Qnarf’s Blog

Hands on with Hulu Plus

I completely agree with the reviewer. The ads have to go. For the brief time I was using Hulu Plus, I was annoyed at every ad that came on the screen, especially when I was just trying to find a scene. I only pay a few more dollars a month for Netflix access, and for that I get a large library of streaming content and the ability to rent pretty much anything I want, all ad free. I have no problem putting up with commercials when I’m not paying for the service. I can understand that’s what is paying for the service. However by showing me ads and charging me a monthly fee, it seems like Hulu is double dipping into the charge pool.

I understand that this concept isn’t entirely new, though. When I watch “regular TV” it’s the same story there, though at least my DVR lets me fast forward. Whenever I think about it I get a bit annoyed about paying $80 a month for TV service that still has ads. All the time, ads, ads, ads. That was one of the great things when we were just using the AppleTV and iTunes store for TV watching, i.e. we never had to watch a commercial.  The frustrating thing is that I would love to switch to just watching over-the-air free broadcasts combined with iTunes for the pay stuff, but that’s just not a option.  Ever since the switch to digital broadcasts, we can’t get many of the channels we used to: the signals aren’t strong enough.  All we could really get is the local PBS station, so if we want to watch the “local” channels we have to pay for them.

But for me it was two other things that caused me to cancel my account. One, the iPad app didn’t support TV out. Seriously? Almost every other app supports TV out, and I would think this app would be a major candidate since other devices that use Hulu Plus connect to the TV. Without TV output, I’m stuck watching Hulu on my iPad rather than being able to hook it up to the TV.  Uh, no.  That’s not cool.

And two, only certain programs are cleared for being watched through the iPad app or the PS3 app. All those regular Hulu programs that you’ve been watching all this time? Nope. Can’t watch them. Worse, I found shows where some of the episodes could be watched on the TV but not all of them, even in the same season. So wait, I can watch the first couple episodes on the TV, and the last 2/3rds of the season, but I have to watch episode 3 on the computer? What the heck? That’s not right.

The only way to get around it is of course to hook up a computer to the TV, but if you do that why are you paying for Hulu Plus? Oh, yeah, the seasons of older shows. But you’d be much better off taking your money and getting a Netflix account. You’ll be able to watch all of those older shows and much, much more without commercials. Even better, you’ll be able to rent the shows on Blu-ray for true HD, as well as current movies and all that other fun stuff.  Sure, some of the shows might not be available for streaming, but the counter to that is if you can’t stream it, you can rent it.  And it’s all part of the same price.

So to sum up, I don’t see why anybody should choose Hulu Plus over another service like Netflix.  Restrictions, ads, bugs in the software…   Ugh.  Get a Netflix account instead.  For $1 more a month, yep, $1, you can have one DVD or Blu-Ray out at a time and unlimited ad-free access to their entire streaming library, available on TVs, Xbox 360s, Wiis, PS3s, and plenty of other devices right now.  If you don’t need Blu-Ray it’ll even cost you less (only $9 a month instead of $11).

I just had to write a quick post about this.  I’ve been thinking about many things lately, and I’ve found that I’m thinking about other things even while I’m reading my current book, The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett.  Oh, the book has been good so far, I’ve just been distracted.  But when I was reading earlier today (while eating my lunch), I read a section, stopped, redirected all my attention to the page, and read it again.

Yep, Pratchett did it again.  He came up with another (somehow believable) character that just made me stop and think.  What character is it?  A unnamed god who is a atheist.  I just sat for a moment or two thinking about it, and then came to the conclusion that I couldn’t find a reason why there couldn’t be a atheistic god.  Does the god not believe in gods, or does he just not believe in himself?  If he doesn’t believe in himself, does he not believe he is a god or does he just lack self-confidence?

Whether it’s agoraphobic bogeymen or simple anthropomorphic personifications, Pratchett does have a tendency to make me stop and think.

