Conor's Bandon Blog

Running, Food and Local stuff from a blow-in

Join us on the Bandon Half Marathon and 10K

I was very disappointed to miss the inaugural Bandon 10k last year so there is no way I’m missing the first Bandon Half Marathon on May 14th. Bandon Half Marathon My type of running is known, by experts in the field, as walking :-) Last year I did the Courtmacsherry 10k, the Dingle Half-Marathon and the Galway Bay Half-Marathon. All done incredibly slowly and all tough. My dodgy ankle did not help.

How to follow the #CSW #GE11 Election Results/Buzz

This is for people interested in Cork South West election coverage/results. Love it or hate it, if you want absolutely up-to-date information on the General Election over the next few days then you have to be on Twitter. Don’t worry, for most of it you don’t have to setup an account. So the main feeds you’ll probably be interested in are: #GE11 - This will be a firehose and only for total politics junkies.

Cast Your Vote over on boards.ie

I love the mock election thing they are running over on boards.ie. Basically you can input your voting preferences for your constituency and see what the patterns are like already. Cork South West has only had 142 votes so far and it’d be great to see more to get a better sample set. It would be also good to get as wide a demographic as possible voting rather than the usual boards.

Urru Bonanza Days

Just got a mail from Ruth in Urru, Bandon. They have come up with a great idea called bonanza days. It kicks off with all kitchenware half price on Fri 29th/Sat 30th! I’ll definitely be popping in for that. Future bonanzas will include €1 coffee days, Free Urru Cotton Shopping Bags , Massive Savings on Wines, Cookery Books, Farmhouse Cheeses, Easter Eggs, Lucky Dips and more. Mmmm, latte. I love seeing Urru making a mockery of the long-held belief that you can’t do gourmet in Bandon.

New Irish Food and Drink Magazine - EatMagazine

EatMagazine launches today. There will be 20,000 free print copies per month in Dublin initially. It is also available free online. I’m pretty stunned that the first issue was all put together by one guy, Mikey Maguire. It’s a really impressive piece of work and makes a mockery of much of the so-called professional rubbish you see on newsagents shelves. Well worth a read.

Where does Ireland go from here?

Like most people in the country I’m pretty depressed about where Ireland has ended up. And I don’t see an election, which replaces one set of Peter Principle County Councillors with another set, helping in any way. Politics in Ireland is completely broken and I’m finding myself in a situation where I don’t want to vote if all it does is elect more of the same. In an ideal world i.

Finally a reason you should join Twitter -> @CorkAirport

I know I said I’d keep most of the tech over on conoroneill.net but I had to share this with a wider audience. If you’ve read this blog over the past few years, you’ll have seen me banging on about Twitter a lot (particularly way back in 2007). The bulk of the population remains to be convinced of its utility so my usual answer to people wondering why they should join is that it’s the ultimate news source.

Mmmm Tomatoey

I like it, a lot. Needs a little bit more oomph to stand up to fish tho. [![](http://lh4.ggpht.com/_j7d6zc8AmSo/TN7iVIlNGoI/AAAAAAAAAG0/Zr3jYdcc1bw/s640/img_20101113_184244.jpg)](http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/pnqnZlP1ZmtQxB6WIgbY4Q?feat=embedwebsite)

Support Action Breast Cancer

I should have posted this weeks ago but I’ve been a wee bit busy. Our friends Haydn and Roos let me know about an event that is on October 29th in The Brogan Inn from 8pm to 10pm. “It Must be the Music” is a night of Musical entertainment in aid of Action Breast Cancer, brought to you by Laoise O’Hanlon, joined by a variety of Cork women singers, including Kay Deering, Jamie Harper Kingston, Roos Demol, Bernie Harrington, Sinead Tracey, Jenny Bradley and Molly Lynch.

World's Worst Gardener

A few months ago I stuck some tomato plants that my sister gave me in the veg patch. I then ignored them entirely. This evening Catherine pointed out that I had a few tomatoes. Bandon Tomatoes I really am a disgrace. I can count on one finger the number of gardening days this year. And every Autumn I swear it’ll be different next year.