I have great faith in a website www.skyscanner.net, that provides a service to millions of users. With this website you can pick a source & a destination and they will find direct and indirect flights. In addittion they give you the prices from the various airlines one of these all being Ryanair.

This afternoon, I log on to see about some cheap flights to the Canaries for September and see a note about Ryanairs prices not being available anymore so I follow the link to the news site that Ryanair have made a blanket request to all websites carrying their prices to polease refrain from doing so.

Quel Domage as they say in France,  Do they not realise taht Skyscanner only indicates the flight availability and price, but when you go to do the booking the surfer is tranported to the airlines website i.e. Ryanair, and there is no fees or commissions from Skyscanner.

Skyscanner have removed the prices in anticipation of negotiations with Ryanair and to get their prices back up. I hope they do soon as this is an excellent site and service to teh user, and the Airlines like Ryanair benefit greatly.

Come on Mick, give us back our sourcing service by getting the information back active with Skyscanner.

Speaking of Ryanair, I blogged a while ago about giving priase where due, and I can only repeat this again. I had some elderly relations have reason to visit Fuerteventura courtsey of Ryanair, one of them requires teh use of a wheel chair and they had nothing but the HIGHEST of praise for the Ryanair service both in Dublin, Fuertenvura airports and on the plane.

Roll on Ryanair, keep up the good work.

Did you know that you need a TV Licence for a Satellite Dish ?. No I didn't think so.

Let me tell you a story that has really p*ssed me off.

Last November i moved into a new house, unfortunatley I was not able to sell my current house so I tried to rent it out. I finally succeded this week. Anyway last week my empty house had a visit from a TV Licence Inspector, who left a note saying he would be back within 14 days because he observed an Aerial on my house.

I have a satellite dish not a TV aeriel, I also have a broadband aerial, maybe this was what he seen. I don't think so.

So how many of us know we need an TV Licence for an aeriel NOT MANY I BET.

Do they tell us this in all the TV & Radio advertisement. No F**king way.

So here I am now, having always bought my licence since 1980, embarassed that a house I am trying to let/sell with the benefit of a Satellite Dish & Broadband aeriel embarassed that I am breaking the law.

when we moved into the new house we contatced the boffins at teh TV Licence department of An Post and told them what we were doing and they said that we could bring our existing licence with us and they would update their records. They never once said we needed to have a licence in the empty house for the aeriel. Why NOT I ask you ????

Anyway doing my good citizen bit I decided to call An Post and tell them about me moving and there being no TV in teh house etc. and I went on line to get teh number to call. You would expect a national free phone number for something like National TV Licences - NO WAY. Call your local TV licence office. There is none for Kildare, so I assumed well Dublin is next Door and the Capital they should be able to help me, No can do, you must call Birr - Birr is in flamin Offally not Kildare, so away I go calling an 057 number. I called at least 10 times over 1 1/2 hours always engaged. Maybe there were a lot of people in Kildare trying to query TV Licences, so instead I sent an email.

I received a very nice reply to day telling me

Unfortunately it is the case that a property owner should have a TV licence for an adddress if there is any TV broadcasting signal receiving apparatus at an address. However, it should be noted that in order for An Post to prosecute anyone for non possession of a TV licence an inspector has to actually find someone in possession of a TV signal receiving apparatus at an address.

So learn your lesson from this.

Thankfully I have a tenant moving in this week and it is now his responsibility to have a licence.

By the way, the guy at the Birr TV licence office wants me to give my new tenants details to him. NO WAY he can get them himself. I told teh tenant to expect a call from the licence inspector. Hopefully he will be transferring a licence from another address so there will be no extra fee for them or RTE.

Now I don't give praise lightly, but I do feel where deserved it should be mentioned.

I recently had th epleasure of a Ryanair flight to and from Fuerteventura (Canary Islands to the uninitiated), I was not relashing a 4-4.15hr flight with RA but in fairness the crew were excellent Both going and returning. There was plenty of food and drink available if you wanted to pay the usual exhorborant prices. I have been on other 2 hr RA flights where the food trolley is empty by the time it gets to you at the back of the plane.

Anyway we (my wife and I) were travelling with our daughter who is 24 and a dreadful traveller and our 18 month old granson, we got into Fuerte well rested and fit to commence a 7 day break in 25-27degC of sunshine and we got in ahead of schedule approx. 10 mins. I had only 1 issue with the RA crew and that is the usual when they do not have a full flight they limit the seats you can sit in so we were not allowed into the first 6 rows and the last 4 rows. But during the course of the flight they didn't mind people moving up to the fron row for a short break because it was cooler up there as it was very warm mid ships.

