Archive for January, 2006

Structured Blogging Plug-in Review

Posted on January 31, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Blogging, Wordpress.

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Postie Plug-in now works with Vodafone MMS e-mail

Posted on January 30, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Pictures, Technology, Wordpress.

Big big thanks to Dirk over at Economy Size Geek. E-mails with picture attachments sent from my Nokia on the Vodafone Ireland network to this blog were not working with his plug-in. He says that the format from Vodafone is crazy. But he got it working! He is an absolute star for putting all of that effort in to get his code working for one user. Now I just need to get a phone that can take decent pictures…

[tags]Wordpress, Postie, Economy Size Geek, Vodafone Ireland, MMS, Nokia 6230[/tags]

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Davida Tapas Bar - Reason enough to stop in Bandon

Posted on January 30, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Cork, Restaurants, Reviews.

A few Saturdays ago, myself and the worlds most understanding wife headed out to the new Tapas Bar in Bandon. I know, I know, you don’t often hear the words Tapas and Bandon in the same sentence, but bear with me.

Davida is in a fantastic location on Patrick’s Quay in Bandon looking out on the little river (the Bride?) rather than the Bandon itself. There are a few tables out the front for the warmer days and there is a heated area outside at the back too.

The room is dominated by the main bar where all of the food and drink is prepped. The menu is short but everything sounds tasty. The main problem we had was trying to figure out how to tackle the menu. Most people will presumably be just going for light snacks and a few glasses of wine whereas I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and was starving.

We asked the very friendly and helpful person in charge (Liz?) for her opinion. She suggested to start with something small, then to try one of the specials. So we went with a small bowl of just-right olives and then had the basque chicken which was excellent. Bit by bit we worked through the menu. The big advantage of the tapas idea is that each person can give up when they are full so Catherine faded before me. The meatballs were superb - as good as my own with the addition of some chilli. And the duck pate was stunningly good.
I have no idea how “authentic” the food is in Davida. I should really check out La Boquiera in Cork city for comparison. But I’m not remotely bothered if it isn’t. The quality of every dish was just right and suited our palates to a tee. What Vivian the owner has created is a really compelling alternative to the pub or big restaurant night out. We spent the night drinking the house red and it was excellent.

One thing that really impressed me was how Vivian has created a menu where all the dishes can be done with a cooler unit, a toaster oven and a microwave. All of the things like meatballs are obviously prepared ahead of time and heated on demand with the other dishes assembled as required. She is right to keep a strictly limited menu with nightly specials and I’m looking forward to seeing what else she comes up with. Anything with chorizo or jamon serrano gets my vote.

The only vaguely negative comment I would make is that a lot of customers are probably going to be clueless like ourselves and maybe an “introductory paragraph” in the menu might reduce some anxiety people would have about looking stupid and not knowing how to order.

We were originally worried that maybe it was a step too far for Bandon which to date has not exactly trail-blazed in the area of restaurants. When we arrived at 6.30 on a Saturday evening, we were the first customers. We purposely sat in the window with the aim to encourage others in. By 8.00 some more had joined and by 9.30 it was full. We were thrilled for Vivian and complimented her hugely on her venture. She has identified a genuine pent-up demand for a different way to spend an evening locally. It is also the sort of place that you might pop into at the start and/or end of a night to have a wee tipple and a snack.The lunch menu looks very appealing too and sunday brunch also looks pretty damned fine. I think we’ll be making more use of the services of our local baby-sitters over the next few months!If you do mention Davida to anyone, be very clear in how you say Tapas. Several people thought we now had Bandon’s first topless bar!
We just loved the whole idea of being able to pace your own meal. It suits everyone from the person in a rush who just wants a quick snack and a coffee to someone who feels like a few glasses of wine out of the house to those looking for a full nights food and drink.

Bandonians - support a great local business and eat, drink or have a coffee there today. Anyone heading to West Cork - do yourselves a big favour, skip the bypass road and stop at Davida to top up on some lovely nibbles before the last leg of your trip.

[tags]tapas, Davida, Patricks’s Quay[/tags]

10 Comments

Danano’s in Derry - Nice Italianish food with incredible value

Posted on January 30, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Restaurants, Reviews.

