One of the most powerful blogs I read in recent years was Roos Demol’s One Breast Less. I’m thrilled she has re-started it and she is involved in an Action Breast Cancer fundraiser.
Please head over there and show your support.
The concert, which still has no name (ideas welcome) will be held on October 29th in the Brogan Inn in Bandon. At the moment we are practising a barbershop song. It is quite challenging, but we’re having a lot of fun with it.
Patrick Naughton has been in touch to tell me about African drumming workshops that he runs for community groups, schools and festivals in Cork and the surrounding areas.
If you know of any such group that are looking for workshops or entertainers then do get in contact with him on pat.naughton@yahoo.co.uk
Quote:
Full Circles African Drumming workshops are an exciting, fun, addition to any festival or gathering that you have planned. We cater for both childrens and adults workshops on the day. In the childrens workshops we encourage parents to participate as well, especially in the case of very young members.
We are fully mobile and can provide up to 40 drums on the day with a variety of shakers bells, and African xylophones. Children and adults learn how to create their own rhythm, sing songs and chants, dance and listen to tales from Africa. Within five minutes we have people playing the drum, grooving, dancing and clapping to an energetic beat.
We cater to your requirements and needs on the day and can arrange a timetable to suit. We have done such festivals as the Dun laoghaire ‘Festival of World Cultures’ 2006 Terriglas Festival Tipperary 2007, Green Gathering 2008, Roundstone Summer Festival 2009, Feile Lispoil Dingle 2009. Bere Island Summer Fest 2008, Belvedere house Mullingar 2010 and all the major Cork Community festivals.Included are a list of schools and centres Full Circle has worked in including references from school.
Enquires are very welcome. As the summer period is a very busy period for us please book early to avoid dissapointment. Full Circle is covered under public liability insurance. Should you also wish to book a performance based percussion group playing and dancing to traditional rhythms from West Africa then contact us on 087 2176460 or e mail. For a preview check out YouTube ‘Nankama Ireland‘ or alternatively ‘Nankama drummers with ark vg dancers cork city‘
Brilliant job by Andrew Kingston of Arkutech.ie in building the new bandon.ie site.
A quick poke around confirmed that it is built on the same fantastic WordPress foundation as this fine blog.
A certain person named Donncha O’Caoimh is one of the main developers of WordPress and just lives a few miles away in Blarney. Bandon is clearly commited to buying local. OK WordPress is free but you get my point!
The site is now much easier for Trevor and the crew to update regularly and most importantly of all, the site now has comments. This might seem a small thing to you but the importance of giving people the ability to have their voice heard online about local issues should never be underestimated.
The site is a superb local community resource, so head on over right away and check out the new site. And leave a comment there!
p.s. if you are a Twitter user and want to keep abreast of updates on the new Bandon site, just follow @bandon there and it’ll automatically post a link any time there is a update.
I was thrilled to get an email from Tara O’Donoghue to tell me that Bandon allotments are up and running.
The allotment garden is located in Cloughmacsimon – a short distance off the bypass, right behind Coláiste Na Toirbhirte.
Plots are available in 2 sizes 5x7m for €80pa or 5x10m for €100pa. There are plenty of plots available so call 023 8852922 or 087 9567452 or email bandontransition@gmail.com for more information.
Bandon Community Allotments Open Day Sunday 16th May 1.30 pm
Plenty of family entertainment on the day with music, face painting, fun games and competitions like Wellie Throwing, Wheelbarrow Races, Tug O War, Make your own Scarecrow, prizes and more.
All the details over on www.bandoncommunityallotments.com.
They are also at Transition Bandon on Facebook.
Well done to everyone involved in this!
With a single episode, the greatest TV show RTE have made about food in at least 25 years. Martin Shanahan jumps out of the screen, grabs you by the scruff of the neck and demands that you watch him and start loving fish.
After decades of dreary formulaic yawn inducing food programmes on Irish TV or worse, the “crayzzzzze kooky” shows, someone in RTE finally saw an episode of Jamie Oliver and realised what was missing – personality.
