Archive for July, 2006
Brigadier N. F. Marwood-Git (retired)
Posted on July 30, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Humour.
I think this is the first time in 16 years of using the internet that I have been presented with a list like this:
[tags]Monty Python, Hotels, UK, Lord[/tags]
4 Comments
Pierce Brosnan can act!
Posted on July 30, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment.
The Matador
Year: 2006
Length: 97 minutes
Media: DVD
Studio: Weinstein Company
Rating from : R (Restricted)
UPC for dvd: 796019791595
ID in Amazon.com: B000EQ5UIC
I saw “The Matador” on a plane recently and raved about it. Catherine got it out on DVD last night and it still works on a second viewing. It is the story of a hitman with problems played by Pierce Brosnan, who befriends an average joe played by Greg Kinnear. The movie is full of wonderful dark one liners and some fabulous scenes.
As a movie, you’ll enjoy it immensely but what will blow you away is Brosnan. He acts everyone else off the screen - seriously! He has finally realised that slick and suave is far more interesting when mixed with sleazy and he just nails his character. The scene where he strides through the hotel looking completely screwed-up wearing nothing but black jocks and ankle boots will stay with me for many years to come.
[tags]The Matador, Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Hope Davis[/tags]
5 Comments
GG’s Turkish Barber in Clonakilty
Posted on July 30, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Family.
Turkish Barber
Category: Other
Provider: GG
Price range: €9 to €32
Location:
Ring Road
Clonakilty Co Cork
Ireland
We missed another Farmer’s Market as myself and Osc spent longer in Clon that we expected. The place was mobbed, jammed with cars on the way to/from holidays and flooded just to make everyone’s lives harder. However, none of this interfered with our mission to get our hair cut.
Catherine had noticed a new Turkish Barber had opened up on the ring road in Clon and thought I should check it out. I think it is only open a few weeks at this stage. I poked my head in the door and there were only two other people waiting which suited just fine.
The place looks great. Small but lots of nice touches including a big flat screen TV to keep you occupied. However, the TV was on TG4 which was showing their Saturday movie (A Summer Place). It was one of those awful pointless 1950’s yokes with no-one you have ever heard of. I hated those movies when I was a kid and they haven’t got any better. But I suppose it is a tradition to show crappy movies early on a Saturday afternoon. In any case, there was far more entertainment to be had watching people getting “treated”.
We were lucky that the guy in the chair had a beard so we saw lots of the services on offer. The barber was incredibly adept with the scissors and even more so when he took out the cut-throat razor to tidy up the beard. He dipped it in alcohol and then lit it which caused Oscar’s eyes to be glued to the remainder of the activities. Of course, he used old style shaving soap and a big brush to foam it up.
Then he upped the game even more - he took a giant cotton bug, dipped it in alcohol, lit it and then started swooping it towards the guys head over and over. Oscar went totally silent. This was presumably to burn off the various dodgy hairs that we older men seem to get in the oddest places.
He finished the guy off with a multitude of unguents and sprays and sent him on his way looking like a million dollars.
There were two more “quick trims” before us. The guy with the comb-over who asked for “not much off the top” was claerly living in a fantasy world all of his own creation but the barber sent him off loooking dapper too.
Oscar was next and went up to the chair very nervously. Suddenly he smiled and said “there’s a TV stuck in the mirror!”. Sadly for him it was also showing TG4. Normally GG won’t do kids on a Saturday cos it is too busy and he is on his own but he was happy to do a machine cut which Osc was cool with too. It took him no time at all to change Oscar from a pseudo-crustie to a fine looking young man. A great haircut.
I was going with my usual zero blade machine cut. Done in 5 mins and far better than I ever do myself. But that was not the end of it, I got the blazing bud treatment too which was fantastic. Then he really freaked me and cut my eyebrows! Ok, so they were getting a bit unkempt but they were hardly Rumpole of the Bailey. I was actually chuffed that he did them.
€20 for the two of us. When I originally saw his price list I thought it was expensive but it is a bargain for the effort he puts in. Next time I’m going for the €32 “The Works” which includes traditional hot towel Turkish shave.
