A nation of happy campers

By admin | Published: August 26, 2010

With the communal tent-fest that is the Electric Picnic just a week away, John Cradden offers a fool-proof guide to slumming it in The Great Outdoors

It’s already that time of the year when tens of thousands of revellers are preparing to descend on the Laois countryside for Electric Picnic next weekend. But before all the music and mayhem can begin, festival-goers have to first successfully pitch their tents in the designated campsites.

This will be no problem to seasoned campers used to braving the elements and getting close to nature, dude, but for novices who rarely venture out of the Great Indoors, it can be a sobering experience.

Especially when The Waterboys are on the main stage and you’re still trying to figure out which peg goes in which hole — and why the blasted cover sheet keeps blowing in the wind.

Aside from the summer rock festivals, camping is not exactly embedded in Irish holidaying culture, mainly thanks to our less than predictable weather.

Indeed, you’re more likely to find foreign visitors camping in some of our most spectacular spots than we are.

But new research commissioned by car parts and leisure retailer Halfords suggests that a surprisingly large number of us are considering going camping. The retailer surveyed 1,000 people in Ireland about attitudes to camping and found that no less than 81% of them were thinking (in general) about it.

So how come we’ve apparently transformed into a nation of happy campers?

“This may be due to a range of factors including the difficult economic climate or simply a return to good old-fashioned values,” says Bob Parker, Halford’s Ireland country manager.

Camping may now represent the ultimate credit-crunch holiday experience, but if Halford’s figure seems very high, then it probably is.

For a start, the survey was commissioned by a retailer that happens to have some quite good special offers on tents and camping equipment at the moment.

But it’s also worth noting that the survey was conducted when we happened to enjoy a rather marvellous period of sunny weather and temperatures that rose to over 27 degrees Celsius.

What the survey does suggest is that the idea of camping can be far more appealing than the act itself, particularly when it’s sunny.

Indeed, it won’t be clear until the very end of the summer if campsites owners are enjoying a bonanza in bookings, according to the Irish Camping and Caravanning Council (ICC), but so far sites have been enjoying a busy period.

“Campers by their nature are late bookers if they book at all,” said ICC secretary Aideen Flynn. “Usually they wait to see what the weather forecast is like before they plan their trip.”

Ask your friends and family how they feel about camping and opinions will likely divide into the ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’ camps (no pun intended).

Those who love it will wax lyrical about being closer to nature and the countryside, the satisfying feeling of achievement after successfully putting up a tent, and simply just being (and eating) outside.

“Eating good food in the outdoors will put a smile on anyone’s face and make any camping holiday memorable,” says Dealga MacAree, a veteran camper from Dublin.

But then there are the alternative realities that leave many campers less than happy: the smelly sleeping bags, the bugs, no hot water, sometimes filthy campsite toilets and showers, and cheap tents that leak like a sieve in the rain.

“As I get older I would be more cautious about going camping from a security point of view,” adds Laura Mulligan from Dublin. “It’s that fear of not being able to sleep behind a locked door. Even hiring a camper van wouldn’t make me feel safe. Then the weather would be a huge factor.”

Camping can end up bing a hellish experience if you are unprepared, so here’s our top five piece of advice campers should note before packing up the tent.

1. The Tent

It’s definitely worth paying attention to your choice of tent. After all, it will be expected to withstand heavy rain, strong winds and threats to their structural integrity from wayward farm animals.

“When I was camping in Poland in 2007 a chicken jumped on my tent and somehow broke an aluminium pole,” says Barry Kennedy from Limerick. A temporary fix was managed with good old duct tape. “Unfortunately, the guilty chicken was able to escape into the next field uncooked.”

Prices start from next to nothing: Dublin camping specialists Capel Camping offers a two-person dome tent for as little as €19.99.

Mind you, it’s clearly aimed at cash-strapped music festival kids for whom quality is far less important than cheap beer. What’s more, it’s clear many regard them as disposable items, as evidenced by the many dome tents left abandoned at Oxegen or the Electric Picnic when the music’s over.

If you pitch your budget even a little higher, you could snap up a special-offer four-person tent from Aldi for €89.99, while Halfords has a four-person tent ‘pack’, including some camping equipment, that used to retail at over €300 but which is now on sale from its website for just €119.

Up to €400-500 will get you a very good quality item that can accommodate up to six people.

But if you’re really broke, someone, somewhere in your circle of friends and family probably has a tent you can borrow.

2. Read the instructions

Nearly 80% of those surveyed by Halfords said they were confident they could pitch a tent.

