Kieran

Formula, the Liver, Sex and Haggis – a Chocolate News Roundup

I had a long hard day today – good in many ways, but the last months have been stressful (and light on blog posts) due to something we’ve been working on that hopefully I’ll be able to talk freely about in a short period of time. Fingers crossed.

In any case, when I’ve had a long day, I think of chocolate. After eating a bit, I decided to take it a bit further and see what’s new in that particular world. Here’s a little roundup:

1. Good news first – the Telegraph has a story that chocolate could reduce the risk of stroke. A chemical in dark chocolate, epicatechin, protects the brain by shielding nerve cells and seems to be proving a better treatment for stroke than current treatments. It’s the latest in a long line of chocolate health pieces.

2. The Telegraph seems to be obsessed with chocolate, because about a month ago they also reported that doctors might soon be prescribing dark chocolate for people liver damage. So, if you’re going to have a drink, don’t forget a chocolate chaser!

3. Now the bad news – is it possible that chocolate lovers are more depressive? The BBC has this story saying that it could well be. I’m depressed just thinking about it!

4. There are those in India, and seemingly elsewhere, who wonder whether women think about chocolate more often than sex. The Times of India interviews some musicians on the topic.

5. This is pretty crazy – how early is it to start a child on chocolate? The LA Times has this article on a new chocolate-flavoured formula by Mead Johnson. Now, I’m as chocoholic as it gets, but for this Daddy, chocolate formula is a step too far.

6. Here’s something that could just tempt me to move North of the border and fake high blood pressure: the BBC is reporting that Queens University will be recruiting 110 volunteers with high pressure for three years of eating dark chocolate and berries. Mmmmm.

7. How much white chocolate could you eat? The World Records Academy has announced that the world record has been broken for the largest chocolate sculpture – a replica of the Dome of Milan in white chocolate. Video below.

8. Are you a fashionista? If so, check out this chocolate jewlery (via Epicurious). Didn’t you always want to sport a bit of theobromide?

9. Don’t puke: UKPA says an Edinburgh-based chocolatier is making haggis-flavoured chocolates.

10. Finally, I tweeted this a while back, but if you’re an iPhone fan (or know one), here’s a smashing gift (via the Independent).

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Feile na Bealtaine 2010

Feile na Beltaine Anyone lucky enough to be in Dingle this weekend can enjoy the magic of  Feile na Bealtaine, which runs until May 3rd. There’s so much going on, that perhaps it’s just better for you to visit the festival website and check it out for yourself!

To give you a sense of the fun, here’s a little clip of a violinist from the RTE Orchestra who happened into our shop and played for his ice cream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fybWAw54ZPo

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If You’re Going to Binge, Choose Ice Cream

At 3:30 am, on Sunday morning, my partner woke me with a terrified whisper – “There’s a man in the house!”

My first thought was that we were being robbed, and (after checking that little Róisín was safely asleep) I pretended to ring the Gardai (my phone was charging downstairs), telling them in a very loud voice to come around. There wasn’t any sound downstairs, so I  went to the stop of the stairs, switching on the light. There, looking up at me, was a big man, perhaps in his late 30s.

What struck me, with a surge of adrenaline, is how lives could be changed with such a moment. If I hit him and he fell and hit his head, I’d be in serious trouble. If he had a knife, I’d be in serious trouble. Either way, things wouldn’t turn out well. It was soon apparent, however, that he was drunk to the point of hardly being able to speak. That made his being in the house less sinister, but still I had no way of knowing whether or not he was a violent or a gentle drunk. I bundled him out the back door and locked it.

I rang the Gardai in Tralee (Dingle Gardai go off duty at 3:00 am), and they told me once he was outside there shouldn’t be a problem. I’m guessing they had more serious matters to deal with on a Saturday night. Meanwhile, outside, the man started taking off his clothes, and he kept trying to open the door (although not in a violent manner).

