Ah, I remember the good old days. Wednesday nights at 9pm. Keeping my fingers crossed that the TV reception would hold up. Feeling totally inadequate as a business person watching the talented candidates in action. Humming along with the theme tune. Saying the words “the search for Sir Alan’s apprentice continues” along with the voiceover guy. Taking the lift from the entertainment room in the basement to the penthouse level to write the blog post.

Relaxing into the La-Z-Boy with the notebook on my lap. Watching the twinkling of the stars out over the bay. Rachmaninov playing gently in the background as an accompaniment to the clickety clack of the keyboard. Words floating effortlessly onto the screen. Ignoring the calls of my stunning East European girlfriend (who bears a striking resemblance to Cameron Diaz, but with a really sexy accent) to come to bed. “10 more minutes Tatiana, I promise. I hope you’re wearing that red satin corset with the matching thong and stockings that I bought you in Paris last week”…

Wow, what a roundabout way to introduce two Apprentice related snippets… It was a nice dream though.

First snippet:

Nick Hewer has a blog – he’s on the 10,000 mile Mongol rally for charity. He was kind enough to send me an email to tell me about it.

And Lee McQueen calls in sick on his first day. Oh My God….

That is all.

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Yes folks, it was reported on the news yesterday morning that a truckload of sand was making it’s way from the sunny south east. The delivery was for what you see above, a beach in George’s Dock in Dublin.

It’s for the Docklands Urban Beach which opens today and runs right through until 20th July. Opening hours from 12pm to 8pm.

This tropical oasis will be the home to sizzling summer activities for the whole family. Complete with beach cabins, showers, lounge chairs, beach umbrellas, and a refreshment beach hut, the beach will have daily activities to suit everyone’s fancy.

If there is a God, hopefully he will smile on us. Or perhaps if the radio stations started playing Hail Glorious Saint Patrick, someone up there just might listen.

“Hail Glorious Saint Patrick, dear Saint of our Isle, on us thy poor children bestow a sweet smile (and some sun). Our hearts shall still burn wheresoever we roam, for God and Saint Patrick and our sunny home (pretty please).”

More details here. The before photo below. Happy 4th July everybody!

A very quick Friday Eyedrops this week – time is not on my side this Thursday…

I have mentioned before that I like books and also magazines. One magazine I tried for the first time this week was The New Yorker. All I can say is best €6.71 I spent all week. I’ve ordered a subscription too – now I now how Walter Kiam felt when he was “so impressed” that he “bought the company”.

This one article in particular I found fascinating and is quite simply a must read. It’s all about itching, brains and bodies. If you’re working right now, don’t attempt to read this right away, it deserves your full attention.  Print it out and read it tonight.

If you’re like me, you will feel itchy at some point during this and be reminded again of the mystery of our lives.

I’m sure lots of you have already discovered the New Yorker but I’m glad I’ve taken up the habit now!

Second magazine I bought this week was Monocle. It was on the shelf below the New Yorker and it stood out on the shelf + it had a special Design supplement which interested me. The tagline for the magazine is “A briefing on global affairs, business, culture and design”. Worth a read too. Had to laugh when I saw the reader survey on the back page. One of the questions was the household income. First box to tick was “Up to £100k” – last box to tick was “More than £7m”.  Ever read a magazine and feel like you shouldn’t be reading it. Seeing that survey, I did!

The latest Road Safety Authority of Ireland campaign was in the news this week. It’s called “He drives, she dies”. Research shows that two thirds of women who died in car crashes were passengers in cars driven by men.

This is another in a long line of ads targetted at young men and their bad driving habits. I can’t help getting the feeling that this sort of campaign is like telling someone they are “no good” until they start to believe it. They then act accordingly because everyone expects it of them anyway.

Maybe speed regulators on cars for young drivers would be a more sensible and life saving solution?

This video isn’t on Youtube so you’ll have to follow this link to watch. It’s a series of “15 x 20 second Idents for Russian channel ‘Bibigon’”. Lots of fun facts that you might not have known, including a very interesting one about pigs!

It’s nice to sit down after a busy day and read the paper or a book on your journey home. Sometimes little things will conspire against you. Like this evening and the sound of a faulty air conditioning unit on a bus. I actually laughed when I heard it at first. After a while, I must confess it was very annoying. Judge for yourself, I recorded 15 seconds of it.

This is a flash video. If you don’t see anything below with a big button to play the video, seek technical assistance to get it working. Don’t ask me, I can’t hear you!

I need my hair trimmed. Anyone other than myself would look at my hair and think “what’s he on about, he’s hardly captain caveman as it is”. This may be true, but I like how light I feel after getting a trim. I’m not obsessed about my hair or anything, I just like it to be neat. The concept of having a bad hair day is alien to me as I’m sure it is for most men. 15 to 20 minutes in the barbers every 3 to 4 weeks with (preferably) zero chat from the barber is hair grooming nirvana.

This isn’t the reason for my posting though. Since that part of my brain (the reticular activating system bit) is now telling me to get a haircut, I’m noticing all sorts of barbery related things, like:

• What a recession proof business model it is
• Virtually zero outlay on stock
• How the mullet seems to be coming back in to fashion
• The funny and clever names of some barber shops

Just this evening over a cup of tea I saw an ad for a new barbers in Greystones. The name : Sweeney Todd. Clever or what? Actually, there are one or two more with the same name dotted around the country. It must be great fun coming up with names for a barber. In Wicklow Town we have:

Mustdash, The Rebel Barber (he’s from Cork), Mick’s Barbers, Eoin’s Barbers and Carlos the Clipper. None of those names a particularly clever. I like Carlos the Clipper myself though.

I hit the goldenpages (as you do) to see if there were any good barber or unisex salon names in the book like Sweeney Todd. There’s not a whole lot of imagination in there but here’s a few that got my attention for various reasons:

• Ye Olde Baber Shoppe
• For Fir
• Bazzers
• A-Nu-U by Beverly (hmm)
• Busy Blades
• De Barbers (niiice – it’s in Cork)
• The Baldy Barber
• Boyz 2 Men
• Cru’cuts Barbers
• Just in for a Haircut (as opposed to what now?)
• Lord Snooty’s
• The Men’s Room (least it’s not the little boy’s room)
• Mr. Jose Gonzalez (Speedy Gonzalez came into my head - ariba ariba)
• Fat Tony’s Barber Shop (you’ll sleep with de fishes)
• Sizzers Hair Design
• and my personal favourite : Curl Up’n Dye (another Cork classic)

Any more good ones out there + to the lads (or the ladies) – what’s your hair maintenance routine like?

Header image photo by lecercle and modified under a cc license.