Archive for 'Family'
Sitting on the Dock of the Bay
Posted on June 29, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Family, Food, Restaurants, Reviews.
A last minute decision to pop down here for Sunday lunch turned out to be a total success. Fantastic seafood in a relaxed atmosphere with serene views of Clonakilty Bay. If they could just do something about parking, it would be perfect.
I’ve eaten in Deasy’s once before and thoroughly enjoyed it. For some reason they popped into my head this morning and I hopped into the car with four of the five monsters to see if they were still doing Sunday Lunch. The usual crawl to Clon ensued followed by the twisty road to Ring.
I knew the parking had been bad but time had dulled my memory. It’s brutal. Four spaces in front of the pub and then you have to travel a few hundred yards to find a roadside spot. Fine as an adult, a total pain (and dangerous) if you have kids. I had to circle three times before parking. Just in case, I ran down and discovered that they didn’t open for lunch until 1. So we headed over to the newly revamped playground in Clon. This looks great but now seems much more oriented towards older kids. My middle-uns were scared to climb the ladders to the slides.
Back we trotted to Ring and luckily one of the four spaces was free and we parked right at the door. It was still pretty quiet at 1pm but people arrived bit by bit over the following hour. We were seated towards the back which made sense from a safety perspective. The staff and owner were very friendly throughout. The lack of a baby-seat was a bit of a pain but not the end of the world. After seeing the usual stroppiness of our four demons, they gave us some crayons and colouring sheets which calmed everyone down.
The menu is a big step above what you’d expect from a rural Irish pub. The three course lunch menu is €30 and looks great value to me. However, as our family meals are all about speed, I went straight to the main courses. Initially I was concerned that there was nothing very child-friendly on the menu but then I copped myself on and realised they should be eating the same stuff as me.
So I ordered three half portions of Monkfish and Fennel Risotto with puttanesca salsa for them and a Hake with Lemon Butter and Swiss Chard for me. They arrived reasonably quickly on adult stopwatches but an eternity in kid-time. I tried to explain “cooking on demand” to the kids but failed.
Of course all them said “yeuch, I’m not eating that” as soon as the plates were put on the table. Rather than get hassled, I let them be and started on my hake. Never ones to miss an opportunity to annoy me, two of them asked to taste the hake and both decided they loved it, the little sods. I split mine between them and then took over their plates of risotto. Dishes of lovely baby spuds and one of the best selections of vegetables I’ve ever seen in an Irish restaurant appeared too.
Myself and the two middlers had a bit of everything. Baby would eat nothing. 2 year old wouldn’t touch anything until near the end, at which point he let me feed him a mix of fish, risotto, carrots and spuds.
Oh, I nearly forgot to say, the food was fantastic. The fish perfectly cooked, the flavours subtle and not overpowering, the vegetables beautiful. Apologies for the lack of pics and menu details but I really had my hands full.
The two boys began messing too loudly so it was time to go. The bill for the food plus three 7-ups and a Ballygowan came to a refreshingly low €53. We’ll be back very soon avec wife and fifth child so I can sample more and have both hands available to eat with.
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Bandon Music Festival
Posted on May 29, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Entertainment, Family.
The annual festival is on this weekend, starting tomorrow and ending Sunday. Manic Mammy has put together a list of videos from some of the acts. Fingers crossed for good weather!
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Review of Clonakilty Model Railway Village
Posted on April 13, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Family.
I love finding something great almost on your doorstep that you’ve ignored for years. We finally took a trip to the Model Railway village last weekend and it was a resounding success. Kids, young and old will have some fun here.
I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve said we must pop in for a look. The closest we got was some of the kids taking the road-train around Clon with their Granny last year. I decided to be brave and take all 5 with me to check it out properly.
It’s just on the edge of town past the GAA pitch on the way to Inchydoney. Lots of space in the car park which also acts as the start/end of the road-train. You are greeted by some lovely old carriages now doing duty as shop and cafe.
For the life of me I can’t remember how much it was in, but it wasn’t a hell of a lot. Baby got in for free. Our first stop was the indoor play area. Whilst very small (fitting into one single storey room), it’s ideal for wet days and all of ours had some fun there for 30 minutes or so. My only criticism is that with two doors, it’s too easy for a kid to sneak out. Maybe sliding bolts on half doors would make things a little bit more difficult for them.
We then headed outside and I was genuinely surprised by what I found. Lots of scale models of towns and train stations of the past in Cork. Bandon got pride of place and all were connected together by a long meandering electric model railway.
Each child found something different to occupy them. The 2 year old just ran around after the model trains. The baby checked out the models and the three eldest ran around, hiding, looking, and climbing.
