mindspill

Westport - County Mayo

Tue, 06 May 2008 03:50:19 GMT

This weekend it was the turn for an Irish trip. We decided to go to Westport, in the west (duh!) of Ireland in County Mayo. The trip from Dublin took around 4 hours, with a short stop-over for lunch in the lavishly decorated PV's pub, in Longford. The GPS on my IPAQ worked perfectly and took us exactly to the entrance of the Glenderan B&B where we were staying.

The B&B was an excellent choice. The room was newly furnished with old style furniture, and was tastefully decorated with hand-made candles and dried flowers. The attention to detail like the two wine glasses, digital TV, supply of tea and coffee, and room service, made this place one of the best B&B's I've ever been to. The breakfast consisted of a selection of cereal, a choice of full Irish breakfast or yoghurt cheese and fruit, and tea or coffee. It's also well priced at 38 Euro per person per night.

Westport is a nice local Irish town which even on a bank holiday weekend was not full of tourists. We got the impression that even though the place is well catered for tourists with a considerable number of B&B's, it's mostly Irish tourists that visit the place. We got further proof of this when we went into a pub on the main street on a Saturday night, and people were looking at us like we had 5 heads.

Westport is also a good starting point for visiting other attractions spots in Mayo. On Saturday and Sunday we visited Achill Island and Croagh Patrick. Achill Island is a postcard picture of the typical Ireland, with rolling green hills, 40 shades of green and an Irish traffic jam with sheep blocking the road. The place is scenic, relaxing and easily toured by car in a day. It reminded me a bit of the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

Croagh Patrick is the mountain (hill for people who live in places with real mountains) where St. Patrick reputably spent 40 days fasting. The mountain which is about 8km away from Westport is a popular pilgrimage site, and some people walk up the mountain barefoot as an act of penance. This must be a really awful experience considering how many rocks of literally all shapes and sizes litter the path. With our hiking boots tightly fastened, we walked up the mountain on Sunday morning in a rare day of glorious weather. The slope gets quite steep at the end, but it's something most people can do. It took us about 2 hours to go up and about the same time to go down. You can rent a stick before starting the ascent, something that's highly recommended if you don't have your own walking stick. On top of the hill there's a small white chapel which is open on the last Sunday in July.

Pictures to follow

My next Eurovision vote is already cast

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:41:39 GMT

This is the Irish song ...

More info about Dustin the Turkey

Welcome home Hiisi

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 19:48:05 GMT

What a proud father I am. No, no, don't run away with your thoughts, no babies in sight ... but but a proud father of Hiisi a Honduran Milk Snake. I was feeling a bit lonely and bored recently which is a very bad combination in my case because I always end up doing something I've meant to do for a long time.

The cute little hadinko is all fun and games, just like his daddy. He was exploring and investigating my room yesterday flicking his beautiful forked tongue and sensing everything around. He even managed to get into my jacket pocket and made himself comfortable there.

I've been wanting to get a pet since I came over to Ireland. After spending all my life with dozens of cats, and all other sorts of animals it was a bit difficult adapting to a petless life. Well now at last I found the animal I was looking for. It's clean, low maintenance, has splendid colours and well behaved. The best part of it is that I can go on holiday without having to worry about it because I only need to feed it once a week. This is the thing that tipped the balance towards the snake otherwise it would have been a bearded dragon or some sort of lizard. I like snakes anyways and I've always wanted a milk snake since that time I decided to get Suede (may he rest in peace) the ball python.

I got Hiisi from Reptile Haven in Fishamble street and I must say that the service there is brilliant. I really recommend anybody looking for a reptile to pay a visit to the place. Ben is very knowledgeable, helpful and he knows what he's doing. He takes into consideration the well being of the animal being sold, not only the money he's making from it.

Rules for the perfect pint in Ireland

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:05:18 GMT

Two of my friends are coming over to Ireland next week, so now is the perfect time to rehash an old bookmark for their sake.

See The original article at IrelandLogue.

In summary:-

Look to see if anyone else is drinking it
Look for old men
Look for a branded service van out front
Sticky stout head
The right glass
Empty pub in the morning

Same Dell laptop, more than 300Euros cheaper

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 23:08:42 GMT

I was looking for a laptop on Dell's site and found two almost exactly specified laptops with a difference of more than 300Euros. The laptops are, the expensive Inspiron 1710, and the cheaper Vostro 1700, both of which are listed on Dell's website. The only difference between them is that the Inspiron has an Ultra Sharp 17" screen while the Vostro's 17" LCD isn't Ultra Sharp branded. Also, Vostro comes with Vista Business which according to Microsoft's website costs more than Vista Home Premium shipped with the Inspiron. Click on the images for a bigger image in each case.

Also as you can see from the next screenshot even the cost of the same battery varied from 36.30 Euros to 10 Euros.

I found the Vostro laptop after browsing the askaboutmoney forums and finding this tabulated list of Dell Prices extracted from the Dell website. (Thanks to dingding). I looked up the list of all Dell prices in this easy to compare chart and then selected the Vostro from the list. This is a classic example of the benefit accessibility to information has to help you make the right decision. All the data from both sites is in the Dell website. In the Dell website you've got to go through each and every configuration to get the price details. In the PC Pricer site the information is in an easy to read table ready to help you make the better deal.

Would you buy condoms from Lidl?

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 22:24:32 GMT

Lately Europe has been flooded by low cost supermarkets like Lidl, Aldi and Netto which sell everything under the sun and more. I used the term low cost because the business model of these supermarkets parallels the airline low cost model quite well. To keep low prices these stores keep overheads to a minimum by choosing cheaper property locations, using basic shop furnishings, keep minimal staff, stock cheaper brands and promote themselves aggressively.