Confidence was clearly enough for the young couple at the Oxegen festival last year who managed to pitch their tent inside-out, and which had Galway man Fergal O’Hagan and his mates in stitches.

“They didn’t twig at all what they had done wrong,” he said.

3. Stay in a campsite or go wild?

Prices for campsites start from as little as €10 a night and you’d struggle to find one that charges more than €30.

If you haven’t visited one for a while, you’ll be amazed at some of the mod cons now available, such as handy power points and even Wi-Fi.

But you should consider camping in the wild, too, says Nick Russell from Cork, who has camped all over the world.

A huge amount of camping activity in other countries is restricted to campsites, he says.

“The great thing about camping in Ireland is that that you can choose to avail of campsite facilities or find your own idyllic spot to spend the night.

“This freedom makes the whole experience much more enjoyable.”

If you do camp in an area that isn’t specifically dedicated to camping, such as a forest, make sure that you leave no trace of your stay, says MacAree.

“We are blessed in Ireland to have countryside that is perfect for camping so it’s important to keep it like that.”

4. Equipment to make life easier

More than half of the Halfords survey respondents said they didn’t know what to pack for a camping holiday.

As well as the old reliables such as Swiss army knives or portable stoves, there are several items that many seasoned campers now can’t do without.

“Without question my headtorch is my desert island pick,” says MacAree. “I bought a good one about 10 years ago and still have it.”

He regards it as essential for reading in the tent, cooking meals at night and for midnight walks in the woods.

Air mattresses have come to be regarded as an essential rather than a luxury item, and there are now self-inflating ones that roll up tightly enough to fit in a rucksack.

Russell suggests clear, plastic bags with zip-locks to store anything that needs to stay dry. “There is nothing more miserable than wet clothes, shoes or sleeping bags,” he says.

5. Bring a sense of humour

No matter how prepared you think may be as a novice camper, Murphy’s Law can still take effect, if only because you’re out of your element.

A sense of humour about the pitfalls that can bedevil you definitely helps.

This article first appeared in the Irish Independent

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Is importing a used car from the UK still worth it?

By admin | Published: August 26, 2010

Experts believe that it is still cheaper to import a second-hand car from the UK or the North, even taking VRT into account, but be careful you don’t pay over the odds, writes John Cradden

IF you are one of the many thousands of motorists who sourced a used car from the UK in search of better value over the last few years, the chances are you got a bargain.

Thanks to the long weakness of sterling against the euro, the price-inflating effect of Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) on used car values in Ireland, and the lower prices (and wider availability) of used cars in the UK, the rate of used-car imports from across the Irish Sea soared from slightly fewer than 14,000 a year in 2003, to a peak of more than 60,000 in 2008.

Widespread anecdotal and media-survey evidence suggested that buyers could reasonably expect to save around 20pc or more on the price of an equivalent car in Ireland.

This is even taking into account the VRT that must be paid when re-registering the car, among other expenses.

However, in the past two years a couple of things have changed for the Irish used-car market that have made UK used-car imports less attractive.

The first is that sterling has strengthened against the euro, while the second is that used-car prices in Ireland have fallen (some say in response to the number of cheaper imports).

Prices

A third factor, according to motor-trade sources, is that used-car prices in the UK have hardened a little.

“Part of the problem is that the UK is fast running out of stock, which means sourcing from over there is not as easy as it used to be and if sterling strengthens, it will be even more difficult,” says Shane Teskey of car history-checking website Motorcheck.ie.

But he adds that because of the collapse in new-car sales, Ireland is also beginning to experience a shortage in the supply of good second-hand cars, which he says will become a significant problem over the next two or three years.

“The drop in (new car) sales from 2009 means that used car supply is starting to dry up.”

Indeed, figures from the Central Statistics Office, as well as Motorcheck.ie, show that while the number of used-car imports in 2010 is down nearly 40pc on the 2008 peak, they are almost on a par (so far) with figures in 2009, when slightly less than 50,000 were imported.

So, even if the total costs of importing UK cars generally appear to be much the same as the prices of used cars on sale in Ireland, problems with second-hand supply suggest that UK imports will remain a popular option for many motorists here over the next few years.

Indeed, importing cars from the UK is such a part of Irish used car-buying culture that many dealers here have been importing used models from the UK to meet demand.

Many car enthusiasts familiar with the experience of importing a UK used car have been keenly watching changes in the Irish market.

Klaus Gottsche from Galway imported some cars over the past few years, but his last import, a Renault Clio 172 (a hot hatchback), was in 2008.

He says he certainly wouldn’t save much on bringing in a car from the UK today.

