Ok I did the coolest thing ever last night. Kind of on a whim, myself and my co-worker, Nick went along to the RTÉ studios [FEN: national television station]. Nick had got a call off one of his Fine Gael [FEN: political party] cronies to tell him that he had a studio audience ticket to the "popular" political debate show, Questions and Answers. The only catch was that Nick had to pretend that his name was Morris Fitzgearld. So Nick convinced me to tag along in the hope that he could get me in. I had to pretend to be in Fine Gael but I used my real name. Luckily there was one spare seat in the auditorium so I got in. It was really cool watching the whole getting ready for TV thing. The camera men messing around with the cameras, the politicians who were on the panel coming in and sitting down at the table and having final make-up touches applied. The biggest name there was Martin Cullen, Minister for Transport which was no big deal cos we had seen him the day before at work!;) Some guy counted down the seconds till we went on air and some guy indicated that we should applaud rapturously. We duly complied. The set was really futuristic but if you could see a few inches to the left or right of the set, everything was old and grotty like it was straight out of the seventies. They probably haven't actually redecorated the facility itself since it was built. Actually scratch that. The problem is that they never decorated it. It's really just like a massive garage with loads of different rooms in it.

            Minister Cullen was under fire about the proposed Dublin metro line, the continuing "carnage" on the nation's roads and Ryanair's take over bid of Aer Lingus. The format of the show is that audience members get to propose questions before the show that they want the politicians to answer. Then someone picks the best ones and the audience members get to ask them live on the air and the politicians try to avoid answering them. Having just landed in the door half an hour before the show started, I didn't bother proposing any questions because I didn't even know what the topics were. A lively discussion was had but actually sitting there in the audience makes you realise something that for some reason, you couldn't pick up on from watching on TV. The politicians don't actually believe what they're saying. They don't necessarily care about whatever they're asked to comment on. They've done a little research on whatever it is the show is going to be about so they can competently present a pre-formulated 'opinion' but we all know that Martin Cullen didn't really care about Madonna's attempted adoption of a child from Malawi despite his spirited and rational defence of Madonna. And similarly, you can bet that Deputy Olivia Mitchell [FEN: opposition politician] doesn't really care as much about the metro line or Martin Cullen's handling of it as she would have you believe, based on her constant butting in, and imploring of Minister Cullen to admit his consistent incompetence.

            After the show we went to the Green Room to hang out with the panel and the rest of the audience. John Bowman, the presenter, was serving the drinks. Martin Cullen made his exit after one drink but the rest hung around until after we left. We wandered around the deserted studios for a bit (it was 11:45PM). Security was fairly lax. We stumbled upon the set of The Afternoon Show. It was so surreal. Nick sat on the couch for a bit and I kept sketch. Then he went rummaging through The Afternoon Show fridge and took two Afternoon Show eggs as souvenirs. I plan on making an Afternoon Show pancake with mine tomorrow and pretending to be Blonade [FEN: presenter of The Afternoon Show – like the Oprah of Ireland only not rich, black or popular] supervising a cookery demonstration.

            Nick got a phone number off some girls at RTÉ who claim to be able to get us into The Podge and Rodge Show next week which would be soooooo daycent. You have to book tickets for that months in advance but apparently people always cancel and stuff so there's often an empty seat or two. Fingers crossed. That's all I got for now. Peace out!