Honey I Wrecked the Kids, a guide to democratic parenting

My first response after I read that article: I was spanked as a child, grounded, and occasionally yelled at all the way till I was out of the house for bad behavior. I was rewarded for good behavior.  I think it worked out OK.

“allowing your kids to make mistakes and learn from the natural consequences of risky behavior”

Uh, duh, that’s called childhood. You stop them from doing the bloody dangerous stuff that’ll get them really hurt before they can understand the danger (like standing on a piece of furniture that could collapse), but go ahead and allow them to learn from their other mistakes (see, that’s why you don’t knock a LEGO tower over onto yourself).

“no dinner if you won’t sit down at dinner time, but not because we’re punishing you — because that’s when dinner is”

Umm, having a rule or telling them why they are being punished doesn’t mean they didn’t get punished. No dinner is punishment. Period. It doesn’t make a difference if you have a reason or not. A general rule for all punishments, though, is to have a reason, and be ready to supply it. If you punish your child, let them know why. Otherwise you can’t correct the bad behavior. But convincing or trying to convince yourself that you aren’t “punishing” you child when you obviously are, that’s bad parenting behavior.

“and turning confrontations into negotiations”

That’s just a duh of parenting. You have to realize as a parent sometimes the child needs to get their own way, or at least part of their own way. But at the same time, a family isn’t a democracy. While the child is under 18, dad and mom should be king and queen. If you set down a rule, it needs to be followed. However, the “king and queen” need to realize that just like a real kingdom, the king and queen rule only while the subjects let them. Listening to your child is absolutely necessary, because if nothing else pretending you are right all the time will really bite you in the ass when you are proven wrong (and you will be proven wrong, several times). Respect is a two-way road. But your child needs to know that when you say “this is how it’s going to be”, that is how it’s going to be.

That, frankly, is the number one problem I see with other parents when they are having trouble with their kids. The advice I got from my parents about kids was short and sweet: if you threaten a punishment, be ready to do it, and be clear what the punishment is and what it’s for. “You’re gonna get it” or similar threats don’t always work very well.  It might work, but it likely won’t.  It’s unspecified. The child will be likely to misbehave just out of curiosity of what they’ll “get”.

But I don’t know how many times I’ve seen some parent yell at their child that if they don’t behave they were going to [insert punishment here], and when the child kept misbehaving they just continued to yell. That. Does. Not. Work. If you threaten a punishment, and they don’t do what they were supposed to do, then punish. First time, every time. A child’s natural inclination is to push the boundaries to find out where they are, and they will push often (trust me on this). If they know they can go so far before you do anything, they’ll go that far, and possibly further. It surprises me that this seems like a new concept to people. Adults pull this crap all the time! They just tend to do it in subtler ways.

Am I saying that you can’t bend the rules sometime? No. You will be tempted to bend the rules if the child is being extra cute, or if they are sick or had a really rough day, or they’re at Grandpa’s house, or any number of other reasons. But just like when you punish a child, have a reason, and you should possibly tell the child. Make it clear this is why the child is getting something they normally wouldn’t.

Really, it all comes down to communication and reasoning. Try to never punish or reward without a (preferably good) reason. Talk to you child and pay attention to what they want, giving them what they want sometimes (physical items) to often (allowing them to try to do something themselves), but mostly give them what they need. You of course can’t give a child or let a child do everything they want, but listen to what they want and provide a reason why when you don’t allow them to do something or have something. Eight to nine times out of ten Natalie will accept our reason why she can’t do something, as long as she’s told why. She may not fully grasp the reason, but I think it carries a lot more weight if it’s not just “mommy and daddy being mean”.

But remember this: a child will more than likely grow up to be like their parents. Oh, their likes may be different, and their general lifestyle may have taken a complete 180 from how their parents live, but the deep down core values will likely be quite similar. I think parents can forget that children are learning all the time.  For example, when one of my cats was really bugging me I shoved her off the seat (controlled so the cat wouldn’t be hurt, but forceful enough for the cat to get the point). It took a long time to get Natalie to stop shoving the cats out of her way when they occupied a spot she wanted. She had seen me, and she learned. Just the same, if you teach a child that ignoring what you say has no consequences, don’t be surprised if they take that lesson to heart.

