South Africa Part II

Today was all about touring the Cape of Good Hope. We set off in the morning and first stop after a great drive on the coast road was at Chapman’s Peak overlooking Hout Bay. We bought some overpriced souvenirs and then headed for the Cape.

Chapman’s Peak.

The Cape of Good Hope is the most south western point in Africa. Apparently it got its name from sailors who when they reached this point we’re hopeful that they had left the Atlantic behind and were headed into the Indian Ocean.  There’s not really that much to see here, but is is cool to be at one of the great landmarks in the world. There were a lot of tourists like ourselves queuing to get the photo opportunity at the sign. We also had a treat to see some baboons on the road from the safety of our car!

We’re here!

Not too far away is Cape Point where the lighthouse is. This again is a major tourist spot and has a lovely path with great views up to the lighthouse. We are approximately 10,000 kilometres from Dublin at this point which is possibly the furthest ever I have been from home.

Cape Point.

At the top of Cape Point.

After the breath-taking scenery of the Cape, we headed to visit the African Penguin colony at Boulder’s Beach. They pretty much do a lot of standing about, and are probably wondering what all the weird creatures called humans were doing. It was time for late lunch at Bertha’s Restaurant in nearby Simon’s Town. It’s thirsty and hungry work being a tourist! A really enjoyable day seeing the sights of this part of South Africa.ee

Boulder’s Beach.

Cheers from Simon’s Point.

South Africa Part I

This week is my first time ever in South Africa for a visit to Cape Town and its surrounding areas. After an 11 hour flight from London I met Roma in her hotel after she had spent a week volunteering with the Mellon Educate crew. We went down to Camp’s Bay for a light lunch where we had wonderful tasty sushi at the Paranga waterfront restaurant. Not a bad start for my first day in Africa! We went for a wander on the beach and dipped our toes into the very cold water. It was strange to see a packed beach with almost no one in the water - it is a feature here that the water is colder in the summer compared to winter as the stiff wind blows the warm surface water away.

On Camp’s Bay Beach.

For the evening we went to the Cape Town Waterfront area which was a hive of activity. A first for me was to eat springbok served on a skewer at the Karina restaurant. Despite having to send it back to be heated up a bit, it was delicious. We caught the end of the Leinster-Munster rugby game in Mitchell’s pub at the end of the evening.

On Sunday, my first full day, we took the Hop-on Hop-off bus to see the city. First stop was Table Mountain. The cable car up to the top is fantastic - it revolves so that you can see all views. We had a clear day and could see some fantastic views from the top of the mountain. This is a must-not-miss experience and I loved every minute of it. Another first for me was having a beer at the top of a mountain!

Looking like I’ve climbed to the top of Table Mountain!

With Roma on top of Table Mountain.

Cheers!

We continued the bus tour and stopped off in Sea Point for lunch. At first we were a bit concerned because nobody else got off the bus at this stop, and we wondered did they know something we didn’t know! Nevertheless, we made our way to Regent Road where we found the Three Wise Monkeys restaurant, and again some delicious sushi.

Lunch at the the Three Wise Monkeys.

Our last stop on our tour was back the the Waterfront area where we did a little bit of souvenir shopping. A late evening steak at the Spur restaurant near our hotel was a great day to wrap up my first day in South Africa.

With some notable South African people.

Weekend in Paris #RWC2023

I was very lucky to get tickets for the Rugby World Cup 2023 Ireland vs Scotland rugby match in Stade de France last Saturday. It was a great occasion for the Irish and we thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and the build up to the match. It was a pity that the game was over as a contest before half-time - Scotland were as poor as Ireland were brilliant. The All-Blacks in the quarter-final will be a much different proposition, but Ireland definitely have the skill, ability, and power to win. Bring it on!

That soccer shower at the rugby!

We also took the opportunity to see some of the iconic sights in Paris while we were there. Here are a few photos (some already published to Facebook) to mark the occasion:

With Roma at the Arc de Triomphe.

On the banks of the Seine.

Posing with Gustav Eiffel at his Tower.

In the crowded Metro tunnel on way to the match.

At the restoration of Notre Dame.

At my new restaurant in Place du Tertre, Montmartre.

When I'm Sixty Four

One of my favourite all time Beatles songs is the catchy "When I'm Sixty Four". Paul McCartney wrote this song in 1956 before the Beatles group was formed, and of course before I was born. It was one of the first songs he ever wrote, and it eventually ended up on the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. I recall singing it down the phone to my Dad Joe on his 64th birthday (in 1995) - never did I think that my own 64th birthday would creep up on me so quickly.

Every time I hear it, and sing it, I wondered what it would be like to be 64 years old. Well today is the last day I can sing this song with 64 in mine, as I reach this landmark age tomorrow. According to the Birthday Ninja website, the estimated number of babies born in the world on 7th October 1959 was 289,242. That’s the equivalent of about 201 babies every minute - imagine us all crying at the same time!

Forgive the ego moment, but I just had to do it... When I'm Sixty Four:

Solar power on a good day

Last May we installed solar panels on our roof capable of generating 5kW of electricity per hour - this is of course when the sun is shining. When the VAT was eliminated and SEAI grants added, it was an attractive proposition - we reckon it will pay for itself in about 5 to 6 years. So - four months later, how are we doing?

Of course, the summer of 2023 was not a great summer for sunshine. The best day for electricity generation was on 3rd June when our system generated 38.65 kWh. You can see from the green line below that at peak time (early afternoon) almost 5 kW was being generated per hour. 

One of the reasons for getting solar power was to avail of the opportunity to charge my car with cheap and possibly free electricity. You can see above from the red line that I charged the car from about 13:30 until 16:00 (the second peak is the immersion heater coming on. The car charges at a rate of 8kWh, and for most of the charging period 5kWh was produced. This means that it was only slightly better than half price night time rates. So - only on really sunny days does charging at this rate make sense - I have since reduced the car's input from 8kWh to 2kWh. It takes longer, but is effectively free.

We also generate excess electricity that is automatically fed back to the electricity grid. We should get about 21c per kWh - on the same day as above, we should have received €4.83 from our supplier, Electric Ireland. However, as we don't have a smart meter in our house (though one is coming soon) we only get an estimate of electricity generated, which is way lower than what you see on the chart below.

So far, solar power is a positive experience. It's great on sunny days when 5kWh can be generated - however, when a cloud blocks the sun, this figure can drop to 1kWh. On rainy and dull days, very little is generated (more about this in next post), and of course the winter is coming!

Instagram

Scan to access Instagram.

I have just recently revisited Instagram. I set up an account a few years ago and promptly forgot about it. Now I want to showcase my woodwork which has become a serious hobby for me - scan the QR code to access my Insta page. I have no intention of becoming an Influencer and making money by selling my work. Instead, my pieces are for family and friends as gifts (or payments!)

Much work goes into making an oak table. Finding the right sized tree is of course the first option - all my oak tables come from my Dad's farm in Ballingate, Co Wicklow. It is usually my brother Joe who cuts the slabs, as he is a far better chainsaw operator than me. A long period of drying follows, and it is pot luck as to how cracks will form during the drying process. Next is levelling with a router followed by lots and lots of sanding until a smooth table top is formed. I mostly buy iron table legs on-line, this makes getting a level table a lot easier. The last stage is filling the cracks with resin and polishing off the final product. A huge amount of time goes into each piece, though I am getting better and more efficient with every job. I see some of these types of tables making big money on-line, but these are made by professionals who have a lot more gear than me. 

I have shown/boasted about some of my pieces in this blog before, but Instagram is the place for my work from now on. I have quite a lot of pieces planned for this autumn and winter - in addition to table tops, I also want to create a side table, bread/cheese boards, and also to try my luck with ash. 

The beginning.

I haven't gone away you know!

August 2023 is the first month since January 2008 that I have not posted on this blog. After a run of about 170 months in a row, I just did not get around to writing anything in August - a month which I mostly spent in Wexford. It was not a deliberate decision, but over the past couple of years since I retired, there are a lot of subjects that I am no longer really interested in. I have tended to put short posts on Facebook instead.

So - just a quick note to say I am back, and hope to renew blogging over the next few weeks.

New Director

 

I am delighted to announce that I have been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Dublin City Volunteer Centre. I am greatly looking forward to working with this brilliant organisation who do great work on behalf of the citizens of Dublin. The appointment is for two years, so lots of interesting times ahead!

Donostia - San Sebastián/Bilbao

Our final stop on our tour of the Basque Country was in San Sebastián - a beautiful city with a brilliant Old Town to explore. The city has a well-earned reputation as one of the must-visit food destinations in Spain. We certainly tried as many different Pinchos as we could, and we also went on a food tour led by Amaia of the Devour Touring company. The tour involved visits to six different restaurants with a Pinchos and a glass of wine at each. This was great fun and Amaia was brilliant. Be warned, this is not a cheap tour and you will spend most of the time standing up. 

The Devour Food Tour is great fun!

Enjoying the Pinchos Tour.

I visited the San Telmo Museum in the Old Town. It has lots of interesting features on Basque history and culture. The museum was free to access, an English audio guide was €2. This was essential as all displays had only Spanish and Basque language text. On our last day we went to the Aquarium, not expecting much. But it is an incredible place with fantastic displays of marine animals on show. The centre piece was a huge tank that you can walk under and see sharks and all sorts of fish of all sizes. I’m sure they do eat each other, but all seemed happy to swim about and be stared at. This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip!

On our way to the ferry from Bilbao to Rosslare, we stopped at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao for a few hours. The building itself is incredible and has a fantastic display out front of a puppy sculpture covered in flowers, mostly bedding type plants. It would have taken a large nursery to grow these plants - a nice contract for a grower to have!

Inside the museum there were exhibitions of art that were hard for me to interpret. I just don’t get some of the work - it must be brilliant if it is on display in the Guggenheim, otherwise it wouldn’t be there.

Getting ready for the Guggenheim Museum.

Roma admiring the sculptures in the Guggenheim Museum.

Bilbao!

Modern art at the Guggenheim with a secret message: Mayo for Sam!

 

Bayonne

Next stop on my tour of the Basque Country was Bayonne on the coast of France. No particular reason for staying here other than it seemed like a nice place to stop. Sadly, I was on my own on this leg of the trip as Roma was back in Ireland at her Uncle Aodhan’s funeral. I stayed on a river boat called the Peniche Djebelle. This was a really unusual place to stay, but very comfortable and in a good location right in the city centre. It was a bit claustrophobic in that the hosts also lived on the boat - I had to cross between their couch and TV as I went to my room. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant stay - I really liked the gentle waves from other boats rocking the Djebelle as they passed by.

On the Pont Saint-Esprit, Bayonne

Looking for something to do I decided to take a trip on the bike to see the Sare Grotto and Caves which is close to the  border with Spain. This was a fantastic experience. First there was a great ride though the French countryside and mountains. The caves are definitely worth a visit for anyone who is nearby. Our pre-historic ancestors set up home here thousands of years ago. It was also a home for bears, which must have made for tough neighbourhood relations! Our tour guide warned me at the beginning that the commentary would be in French, he gave me a short leaflet that helped in explaining the features of the caves. Despite this, I was happy to be able to understand much of what the tour guide said - he often checked with me in English if I had any questions.

At the entrance to the Sare Grotto.

Both evenings that I stayed in Bayonne were subject to the most fantastic thunder and lightening that I have seen. The rain was monsoon heavy, though I watched it from the comfort of Bodega Gilles with some grilled sardines and grilled mackerel for dinner. I have a new wine to watch out for when I get back to Ireland - Irouleguy is very tasty and worth checking out. Pity I’m travelling by motorbike, otherwise I’d stock up on this stuff!

On to San Sebastián for our last stop! 

St Jean Pied de Port

We arrived in France yesterday after crossing the beautiful Pyrenees mountains via the Ibañeta Pass. Lots of twisty roads and thrilling hairpin corners to ride. St Jean de Pied de Port was our destination, it is the official start location for the Camino in France to Santiago de Compostela. There are a lot of people in hiking gear about, especially in the morning.

At the Ibañeta Pass.

St Jean de Pied de Port is listed as one of France’s most beautiful villages, and it is easy to see why. Narrow hilly streets feature loads of small shops and plenty of bars and restaurants. The Nive river flows through the village which still has medieval walls and buildings. It was one of the main routes for pilgrimages and armies for centuries - you get a real feeling for history here. There are a lot of tourists here, with a traffic problem to go with it. It is very popular with motor homes and motorcyclists - a strange  comparison with the city of Logroño where there was hardly any traffic.

At the official start of the Camino France.

Sadly, Roma’s Uncle Aodhan Bourke died yesterday and we made the decision that she would go back to Ireland for the funeral on Sunday. She will come back to Spain on Monday to finish the holiday for the last few days. So, I have a few days to myself with my motorbike. Tomorrow I am heading to Bayonne, so looking forward to a few kilometres on the road.

Here we go on the Camino.

Laguardia

Today we took the short trip by bus from Logrono to Laguardia, which is described as one of Spain’s loveliest villages rising high above the Rioja region to provide panoramic views all around. It seems that vines are pretty much the only crops grown around here with every available space cultivated. I did see some olive trees, but nothing else. Wine is big business here and Laguardia is right at the centre of it. 

On top of the Abacial Tower.

