I see that Coca Cola is launching a fizzy milk-based product. Well, all I can say to that is: ‘What took you so long’? I invented the same thing using nothing more elaborate than my next door neighbour’s soda stream and a pint of milk 30 years ago. While I can’t remember what it tasted like, I do recall it making an unholy mess in the kitchen and the Soda Stream never working quite right again.
Good times!
According to reports published today, sunbeds are even more dangerous than was previously thought and they are apparently as bad for us as smoking or asbestos. I haven’t read the report yet - I am still on holidays after all - but if it is as alarming as it sounds then surely the Government should forget pussyfooting around with limited restrictions and ban them with immediate affect?
There are few more miserable ways to start your holidays than by staring at an empty baggage carousel, waiting in vain for your luggage to appear, or finding your twin buggy has lost a wheel after being manhandled by overly enthusiastic baggage-handlers.
But such things happen frequently – around 42 million times a year worldwide, in fact. Each day, 115,000 pieces of airline baggage are mishandled, lost, broken or tampered with. Trying to get recompense from airlines can be a trying experience, particularly if an Irish airline has done the mishandling.
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Hello from Spiddal - a town which has been enjoying a scorching heatwave for the last ten days. . .
Sigh, not really. Am just seeing if I can update the blog from my phone - if you’re reading this I can and if you’re not I’ve just lost ten minutes which I will never get back again.
While renting a car can make life a whole lot easier when holidaying abroad, it can also add a whole lot more to the cost of your trip than you might think, particularly if you’re not paying attention to the small print.
Readers frequently get in touch with tales of woe about car hire. Credit cards are debited without explanation weeks after cars are returned in perfect condition. Rental-firm staff have also been known to crawl under cars the moment they are returned and find mysterious dents that cost hundreds of euro to put right, with customers’ protestations of innocence falling on deaf ears.
Of course, there’s hardly any point in arguing because, if you’ve signed the form agreeing to cover any damage – and you can’t get a car unless you sign the form – there is not much you can do to stop the money being debited from your credit-card account.
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It’s amazing the difference a recession makes. Two years ago, as we grumbled and moaned about the high price of everything, from hotel rooms to hot whiskeys, the very idea that we could haggle was unthinkable.
The Celtic Tiger’s cubs were pussycats when it came to asking for discounts but it’s all changed now, and people are hunting for holiday bargains with a shameless doggedness that would make a Moroccan market stallholder blush.
According to industry sources, four out of five calls to hotels from people interested in making a booking involve some class of haggling, and the trend towards online bookings has been reversed, as it’s impossible to haggle with a website.
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I’m going on me holliers to the west of Ireland tomorrow – well, everyone keeps telling me what good value holidays in Ireland are now – so thought I’d have a quick look on weather.com for the advance forecast for Galway.
And am I glad I did. Here it is.
Sat
Showers
Sun
Rain
Mon
Light Rain
Tue
Rain
Wed
Showers
Thu
Light Rain
Fri
Rain
Sat
Fog Yay, no rain!
Then I read this comment from a reader called Jonathan. “I’d have no interest in holidaying in Ireland, and I couldn’t care less what “value” hotels and restaurants are giving. My wife’s aunt went to Kerry last week, and out of a week there were 2 hours when it wasn’t raining. Ireland should be the bad-weather-facility capital of the world, but we all know that’s not the case. In most of these so-called “tourist spots” there’s absolutely NOTHING to do when it’s raining, so they can keep it. If I’m going to sit around all day in a hotel reading a book because of the rain I might as well stay at home.”
While Jonathan might come across just a bit grumpy, he does have a point. Why are there so few bad-weather facilities in Ireland? In Galway there’s the aquarium, bits of Leisureland, the Eyre Square Shopping Centre and, er, that’s it.
SUNSCREENS can be just a little bewildering to an Irish person raised on a diet of heavy clouds, rain, and all-too-brief periods of sunshine, followed, in quick succession, by all-too-painful bouts of sunburn.
What do you buy? Spray, pump action or old-fashioned bottle? How much do you spread and how often do you spread it? How much do you need to spend to make sure you don’t turn a lurid shade of lobster pink the moment the sun breaks out from behind the clouds?
And will the most expensive bottle in the most upmarket department store keep you safer than the cheap as chips bottle from a budget supermarket?
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Summer’s here and so are bizarre holiday phone charges and bar tabs that will have you weeping into a pint
Gloomy economic forecasts and not-so-gloomy weather forecasts have seen the number of locals planning to holiday at home this year double to 55 per cent compared with 12 months ago, according to a survey by the Travel Lodge hotel chain published earlier this month.
