Conor's Bandon Blog

Running, Food and Local stuff from a blow-in

I've finally found a running audio setup that works

I’ve been running slowly since 2009. This year has seen two and a half marathons so far, with the Clon Half probably ending the year nicely. But since the very first run I’ve struggled with audio. I think most people listen to music and I’ve done that a bit but I’ve spent far more time listening to Podcasts. I listened to Kermode and Mayo on my first Half Marathon in Dingle in 2010 and I listened to them again a few weeks ago in Dingle in the 2015 Half.

This heavy guy decided to run the London Marathon and you won't believe what happened next.

I figured it was either that title or “5 ways you can run the London Marathon without even trying” ;-) If you’d told me in 2008 that I’d ever run a 10k, I’d have laughed at you. If you’d told me in 2009 that I’d ever run a half marathon, I’d have laughed at you. If you’d told me in 2011 that I’d ever run a marathon, I’d have laughed at you.

So long WordPress. Hello Hexo.

I’ve been blogging longer than the average bear, with my first post wayyyy back in 2001 on Blogger. I moved to WordPress in 2005 and did a huge amount of stuff with it both personally and professionally until 2013. But, like many people, I’ve had it with WordPress. Pretty much every WP blog I either ran or had some dealings with, has been hacked. Whether through security-hole-riddled plugins, xmlrpc.php or other bugs in WP.

Please someone make a documentary on TB hospitals in Ireland

Four years ago I wrote a quick throwaway post about TB hospitals in Ireland. For whatever reason it bubbles up very close to the top of any google search on that topic. As a result, I have set of comments there which just have to be read. All of them are interesting, many are heartbreaking. The majority are written by people who were either in such a hospital or had a relation in one.

Two lovely hot sauces from Mexico

It’s been a while, I know. I spent most of 2013 focused on my tech blog over here. But I thought I’d kick off 2014 with a foodie post. I use a lot of hot sauce but tend to be very boring in the ones I buy, mainly sticking to the supermarket reliables like Tabasco and Encona. I’ve got the odd Irish one too but many of them seem obsessed with heat and not flavour (Rebel Chilli being the worst culprit here).

Poacher's Inn Tapas Night. Staggeringly good. Epic in fact.

For a good few years, this blog was all about food. I had lots of restaurant reviews and foodie pics and experiments like making sausages. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, I haven’t done much in that area for a long time. Whilst I’ve eaten lots of lovely food since then, I haven’t had much that was truly memorable. Until Friday night. My parents were down for a visit and we planned to go to The Poacher’s Inn with them and big sis, but when we went to book we were told the Tapas night was starting at 8pm and it was only a very limited menu before that.

Doing something about bullying - Tuairisc

Brian Greene contacted me last week about a new project he has just launched called Tuairisc.me. Like many good ideas, it’s brilliantly simple. It’s an anti-bullying form for school web-sites that can be added with a single line of HTML to any site. tuairsc-logo-wide I sent some questions/thoughts over to Brian and his responses convinced me that this thing has legs. But it will only work if as many people as possible know about it.

Ballincollig's permanent Orienteering Trail points the way for all West Cork towns

We recently did a short family outing to the forest in Castlefreke just before the kids went back to school. Whilst the walk itself was fun and short enough to avoid the kids complaining too much, it brought up a ton of questions and ideas in my head, such as: Why is it so hard to find detailed information about walks/trails in West Cork and the rest of the country?

Three full years a-running and my first Marathon

I thought I’d have a quick peek at my running stats this morning. Last year was pretty good and I’ve managed to start 2013 a whole 6 lbs lighter than I started 2012. Having said that, lots and lots of weight to be lost this year. I started “running” back in 2009. It was not an auspicious beginning. 2009 28.43km 2010 435.81km Timoleague: First 10km

New Alerting System from Cork County Council

It’s great to see Cork CoCo finally putting an Alerts system in place. It’s very easy to use. You simply go to the relevant Map Alerts site and register there with your mobile/email/etc. You can also add your home and work locations for alerts. logo Right now they are doing Alerts for Met Eireann Severe Weather Warnings in all of the County and for Flood Warnings in Clonakilty.