Ireland – Page 18 – Something Odd!

Free houses for single parents

Red Mum has the scoop, directly from TD Michael Kennedy.

My favourite Irish bloggers

For the last few months I’ve added a link to one of my favourite Irish bloggers to my sidebar. If your eyes wander over there now you’ll see Green Ink, Riemann’s Cut, and this month’s blog, Inside View by Bernie Goldbach.

All eyes are on the Irish Web Awards (this weekend!), Irish Blog Awards and the “Blog Post of the Month”, but why not show your appreciation for the great blogs you read by highlighting them? Have your own “Blogger of the Month”!

The blogs I add to that list are those blogs that no matter how much they post, I’ll always try to read every post because they’re entertaining or informative. Thanks guys (and gals in the future)!

Show me the money!

World markets might be in freefall but here’s a reminder of better times. On January 1st 2002, Ireland changed it’s currency to the Euro along with the 14 other countries in the Eurozone. Price increases followed as retailers “converted” their prices from the Irish Punt to the Euro. The economy went into overdrive as cheap credit flooded the market and drove inflation to sky high levels.

Still, it’s handy going on holiday to Spain and not worrying about converting currency any more. If only we could afford to go on holiday again ..

In this gallery are each of the Irish coins and the £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes that were legal tender until February 2002. More information about the changeover can be found on the ECBI Euro website. I also have a ten shilling note from 1963. Anyone remember those?

Guinness, say hi to the Data Protection Commissioner

This morning, Diageo Ireland (the company behind Guiness) spammed me again, despite my repeated attempts to remove myself from their mailing list.

Thanks to Damien who pointed me in the direction of the Data Protection Commissioner I filled out the complaint form with the following. The Commissioner’s Guidelines for marketing by electronic mail are quite clear and Diageo obviously ignore them. Hopefully something positive will come of this.

On the 8th of April, 2007 Diageo Ireland sent me an unsolicited email regarding a “poker nights” promotion. It appears that someone signed me up, but Diageo never confirmed the invitation. I did not opt in to receive any mailings from them. I also unsubscribed using their subscription page. More details, including commentary about the unsubscribe process are here: http://ocaoimh.ie/2008/02/07/a-pint-of-guinness-flavoured-spam/

Unfortunately, on June 20th 2008, I was spammed by them again. http://twitter.com/donncha/statuses/839602319
I unsubscribed again.

This afternoon I was sent another email from Diageo with the text:
“CONOR,
BECAUSE WE
DON’T WANT YOU TO BE
LEFT IN THE DARK…
Give us a few minutes and we’ll give you so much more
GIVE US A FEW MINUTES
AND WE’LL GIVE YOU
SO MUCH MORE”

Unfortunately I suspect I’ll always get spam emails from them despite the fact that I never signed up for anything, don’t drink Guinness and unsubscribed twice already.

Regards,
Donncha O Caoimh

The Copper Kettle

The Copper Kettle in Castletownbere is a small little cafe we stumbled upon the first time we visited the town earlier this year and again in April. It’s in the main square of the town, near the petrol station and well worth a visit if you’re down that direction.

It’s always a good sign when local people eat in an establishment and the first time we were there a granny took her grand daughter and her 3 friends for lunch, sitting next to us, and keeping Adam delightfully amused with their chattering and laughing.

Were we lucky or is it normal that everyone we met in the Bantry area of West Cork was extremely pleasant, helpful and a joy to talk to?

Shocked that my credit card number was stolen

Wow, this is one of things you never expect to happen to you. Linode, where this blog is hosted, recently emailed me saying my monthly payment had been denied and I should contact my bank.

This morning I received a letter from the bank saying they had tried to call me and would I ring them which I did. After holding for what seems like an age I talked to a nice girl at the bank who told me there were suspicious transactions on the card:

Aug 30: 1 Euro spent at the iTunes store. Never used it. Alarm bells ringing.
Aug 31: 3 Euro at “Usenext”, whatever that is.
Sep 3: Various amounts (168 Euro, 48 Euro..) spent at Virginmedia on subscriptions.