Worried that he’d die of exposure or fall and hit his head, I went outside. Again, he didn’t seem violent, but he was so drunk that it was hard to know what he would do. I told him this wasn’t his house, helped him into his clothes, and brought him to the front of the house. I asked him where he lived or where he was staying, for I would have walked him home, but he couldn’t tell me. I asked him if there was someone we could ring, but he shook his head. All he said was, “My wife will kill me.” Finally, he stumbled off down the street toward town.

We had trouble falling back to sleep, but in the scheme of things, we were quite aware that although shocking to have someone come into the house, no harm had been done. I had forgotten to lock the front door, and my partner made me promise I wouldn’t forget again.

The episode made me think about Ireland and drink. Although per capita drinking has fallen in Ireland, we still top the table in terms of binge drinking. It’s the latter that landed the fellow into our house and has been the cause of so many problems with fights, with full accident and emergency wards and heartache for friends and family. We still don’t take binge drinking seriously as a nation, and a great number of people don’t think it’s a problem at all.

I think it’s a problem, and I’ve thought that for a while. I don’t have any answers, and I’m not going to make any campaign on the issue. I’m not prudish about drinking, and in fact had been to the pub myself the same evening for a couple of pints and some conversation. A couple of pints, however, is a very different thing from drinking yourself into a state where you don’t even know where you live.

Besides making me understand the preciousness of one’s family and how much we need the feeling of safety in our homes, the man in our house also helped to clarify thoughts about our own shops.

We’ve talked before about whether we should get a wine license or how cool it would be to serve alcohol over ice cream (vanilla with a shot of Bailey’s, etc). I think now that I’m very happy that we have a safe, alcohol-free, family environment. We’re not going to change anything about Ireland’s difficult relationship with drinking, but I feel good that we can offer a little alternative world, where the only binge will be an overindulgence of ice cream, chocolate or coffee.

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Need to Run off an Ice Cream?

For those of you who like to run, there has been a road race, the  Killarney Maxi Marathon, announced for Killarney, to take place on July 17th. The route looks spectacular, so it could be the perfect way to whet the appetite for some ice cream! If you want to run for charity, the official charity partner is the Marie Keating Foundation.

West Kerry Sun and Music

I’ve been remiss in posting, but it’s been a busy Easter in our shops, especially once the sun finally came out.

This week, Dingle is hosting the Pan Celtic Festival, and the festival certainly seems to be blessed as there were many of us here who looked at the schedule with some amusement since so many events were scheduled to take place outside, and the weather for the two previous weeks was ferocious. However, the rain passed, the sun’s been shining, and we’ve been treated to the colourful Welsh (photos above) as well as other musicians and dancers about the place.

The fierce gale of Easter Monday and the freezing weather before that is quite a hazy memory at this stage, and there are many in Dingle who have brought out summer dresses and short sleeves and started talking about whether we might just have a bit of good weather over the summer after all. It’s been three bad summers in a row, but when the sky above is blue, when there’s music on the streets and the scenery of West Kerry looks it’s best, it’s hard not to feel a burst of optimism and start to dream of beaches and barbecues and sultry days ahead…

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Wonderful, Fun Holiday

Fun Holiday

One of the nicest things about having a shop is that a day is often full of surprises, since you never really know who will walk in the door. This video shows the day’s best surprise – a family who had a song about their West Kerry holiday, and their little boy performed the song for me, since it featured our ice cream and waffles in our seasonal Tig Aine shop.

I’m still smiling…

Property By the Beach – Really Cheap!

I wrote about Christophe leaving a little while ago, and he’s been busy selling many of his possesions in preparation for heading off to the South Pacific.

One item he hasn’t sold yet is his caravan, which is in Cuan Pier, Ventry. I thought it just might be of interest for some of my readers, so if you want to get in touch with Christophe about buying it, here’s his email. He’s asking €2,000 for the mobile home and the caravan site rental is €1,100 a year.