I guess a food post every now and again doesn’t hurt. Lebanese food is extremely tasty and an excellent social occasion, one of the most well know and celebrated dishes is the shwarma. The popular choice for the best in Beirut and possibly Lebanon as a whole is the expansive Barbar on Rue Spears in Hamra. Definitely an experience not to be missed their food is really fresh, high quality (the chicken in the shwarma is a joy, succulent and leaner than many other shwarma places).

Read more...

In what was a decision probably not recommended by our travel safety advisors/risk consultants, us hard working souls ventured into downtown Beirut. Specifically, for a look at the February 14th commemeration of the assasination of Rafik Hariri which ultimately led to the so-called Cedar Revolution. It was mainly curiosity on our part to see what this rally entailed but one couldn’t help draw parallels to politics back home. What was most striking about this rally was the jubilation and sense of unity among all the people that we saw out on the streets.

Read more...

Tis surely hard to find anything nice to say about our government at the moment. Just as disheartening is the state of the opposition which offers no hope through change. As much as the economic system is broken, we surely cannot ignore the state of the Irish political system. The number of financial irregularities emerging on a day to day basis shows a government completely out of touch with how business is being conducted in this country nevermind internationally.

Read more...

This isn’t even a well composed picture but I do love being able to combine Roman Ruins, a Mosque and a Church all in one pic:

This time last year I was busy complaining about the state of recruitment agencies here in Ireland. Of about 8 or 9 different agencies only one came through for me with professionalism and they also managed to place me with my current company. It turned out to be a good match so obviously I’m pleased with. So when I got a mail recently asking if I knew of anyone with a similar background to me I thought I might as well give it a push.

Read more...

This was just running through my head this morning so I thought I’d let my opioniated side out for a bit. Didn’t spend a lot of time thinking this through so I’m open to criticism and alternatives. Probably also be done before, so humour me. Twitter. Sort out IM. IM is powerful and not difficult, what’s going on @twitter? Dopplr allows flight schedule driven trip planning. I like Dopplr but I’d love to be able to enter flight numbers and dates, a trip generated and the ability to drop in alternative travel plans to see how everything lines up.

Read more...

We’re all watching the carry on over the FÁS expenses and obviously everyone is outraged. No doubt lots of people will be going on about the government and civil servants ripping us off. What will probably be missed is that corruption like this is inevitable when we as a culture celebrate ‘pulling a stroke’. A pleasant and humourous euphemism for corruption. The lads at FÁS were tearing the arse out of it because they were ripping off the abstract figure of the government. No harm, no one is getting hurt? Apart from every Irish citizen. How do you eradicate this? Well you can legislate and investigate but it remains inevitable given the endemic support for this type of corruption.

Read more...

Apparently there are people who are reluctant to come visit Beirut. I probably wouldn’t have come here had it not been to work on a project but coming here was something I was certainly looking forward to. In Ireland we laughed at people in the USA who were afraid to come to Ireland because of the terrorism, largely associate with Northern Ireland. Yet today we’re exactly the same in our views towards travel to places like Beirut. So here it is, my attempt to convince people that they’re missing out by not coming here.

Read more...

Just having a rant here so don’t pay too much attention. :) I’ve been catching up feeds today and there are three articles on breakingnews.ie that caught my eye as well as one other story I read last weekend. The first one strikes as nothing more harmless than banal, Just having a rant here so don’t pay too much attention. :) I’ve been catching up feeds today and there are three articles on breakingnews.

Read more...

Vaude Freiburg Briefcase (Pannier)  Since I’ve been doing the work commute by bike I’ve been looking at ways of making it easier on me. A certain level of fitness comes with time and there’s no shortcut there. However, transporting kit is something that can be improved. In my case it was something I really wanted to improve once I was issued with a laptop at work and I also found that I needed to carry various bit and pieces (raingear mainly!

Read more...