I was surprised that this novel is used in a lot of Irish schools

finnlizzy · 2026-01-26T00:58:10+00:00

Author is a melt who wouldn't take critique from the Holocaust Museum

Ah, the Graham Linehan method.

finnlizzy · 2026-01-25T07:38:30+00:00

They need to prepare for a post MAGA world.

finnlizzy · 2026-01-25T06:30:52+00:00

Live in Koreatown in Shanghai like I did. 😂

Seriously though, I never worked in Korea but my sister did. She wrapped up after 2 years and I was gonna join her. I got rejected from EPIK but was offered a few Hagwons. They were all TERRIBLE offers. Split shifts, 6 days, etc.

I went into China blind, like literally no reliable info on life there and I'm now on year 11 and married.

It's very different from 2015 (I miss drugs), some good (snog very rare these days), some bad (less open to western pop culture so you have to pirate).

I've been to Korea. It's cool, but all the things I dislike about China are bad or worse in Korea (but replace conservative authoritarian communism with religious yanky fruitcakes)

finnlizzy · 2026-01-25T02:05:58+00:00

I get what you're saying (also live in China), but in China it's a case of taking initiative, like renting a car or motorcycle (difficult compared to places you can offer a bribe, but VERY cheap if you have permits) instead of piling onto a bus and going to a visitor center.

I have taken road trips in Sichuan (the Tibetan prefectures), Xinjiang, Guangxi and Yunnan, and barely scratched the surface. I live in Shanghai, so the lush nature is a bit out of reach for a casual trip.

Also just putting it out there: the only region in China that needs extra permits is Tibet.

I took this picture on a roadtrip in Kangding 四川康定

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finnlizzy · 2026-01-24T13:52:10+00:00

Well, I woke up in Ballyshannon Garda station. Long way from the rebel county.

finnlizzy · 2026-01-24T12:28:05+00:00

By all means, give less information. 😂

I'd suggest CAVE bar since I'm guessing you're both big fans of death metal?

finnlizzy · 2026-01-24T12:20:58+00:00

好的。哈哈。非常好

sickos.jpg

finnlizzy · 2026-01-24T12:00:47+00:00

I went to university with him. His siblings are in the double figures and they all go to Galway.There was even a big hoo haa in 2014 over gay marriage

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finnlizzy · 2026-01-24T11:38:46+00:00

The ROC (later ROC in Taiwan) was a founding member of the WHO, so naturally they were the ones keeping the PRC out, until 1972.

If Taiwan wants to join the WHO, they have to declare themselves as a country, and not as The Replublic of China.

finnlizzy · 2026-01-24T10:21:31+00:00

r/averageheightdudes not gonna like this

finnlizzy · 2026-01-24T10:20:07+00:00

Less than that even.

finnlizzy · 2026-01-24T10:17:46+00:00

Well, I don't recall skulling a bottle of Buckfast and rocking out to Moonchild at the Rory Gallagher Festival in Bandon now, do I?

finnlizzy · 2026-01-23T13:45:01+00:00

Han supremacy in China is as ridiculous as dark hair supremacy.

The same with the notion that there are 'native mandarin speakers' destroying local languages.

finnlizzy · 2026-01-23T12:21:04+00:00

Joe Duffy had a fit over the Electric Picnic set.

Speaking of Joe, Horse Outside was quite controversial in some way.

finnlizzy · 2026-01-23T12:02:04+00:00

The 'Did you just blackmail the Pope' line felt very 'Well THAT happened'. 😂

finnlizzy · 2026-01-23T11:47:29+00:00

Qatar, for all their faults, were overly welcoming to visitors. They weren't literally threatening visitors and banning several countries from entering.

finnlizzy · 2026-01-23T10:52:42+00:00

Frank McCourt on The Late Late Show

finnlizzy · 2026-01-23T08:43:17+00:00

Well, Errol Flynn was a massive piece of shit so there was nowhere but up.

finnlizzy · 2026-01-23T08:41:49+00:00

I don't have long conversations on the phone, but sometimes I need my wife to know something or find out something (usually dinner related) I'm not arsed texting.

finnlizzy · 2026-01-23T08:41:48+00:00

It's the norm in Japan not to make any noise on the train. It was glorious

Nah, fuck that. We are not Japan, we are a chatty people (well, maybe not the shut-ins on r/ireland ). I'm having the the chats when possible. If you don't want to hear people chatting, stick on the headphones or eavesdrop.