The detailing on the model towns really is fantastic and it was a pleasure to see how The Shambles might have looked in the old days.
We finished off with a walk through the cafe and shop carriages and headed home happy after a good 1.5 hours of fun. All of the staff were extremely friendly and the whole place has a lovely feel to it. If you are in the area or just passing through, it’s a nice old fashioned relaxing way to hang out with your kids.
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Two Tits and a Vote
Posted on January 23, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Health.
Sabrina Dent, a wonderful web designer based here in Cork, has launched an important web-site and initiative called “Two Tits and a Vote“.
Women’s voices count in politics. Two Tits and a Vote is an online Irish Women’s Health Campaign empowering you to advocate for better women’s healthcare in Ireland. You can be part of improving Irish women’s health care from the comfort of your very own chair. Learn how to take part now!
I think the name is superb and cuts through all the bullshit to get right to the heart of the matter. The time for politician’s weasel words and acceptance of the criminal incompetence of the HSE and Dept of Health has to end. I hope this effort by Sabrina and others plays a big role in that. Please sign-up on the site and support them.
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Irish Yokels Go London
Posted on August 19, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Food.
In the next few months we’re coming up on the 10th wedding anniversary.
People gave us a week when we first started going out. Our eyes met across a power turbine in the Engineering building in Belfield. I fell for her shaggy perm, she fell for my wooly jumper and combats.
We’ve talked lots about what to do for our few days away (enabled by my fab parents). Paris maybe where last time we couldn’t fine Sacre Cour in the dark. Or Rome, which we chickened out of going to after my namesake’s wedding. We settled on London. She spent a summer working in the Cavendish, I’ve been there maybe four times in my life. Odd for someone who knows tons of Germany and lived in Sunnyvale for nearly six months, I have no clue of London. On a recent trip I spent the entire day saying “ooh I recognise that….off the telly”.
We have several aims:
- To do many of the standard sights like London Eye, Imperial War, Tate Modern, Natural History, Victoria & Albert, Science Museum. We are both engineers after all
- Stay somewhere nice. Not Holiday Inn, not The Savoy. Somewhere a bit special but not bank breaking
- Eat in all the places we’ve promised ourselves over the past few years
So Bandon-Fans, I need your brains. We have no clue where to stay but we want it to be central so we can do lots by foot rather than tube. All recommendations for “boutique” hotels appreciated.
Food plan was originally to go for The Fat Duck in Bray. Some day we are doing that or El Bulli. But not this time. Our idea right now is:
- Gordon Ramsey in Claridge’s. Lighter than main Ramsey restaurant
- Nobu. Cos I adore Japanese food. Worked for Toshiba for too long
- Locanda Locatelli. Cos Tony & Giorgio is still one of my favourite food programmes ever
We would love other restaurant recommendations. Happy to do high end cos it’ll be another ten years before we do it again. Hit us with your best material.
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Tons of peaches and no salad
Posted on June 9, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Food.
I’ll admit I thought the wife was a bit mental when she bought a peach tree a few months back but I stuck it in the ground anyway. Yesterday she pointed this out to me:
I’m gobsmacked. Must get a lemon tree now!
Apples coming along nicely:
Goosegogs are flying:
Strawberries not too bad:
But what in the name of god is going on with my veg patch?
I planted a ton of lettuces, scallions, rocket, radishes and carrots. Nothing, not one fecking thing grew. I’ve never had total failure like that. Strangely, weeds are thin on the ground too. When it was built they said they put in rotted manure in the base. Any chance that is to blame? Or are the birds + slugs + local cats able to destroy every seed I planted?
Yesterday I stuck in some squash plants, tomato plants, basil and broccoli that I had been growing in the shed. I actually did the seeds months ago but the lack of light has matched my lack of activity and they are just perfect now for planting. Maybe they’ll all die too. I also took all the half used packets of salad seeds and scattered them willy-nilly. The zero-effort guide to gardening continues.
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Annnnnnd, the Bandon Show is on this Sunday
Posted on May 18, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Family.
It really is a fun day out. Most of the town seems to head up.
Fionn will love the animals, Sibéal will screech at the dogs and the eldest boys will demand ice-cream from the second they arrive.
I’ll take more pictures of huge cows which impress me every time. Hope to catch some show-jumping too.
Head towards Clon, turn right for Dunmanway/Recycling facility, right again about half a mile down and you hit it after another mile or two.
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I’m playing GAA like Rooney
Posted on April 18, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Family, Kids.
So he is only five years old and this was his first ever GAA session.
He reported back that he played hurling and soccer. His Nana from Meath better have a word with him about Gaelic Football.
