Kieran Donnelly

Uploaded a song to SoundCloud:

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:08:22 +0000

Uploaded a song to SoundCloud:

Can’t wait for Passenger’s new album “All the...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:51:48 +0000

Can’t wait for Passenger’s new album “All the little lights”. Best Singer Songwriter in the world in my opinion.

Stuttgart, February 24-27

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:12:51 +0000

In a couple of weeks time I’m heading to Stuttgart with my flatmate Ryan & my mate Kevin. I roped them both into coming as we enjoyed seeing Skrillex so much in December that we wanted to see him live again.

After looking at where the upcoming tour of Europe went I realised I could get two birds stoned at once and visit Simon, my “brother from another mother” in Germany who lived with me in New Zealand for 12 months while we were at high school. I’ve only seen him twice since 2004, once in 2005 & last year in Amsterdam.

So we’re flying from Dublin to Stuttgart on the Friday, then back again on the Monday. The Skrillex gig is in a hall 10 times the size of the one in Belfast.

I can’t wait to get away with the boys and explore Stuttgart, and I can’t wait to see Simon and his family as I haven’t seen them since 2005.

Will be making a video while I’m away, should be an awesome time. I’ll show you when I get back. :)

How To Life Guide: The Basics: Time and Productivity

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:37:40 +0000

How To Life Guide: The Basics: Time and Productivity:

howtolifeguide:

Time is something that cannot be bought or sold. Once it’s gone, you can’t get it back. Eventually, it will run out, it does for everyone, so don’t waste a single second.

Where to start?

1. Cut out the time wasters.

Avoid time wasting websites like Twitter, Stumbleupon, and Reddit. Delete…

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and the present is a gift."

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:05:29 +0000

““Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and the present is a gift.””

- I intend on living like this from now on.

Motivational iPad wallpaper

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:01:04 +0000

Motivational iPad wallpaper

Found this outside Buckingham Palace

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:59:03 +0000

Found this outside Buckingham Palace

2012

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:22:00 +0000

Another year rolls around! Currently sitting at Chloe’s house in Tooting, London. Tomorrow Louise & I are heading back to Belfast and I can get the year properly under way.

Reflecting on 2011, it was a massive step forward for me. A promotion at work has given me great experience in business to business sales, and skills that I’ll keep with me forever. I got to travel to some amazing places, and have met some new lifelong friends. This is the first time I’ve written down plans for a calendar year, so this is what I’m planning on working on in 2012:

1. Clear all debt except Student Loan.

I have about £6,700 to go on my debt back in New Zealand, and have been repaying it at a rate of £3,600 per year. I could pay back more but it would mean huge sacrifices in other areas. So with that in mind I intend on working much harder and trying to clear some big quarterly bonuses to clear the balance. It isn’t too much of a stretch to think it couldn’t be done in 3 months. With bank OD’s and personal loans cleared, that leaves just my student loan left, which I’m undecided on how to proceed in clearing it. I don’t know anyone who is making any efforts to clear their balances at the moment. Will need to think about it more.

2. Sell the remaining bar products I have in storage at Stu’s

Selling the remaining bar products that I have will help with resolution 1. Aim to have this done by the end of february.

3. Get in shape.

Yes the cliche new years resolution. More on this later.

4. Produce more

In 2012 I will blog more, make more videos, upload more pictures, and tweet more. I am much more likely to get things done if they are written down, and especially if they are in a public forum. Blogging more will help keep me on track. Monthly reviews will be helpful.

5. Put my all into everything that I do

2011 was good, but it wasn’t great. Mainly due to me falling into a groove of “good enough is good enough.” I want 2012 to be extraordinary.

I think these 5 resolutions are a good base to everything I want to achieve in 2012. So with that, I hope anyone who reads this enjoys as much success throughout 2012 as I plan to.

Was introduced to Cubixstep a couple of weeks ago and this song...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:43:39 +0000

Was introduced to Cubixstep a couple of weeks ago and this song has been on flat out repeat as I drive about Northern Ireland.

Learned all about Hurley/Hurling today

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:54:16 +0000

Today I went with my friends Stu & Marty (Flatmate) to the All Ireland Hurley Junior Final which our other friend Ollie Duffin was playing in. He was playing for a team called Creggan against a team called Beart.

Hurley is a game played with 15 players on each side and the object of the game is to use your sticks (which look like double sided hockey sticks with a much larger end) to whack the ball either through a set of rugby posts, or into the back of a football net (net is made from the crossbar and the sides of the rugby posts.

We arrived slightly late so missed the first 5 minutes. My first reaction was this is the fastest game I have ever seen - the speed at which the ball gets from end to end is phenomenal. Marty was fairly clued up on the rules and explained that if it went through the posts it was 1 “point|, but if it went into the net then it was 1 goal which equals 3 “points”.

That was all well and good, but it took me 10 minutes to get my head round how the score is displayed in a Hurling match. It is shown as the number of goals, then the number of points. E.G Team A = 108 (1 goal and 8 points = 11 points total) Team B = 011 (11 points) In this example the scores are tied. WHY DON’T THEY BOTH JUST SAY 11 POINTS EACH???? I didn’t get a proper answer to this question.