Oh, and screaming/yelling? Doesn’t work. Never really has. Oh, I tried it a couple times. It just causes Natalie to start crying and blocking me out, till I have to spend extra time to calm her down, and then half the time I end up doing what she wanted because I’m frustrated and I just want things to be better again. 95-ish% of the time, though, a calm voice telling her “how it is” or “how it’s going to be” works for me (the other 5% of the time she’s usually in a “mood” and nothing I say would have worked anyway). My staying calm also helps Natalie to stay calm, so I can actually find out what she wants or why she’s upset. And really most of the time I let her have/do what she wants, because it’s usually something tiny, like she wanted to turn a light off, or she wanted to open a door by herself. There’s few things more inwardly embarrassing than to yell at a child, have them yell and cry and throw a fit back, and in the end find out it was all because of something stupid that you would have let them do/have in the first place.

Books like the one linked above, though, can sometimes just piss me off, if just for the part about the “logical consequences” of a rule/behavior isn’t considered a “punishment”.  Bull.  Shit.  That’s just a excuse to try and help parents feel better for actually taking action against their child.  Oh, I’m not punishing her, it’s just the logical consequence.  Ugh.  A punishment should be the logical consequence to bad behavior.  Renaming it doesn’t change it.  And negotiation is just a calmer confrontation.

In the end, though, what are three things I can tell you about parenting?  True parenting doesn’t come from a book, no single set of rules will get you through it, and you will make many mistakes.  Heck, my daughter isn’t even 3 years old yet and I know these things already (the last one especially).  But as my daughter is learning, so am I.  As Marge Simpson once said, I figure I just need to stay one lesson ahead of the kid.  :)

Overview

• Got up, ate breakfast, headed out
• Got confirmation of the latest news from Pat concerning planes.
• Headed towards Clonmacnoise
• Arrived at Clonmacnoise, took the tour and some snaps. Had some tea.
• Left for Dublin
• Arrived in Dublin, checked into hotel, went out for lunch and whatever
• Wandered around for a bit, had some lunch, took the tram back to the hotel
• Left for dinner at Abbey Tavern
• Had dinner, saw the show
• Left and came back to the hotel, said our goodbyes

Detail

Breakfast was pretty normal, except that everyone was already buzzing about the latest airport news: Most of the airports in Ireland were closed or would be closing very soon, due to more volcanic ash from Iceland. I ate breakfast and worried. After breakfast, I went up to my room for the little remaining time and watched the news, cursing my lack of Internet access in the hotel.

Once the news had shifted to a new subject, I decided to go on down to the bus. As it turns out, most of the other people were already down there, even though we had 15 minutes remaining. As we drove away from the hotel, Pat told us the news that had been passed on to him concerning the airports, though there wasn’t much to it that we didn’t already know.

Our one and only stop this morning was Clonmacnoise, a monastic settlement established in the sixth century. We arrived there around a hour and a half after leaving the hotel. The weather was rainy, misty, and cold, and the general mood was kind of worried (about the airport closures) and/or simply tired, but still Clonmacnoise was fascinating. Though the original wooden buildings didn’t survive, a settlement (or the ruins of) has been here since the sixth century. It’s hard not to feel a bit awed by that. What I was looking at was history, a history from a time long before my home country was even a dream. True, I could have wished for some warmer weather. It was pretty damned cold out there, cold enough that after getting some pictures of the place Mom and I decided to ditch the tour and go get a warm drink. I felt bad for doing so, because the tour guide was funny and really knew his stuff, but the cold was just too much. But, still, the place was utterly fascinating.

