The Dublin Community Blog

HT: Dublin.net

There’s an interesting report out today from Mercer Human Resource Consulting that ranks Dublin 27th in the world for “quality of living.â€?  (Irish Independent report)  Switzerland blew away the competition with two of its cities taking the first and second positions on the list (Zurich and Geneva, respectively), followed by Vancouver and Vienna.  The report also ranks Dublin at 20th in “worldwide health and sanitationâ€? and 18th in the “cost of livingâ€? category.  Good to know there are at least 17 other cities in the world that are more expensive to live in.  Just be glad you don’t live in Moscow (1st) or London (5th).  (Click here for highlights from the report.)  What the report fails to mention, however, is that despite it’s ranking at 27, Dublin is actually number 1 in the “coolest city in the world” category. 

Dublin City Council has announced a series of disruptions to water supplies in a number of areas across the northside.

From 10pm on Thursday 14th September to 12pm noon on Friday 15th September 2006
In order to facilitate essential major works in Ballycoolin Reservoir to improve the water service it will be necessary to shutdown your water supply. As a result, the following areas and their surrounds will experience severe pressure reduction with a total loss of water in most areas.

To the north of Collins Avenue West and from Swords Rd west to Finglas
Cappagh All of Finglas
Poppintree Glasnevin North
Belclare Pelletstown
Sandyhill Coultry
Balcurris Shangan
Shanowen Lorcan
Magenta Aulden Grange
And all surrounding areas

Dublin City Council apologizes for any inconvenience caused as a result of these essential works but with your co-operation and understanding we hope to keep the disruption to a minimum.
Water is precious. Let’s conserve it. – Tá uisce luachmhar. Caomhnaímís é.
Emergency Numbers: 01-2224220 (Office Hours)
01-2224221 (Office Hours)
01-6796186 (After Hours)

www.taptips.ie

Breaking News.ie is reporting on the launch of a transformed rail service between Dublin and Cork. From December there will hourly services using 67 new trains allowing capacity to increase by 80 per cent. That translates to 16,000 passengers each day.

There are a number of foods that are known to trigger migraines. I personally have found two triggers: tanins in red wine and MSG. MSG is commonly in Chinese food back home. If places don’t use MSG, they usually advertise it (and I’d only go to those). It is also in a few other things. When it is in other things, like crisps, there is usually a miniscule amount and it usually doesn’t affect me.

On Friday, I had lunch with one of my coworkers from New Zealand. She and I were chatting about migraines and she said that she got more when she moved here too. She finally figured out that MSG is put in a lot of foods here. She told me that it is put in most crisps, Chinese food, and Indian take away. There is only one brand of flavored crisps, Kettle chips, that doesn’t have it.

So, not wanting her to be right, I looked at various crisp ingredient labels. Sure enough, there is MSG in most crisps here. And it isn’t just a miniscule amount. It is pretty high up on the ingredient list. So, if you get migraines, look at the ingredient list in your prepackaged foods.

For those of you who don’t know what MSG is, it is monosodiumglutanate. It is a flavor enhancer. It is added to a variety of foods to make them have a fuller flavor. I guess that is why both Doritos and Pringles taste better here. Shame I can’t eat them anymore…

Okies, this one is bound to raise a few eyebrows, and probably generate a bit of controversy amongst the Joe Duffy brigade, who doubtless will arrange a protest and a march over the coming weeks and months.

Listening to the radio over the weekend, I nearly crashed the car when I heard of an upcoming show in the Olympia Theatre. Puppetry of the Penis is a show that does pretty much what it says on the tin! It features two Australian men who manipulate their genitals into lots of wierd and wonderful shapes in what is described as “The Ancient Australian Art Of Genital Origami”

The show takes place as part of the Bulmers International Comedy Festival for one night only on September 22nd 2006. It sounds like it’s going to be an un-missable night out, and one that’s sure to be packed to the rafters with hen parties and groups of giggling girls!

I have just come back from the demonstration outside the Dail against the Supreme Court ruling and subsequent release of Mr A  by the High Court. To read more about what Irish bloggers are saying about this, check out this link to Irish Blogs.ie which will bring up a number of different contributions.

The demonstration itself was very well attended and somberly quiet with many of the protestors carrying white flowers which were then placed on the railings of the Dail. I would not be able to calculate how many were there because I was at the back of the platform which was full of people and I think there were many, many more in front.