Whether you want a manly treat or just a good hair-cut, give GG’s a go.
[tags]GG’s, Turkish, Barber, Clonakilty[/tags]
2 Comments
Yoplait makes Oscar mad again
Posted on July 29, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Food.
Osc opened a Melon and Orange yoghurt yesterday to discover it actually contained Fruit of the Forest. So did two others that he checked. In one of his favourite books “Stink and the Incredible Supergalactic Jawbreaker”, the hero (Stink) writes a letter of complaint about a jawbreaker that did not break his jaw. The result is that he gets sent a huge box full of sweets. I think maybe Oscar is hoping something similar happens here.
His letter is as follows:
Let’s see what reply he gets.
[tags]Yoplait, Yoghurt, Glanbia, Stink, Jawbreaker[/tags]
4 Comments
NZ Gangsta Rap
Posted on July 28, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment.
I just spotted this over at the Signal vs Noise blog. Brilliant Kiwi comedy duo called The Conchords. Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros is definitely the best of them.
[tags]The Conchords[/tags]
No Comments
This should be bigger news - Gizmo offering free PC to landline calls
Posted on July 28, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Technology.
Most people, even non-techies like my Dad, have heard of Skype at this stage. Skype gives you free PC-to-PC “phone” calls and allows you to ring normal international phone numbers for much cheaper than normal phone-to-phone calls. I’ve used it a lot and it works pretty well.
But Skype has a much less well-known competitor called Gizmo and you’d be nuts not to give them a try. Gizmo, unlike Skype, is built on a standard called SIP so it works with all other SIP-based products e.g. VOIP products that cable TV customers in the USA use. It also doesn’t chew up your PC like Skype can do.
Gizmo’s feature set has always been far better than Skype including conference calling from day 1, call recording, voicemail etc. I have always found the voice quality to be better too. It’s biggest drawback has always been the lack of uptake so that I have never done a PC-to-PC call with it since no-one I know uses it.
Recently they unveiled a killer feature. Any two Gizmo users can now do PC-to-phone calls for free. All you have to both be is signed up for Gizmo, only one of you actually needs to be at a computer. This is available in 60 countries including Ireland right now and even works for mobile numbers in a bunch of them too (not Ireland yet sadly). I’ve tested it and it works perfectly. If you make lots of national or international calls and don’t mind doing them from your computer, you could save a ton of money with this. If you have a VOIP phone or Router, then you may not even need to be at the computer! I need to investigate this more.
Check them out, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
[tags]Gizmo, SIPPhone, SIP, Skype, Michael Robertson[/tags]
2 Comments
Time for my bi-annual political post
Posted on July 26, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Politics.
At this stage I’m sick to the back teeth of the moral relativism that passes for liberal thought in modern Europe and particularly in Ireland. Recent events in the Middle East have just amplified the noise. So it is a joy to read something as reasoned and balanced as Norm Geras’ post on what is happening in Lebanon. Read the questions at the end very carefully and maybe you’ll learn something about yourself from your answers.
I’m surprised that so many of the old left in Britain have been able to move to a place politically where I can agree with much of what they say. It is a pity that the Irish left can still be found associating themselves with Ba’athist-hugging scumbags like George Galloway or Pol Pot groupies like Noam Chomsky.
[tags]Lebanon, Israel, Norm Geras, Pol Pot, Noam Chomsky, George Galloway, Baath party[/tags]
10 Comments
I guess that’s what she meant by “I’ll give it 110%”
Posted on July 23, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment.
Michelle Dewberry is pregnant by Syed!
It would never have happened if he’d listened to me and hired the Badger.
[tags]The Apprentice, Michelle Dewberry, Ruth Badger, Alan Sugar[/tags]
2 Comments
Review of Macehiter’s Restaurant, Clonakilty
Posted on July 23, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Restaurants, Reviews.
Great Local Restaurant doing lovely food
Jul 23, 2006 by
Conor O’Neill
Clonakilty
Co Cork,
★★★★☆ The plan last night was to grab a quick bite to eat in Clon and then go to “The wind that shakes the barley”. OK, the original plan was to go to Eddie Rockets and “The Break-Up” in Mahon. In the end we just ate in Clon and went home. But what a fine meal it was. My parents threw caution to the wind with their mental health and offered to mind the children of the corn whilst we headed out with big sis Fiona for a semi-birthday meal for her.