Eating out in Derry on a Saturday night without a booking proved to be a bigger challenge than the NI Peace Process. Eoin’s unique understanding of local restaurant booking dynamics (all that chemical engineering process training didn’t go to waste) meant that most places quoted us up to two hours waiting time at around 8pm.

We put our names down in a few spots and retired to the pub for some pints. Smoking ban down South, yadda yadda, changed my mind, yadda yadda, stinky clothes following morning, yadda yadda, wife mentions stinky hair, yadda yadda, dunno, don’t have any, yadda yadda.

About 9.30, we finally got into Danano’s which is a 130 seater Italian-style joint. Big menu built around the usual fare of pizza and pasta but with plenty of little surprises to make it interesting. It is BYOB so we grabbed three bottles of wine in the pub (less than £30 in a pub - wow).

We shared three starters between six of us; Seafood selection, nachos and bruschetta. All were excellent and the seafood selection in particular was stunning value - salad, olives. whitebait, prawns on the shell and calamari for less than £4! Tasty too.

Most people went with pizza for mains which looked lovely. I had chicken cacciatore and salad which was nothing awesome but still perfectly good.

In total we had three starters, six mains and corkage for three wines. How much? £59. Holy crap! Makes you realise how much we are over-paying down south.

Good solid food, tasty, well made, fast service and dirt cheap. Check it out if you are up yonder.

[tags] Danano’s, Italian food, Derry, Rip-Off Ireland[/tags]

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Mickey D’s - From not bad to bloody hell

Posted on January 30, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Food, Friends, Reviews.

We pop in to McDonald’s in Roscrea on most trips from Bandon to Cavan. It is about half way and the kids are usually starving at that stage. It’s a wee bit small and parking is a hassle but it is one of the best run ones in the country. They have one of those “helper” people permanently on the floor mainly doing clean-up but also offering to mind kids if you need to order the food or go to the loo. The food is fine and the place is always spotless.

On the way back from LondonDerry (how much trouble am I in for writing that ) we were targeting McD’s in Athlone which isn’t as good as Roscrea but is usually fine. But Fionn couldn’t wait that long and we pit-stopped at the one in Cavan. We’ve been in it several times before and it has never really impressed. Always feels like there is no-one really in control. This time was shockingly bad. The place was empty on arrival so all of the staff were chatting. The young-fella who took the order was fine - and he was the highlight.

The baby high-chairs were filthy. I dropped some fries on the floor on the way to the table and they stayed in full view of all for the entire meal. The mens toilets were filthy and had no toilet roll. I also didn’t see a cleaning schedule pinned up anywhere. No cleaning was done in the main seating area for our entire visit. Bloody awful. Was there even a manager on duty?
This McD’s is usually very busy and my guess is that they have come to the conclusion that they don’t need to try to excel at all since the business comes in anyway. A recipe for disaster. This is exactly the reason that McDonald’s as a corporation got into so much trouble. They raced towards the bottom of the market, concentrating entirely on cost and forgetting that they need to keep customers happy. It is the same mistake Dell are making with the corner-cutting on quality at the moment and I’ve a feeling RyanAir are also going to hit a tipping point where customers say “no more”. But this will probably not be until Michael O’Leary decides to transport cattle in the main cabin along with people.

I heard a fantastic quote on “The Restaurant Guys” podcast last week (well worth listening to these guys) where they repeated an old saying: “In the restaurant business, if you are not getting better, you are getting worse”. I think that applies to all business.

I know I’m only talking about fast food but McD’s really seemed to be getting their act together recently. Good coffee, nice variations on burgers, some variety in the Happy Meals. Let’s hope Cavan is just one bad franschisee and not a trend.

On a side note, after the hell of the Maxol Coffee we stopped in Supermacs in Fermoy so Catherine could change Fionn. This is another place that always looks dirty but to be fair to them, the service was excellent, the chicken tenders were genuinely tasty (real chicken, possibly from Ulan Bator but real chicken all the same) and the coffeee was good. Their adult loos were fine but the changing area for babies was flithy.

Oh god, am I turning into the Sunday World’s Pub Spy? Is that newspaper column still going?