Whether you like it or not it's a fact that we're influenced by brand names, packaging and ads. While the brands on sale may not be D&G or the culinary equivalent, the low prices are undeniably attractive and these supermarkets are very popular even if not everybody admits buying from them. I've already said that eating is expensive and time consuming so even I'm a Lidl convert especially when it comes to unimportant food.

This post came to mind when I saw some Scuba diving gear in Lidl. Now, that's one thing that I wouldn't mess around with and buy disreputable supplies to save a couple of bucks. This leads me to the question for you – what would you never buy from these supermarkets?

From the top of my head I would avoid condoms, running shoes and toilet paper.

Murals in Northern Ireland

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:49:57 GMT

How mainstream are you?

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:46:07 GMT

This this cool lastfm.com site tells you how mainstream the music you listen to is.

I'm currently 12.32% mainstream.

Ozzy Osbourne’s concert at The Point, Dublin

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 21:35:23 GMT

After 3 days of metal in Finland I almost regretted having brought the ticket, but it was too expensive to waste it. I was expecting Ozzy dressed in a long violet cloak wearing a golden crown and clenching the mike, with an oxygen tank and wheelchair on standby. But no, Ozzy came wearing his all black pajamas instead.

Luckily his Alzheimer's didn't mess the part of the brain that contains his lyrics, and he was sober enough to run around and throw buckets of water at the crowd. This was his 2nd preferred way of stirring a response apart from "I can't fucken hear you", shouted out like he's calling his bulldog Lola.

All this is minor detail that’s easily forgiven. This is Ozzy we’re talking about, so the fact that he’s alive and on stage is enough. Even though he might not have been performed the same way as his glorious days, it was great listening to the classics coming out the man himself. To my relief he played mostly old classics like Bark at the moon (the opening song), Mr. Crowley, Suicide solution, War pigs, I don't want to change the world, I don't know, Mamma I’m coming home and Crazy train. Then he ended the gig in the best possible way - playing paranoid.

I don't know whether I can claim that because Ozzy can still move on stage it means he put up a great show. What I can say however is, that I enjoyed it greatly.

Irish Slang 101

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 02:57:34 GMT

When you land in Ireland for the first time might think that people are speaking Gaelic when in fact they're speaking normal English. Ok, maybe it's not so normal when you factor in the accent and the slang words, but it's English. If you're going to be around any Irish people during your stay in Ireland then rest assured that you're going to hear some of these expressions.

Craic – First of all this is pronounced like crack. When somebody asks you "what’s the craic" don’t run away thinking they’re drug dealers, they just mean "what’s the fun". Craic means good fun (or maybe Irish fun).

Hi-how-are-you (pronounced as a single word) - This is usually an alternative for hi.

Your man – This is a very confusing term. The first time I heard it from my boss he was referring to someone I didn’t particularly like (and he knew that) and I was like "why is he associating me with him". Your man John as if John was my best buddy. "Your man" is just a way of pointing to or referring to somebody, anybody. It can be your best mate, the president or a stranger in the pub. "Look at your man, he's a eejit"

Eejit – Idiot.

Gas – The person who came up with this is a moron. Gas hasn't got anything to do with flatulence or the fuel for your heater, it means it's great. For example, "Seamus is a gas man" means Seamus is fun to be with, good company.

What’s the story? – Common expression to mean how are you, or how are things going?

Deadly – Means great. Counterintuitive I know.

Jacks – I'm sorry if Jack's your name but Jacks means toilet.

Went to the pictures – Nothing to do with photography or taking pictures. Means went to watch a movie.

St. Patrick's weekend in Donegal

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 06:24:47 GMT

This year my friends decided to go up to Donegal for St. Paddy's long weekend. We rented a cottage in Ballyliffin, a place in the middle of nowhere in the Innishowen Peninsula located in the very north part of Ireland. The cottage was amazing, well kept, comfortable and cozy. On Friday we drove up there and arrived at about 10pm which was the prefect time to drown a bottle of rum that came all the way with me from Venezuela. That kicked off the weekend break on a good start and helped me to sleep on the couch cause all the beds were occupied.

The following morning I was in a slow and mellow mood so I allowed myself to be dragged to Derry in Northern Ireland which was about an hour and a half drive from the cottage. My stomach was protesting a bit about my lack of consideration on the previous night so I volunteered not to drink till the evening and drive back from Derry. In Derry we went to the Derry museum which had a free entrance since it was St. Patrick’s day. The mad lady at the reception asked us to sing an Irish song but we didn’t know the lyrics of any song so then she made us sing a song from the dot. I wasn’t in the mood for the museum so I idled about and feigned interest until the time for the rugby match came.

We went to watch the match at a crowed pub in Derry and there was a good vibe between the festive celebrations and the enthusiasm for the rugby. It's a pity that Ireland didn't win the six nations even though they thrashed Italy. The French managed to steal the shield by scoring an extra time try overcoming the Irish with points difference. I regretted volunteering to drive back home cause I had to drink Fanta for the whole afternoon. After the matches we went for an early Chinese dinner with some locals we met at pub but then returned back to the cottage. At night we played some improvised pictionary and spent the night chatting again.

On Sunday we went to Glenveagh national park near Letterkenny but it was too windy and cold for any outdoor activity. We went up to visit the castle in the middle of the national park and after a quick tour headed off to an Italian restaurant. As soon as we came out of the restaurant all the streets were covered in snow and we couldn’t drive up the road back home because the cars kept skidding downwards. At last we managed to find a different way back home and made it safely inside. In the evening back at the cottage we did the same stuff as the previous nights. Before returning back home on Monday we went up to Marlin Head for a scenic visit.

It was a good weekend and I enjoyed it. This is the second year I missed St. Paddy's in Dublin but apparently I didn't miss much since the weather was horrible and the fireworks display was cancelled because of the strong winds.