I’ve passed Macehiters many times over the past three years and always liked the look of it and wanted to try out their charcoal grilled steaks. Now that I’ve eaten there, I still don’t know how to pronounce it. Mack-e-hiters? Masiters? Mace Hitters? But this is coming from someone who has been pronouncing the village of Leap as it is written rather than “Lep”.
Back to the restaurant. It is a small place with not many tables and the menu is up on a giant blackboard on the wall. It has the comfy, well worn look of a place that has been happily serving food for a long time. No bookings are possible and if they are full they send you across the road to the pub and then get you when the table is ready.
We skipped starters as we still thought we were going to the cinema but they looked lovely. Mains were just a good selection of standard fare with a special charcoal grill section. Nice set of three fish of the day too. I had to have the sirloin, Catherine had the black sole and Fiona had the mackerel. All were simply grilled or fried and came with salad and baked spud or garlic spuds. All were absolutely top class. Wonderfully cooked steak, lovely salad dressing on decent leaves and perfect spuddies. I had originally thought the prices were a bit high but you get a large amount for your money.
We just had a bottle of the house red Cabernet which was nice and light and we went for three baked alaskas for dessert which were really fab.
Service was lovely and friendly, coffee was spot on, they are cool with kids too. We’ll be back. Highly recommended.
This
hReview brought to you by the
hReview Creator.
[tags]Macehiters, Clonakilty, Cork[/tags]
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Margherita Madness
Posted on July 22, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Cooking, Family.
Inspired by Red Mum’s recent pizza making post, the awesome DiFara Pizza story and my experiences in The Good Things Cafe recently, I decided to make some pizza-pies with the two middle childer yesterday. We made one each. Classic Margherita with simple garlic/oregano/basil/passata sauce and buffalo mozzarella.
Sibéal, aged 2:
Oisín, aged 4:
Conor, aged 38:
Which was the nicest? Yup, the 2 year old’s. After the horror of watching them “knead” the dough and drop it on the floor several times, the two little gits ended up with far superior results because [a] they were not swimming in sauce and [b] the were wafer thin cos I only gave them a small bit of dough each. Mine was more like a soup on a bap. All tasted fantastic tho.
technorati tags:pizza, The+Good+Things+Cafe, DiFara, Margherita, Red+Mum
Blogged with Flock
2 Comments
Teensey buglet in Yahoo Mail
Posted on July 21, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Technology.
I know the software is still in beta and I’m just being obnoxious but having -1 emails in my inbox did make me smile.
[tags]Yahoo, Yahoo Mail Beta, Yahoo Mail, Bugs[/tags]
2 Comments
Trunki - Flippin brill idea
Posted on July 20, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Purchasing.
Catherine spotted these today:
They are called Trunkis and I just love the idea - a travel case that doubles as a ride-on toy. I stood in Gatwick yesterday watching kids going stir crazy in the check-in queue. These would definitely help. Might even be fun for bored adults too.
[tags]trunki, The Natural Baby Resource[/tags]
3 Comments
Any chance Quizno’s in Cork will have this?
Posted on July 20, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Food, Restaurants.
I’ve been in a few Quizno’s sandwich joints in the US and I really like them, particularly the fixins bar where you can add various types of whole chillis and other delights to your toasted sub.
I think it is the fastest growing franchise in the US and thought of being a franchisee even flashed through my head a few years back. But Cafe Kylemore has the rights here and there is one on the quay around the corner from Patrick St in Cork. I haven’t gone in yet to see whether it is an Irish travesty of a good idea or if have they done it properly. Anyone else given it a go?
I think we’ll be waiting a long time in Cork for the Smokehouse Beek Brisket Sub: ““a double portion of mesquite-smoked brisket that has been slow roasted for seven hours, then…….”. Read more over at Fast Foods News.
Mmmm, brisket.
[tags]Quizno’s, Brisket, Fast Food News[/tags]
No Comments
Yes I’m a sad old man, what of it?