Once the tour was over and everybody had the chance to get a hot drink, we left for Dublin. Pat filled us in on some more news concerning the airports: if the wind did what it was supposed to do this afternoon, then the airports should be able to fly people out in the morning. Until then, there wasn’t much he or we could do but continue on. He then proceeded to give us the transfer information for the morning. As it turned out, he wouldn’t be the one taking us to the airport; he’s only allowed by law and/or union rules to drive the bus so many days straight before he has to take a day off. He had arranged transfers for us to the airport in the morning with a company he knows and trusts, though. We were also informed that if the worst thing happened and the flights were canceled in the morning, then we would still need to go to the airport to arrange a new flight home. After that they would take us back to a hotel or… something. I was not quite certain what would happen. The only thing we knew was that CIE had a “contingency plan” for something like this.

A bit later we arrived in Dublin and checked into our hotel for the night, the Ashling Hotel (by Best Western). Pat had gotten us to Dublin nice and early, so we now had a choice: we could stay at the hotel and walk to anything we wanted to do (or take a tram, bus, or cab), or he could drop us off at either the Guinness Storehouse, the center of Dublin, the Harley Davidson Center (that one was specially requested — and yes, you read correctly, that’s the American motorcycles), or the Jameson Distillery. As before, though, he would take you there, but it was your own responsibility to make it back. At first I thought about just staying at the hotel. It would give me a long time to relax, and in general I was kinda just tired. But Pat had arranged for us to have 4 1/2 hours to ourselves, the longest stretch of free time we’d ever been given before dinner time, and I’m in Dublin. So I decided to venture out.

I did decide right away, though, that I wasn’t going to visit the Guinness Storehouse. Pat had indicated that it could take 3-4 hours to go through there, and I just didn’t want to dedicate that much of my free time for just a self guided tour. Also…..I had already spent most of my trip “allowance”, and the tour cost €15. Given that I still had lunch to buy, too, I just couldn’t do it. Now don’t let me fool you; if I really wanted to go on the tour I would. I’m in Dublin now; hopefully I won’t be by tomorrow afternoon. But concerning the tour, when I was thinking about what I wanted to do, I knew the tour was kinda just “meh” to me.

By the same token, I didn’t want to spend all afternoon at the Jameson Distillery. It sounded interesting, but again it just didn’t rate that high in my list. What I really wanted to do was just wander around a bit, get something to eat, perhaps see the Book of Kells and Trinity College, and then retire back to my room to write in my journal, rest, and prepare for tonight’s dinner and show at the Abbey Tavern.

Luckily, dropping us off in the center of Dublin basically meant dropping us off at the gates to Trinity College. Mom, Liz, and Evelyn also got off at that stop, but their plans were different so we split up. I first walked onto the Trinity campus. What I saw of it looked beautiful. I found a map easily enough and headed towards the Book of Kells. When I arrived at the building, I groaned. I knew they were probably going to charge a admission fee, but €9? To see a book? Umm, no. OK, I know it’s not just a book or anything, but I noticed the normal admission fee to Clonmacnoise when we entered it, and a standard adult’s admission for that is only €5. Admission to the Cliffs of Moher broke down to only €1.33 per person. Admission to Blarney Castle was admittedly €10, but at least there was a castle and surrounding grounds. Perhaps if I knew the planes were flying for sure in the morning then I might have gone in, but I said the heck with it. I knew my mom and them were going in, so maybe they will get pics for me. I took some snaps of the college itself, noted some cool things about it and the huge library, and then was in my way.

On the way to the tram station I kept my eye open for food. I turned my nose up at Burger King and McDonald’s. I looked at several bars and restaurants, but none of them were any kind of cheap. I stopped at a Spar and looked at their sandwiches, but even after ordering a cheap one I just couldn’t eat it. It kind of looked like gas station food, i.e. food that only really looks good when you are drunk. Luckily that wasted only a couple euros.

I did, however, stumble across a donut vendor. Fresh made donuts, sugar or chocolate, one for 60 cents or 6 for €3. I thought, why not? It sounded good, and I needed something to eat. I was feeling light-headed, given that it was around 2 in the afternoon and I hadn’t eaten since 7:30 that morning. So I got one. It was freaking fantastic. It was very, very fresh, nice and soft, still warm from the cooking, and perfectly coated with sugar. Ohhhhh, it was goooooooood. I immediately went back and got another, and seriously had to stop myself from “saving money” and ordering 6. It was a good thing that I spotted a sandwich shop soon after. I’m not sure I could have resisted getting yet another donut much longer.