Next week we are sending him in Kilkenny gear to shake things up a bit 
Bloody hell, now I have two hurlers in the house. Who would ever have thought?
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Try voting for informed people
Posted on April 10, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Health, Kids.
Justin has done a great post on Patricia McKenna of the Green Party trying to justify non-vaccination of children on The Last Word radio show. The transcript shows what Cooper is capable of when he puts his mind to it. He slays the idiot and her nonsense.
If your child dies from the side-effects of measles, it’ll be due to you listening to uniformed clueless dimwits like her. Remember that when you are casting your vote. Oh and don’t drink the water, it’s CIA mind control.
UPDATE 1: On a related topic, the HSE have announced that all babies born in Cork from this October onwards will be routinely offered the BCG vaccine against TB. Welcome to the 20th century. Oh wait a sec, that’s over already. Wonder if there will be any civil suits taken against the individual bozos responsible for the current situation between now and then?
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Not the way to lose your baby teeth
Posted on February 16, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Health, Kids.
Poor Oisín is terribly unlucky with his front teeth. When he was 2-ish he fell off a changing table and impacted one of his front teeth up into the bone and split the lip and gum. Nothing could be done except let it heal. That tooth was much shorter than the other one until yesterday. Then yesterday evening, he fell off a stool and did a repeat performance, this time knocking out his other tooth and making a mush of his upper lip again.
Once again, the advice from the doc was to do nothing and let it heal. He rang the dental hospital and they concurred particularly considering they are his baby teeth.
But we are worried about the full teeth and what the likelihood is that they’ll come down ok. Anyone else have kids where this happened? I’d hate for the poor mite to have to get implants at an early age. I know too many people with those already.
I hope he gets something nice in town with Catherine today. The tooth fairy gave him a tenner cos she felt so sorry for him.
14 Comments
Exciting reads for 7-year olds in Irish?
Posted on January 25, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Family, Kids.
Oscar is a bright kid who loves to read. His favourite novel is Le Catalogue d’Argos. In fact he loves the Horrid Henry series (and other similar ones). The only subject he is weak in is, surprise surprise, Irish. Unlike Oisín and Sibéal, he never went to Naoinra so started on it cold in junior infants. We’re hoping to get him into Irish as a bit of a challenge but the books have to engage him.
Anyone out there have recommendations for good exciting reads in Irish for kids aged around 7? Catherine found this site but most of those descriptions sound a bit boring e.g. where is Mamo’s tooth? Does something old fashioned like the equivalent of The Secret Seven or Famous Five even exist in Irish?
Technorati Tags: Irish, Books, Gaeilge, Adventure, Kids+Books
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More in the long list of Oisín gems
Posted on January 19, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Humour.
Yes I know it’s just another “kids say the funniest things” post but this wee 5-year old thinks deeper than most.
Never promise a bed-time story and then renege:
“Dad when I grow up, I’m going to get married like you, and have babies like you, and forget things like you”
Recent obsession with death:
“Dad, when we all die, does that mean someone else might live in our house?”. “Yes they will Ois”. “So like, they’ll get all our DVDs?”
At least I’ve taught him to say “I’m going to be an engineer when I grow up, like my mum and dad”. Of course he thinks that means he’ll be fixing airplanes and computers. I’m having a hard time explaining the word design.
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It’s a pity my granny isn’t around for the Irish Blog Awards
Posted on January 17, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Blogging, Family, Personal.
My Dad kindly voted for this blog in several categories in the Blog Awards earlier. He mailed me to say that it reminded him of my Granny (Mary O’Neill) who voted for Dev eight times in the 1932 elections on both sides of the bridge in New Ross. Could you imagine if those old Cumann na mBan women were around now and decided to help the blog result?
Technorati Tags: iba2007, Irish+Blog+Awards, Cumann na mBan
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You may feel a small prick
Posted on January 5, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Babies, Family, Health.
I’ve recently been getting lots of contraceptive advice from men my age. It seems the only logical route is vasectomy. One of my best advisors had his done quite a while back with no adverse effects. There is only one guy in Cork who does it, Dr Pillay on Patrick St and he highly recommended him. He also (quietly) mentioned that performance would not be affected and I wouldn’t be shooting blanks for the first thirty. Important tip!
My old workmate C told me all about his on a trip to Dell in Limerick the day after it had been done and he seemed fine. Mr B in Paris last week concurred that it was not such a big deal. I also saw the documentary last year where that brave man from Galway bared his knackers for all to see as his tubes were cut. The valium made him collapse in fits of giggles and I wondered if this was standard practice.