Coming back the flight was more full and we were told not to sit in the first 4 rows. There was a lot of under 2's on the flight which means they don't have a seat which was the case with us, but luckily the row across from us only had 2 passangers and yours truly moved in there after take off and the grandson had a seat to him self for the duration of the flight except for landing where he moved back to his mothers lap. The crew did not have any problems with this. And glory be we landed nearly 20 minutes ahead of schedule and guess what ???. DAA or AR wasn't ready for us!!!!!!.

Ha Ha, I hear you say, but we were kept on board for nearly 30 minutes while DAA or AR  organised 2 buses to collect us and bring us in. I kid you not. RA were ready and expecting both doors front and rear to be used, but by the time DAA or AR had the stairway at the rear connected there was only 4 people to come down it.

Anyway to sum up, Fair Dues RA and thanks for 2 excellent flights.

There was a guy on the flight who looked remarkably like Michael O'L, but I dont think it was him I only seen him from a distance and there was no official car to collect him at the plane.

Oh one other thing, as we were travelling with an 18month old we had a buggy with us and for the FIRST time ever in Dublin Airport was the buggy made available to us at the plane, nomally you have to wait for this inside the luggage hall, and if you are unluck enough to come in on gate 67 its a long f**king walk with a baby/wobbler/toddler especially when you consider the amount of stuff you need to carry with a baby.

God, I am really pi*sed off with Dublin airport facilities.

This morning I had the good fortune to collect a colleague from a flight from Franfurt so I arrived at the airport with about 30minutes to spare. The intention being 'have a coffee and a sandwich'. More like have a brew of insipid Latte and a semi frozen semi soggy concockion of rubber textured smoked ham, wilted lettuce, some slices of tomato that a Parma Ham carver would have been proud of they were so thin and what was suppose to be butter on the bread.

Well for starters, I do understand that food must be kept in a refridgerator so yes it should be cold, but this sandwich was so cold there was no give in the bread, it had the consistency of soggy cardboard (probably attempted to butter the bread straight from the freezer ?) and tased as tasteless also, not that I'm given to eat cardboard (soggy or otherwise) on a regular basis that I should be able to make a comparisson, but I do know these things. I opened one side of the sandwich No Butter or even spread or mayo on board. Then I looked at the wilted lettuce the rubber ham and the practically non existant tomato. I hesitantly took a bite - well I was hungry !!!!.

As my body tried to digest the offering , I tried another bite to see if it got any better NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. So there was €4.95 into the bin. I learned a long time ago no point complaining to the girls working in the coffee shop in DA, they tell you the sandwichs are bought in ready prepared and packed and then their english isn't quiet good enough to carry on a heated argument and you get more frustrated and the old blood pressure rises. So back to the counter I goes, I'll have a scone and some butter and jam. Hhhmmmmmmmmmmmm. The scone could be bounced off the wall it was that hard. Whats the f**king point, your better off starving.

Ok I said the coffee was insipid latte, I probably should stick to the black coffee like Blacksheep is doing, but hell a nice hot latte is nice every now and again.

So here we go again, DAA, please get the resturants to do something about the quality of their produce.

God, I was sitting at home thinking to myself, 'It time Can for another blog', but what the f**k do I blog about. Then it came to me, all that crap paper that fills my recycle bin every month that comes through my letter box.

I am pi**ed off with Sky TV for starters, f**k it every week I get a circular in the letter box telling me to join up and get 2 free months and join a friend up and get 10 euro vouchers of some such other f**king sh1t.

Are they blind, I have a f**king Sky Dish on the side of my house !.

I have f**king UPVC windows, gutters, faschias, doors etc. Just look before you put it in my letter box.

I have already told by way of letter some offical bum, that I don't want this crap but I keep getting it. If I didn't have all this sh1t, I wouldn't have to be putting out extra bags of recycle paper & PET bottles every month.

Then I get the same crap when I buy a newspaper or a magazine, the amount of inserts are often more paper than the f**king newspaper.

Ban all this sh1t. AND

POST NO BILLS Isn't that what they used to write on the hoardings.

If postage wasn't so f**king expensive I would save it up for a year and send it back to them by mail.

