Punchestown Horse Racing Festival 2013

Punchestown 2013 has to be one of the busiest horse racing festivals in Ireland. The bad weather on Friday did not seem to deter the punters and the place was packed.

Tickets for the Friday were €30 and for an extra €10 you could get access to the reserved enclosure. This is pictured below but don't be fooled as this is the quiet before the storm and this picture was taken around 12.30pm. This area was like a packed Dublin nightclub from 4pm onwards!

This is the Bollinger Champagne bar and the cheapest bottle was €88. I was wondering where the recession was as the punters were downing this stuff like it was water! There was a lot of men drinking the stuff also and not a bother on them either! Louis Walsh was floating around as he was judging the Ladies Day Competition. I believe he was having a chuckle with Enda Kenny later on in the day.

The €5.70 pints of Carlsberg seemed like a bargain compared to the champagne so I stuck to them. If you were drinking Guinness they costed €5.20 a pint. As the champagne bar did not serve pints it was a mission every time to get one. Ducking and weaving and side stepping around the punters was required but luckily enough spillage was kept to a minimum. At these prices you don't want to be spilling any beer!

The reserved enclosure area also had the biggest toilet queues (pictured below) I have ever seen in my entire life! We all associate a queue for the toilet with just the ladies toilet. This was not the case here and both man and woman had to queue. The ladies queue did not seem to move at all but the gents had a very quick turnover which was great!

It was unfortunate but I did not get to see much of the horse racing on Friday however Saturday proved to be a much more promising day. There was no rain on the Saturday and the majority of people were outside in the open. This made it much easier to move around the place.

It was very hard to pick horses on the Saturday as very little favorites were winning. One of the highlights for me was the three horse race on the Saturday at 3.10pm. The favorite for this race was even money. The winner was Grey Gold (6-1) and was a complete shock. I definitely missed out on that one!

In addition to the horse racing there was a lot of small stands where local suppliers were selling different goods ranging from clothing, accessories etc. Other stands were also there to advertise their products. 

There was also a small funfair with the usual Waltzer, magic mirrors and other rides. If you have young children they were giving out colouring books and pencils for free. They also had a large section inside which was a children's play area with the usual bouncing castles etc. The army were there and they had several military vehicles that you could get inside and have a look.

Overall it was a very good festival but in the future they should limit the crowd to a certain number as it gets uncomfortable when it is that busy.

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An Irish approach to Chinese Curry

Getting a Chinese takeaway is always a treat but can work out expensive if you have to feed a family. It could end up costing you between €40-€50.

Another approach is to make the curry yourself at home. I have done the calculations and it will roughly cost you about 25% of the price of the Chinese Takeaway.

I have been making these curries at home for many years and have perfected the art I hope! Lots of pictures are included so you can't go wrong!

First of all you will need to select your meat. I chose pork chops because they were doing a packet of them in Super Value for €3. For this curry I used two packets, 8 chops in total. All the fat was cut off and I diced them up. You can also use chicken or beef. Just remember if you are using beef (round steak) I recommend boiling it for an hour to soften it up or it will be too hard to eat.

If your in a hurry pork or chicken is the best option. If your a vegetarian you can just use vegetables instead of meat.

Step 1:
Take one large onion and chop it up. Put it in a bowl as you will need it later on.

Step 2:
Dice up the meat and put it in the pan. Add a little oil and then turn the pan on to a medium heat. I am using a wok so I had to use more oil. If you have a non stick pan you will need less oil.

Step 3:
Fry the meat for 5-10 minutes until it is white. Remember that pork has to be cooked well. Once this is done you are ready to add the frozen peas.

Step 4:
The sauce I am using for this recipe is called Bensons and Tesco and Super Value stock it. You will need to use the entire pack for the curry. They recommend to use about 1.2 litres of water. From experience I use about 1.1 litres of water.

Step 5:
If you have a container big enough, measure out 1.1 litres of cold water and add the powder to it. Mix this up with a fork to break up the powder.

Step 6:
Add this cold mixture to your wok. When the mixture is put in the wok initially it will look a bit watery as shown below. Don't worry about this as the sauce will thicken up. This will usually take about 15-20 minutes of simmering on a medium heat and remember to keep stirring or the sauce will stick to the wok.

Step 7:
Once your sauce has reached the required thickness you are ready to add the onions. Below is a picture of the thickness of the sauce that I usually go for. Onions are always added in about 3-4 minutes before serving the dish. This way they have a little crunch and don't get soggy.

Step 8:
I use micro rice with my curry so I put this in the micro once the onions have gone into the wok. You can do standard rice but you will need to cook this when you start the curry so that both are ready together.

Look at all that lovely curry! Total cost to make this dish is about €9 and will easily feed a family of 4. If you do try this let us know how you get on by using the comment box below.

 

Step 9:

Enjoy!

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Pensioner sticks it to the government regarding property tax.

It just seems that this country keeps going backwards. Recently former IMF chief Ashoka Mody said that austerity was wrong and that the government should have burned the bond holders. Enda just shrugged this off when he was questioned about Mr. Mody's interview.

The bond holders took a gamble and they lost. Do you think if you went to a Las Vegas casino and placed a bet and lost that the casino would give you your money back? I dont think Enda and Eamon would last too long running a Las Vegas Casino!

So why did the government not burn the bondholders in the first place. The entire public knew it was the right thing to do. Instead they persecuted their own people, ordinary people trying to make ends meet and buy food to feed their families. Is there some sort of secret agenda the government has here? What actually drove them not to burn the bond holders?

One pensioner has really stuck it to the government regarding the property tax by writing an excellent letter outlining the truth. This letter has gone viral on Facebook.

Why should people who have worked all their lives for this country have to pay for rich bankers mistakes. He also goes on to mention nobody has gone to jail yet and how these individuals have committed treason against the Republic.

Hopefully this letter causes a stir in the heart of the government and more people need to send in letters like this. Its the only way to get the message across.

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