Add to this the gentle encouragement of Catherine’s sister Claire “I’ll come after you with garden shears if you even think about another baby” and we decided that enough was enough. I visited Dr Pillay at the start of December to talk it through and once he heard the number “5″, he didn’t probe for motivation any further. It all sounded pretty straightforward: snip snap, bish bash bosh, few days of discomfort and off ye go and climb Everest.
Catherine checked multiple times that I was ok with the idea and that I wasn’t rushing in. I guess I must be deeply shallow because in my mind it was at the same level as a root canal or deviated septum op. No concerns about emasculation or man breasts (I have those already), no “what if my entire family is killed in a fire and I want to have more kids when I’m 70?” type questions. Just simple basic “my wife cannot take the pill until menopause” and “Five is enough. Enough. Seriously tho, enough.” Maybe I’ll wake up one day and scream “oh dear jesus my testicles are no longer connected to my vas deferns” but I doubt it.
The only prep that had to be done was hair and the major question to be answered - blade or cream? Blade - are you mental or something? Veet it was. Hmm, that’s an interesting look for me, sort of a comb-over effect. Why does no-one ever mention that Veet burns? Ahh, small print, avoid genital area. Ow ow ow.
I headed in on Friday 14th and unfortunately forgot about the goddammed Christmas shoppers and arrived 15 minutes late, totally stressed and sweatin. To quote my buddy Eoin, the following bits may be TMI for you. So stop reading now if you are of a delicate nature.
I’d had the heating on full blast all the way in to avoid the Atlantic Swim Effect but the stress of being late negated all of that. Dr Pillay was lovely and asked me if I wanted to relax for a few minutes. I didn’t. For some idiotic reason I thought I might be able to read during the op and brought “The Wisdom of Crowds” with me. He found this amusing.
So up onto the couch in the corner of his office, keks off, iodine on and we were in business. He warned the local would hurt but it was fine. The incision began and all was well. Throughout the entire thing he had Cork’s 96FM on with that horrendous gobshite who does the chat in the mornings. He had on some blokes who have been doing panto since the 50’s and it kept me nicely distracted the whole time as the only thought going through my head was “This is where Radio Jay on Gift Grub gets his material from”.
Some warnings of pressure from the doc, then, jesus fucking christ man are you trying to kill me, arggggh. “Oh did that hurt?”. Did it hurt? Did it hurt? Would you like me to stick a rusty nail in your nuts so you can get some sense of it? He added more local. Still no joy, so he added some more. At this point I was going to ask for an epidural but the last jab seemed to sort it out. I guess this is where the word numbnuts comes from.
Finally, the big stitches went in, I relaxed and he said “now we’ll do the right one”. Noooooooooooo, it can’t have taken that long to cut a tube and fold the two halves back. It turns out that “things kept tensing up” making his life very difficult. G’way, a man has his scrotum cut open and shockingly, it doesn’t relax into a giant fluffy balloon. Now I know why the guy on the tv was given the valium.
Liathróid a dó was complete, he sowed me up and I felt pretty ok. Lots of advice about not being too energetic. Like that’ll happen - I pulled a muscle putting a child to bed the other night. He gave me some Betadine ointment, put everything in a hammock and gave me an ice-pack for the journey home.
Drive home was ok but the ache started around Innishannon. Do you have to drive at 30mph today you stupid stupid person, movvvvvveee, I’ve just been operated on. Home. Frozen peas into ziplock and I relaxed on the couch. Pain got worse. Panadol my hole, I popped one of Catherine’s Ponstan Forte and soon the pain faded to a dull throb.
Over the next few days I was in a very bad state. As the Ponstan wore off each time, it started hurting like hell and the hammock seemed to add to it. I went hammock free for a day but it was far far worse and I put it back. Getting out of bed each morning was not fun. Wound seemed to take it’s time healing and in fact here we are three weeks later and there is still a scab. Finally one week after the op, the pain subsided and apart from the long journey over Christmas, there was no serious discomfort. I can confidently hold my own in a childbirth pain conversation now, he said, running for the door.
So now that I have put men off it for life, do I regret it? Not for a second. A week’s discomfort for a lifetime of one less major thing to worry about - I’d do it in a second again. And it looks like my best advisor was right
Just make sure you can get your hands on Ponstan!
UPDATE 1: 1st May 2007 - Just got the all-clear. Woo hoo! This is probably a good thing as we both recently started our usual “ah Síofra is such a wee darling, one more wouldn’t really be that much extra hassle”.
Technorati Tags: vasectomy, contraception, Dr+Pillay, Veet, Betadine, Hammock
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Curses - Tagged
Posted on January 3, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Personal.
