Am very, very happy the movie Once just got nominated for an Oscar for the song “Falling Slowly” by Glen Hansard. Irish KC has been flying the flag for a while and as ever he was right. On the off chance you haven’t seen it yet RUN and get the DVD - Now!

Well have you started running yet?

I attended the VIP premiere of the new Ross O’Carroll-Kelly play last night, “The Last Days of the Celtic Tiger� . The reason I know it was the VIP premiere is because Rosanna Davidson* was there, in all her made-up glory. Sadly the rugby players were a bit thin on the ground. Thankfully I brought my own, an archetype for Ross if there ever was one, right down to the great pecs and blond ex-wife.

Anyone who reads this blog will know that I am a huge Ross / Paul Howard fan; hence I was really looking forward to the play and an opportunity to see Ross in the flesh. The big problem with translating anything from book to visual is that the actors can never match your imagination. So it was with Ross. If his accent was south side then Tom Cruise really is from Kerry – to be sure to be sure. Sorcha on the other hand gave an Oscar winning performance as a SoDuCo or she actually was just on day release from Dalkey.

The play consists of the best lines from the book and a few text message style jokes. Plot and character depth are a bit weak, but you will still laugh your way through the performance. If you are a Ross fan it is worth checking out and your inner snob will struggle not to laugh at the numerous DNS lines. Although for most of the audience it will be a mockumentary.

*Rosanna Davidson is an Irish “model� who won Miss World when her father, Chris DeBurgh was coincidentally on the judging panel – or similar circumstances.

The next big shopping trip was out to Woodbury Commons, a discount shopping mall an hour outside New York. Think of it as a shopping Lourdes for the Irish. Now you really need to dress appropriately as it is a full day of competitive shopping. The bus goes from the Port Authority and is pretty handy to get to. You can get to Woodbury in an hour in the same way you can travel from Dundrum to the Airport in 25 minutes – at 3am. Be warned once you hit rush hour the journey takes up to 2 hours.

The journey is surprisingly scenic with lots of lovely mountains and trees, nestled among these is shopping mecca. The first stop when you arrive is the information centre where you pick up your discount booklet on production of your bus ticket. Now this may be a mortifying concept for the Irish as distant memories of butter vouchers float to the forefront, but the Americans are very upfront about discounts and most will remind you at the checkout that you can use the voucher e.g. 10%.

Have a clear plan of campaign before you start shopping. Identify what you want to buy and where, with hundreds of shops it is impossible to do everything. Get the really popular shops out of the way first like Gap and Ralph Lauren as the lines get pretty heavy in the afternoon. Don’t employ the usual I’ll browse first and buy later – you won’t have time. If you like it, buy it. The big designer stores like Armani and Saks take a lot of time, but if you are prepared to go through the rails you will find some serious bargains. Be careful. A bargain is only a bargain if you actually wear it – often.

I spent ages in Jimmy Choo trying on almost every pair of shoes, desperate to buy something. But no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that the green suede platform sandals were a bargain at 70% off I knew they would never make it past my shoe-rack. Instead I bought 3 pairs of 7’s which I know I will wear to death. Sensible me.

Not so sensible was my last half hour in the mall. I entered into a mad shopping orgy, desperate to buy all I could. Some serious errors were made. If you are there for a day; pace yourself, eat something and drink lots of water. Competitive shopping is hard work.

As I had a shopping list longer than a Starbucks que in Dundrum I decided to get Abercrombie and Fitch out of the way first. Now I have never really got the whole “A&F� trend but I figured half the population of South Dublin can’t be wrong – can they?

In New York you can tell from a block away that you are in the vicinity of the A&F shop, in fact shop may be a misnomer as it is more of a disco that happens to sell some clothes. On entering you are greeted by a half naked male model with perfect abs and tweaked nipples. (not by me) He was like Gabriel at the gates of shopping heaven.

Inside the store / disco everything is pitch dark with the exception of some strategic down-lighters pointed at t-shirts. The music is even louder inside which is great as you can’t hear any of the shop assistants wishing you a nice day. After stumbling my way around the four floors desperately looking for a pair of night vision goggles or may be a t-shirt of two I eventually came to the vest section. Who knew clothes could be so tiny? I almost thought I was in the kids section except they don’t have one. You could have passed the vests through the eye of a needle, twice and still had room for a Camel. I bought 3 in the hope of making one big enough to fit me.

After getting most of the items I had been instructed to buy I left before my ear drums became permanently damaged. The people I felt most sorry for were the poor Irish Mammies and Daddies who were on the same mission as me but less battle prepared. Kids, it is parental abuse to send your folks to A&F in New York. At the very least give them ear plugs or turn down the hearing aid before they fly off.

PS - The cuffs are apparently MEANT to be frayed. How uncool did I feel finding that out the hard way.