News Links: Breaking News.ie on the protest and RTE’s coverage.

More pics in my Flickr account here.

RTE is reporting now that “The Dail has passed the new law to plug the legal loophoole on statutory rape following last week’s Supreme Court ruling that struck down a 1935 Act. The Bill is now being debated in the Seanad and is expected to be pass there later this afternoon. It will then have to signed by President McAleese before becoming law.”

I suspect everyone has a list of all those things they want to do before they die. Well, be it ever so humble, I managed to cross one of the items off my own personal list last week.

When I take a trip, my hotel is usually of the 3 star level. Many of them have been perfectly adequate while some have been downright horrible. To be honest I’m happy as long as the room is clean and the bed is comfortable, but I’ve always said that one day I’d like to see how the other half live and check into the best hotel I can find. You know, somewhere where everything works, the hairdryer isn’t glued to the mirror and the soap doesn’t come out of a dispenser.

So last week, to celebrate my husband’s birthday, I booked us into the Fitzwilliam Hotel beside St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin for a night. When doing my research online there were plenty of hotels in Dublin to choose from. A site that I have found to be a godsend is www.tripadvisor.com. It’s a site covering hotels all over the world and gives reviews from regular people who have stayed in the hotels. It’s up-to-date and very detailed. Through it I discovered for instance that although the Clarence is a beautiful hotel, and has the rock-and-roll name attached to it, it’s more of a party hotel, it’s a little too expensive for what you get and it can be quite noisy. So that one went off my list. After a little more research the Fitzwilliam stood out from the crowd and I was able to book online straight away.

We were not disappointed. We had bought a deal which included a four-course meal, breakfast and an executive room all for less than €300. One little tip is to register as a member on their booking site and you will be offered an automatic upgrade when you check in. We were upgraded to a Superior room which included a balcony overlooking St. Stephen’s Green. The room was gorgeous, there’s a CD player in the room with a library of CDs that you can order from and have delivered. There is broadband for your laptop, fresh flowers a huge King-size bed and a modern bathroom with an extremely powerful shower.

The best feature of all was the balcony; our room was on the fourth floor and overlooked the entrance to the park and the lake. We sat out there in the evening and again in the morning and while my husband drank his coffee I enjoyed a spot of people-watching. It’s amazing how nobody looks up. Early in the morning, I got up to look outside just as the sun was rising. The streets were empty and peaceful and the only signs of life were the ducks in the park. I’m only sorry I didn’t think to bring my camera…and I call myself a blogger!

Our meal was in the Citron restaurant in the hotel. I thought the food was one aspect that didn’t quite live up to the quality of the rest of the stay. I ordered the lamb and it was drowned in a strong-tasting mushroom sauce that just didn’t take my fancy. I would be tempted, if we ever stayed there again, to go to one of the many restaurants nearby instead. Breakfast however was delicious with the choice of a huge selection of pastries, fruit and yoghurt or a full cooked breakfast.

Overall, this hotel lived up to my expecatations and we came back refreshed and relaxed. I particularly enjoyed becoming a tourist in my own city. I won’t forget in a hurry the sunrise over the park.

If I were to make a list of the top ten things that you don’t want to hear on the news, first thing on a Monday morning, one of the items would have to be… “The Government have ordered 3,000 body bags and freezers to store corpses in”

Yep, the Bird Flu Pandemic seems to be moving closer… Well, I say that, only on the basis that if the Irish Government has actually taken some form of action, the threat must be pretty convincing…

So, somewhere in a warehouse, 3,000 bodybags sit awaiting disaster…

Grim.

Of course the real question is, how likely is a pandemic?

Better and wiser heads than I, would be required to give you precise figures, but so far, the whole bird flu thing has a little bit of a storm in a teacup feeling to it… Until of course, HN51 jumps species and sweeps around the world. And I look like an idiot. Oh and lots of people die…

In the meantime, where do you order bodybags from? Where do you keep them? Can you customise them? I should stop now…

I can only hope we didn’t order them from this site, http://www.seaservices.com/t/ they seem disturbingly proud of their work…

About 10 years ago I blew into Dublin from the countryside. Now I’ve grown to call it home, but that still doesn’t stop me complaining about Dublin of the 21st century. Not that it’s all bad, I just tend to blog about things that annoy me. I work in the IT industry but am a relative new comer to the world of blogging having started last May at Dec’s Rambling.