So Haydn tagged me. Five things you don’t know about me eh? Apart from my Spaghetti Hoop fetish?
1. I was Junior Irish Archery Champion in 1980. Not as impressive as it sounds. Three of us in the competition and other two were beginners. Never improved after that and gave up in mid-teens. Turns out not everyone else saw a blob of colours down the end of the field and I later found out I was short-sighted. My other problem was that…
2. I appear to be what is known as cross-dominant. No not a Tranny Whip Fetishist but I mix use of left and right. I’m not ambidextrous but I write right-handed, am left footed, left eyed and hurl left handed (the twice a year when I hurl). I think I’d be more comfortable golfing left-handed too, if I ever golfed. I switched to using my left hand for the mouse last year and find it more natural than using the right. For fun I’ve starting writing like a 3 year old with my left hand on occasion too. So in archery, holding a bow right-handedly but using my left eye meant that I couldn’t get the “sight” out far enough to the left to line it up correctly, so I always had to aim off centre. I cudda been a contenda otherwise.
3. I have the worlds most awesome wife with whom I am still having a fling 16 years later. “Ah go on, let me stay on your couch” after a night in Kiely’s Bar led to marriage and five loudly opinionated children.
4. I was a thespian for a few short weeks in 1985 in the St Kieran’s College school play. I played the allegedly batty mother, Sybil Walling. It was a pretty dire farce built around a body up a chimney. Still seems to be popular. Personally I thought I was awesome and basically did a cross-dressing take off of Margaret Rutherford playing Miss Marple. And Emmet Cooney still has my copy of the goddammed video of it. I want it back Emmet! This short career diversion was mainly caused by my involvement in Irish and English debating in school (and the No Name Club). I completely dropped debating in college until 4th year when some class-mates decided to properly resurrect Forum, the UCD Engineer’s Debating Society. Not as famous as the L&H but ten times funnier and we whipped their asses in any cross-society debate. Ah fond memories of Jabba The Baby Eater and “Did DoWaDiddy DUM DiddyDoo and did he do so on three separate occasions, twice with a banana?”. Mark Connolly where are you now?
5. I’ve just had a vasectomy. Ouch. Essay coming soon.
Oops, forgot to tag others. So who can I annoy? Emmm: Walter, Curly K (good excuse to start blogging again woman!), Anthony, Kieran and Neal.
Technorati Tags: Five+Things, Archery, Brush+With+A+Body, Vasectomy, Forum, Engineers+Debating+Society
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One Breast Less
Posted on November 22, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Food, Health.
Catherine discovered Haydn and Roos’ latest blog yesterday, it is called One Breast Less and I don’t think I need to tell you what it is about. This is a shockingly good blog with a raw honesty that caught me off-guard but is a mandatory read if you have any interest in health, illness and recovery.
My granny had a mastectomy due to breast cancer and my aunt has just finished a course of radium so I’ll be reading closely. It is blogs like One Breast Less that remind you what a powerful medium blogging really is, one which allows you to get to the heart of a subject without ever needing to think about a publisher or demographics.
Haydn’s recent writing has got me thinking (but not doing yet) a lot about diet. As soon as Catherine is getting a decent nights sleep we’ll switch back to the healthy us as we usually do after each baby. I’ll be using a lot of the information on The Diet Cast and My Diet Friends for that.
Technorati Tags: One+Breast+Less, OneBreastLess, Cancer, Haydn+Shaughnessy, The+Diet+Cast, My+Diet+Friends
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they are the famous five
Posted on November 14, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Babies, Family.
Oscar, Oisín, Sibeál….Fionn and Síofra the bayyy-bee. Síofra Ann Catherine O’Neill born at 17.07 and weighing 8lbs 6oz. She’s a beauty! All in tip top form. Pictures to follow later.
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lots of pain but not much progress
Posted on November 14, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Babies, Family.
Pethedine in. Some relief. Long morning.
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and so it begins
Posted on November 14, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Babies, Family.
We’re in the bons. Prosta on. Strong twinges already. Expect action by lunch time but my gut says sooner. Lovely mid wife. All in all, much more efficient and calmer story than the last time. More as it happens.
2 Comments
John Braxton Hicks has a lot to answer for
Posted on November 1, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Babies, Family, Health.
Not only did he invent those horrible contractions which didn’t exist before 1872 but he also plays the saxophone.
For once, would one of our bloody children arrive early before my wife loses her mind and what’s left of her pelvis?
The Tailor of Secours had better hand over the Oxytocin, Prostaglandin, Epidural and Red Bull Slammer next Tuesday.
technorati tags:Braxton+Hicks, Epidural, Induced+Pregnancy, Bons+Secours
