Archive for the ‘Misc’ Category

Sad News

June 23rd, 2011 by

On may 16th, 2011, A dear friend of this website, Richard Patrick Leslie, aged 89, some weeks before his 90th birthday. He was found dead in bed in London. It was believed that he past away peacefully in his sleep. His last diary entry was may 1st. What does this have to do with us?

Well Mr. Leslie was a Carlovian to the bone, and in the Christmas last, we at MonteCarlow were contacted by a close friend of his, to find the grave of his mother as he is to be buried there. We found the grave, and sent pictures of it him to him. We also, as a mark of respect left flowers on the grave. In return he sent my self letters and information as to his history.

I only recieved word a few days ago that he had died, and it saddened me greatly. Mr. Leslie had no direct family, and any connections in Carlow are long gone. I would ask that any people available in Carlow today, that they would be available to attend the mans burial. The details are: St. Mary’s Cemetery, @2.30pm Unfortunately I am not around, and I cannot attend myself, but I am sending my family, who are available to attend. Mr. Leslie, a great Carlovian, sadly missed.

A little nerdy video from yours truely

January 31st, 2011 by
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This is a video that i sh0t, edited at the weekend, just thought I’d let our readers see what I have been up to since I havent posted in so long. If your a nerd,  you’ll know what frogger is. if your not, Frogger is 30 years old this year, and is about a frog trying to get home.

for more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frogger

Farts and pubs

January 24th, 2011 by

My nephew introduced me to the phenomenon of ‘Farts and Pubs’ at the weekend, is spreading across the country and indeed the globe.  Ensure you are sitting down, read on and prepare to be amazed.

If person X farts and person Y says ‘Pubs’, then all other persons in the vicinity can proceed to punching person X, until that person names five pubs in the locality and then whistles.  The key points here being, five pub names and whistle.

So the next time you break wind, ensure you have five local pub names on the tip  of your tongue!

Eddie Rocket’s is a-coming to Carlow Town!

January 20th, 2011 by

Yes, let’s get it out there.

I am sad. I am sad because of two things.

The first is that when I was walking through Carlow Town today, I saw an ad saying “Eddie Rocket’s is coming soon!”.

I was over hyped! The second reason you may think I’m sad is because I’m devoting a blog post to this!

Anyway, there’s a history to this. I love Eddie Rocket’s, though the Counter burger has pipped Eddie Rocket’s in “Best Burger according to Rozzie” The Garlic-Cheese fries, Oreo Chocolate malt, chicken tenders and their new sweet potato fries are the best!

And guess what? They’re coming to Carlow! It’s good for the town but not for my waistline. Resolve will be needed!

I find it strange that it’s coming to the town after all these years, we have a Rip-off version in the town, it basically has copied their menu and tried to put an Irish slant on it. You know what this is if you’re from Carlow. I think this may spell the end for this particular eaterie!

You will find the new Eddie Rocket’s at Court Place, the top of Tullow Street in beside the new HSE and Bank of Ireland( and my fave hairdressers, Berlin and face beautician for Shellac, Butterfly Beauty)

We should meet up for a malt. Check out my blog at www.rozz.ie

Carlow speed cameras

November 16th, 2010 by

As of November 15th 2010, a new network of speed cameras has been let loose on Irish roads. White vans with ‘hi-viz’ markings, containing the speed cameras will terrorise motorists across the country. The general location of the vans has been published by the Gardai, see here.

Here is a snapshot of the Carlow speed cameras.

A quick glance shows there is no attention paid to the M9 motorway. This is in keeping with Garda promise that this project would be focused on accident or speed black spots. The old N9 is heavily monitored, even in the urban sections of the road in Carlow Town.

One strange stretch of road that gets considerable attention is what I would call the “back road to Bagenalstown”, it runs parallel to the old N9 from Carlow Town out to the Harrow Cross and beyond. This is a tight road and it is hard to imagine where a large van is going to find the space to park up.

I am amazed the N80 is void of any attention. I consider this to be one of the more dangerous roads in Carlow. The N80 is a fast road with many right hand turns and it has seen its fair share of accidents.

Below is the full map which you can zoom in to your most frequented roads. The red strips indicate potential locations of the speed camera vans. Happy motoring!

Indie’go, a summation

September 15th, 2010 by

After weeks of build-up, we finally got to see the great Indie’go Music festival come to fruition, but unfortunately we were sadly disappointed in the end. Not to do with bad organisation, or poor acts, but attendance! I know it has been a long while since it was cancelled, but I was doing some research, and finding out peoples thought on the festival, making sure I wasn’t blinded.

In mine and others opinion it was a great festival. Unlike the main stream commercial festivals, you didn’t go to Indie’go to drink to have fun, you went there to have fun and a drink, maybe on the side. The venue was a small intimate garden to the back of the house in Fenagh, no intimidation on the size, if anything it created a very friendly atmosphere.

