So we’re all supposed to post links to 5 blogs we haven’t mentioned before. Here are my blogtastic links:
Fabulous photos, lots of Cork goodness.
Ditto is totally understating his awesome pictures.
An Irish Craftworkers Good Life
Superb new blog from from Rebecca. Downshifting never looked so good!
Needs no intro from me. What freaks me out is that he hasn’t even started college yet.
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs
Effing brilliant spoof.
tags: Blogday, Blogday+2006
Every once in a while I still need to receive a fax. I continue to be surprised by the number of people who don’t know that you don’t need a fax machine to do this.
If you are on Vodafone, make sure you have set up a Vodafone email account and then just give out your mobile number preceded with a 5 as your fax number i.e. +353-87-5NNNNNNN. The fax is then sent to a special folder on Vodafone email and you get an SMS to say it is there. You can then logon and download the fax as a picture which you can print out.
If memory serves, the alternative is that you call your voicemail and it gives you the option to forward the fax to another fax machine of your choosing.
To Blueberry Jam
Made by Teresa’s and Craig’s fair hands from blueberries picked on a berry farm in the midlands.
Yumm.
tags: Jam, Blueberries
If you want to try out the world of blogging, I highly recommend the new free Windows Live Writer tool for creating your content. It works with almost any blogging site. Check out WordPress.com to get an actual blog (also free). One of the main developers is from Cork you know!
Just to show one of the neat things that Live Writer can do, I was able to insert this map of Bandon with a few simple clicks.
tags: Windows+Live+Writer, WordPress.com
Do make it down if you haven’t been before or haven’t been in a while. There are a bunch of new great stalls.
Julian from Bubble Brothers also pointed out in a comment on the Ummera Blog that there will be wine tasting in Urru on Saturday too. So maybe wander down there after the market and check it out.
tags: Bandon+Farmer’s+Market, Ummera, Urru, Bubble+Brothers
I was all excited for 20 minutes today. Nokia have released a free tool to enable you to upgrade your own phone firmware.
I grabbed the one for the N70, backed up the phone, installed the software and waited for it to analyse my phone. Result? I have the latest available Vodafone branded firmware so no upgrade is possible.
The Voda numbnuts haven’t released an upgrade since last September! Meanwhile I have a good phone which would be far far better with the improved firmware. And they all wonder why they have no customer loyalty.
Anyone know the name of a good dodgy phone unlocker in Munster?
tags: Nokia, Vodafone, Vodafone+Ireland, Firmware, N70
We took a day trip to Killarney for some ice-cream yesterday. The drive down is always longer than the distance would indicate. Is there any hope the Cork to Killarney road will ever move from being of third-world quality from Ovens to Ballyvourney?
It took a bit of circling but we found the fabulous playground mentioned by Kieran and all had a fantastic time. That climbing web is awesome and the zip-line was very tempting. Even babba Fionn had a blast.
A wee bit more circling and we found Murphy’s Ice Cream. I think it is the first time in years that all of the family were silent. “Can’t talk, eating”. Oisín was hugely impressed by the mad music being played and bopped while eating his scoop. Fionn nicked mouthfuls from whoever was offering.
Caramel Sundaes are the work of the devil and having them with the best lattes we’ve tasted this year made it totally sacreligious. When asked what he thought, Oscar replied “I only want more”.
The power of viral marketing was confirmed when they all came back from the loo and Osc announced that when we got home, he was going on the internet to check out www.icecreamireland.com. Seriously.
Is it pricey? It sure is. Is it worth it? Even penny plus the tip.
But when I did, I laughed out loud. Courtesy of marketing guru Seth Godin.
Human beings have short memories: German appliance maker Bosch introduces the Axxis™ washer.
On the topic of marketing, we spotted a sign for a restaurant on the way back from Killarney yesterday. It said “Muesli Restaurant, Vegetarian Italian”.
I can’t think of a better way to ensure you get zero customers than to include the word muesli in your ad.
An alternative might be ”Warm gravel, Italian with all the good bits taken out”
tags: Bosch, Seth+Godin
Forewarned is forearmed eh?
Top tip for future signs like this - maybe give two hints on the sign:
[1] Which ambush
[2] Which war
I was sure we were heading towards Béal na mBláth. We got there and it was Kilmichael.
Obviously put up by the same guys who did the signage in Killarney. Every single junction there has signs for City Centre for all of the directions in and out. We also discovered that via Kilmichael is not a shortcut from Bandon to Killarney.
tags: Signage, Kilmichael+Ambush, War+of+Independence, Beal+na+mBlath
I finally made it down to the market last week after missing three in a row. A lot of the usual stalls were missing presumably due to holidays etc and it was a quick dash and grab by Fionn, Sibéal and I.
More stunning steaks from Aherns, some interesting and tasty Portuguese salt from Ummera, some veg from the veg man and some brot from the Baking Emporium in Dunmanway and I was done.
It struck me that it may be worthwhile for the organisers to do a few surveys at the market. I’d love to know some facts like:
For me, I think the market is superb but there is a definite tendency to the high end of things. I would love to see more basic produce suppliers there like the veg man but selling at supermarket cost or below (due to the lack of a middleman).
I’ll post the next set of dates for the market when I find them out. I didn’t know a few of the recent ones were happening until the day before. All in all it has been a great few months for the market and I see it getting better and better.
tags: Bandon+Farmers+Market