Whilst I am at it, any recommendations for Child friendly places to stop on the N62-N55 that are not too close to Cork or Cavan. Needs to be speedy, have clean loos, child-changing facilities, better food than McD’s, not require a detour and be helpful if you do have four monsters. I don’t ask for much do I

[tags] McDonalds, Roscrea, Athlone, Cavan, The Restaurant Guys, Supermacs Fermoy[/tags]

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Bandon to Derry - Nearly Mizen to Malin

Posted on January 30, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Friends.

We finally did it. Up to Derry to visit the Pierce’s. On the way up we over-nighted with Mary in Cavan and then arrived at Saturday lunchtime. Incredible location looking out over the Foyle. Great weekend.

On Sunday we braced ourselves for the return journey. There were three options - some bizarre route via Tuam suggested by AAIreland, via Dublin suggested by Eoin or back the way we came via Cavan.

We plumped for the latter but I’d be interested in hearing if anyone has other suggestions. We did Derry-Lifford-Strabane-Omage-Enniskillen-Belturbet-Cavan-Athlone-Roscrea-Cashel-Cork-Bandon. With two shortish pit-stops in Cavan and Fermoy, it took the guts of 8 hours to do it.

The N62-N55 backbone through Ireland is the main route from deep south to far north. Maybe it’s time to consider the first Motorway that does not head towards Dublin? In some places, it is so narrow that trucks have to come to almost a full stop in order to pass each other.

[tags] Cork-Derry Motorway Petition, Ireland’s roads[/tags]

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The all-time worst cup of coffee I have ever tasted

Posted on January 30, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Food.

Congratulations to Myer’s Maxol Garage in Mitchelstown. Without doubt the most disgusting, undrinkable excuse for a cup of coffee we have ever bought. I have to wonder if they are using mud in the machine rather than coffeee beans. I’ve had some pretty dire coffee over the years. What some Greek cafes did to Nescafe when I was there in 1988 should be banned under the Geneva Convention but they were better than the thing we had yesterday.

As for the toilets - I think the Monkey’s from Madagascar got there first expecting a Tom Wolfe reading. For those of you who haven’t seen Madagascar, think Trainspotting instead……
[tags] Myer’s Maxol, Mitchelstown, Coffee, Nescafe[/tags]

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I am the grim reaper for Texas Heroes

Posted on January 24, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Personal.

I just had a comment posted to my old blog by Kim on something I wrote about Bill Hicks back last May. She was stunned that I saw him live about a year before he died and wanted some details. It is odd timing that she posted now considering I’m just back from Austin. But I was also thinking about Bill when I was over there.

I was in the airport and spotted some Stevie Ray Vaughan CDs. I’ve liked him for years but wouldn’t be a fanatic. Having said that, the man was a genius with a guitar. His Voodoo Chile is probably as good as Jimi’s. I managed to see him live too in Stuttgart in 1988. We were really going to see The Hothouse Flowers who were playing support but every other person in the stadium was there to worship Stevie. The CD I bought on Saturday was a recording of a tribute concert with the likes of Clapton, BB King, Robert Kray and others covering Stevie classics. Bloody good. Ripped to MP3 already (if IRMA want to take me to court).
Here we have two guys from Texas, both the very best in their field, I see them perform live and they both croak it wayyyy before their time. Coincidence? I think not. Let’s just say Willie Nelson, Michael Dell and ZZ Top better stay the hell away from me.

But back to Kim’s question’s about Bill. It was in 1993 I think so we’re talking a long 13 years ago. I can’t remember what I did yesterday so the details of that long ago are pretty vague. We saw him in the Tivoli theatre in Dublin (Ireland). We were to the side of the stage about two rows back. I had seen his videos before so some of the material was familiar but the switch from smoking lover to hater was a bit of a shock. He was also doing his “big opening” with smoke, lights, a big hat and Hendrix music. Didn’t really work for me but the show more than made up for it.