The game went on and Ollie’s team were down by 2 at the halftime whistle. Going into the match as favourites the general feeling was that they would pull back and win the game. Beart continued the second half as they had in the first and were holding onto their lead, but Creggan looked the better team.

Nearing the end Creggan took a 1 point lead, and it looked as though they would nail another couple and close out the game. With 2 minutes to go, Beart equalled the scored from a 25m point, and then with 1 minute to go the old “Don’t piss around in front of your own net” that you get told as school kids reared its head as the Creggan goalkeeper made a horrendous mistake and tried to clear in front of his own net. A Beart attacker managed to get his stick in front of the ball and it rebounded back into the Creggan net, and the Creggan players all fell to their knees as they knew that was the end of the match.

It’s a ridiculously rough sport, with more than one player taking a full blooded swing to the knuckles and I’m pretty sure at one point a player had his kneecap shattered. As part of the Kiwi in Ireland video blog series we took some footage there of the match and even managed to get an interview with a long serving supporter of the Creggan side. This footage will be released in a Kiwi in Ireland special: Sport in Ireland. It’s a few months out though as we would like to get a wide variety of sports.

@imcalledstu and I went to McDonalds and played a little...

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 23:11:23 +0100

@imcalledstu and I went to McDonalds and played a little game…

2 years in Ireland

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:30:08 +0100

Yesterday I clocked up 2 years in Ireland.

It only feels like yesterday that I was leaving NZ and moving my whole life to Ireland. Since then I have travelled to Portugal, Sweden, the Netherlands, England (3 times), flown home for 5 weeks, and Scotland. I’ve lived in 4 different houses, been promoted twice, paid back the majority of my debt in NZ, won two leagues of cricket and experienced my first ‘proper’ winter.

I’m loving being over here, loving being with Louise, loving the good friends I’ve made in the last two years, and I’m loving getting my life up and away.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me, worked with me, partied with me, and thank you to everyone who has made me feel welcome. Can’t wait for the next 2 years.

Last weekend I went for a sightseeing trip down by Portaferry...

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 11:36:52 +0100

Last weekend I went for a sightseeing trip down by Portaferry & Strangford Lough. @imcalledstu came with me and we started our web series “A Kiwi In Ireland”.

SOME PEOPLE TRIED TO SCAM ME

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 20:37:00 +0100

I recently posted on the UK version of Trademe that I was looking to buy a 1st Generation 16gb iPad and that my budget was £200. (Most on site were priced around £270) I wanted to see if it was possible to buy an iPad for less than £200, and see if the people who were selling iPads had come to some sort of unspoken agreement that we’ll keep all our prices high so we all get as much money back as possible. No one seemed to want to price it to sell.

The ad sat for 2 weeks and I had a couple of genuine replies from local sellers who were offering their iPad, but at £250. (It is possible to barter down £20). On its last day of being active, I received the text message below.

You know and I know that this is a great deal at the time of writing, and so I wanted to learn a little more, as I was very skeptical.

The below picture is a stictched together copy of the txts between me and someone called “Scott”.

I left that to sit overnight, as I couldn’t decide whether this guy was for real or not. After sleeping on it I decided to get in touch with this Denisha person. The next picture details my txts with Denisha and how the story unravels.

As I try to believe the best in people I decided I should give this random stranger one last chance, but a chance that they could have nothing to do with if they weren’t who they said they were.

I called interactive10 (their supposed workplace) and asked the person who the domain is registered to did Scott or Denisha work for you? He replied absolutely not!! I asked him to put it in writing and I now have an email confirming this.

These people are obviously locals as their command of english was very good/deceptive in a way that you can’t be if english isn’t your first language. It makes me worry that I live in an area where these types of people exist. It’s a bit of a wake up call and I can now appreciate how deceptive these people could be, particularly in targeting inexperienced computer users (for example a certain portion of the elder generation have a lot of trouble using a computer, and could fall prey to these awful people.

One thing to be aware of is that interactive10.com appear to be a legitimate company, and that there is no proof indicating someone from their offices is acting on behalf of their company. Innocent until proven guilty.

I thought that I should post this in case someone else googles the problem and finds my post, at least I’ve stopped one person from falling victim to these criminals.

Nice view of Carrickfergus coast line this morning.

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:43:23 +0100

Nice view of Carrickfergus coast line this morning.

Still alive after Amsterdam

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 23:03:53 +0100

A week ago today I was just returning from Amsterdam after catching up with three of my best friends who live in all different parts of the world.

Flew out with Easyjet who as usual provided a cost effective way of getting from A to B. Some people seem to have all kinds of trouble with them, but I think it’s just because they can’t follow simple instructions. (1. Turn up on time. 2. Make sure your overhead luggage isn’t too big. 3. Bring your passport. 4. Ensure you’ve filled out all details online.) It’s ridiculously easy and everytime I see someone arguing with a check in clerk I just think “They’re just a person too, be nice to them and they’ll help you.”

