Sabrina gave a great session at CreativeCamp Kilkenny last weekend on how to blog like a boy - or in other words how to make your blog look great and be user-friendly.

Her slides are available here, with her talking points in the comments of each.

One of the points that she raised was about blogrolls - they need to be relevant and up-to-date. A while back I got sick of constantly updating mine manually, so I found a better way to do it.

*If you use Google Reader then you can use it to track your blogroll automatically*

I mentioned it at the session and Will chased me today for details, so I thought I’d lay it out in a post, step by step.

Firstly, you need to decide what blogs you want to display in your blogroll and then in Google Reader you need to place all of these in the same folder or tag them with the same tag. Next step is to go into the “Settings” for Google Reader and access the “Tags” tab.

On the “Tags” tab you will see an option to make each tag public/private. Make the one you want to share *public*.

A new option will appear to the right of that tag, allowing you to “add a blogroll to your site” - click this.

You will get a pop-up where you can choose the colour of your blogroll and then you can copy and paste the HTML code anywhere you fancy. If you are using WordPress and a widget ready theme, then simply add a new text widget and paste the HTML code into that!

The great thing about using this to manage your blogroll is that it will update automatically as you add/remove blogs from that folder in Google Reader, which is much quicker and easier than modifying your blogroll manually.

Oh God, I’ve been meaning and promising to post this for ages, and now that the wedding is out of the way I no longer have an excuse!

Our wedding was originally planned for 120 people, but as a lot of them were from overseas we ended up with 85 at the ceremony and meal. But anyhow, it was still kept to under €10k, which in today’s world is something of a miracle. I can’t guarantee that you can do the same for your wedding, but here are a few tips that might help (and a few geek notes along the way…)

Firstly, find out who in your friends and family you can tap for expertise. Send out a general call to all you know asking for advice, recommendations and suggestions for service providers. To that end, here are my top ten money saving tips!

1. I was able to ask my mother (grannymar) who is an excellent seamstress to make my wedding outfit, and as you can see - she did me proud!
2. My cousin, RichardM, is a wedding photographer. I didn’t want too many formal shots or any ’staged funny’ shots, so going to someone I was comfortable with was a great help, I could be completely clear with him. Most important advice here, have a clear list of any family/friends shots you really want and make sure they know they are needed. Give a copy of this list to the photographer, bestman and chief bridesmaid so that they can locate people in advance and therefore avoid stress for yourself.
3. My aunt is a florist so I was able to get my bouquet from her. Research in advance what styles and colours you would like and have an idea about the size - I went for side plate size (photos will follow soon), but what I hadn’t realised was just how heavy the bouquet would be by the end of holding it for an hour of photos.
4. Ask around and see if anyone knows a D.J. or band and compare rates. Try to see the band/D.J. at a previous gig if possible and give them any requests at least two weeks in advance. Having both a D.J. and band will push the costs up to well over €1000, we went with D.J. only and it was €350 for the night - a massive saving. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the music and the floor was crowded all night.
5. Make your own invitations. We went with plain card and designed and decorated our own, but you can also buy packs that come with invite, menu, placecards etc. Try and find out if anyone you know does calligraphy, always looks best on the placecards.
6. Take the headache out of doing your seating plan and managing your RSVP by using simpleseating.com it automatically takes people who you mark as not coming off the table assignment and displays everything in a nice visual manner. Also makes it easy to share your seating plan with your wedding planner / mother / groom wherever you are.
7. Check our the corkage charges at the reception venue. We found that it was cheaper to bring our own wine and let them open as many bottles as needed. I actually went to Lidl during one of their wine sales and picked up 24 white and 24 red and they went down a storm. Even if it doesn’t save you any money, it gives you more flexibility in your wine choice. We also brought soft drinks for the children and non-drinkers, hotels will normally not charge corkage on these.
8. Serve your wedding cake as your dessert. We cut the cake before dinner and then it was plated and served to the guests as dessert, which resulted in a saving of €1.50 per person to us! It may seem small, but all the little savings soon add up!
9. Decorate with helium ballons instead of flowers. Part of our hotel reception package included them putting flowers on all the tables, but I wasn’t sure about them fitting in with my colour scheme. I contacted a local party equipment firm (and availed of my work discount of 10%) and they decorated the function room for me for €250. This included a bunch of 4 on each of the tables, a small double arch over the cake table and a large twisty arch (solid ballons, no gaps) with flowers and netting behind the top table. I then completed the look by printing up my own menus, and designing my own favours (tall, solid bottomed shot glasses with little wedding themed stickers on them, filled with mini-eggs - because I hate sugared almonds!) and scattering little hearts in purple & silver over the tables (these were my colours).
10. Our biggest saving overall for the reception was doing buffet food instead of serving to the tables. We saved over €20 per person by doing this and no-one complained at all, in fact some people were seen to head up for second and even third helpings! People were able to pick and choose what they wanted from the hot and cold food selections, and they still served the top table so that the parents didn’t need to get up.

Get wedding insurance! Due to illness in George’s family, we were considering having to move the wedding date (luckily we didn’t have to). In the case of anything going wrong you’ll be incredibly glad that you bought the insurance. Shop around online and you can pick up coverage for a €20k wedding for as little as €200.Now for the geeky stuff as promised!

We used WeddingWishlist.ie to put together a nice little wedding website with the ceremony and reception info, accommodation, maps and our wedding registry. The choice of shops to choose from for the wedding is limited, but the cool thing is that you can also set up ‘Couple Funds’ which your guests can contribute to. We did this for our honeymoon hotels, grand prix tickets and our ‘new flooring funds’ for our new house.

Finally, on my blog I used a nice little applet from whenismywedding.com to count down the days to the wedding date - handy so that you can keep a track of just how many days you have left to panic!