My main recollection of the night (apart from Goat Boy) was that my sister was rotten drunk and kept shouting “Yoh Bill! Woo hoo! yeah!” after every punch-line. His material is still hilarious after all these years. I couldn’t believe it when Gulf War II was building up and the media started using the phrase “Elite Republican Guard” all over again. Some things never change.
[tags] Bill Hicks, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Texas, Goat Boy, Tivoli Dublin[/tags]

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“Cully & Sully” Chicken & Leek Pie - Thumbs up from 2 to 37

Posted on January 24, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Food.

I got back from the US on Sunday after a tortuous routing - if our feet didn’t actually touch the ground in St Louis, can we say we have been there? I was pretty much all beefed out (hope to god that is not some awful double entendre) after a Texan week. Catherine had spotted the Cully & Sully ready-meals in Supervalue and grabbed two to see what they were like. As neither of us had the energy to cook, I decided to give the  Chicken & Leek Pie a twirl.

The pies come in a plastic-sealed ramekin-style ceramic dish which you can obviously re-use and they cost about a fiver. Great value when you consider the dish. Four minutes in the micro and it was ready to go. The result? De-lish, tasty, tasty, tasty: Spuddies, chicken, leek, sauce - what more could you ask for?

I rarely eat ready-meals nowadays but I was a fiend for them in college. Findus crispy pancakes, potato waffles and beans - I will never ever eat that combo again. Birds Eye Beef Curry - ditto. Dunnes Stores Roast Chicken Dinner - agghhhhh. But Cully & Sully are in an entirely different league. When I had that chat with Cully at the Ballymaloe course, he admitted he had never eaten one of those Boil in the Bag dinners in his life. You can tell - the pie I had on Monday was up there with home cooking.

But as I may be influenced by Sully’s recent kind words on this blog, I decided to consult with high-flying flamboyant girl about Bandon town, Sibéal O’Neill, for her independent opinion. Not known for her retiring nature in matters of food, Sibéal had been having dinner at the same time as me. She was deeply unhappy with her lovely fish dinner. Unprompted she started dipping her food into the sauce in my pie. When I was finished, she grabbed the dish off me with her two hands, stuck her face in it and licked it clean. No words necessary there really. And none possible beyond “YUM!” as she is only 2.

There ye have it. Old fatties likes em, young squirts likes em. Go get em.

[tags] Cully and Sully, Chicken and Leek Pie, Ballymaloe Hen House[/tags]

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And it burns burns burns, that ring of fire

Posted on January 23, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Food, Humour.

I couldn’t resist this bottle of Hot Sauce in departures in the airport in Texas. I’m sure it is the equivalent of a Yank buying an aran sweater, Shillelagh and some inflatable shamrocks in Shannon, but I don’t care.

[tags] Texas Hot Sauce, Johnny Cash[/tags]

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Guest Blogger Review - La Maison Troisgros

Posted on January 19, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Restaurants, Reviews.

My old friend and classmate from college Dee Burke read my review of The Four Seasons and sent me her review of La Maison Troisgros in France. I asked if she’d mind if I posted it here due to the drooling all over the keyboard that resulted when I read it. She said sure. So, for the first time in the five years this blog has been in existence - a posting from someone other than Mr Creosote:

Peter had heard of “La Maison Troisgros” for the first time when he did a management course in the IMI years ago. The restaurant was used as an example of how customer service should be. But really it is the food that puts La Maison Troisgros on the cullinary map. It is regularly listed in the top restaurants worldwide. What it says at www.troisgros.fr:

“For three generations, the Troisgros name has carved out a place in the history of French cooking. Its renown is the work of Jean-Baptiste and Marie, their two sons, Jean and Pierre and Michel et Marie-Pierre who carry on the tradition today.

Founded in 1930, Troisgros celebrated in 1998 its 30 consecutive years with three Michelin stars, the most prestigious rating in France”.

Michel Troisgros is the current chef (his son is now in food school!) with his grandfather starting the restaurant in 1930 and they have not dropped any of their 3 stars rating since they received them in 1968.

We left the house and the kids with my brother on Friday morning at 5.00am to get a flight to Paris CDG at 7.00am. We drove down to Roanne and it took approx 6 hours. Lyon is closer but the flights didn’t suit.

I know it is very expensive when you stay for 2 nights and eat the tasting menus both nights but man we would do it again. The food and the whole experience was just out of this world. It’s hard to know where to start so I won’t!