Posted on July 14, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Gadgets, Personal, Technology.
This gave me goosebumps:
You have no idea, none, how much I wanted a microdrive as a teenage geek. I would have happily chopped off my little finger yakuza-style to get one. And this guy, the luckiest man alive, has 8 of them!
And what is it about rose tinted spectacles that I would be happier now to be given a ZX Spectrum +2 with a Kempston joystick than a fully loaded Dell XPS?
I automatically deride anything that Nicholas Negroponte is involved in as snake-oil (Media Lab Dublin, I laughed when they announced it, I laughed when they closed it). But the $100 laptop has the potential to create a whole new generation of programmers from places you would never have dreamed, just like the Spectrum, BBC Micro and C-64 did for us as kids. Let’s hope he doesn’t screw it up.
I think maybe we’ve all forgotten the impact those machines, and “The Computer Programme” on the BBC had on a multitude of British and Irish kids. I shudder to think what I would be working at now if my parents hadn’t had the foresight to get me a Spectrum when I badgered them incessantly for it. And I know I’ve blogged this before, but it is still the funniest thing on the whole damned internet.
[tags]ZX Spectrum, microdrive, Geoff Wearmouth, comp.sys.sinclair, The Computer Programme, OLPC, Hey Hey 16K[/tags]
5 Comments
Ulster Bank finally joins the 21st century
Posted on July 10, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Business.
Only six years after everyone else.
Their upgraded Internet Banking service now supports Firefox/ Mozilla/ IE7/ dunno_what_else. Previously they only supported Internet Explorer with Microsoft’s own Java VM and, wait for it, Netscape 4.7!
How embarrassing must it have been to work in web development in that company? I sent them stinky mails about once every six months for the past few years including links to the Microsoft site where the continued use of the MS VM was listed as a no-no. It all fell on deaf ears.
The only reason they finally had to upgrade is that Internet Explorer 7 will be released late this year and the site would have been unusable by all their customers. Nothing like a shotgun to the head to motivate the lazy and the gormless.
How many years will I have to wait before they roll out the new site for business accounts too?
Note, it does allow Konqueror to be used but gives a warning that it is not supported - on every shaggin mouse click! Apart from that Konqueror works fine. They may even support Mac users too.
[tags]Ulster Bank, Anytime[/tags]
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Conor’s Christmas Cookbook Collection
Posted on July 9, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Cooking, Entertainment, Food.
UPDATE 1: Normally when I do reviews I use the Structured Blogging plug-in. Its biggest flaw is that you can only do one review per post and the “reviews” below do not warrent separate posts. An alternative is to use the simple hReview creator over at microformats.org and then just cut n past a bunch of reviews into one post. So I have restructured and republished this review in that format (after seeing Tantek do the same).
So that’s a picture I took back on Jan 31st of the big stack of cookbooks I had to get through in 2006. Most of em I got for Christmas. One, “Les Halles”, I got the previous Christmas. “Salt” I bought for myself and “Bridges” has nothing to do with food but I did get it for Christmas.
Here we are on July 2nd and what is the state of play?
Salt
Jul 9, 2006
by Conor
Salt, A World History
★★★★★
Finally finished in April. Maybe the best book I have read in the past five years. But then that means it’s the best of about 10.
Les Halles Cookbook
Jul 9, 2006
by Conor
Les Halles Cookbook
★★★★★
Fabulous recipes, great writing, still only half way through after 18 months. Need to try some of the recipes
The Kitchen Diaries
Jul 9, 2006
by Conor
The Kitchen Diaries
★★★★★
Nigel is a god. “Appetite” is probably one of the top twenty cookbooks of all time. Barely started “Diaries”. Love what I have read so far but it is very wordy. Need a holiday so I can read it properly. Is there a better food writer on the planet at the minute? I don’t think so.
