HOW does one begin to imagine the awesome power that can lift the sea 30 feet, that can suck an ocean into itself and then send it roaring for hundreds of miles, all in the space of minutes?

NONE of us knows, of course, what the future will bring. Did Charlie McCreevy ever think, this time last year, that he’d be pulling his next Christmas cracker in Brussels?

THE panto! It was always one of the best parts of Christmas, though perhaps never to be the same again now that Maureen Potter is no longer here.

HUMPTY Dumpty said it in rather a scornful tone: "when I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more or less."

WATCH out for spin. It’s all around you. Some of our politicians have been spinning madly this past week about a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t deserve it.

HERE’S a sort of plain man’s guide to the politics of the Budget.

SO, what happened to all the hype? The kinder, gentler government? The touchy-feely, Fr Sean Healy approach?

THE mood in the Sycamore Room was tense. All the handlers had gathered, and both the ad agency and the market research companies had delivered their verdict.

I SOMETIMES wonder is it just me that’s going mad, or is the whole country at it.

I LIVED about a year of my life in America. About half of that time was spent on the east coast, and half on the west, mainly in Seattle.