They have a special on Friday nights (and other nights during the week but not saturday) called a moment of happiness where for €550 you get your room, breakfast next morning for 2, tasting menu plus recommended drinks (apperetif,half bottle white, half bottle red, water, coffees) for 2. The tasting menu had 8 or 9 courses.

Michel Troisgros comes around to speak to everyone during their meal. There is a glass wall at part of the dining area where you can see right into the kitchen, where there are at least a dozen chefs milling about.

We met Michel a few times over the weekend and stopped to chat to us and gave us his time….. a really lovely man who is passionate about his food.

We don’t get out much any more and what we spent would probably get us 10-15 good nights (actually less when you consider baby sitting costs) out in Dublin. So we are staying in for those 10-15 nights and saving up to go back! It wasn’t just the food; it was the hotel, the room, the staff, the whole experience.

In one word…..GO!

I’m booking the flights now. [tags]La Maison Troisgros, France, cuisine, guest reviewer[/tags]

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Salt Lick BBQ Driftwood Texas - Can I have a franchise please?

Posted on January 18, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Food, Reviews.

We brought the rain with us from Cork and it lashed down as we were driven out to the Salt Lick BBQ which is, as they (and probably Ned Flanders) would put it “a heck of a long way out yonder”. It is also in a dry county where the sale (but not consumption) of alcohol is illegal. I think many of my Irish readers have probably had some sort of aneurysm reading that last sentence. Imagaine trying to create a dry county in Ireland. Well maybe in Leitrim after the last person leaves.
Joe kindly brought a cooler full of beer (which is the legal way to deal with it). He also pointed out that in some dry counties, the restaurants give you the booze for free but ask that you might take it into consideration in the gratuity. Where there is a will….

I predicted we would be the only patrons due to the horrendous weather. Nope, the place was jammed - on a wet monday night. That tells you how popular it really is. Joe told us that one one summer weekend they sold 5000 lbs of meat. I jest you not. My plan for tonight was to make some progress towards that 5000 number.

It’s a real rustic place that looks like a bunch of sheds clustered together. A lot of smoke has been generated here over the past many years:

This is not a politically correct part of the world. This sign was outside:

I immediately imagined people in wheelchairs being thrown out of fast-moving pick-up trucks.

Then their menu decided to insult everyone over the age of 60 (I think maybe they are joshing here):

I, like the last time, went with the family style (alone). This is $15.95 for ALL YOU CAN EAT. Just call me Homer:

“You want all three meats honey?”. “You betcha sweetie”.

Mmm, brisket:

Mmm, mmm, ribs and sausage:

Did I get seconds? Darn tootin I did!

The food was awesome. The brisket, oh dear god, how do they make it so succulent? Even the sides were great - slaw and potato salad. Cormac did point out rightly that a big pile of creamy mashed spuds would have made it totally perfect.

We asked about the cooking of the food. The brisket gets 14 hours, the ribs and sausage a lot less. This is the main prep area. I’m not sure if this smoker is for show or is really used:

It really is an incredible place doing the same very small set of fabulous food for many years. We could all learn from their focus. As I’m such a total geek, I had to buy some merchandise. The t-shirts are hilarious and I obviously had to get their triple back of hot sauce, dry rub and BBQ sauce. There’ll be smoke in Bandon soon:

This sign got me all excited until I remembered that nationwide does not mean Ireland. Damn. They will ship a cooked 5lb brisket in the US for $49.95.

What amazes me is the value for money. $15.95 for all you can eat of top quality food. I would love to see what this could be done for in Ireland.

A great night had by all and a long bloated trip back to the hotel.

Jack K may be the devil. The following morning we had a business breakfast in the office and he had arranged breakfast tacos. Oh no, I was still full from last night. Actually, oh yes. Eggs, bacon and cheese with chilli and salsa. Perks you up for sure. Then lunch; the evil swine gets BBQ from Rudy’s, whose byline is great “the worst BBQ in Texas”. This was also superb. Lunch:

And to round it all off, the spawn of satan takes us for dinner at a Surf n Turf joint called Trulucks. Great seafood and awesome steaks. I had a top chat with Timmy D about Food Franchises which might work in Ireland. Some of his ideas has me crying with laughter into my food.

