Ah the good weather!

Ah, the good weather! A whole week of uninterrupted sunshine and balmy temperatures tuned Ireland and residents to holiday mode. Out came the sandals and the flowery dresses,the BBQs, the coconut lotions and, of course, the fake tans. The whole nation poured outdoors and rightly so! it has been a while since the last time we had seen Mister Sunshine in such glorious conditions.

Having moved to Dublin recently, I sure missed the long strands of County Wexford this week! We finally hit the beach on Sunday and chose to head out to Portmarnock mainly beacuse it was handy and accessible by public transport (driving to the beach on a sunny Sunday in Ireland is mission impossible). So far so good. The train was packed with teenagers high on hormones and sunshine. It was amusing enough but we chose to head to the middle of the beach to leave the crowds at either end. It was just pure heaven. That's what a Summer Sunday afternoon should be all about!

The far end of the beach, closer to the village, looked chockablock. But the most shocking part was seeing the amount of rubbish being scattered about the place, totally without a care or concern for people around, let alone the environment. A woman with her toddler and baby unwrapped her kid's icecream and proceed to bury the wrapper under the sand, not a worry in the world. Groups drinking cans on the grass were too busy having a good time to worry about binning their empty cans. Piles of empty glass and plastic bottles accummulated in the dunes, on the sand and the grass. Wrapping paper, leftover food and all sorts of litter dotted the place. Dogs were having a fun day at the beach too, but many owners chose to ignore their pets' poo, waiting for a bare foot to land on it. By 7 o'clock, once the tide was out and the main crowds had left, the vision was truly appalling.

It strikes me as strange that people are so keen to get out and make the most of the sunshine and the coast, while having no respect whatsoever for the space and the nature they've come to enjoy. Surely they'll expect to find the beach still there, clean and tidy next time they come... maybe we can put it to the side effects of sunshine, or call it mass national sunstroke... maybe we should just blame a lack of manners and of civil duty. And hope next time Mr Sunshine comes, we've all cooled down a bit and are more prepared to deal with our natural spaces responsibly.

Weather is due a change this week, rain will be back in Ireland. A bit of normality. I hope Summer does visit again this year.

Brasserie le Pont donating 10% on World Suicide Prevention Day

This week is Suicide Prevention Week. According to Irish charity Pieta House, 486 people died by suicide in Ireland last year, and the number of people approaching them for help has increased 40% in the first half of 2011.

So if you are looking to go out for a meal this Saturday 10th September (Suicide Prevention Awareness Day) bear in mind Dublin restaurant Brasserie le Pont will be donating 10% of your bill to Pieta House, who focuses on the prevention of suicide and self harm.

The restaurant will also give customers the option to make a donation.

General manager Fiona Kelly says: “Most people out there have been touched whether directly or indirectly by suicide therefore it is a cause close to many people’s hearts. We are hoping to get lots of bookings to help Pieta House on the great work they are doing to help people suffering in Ireland.”

La lluvia es una canción sin letra (Rain is a song without lyrics). Book...

Here's the book trailer for the debut novel by my friend Angel.
It is beautifully photographed and very touching, it has been partly filmed in Dublin and partly filmed in Castellon and Villarreal, Spain. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Aerlingus Gets Lost in Translation

I like traveling with Aerlingus and I find them very reliable as well as friendly. But some things can’t just be let go…

Aerlingus’s customer service department must have forgotten that golden rule of communication which says the whole purpose of communicating is to get some feedback from those you are trying to communicate with… That is: if you try to communicate with other people in a way they will not be able to understand you, the whole effort is just useless.

A couple of weeks ago, my parents bought flight tickets to come and visit. The route: Santiago de Compostela – Dublin. The process was initially simple, as the Aerlingus website allows users in different countries to book flights in different languages.

But yesterday, my mum texts me URGING me to check an email she has just forwarded to me from Aerlingus. It is a simple Travel Advisory note from Aerlingus, trying to flog car rentals and other products – just in English!. Of course the note might as well have been written in Chinese for neither my mum nor my dad speak English. And I think: this is just wrong.

If you sell tickets to people in different countries, at least make the effort to use that same language you used to sell your tickets for any communication with your customers afterwards… pure manners really (not just customer service best practice).

So my mum is freaking out but I tell her everything is ok and nobody is to kick her out of that plain coming to Ireland on Saturday. She is such a pain sometimes but I must admit she is 100% right on this one.