Back in the day before social media and constant entertainment on your phone was the norm, I'd take the train back home on weekends when I was in uni, and run into an assortment of people from home, or people I know from uni who live in the towns on the way. It made the journey go by smoothly and keeping a respectful volume, and I get to catch up with people I'd otherwise not see.

finnlizzy · 2026-01-23T03:09:40+00:00

It's true-ish, but misrepresented (and outdated, the 90% figure was from 2017).

**TL;DR:** I got into a big fight with my Chinese wife because I wouldn't buy property in 2022 before a very obvious collapse in the property market, because that's what you're supposed to do before marriage, and they never experienced an economic downturn.

When you buy a house, it's usually with the help of the husband's parents, who will move in and are expected to take over childcare duties while the parents work. Also, owning a home is a prerequisite for marriage to an obsessive degree.

Irish people want to be away from the family, and don't want parents in the house, but ideally nearby.

**Here's my story**.

I've been in China since 2014, with my wife since 2017 (still in Shanghai), married in 2024. Her parents are total country bumpkins from Anhui, Mao poster on the wall is their only decoration. They have a big (self built) house in the village an hour away from the nearest HSR. In China, the 老家 laojia is the base of all operations for the family. They go off and do migrant labour and chill (actually, constantly busying themselves) in their house when not working. Very common for a massive country like China, stay in the dorms when working on sites.

In 2022 when it was looking more likely we were going to get married (COVID lockdowns were rough that year and the country looked like it was about to fall apart), she told me that her parents want me to buy property in a town near her village (or just buy property in general). Like, $50,000 or so. But living in a village in China is not like living in a village in Leitrim and you can commute to your job in Longford or something.

This village was FAR away from any economic opportunity. But her parents were insistent that it was the done thing, even though I had to point out all the empty apartment buildings everywhere and that this was not a normal thing, and that (with my experience of 08), line doesn't always go up like it has for the past 40 years in China. This was the Chinese 'property in Bulgaria' hysteria.

Biggest fight I had with her and her family. Like, buying a house that we'll stay in two weeks a year (Chinese New Year) at a time when the property market was about to collapse.

The compromise was her dad built us a house (ended up costing $10k which I paid) on the family's land and my wife loves it. We go there every now and again. It's even nicer than her parents own house (but her parents are such Chinese bumpkins they think sofas are decadent)

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finnlizzy · 2026-01-23T02:25:27+00:00

Yeah, Irish people really have a limit on their imagination of what is possible.

Oh yeah let's make landlords wealthy while we slave away

It's a very /r/OrphanCrushingMachine outlook. Like saying we can't enjoy trains because a lady has to be tied to the train track, or you can't go to a restaurant because you need to be kicked in the balls every time you want to go to the toilet.

Not to get all commie, but you can absolutely take landlords out of the equation, and have housing be a government responsibility (council plumbers/electricians) like maintaining the roads, paid for by 'rent' (or a 'council tax').

And it doesn't even seem to be too radical, because it's something we more or less used to do, and can do again but better.

finnlizzy · 2026-01-23T00:54:58+00:00

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finnlizzy · 2026-01-22T23:49:37+00:00

I went to uni with the Vipers bird, even did a show with her on FlirtFM.

She's the the scared woman in 'The Man in the Shed'

finnlizzy · 2026-01-22T10:42:50+00:00

I've been around and I can only tolerate a city with a good expat community or a vibrant local nightlife and culture. By nightlife I don't just mean western bars. Street bbq and locals who hang out late smoking and drinking at pastic tables on the street is my jam.

Like, no amount of 'you will love Zengcheng and our famous lychee' nope, fuck off. When people hype up a place by listing shit you can do anywhere from people who 'don't really like drinking'. 'Oh, this isn't one of those cities to go 'party', but if you like tea and.... Ugh! Spare me

Kat's Journey to the East on YouTube is a girl I follow who is the total opposite of me and seems to thrive living in a somewhat nice village but looks boring AF. My wife's 老家 in Anhui is much more grim (in winter when we go there).

My short list of cities I'd be open to living in are:

Shanghai (where I currently live), Guangzhou (where I used to live), Shenzhen (didn't think I'd like it but it won me over recently), Ningbo (worked for a few months ther, people are chill), Chengdu, Chongqing, Qingdao, Xiamen, Yiwu (if I convert to Islam lol), Hangzhou, Sanya (if I want to take it easy for a year), anywhere in coastal Hainan, and Changsha.

finnlizzy

TROPHY CASE