“You would be hard pressed to find anything like that now, with only enthusiasts like me on the lookout for a clean, well-serviced, well-minded example, or people looking for specific specs like leather and other little goodies in middle or upmarket models,” he says.

Mr Gottsche believes many people have become wary of Ireland being used as a “dumping ground” for dodgy, crashed or clocked cars from the UK. He adds that many Irish used cars are now actually a good deal cheaper than in the UK.

“Any petrol-engined car over 1.6 or 1.8 litre, for example, is unwanted because of our punitive pre-2008 engine size-based tax regime and the big swing towards diesel,” he says.

But someone who has done the numbers on a UK car import in recent weeks — albeit hypothetically — is Bob Flavin, who runs motoring blog Smokerspack.com. Recently, he carefully compared the prices for a 2007 BMW 520d SE automatic, both here and in the UK.

Both cars were in similar condition and mileage. Even taking into account all the costs of importing the UK car, it still worked out nearly €5,000 cheaper than the Irish one. But, he notes that his comparison was made purely on paper.

“The prices of the cars I’m using are the full quoted price,” he wrote.

“If you walk into any dealer in Ireland with €22,000 in your pocket, and no trade-in, the price becomes negotiable.”

Mr Flavin believes many more dealers here will go out of business because those who would normally trade up around three to four years into their ownership are hanging on to their cars, making decent used cars rare.

“I don’t blame the dealers here, because of our frankly crazy VRT, UK cars start off far cheaper than the Irish models.”

This article first appeared in the Irish Independent.

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Supermarket psychology

By admin | Published: August 26, 2010

Supermarkets use clever psychology strategies to entice customers to spend more time on the floor, buy extra goods, and move quickly to checkouts at closing rime, writes John Cradden.

Thursday August 26 2010

HAVE you ever found yourself muttering under your breath that you have to traipse almost all the way through your local supermarket just to get a loaf of bread or a carton of milk?

Why can’t they have essential items near the front of the store?

Well, if you’ve ever read anything about supermarket psychology, you will know that this is one of a number of common tricks used by big supermarkets to get you to walk past items you didn’t plan on buying — and therefore spend more money that you intended.

It certainly appears to work. A survey of members of UK consumer association ‘Which?’ from last year found that two-thirds said they spent more than they intended at the supermarket.

More than seven in 10 said they go for special offers if they see them.

But the same survey also revealed some psychological tactics that British shoppers actively dislike.

Almost three quarters said they get annoyed when groceries are moved to different aisles.

This is a classic tactic designed to tempt you with other items while you try and track down the items you really wanted.

And almost six in 10 respondents said its manipulative when supermarkets place products that appeal to children on the lower shelves to catch their eye.

“There are a lot of examples of this,” says John Ruddy, editor of grocery trade magazine ‘Checkout’.

“Some supermarkets have been known to pump the smell of fresh bread around stores to entice customers to buy it.”

Music is another very interesting area, says Mr Ruddy.

“Playing fast, high tempo music when you want people to hurry up, such as when the store is closing, or slow, relaxing music during the day, to make people slow down and take their time — and buy more items.”

Of course, such tactics are part and parcel of the careful planning that goes into placing items on supermarket shelves and how much space they occupy.

Manufacturers are aware of this too, and will often be prepared to pay extra for placing their items at the most desirable locations, such as shelves at eye-level, and perhaps with eye-catching shelf labels specially made.

Needless to say, the supermarket trade wouldn’t describe such tactics as underhand.

“The point I would make is that retail is a game,” says Mr Ruddy. “It’s about trying to sell as much as possible to a consumer that may not want to buy the product.”

Promotions

So understanding some of the rules of the supermarket psychology game may well prove one of the most effective ways of helping you save money on your weekly shopping bill.

For instance, focus on the value of any tempting promotions rather than accept at face value that you are getting better value.

“Shoppers often buy on promotion because they like promotions, but they don’t always take into account what the promotion actually means,” says Mr Ruddy.

“They might buy two for €5.50 when the cost of two units at the regular price might be just €5.60.

“Yet people will see ‘deal’ and buy it because they like to think they are beating the supermarket.”

Some supermarkets apparently do things like make some packaging more austere so that people will think it’s cheap just because it looks cheap, even if it is not actually that cheap, or create ‘value’ sections which are full of ‘discount’ that are less than generous.

While store layout is a crucial part of supermarket psychology in terms of getting people to shop at a store in a way that makes them spend more, many managers will know that they have to get the balance right, says Mr Ruddy.

“There’s no point in making it too easy for a shopper to only buy what they want, but at the same time, you can’t make it too difficult for them to buy it, because then you will irritate them and lose the sale.”