Anyway. Arrived in Amsterdam no trouble, only a 90 minute flight. Spotted something I’d never seen before and never knew existed on the way in; Windmills at Sea?!

After an hour or so Thomas and Lars arrived in from Sweden, and we grabbed a bite to eat before guessing which train to get on. Luckily enough we got it right and ended up in Amsterdam Central Station. Lars had been here before and knew his way (sortof) to the Red Light District where our accomodation was.

We booked a private apartment for the 7 of us which was divided into 4 rooms of 2, in two separate floors. We were smack bang in the middle of the Red Light zone, and could even see a couple of the windows from one of the rooms.

John and Sam had already sussed out the accomodation and had got the keys, so all the boring checking in stuff was already done by the time we got there. On the first night our friend from Havelock North High School Matt Baddiley was there with his girlfriend and her friend and they stayed with us for the first night before they continued on their travels.

I really enjoying catching up with John and hearing about all his travels and what he’s been up to. I felt particularly jealous at the end of the trip when he basically put his finger on the map to decide where he was going to travel to next. “Paris tonight maybe?” He was on an interrail trip. I definitely need to do that at some point.

Soon after we arrived Simon and his girlfriend Miriam turned up and it was great to see him again. The last time I saw him was in Germany at the start of 2006. It was like no time had passed at all, he was still built like a Sherman Tank and his English was still pretty good as well! We’ve been threatening to meet up for a couple of years since I arrived in Ireland and I’m glad we finally did. We won’t wait so long to meet up again.

We spent most of the weekend enjoying the sights and sounds of Amsterdam, we went to a few cafe’s and wandered about. We didn’t visit any of the traditional tourist attractions but the weekend was more about catching up with everyone.

The weekend went all too fast, and too soon we were saying our goodbyes and heading our separate ways.

Amsterdam was mainly as I expected it, though I did have an ‘American Movie’ kind of impression of it i.e I thought it might be a bit more glamourous. It wasn’t.

If there was something to take away from the weekend it’s that whenever you’re really good friends with people it’s like you’ve never been away, and that I am going to be making much more effort to visit my friends whereever they happen to be in the world.

More photos to come..

Amsterdam in 2 weeks time.

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:01:51 +0100

In two weeks time I’ll be getting my stuff packed for a 3 day mini vacation to Amsterdam. There I’ll be meeting up with 7 others, including 3 of my good friends.

Simon, from Germany, will be bringing his girlfriend and one of her friends. Simon lived with me in New Zealand for a year when we were in high school, and we had heaps of really fun times. I visited him in Germany for a month in 2005, and that was the last time we saw each other.

John, I went to school with in Havelock North and he has been one of the few that I’ve kept in touch with. He’s been working around the world in London and now Switzerland, and we are the instigators of this trip. Last time I saw him was in New Zealand before I moved to Ireland! John has a friend called Sam coming as well.

Thomas, from Sweden, I met in New Zealand in 2009 and we became really good friends. We travelled together from Auckland to London Heathrow on my way to Ireland and toured NZ for a week before which was awesome fun. He’s bringing his flatmate, Lars, who I met when I visited Stockholm in 2009.

I’m really excited to see everyone again and to meet the new faces.

We’ve booked accomodation in the heart of the red light district, a 2 storey apartment building with 4 beds per floor I believe. The photos and reviews are excellent, and it’s fairly cheap too!

I’m going to make a video of the trip, as this knocks off one of my 12 month goals (see 2 more countries).

2 weeks to go!

12 Goals while I'm 24.

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 20:40:58 +0100

Last Sunday I turned 24. In the last couple of years since I moved to Ireland I have packed a lot in. I’ve travelled to Sweden, England (twice), Scotland, the South of Ireland, home to Australia and New Zealand and Portugal. I’ve made a whole pile of great life long friends through work, flatting, and cricket. I’ve made huge steps into fixing the financial mistakes I made while I was a student, and have cleared all my credit card debt, a number of personal debts, and am closing in on the black again. Louise and I have been together for over two years now, which shows the move here in the first place was worth all the trouble!

I thought it would be fun to set myself some (hopefully achievable) goals for the next 12 months. Here they are. If you’d like to get involved in helping me cross them off, let me know!

Financial

1. Clear all debt (excluding student loan).
2. Savings equal to 6 month burn rate.
3. Passive income equal to salary.

Adventure

4. Visit Amsterdam (August 26-29th booked).
5. Skydive.
6. Visit 2 other countries.
7. Go on a ski trip.

Sport

8. Finish the cricket season with 25+ wickets at a strike rate of less than 18.
9. Start playing football again.
10. Get golf clubs and try not to lose them .

Skills

11. 12 month average close rate = more than 3/5.
12. Learn 12 new songs on guitar.

Goodbye Wordpress!

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:02:39 +0100

Today I have switched my blog back to Tumblr as I just found wordpress too big for what I need it for. I have managed to set everything up fairly well, and have integrated twitter as the first post that appear when you visit my blog. Now to fill it with content!

View from the boardroom (Taken with instagram)

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:46:10 +0000

View from the boardroom (Taken with instagram)