Tom Doyle :: TALK

Just back from a weeks break in Lanzarote, hence the lack of posts last week. Have loads of work on so I’ll keep this short.

My wife, little girl and I stayed in the Hotel Los Jameos Playa Hotel which is on the border of Playa de los Picollos and Playa Matagorda in Peurto del Carmen. In the sweltering heat, it’s about a 25 min walk to the centre of Puerto del Carmen.

The hotel itself was fantastic, I had read horrible reviews about the place before we left, but to be honest I’ve been in worse 5 star hotels.

My only criticism of this hotel was that it was overrun with Germans, not that that’s a bad thing of course. But if for any reason you would like to get to know people or simply make basic conversation, you’ll need to know a little German. The funniest part was watching my 1 year old daughter stare blankly at them as they tried talking to her

But she was over the moon. She had plenty of space to run riot and cause havoc! There were 3 pools that we could safely bring her to, with only one being too cold for her liking. Not to mention a playground and a pond loaded with fish!

The food was great, plenty of choice for every taste. The evenings were perfect too, they had some kids entertainment for an hour every evening and straight after that there was entertainment for the adults, but it was OK to have the kids at the shows too.

A lot of the reviews complained about the staff being unpolite. I only encountered one of them and it wasn’t rude enough for me to be too concerned.

All in all, I’d definitely recommend this hotel to anyone who is planning a sun holiday.  It’s particularly suited to families or older couples. It’s a nice quite place without the hussle and bustle, but within easy access to the great night life in Puerto del Carmen.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11379

Came across this “tool” today - my god I’d have so much fun shotting the guys in the office with this…

The Brazilian government is asking that newly discovered tribe in the Amazon be left alone.

Some astonishing photos of the isolateed tribe who inhabit an area close to the border between Peru and Brazil were released by the Brazilian government in an attempt to protect the tribe from illegal logging.

Here are some of the amazing photos:

The website which posted the websites seems to be having trouble loading with the interest http://www.funai.gov.br/

Well aren’t you happy you are not living and paying tax in Italy right now?

In an act that can only be called a case of ’sour grapes’, Italy’s outgoing government published every Italians declared income and contributions on the Internet.

More information here >>

Finally something that will make the Irish stand up and be counted in terms of global warming!

Apparently, global warming is going to impact on the price of beer. Scientists claim that climate change will hamper the production of grain needed to brew your favourtie tipple.

More info here >>

I came across this post today on Boards.ie - Is this possible?

Basically, a guy called Donal Martin has set himself the task of making $1,000,000 in one year through the Internet. I really hope he succeeds, although maybe not, can you imagine the amount of similar sites that will be launched if he does? The web will be full of terrible, begging sites.

So if he does want to beg and really wants to succeed, I heard a former addict on the radio the other day, saying he used to make €3,000 a week begging outside the Mansion House in Dublin. Sounds like he’d make more money there… 

I read with sadness today that Dave Rooney, better known as IrishDeveloper (www.irishdeveloper.com) took his own life on the 28th of December 2007.

I only knew him through the various web forums and blogs that I frequent, but not on a personal level. So all I can say is that his knowledge and sense of humour will be greatly missed by all.

Rest in Peace Dave.

A friend of mine recently brought my attention to the 1911 census of Ireland that the National Archives of Ireland have kindly made available to the public. For weeks I had planned to visit this site, but because of being extremely busy at work, I simply hadn’t got the time to have a proper look.

Anyway, over the Christmas period I had the time to find out about my roots. The site itself - http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ - currently only provides the 1911 census for Dublin, so I could only trace one side of my family, the Doyles.

The census brought up a lot of questions about the past, things like, why did my great great grandad live with his step mother with 4 other kids, but his father lived elsewhere… - and why would his stepmum say she was a widow when her husband was still alive?? Very interesting stories were spoke about over the Christmas dinner, put it that way!! The greatest part was that someone had actually put most of our family tree together and posted it online that answered most of our questions! www.thebakers.ie (Sylvester Doyle)

The 1911 Census of Ireland, is a great place to start to find out about your family. Hopefully it won’t be long before the put the rest of the country’s census online, so I can do the rest!

As if we didn’t get enought crap through our letterboxes already, another free newspaper has popped up.

But this time, I’m happy to promote it as we are currently working on the website. www.informer.ie - visit the website now! It’s filled (surprisingly) with some great articles and you can even comment on the article on the website (woohooo!).

So far we’ve finished beta version 1.0 of the site, but there’s still a lot to do. At the moment it’s at least functional. We’ll be doing a lot of changes over the coming months as the paper grows.

So go out and find a copy, or just read it online!

It’s been 4 years since Cadburys decided to discontinue their Wispa bar because of declining sales. I’m old enough to remember it’s introduction and those silly ads (how sad is that…)

Well now they’ve returned to our shelves after an Internet campaign, for a limited period only apparently. The bar was brought in to compete with Nestle’s Aero bar. Although, I was a fan (in those days) and always thought it was much nicer than an Aero.

Anyway, I bought one today to bring back all those memories. Interestingly, my first thought was Christmas. This was obviously because it was probably the only time of the year I would actually eat one. I guess this was because it was most likely part of a selection box and I would never actually buy a Wispa. As I got closer the end of the bar, I couldn;t help but feeling sick. It reminded me of cheap chocolate, again the type you’d only eat at Christmas or Easter.

For the nostalga, I’m glad to see it back - but one thing’s for sure….. I won’t be buying another one!!!