I ended up getting a simple ham and cheese on white bread from the sandwich shop. It was only €3, so that wasn’t too bad. It tasted like your standard ham and cheese. Nothing special. I then looked at the tram map and realized: I don’t know which way I’m supposed to go. I knew the name of my hotel, but I didn’t know what area it was in. I knew it was the end of the line for one of the trains, but I didn’t know which one. I took a random guess, and as I was getting a ticket two other people from our tour showed up, asking how to get tickets. Luckily I had figured out how to get tickets (it wasn’t hard) and she knew which stop was the correct one. By our powers combined, we got tickets and got on the train. I had a nice chat with them (a mother/daughter pair; the daughter is going back to the States after this trip, having worked for the BBC in London as a intern), and we arrived back at the hotel. I went up to my room to shower, rest, write, and get ready for dinner tonight.

We left for the Abbey Tavern at 6:15. It actually took a little while to get there due to rush hour traffic. We were shown downstairs to the stage area where tables were set up for us and a couple other groups. We sat down, and we each had a card telling us the menu for the evening. We could choose our main entree, but other than that the menu was already set. I chose chicken just because it sounded best at the time. I thought about ordering a drink, but decided to save the money (and a drink was part of the meal, though it was Bailey’s coffee, so it was caffeinated).

The food was pretty good. Standard-ish fair, but hearty and it tasted quite nice. They’ve obviously honed their skills over the years. The entertainment began somewhere in the latter part of the main course. It took a bit for the crowd and the entertainers to really warm to each other, but eventually things got going and much craic (Gaelic word meaning essentially “fun” or “good times”, pronounced like “crack”) was had. I did kind of wish that the dancers had done more than just Riverdance songs, and I could wish that the stage had been higher and larger so the musicians could play at the same time the dancers danced, but that’s just how it is.

I will add that it was just about impossible to get a picture of either the singers or the dancers with my camera. There was just too much movement. I did however, I think, get some nice shots of the candles and drinks and such. And, uh, one of the times I was trying to get a nice shot of a candle on a table, I had completely tuned out what was happening. The fiddle player had noticed what I was doing and had actually came and sat down beside me. We had a good laugh, I snapped a shot of him while he was there, and he moved on.

We left Abbey Tavern and headed back to the hotel. True to what Pat said earlier, driving back was much faster since there was far less traffic. Pat passed on some good news: at this time, Dublin airport is set to open as normal at 4am. Pat then, of course, had to pass on some bad news: once we got back, he had to say goodbye. He wished us well in both English and Gaelic, and we could tell that he was truly choking up when he said it had been a absolute pleasure driving us around, and that he too was sorry that our journey together had to come to a end. You could tell half the bus was near tears, myself included.

Regardless of any complications getting home, this has been one absolutely fantastic vacation. The weather wasn’t always great, but it was for most of the time, and I got to see Ireland at its best. I got to meet relatives that I barely knew existed, and I finally got to see what life is really like in another country. Pat worked very hard to make sure our trip was as comfortable as possible, while at the same time working hard to teach us about Ireland and show us a land he truly loves. He even arranged to get us a extra tour element here and there, like the Connemara Marble Factory tour and an extra scenic drive in Galway. He really gave his all to make our time here great. I wish I could give him five times the tip I did, and in the future I would likely pay extra to have him as the guide.

I will be very sad indeed to leave in the morning. This vacation has almost been like a dream. We’d get up in the morning, eat a bit of food, and then it would be off to see fantastic sights and meet wonderful people. In the evening, tired after a long day, we could immediately get our rest or enjoy some time out at a bar. Eventually went to sleep and then got up the next day for more grand adventures.

