mindspill

Pictures of Loch Dan

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 06:06:41 GMT

I've added the pictures of the trip to Loch Dan.

Weekend

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:17:20 GMT

I can't remember the last time I had 3 great weekends in a row. The temperature has gone over 15 degrees, which sounds a bit more like summer, so this might have something to do with it.

On Friday we went to watch a show from the Carlsberg Comedy Festival in the Iveagh Gardens. This year we saw Reggie Watts, The Reverend Obadiah Steppenwolf III, and Dave McSavage was the MC. Dave McSavage was probably the best comedian from the lot. I had very low expectations considering the myriad of negative comments (e.g. Dave McSavage is a terrible exuse for a human being. I feel sorry for his brother and cousin.) on his youtube videos, and his gig reviews. He's ok, but then the rest of comedians in the gig were not really up to it. At first Steppenwolf was quite difficult to understand, until a latecomer lady from the audience started harassing him. He absolutely butchered her with insults. It was quite funny for a while but then it got too aggressive and he was relentless. At the end of the gig he didn't even applaud the lady, and it seemed that he actually disliked the women. Reggie Watts is more of a talented musician then a comedian. He creates looped vocals live on stage and does it very well, appreciated though not very funny. It was quite refreshing to see something different though, especially after Steppenwolf.

Saturday morning was spent at work, then went to watch The Dark Knight in the evening. The film is such a treat that it totally made my day. More on the movie later, in the movie review post.

On Sunday we made good use of the good weather and went to Loch Dan in Wicklow. Trying to describe the walk is quite pointless, so I'll try to upload the pictures ~~sometime in the future~~ HERE. Well, it was a nice, pleasant, and relaxing walk. Finished off the day with some chicken madras from the Indian Restaurant across the road.

Weekend break – Brittas Bay

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:51:39 GMT

After spending the last couple of weeks investigating fictious cults, the time has come to enjoy the ~~sun~~, emmmm sorry clouds. On Saturday we went to Brittas bay to celebrate J's birthday. We walked along the beach for about 2 hours, just in time to avoid the heavy downpour.

On the way back home, we passed through Wicklow village to visit Wicklow Goal (historic prison), but we missed the last tour by 10 minutes. We strolled around the village for a while and discovered the pearl of Wicklow village - Carlos the Clipper! The Miss was also here for the weekend, which might explain my less than cheerful mood. Withdrawal symptoms!

With a bit more than a month to go for the Japan holiday, there’s a lot of planning to be made. Expect to see at least a couple of posts on the subject very soon.

Westport - County Mayo

Tue, 06 May 2008 04:50:19 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 18:41:39 GMT

This is the Irish song ...

More info about Dustin the Turkey

Welcome home Hiisi

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:48:05 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 21:05:18 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

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 00:08:42 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 23:24:32 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 22:49:57 GMT

How mainstream are you?

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 22:46:07 GMT

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

I'm currently 12.32% mainstream.