Now spring has spronged, however, and new life has burst forth mewling and rubbing its eyes, she's been moved to get her crayons and Tipp-ex out and give fustar.info a serious re-beautifying. The results, I think, are very pleasing and cheery.

Anyway, hope you all enjoy peeping 'n' gazing at Fústar 3.0, and (switching to "serious mode" for a moment) a million thanks to my beloved.¹ I think it rocks.

1. Who is emphatically not lazy. [back]

Despite the best efforts of the joyless despots at a certain sinister Mega-global-corp, my blogging days are not quite over. Fustar.org (a cosy enough home for over 2 years) may have been razed to the ground, but in its place a shiny new (and practically identical) HQ now stands. Welcome to fustar.info…a domain not even God him/herself (should he/she exist) could sink.

If truth be told, I was reaching the point where I had become (as the infrequent posting might suggest) rather bored with the ol' blog, and had half-planned to tear it down myself. Of course, when that decision was taken for me (and the bulldozers had moved in) I quickly felt a keen sense of loss.

On top of that I received a few very nice and sincere messages from pals/readers/fellow bloggers that made me feel 'twas worth persisting with (albeit in new digs). So here we are.

Thanks to Blacknight for their reassurance and assistance. They are as kind as others are evil.

Perhaps a word about the title of this blog might kick us off. Here's what Professor Terence Patrick Dolan's wonderful Hiberno-English Archive has to say by way of definition:

fústar: // n. v. busy, agitated behaviour, Seán Ó Coileáin/Cork; to bustle about fussily < Ir. fústaire, bustling person < E dial. fooster < Ir. fústar, fussy behaviour, bustle, activity. 'Stop foostering about, will you!' foosterer n. a fussy person; a messer < Ir. fúastaire + E -er (see messer). 'Stop your fústaring and get on with your homework'...

So there you have it. In Irish it is rendered 'fústar', while the anglicised spelling is usually given as 'fooster', 'foosther' etc. Why was it chosen? No particular reason apart from the fact that…

a) I like the the way it sounds.

b) I have a soft-spot for words that suggest agitation.

and…

c) My father is a man who has turned "fústaring" into an art form.

In tribute to my Da then (and in the absence of a more convincing reason) I hereby christen this blog.