I remember the last time they came she was totally annoyed because nobody on the plane back to Santiago (and that is not one single crew member) spoke even Spanish. And I say EVEN, because for most Galicians (including me), Spanish is their second language, not even their mother tongue.

Can you imagine getting on a plane from Dublin to … let’s say Moscow just for the craic… and discover all the crew members spoke just Russian? The world would be up in arms.

It just reminds me of a friend’s neighbour who went on holidays to rural Andalucía. When she came back she explained she had a ‘lovely’ time but was a bit upset as the locals ‘didn’t have any English’. As she put it: “they didn’t make any effort with the language”. Now, if she couldn’t be bothered, why should the locals?

Maybe it is an understandable attitude coming from an old lady, but surely Aerlingus should know better…

Fishy dinner at Richard Corrigan's Bentleys

If there is something I like that has to be seafood. When I got invited to a friend’s ‘fancy’ birthday dinner, I was delighted while a little bit daunted by the idea of going to a posh restaurant. The destination was unknown to me until I was literally in Dublin for the feast (up from my culchie life in Co. Wexford) and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the grand yet unpretentious ambiance of Bentleys, Richard Corrigan’s restaurant in St. Stephen’s Green (Dublin).

Maybe I was a bit star-struck too, since it is the first time I go to a restaurant where the chef is almost more known for his newspaper columns, cookbooks and TV appearances than for his culinary delights.

We got a round table by the window, which was great - beautiful and a bit more private-, but I was secretly waiting for the moment we sit down and open a menu featuring a list of anaemic sounding dishes garnished with overweight prices. But it never happened. The menu was written in plain English and fairly priced, with main courses starting at just over €18 if I remember well (the puds were a bit on the pricey side but they were worth it).

The artichoke and smoked salmon soup was delicious and unusual (for me), and so was the lemon tart with raspberry sorbet. Traditional fish and chips sounded like a good idea and it was tasty but, in retrospect, I should have gone for something more adventurous, specially after seeing the pictures of the fish pie dishes in his book (the day after!).

After dinner, we headed upstairs to The Aviator’s Lounge for some drinks. It was relaxed and quaint but the average age was quite a bit older than our party. Overall, it was a highly enjoyable experience, recession-proof and highly recommended (And I think the birthday boy also had a good time, which was the point of the whole shebang).

If you want to check it out, Richard Corrigan’s cookbook is called: The clatter of forks and spoons. Also, in last Sunday’s The Sunday Business Post Agenda magazine you can find his recipe for fish soup http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=FOOD+AND+DRINK-qqqm=nav-qqqid=40008-qqqx=1.asp

And if you want to book and try it for yourself, you can do it online at http://www.brownesdublin.com/. I’m told by the party organiser you must book well in advance to secure a table.

Valentine's Day is overrated …

Valentine’s Day is overrated but it is definitely a good excuse to get out and do something with your weekend. These are some options worth considering:

1-No man is an island.

Remote and beautiful are the best way to describe places such as Inishbofin and the Aran Islands. http://www.irelandsislands.com/ lists all the islands off the coast of Ireland, making ‘choosing’ your island extremely easy. It has an interactive map with a comprehensive list of resources, allowing you to search for accommodation and services, check sailing times and activities available in each of the islands.

2-City lights- Dublin and Cork.

Dublin and Cork offer a great range of activities all year round from theatre to concerts, great cosy cafes and excellent restaurants. Those things us townies miss from our daily mucky lives. For cinema lovers: Dublin hosts the Jameson International Film Festival from the 12th until the 22nd of February. Cork doesn’t even need an excuse. Give me Cork any time. The Kino cinema has art house movies as good as those in any film festival, without the queues for the tickets and the ‘book well in advance’ warning.

3-Walking.

The weather this year might not be ideal to go exploring places like Carraontouil or The Spink but walking is A/ good for you and B/ it will open your apetite for dinner time.

http://www.walkireland.ie/ has a search engine with a range of walking trails in Ireland for walkers of all levels. For a more relaxed outdoor Valentine, Altamont Gardens, just outside Tullow, in County Carlow, celebrate their Snowdrop Week from 9th February until 15th February.

IN SHORT

-Best of Valentine’s Day: Eating out.

-Worst of Valentine’s Day: Cheesy cards with stale declarations of love such as ‘The key to my heart’ and ‘You are the one I love’.