So what other tactics are worth learning about? According to research by ‘Which?’, fruit and vegetables are often located at the front of your local supermarket in order to represent the healthy, fresh image that the supermarkets want to portray.

This is also the same rationale for almost always putting alcohol at the back of the store so as not to undermine this healthy image too much.

You will often find sweets at checkouts, which are very tempting not just for children but also tired shoppers.

Of course, shoppers can try to beat the retailer by considering promotions carefully, shopping in more than one supermarket, sticking to shopping lists and not being tempted by new products or deals.

This piece first appeared in the Irish Independent

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Journey to the centre of the earth

By admin | Published: August 5, 2010

Before their descent into the ‘underground Everest’, the deepest spot on the planet accessible to humans, JOHN CRADDEN talks to four Irish cavers for whom the only way is down

WHILE THE rest of us are soaking up the sun (or sheltering from the rain), four Irishmen will be spending most of their summer holidays in a cave 2km underground.

If that strikes you as a long way down, then your instincts would be spot on. It’s actually the deepest known cave that can be reached by humans, and it takes at least three days to get there.

Their three-week international expedition, starting today, to the bottom of the cave, in little- known country 2,500 miles away that no one has ever heard of, may well rank as the ultimate caving trip.

At a depth of 2,191m, the Krubera-Voronja cave in Abkhazia, a disputed breakaway Georgian republic on the Black Sea, has been dubbed the “underground Everest”.

“It is, for many, the reverse pinnacle of mountaineering,” says Stephen MacNamara, a senior member of this year’s 20-strong international expedition, and the only member of the Irish team who has been down there before – twice. “It is a very challenging expedition and it needs a strong team to pull it off.”

Joining him on this year’s trip will be Tim O’Connell from Co Clare, and Eoghan Mullan and Niall Tobin from Dublin. Together with MacNamara, a Dundalk native, they have more than 35 years of caving experience between them. They’ll be joining a group of similarly experienced cavers from Spain, France, Serbia and Lithuania.

So a trip like this is not for the faint-hearted, or indeed the claustrophobic, but what’s its like being 2km underground? In many ways, it will be much like any other deep cave, according to MacNamara, in that it’ll be very cold, wet, muddy and of course, pitch dark. There is no problem with air quality as the cave, like most caves, “breathes” as air flows through it, he says.

It will be eerily quiet. “There is water farther up in the cave which can be very loud and active, but here the atmosphere changes.” But it’s mainly the knowledge of how far down they are that gives the experience of the Krubera-Voronja its real psychological edge.

“You certainly feel remote, knowing how much time it takes to exit from that point,” says MacNamara.

This terrifying fact is already dominating the thoughts of the first-timers in the Irish team. “I feel a little jittery about the trip, particularly the level of remoteness once we get near the bottom,” says O’Connell. “It’s a long way from help if anything goes against us. That said, I can’t wait to get going.”

“There’s a reasonable amount of pressure to not let your team down or get injured, and there aren’t many more remote places on earth,” says Tobin. “To quote a man, ‘The helicopter’s not coming.‘”

The good news is that, to the best of MacNamara’s knowledge, the world’s deepest cave has not yet claimed any lives since it was properly discovered in the 1960s, although there has been an injury that required a rescue. “Fortunately, we’re all members of the Irish Cave Rescue Organisation,” he says.

There is also a strong scientific dimension to the trip, with the teams carrying out a range of measurements, experiments, samples, readings, and other information.

Besides gathering scientific data, the spelaeology (scientific study of caves) is crucial to the success of the expedition, not least to measure how rainfall on the surface affects water levels below. Besides falling, the single biggest cause of caving fatalities is drowning. This study allows the team to apply for funding support for an expensive trip that they couldn’t otherwise afford. As well as generous support from the Spelaeological Union of Ireland, which represents cavers, other local sponsors include Cascade Designs, Great Outdoors, Cotswold Belfast, Ailwee Cave and Marble Arch Caves.

At -2,080 metres, the deepest part of the Krubera-Voronja that isn’t filled with water has been aptly named Game Over. Did they celebrate when he reached it for the first time in 2008? “We had a 7-Up bottle of some celebratory alcoholic drink at the -1,800m camp that night,” says MacNamara. “There was a swig each. We can’t really afford to have much more at that depth. Prussiking [rope-climping] with a hangover isn’t good.”

If you ever wanted proof of the masochistic quality of caving, all you have to do is hear experienced cavers describe how exiting a cave after a long expedition is among the best moments of any trip.