Ouch, thankfully the bank caught it and I’m not out of pocket, but it’s frightening when you’re the victim of credit card fraud. I presume it was skimmed by the same guys who had impersonated repair men and modified credit card machines around the country that was widely reported last week. The card hardly ever gets used online. Cutting it up now.

TechLudd Cork 2008

Anton Mannering organised TechLudd Cork last night at the Cork International Airport Hotel. I demoed Tweet Tweet and answered questions about WordPress and some of the plugins I had running on my blog.

Apart from showing off Tweet Tweet I took a few photos too. Pictured below are only some of the people there including (in no particular order): Walter, Bernard Goldbach, Anton, Aileen, Gavin Harkness, James Galvin (who should tweet more about Tweetrush!), Walter Wynne, John Peavoy, Pat Phelan, Ashley Halsall, Robin Blandford and some crazy guy who calls himself Damien.

If you see yourself in one of the photos please leave a comment, and apologies for not getting your name on the night.

Yes, the lighting in the toilets in the Cork International Airport Hotel really do change colour.

When will my broadband be upgraded?

Here in Ireland one company owns (almost?) all the local phone lines, Eircom. Just about every other company who provides a DSL service has to rent from them (anyone remember Smart?). The result of which is very similar pricing from every single broadband provider.

There is a silver lining of sorts. Eircom promised that they would upgrade all exchanges to support higher speeds by the end of July. We’re getting perilously close to that deadline and still no sign of upgrades for many. I received an email from BT yesterday giving this upgrade time page where I typed my phone number in and found out,

Your line will be upgraded on the weekend of the 26th July

Good news for me then. My 2Mb line becomes a 3Mb one. The upload rate remains at 256Kb unfortunately.

I twittered that url yesterday and others found out they’ll have to wait until August 9th. The page above works even if you’re not using BT’s service. When will your broadband be upgraded?

Saor Patrol in Cork

Saor Patrol, a Scottish band “with their vibrant pipe tunes and drum rhythms [that] please and excite many a crowd” certainly lived up to their reputation when they played for the crowds in front of Brown Thomas on Patrick Street this afternoon.

I came upon them when they were nearly finished but the few minutes of music I heard was exciting and lively, and my son Adam totally enjoyed the spectacle. When the crowd clapped in appreciation, Adam joined in, and almost jumped out of his buggy to dance to the beat!

They were playing in Cork City Hall today as part of the Your Mental Health awareness campaign by the HSE. Depression and other mental health problems still have an awful stigma in this country. People can be reluctant to talk about those problems, families and friends hide them away, or pretend they don’t exist, but they’re health problems like any other. With the right treatment at the right time most people can be helped.

Listening to Saor Patrol certainly lifted my spirits. I was tired and worn down but their music reinvigorated me!

Edit – I was wrong. The mental health event they were promoting is a Scientology event. Not a HSE one. Can’t believe those maniacs managed to hire out City Hall. I definitely do not want to have anything to do with that crowd. Ugh.

Meadows Fringe Festival (doesn’t do them justice at all.)

Italian Ice cream in Blarney

The first ice cream store in Blarney opened it’s doors for the several weeks ago with a special offer of free ice cream all day but I didn’t stop by there until today.

The store is Il Gelato and it’s around the corner from the main square in Blarney. If you’re in the area, you owe yourself the chance to try out their delicious produce. They offer a range of flavours from the usual vanilla, to chocolate, mint, strawberry and a few other unusual ones. I bought a large tub of chocolate and strawberry. Disappointingly, I thought the tub was quite small and too expensive until I tasted it. It must be the richest and creamiest ice cream I’ve ever tasted! We were after dinner in the Blarney Castle Hotel but I had room for dessert yet I could barely finish the tub!

We all enjoyed our ice cream, and even Adam got a taste of it, despite my earlier protestations that he wouldn’t taste ice cream until he was much older! I’m glad his first taste of ice cream was a good one.

A large tub is €4.80 which seems expensive, but it’s worth it. Delicious!