met. In fact, I’ve never even seen him. I have just heard and listened to his growling baritone voice as we discussed endless rounds of…

Death … this great known unknown … is immeasurable in its infiniteness. Unquantifiable, it is elusive in its unpredictability. The only thing we can be certain of is of death itself. It is an experience that none of us can eschew. Try as we might, we have neither the wit nor the power to outsmart an unstoppable event which has captured both the fears and imaginations of every generation of…

Thoughts on St Brigid’s Day

Something’s got to give. It might just be me!

Tonight, having reached the end of an ever-fraying rope, my soul and self fell into some kind of liminal space. A shadowy crevice in which I am now caught, trapped by anger and a deep sense of frustration. I, me, myself, the sum of all my parts – body, soul, persona – have been fossilised like amber for nigh on three years.

Three years. Has it really…

Bombay Bicycle Club – Pedalling the Same Synth-Pop Delights

Credit: Josh Shinner

London four-piece make convincing return with single ‘Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)’.

It’s been five years since Bombay Bicycle Clubreleased the Mercury Prize nominated number 1 album ‘So Long, See You Tomorrow’, ten since their jangle-rock debut ‘I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose’. So when the four Londoners teased their return earlier this year after a long…

Exposure Won’t Pay The Bills #dailyinspo365

Come write for our blog; you’ll get great exposure and a myriad fridge magnets! It’s a mug’s game that writing for blogs malarkey.

Oh, you’ll get all the free mugs in the world, but you’ll never get the price of the coffee to put in them. You will probably get a nice coaster though, and possibly a fridge magnet with a snappy one liner to which you can turn for comfort each time you open your…

Managing my Monkey Mind #dailyinspo365

With a head more full of chatter than a chimps’ compound, I need to find a way to silence the monkey mind.

There’s so much going on in my universe right now that my personal space feels cramped. With each passing day it’s becoming more difficult to silence the mental chatter. High time to muzzle my monkey mind.

If you’re new to the blog you won’t know the detail so to quickly summarise – I’m a…

What to Do? #dailyinspo365

I’ve had no sleep. Nothing at all. Not a jot.

It’s 5.30am and I’m sitting in the living room drinking Pai Mu Tea and feeling a little worse for wear. Weary before the bustling grind has even blinked an eye or scratched an itch.

In three hours, I’ll board a plane to London, forecast to be a hot and heavy 29 degrees, the type of weather that drains. Whatever gas is left in the tank will be well…

Flat As a Pancake #dailyinspo365

It’s only Day 1 and already the battery has gone dead. Instead of feeling all light and airy, I’m as flat as a pancake. 

Half way through day one and a dead head/sluggish bod combo are nailing me to the floor. My legs feel leaden, my bones are aching. One minute my head is as light as a feather, the next it’s a ton weight on my neck. If this is how I feel and I haven’t yet reached the end of the…

VC Day – PRESS_Preview #dailyinspo365

As VC-Day approaches, I don my needs-must hat, pump up my long deflated bravado, and neck as much caffeine as is physically possible in one day!

Tomorrow is VC-Day! Yes folks. After months of the down three, up five, I’m taking a cavernous plunge into the world of hardcore cleanse.

To bring an end to the long running ‘plateau show’, it was necessary for me to make peace with myself. This…

Driving me to Distraction #dailyinspo365

A post in which I reflect upon being told that contrary to popular opinion, you are indeed too old to learn!

“You’re never too old” or so the saying goes. Well, not according to my now ex-driving instructor. It would seem that I am of an age when it is nigh on impossible for this old dog to learn new tricks.

Iho there is an age when we must accept that we are too old to learn, and I’ve reached…

The Menopause Manual p1 #dailyinspo365

The menopause journey. With no clear start or end point, odd diversions, and an estimated time of arrival that can span years, menopause is certainly a trip, and then some, that requires some turn-by-turn directions.

Nobody tells you what the menopause is like, or how bad it is.

My mum never discussed it. The reasons for that were probably twofold. One, she is of a generation that invariably…

Bees have always held a childlike fascination for me.

It’s their furriness, and those bright neon yellow stripes, and the continual bouncing around and grappling with flowers. The cuteness!!

It’s always worth hitting the pause button ‘to stop and stare’. To immerse oneself in the deep, wondrous pleasure to be had in watching a bee flitting from flower to flower before coming to land on a nearby…