I won’t lie, though. There were times of frustration with my family, and also times of loneliness. There were many times I would have given quite a lot to have someone truly here with me, not just someone who happened to be going in the same direction. And though traveling by bus had many, many upsides, you are stuck going at the pace the tour company sets, and seeing the things they want you to see. True, sometimes this can be a boon; I might not have travelled out to Clanmacnoise today because the weather wasn’t nice, so I would have completely missed it out of simple laziness. But other times it can be annoying, if for no other reason than you have to wait on and plan for everybody else. I can eat pretty fast, so I could normally be back on the road in 20-30 minutes, and we’d be there for an hour. Also, I could have happily eaten elsewhere for a couple of the nights, since the meal provided was just a “safe” buffet rather than something more representative of Ireland. Oh, and wi-fi. What wi-fi? Tonight is yet another example of a high class hotel, but no wireless, not even for pay.

However, I think the bus really was the best way to experience Ireland, at least for the first time. We were taken care of. We were watched over. Yeah, we had to switch hotels, which can be annoying. But they made the process as painless as possible; all we had to do was put our bag outside the door in the morning, and it would be delivered to our new hotel room for us. With the exception of extras we chose to do, all the admission fees were taken care of, and we were usually able to just waltz in. We were almost always dropped off at the door anywhere we went, and we had a true knowledgable native guide to give us good recommendations. And we always knew that Pat was calling ahead, making arrangements, and simply in general being there for us. He met us at the airport and made us feel immediately welcome, even though we were quite tired, and was with us the whole way.

This was a trip that I hope I never, ever forget, and I already know that I would love to visit this country again. That may or may not happen, but the money I spent on this trip was well spent indeed.

Now, to pack, and then bed.  Tomorrow, home.

Overview

• Got up and packed (as we would be staying in Galway this evening)
• Ate breakfast
• Departed for the flying boat museum
• Passed through some towns and learned more about Ireland, like the Rose of Tralee
• Learned about Irish sports
• Had a tour at the flying boat museum
• Got a lesson in how to make the perfect Irish Coffee.
• The lesson was photographed by the Irish Independent. We should be in the paper.
• Ate a fresh made scone with fresh cream
• Left for Bunratty for lunch
• Arrived at Bunratty, was given slightly over a hour. At lunch, took pics of castle
• Did a wee bit of shopping
• Left for the Cliffs of Moher
• Slowed for pics of things along the way, but didn’t stop
• Arrived and visited the Cliffs of Moher. Was given an hour.
• Left the Cliffs, headed for Galway. Took the scenic route along Blackwood Drive.
• Had a couple quick scenic shot stops.
• Had my “audience participation” time. Sang a couple bars of General Taylor by GBS
• Arrived at the hotel in Galway at 5:30-ish. Was given till 7 to rest/etc.
• Ate dinner at 7
• Retired to my room to rest and write

Detail

I guess I haven’t mentioned much yet about how I’ve slept during this trip. I guess I haven’t mentioned it because there hasn’t really been any problem with it. I think that’s mainly due to my being so incredibly tired by the time I crawl into bed each night. The days are very full, and once I’m done writing in my journal I’m generally rather exhausted. I’ve also been blessed with relatively quiet rooms, unlike the rest of my family. Someone has complained each night about the noise. For me, I’ve rarely heard anything at all, and it’s taken me no more than 10-15 minutes each night to fall asleep, if that. I’m actually mildly worried that as I catch up with my sleep I’ll start having troubles sleeping again.

I packed my things and took a shower and got ready. That second part was rather hampered by a lack of hot water (the water was just warm-ish) and the fact that the shower head wouldn’t stay in a angled position. If you tried to angle it up, it just fell right back down, so it was just pointed nearly straight down the whole time. After the last hotel, this one seemed a bit second-rate. Other than the free wi-fi in the rooms and better shopping location, I’m not going to be that sorry to move on to the next hotel.

