Take a step back from the bridge and there’s an alleyway leading up towards Shandon and the north side of the city.
Bridge Under Construction, part 2
Tag Archives: Ireland
Vex, where are you?
Several years ago any resident of Blackrock would recognise this tag. It was plastered all over the area, on every lamp-post, many walls and practically every smooth surface. I spotted this one near Blackrock Castle while Jacinta and I cycled past. It was at the bottom of a metal door almost completely hidden by bushes!
RTE's Bush Interview
Justin has a lot more on RTE’s Bush Interview that I mentioned previously. He notes that the White House complained to “RTE, the Irish Embassy, the Irish Government, and the reporter herself” aftewards. hehe.
He includes links to the realvideo version of it as well as an mp3 audio-track too. I recorded the realvideo streaming version using the following command:
mencoder -o primetime56.avi -oac mp3lame -ovc lavc rtsp://streaming2.rte.ie/2004/0624/primetime56.rm
'Fit' Bush vest pics a mistake, says Ahern
Heh. George Bush was pictured in his vest on Saturday morning! Has anyone got a copy of the photo that appeared in Ireland On Sunday?
I spoke too soon 🙂
From here – about the quality, it’s a “picture taken of a newspaper print from a video grab.”
Thanks Niall for the link!
Race Against Waste!
Despite having a slightly dodgy tv advert, the Race Against Waste website is actually rather useful and informative! There’s info on everything from recycling to composting and reusing material, and the first FAQ is “Where can I get a compost bin?”
Ah yes, once upon a time I actually blogged about computers, technology, politics and photography.. (keep tuned, myself and a friend took some great photos at the weekend, they’ll be posted tomorrow!)
Buying and Moving House in Ireland – Utilities
Part ??? of ??? – almost there!
I get the keys of the house on Friday so I’m quite excited at the prospect! There’s still a lot to be arranged, and transferring utilities is one of those jobs. I rang The ESB, Bord Gais, and Eircom earlier to find out how.
- Using the 2003 02 area phone book I saw that the ESB had a number of phone numbers. Unfortunately the first sales number I tried went through to their emergency/fault line! Ring 1850 372 372 if you want to talk to a sales guy. I was kept on hold for less than a minute and told to get a meter reading on Friday, get a forwarding address, ring them again and the account will be transferred.
- I rang Bord Gais then. The phone was answered immediately. A meter reading has to be done by the current owners, they should ring Bord Gais on Thursday or Friday with their new address, my payment details and the meter reading. Their phone number is 1850 426200.
- Finally, I rang Eircom. I was kept on hold for a good 3 minutes. Different recorded voices came on from time to time saying there were delays, and sorry for holding, etc. I thought it was strange to have different people recording those messages but it’s probably cheaper than hiring more staff to man the phones. Anyway, story is much the same. They ring Eircom, give my name and payment details. Transfer of a phone account costs €12, and if I want a new number it’ll cost €24.59. Isn’t it strange how the ESB and Bord Gais can transfer an account for free? (or at least they never mentioned a cost, in which case, my apologies to Eircom!) Ring Eircom at 1901 and press 1 for a sales person.
Much Later … It’s much easier than that. The previous owners took meter readings, and rang the various utilities to transfer the bills over to their new address. Bord Gais and the ESB were informed of my moving in to their house, and I rang Eircom and got the phone line connected a few days later.
Haunted Houses, Ghosts and Poltergeists
I need a spooky category.. Gerry Ryan has had a few calls from women saying their houses are haunted. I’ve an open mind about this and wouldn’t dismiss it out of hand at all.
The first caller said that she saw a silver haired woman lying on the bed next to her one morning, she turned away and back again and the woman was gone. She heard her child mumbling one night and went into her room later and the child said that she had been trying to call out and she was held down by something. Last Monday she took 3 photos of her children and apprently there’s an hump-backed old woman with a cane in the picture. A psychic told her that the woman in the house doesn’t want them living there! *gulp*
There’s more, and it’ll probably be repeated on Saturday morning so have a listen then!
Blackpool Factories In Ruin
I went up to Blackpool on Saturday afternoon to photograph the textile factory and Sunbeam. Even 24 hours later smoke still rose from the fire-gutted buildings and rubble. The Evening Echo had a stark picture of the blazing building on it’s Friday edition. It’s lucky nobody was injured in the blaze. A creche on the site narrowly escaped damage but thankfully half the 160 kids who are usually in the creche were in care that morning.
This is all that stands where a large textile factory burned down on Friday morning. According to the news, the rest of the building was demolished at noon on Saturday.
Rubble and Debris. Over 130 jobs are gone as the textile factory isn’t opening again.
Detail of the destruction of the out-buildings behind the main factory.
All that remains today of an old Cork landmark.
Fire units battling Cork city blaze
I just heard on IRC that there’s a fire in Blackpool! I looked out the window but didn’t expect to see anything as we’re more than 8 6.25 miles (Thanks Christian!) away here in Ballincollig…
Fire in Blackpool
Our Family Cat, Puss
You know, we never named our cat. I like to think it’s because cats are always half wild and you’re never sure what they’ll do. That’s certainly true for Puss. One moment you’re rubbing her soft fur, or scratching behind her ear, she’s purring and you’re relaxed. The next moment she has her claws into your wrist and her jaws are going for the flesh between your thumb and first finger.. ah.
Come to think of it, that pain doesn’t compare to the time she got caught up a tree in a gale. Yours truely had to go up fetch her down. As I dropped her down to my brother on the ground she did not want to let go of my hand at all!
She was a damn lucky cat too. While holidaying with my aunt, my brother and sister found her in Co. Cork up the side of mountain trail. She was meowing and thin and looking for food. For some reason they took her the many miles home to Cork. In the late Summer of 1989 we didn’t have a pet, never had one, and weren’t going to have one. However despite that, it was clear from the start that she adopted us.
“I want food!” “Give me attention!” “Go away, I’m tired!”
Such is the life of a cat.
Did I say she was lucky? She’s had her scrapes. On St. Stephen’s Day (Boxing Day) 1990 she jumped out of her box late at night. Unfortunately there was a fishing hook hanging down from the shelf above. She got caught in it and raced up the garden in great pain. When I heard the commotion, the meowing and the crying, I raced outside in pijamas, picked her up and cradled her as I took her indoors. The hook had lodged in her belly and her paw had stuck in the briars at the other end of the hook. I cradled her for what seemed like ages while my father rang a vet. I’m not sure at this stage did he call out to us, or did we call to his surgery, but he sorted her out. We continued to bring both Spring and Puss to the same vet for the last 14 years.
I rang home last Saturday to hear bad news. Unfortunately, Puss hadn’t been too well of late, she wasn’t eating, and was very lethargic. When I left for Chicago I guessed there might not be too much time left for her. I was right.
She was put to sleep last Wednesday. It must have been very hard on my father and brother to bring her to the vet, but it was the only humane thing to do.
Cats are known to be solitary creatures, they like their own company and shy away from human contact. Maybe that’s true in the wild, but I wouldn’t believe it for a moment when it comes to domesticated cats. Puss was part of the family, as was Spring.