I hope that this info is of use to some of you out there, and if you have any questions then just leave them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them!

Today I set off on my 3-week round-the-world odyssey.

So far I’ve flown Dublin -> Chicago and am currently waiting for my flight on to Phoenix.

Then on 19/20th it’s Phoenix -> San Francisco -> Hong Kong -> Saigon/Ho Chi Minh

And finally on 24/25th it’s Saigon/Ho Chi Minh -> Hong Kong -> London -> Dublin

Phew - even typing it is tiring!

I’ve traveled with 10 days worth of clothes and plan to wash as I go, there are facilities available in the hotel. Luggage on the way out has been limited to 1 case, 1 carry-on laptop bag and 1 ’small purse’ as the Americans say… I’ve also packed an empty holdall in my case to account for shopping along the way.

Today’s travel tips are regarding getting through security quickly and smoothly:

1) Wear shoes that slip off easily
2) Carry nothing in your pockets
3) Be prepared to remove your laptop and plastic bag of liquids - keep these easily accessible in your hand luggage
4) Plan your outfit carefully - I have bras from Victoria’s Secret that have no under wires - and they work well on bigger girls - I’m a 38D!
5) If taking multiple flights in the day then pack a change of top and socks, you’ll be glad to have them.

Last week I flew from Dublin into Paris and on from there to Tel Aviv. Security on internal European flights was always more severe than internal US flights (pre-9/11), and since the threatened attacks in the UK a couple of years ago, it’s been even tighter. At each checkpoint I need to remove my laptop and zip-loc bag of toiletries from my hand luggage, make sure my pockets are empty and, on many occasions, remove my shoes as well. The queues are longer than ever, and though most people complain about the additional time needed, when you press them they will often agree that at least this way they are safer… But are they?

In my work laptop bag, I usually carry a reasonable-sized, Leatherman-like multi tool. I mostly carry it for the screwdriver set, but the knife is also useful for opening parcels and boxes. As a final step before traveling, I remove this tool and either leave it at home or pack it into my hold luggage. Before traveling to Israel I went into my laptop bag, and searched the 2 main internal pockets for it, as that’s where I always carry it. When there was no sign of it, I assumed that it was in the top drawer of my office desk, ever since my previous trip.

So last Monday I headed off, in my usual traveling outfit, nothing in my pockets, nothing to set off the detectors. I flew safely to Israel, and the next day went into the office and opened the small front section of my bag, where I keep all my cables and power supplies. Lo and behold, there was my Leatherman…. The bag had been screened twice in both Dublin and Charles de Gaulle airports and no-one had spotted this.

So what’s my point? Never trust that the low-paid muppets on a security desk will actually spot dangerous items in people’s hand luggage, and always be aware that traveling by air, while relatively safe compared to car travel, is still dangerous. Always double and triple check your bags (ALL POCKETS!) before traveling, and this applies twice as much if you have borrowed the bags from a friend or family member. If in doubt about any items, then pack them in your hold luggage.

Travel safely!

When i went over to America in Feb my bag didn’t make it and neither did my colleague’s. We transited via Heathrow and they missed our second flight. Somewhere deep down I knew this was going to happen and had a change of clothes in my hand luggage.

I just got back from Israel on Friday and again, bags didn’t make it back into Dublin… Delivered on Sunday.

Here are my tips for ensuring that it’s as painless a process as possible:

1) Put a change of trousers, underwear and top into your hand luggage. If you can only bring 1 piece of hand luggage then get one big enough that your handbag can fit into as well. If your luggage gets lost, then handwash any of your bits as soon as you arrive, or send them to the hotel laundry.

2) You can bring up to 100ml of individual liquids in your hand luggage, they must be in small ‘zip-loc’ bags. My essentials are: Powder foundation, concealer, mascara, eyeshadow in 2 shades (day / night), blusher, lip liner, lipstick, my headache pen, wet wipes, painkillers, travel deodorant, travel toothpaste, toothbrush. Moisturizer samples are great too as they don’t take up much space. And yes, all that stuff fits into the small zip-loc bag, be creative in your packing!

3) Keep a copy of the hotel name, address and phone number in your hand luggage, you will need this to give to the airline if your luggage is lost. Make sure to get a reference number for your luggage and contact number for the lost luggage dept at the airport.

4) Never put credit cards or travelers cheques in hold luggage, money will get you out of any crisis so keep it with you at all times. US Dollars are accepted in every country in the world, so i usually carry at least $100 when outside Europe (break in into 20-dollar notes if possible). Call your credit card company in advance of traveling to tell them that you may/will be using your card in those countries, if they suspect any issues they will stop your card from working until you call them to unlock. If you tell them you are traveling, they will put a note on your account to prevent this from happening.

5) Travel with the bigger airlines. When my luggage last went missing on the way to Phoenix, British Airways gave me $50 on a disposable credit card to get the essentials I needed.

6) Ask at the hotel desk. Most hotels can give you the following for free: Deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, etc. Saves you buying them.

7) Last but not least, NEVER pack your contraceptive pill in your hold luggage! The reasons should be obvious!

I have some French friends of friends coming over to Dublin for a 2 week English placement tomorrow. They’ve asked me to take them out on Saturday night to give them a flavour of Dublin nightlife, which should be easy enough - a few traditional pubs, then onto Temple Bar for the wilder side.

Then on Sunday they want me to take them on a tour of the city. Now some things are fairly obvious, like pointing out the Spire, the Liffey, Ha’penny Bridge and the tour of the Guinness Brewery (is it open on Sunday?), but after that I’m not so sure.

So here’s a question for you - if you only had 8 hours to show someone the ‘Best of Dublin’ - where would you take them?