“It sounds corny, but the colours and smells of plants when you’ve been underground for a few days is amazing,” says Tobin.

This article first appeared in the Irish Times

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Make cash from your hidden assets

By admin | Published: July 30, 2010

From renting out a parking space to making your garden available for use as a film set, many householders may be overlooking simple ways to earn a little bit extra, says John Cradden

Thursday July 29 2010

IN the continuing search for ways to make a few extra bob, many householders may not realise that some of the answers may be staring them in the face.

Do you have an asset, room or space around the house that you rarely use but don’t want to get rid of entirely?

We list some ways to make your property or assets work for you.

Garage or parking space

If you live in a busy urban or city area, or perhaps close to a railway, Luas or bus station with an overflowing car park, you could consider renting out a space to a commuter for one car either on your driveway or your allotted apartment car-parking space.

Demand for spaces in Dublin tends to be far higher than in any other city, and parking costs up to €20 a day, so if you have a space for a car you could earn up to €100 a month or more, depending on where you are.

According to Dublinparking.com, which helps advertise car parking spaces for rent, the main demand is close to a large area of office buildings, such as Dublin 2, 4, 7, 8, the IFSC and the South Docklands. Try also Rent.ie.

Similarly, if you have a near empty lock-up garage, you could rent that out to someone with a cherished classic car, for instance. Check out the Garage Wanted ads on online classified sites like Gumtree.ie or property website Daft.ie.

Rent a room

The rent-a-room scheme allows homeowners to rent out a room in their principal private residence and earn up to €10,000 per year on rental income without having to pay any tax on it.

This is a popular scheme with first-time buyers struggling to pay heavy mortgages, and it doesn’t affect your entitlement to mortgage interest relief.

There is also less paperwork involved, as you are not covered by the normal landlord/ tenant legislation.

According to Daft.ie, the cost of renting a double room in a house in Dublin ranges between €375 and €525 per month with a single room about €100 less.

Outside Dublin, a double room advertises for between €250-275 outside the main cities and Dublin’s commuter belt, and from €275 (Waterford city) to €350 (Cork city centre, Dublin’s commuter counties).

You could also consider offering your room for just the working week, so that you have weekends to yourself. Try Getdigs.ie. Before you rent out rooms in your home, it is strongly recommended that you and the tenant agree some ground rules in advance.

Rent out household items

Do you have an expensive power tool, a sat-nav, or a musical instrument that you rarely use? You can rent them out to others through sites like Rentstuff.ie (see panel).

Rent out your house or garden to the film industry

If you have a nice garden or house with some character, whether on the inside or the outside, you can make your property available to a film company as a film set.

The Irish Film Board has a database of all kinds of properties that are available as short-term film sets. It doesn’t have to be a mansion. Any type of home — new, old, luxurious or rough around the edges — can appeal to film-makers, depending on their storyline or budget.

The Irish Film Board doesn’t get involved in how much a property will earn for being featured. That is between the owner and the location manager.

How much you can charge depends on the type of property you have and the level of intrusion required. Make sure you sign a contract and get all agreements in writing.

Another option is to contact companies specialising in providing film locations, such as Irish Film Locations or Leinster Locations. If your home is chosen, you pay the location agent around 15pc of the fee they negotiate for you.

Holiday house swap

If you want a cheaper holiday and don’t mind having strangers in your home, you could swap your home with another family in Ireland or abroad for a couple of weeks. There are a few websites catering for this sort of thing, but try Homelink.ie for starters.

It’s an even better idea if you have a holiday home somewhere and you’re bored with it or you can’t sell it because of the house price slump. A new home-grown website called Propertyswap.ie specialises in swapping holiday homes.

This article first appeared in the Irish Independent

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Save money at music festivals

By admin | Published: July 8, 2010

FOR many music fans, this weekend marks the start of the Irish outdoor music festival season as the Oxegen 2010 extravaganza kicks off at Punchestown Racecourse in Co Kildare.

These festivals can be great fun, but they can also be a lot like going on a full-blown holiday in terms of the preparation required.

If you don’t think ahead and prepare, you can end up spending far more than you might expect.

Below, we show you the best tips to save money.

Tickets

Attending the biggest of the outdoor music festivals can be expensive as a three-day ticket can cost more than €200, particularly if it includes a camping pass. You can buy one-day passes for Oxegen for €99.50, although these are not available for the Electric Picnic.

As tickets are still available for Oxegen and other events, you might find discounts by searching auction site eBay or other online classified sites closer to the performance date.

Transport

Festival organisers encourage people to travel by as many different modes as possible, not least to earn their green credentials.

