OK, I have a confession. I was back over a week ago, but have been thrust straight into exams on my return. Life's a beach, isn't it?

Anyway, posting will be slow (if it exists at all) until the end of the week when the exams are done and dusted for another few months, but you should be able to comment again - because I know everyone's been dying to tell me how much you've missed me!

There's so much I want to post on, most recently Gordon Brown's talk of some sort of "British Day" - something I think is a great idea (would he allow anyone in Northern Ireland to celebrate it?) - and his not so great idea of having it on Rememberence Day.

But it's hard enough to revise without spending long periods of time venting my general anger at the world, (and the fact that I don't rule it) - there's time enough for that after the exams!

Just a quick "Well done" to Steve Davis for securing a new contract with Aston Villa, despite having 3-and-a-half years left to run on his current deal. It only seems to merit a brief mention in an article about Villa captain Olaf Mellberg on the BBC website, but I thought it was worth highlighting.

The 20-year-old Northern Ireland international midfielder has played blindingly for his country in the world cup qualifying campaign and fully deserves the new deal, which it's said he will double his wages.

I know I said I was going away and wouldn't be posting but I had a spare 15 minutes at a PC and thought I'd drop a quick note on Everything Ulster to say how pleased I am to see David Cameron coming to Northern Ireland as part of his tour of the UK. Mr Cameron will be shown around by David Lidington, the Tory NI spokesman (although the BBC report doesn't say when).

Better yet, it looks like he won't be talking to any of the wastes of space that pass for party leaders here, but will spend some time meeting local Conservatives.

Cameron is believed to be due to drop in on Sir Hugh Orde as well as visiting Northern Ireland's first integrated school, Lagan College, and a training project near the Shankill peace line.

Very often Northern Ireland would be omitted from such plans altogether and I hope Mr Cameron proves as committed to Northern Ireland as this initial campaigning might be trying to suggest. Ideologically I think I'd be as close to the Tory party as any other and am glad to see at least one of the major UK parties prepared to put in the effort locally, despite so far reaping very limited rewards for their time. Our day will come.

I'm sorry folks, I know I haven't been providing as much coverage as I would like the past fortnight or so. Things have been pretty hectic coming up to Christmas with lots of work for university and trying to get things organised for a Christmas vacation to see family in Canada.

Long story short I'm away for 3 weeks as of today. In the mean time I'm afraid I've had to disable comments and trackbacks to prevent spam attacks while I'm gone and unable to moderate them. But try not to forget about me and please come back after 9th January when (hopefully) normal service will be resumed.

Merry Christmas and have a great new year!

Beano

Just hours before the massive explosions at a fuel depot in Hertfordshire that killed 36 people, Londonderry's pondscum where demonstrating just how vital fuel is to today's society, as they hurled petrol bombs towards the predominantly unionist Fountain Estate in the city trying to kill a few more.

When the police were called about the attacks, they arrived to have the devices thrown towards them and their vehicles.

You'd think the attacks would decrease with the cost of petrol these days. Hell, I can barely afford petrol so I don't know where these scumbags are getting the money from. Perhaps the answer isn't strict parental supervision for these, usually juvenile, offenders. Their parents could always just reduce their extravagant amounts of pocket money that they give them to make up for being shite parents!

You'll likely already know that the three men charged with spying over the Stormontgate affair were released today. I'm sure you'll be unsurprised to hear that I treat Sinn Fein's "evidence of political policing" claims with a degree of scepticism, much like the accused men's conspiracy theories about the arrests being designed to 'Save Dave'.

Would anyone really be surprised if this, like the 'On-The-Runs' legislation making its way through Westminster, was just another sop to Sinn Fein given as part of some side deal in return for them playing along with the rest of the country?

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Nearly one year on from the Northern Bank robbery, Chris Ward, a 24 year old from Poleglass, who was held for questioning by the police for over a week, has become the (one, two, three) fourth man to be charged in connection with the raid. He claimed from the outset that he was held hostage by the robbers and forced to take the money from the bank. He appeared in court today and is due to appear again via video link next month. One of his friends was also arrested this week in Australia in connection with the robbery.

I'm not sure what's been going on altogether but from what I understand the robbers have given up trying to spend a lot of the £26 million they stole because it would be too easily traceable. I just hope that the legal system can recoup as much of the rest of it as possible. I don't think it will have any real benefit to me, it's not like the government will have any extra money to spend because of it, but the idea of scumbags grabbing a life of luxury for doing nothing constructive makes me want to vomit.

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The facility should help keep the new C3K trains in top condition.

A train cleaning facility that has cost Translink £11.4m opened today. I'd noticed the long silver building driving out the M2 from Belfast but wasn't totally sure what it was until the news today. I find it astonishing that it cost that much money, but there you are.

The facility will keep NI Railways' shiny new "C3K" trains, ordered in 2002 from a Spanish company at a total cost of £80m, shiny and new.

I know what you're thinking: it's hardly earth shattering news (particularly when Angela Smith announced pretended that what's going to be left of our education system when the 11 plus goes will be anything more than a 2-tier comprehensive/private system like England's) but I've had this picture of one of the new trains on my computer for the guts of a year now and this is the first I've got a chance to use it. Worth all £11m, I think!

I've heard a lot about Community Restorative Justice projects lately and, to be honest, don't have many facts about them. So when I head that the government published plans today for officially sanctioned Community Restorative Justice schemes (more on that further down), I did a little (and it was a little!) reading to see what I could find out about them.

CRJs are widely seen as an attempt by republicans (and to some degree, loyalists too) to set up alternatives to the police service. The 14 CRJ schemes set up in republican areas, in contrast to the 5 operating in loyalist areas, work independently from the police. While critics claim they effectively cut the nationalist community off even further from the police, their backers say they offer an alternative to paramilitary justice.

The reason the proposals published today (online at the NIO) are so important is because officially sanctioned CRJs would receive government funding. The plans would see the CRJ schemes co-operate with the existing justice agencies (PSNI, probation board, etc). Under the plans, which are out for consulation, the CRJs would have to apply for permission to handle a case.

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Sorry that Everything Ulster was down for most of yesterday. My hosting company, usually very good, has been having a few problems with one of their servers. Mine obviously. Anyway it's been up and down like a yo-yo for a few days and spent about 6 hours down on Friday. Touch wood, I hope this is it sorted now (but won't be holding my breath just yet).

Hopefully they'll have no problems tomorrow or I'll get really bored in work!