Archive for March, 2010

1. Queue jumping
Airports can be stressfull enough places at the best of times with check-in, baggage limits, queues, security checks etc. but what really adds to the tension is queue jumping.

Recently on a trip from Beauvais, Paris to Shannon, having taken all the necessary precautions – getting there in plenty time, making sure bags didn’t exceed the weight or size limits, checked in on line – we sttill had to queue for almost an hour just to drop our bags.

In front of us were a group of French students and their teachers/adults and behind us in the queue mingled with other passengers were 30 -40 more students and their minders.

After almost an hour we eventually got to the front of the queue when suddenly all the students behind us rushed up to the front. Naturally the rest of the passengers in the queue began to grumble and arguments broke out between them and the French teachers.

I complained to the man on the check-in desk but he said: “That’s your problem not mine” and the two desks proceeded to check in the students. When they had finished, the man then immediately closed his desk walked away and proceeded to chat with a colleague a few desks away.

Everybody was fuming! Some said “Ryanair – never again!”

I am an admirer (sort of) of Ryanair and I’m not sure if the check-in staff are actually Ryanair employees but it is rudeness and lack of consideration like this that really give airlines a bad reputation.

This year St. Patricks Day celebrations are going on for a whole week. From Friday 12th March to Wednesday 17th Match (St Patricks Day) Ireland’s Cities (mainly Dublin, Limerick and Cork) are putting on a host of activities for children and adults alike.

Treasure hunts, funfairs, comedy, theatre, music, film, dancing and parades throughout the week culminating in the big St. Patrick’s Day Parade on the 17th.

Hopefully an antidote to the economic gloom and doom which is being propagated these days.

7 Nights in a 5-star hotel for 2 people plus flights from London Including taxes for €966.37! This seems like very good value.

I just checked available 5-star hotels in Dublin from 22March to 28 March inclusive and found one  (Radisson Sas Saint Helens Hotel) at €54.50 per person per night.
Total for 2 persons for 7 nights:  €763.00
Flights Ryanair London to Dublin return for 2 persons 22 March – 29 March: €203.37
Total: €966.37  (£874.77 at current rates) This is for 5-star luxury – there is even better value to be found for 4 star hotels.

Check it out at Dublin Hotels Overnight

Amazingly, Dublin’s top visitor attractions experienced an increase in visitor numbers during 2009. The Guinness Storehouse had over a million visitors while Dublin Zoo had over 900,000.

The number of visitors from the UK is reported to be down but there was an increase of visitors from mainland Europe. The overall increase, however is a result of more Irish people vacationing at home. Many who previously went for sun holidays abroad have realised that there is a wealth of attractions on their own doorstep.

Dublin has no shortage of attractions. Apart from the Guinness Hop Store and the Zoo, Dublinia & The Viking World, The National Museum, the National Gallery and Collins Barracks have all reported a very good year in 2009.

So, despite the economic gloom and doom people can enjoy a really good inexpensive holiday in Dublin.

Nobody doubts that Ryanair played a very important role in reducing the cost of air travel over the past 10 years or so and that many others have followed their lead.

Chief Executive Michael O’Leary is one of the most astute publicists in the business and although people complain about some of the cost cutting measures Ryanair has introduced very few dispute that they have managed to grow into one of the world’s leading low cost airlines in a time when others are shrinking or dying.

One of the dislikes I have is the fact that Ryanairs baggage allowange is only 15kg whereas others are generally 20kg or more. This means that you always have to be conscious of their lower limit when Ryanair is one of the  leg of the journey.

On a trip from recently from Beijing the first leg from Beijing to London (British Airways) the limit was 23kg, London to Dublin (Aer Lingus) 20kg, Dublin to Kerry (Ryanair) 15kg.  So before we left Beijing we had to make sure that all that cheap merchandise was under 15kg!

I’d like to see standardization of baggage allowance across all airlines.

James Joyce Author of Finnegans Wake

A new edition of Finnegans Wake by Dublin author James Joyce has been published. The work which first appeared in 1939 is considered to be Joyce’s most difficult piece and the experimental language is often unintelligible to most people containing numerous classical, literary and historical references.

I have often thought that Finnegans Wake was meant for reading aloud as it is then that the sounds of Dublin come alive and the meanings of individual words become irrelevant as notes do in a musical piece. This is beautifully illustrated in the many fine and often comical readings from Finnegan’s Wake by the Joycean scholar, Senator David Norris.

The new edition contains about 9,000 minor amendments to the original text.

I’d like to get my hands on a copy but at €300 for the standard edition or the special edition for €900, I’ll have to wait a while – unless someone wants to donate a copy!

James Joyce is a favourite author of many and Ulysses is probably his most popular and well-known work.
One of my favourites is his short story “The Dead” from the collection “Dubliners”. This was made into a beautiful film  by John Huston and starred his daughter Angelika and the late Donal McCann. I have watched numerous times and highly recommend it.