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.

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

This is the Irish song ...

More info about Dustin the Turkey

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.

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:-

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

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.

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.

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

I'm currently 12.32% mainstream.

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.

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.

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.

The pubs in Galway are great. They've got a roof. Roof very good. Roof very important. All I needed in these 3 days was a roof. When we arrived (went there with a hairy old school friend of mine and his friend) it was raining, when we left it was raining and in between it was raining too. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, but it was raining - if you know what I mean.

We stayed at the Sleepzone hostel which is about 5 minutes walk from the main square (Eyre Sq) in the centre. On Friday evening we went to Fibber Magees and Paddy's (Pscino) While Fibber's resembled a normal pub, Paddy's was hamalississimu (I don't know the word in English for this one).

On Saturday we went by bus to Clifden a small city on the coast of Connemara. The bus was cosy and outside it was … guess what … raining, but that didn't take anything from beauty of the autumn tinge in the undulating hills and farmland. The only pity was that we couldn't stop and take some pictures, so now we the hairy one gets his Saab we can go again and snap a couple. In Clifden we tempted fate and went for a walk to the beach, and promptly enough as soon as we were turned our backs to return to the village, it started pouring again. We sought refuge at Mitchell's Restaurant and I felt I deserved a treat for braving the weather. I had Connemara oysters and a white Chardonnay. It was a pity seeing that aphrodisiac boost wasted but the oysters were great.

In the evening we went to Ming's Chinese restaurant and had hot and sour soup and roast duck. The food was delicious and filling. From the way the people where dressed the restaurant seemed quite above to our scrawny looks, but then again we were 'tourists'. We hit the pubs at about 9 and the streets were already beaming with life. The nightlife starts very early here – in fact on Friday the roads were void of sober people at 1am. The night passed rather uneventfully.

The hostel had a stupid policy of closing the kitchen between 10am and noon for cleaning. This complete inconsideration towards people prefer to exist on a Saturday night was a royal pain in the ass on Sunday morning. We checked out from the hostel and the weather had not yet changed. We walked to Eyre Square looking for something to do but nothing seemed viable so we ended up on a comfortable sofa in the living room of the Great Southern Hotel (4 star luxury hotel). We spent the rest of the morning reading the Sunday Independent, having coffee and home baked (or hotel baked) biscuits. For lunch we went to McSwiggans Bar and Restaurant. I had a succulent roast chicken with mushrooms and bacon sauce, complemented with tap water. In the afternoon we went to Fibber Magees again and watched Ireland win over Australia in the rugby match.

Recapitulating: Galway was very wet but the food was great. Try the seafood in Connemara if you go there – which you should.

If you go to the Irish Government Broadband or the ISP Association of Ireland websites you'll see dozens of Irish Internet Service Providers (ISP) listed but don't assume that this means that all of them are available in your area. I spent about a week researching internet providers only to find that 3 out of the 4 providers I was interested in didn't provide a service where I live. For the record I live in a larger village in Dublin so we're not talking about a sheep farm in the middle of nowhere here.

Since I haven’t got a phone line in the house I was looking for a provider which includes a phone installation fee in the broadband cost, so I short listed digiweb, smart telecom and perlico.

Digiweb claimed that their broadband doesn't use a telephone line instead they install a receiver on the roof, which I'm assuming means this will be a wireless internet connection. Nonetheless they supply you with a telephone set and free phone calls, which again I'm assuming means you're using some sort of Voip but I'm not sure. Make sure that you have got permission and access to the roof, before you even start considering Digiweb.

Smart telecom use the same lines as Eircom do, but the phone fee is included in the broadband package and compared with the Eircom package it works out to be free. Interestingly enough today in the news they mentioned that Eircom restored smart telecom's lines after cutting them earlier cut off this week following a billing dispute.

After evaluating the different packages and options from these providers I was informed that neither service is available in my area. Before I started looking at the perlico options I made it a point to check its availability, to learn that it isn't available either.

The remaining options considered were BT, Eircom and Net Source. Eircom have a good telephone sales service, great website, and fully facilities which make them a potentially reliable option, however the prices are way too high. BT have good deals and potentially the best value for money packages but the customer service and sales team doesn't do much to help with queries, and I found problems with bill payment flexibility which left me with only one option after all, Net Source.

For more information and suggestions about broadband in Ireland visit the boards.ie broadband forum.

P. S. This exercise evidenced one of the advantages of living on 'the dot'. Full coverage is a foregranted commodity.

Yesterday I went to watch my first football match at Lansdowne Road Stadium in Dublin. The title in this morning’s Irish Independent was "Ireland suffer worst defeat at Lansdowne Road in 40 years". Since I’ve been here we had the wettest march, the driest summer and the worst soccer defeat. Hope Lord Mayor is not reading this blog lest he decides to chuck me out of here.

We arrived 10 minutes late and we had to collect the tickets from the ticketmaster stand at the other side of the stadium. By the time we got in Ireland we already loosing 1-0. The game ended 4-0 with 2 goals scored in each half. Pretty bad for my first game but then I’m used to it from back home. The last score I remember between ‘the spot’ and Netherlands was 0-8, so we’re half as bad here.

On a better note, tomorrow I will be finally leaving for New Zealand. This time I’m pretty much guaranteed to at least arrive to LA after I (this is a bit of an overestimation) paid for my first transatlantic ticket with Delta Airlines. I will be spending three weeks in Kiwi land then back to Dublin, so the blog will be pretty quite during this time.

The first time I heard about Blessington was when I was looking for places to kayak near Dublin and I found the words kayak, lake and bus in close proximity on a post on boards.ie.

Before I left, out of curiosity I checked about Blessington on the Lonely Planet but the small paragraph did little to encourage me to go. With lack of a better alternative I decided to stick with the plan and go there.

Dublin Bus number 65 runs a regular service to Blessington, roughly every hour, from Eden Quary in the city centre. After little more than an hour on the bus, I arrived in the town centre which was as nondescript as Lonely Planet said it would be. After asking around for directions to the lake, an elderly man pointed to a side street off the main road that lead to the main man lake in a few minutes. While the lake will not impress the Finnish, the scenery is nice and the Wicklow Mountains make out a nice backdrop in the horizon. It is possible to walk around the lake and also to kayak, but the walking path and the kayak rental place are on different sides of the lake.

For yet another time I had to give up kayaking because when we only saw the kayak rental place after we had already walked too far away on the other side of the lake. Instead of turning back we spent the rest of the afternoon reading near the lake.

Anybody with a short stay in Ireland shouldn't bother with Blessington but if you want a quick very accessible escape from Dublin avoiding the more touristy places like Howth and Bray, than Blessington's Lake is a nice place to spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon.