ManicMammy's Blog

Reviews, news, family, wine and me

Super Skateboarding Shop

Tubes, Cook Street, Cork, Ireland photo credit: Manu – mars Myself and Oscar headed into Cork this morning on the advice of his mate Cian. Both the boys are hugely into skateboarding at the moment and its fabulous to see such enthusiasm. The purpose of this visit to Tubes on Cook Street was to purchase [...]

Irish Blog Awards 2010

Hurrah, its that time of the year again. The Irish Blog Awards are taking place in Galway on March 27th. The longlists of nominations in each category have just been announced. There are a huge number of interesting, informative and entertaining blogs on these lists. A brilliant range with something for everyone. Get thee over [...]

Phonic Fun

Usborne Phonic Readers My younger kids love this range of Usborne books. The characters and stories are straightforward and fun. Each books deals predominately with one character whether Big Pig or Fat Cat and more. Though often characters from the other books in the series make a guest appearance. The text is extremely simple and [...]

Wine Grape Varietals – Concise guide

I really love the guide to wine grape varietals that Michael Siegler at www.winemcgee.com has produced. He succinctly and cleverly describes over 35 varietals and blends under the following categories: pronunciation top regions type of food to pair with food dish suggestions cooking method pictorial representation of aromas taste bar graph description notable info Just [...]

5 minute Interview with Richard Dawkins

via Tommy: A 5 minute interview with Richard Dawkins. Despite being raised a Catholic, I have never been convinced by the whole bible tale and religious fundamentalist beliefs in anything just scare me. Up until now, despite agreeing with much of what Richard Dawkins has to say, I really disliked the way he said it. [...]

Terrific Response from Irish Parents

I was happily stunned on Wednesday to receive the news that Irish parents were responsible for donating a phenomenal 3,678,189 life-saving tetanus vaccines between October and December 2009 as part of the Pampers, Fairy & UNICEF Ireland 1 pack = 1 vaccine campaign. This figure represents a huge 213% Increase on the 2008 Campaign. As [...]

Riveting read

The Medusa Project: The Set-Up By Sophie McKenzie We’re just back from a few highly enjoyable days spent up north with my mother. Whilst there, it was almost impossible to tear Oscar away from this book. Its the first time in ages that he has been so engrossed in a novel. Fourteen years ago, scientist [...]

Eye catching Wine label design

Via TheDieline.com: Love this minimalistic wine label design titled “The Optimist Wine Bottle”. Is the glass half empty or half full? Once you tilt the bottle to pour the wine the graphic shows the full glass. Designed by Greg Bennett for Siquis, you can read much more, including interesting production details, here in the Dieline [...]

Kidizoom camera makes Síofra a very happy little girl

Vtech Kidizoom Plus Camera Síofra was over the moon to receive this cool digital camera as a Christmas pressie from Uncle Brían. She’s only 3 years old but really loves it and gets great use and play out of it. Noone is safe from being photographed in the house now. She’s a one girl paparazzi. [...]

Where would you go?

Paul’s mention of of wine tours in his blogpost and Ryanair commencing direct flights from Cork to Bordeaux recently got me thinking.  Which wine regions are on my wishlist to visit and tour? photo credit: mescon Gaining an interest in wine mainly in my 30s which coincided with my pregnancy, infant and young children years, [...]

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