Breakfast was the usual buffet. Then we headed out on our way to the Foynes Flying Boat Museum. On the way we passed through a couple towns, and Pat filled us in on more aspects of life in Ireland. He told us about the Rose of Tralee, a legend, song, and beauty competition. He said that he actually got to drive the girls in the competition around to the various locations, but he added quickly that it definitely wasn’t a dream job. The girls were apparently nice when the cameras were clicking and rolling, but they turned into biting nasty creatures towards each other when the cameras were off. Reminds me of America’s Next Top Model.

Pat also talked about sports in Ireland. As it turns out, all sports are classified as amateur, which means that none of the players are actually paid anything. All of the players play simply for the pride and honor of their team and city/village/county. Also, after the game is over the teams swap jerseys and shake hands, so what happened on the field really stays on the field. After all the whining, bitching, and moaning of American players trying to get another million dollars tacked onto a already overblown salary, I can really get behind how Ireland does sports.

Then Pat briefly explained how driver’s licenses work in Ireland. What I mainly noted was the point system. Any negative action you do (like speeding) adds points onto your license. Get enough points, and your license is suspended for a year. If you get points due to drunk driving, it’s three years. Also, your license can be suspended for shorter periods of time for first or second offenses, and if you are caught driving with a suspended license it means jail time.

They really take speeding and stuff seriously over here. I can really see why the guys on Top Gear are pretty careful about it. There are plenty of speed traps, unmarked police (Garda) cars, and plain clothes policemen. Pat has indicated that they will get you. People think it’s tough in the States, but in Ireland I think I would go the speed limit pretty much all of the time, and it seems like most people do.

We made it around 10:30-ish to the Flying Boat Museum, which is a museum dedicated to those planes in a certain era that used water for landing and take off (mainly around the time transatlantic flights were being developed and the kinks being worked out). The museum itself was decently interesting. Learning about the planes and stuff kept my attention, but it didn’t really fascinate me. The A/V portion of this tour was more interesting than the last film we sat through, I’ll give it that (I stayed awake), and also it was interesting to walk through one of the actual planes.

What I enjoyed the most was the demonstration of how to make a perfect Irish Coffee. It turns out that Irish Coffee was invented right where the museum stands. A chef, faced with with a flight of people half freezing to death because the flight had tried to go to New York and turned around halfway due to bad weather, invented the drink on the spot because he thought a bit of whiskey in a sweetened coffee would help “warm them up”. It did, and the drink became a hit. They still teach the original method of making it today.

The museum was working with the Irish Independent, a national newspaper, to get some exposure for the museum, and the demonstration was what specifically was being photographed/covered. One of the tour members was pre-selected to participate in the actual demo, and all of us were sitting in the group picture that should be in the papers tomorrow. Rather cool! I also got to get a free tasting of a “true” Irish Coffee, and it was quite good.

Once the tour was over we did have time to walk around and have a Irish Coffee or whatever if we liked. Knowing I couldn’t have the coffee (caffeine), I went with a warmed scone with fresh cream on top. Mmmmmm. Utterly delicious.

After that, we headed to Bunratty for lunch and a brief look at the castle. This time what was made clear was that while we could get a look at the castle from the outside, we definitely would not have time to look at the castle from the inside. Apparently the full tour of the castle takes around 4-5 hours, so we’d have to dedicate the rest of the day just that. Not very likely considering how much we still needed to do and see.

When we arrived at Bunratty, Pat gave us a hour for lunch/shopping/etc. On his recommendation I headed over to The Creamery Bar for a spot of lunch. As mentioned in my eating notes for today, I had some fish and chips that were positively excellent. I might have eaten at Durty Nellie’s, a bar that’s been around since the 1600′s, but they didn’t open in time. After that I went and snapped some photos of the castle from a few angles, and then shopped some more. It was nice to see that they had a display up with Bunratty mead for tasting.  The hour passed quickly, and then it was back on the bus.

