Online Reviews

In today's news, there are reports of  an Irish cafe owner who responded to a negative review by posting the CCTV footage up online of the reviewer tucking in to her meal (which she then dissed).

I have fairly strong opinions on negative reviews.  Generally I think it is better to point out issues to the staff at the time of the meal rather than go home and post a negative review.  I think it's better to give the establishment the chance to rectify the situation at the time of the dissatisfaction.  However, if they don't do anything to fix the issue I think writing a negative review is fair enough.  

On the whole I think I write fair and measured reviews. Most of my reviews tend to be positive.  I also like to give places a second chance and will return to a place where I had a bad experience if my experience appears like it was an isolated incident.  After all, restaurants & cafes are run by humans and sure we can all make mistakes and have an off night from time to time for numerous reasons.  

As far as basing my decisions on whether to frequent somewhere or not I tend to be careful about giving weight to certain reviews.  I have noticed that some reviewers can be overly harsh, for example, I've noticed Americans in particular knocking hotels because there has been no air conditioning in bedrooms (see this one for example). While of course, being from Ireland, this would be the norm for me and I wouldn't even notice it and in fact it fairly standard for most older hotels in Europe to not have AC.

So over to you readers, do you have any thoughts on Online Reviews?

What I am reading....

As usual, I am in the middle of a few different books at one time. My main read at this time is "Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town" by Jon Krakauer. 

I have read and enjoyed a few others by Krakauer, including "Into the Wild" and "Into Thin Air".  Into the Wild was made in to a film starring Emille Hirsch while Into Thin Air loosely influenced the recently released movie "Everest". Everest is about one of the deadliest seasons on Everest in the 1990's - there were two books written about the season from the perspective of two different climbing teams. One of the team members being Jon Krakauer on Rob Hall's team. The other team was led by Russian Anatoli Boukreev who also wrote a book.  I've read Boukreev's book also - both are worth reading and it is interesting to see the two sides to what happened during this time and how the deaths occurred. 

The final book of Jon Krakauer's that I attempted to read was "Under the Banner of heaven".  Normally I enjoy reading books about the Latter Day Saints and Mormonism but I couldn't finish this book as it really did not hold me.

Back to "Missoula" which is pictured above. It's a shocking read. From the beginning it outlines a litany of rapes that have been carried out in the Missoula town area. Most of the rapes are carried out by the same type of young people (athletes and popular college kids) and in the same kind of way. Young women are invited to parties or dates and are plyed with alcohol until they are too intoxicated to give consent to sexual activity and are then sexually assaulted. Further to this they are then let down by the legal system along with a media reaction that does not support the victim but instead rallies around the accused.

It's a difficult book to get through and the subject matter is more than a little distressing in many parts. However, it is a title that I would recommend.  

Reading with your baby to combat illiteracy!

Today I went to the launch of the new Fingal Libraries Video.  It is full of useful hints and tips for parents and carers about how to read with their baby. It also gives brilliant advice such as "visit your local library"!!


Did you read with your children when they were babies?

Boots Haul!

I needed to pick up a few items so I went to Boots as I had a voucher that if I spent over 35 euro I got 500 points back on my card (500 points has a €5 value).

I got two deodorants and toothpaste along with some dry shampoo. The Batiste Dry Shampoo was buy 3 get 1 free so I saved €3.99 on that.

L'Oreal were Buy 3 get cheapest free.  The primer was €11.99, the powder was €10.79 and the lip gloss was free! (Saving: €10.49).  

My total was €36.33 with a saving of €19. All of the above should have cost me €55 and with the €5 euro points back I think this was all a pretty good deal!

L'Oreal Voluminous Butterfly Mascara

Awhile ago, I wrote about L'Oreal False Lash Wing Mascara and said that it was really amazing.

I had seen this L'Oreal Butterfly Mascara for sale in CVs in the States and I thought it was the same as the L'Oreal False Lash Wing Mascara.  

On my recent holiday to California I bought two of these mascaras in Walgreens (they were on special at buy 1 get one 50% off).

All in all I think I paid about $16 which is such a bargain considering I paid about €18 for the False Lash Wing Mascara.

The mascara itself if amazing and I honestly think these mascaras are the same product just with different branding for the the two different markets.  

This is the False Lash Wings - how similar does it look to the Butterfly one above?!

Deli 97 in Ranelagh

On Sunday mornings we generally go for coffee in Butlers in Ranelagh. However, it was a nice sunny day today so it was packed and there was nowhere to sit outside with the dog.  

We decided to go to Deli 97 at the other end of the town (near Tesco) instead.  Ciaran likes Deli 97 because it serves Fixx Coffee - he also gets a friendly greeting from the guy who used to work in Coffee Society.

 I always think it is a little strange sitting out on the main street of Ranelagh right beside the traffic but it works generally!

 Here is the menu for Deli 97.  They do a full Irish Breakfast and I like the sound of the eggs and avocado.

 We had a glance at all the lovely pastries but ignored them as we are trying to stay away from carbs (and we've had a bit of a bad weekend)

 As well as fresh deli food, they have a selection of different foods like Fluff & Cookie Dough from USA. 

The fresh food looks very tasty but we were only having coffee as we were going to my parents house for dinner at 1pm.

 Bones chilled out under the table.

 After walking home, we stopped off to look at the football in the field behind our house - one of Ciaran's favourite things to do!

Thai Food & Rugby

Wales and England were playing at 8pm tonight so we decided to watch it at home and order a takeaway.

 Siam Thai do a meal deal for 40 euro which includes 2 starters, 2 mains and a bottle of wine.

What a great deal.....

 When I rang and ordered, I was asked what wine I wanted.  I was like "red".
The lady taking my order then said that they had either Malbec or Cabernet Sauvignon.  You can guess which one I went for!  
If you are regular reader of this blog, you will know I can never turn down a Malbec (and this one turned out to be an Argentinean Malbe too!).

The food was good.  We didn't order what we normally get and next time I will probably go back to our usual.

On this occasion, we started with wings & duck rolls.  Then for mains, we had sweet n'sour chicken and Singapore Noodles. Again I repeat, what value it for all this food and also a bottle of wine (however, I'll let you know if I wake up with a headache!)

Love chilled out Rugby Saturdays!

And best of all Wales beat England in an amazing game!!