Bus or coach remains among the cheapest, but a reasonable alternative is to carpool — share a car with at least three others.

A group of four Oxegen festival-goers with weekend camping tickets can claim a free car park pass, which otherwise costs €30.

Check out Tripmi.ie, an independent car pooling service.

You could also consider taking your bicycle, with the help of the train. Secure parking is available at both Oxegen and the Electric Picnic.

If you fancy the idea of cycling all the way, Dublin bike shop 2wheels.ie has teamed up with both the Oxegen and Electric Picnic organisers to offer fans the chance to take part in a charity cycle from Dublin.

The cycle to Oxegen is taking place today, but there is still time to enter for the 90km ‘Tour de Picnic’ from Dublin to the Electric Picnic in Stradbally, Co Laois, on Friday, September 3. You’ll get free entry if you do.

Camping

Camping is the cheapest form of accommodation, but even if you already have a campsite pass, it’s worth thinking ahead if you want to save money.

If you haven’t got a tent yet and can’t borrow one, many camping shops are offering cheap tent packs targeted specifically at festival punters.

Capel Camping has a pack comprising a two-person tent, sleeping mats and sleeping bags and a torch, all for €55. You can buy a tent for as little as €20.

You should try and bring with you as many camping essentials as you carry — first-aid kits, torch, water bottles and so on, otherwise you may have to pay slightly over the odds at the retail stalls that feature at big festivals.

Food and drink

You may not be able to bring quite enough food or drink to last up to three days, but bringing as much as you can will help reduce eating costs. A cool box is useful in this regard.

Clothing and other items

There is always a good chance of rain, so think twice about bringing expensive or favourite clothing unless you’re prepared to see them get muddy.

Penneys has long been the choice for cheap but respectable items and accessories like t-shirts and shorts, but check out Dunnes, too.

Or you can find stuff in charity or secondhand stores for next to nothing.

What else to bring

If you need some advice about what to bring, check out festival websites for help.

But in general, it’s always recommended to stock up on earplugs, sun hats, sun cream, babywipes, and to bring enough cash so that you can avoid long queues at ATMs.

If you are camping, then toilet rolls, bin bags, and tape will always come in handy.

What not to bring

The risk of losing a mobile phone will be a bit higher at a music festival given the carefree atmosphere, not to mention the influence of alcohol and sleeplessness.

If you do bring an expensive phone or camera, make sure it’s listed on your house contents insurance policy as a specified item.

Or put your sim card into a cheap or old phone and buy a disposable camera.

This article first appeared in the Irish Independent

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Interview with Louise Stern

By admin | Published: July 3, 2010

INTERVIEW: Louise Stern is deaf, which makes her debut novel much more sharp and expressive, writes JOHN CRADDEN

THE SHORT STORY is a genre at which many Irish writers excel, but in the UK it’s said to be almost impossible to publish short stories if you’re a first-time writer. Yet 31-year-old American artist and London resident Louise Stern has managed to do just that with her first book, a collection of short stories published this month by Granta.

Chattering tells the stories of mainly young, restless men and women who test their desire for new experiences to the limit. Like the author, many of the characters are deaf, and communicate using one or a combination of sign language, lip-reading, note-scribbling, guesswork and instinct.

The book has already won plaudits in literary circles and among bloggers. Scottish novelist Alan Warner praised it as “an amazing debut . . . Already, some of these tales are simply masterful examples of the short story form.”

Having read the book in one sitting, I find myself wishing I could meet Stern in person, but since we are both deaf and divided by the Irish Sea, we talk via an online instant-messaging service. She confesses to being severely hungover on the morning of our chat, but any worries that this would end up a stilted, awkward interview quickly dissipate shortly after we start. The words pop up thick and fast on my screen.

Stern grew up in California surrounded by deaf people, including her entire family. She is the fourth generation of her family to be born deaf. Her parents were teachers at the California School for the Deaf at Fremont, where she and her siblings were pupils.

Based in London since 2002, her day job is as an assistant to artist and film-maker Sam Taylor-Wood. But she has made her own art using mixed media, photography, video and, most intriguingly, a sculpture made of the scraps of paper she uses for back-and-forth written conversations with people who don’t sign.

She is keen to express ideas about silence, communication and the importance of language, particularly in how it mediates our relationship to the world. So while her work, including the book, is not necessarily about deafness or deaf people, “deafness is a great metaphor for that, for being away from language.

“I grew up with people who weren’t comfortable with language at all, but their experiences were intense but not recognised. Many deaf children grow up with hearing families who don’t know sign and refuse to learn, so they don’t have any language at all.”