Where has Martin been hiding all this time? In the kitchens of the rightly legendary Fishy Fishy in Kinsale? He’s a force of nature. He is everything that made Darina a legend – knowledge,passion, humour. But he goes far beyond that, he’s an absolute TV natural. He belongs in front of the camera. Dammit he _owns_ the camera.
Honestly, I was rivetted for 30 minutes. It is perfect food TV. This show doesn’t just have potential, this could go global. With sub-titles of course. Joke joke!
And the fish, lord the fish. We’re not having our regular Friday Chicken Tikka Masala tonight, we are doing the mackerel dish that Martin showed instead. He had that much impact. And that’s the other thing, every bloody RTE food show tells you how to do dinner party food. Who the hell has dinner parties? Martin shows you how to cook gorgeous tasty healthy food quickly, for you!
If you missed the first episode, kick yourself hard and just be thankful RTE now has it on the RTE Player (even if it built on the proprietary dying Realplayer technology, but that’s a topic for another blogpost).
Hopefully this show will also be the kick up the arse Kinsale needs to start living up again to its long-undeserved 1970s “Gourmet Capital of Ireland” tag. Quick, name five places in Kinsale you would travel an hour to eat in. Exactly.
Top Chef is the only food TV show for years that I actively look forward to seeing each week. Martin Shanahan has created a second.
We recently discovered this shop as it seems to be the only one in a few hundred miles of Bandon that sells Sodastream gas refills. Catherine popped down a few weeks ago to get two refills and raved about the place. I drove down yesterday to have a look and get some of the Sodastream flavours.
They are just at the top of town on the main street, impossible to miss. I went in with 4 of our monsters so couldn’t spend as much time as I’d like. Suffice to say, if you like cookware or kitchenware, you’ll adore this shop. It is jammed with tons and tons of everything you could possibly need in a kitchen. In just a few minutes I got my Sodastream flavours (highly recommend that you start using this 1970s classic again to save yourself a fortune. Also less damaging to the environment!), spatula, pouring nozzles for oil, bun cases and oven thermometer. The owners were extremely friendly and helpful too.
The highlight for us all was this coffee maker. Slightly out of our budget but a wonderful design.
The Cookware Company is worth a drive no matter where you are in Cork.
I popped into the fish shop in Bantry today and spotted these. A fully sealed pack of live local mussels. I have long lamented the lack of fresh shellfish in shops in Cork and now they have no excuse. All you need is a cooler cabinet with no need for special shellfish expertise or having to deal with smells or things going off. These could literally be sold in every garage and convenience shop in the country.
Not only is it easier for shops but mussels are the ultimate fast food. All I did this evening was open the pack, rinse them, throw out the ones that were still open and cook them. Cooking consisted of chopping some garlic and onion, cooking that for a sec, lobbing in a ton of wine, one more minute, lob in the mussels, 4 minutes, add some cream, serve. Probably less that 15 minutes from taking pack out of fridge to eating my dinner.
And wow were these fresh. I could still smell and taste that seaside ozone without a hint of fishiness.
Demand these from every shop you frequent that limits itself to selling fish fingers.
The cold seemed to reduce the numbers quite a bit this year but still a great display by the locals. Fire engines and tractors still firm favourites in our house with the Steam Tractor being my own personal highlight·
Lots more photos over on Pix.ie.
I’ll keep it short and sweet. If you know of any family-friendly comedians or mind-trick guys who would be able to perform on March 26th in Bandon, can you get in touch with me and I’ll pass it on to the Rosmini Centre people? They do have some budget for it, so pro or semi-pro is fine.
Also the dog owned by one of the kids who was going to perform has gone missing. Please keep an eye out for a sheepdog in the Crossbarry area. If the same happens to you, I encourage you to post it on LostandFound.ie.
Every year the great people who run the Rosmini centre for adults with an intellectual disability organise a fun and interesting event to promote community integration and inclusion for everyone. This year they are organising a community variety show.
It’s on Friday the 26th of March in the GAA Hall in Bandon. Doors opening at 7.15, show starts at 8 sharp. It is not a fund raising event so tickets will be at the very affordable cost of €5 each.
The show will include:
There will be spot prizes between performances.
Sounds like a great fun night for all the family. You should start seeing signs for it around the town soon.