Surrounding the back of the field was a couple of lovely interesting little stalls offering food, wares, and oddities, ranging from coffees to woollen jumpers. The real focal point when it came for food was the “Eco-bus”(check them out by clicking here )- A red double Decker bus, decorated very bohemian with the kitchen in the lower section of the bus and the upper deck with wooden tables and comfy couches but the main point about the bus, it was powered by renewable energies! The fuel was the used vegetable oil from the kitchen, and all other power was brought from windmills and solar power collected as the bus sat there serving.

Coming to the music, the sound and main stage were amazing! The Main act I think that comes up for commendation is local band “CLEERE”, who had a great set that was unfortunately cut short due to the schedules running very late. One of the oddities though was an English band call “Smerins Anti-Social Club” which rocked the festival so much I am pretty sure that got everyone in the field up and dancing. The way the band dressed and sang reminded me of a 1920’s speak easy blues band, although the sound was fresh and new. It was basically a brass band, I did thoroughly enjoy their set.

On the second stage, were the slightly less interesting bands, but was taken over by a DJ, after hours, which was a good idea, but the DJ’s, in my own opinion, weren’t the best, doing tricks that made the CD sound damaged, on purpose, and did not sound right where they were( I know I’m not as read up on dance music as I should be and that sound is right in some cases but in these cases definitely not!). The idea of the DJ’s were great, but the DJ’s themselves weren’t.

In conclusion, Indie’go was a great festival, and we hope that we see it again next year, unlikely as it might be. It is my personal belief (not that of Monte Carlow), that with a bit more publicity and the right ideas of ticket prices and such, maybe getting in earlier to schools and colleges, and going to national papers etc., and not just facebook, we could possibly have a fantastic festival for Carlow!

My apologies

September 15th, 2010 by

I want to let our loyal readers know, that rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated! These past couple of weeks have been very turbulent for me. Things have finally levelled off for me in the past couple of days, but am on a high! I am now in Tipperary Institute, Clonmel campus studying Information Technology(creative Media).

I only learnt that I was doing this course last Thursday, and been rushing around sorting myself out. I will be back with vengeance in the next couple of days. I will also not be neglecting my home town, and will be back on the weekends working and partying :P . hope to talk again soon!

Carlow Gardai shooting fish in a barrel?

August 15th, 2010 by

M9 Motorway

Numerous times throughout the month, I make my way down the N7 and onto the new M9 motorway to get from the ‘big smoke’ down to Carlow.  The current layout of the M9 means all traffic must exit the motorway at Powerstown, Carlow.  An all too familar sight at this junction recently is a Garda car instructing a civilian car to pull over and view the results of a speed gun capture.

The M9 opened in December 2009.   The entire strip of motorway is a 120 km/ph zone.  The speed limit reduces on approach to the exit and further reduction as you exit. There have been numerous accidents and one (open to correction) fatality on this road since its opening. However,  the most heavily policed strip of the motorway (including the N7 out of Dublin) appears to be as motorists exit at Powerstown.

In 2008 (most recent stats available), 72% of all fatal collisions occurred on rural roads.  I would expect to see a similar figure for the current year.  I would also expect to see a similar percentage of Garda resources deployed to rural roads.  In my experience of rural roads in Carlow, this is not the case.

I personally have to ask what the benefit is of such a constant police presence here.  Before you ask, no I have not been caught speeding here recently, not yet at least!  Are lives being saved?  Should  Garda resources be deployed to area’s with greater potential for accidents?  Have your say in our poll or leave a comment below.

Is the Garda presence at Powerstown exit of the M9 motorway justified?

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CSI Drumphea by Culchie Adventures

June 27th, 2010 by

Found the Culchie Adventures on You Tube. Five videos, all appear to have been created in Carlow by two bowsies from the area. Not to be taken too seriously! Picked the video below for the opening title alone!

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Éigse Festival 2010

May 29th, 2010 by

Éigse, Carlow’s premiere annual arts festival, it is coming around soon again. This year is yet another impressive line up, with different traditional art galleries cropping up in unlikely places, interesting music and theatre, and anything else that is going to sample your palette on!

But, I hear you shout, what’s so different this year, well for one this is MonteCarlow’s first year online where we can cover it! That’s what’s so special! The one event definitely I am looking forward to, is “Jerry Fish and Mudbug Club”, a real cool and easy musical group, you can really set your teeth into! Playing in the George Bernard Shaw Theatre, and for only €15 it’s an absolute bargain! He is set to play 17/06/2010@21.30h with local support of another amazing band “sugar factory”!

We also get to get some international stand up comedy, from the great Andrew Maxwell. You may know him from such shows as RTÉ’s “the Panel” or BBC’s “mock the week”, a great night guaranteed! The tower will be putting up with him for this concert, and €18 for a night where you may be taken to hospital for your sides splitting, I think is good! (MonteCarlow does not guarantee hospital admittance nor you laughing, but if you don’t, you’re a dry old sod, lighten up!)

This is only the headlines at the minute as they stand, Éigse starts on June 11th and runs through to the 20th,2010, please visit the Eigse website to see the entire line-up, when their on or find direction to a venue.