THE ruin hugs the rugged shore straddling the bays of Ballinskelligs and Waterville. Once upon a long ago it was a hotel. Today it sits in an overgrown field, a three-storey concrete skeleton, like something lifted from a bomb-ravaged city. You can walk up and look inside the walls at the rubble, the moth eaten furniture, the sepia-toned dreams pummelled by time.

ANYBODY out there with a bit of get-up-and-go? In particular, we’re looking for somebody who’s good at selling. You will be required to spend time on the road, flogging your wares in foreign capitals.

THE Hangover II sounds like a stinker. Most of the reviews for the movie are suggesting they shouldn’t have bothered with the sequel. Having seen the original, I think they shouldn’t have bothered with that either — but it was a huge box office hit.

LET’S talk about sex. In Britain and France, they’ve been talking about little else. Across the Irish Sea, the travails of footballer Ryan Giggs have dominated media discourse such that the fall-out from his extra-marital affair has led to a potential constitutional crisis.

THE night before he came, the acrid smell of burning and conflict were in the air. A riot broke out, prompting the call for reinforcements from Dublin. Baton-wielding cops charged the crowd. Mindless violence kicked out in all directions as the booze took hold.

WHAT do you have to do to get arrested in this town? Last week, Judge Peter Kelly voiced a sentiment that resonates with a large chunk of the populace. He is not pleased with the progress of investigations into white-collar crime.

TWO years ago, a friend of mine moved house. She and her husband are living in south-east London. Their son was three years of age, and another son was on the way.

I USED to have a colleague in the UK who, whenever he was asked what he did for a living, answered that he worked in a laboratory, looking after rats.

SO read the second best headline of the past year which appeared over a picture of a brown blob found on a Nevada cave wall and which kind of, sort of, looked a little bit like the outline of a creature from Jurassic Park if you squinted it at in the right way.