NOW there's an idea, if we all did that and sent it back without any postage stamps and some important looking 'From name & address' on it the Sky or whoever, would have to pay the postage to get back their own crap.

What you all think out there ???????

Have you read the Irish Examiner this morning. Poor old Joe Walsh ex Minister doesn't knw how to take a flight, or enter a car park, or pay for a car park. What a load of old sh1te. I quote

"Former Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh has told of the difficulties he endured after making way for Mary Coughlan in the Cabinet reshuffle of 2004."

Read the article on line at http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=ireland-qqqm=ireland-qqqa=ireland-qqqid=28872-qqqx=1.asp

My f**king heart bleeds for him and the rest of the so called leaders of this country.
He feels after 2 decades of work he is now been ignored. Wake up and smell the roses. Like is not a fish bowl.

I quote again "I think the biggest trauma, and the thing that you would need some counselling for, was that quite suddenly, people who would literally put out the red carpet for you or grovel to you [when a minister] would totally ignore you — you were a non-person.” - Just Who the F**k does he think he is ????. He wants people to grovel to him. Hey come on.

Now he has to queue in an airport and collect his luggage off a carousel. He had to learn how to drive again after 20 years and he didn't know what a Round About Was. There must have been no windows in his ministerial merc.

He should NOT have been let drive his car after 20 years. He should have been made do a full Driver Training and Intensive Testing.

What kind of people are we putting into Government ????.

Detergent Bottles is a very general term for what these really are. They are not all detergents in the way we consider detergent (i.e washing powder). These are the PET Botttles with Trigger Spray guns on them for cleaning the counter top, cleaning the shower, spray on a stain on a shirt, oven cleaners, disinfectant, etc. You all know the type.

Now if like me (and before someone suggests it I am NOT a Green Nut), I am concerned for our environment and alos the future of my childrena nd grandchildren and their children and so on.

Whne the wife an I go shopping to one of the above named stores we invaribly return with at least 1 of these bottles if not 2. and both with spray triggers. What have the empty ones got More f**king triggers!. What do I put in my recycle bin ?. I rinse out teh bottle and put it in, the trigger I'm afraid goes in the land fill waste bin because it is not acceptable recycleable rubbish.

Why of Why cant the manufacturers offer 'Refills'- An Eco Friendly Solution for thier product. We can reuse our existing trigger, and when the spring is eventually worn out we can buy a new bottle with a trigger on it. Think what else, we could save ourselves a few cent on expenditure - probably not a lot. I would prefer to pay the current price and have the savings passed on into researching more biodegradeable containers for the detergents.

What I hear you say ? – a engine ?, 4 wheels & a steering wheel ?, seats ?, etc…. Yes all these, BUT SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT – A LITTLE BLUE LIGHT ON THE DASH BOARD. This light would come on when I had my full beam lights on, and guess what I could see it very clearly on the dash board. My more recent cars (over the last 10-12 years) have had the REAR FOG LIGHT that comes complete with a LITTLE RED or AMBER LIGHT on the Dash Board.

If it is so important to sit with your friends for a 2.5-3 hour flight, get the first ones checking in to reserve the seats next to them for their friends and tell them the seat numbers - and don't pi*s people like me off all the time.

There we go again anothe spleen vented.

I have just spent the last hour trying to speak with some one at Aer Lingus. For starters you visit their website and get a telephone number that is answered by an automatic answering system, BUT WHAT if your query DOESN'T FIT the Questions ??????

There is no option to speak with a service agent at any time like the way the Banks do with their Online Customer Services - Aer Lingus - Take F**king Note

Why has this happened to me ?

I recently had a personal incident where I was unable to make a flight with my wife because we had a bereavment in teh family. After all this I submitted an insurance claim to my insurers who duly paid me the cost of the flights minus the excess and minus the taxes. Their instruction to me was that the airline would refund the taxes automatically. What a load of Bo**ix when it comes to Aer Lingus. You can't even ring the f**kers to talk to them about it. I eventually got through twice to the wrong department (deliberatley pretending that it was a telephone booking change I wanted to make and then explain what I wanted) but as soon as I said hello to the person on the other end of the line - Guess What I got Cut Off. Bully for F**king Aer F**king Lingus and their so called Customer Service.

So here I am now 72 euro down and not even an email address or a fax where I can contact the f**kers.

If anyone from Aer Lingus reads this blog and would like to communicate with me please do so. I could do with the excitment and the assistance.