The Key Notes' Barbershop version of Ireland's Call on the Right Hook

On my drive home from work each day I tend to listen to George Hook on The Right Hook.  


Today he had The Key Notes on his show and they did this awesome rendition of Ireland's Call.  

Do you Yik Yak?

A big interest of mine is Social Media and Digital Media.  I'm always interested to hear about new social media and to get in and use it at the start before it takes off (or dies as can happen!)

A colleague of mine told me about Yik Yik and I thought it sounded intriguing.  Here is a fairly good explanation of what it is and how it is used. 

For me I like to use it to share good solid local information eg. Starbucks are selling off their Christmas stock for 50% off or that cinema tickets are only €5 on a Tuesday night in Rathmines Omniplex.....and indeed these are the types of "yaks" that have garnered me the most upvotes and "yakarma".  

Typically attracting college students there is surprisingly not so much rubbish to wade through to spend a bit of time on the app hanging out and passing the time! Hugely popular in the USA, I think it is beginning to take off in Ireland in particular areas near to universities and student hangouts.

The success of Yik Yak in my view will very much depend on the type of user it attracts going forward and of course whether is can monetize itself and how it will do so.  Big questions hang over it at this point, I think.

Let me know if you try and let me me know what you think.  Personally I think it can be hit and miss depending on where you live.  I live about 2 miles away from a large university so Yik Yak is fairly active in my area.

Blue Sky View!

This is the glass skylight to he birch ply wood clad room at the top of our house.

During the year the glass skylight got extremely dirty.  From time to time Ciaran and I climbed out on to the house roof and with a long pole we attempted to clean the skylight.

When we arrived back from Abu Dhabi over Christmas I noticed that the glass skylight was spotlessly clean.  We reckon that the freezing temperatures (below minus 4) froze water on the roof and took the dirt with it when it melted and ran off.

The skylight allows for a lovely view of the sky and this room is one of my favourite places to go when it is raining heavily.  It is relaxing to lie on the ground and look up at the rain battering the house!

Mobile Dog Groomer

I've found a new groomer!

Oh wow - the Mobile Groomer has just left our house.  It was beyond convenient.  There is no wasting time dropping Bones to the groomer and then having to go off and do something for the few hours that it takes for him to be groomed.  

With Little Paws mobile groomer they come to you and you can hand him over and then do something useful like clean your house!

And they were quick.  His full groom took just over an hour to do.

And the best part was that they were €5 cheaper then the place I used to go to.  Win win!

Mespil Road changes

Bones was fast asleep as I left for work this morning.  He was scratching his ear in the middle of the night so Ciaran put the cone on him to stop.

As I drove to work I saw that Thunders Bakery is now in the location where Starbucks used to be on Mespil Road.

I was also sorry to see the flower shop is now closed - I had mentioned it on my blog before :-(

Fumbally Cafe for dogs and their humans!

We visited Fumbally Cafe on Saturday morning for what I call the best eggs in Dublin - Bones agrees too!

Wild Goose, Ranelagh

We visited the "Wild Goose"  for their Early Bird menu the other night.  They call it their "Early Goose" which is a bit of fun!  

The menu they offer is below and it is €21.95 for two courses and €27.95 for three course.  It appeared to be extremely good value and offered some nice choices.

Ciaran had the sole for starter (tempura of Lemon sole with a mixed leave salad and a creme fraiche sweet chilli and coriander dressing). 
To me it looked like the batter was way to thick to be considered a tempura and he said it was under cooked and that the batter was very soggy on the inside.

For starter I ordered the Rillette of Goose Leg, Puy Lentils with Red Wine Jus.

The Goose was melt in your mouth delicious but the puy lentils were a bit over salted for my taste and the red wine jus was generally tasteless.

For mains we ordered (for a €5 supplement) the Rump of Irish Beef Steak served with sautéed spinach, caramelised onions, creamed potatoes and Béarnaise sauce.
Our thoughts were that the meat was very good and cooked very well (we both ordered rare) and that the char was very flavourful. 
I found the potato to be inedible (I think they had some cheek referring to them as "creamed" - to me they tasted like watery day old mash) - so Ciaran ate mine.  I don't like spinach so he ate mine also while the caramelised onions were very very tasty.
I think they could look at presentation - the sauce in a ramekin was bit naff - a teeny weeny jug might look better if they wanted to serve it to the side.

We had a French Malbec blend which Ciaran enjoyed but I thought lacked oompf.  

Generally we liked the ambiance in Wild Goose but felt let down by the food.  If we were given a lower quality meal because it was the Early Bird - shame on them while if this is the type of food that is always served I think Wild Goose is over rated.  We probably won't return, but if we did, I think I would like to try the Cote du Boeuf for two which looked to be very good.

I should mention that we saw nothing on either the Early Bird or A La Carte Menu for dessert that appealed to us which was a little disappointing also.  If I was to rate this restaurant I would give them a C and a "must try harder".