River Cottage Family Cookbook
Jul 9, 2006
by Conor
River Cottage Family Cookbook
★★★☆☆
Obviously I worship the ground the Hugh walks on but this book has not grabbed me yet. I’ve dipped in a few times and like the recipes but I think maybe I need the kiddies to be a bit older so we can work on the stuff together. In fact, if I think about it, I love reading Hugh’s books but I don’t really cook that much from them. Not sure why as I’m totally on board with his opinions on food. Well apart from his recent silly nonsense on McDonalds in one of the British newspapers. McDonalds is a business built on supply and demand. When customers stop demanding cheap burgers, McD’s will supply something else
Rachel’s Favourite Food for Friends
Jul 9, 2006
by Conor
Rachel’s Favourite Food for Friends
★★★★☆
Catherine cooks more from this than I do but there are tons of fast easy recipes in there. Good for ideas when you are stuck. I doubt it’ll be a cover to cover read for me.
Gary Rhodes Food with Friends
Jul 9, 2006
by Conor
Gary Rhodes Food with Friends
★★★☆☆
Sis-in-law Paula got two of these free with bottles of Baileys and gave one to me. Shockingly good for a free book. Lots of tasty treats. I used to hate Gary - his cookery programmes were very anal and he always added just one touch too many to every dish. But he is transforming his image over the past few years and his great ability can shine through more now.
The craft of salting, smoking and curing
Jul 9, 2006
by Conor
Charcuterie
★★★★★
A masterpiece. Even if you never intend to make sausages or salami or prosciutto, it is wonderfully educational. I’m stalled reading it at the moment but want to make every single thing in it. My sausage making activities with the Kenwood became too frustrating but I will restart in the Autumn and this book will be my bible.
Jamie Oliver
Jul 9, 2006
by Conor
Jamie’s Italy
★★★★☆
I have huge respect for this guy but I’ve never had much success with his cookbooks. I thought the TV series of this book was wonderful television. His brutal honesty about his lack of knowledge is really refreshing. I’ve barely started this book but I’m looking forward to finally getting a clue about Italian regional food.
Darina Allen
Jul 9, 2006
by Conor
Easy Entertaining
★★★★☆
Blogged this before. More a reference than a straight-through read. Recommended.
Bridges
Jul 9, 2006
by Conor
Bridges
★★★★☆
Nothing to do with food. Looks like a coffee table book but actually very technical. I have a “thing” about bridges ever since I stood on George Washington Bridge in NY with my cousin Thomas swaying gently and then discovering that it had been built in the 1920’s. Since then I’ve only done Golden Gate (a bit of a let down), Bay Bridge (cool), Severn Bridges (fabulous). But the one I am dying to drive over is Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. I have driven under it many times and I still wonder how they built it. It says a lot about our joint history that whilst we were scrabbling in the muck for rotting potatoes, they were building wonders like that.
The Accidental Foodie
Jul 9, 2006
by Conor
The Accidental Foodie
★★★☆☆
Since then I accidentally bought “The Accidental Foodie” (I thought it was another book). This is a nice coffee table job where Neale Whittaker, who has editied many food magazines, profiles his food heros and gives some of their recipes. He has some that I love, like Nigel, Tamasin and Darina but also some luvvies I’ve never heard of who work more in the publishing world. Good writing and some great recipes.
So seven months in and I have finished the sum total of one book. I blame Martha Stewart and Alan Sugar.
[tags]Darina Allen, Nigel Slater, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Neale Whittaker, Jamie Oliver, Rachel Allen, Salt, Les Halles, Anthony Bourdain, Charcuterie, Michael Ruhlman, Gary Rhodes, Bridges, David Brown[/tags]
32 Comments
Great food writing should make you salivate uncontrollably
Posted on July 7, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Food, Restaurants.
I think I’ll be making some dough this weekend.
[tags]DiFara Pizza, In praise of sardines , New York[/tags]
No Comments
So Dora Stephanie JoJo Barbie O’Neill it is then
Posted on July 6, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Babies, Family.
It took a lot of poking and prodding with the scanner but the consultant finally decided that it is a wee girlie.
Sibéal was thrilled when she finally understood. She initially complained that “I don’t want a sister, I want a girl”. Older lads couldn’t give a hoot either way and Fionn was too busy screaming as I was trying to “teach” him how to use a beaker.
Spooky scan:
[tags]baby, Dora the Explorer, JoJo’s Circus, Lazytown, Barbie[/tags]
7 Comments
