Archives for “Opinion”
About effing time! The Road Safety Authority announced that new rules will come into force for learner drivers from midnight on Monday 29th October. These new rules include: The provisional licence is being replaced by a learner permit to emphasise the fact that the holder is learning to drive. Existing provisional licences will continue in force until [...]
Post title mainly just to grab your attention… €17.64 = $25 (according to xe.com currency conversion today). I just made a loan of $25 to an entrepreneur named Patisepa Neli in Samoa. You’re probably thinking “OK, what?” So let me fill you in on the back story… George & I had a pair of tickets to [...]
I was at the inaugural PodCamp Ireland in Kilkenny on Saturday, which proved to be a really fun day. As it was shortly after the honeymoon and I was still tired AND I don’t podcast, I was simply planning on turning up as the driver for my mother, Grannymar, I had no plans to talk or [...]
Yup, and it’s Communications Minister Eamon Ryan yet again! Breakingnews.ie reports today that Minister Ryan has postponed ‘indefinitely‘ the effort to create a system of postcodes for Ireland. Quoting from Breakingnews: Two reports have already been compiled and an extensive public consultation process has been carried out. However, reports this morning say Minister Ryan has now ordered another [...]
Yes, it’s 2am. Yes, I am drunk. Yes, I am pissed off. But that’s why “born-again christians” should not be allowed to acquire taxi licenses within Ireland. I’ve just had to put up with 20 minutes of RANTING from a taxi driver while I was being driven home. I was paying for a service, yes – but a service [...]
I’m having one of those crappy weeks when everything around me seems to break and suck all the energy and life out of me while I get it repaired. Our HTPC is broken, so we’ve had no recorded TV for weeks now, I have to plan to be in the house when shows are on. My new [...]
There have been a lot of articles in the press this week about the British Army presence finally being retired from Northern Ireland (NI) after 38 years. Readers of the blog will know that I now live near Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland, but I was born in and grew up in NI [...]
Based on a few recommendations on Twitter over the last week, I decided to try and have a play with Tumblr. Tumblr themselves link to Wikipedia to explain exactly what they do: A tumblelog is a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging. Common post formats [...]
News out this week that Northwest airlines and Southwest airlines in the US are now accepting PayPal for ticket purchases on their websites. While my immediate reaction was ‘Cool! An extra layer of security’, my next thought was ‘What happens to your insurance?’ You’re covered for issues with purchase on most items on your credit [...]
Interesting Argument About Global Warming – Watch more free videos
Damien had a bit of a saga with his luggage the last time he traveled out of the country, it was lost in transit and took several days to get back to him. In the end it was returned by Aer Lingus, even though he hadn’t traveled with them! Sky Handling Partners were awful to [...]
I’ve had various drafts of this post floating around my head for a while, but I was pushed into action this week by a post by Flirtysomething (which has since been removed) – she linked to an article in the Sindo and asked if it was similar to one of her blog posts. Well, [...]
From an article on the BBC website today: There are calls for the European Union to ban the making of cars that can go at more than 101mph (162km/h). The proposal comes in a report to the European Parliament on EU plans for a law to curb CO2 emissions from cars. MEPs will vote on the plan this [...]
Via Scoble’s link blog today came a post from think:lab about YouTubing your home town or high school. So I dutifully headed over to YouTube and searched on ‘Ballyclare’ the name of my home town. In case you’ve ever wondered why I’m such a f****d up kid, the following two videos will explain [...]
From El Reg: Greek cops to paintball rioting fans I skimmed this article in my RSS read and then marked all as read and then stopped, and I’d swear there was a lightbulb over my head! Why have police forces not considered this before? Paintballing rioters is a great idea for dispersal… Rubber Bullets and [...]
I know I’ve been dithering over who to vote for in my local constituency. Looking over the different policy documents I was leaning towards Labour, and after all the Bertie scandals recently I certainly won’t be voting Fianna Fáil. Thanks to Embarr over at TÃr na nÓg who pointed me today to the Pick Your [...]
First, background: Over the last few years grannymar has been worried by the introduction of water charges/rates in Northern Ireland in 07/08. The plan was not to install water meters and she would have ended up being charged as much as a family of four! Today she sent a mail with some good [...]
Lots of people are blogging this week about the new Monopoly All-Ireland edition and encouraging people to vote for their counties as only 22 of the 32 counties can appear on the board. So I headed over to the site yesterday to cast my vote for Antrim, where I was born and bred… and i [...]
From Breaking News: “The changes [to the law] mean people caught drink-driving will face a mandatory one-year ban, compared to the previous minimum of three months. Motorists who refuse to give a urine or blood sample will now face an automatic four-year ban, while drivers convicted of a second drink-driving offence will be put off the road [...]
I’m not sure how I missed this article last week, but according to Yahoo, ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) have started campaigning to get the Irish government to ban smoking in all cars. WTF??? They claim that it’s bad for children. Fair enough, but I don’t have kids – why should I be stopped from [...]
There’s a bit of chatter floating around the blogsphere that started from a post of Tom Raftery’s the other day. I personally don’t like to see dirty linen aired in public (unless it’s Twink’s – that voicemail was hilarious!), but Tom seems to think otherwise. The problem with these kind of issues is that readers [...]
Alternatively, this could also be titled: The difference between good customer service and bad… Today the Hubbie and I decided to pop out to the hotel where we are having our wedding for a spot of lunch and to see if the wedding coordinator was available. When we arrived we asked for Claire, the wedding [...]
Apparently we were all wrong. The publicans don’t want compensation because of the ’stricter drink driving laws’ – hang on, when did the law get stricter, surely it’s simply being better enforced! – they want: “This proposal is not about direct monetary compensation for individual publicans across the board”, read a statement from the [...]
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