I’ll be going back to Trulucks once I get my pants taken out. Our kind hosts rolled us back to the hotel. It is now the following morning and I don’t think I’ll be eating for a week. I shudder to think what Jack has arranged for breakfast today. Beef sushi?
[tags]BBQ, Salt Lick, Trulucks, Rudys, Texas[/tags]

9 Comments

This week we’ll be mostly driving the AssKicker 40000

Posted on January 17, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Motor Cars.

Last time in Texas I was in a compact car. I was nearly crushed to death several times each day. This time, it was going to be fire with fire.

You lookin’ at me? I said are you lookin at me?

UPDATE: Goddammit, Baz was right. It is a poxing mini-van not an SUV (the sliding door is what gives it away). The locals were gentle with me and said it was kinda a minivan-SUV hybrid until one of em goes, “yeah, for soccer moms”. The shame, the shame. I may as well be driving a prius.
[tags] Texas, SUV [/tags]

2 Comments

I picked the wrong day to start carrying a concealed 357 Magnum

Posted on January 16, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Pictures.

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Dammit they were out of Lincoln Navigators

Posted on January 16, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Business, Food, Motor Cars, Technology.

Yer, I want dat wun:

So we only got a massive SUV instead of a planet-sized one on our arrival in Texas. We’re here for the week and I hope I keep my wits about me and take plenty of Nokia Crap-cam pictures. The first one will be of our town runabout with three rows of seats and what sounds like a V6 under the bonnet. I spun the tyres when taking off gently from some traffic lights and squealed them every time I turned a corner.

Nice coincidence too - today is Martin Luther King day and last night we drove past MLK Jr Boulevard. So am I the only one who thought the U2 song was called “Milk”?

It’s gonna be a hard week of work here - not getting back until Sunday but we are less than four miles from Frys for all those critical technology purchases (of course we need  a 50″ Plasma Flatscreen that only plays NTSC DVDs honey. Yes, fitting it in the Samsonite will be a challenge) and I also got me a hankering after some Texas BBQ. All you can eat Brisket, Smoked Turkey and Sausage at The Salt Lick. Mmm, mm, mmm.

Pictures as they happen.

[tags] Texas, SUV, BBQ, The Salt Lick, Frys, MLK [/tags]

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The Seasons of my mind

Posted on January 14, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Food, Ireland, Restaurants, Reviews.

We didn’t have a “formal” family holiday in 2005 - a week in Rosslare
with the extended family was it for us. As year-end approached,
weariness grew. So we threw caution to the wind, threw the children to
their granny and headed down from Cavan to Capital City for some
pampering and unashamed luxury.

Stop reading now if you are offended by the profligate spending by people
of their own money when there are still starving babbies in Biafra
who don’t have a hand knitted scarf yet.

Yes, we stayed and had dinner at the Four Seasons in Ballsbridge. I’d
been there once before for a business meeting (Pot of Tea for 3 = €17
if memory serves) and my main recollections were that it was a
butt-ugly building with tons of money spent on fittings and furnishings
to make up for the fact that it looks like an office block. They also
seemed to have an enormous number of staff who didn’t appear to do much
apart from smile and say hello.

This time we arrived up in the filthy Zafira and decided not to go for
valet parking beside the Bentleys. To be fair, they did park some
people-carriers (mini-vans/MPVs for my US readers) beside the Porsche
Cayennes. Hard to tell which were more ugly. The Porsche Cayenne - the
SUV for rich people who spell Classy with a K.

Very friendly staff everywhere and if they had any direct dealings with
you, they always knew your name. Actually I found that a bit spooky. No
nose-picking in the lounge or farting in the pool for me then.

A short pause for a moment. To save the numb fingers on my left hand
from RSI, please automatically insert the phrase “as well it should at
this price” after every sentence from now on.

The room was lovely but not the gold-leaf toilet-paper experience I
thought it might be. Rose petals scattered around the place and a nice
bottle of fizz welcomed us in. Excellent bed and I loved the bathroom
with the all-glass shower. The balcony was cool but the weather meant
it was ununsed.