Now, as I have explained before, if you are late, you have to strip or sing. Well, Dewayne, with Pat’s willing help, actually kept Liz distracted for long enough so that she would be both late and the last one. Pat really helped out, getting Liz to snap photos of him and Dewayne, just him, chatting with her and telling her to wait and he’ll be right back after he grabbed something, etc. So now Liz had to strip or sing. Thank God she chose the latter. Liz decided to try and get revenge by choosing as he song “99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall”. Luckily, Pat cut her off at 96. After coaxing a lyric of a real song out of her (“Mary Had a Little Lamb”), she was sent back to her seat.

We were then well on our way to the Cliffs of Moher. We took a scenic route, but while we slowed down on occasion we never stopped. We arrived at the Cliffs and Oh. My. God. Once again, luck had smiled on us. What had started out as a rainy day cleared up, and the weather was perfect. It was absolutely beautiful. I really, really, really hope that at least a few of my pictures turn out well, for the view was simply stunning. We had been given about an hour to look, which I thought at first was more than necessary, but as it turns out it does take a bit to walk all the way up the path and stairs to get the view. I also ended up paying €2 to climb a small tower that is there in order to get even more shots.

Once we were done, we left the Cliffs and headed towards Galway along the scenic route, the Blackwood Drive. We saw some thatched roofs, passed by a couple of ruins of castles and cathedrals, and stopped a couple more times for scenic views.

It was during this time that it became my and Mom’s turn to take part in “audience participation”. The first two rows of the bus (we rotate seats daily) get handed a microphone, everybody has to introduce themselves, and one person has to sing. From looking around yesterday, I could guess that I was going to be in the front two rows. And I guessed none of the others were singers, so I’d have a decent chance of getting stuck with it. Last night, I planned ahead just a little: I would at least have a song ready that I could sing. What came to mind was “General Taylor” by Great Big Sea. So, yep, on the bus I was voted to be the singer. Technically mom had sung “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” at Pat, but I knew that wouldn’t count by Pat’s rules. So I sung the first verse and chorus of “General Taylor”, and it was well received. I got what sounded like genuine applause, and people (not just mom) told me later that I had sung well. Whew.

We arrived in Galway at the hotel around 5:30. We were given until 7:00 to rest and do what we liked, and then we went down for dinner. This time dinner was a true table d’hôte meal, with three courses and a few choices in each course. See my eating notes for what I thought about the food.

While this hotel is nice overall, and I have a huge room and bed (king), there is no wi-fi, not even paid wi-fi. And wired Internet, via room or the business center? €3.95 per half hour, or €16.90 a day. I’m sorry, but that is just too expensive. My only other major complaint about the hotel is that it is in the edge of town. Technically it is only about €6-7 to hire a cab, but I would have preferred somewhere closer to the center of town, somewhere in nice walking distance. True, it is only a 20 minute walk, but when you only get an hour and a half of total free time, the walk both ways eats a chunk out of it.

Now to relax, and bed…..

Or so I thought. Not long after I’d arrived, I had contacted the front desk, complaining that my air conditioning didn’t seem to be working. I had it set for 20 degrees (Celsius; about 68 Fahrenheit), and it definitely wasn’t 20. When I called, they said the older systems sometimes need reset, and she asked me if if I wouldn’t mind opening the window and turning off the air for a hour, which I did. When I turned the air back on it seemed colder, but as I was getting ready for bed I knew it couldn’t be the proper temp in my room. I was laying on the bed without the covers and it still felt warm in the room. I decided to leave the room and go down to the front desk and ask them about it again.

It was definitely cooler in the public areas, so I was pretty sure something was wrong. There was a different person at the desk this time, and after he heard my problem he told me that he’d follow me back up to check it out himself. Before we went up he made sure to find another open room, just in case. When we got to the room we walked in and it was clearly much warmer in there, and there was a nasty air-conditioner-not-working smell I hadn’t noticed before. The front desk guy stepped in, immediately declared that it was definitely not 20 in the room, and showed me down the hall to a different room. He offered to let me keep my stuff in the old room until morning (it being midnight by this time), but I went ahead and transferred my stuff to the new room.

With that problem fixed, I then went to bed.