Chattering isn’t quite Stern’s first foray into the written word, as she is also the founder and publisher of Maurice, a contemporary art magazine for children. “Maurice came out of my interest in concrete language. I was trying to use contemporary art as a concrete visual language to communicate.”

In the book, Stern writes in a style that is predominantly clear and concise, almost to the point of being plain. “By writing clearly and crisply, I hope I am depending on language less to convince my readers and more just relaying what is there.”

The stories are all about people whose lives briefly come together and then separate, mostly without any drama, moving on quickly to the next phase of their lives. Yet the characters and situations stay with you, even as you know their lives are moving on elsewhere.

There is very little dialogue, but lots of internal monologue and precise visual observations that convey peoples’ presences in a way I’ve never read before. It’s clear that being a native signer has allowed Stern to offer a perspective that is both piercingly insightful and startlingly new.

“With sign, the way you talk about your emotions is so different. It is a different relationship to the world, much less filtered through abstract concepts, although not less sophisticated. That has had a huge impact on my writing.”

On the other hand, and I wonder if it’s something to do with the short story format, the stories often seem inconclusive, or unresolved. But Stern has her own distinct reasons for liking the format. As a reader, she enjoys novels that are entertaining, but with those “where you try to get at something”, she says many of them have too much of an “over-arching narrative” for her liking.

“With the stories, I wanted them to be entertaining enough for anyone to like it, and not only literary sorts, but at the same time [I didn’t want them] to be complete worlds into themselves. But now I’m gonna try and write a novel next so maybe that idea will come back and bite me in the arse.”

Stern says she is proud to be deaf and loves the deaf community in which she grew up, but she often feels claustrophobic within it. “Most of my friends nowadays are hearing, to be honest. I can’t live in the deaf community wholly and I don’t think anyone should feel pressured to.”

But when I ask her has she gotten any reaction to the book from readers in the deaf community, she relishes the question. “Yes, they loved the stories. That means so much to me. They said they rang true, and this from people I barely dared to hope it from. It means the world to me.

“Hearing people’s responses mean a lot to me too, of course, but just in a different way, maybe more intellectual or something, I don’t know. But with deaf people, it’s where I come from. I really wanted to say it like it is.”

Chattering is published by Granta, £10.99

This article first appeared in the Irish Times

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Ultimate in depreciation-proof motoring

By admin | Published: June 24, 2010

This, for many, is the archetypal banger. Classy, and goes on forever.

More and more of us are driving around in our shiny new cars with their super-duper year-10 plate. It’s apparently just about safe again to feel smug about spending some money.

Indeed, new car sales so far this year have already overtaken the dismal total sold during the whole of 2009, helped by the Government’s scrappage scheme.

Yet right now it is possible to feel just as smug driving a 10-year old banger, according to the author of a new book, entitled The Bangernomics Bible.

It’s full of tips about how to buy and run a ‘good’ banger for next to nothing, and was written by motoring journalist and former used car salesman James Ruppert. He says that there has been “a growing trend for car buyers to convince themselves that it is a matter of urgency to replace their cars every three years or sometimes less with another new car”.

What is bangernomics?

Bangernomics, by contrast, is about choosing to buy and run an older car, even if you can feasibly raise the money for a new one. Or keeping the car you have for as long as possible.

A large part of the logic is that once a car is five years or older, it has already lost most of its value and is therefore close to the bottom of its depreciation ‘curve’. This means you won’t lose anywhere near as much in depreciation as you would with a new or even nearly new car, argues Ruppert.

This point is not lost on Shane Teskey, managing director of car fleet provider Benchmark Fleet Services.

Being in the fleet business, Teskey has access to trade discounts and company cars. “But for my last three cars I’ve tried to buy it new and turn it around every year, which cost about €2,000 each time,” he says.

“However, the last new car I bought, in 2007, was a Range Rover Sport and it absolutely nose-dived [in value].”

He decided to finance it over a longer period of time, so as to try and spread the depreciation out.

“I’m three years in now. I’ve got about 45k outstanding on it and it’s now worth about 35k in the market. Not nice.”

Teskey has heard of bangernomics. “It’s an interesting concept but it assumes that the motivation behind buying a car is purely financial,” he says.

“There’s a lot of other emotional stuff that goes with buying a new car. For many, it’s a luxury that’s only afforded once every three or so years, and worth the pain in depreciation.”

A way of life

Ruppert takes a broader view. “Bangernomics is a way of life. Some people do just want a car as A to B and back again and don’t care what it is but don’t want to spend a fortune on it. They’d rather save up to go on holiday or buy a house or a new kitchen instead.