I had expected the place to be filled with emaciated super-models and
their sugar-daddies with maybe a pack of surgically enhanced peroxided
ladies-who-lunch hunting in the lounge for prey. But actually it mainly
seemed to be perfectly normal looking families with screaming children
which I really liked. They gave the place a comfortable feel which is
missing on first look because of all the Donald Trump style opulence.
Catherine raved about the pool, jacuzzi and whole “health centre” bit.
I couldn’t even tell you what floor it was on.

We ate there that night and it was an interesting mix of experiences.
Georgina Campbell’s guide damned it with faint praise but supposedly
Gerry Ryan is always raving about it. Hmm, now who’s judgement would I
trust more? The meal started really badly. A nice greeter person
brought us to our table in the very large almost empty restaurant. And
where did she put us? Beside a table of 15 people including 4 children!
Ahhh, romantic. Dozey bint, surely this is “seating 101″ in Maitre d’
school? So we asked to be moved. The poor waiter dropped a very funny
clunker when he whispers “nah, I don’t like children either”. We
replied that we actually had 4 children but we just didn’t want to have
to listen to kids bickering tonight. Poor lad was very embarrased.

The food was really really excellent. A pleasant surprise for me as I
wasn’t expecting much. Started with three little amuse bouches which
were all simple but bursting with flavour. Starters were fois gras for
Catherine and for me, a likkle wikkle partridge. Fantastic wee bird.
There was a small white thing on the edge of the plate. Was it what I
thought it was? Ok, now that’s funny. A moulded piece of pear. And
before you post a comment about the fois gras, stop, find something
interesting to say about something important (e.g. Darfur) and post it
on another blog instead.

Mains were a very nice steak for me but I can’t bloody remember the
details. Three weeks later and I’m blank and neither of us can remember
what Catherine had. Desserts were the first ever restaurant souffle for
me and presumably something chocolate for Catherine. The souffle was a
fabulous fruity thing. A nice bottle of some Italian white (no idea
what it was) rounded it all off. I remember the food being superb but
there is something amiss when I cannot remember the details of what the
main courses were. I still remember what I had in Otto’s months ago.

Top class food but actually the pricing is totally out of whack. It was
a great meal (one of the best for us in 2005) but it was the most
expensive meal we have ever eaten. For similar money, you could fly to
Cork, get a taxi to Otto’s Creative Catering, get the best meal you’ll
eat all year, stay there overnight and fly back. Or repeat the exercise
to the Tannery in Dungarvan. Yeah I know it is D4 and I know it is The
Four Seasons but it simply does not add up. Just pick one of at least
ten better places to eat in Dublin for a lot less and get a limo to
bring you!

Just at the end of the meal Catherine nudged me and said “that’s that
guy from ‘The Restaurant’”. For those of you outside Ireland, “The
Restaurant” is a TV programme where allegedly famous people act as head
chef for a night and reviewers give them scores. A likable programme
and the Maitre d’ is a complete scream. Totally over the top camp. And
that was him doing the formal table schmooze in The Four Seasons. He
arrived at our table, asked how everything was and then moved on. We
were disappointed he was so subdued but I guess there is a time and
place for everything.

The following night we ate in O’Connells in Bewleys Hotel across the
road. Really simple, excellent food with top quality ingredients. Great
charcuterie platter to start (let me guess, Gubbeen, right?) and
fantastic roast pork loin for main. Remembered that, didn’t I? Three
people, two courses each and a bottle of wine. €85! Is there any better
value in Dublin? Highly recommended. I’d also recommend the hotel at
€99 per family room. The building both inside and outside is fabulous.
A “discount” hotel outclassing the high-end hotel next door. Genius!

But screw it, for a bit of pure pampering, as a one-off never to be
repeated treat, go spend a night or two at the Four Seasons. It’ll cost
ya a bomb but probably less than flying to Majorca on a crappy plane,
staying in a hell hole, eating rubbish, getting sloshed for a fortnight
and getting treatment for skin cancer.

Massive thanks to Granny Mary for minding the childer for our little
post-christmas escape. Hell, I wouldn’t offer to mind our kids if they
weren’t mine .