Given Ireland’s reputation as a high-priced holiday destination, it’s remarkable so many cash-strapped people suddenly seem to be cutting costs this summer by staying at home.
But are the 55 per cent making a terrible mistake? The tourist industry has seen a dramatic fall in overseas demand and is now falling over itself to assure locals that the bad old rip-off days are gone. Fáilte Ireland is spending heavily on a value-for-money advertising campaign, but nothing can hide the fact that the cost of activities and eating out remains high in Ireland, and it’s not uncommon to be asked for €4 for four minutes’ go-karting, a tenner for a child’s sausage and chips, and a euro for extra bread for a bowl of soup.
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Am going to make a wild prediction that, by the end of the weekend, there will be loads of very muddy, very miserable people talking to Joe about Oxegen. But not this fella, no siree bob - he’s only going to have good things to say over the course of the next 72 hours.
Just you in case you haven’t seen this. I hadn’t until about five minutes ago
Anyone fancy writing an Irish version of this?
Thursday update: And then United Airlines apologised, saying they loved the song. Sure they did.
The gloomy economic forecast - and the not quite so gloomy weather one - appears to have convinced most of us to stay put this year and the number of people planning to holiday at home has doubled to 55 per cent in a single year, according to a survey published last week.
But is there good value to be found in Ireland or can we expect the same old rip offs in hotels, restaurants, bars and tourist attractions this year as every other year over the last decade?
Answers on a postcard please.
Ah no, seriously, there’s no need for postcards but I am looking for examples of good and bad value people have come across in Ireland for a series of summery articles we’ll be doing in the paper under the Pricewatch banner over the coming weeks so if you have come across anything of note, let me know.
Anne Cahill from Clondalkin wonders if any of our readers have succeeded in making contact with Tesco’s customer care recently because she’s found it next to impossible to get to speak to someone. “I phoned over two days in late May, resulting in zilch. A follow-up letter has gone unanswered,” she says.
Early last week she tried making contact again, but, after going through all the options and selecting the customer service option, “the phone simply rings forever”. “If you go directly to reception and attempt to state your case, you are whipped back to ‘4’ for customer services, with the same zero result,” she continues.
She also points out that each time she calls the number, a “stern” recording tells her that “the contents of this call may be recorded and used for training purposes”. “Exactly what Tesco are training these people for is unclear – certainly, facilitating customer queries can’t be on their agenda.”
Still more on the price of medicines. A reader called Tom got in touch with a story about remarkable price differentials between a very common medication in the Republic and in Spain. He uses a drug called Omeprazol to relieve the symptoms of reflux and will need to take it every day for the rest of his life. He was initially prescribed with Losec – a popular branded name for Omeprazol.
He was paying €70 for a month’s supply “until a friendly temporary Australian locum pharmacist in my normal chemists informed me the cheaper capsule was Ulcid. He was amazed at costs here. Same stuff, same effect, but €48 per month.”
Of course the pharmacist could not simply swap his Losec for Ulcid because they do not have the legal authority to stray from a doctor’s prescription even though the branded, more expensive drug is absolutely identical in every respect to the generic equivalent.
So Tom took himself off to his doctor – not a great stretch as has to go to his GP every three months at a cost of €60 a time to get his prescription renewed. He spends €240 on GP visits each year and €580 on the cheaper tablets – a total of €820.
Well, that is what he was spending until last month when he ran out of tablets in Barcelona. “I went in to a chemist’s with my empty Ulcid container and asked could I have some.” The chemist did not have Ulcid but had Omeprazole in a capsule form called Pensa. “The same drug, same effect. The cost of a month’s supply – €3.50. Yes, €3.50. And then he asked me how many months I needed. So I obtained a year’s supply for €42. Unbelievable. A saving of over €700.”
He points out that someone with the same condition as himself can bring a friend to Barcelona for a long weekend, stay in a 4-star hotel, buy a year’s supply of the tablets and still have change out of the €820 he would be spending getting the same drugs in Ireland.
Nearly half the State’s 1500 pharmacists have said they will pull out of the community drugs schemes in response to the Government’s plan to cut their payments and the Irish Pharmacists Union has warned that more could follow. They say that they will no longer dispense medicines under the medical card and drugs payments schemes and if the threat is carried out there will be chaos across the country as people struggle to get their hands on essential medicines. Judging from the amount of complaints I get about the high cost of prescription and OTC medicines in this country compared with elsewhere, people are deeply suspicious of pharmacists and the money they are making and I reckon they risk alienating consumers further if they escalate their dispute with the Government.