The streets of Laguardia are narrow with no traffic allowed. It was very quiet while we were there, so strolling around was very enjoyable. We went up the Abacial Tower for the best views - it was €2 each to climb the 115 steps, but worth it. Nearby was the magnificent Church of Santa Maria do Los Reyes - this, and many other churches in Spain are lavishly decorated inside with scenes of Christ and his mother Mary’s life at the entrance and above the altar. One small bug about the tour here is that a presentation about the entrance was given in French (because most of the group we were in were from France.) Outside the church in the plaza there was an interesting sculpture by Koko Rico dedicated to travellers.

The door to Santa Maria de Los Reyes.

Koko Rico sculpture - boots and bags.

We had some wine and pinchos on the Plaza Mayor and watched the world go by. This village is definitely worth visiting, though I’d imagine it would not be as pleasant at peak tourist times and in hot weather (we had lovely cool rain while we were there.) 

Just one of the lovely narrow streets.

Cheers from Laguardia!

Logrono

Today I am in Spain with Roma for a few days of motor cycling, plus of course wine and tapas. We sailed on board Brittany Ferries Salamanca from Rosslare to Bilbao, 30+ hours of relaxed comfort - I’d certainly recommend this as a way of getting to Spain.

The rain in Spain stays mainly on the road from Bilbao to Logrono. This is the fourth time Roma came on a motorcycle holiday with me, but it was her first time getting rained on. We had our onesie suits which we bought for our Route 66 ride in 2019, but had never used. They work well, and the bike is performing great so far.

Getting ready to board the Salamanca.

Logrono is a lovely city - we picked it for 4 nights purely on the basis that it is in the Rioja region. There was a brilliant Medieval Festival on which we did not know about. Plenty of brass bands and people parading in medieval dress - the place was hopping and we loved it. We had wine and tapas in Laurel Street where we had front row seats to the parade. We also did the Tapas Crawl where we moved about from place to place. Fantastic pinchos made eating out cheap and tasty.

Not in Temple Bar!

Because it was Festival time, most shops were closed. Travelling by bike means that we will not be shopping much, which is a pity because there was a brilliant street market all around the centre of Logrono. 

We finished the day by visiting the Bordon Franco-Espagnoles wine cellars just at the edge of the River Ebro. This was a very good tour and I learned a lot more about making wine than I did in other wine tours in other countries - definitely recommended. There is a huge cellar with impressive amounts of oak barrels aging the wine to perfection. Some Bordon wines are expensive, but we got to taste a glass of one red wine that cost €25 a bottle here - what would the price be in Ireland!

Getting ready to drink this lot!

 

Going Solar

We  have had solar panels installed on the roof of our house and are turning into complete nerds to see how much power we are generating, how much we are earning from surplus, and how green we are. We got 15 panels installed that are capable of generating up to five Kilowatts/hour when the sun is shining. The supplier estimates that we will generate between four and five thousand Kilowatts in a year. This will be a substantial part of our estimated seven thousand Kilowatts used in a year (this figure is very high, but about a third is from charging my car.)

Installation was very efficient and the system worked straight away. I have switched charging my car from night time to day time when it is sunny. I haven't worked out what the savings are from doing this. The screen shot below is taken at a time when it was sunny and most of what was being generated was being uploaded to the electricity grid. On a sunny day like this we should get about 5€ to 6€ per day - the recent good weather has been kind to us!

The next chart shows one day's overall output and consumption. Obviously nothing is happening when it is dark. The green line tells us what we were generating from the panels throughout the day. For the red line you can see at first that about 8 kw/h were being consumed when I plugged in my car. There's another red peak as we have now set out immersion heater to heat the water during the day. Charts like this are interesting as you can really see the difference solar power is already making. We estimate that it will have paid for itself in about 5 to 6 years.

2022 Census Results

Today, the results of the 2022 Census are being published by the Central Statistics Office. I was one of over 5,000 census enumerators who collected the census data in April last year. Spare a thought for 50 or so of my colleagues who were bitten by dogs in the line of duty. Apart from being threatened by one man will legal action, my 480 households were relatively problem free to deliver and collect census forms. 

Two headline figures stand out for me:

• The proportion of the population who identified Roman Catholic as their religion fell from 79% in 2016 to 69% in 2022
• Of the 1.8 million occupied private households enumerated during Census 2022, 348,443 (19%) completed the Time Capsule. The completion rate by county ranged from 16% to 21%

I was surprised that the 69% for Roman Catholics was so high. As a fairly regular Mass goer myself I see the almost empty churches on most Sundays. I think a more interesting piece of data that should be collected would have captured the number of practising Catholics. I'm also surprised that the Time Capsule completion rate was so low, as there was lots of publicity and excitement about it in the lead up to the Census. On the doorstep, many people told me that they did not know what to write, or that they were not bothered. Sadly, for researchers in 100 years time, there will be disappointment when they look up ancestors to see what they put on the form, only to find that 81% were not filled out.