[tags]Four Seasons, Ballsbridge, O’Connells, Bewleys, The Restaurant, RTE, The Tannery[/tags]

No Comments

Eircom Broadband 11 hour downtime. What exactly am I paying for?

Posted on January 13, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Cork, Ireland, Technology.

Few useful words for Network Operations in Eircom: Active/Passive Clusters, RAID, RAC, Multi-Pathing, Redundancy, 24*7*365 Network Monitoring, investment, SLA.

€33 per month ex-VAT for this? Next time Eircom, maybe don’t double the download speed, just halve the price.

This wasn’t just me, this was, in their words, “the Cork region”. Can anyone who has business broadband with Eircom in Cork confirm if they were down from midnight to 11.30am this morning? Are you going to sue?

Of course, we’ll all be refunded the half-day downtime on our bill. Oh maybe not, it might affect the price they are acquired at by the latest suitor who sees an effective monopoly making shed-loads of money for old rope.

[tags]eircom, cowboys, service, monopoly[/tags]

6 Comments

Testing Postie Plugin from GMail

Posted on January 13, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Blogging, Pictures, Technology.

Dirk, who has written the most excellent Postie plugin for Wordpress is
putting a ton of effort into tracking down why I can’t send an MMS picture
message from Vodafone to the blog using his plug-in. We are now testing
other mail clients to see if they work. This one has a picture attached as
the suspicion is that pictures are causing the problem.

4 Comments

Smooth n Easy Upgrade to Wordpress 2.0 and Connections Reloaded

Posted on January 9, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Blogging, Technology.

If anyone who worked for me ever attempted a double simultaneous software upgrade, I’d fire them. But as I’m the boss of me, I can do whatever I like on my blog. Last night I upgraded the blogging software to Wordpress 2.0 and moved the Blog Theme from Connections to Connections Reloaded. Huge kudos to Matt and Donncha and all the others at Wordpress for the trouble free upgrade and to Ajay for doing such a slick improvement to Connections.

AS far as plugins go, I had varying degress of success. I dumped the “Recent Posts” plugin as I never liked the way it presented the data. If anyone misses it, let me know. I tried the “Live Calendar” plugin which is very slick except it does not seem to work when the blog is installed in a sub-directory, so I disabled it until I can figure that out. I am about to install the “Postie” plugin upgrade which allows me to send pictures to the blog via email (and therefore directly from my phone). The older one worked well in test but I never used it in anger. The “WP-DB-Backup“ plug-in continues to work like a charm. The “Simple Tags” plug-in needs database changes to work on WP 2.0 so I’ll leave that until I have a bit more time.The “Subscribe to Comments” plugin worked without change.

One thing I am very interested in trying is the “Structured Blogging” plugin. I’d love to do my reviews in a structured way without going totally overboard and losing the “make it up as I go along” aspect of my reviews. But the site for it is pretty poor and it is not clear if WP 2.0 is supported and I’m not going to waste my time trying in case it isn’t.

The Archives page now works ok if you want a nice way to browse old posts.

I have also started a Links page. Currently there are four:

Bandon Parish - Run by the local Catholic church but with tons of general non-religious info and a great resource.
Bandon 400 - Set-up to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the town last year. Should be the main portal for the town but appears not to be given much love and attention
Scoil Bhride Crossmahon - Best National School in the area
Kilbrogan House - A fine looking B&B. A great resource with info and links about the locality.

If you find any problems with the site changes, please add a comment.

5 Comments

My annual fitness frenzy from Jan 4th to Jan 5th is now thankfully at an end

Posted on January 5, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Humour.

After walking quite quickly from the car to the office today in order to burn those extra 4 calories, I suffered slight dizziness at the bottom of the stairs with the thought of walking up them. Luckily I came to my senses and can now happily slob out for another 12 months.

The Unfit Comic Strip just gets better and better. This is a ripe time of the year for it.

Scott Adams is a big fan and has posted an Ad on his blog for an illustrator to help Mike Belkin so that he can concentrate on working on the actual content.

Insincere apologies once again for infringing on a multitude of copyrights by posting the comic strip here.

[tags]unfit, dilbert, scott adams[/tags]

2 Comments

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