Lots more data to peruse as it is released - I'll be interested to drill down into my own area, plus the area I enumerated. No doubt I would have used Census data in my Statistics classes had I not retired - it is a great source of non-normal data. 

30,000,000+ YouTube Views

Over the weekend, my YouTube channel passed the 30,000,000 views mark. As always, I am both humbled and thrilled when the channel reaches landmark figures like this. The channel is maintaining some steadiness with views (250k/month approx.) - perhaps a slight drop off as older videos become less relevant. It still earns me money, and I also get lots of (mostly positive) comments. At the moment the channel is my only involvement in Education, and I try my best to respond to questions put by viewers of the channel. My most recent series of 22 videos on Problem-Solving Techniques is not performing well, but hopefully will pick up soon.

The top performing video of all is "How To... Plot Multiple Data Sets on the Same Chart in Excel 2010". It was published on April 11, 2012 and has 1,917,000 views. Six of my videos now have over 1,000,000 views each - they account for 7,811,419 views or 26% in total.

A huge thank you to all viewers of my videos, and as I say at the end of every video: "I hope you found this useful".

YouTube vs Udemy

Last June I published my one and only course on the Udemy platform: Problem-Solving Techniques. It has been a chastening failure as there are only 46 students - most of whom availed of a free voucher scheme I made available through Linkedin shortly after publication. Many of these students have not accessed the course at all. Last year I met an employee of Udemy in Dublin who told me that it was vital to promote the course on social media, get endorsements, and use vouchers to get enrolments. The course has had no enrolments since last September, and has made just $38 in total. I don't have the time, nor the endeavour, to promote the course like it needs - so it will languish in Udemy amongst thousands of other courses. 

Then there's YouTube!

I have just over 72,000 subscribers and almost 30,000,000 views in YouTube. 22 of the 37 videos in the Udemy course are essentially updates of my old Problem-Solving Techniques YouTube Playlist - several of these videos are over ten years old and were made using Windows Movie Maker. Many comments on the videos report poor audio quality. I have now released my Udemy videos on YouTube - here's one example about Pareto Analysis.

I checked with Udemy if this is allowed - and it is. They just ask that I do not charge less than Udemy does ($19.99) on a third party platform. YouTube is not suitable as a full course experience as there is no way (yet) to provide a curriculum structure. The 22 videos are listed in a Playlist, but it is not immediately clear that the videos are part of a course. On each video I link to the Udemy course as a "full learning experience". I also put a note in the old versions that a newer version is available.

This new and updated set of videos will make some money from advertising, though this will take time as they have to build an audience. I will report how YouTube compares to Udemy in a few months time.

St Patrick's Festival

A great way to spend St Patrick's Day was to be a volunteer at the St Patrick's Festival in Collins Barracks. I normally avoid all the crowds, but this was a great day out. My job was to help out with the wonderful Actual Reality Arcade Games - basically to control and manage access to the Laser Run and Pac Maze games. There were many other volunteers of all nationalities helping out, and as you can see in the photo below, the arcade games were very popular with young families. Collins Barracks was packed for the day, with non-stop entertainment to keep everyone happy.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

At the Actual Reality Arcade.

Thailand - Bangkok

The final stop of our tour of South East Asia was Bangkok, where we spent just a couple of nights. Like Hanoi and Saigon, this is a very busy place, though there are a lot more cars and a lot less scooters on the streets. There are also a lot of temples which the locals are very proud of. 

We did a Hop-on Hop-off tour of the city and got to see a lot of this fantastic place. The Grand Palace looks awesome, as well as the Wat Khun Chan Giant Buddha. We finished up at the IconSiam shopping centre - a place that makes Dundrum Shopping Centre look like a corner shop. Later we went on a Tuk-Tuk food tour which was not as good as others we did in Vietnam and Cambodia. Despite requesting no spicy food in advance, this is what we got - so not much local food for me. Nevertheless, we had a great time touring around Bangkok - especially the flower market.

As we were flying out home late in the evening, on our last day we decided to do a water boat tour of the Bangkok canals. This was good fun - the boats are narrow and wobble a bit, but despite stopping at yet more temples it was a great way to see parts of Bangkok not in the tourist guides.

One thing we did not know in advance was that our last day in Bangkok was actually a dry day - no alcohol was allowed to be sold. We did manage to get a glass of wine in a mug at one café, and I felt a bit like I was sneaking a few cans on a Good Friday years ago.

On the Bangkok canal.

Symbol of Bangkok, the Giant Swing.

I'm getting to like the Tuk-Tuks!

At the fabulous Wat Arun temple.