“Others may think, well I’d rather spend that money I save on a lovely old classic, or maybe to have a couple of characterful cars rather than some depreciating asset.”

Ruppert’s new book is an update of one he wrote in 1993 called Bangernomics.

Things have certainly changed since then. In the early ’90s a banger often meant driving a rough-running, battered shed, but the explosion in new car sales since then has done much to enrich the quality and choice of older cars.

And the prices of used cars have fallen so much that a banger today can now mean a car just out of manufacturer’s warranty, says Ruppert.

Beating depreciation

James Beecher from Cork is a bangernomics fan. He started buying bangers four years ago after leaving a job in which he had a company car.

“I like cars but losing a few thousand a year in depreciation doesn’t appeal,” he says. “Old cars do the job well and in some cases are nicer to drive and own than more modern ones.”

He currently drives a 1993 BMW 5 Series estate that cost just shy of €2,000, but also has a 1997 Rover 216 Coupe, which he bought for €800.

Beecher has managed to keep his losses to a minimum by selling his cars on after just a few months and getting something else. “Something interesting always comes along, a change is nice too and I enjoy having a small project on the go.”

In the last four years, he has bought seven cars that together cost him €10,000. Among the cheapest was a 1992 Mercedes E250 diesel for €430 and a 1993 Honda Prelude coupe for €850.

“If I bought one car today for €10,000, how much would I get back after four years?” he asks. “It wouldn’t be close to €10,000 anyway, more like €2,000 or €3,000, I’d imagine.”

Bring a tyre-kicker friend

Tomas Curley from Co Kildare is another long-time bangernomics fan but also an expert amateur mechanic.

“I think the raw bangernomics owner is actually a bit of a car enthusiast because they tend to know a bit about motors,” says Curley, who has recently picked up a 2001 VW Passat diesel for €500. “The vast majority, those without a bit of knowledge, have the potential to get stung.”

It’s no surprise to learn Tomas’s skills as a tyre kicker are in demand by his many friends and colleagues at the Intel plant in Leixlip, where he works. He has helped his co-workers to pick out good, reliable older cars while still getting change out of €3,000, or much less.

For most people, he advocates what he calls a “bangernomics-lite” approach, whereby you keep your current (say five- year-old) car and hold on to it for as long as possible.

Keep on running

Michelle Shanahan from Portlaoise runs a 1996 Nissan Micra she bought for €3,500 in 2002 with about 40,000 miles on the clock. She says it is still running sweetly eight years later at 134,000 miles.

The car is serviced once a year, and any minor problems she fixes herself with the help of her dad. It has only broken down once, and the fault was cheaply fixed with a replacement part from a scrapyard. She estimates it costs less than €600 a year to run in servicing, tax and insurance.

She has no plans to trade in, even with some of the attractive scrappage deals on offer.

“The way I look at it, it runs perfectly, does what it needs to and is worth very little to anyone else,” says Shanahan. “That whole concept of ‘why fix it if it’s not broken’, kind of fits the situation.”

Green bangers

Ruppert says running a banger for as long as possible is as green — if not greener — than buying a fuel-efficient new car because of the huge amounts of energy and resources required to build them. But what happens if you own a car that may be reaching the end of its life?

“Deciding when to change is the most difficult thing to get right, and anticipating when the big bills come is certainly down to luck half the time,” admits Ruppert.

“But too often I hear from people who say my car is five years old, has done 70,000 miles and is worn out.”

This article first appeared in the Irish Independent

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Keep your smartphone costs down

By admin | Published: June 24, 2010

JUST when you thought you had finally gotten to grips with how mobile phone charges work, along comes a device that adds a new dimension.

As well doing all the things a conventional mobile phone does, smartphones allow you to surf the internet and download data such as email, music files and specially-designed software applications while on the move.

Once regarded as a device mainly for business people, the huge popularity of models like Apple’s iPhone has done much to make smartphones extremely appealing to ordinary consumers as well.

Global sales data has shown that in the first three months of this year smartphone models accounted for nearly 20pc of all mobile phone sales.

Bill shock

However, there were a number of well-publicised cases recently of smartphone users being saddled with shockingly high mobile bills caused by unknowingly exceeding limits or caps set by their mobile operators for downloading data on their phones.

The most common cases arise when people use their devices to download data while overseas.

One of the best-known examples is of a German consumer who downloaded an episode of her favourite programme on her mobile phone while on holidays in France and came home to a bill of €46,000.

The European Commission recently updated legislation on ‘roaming’ specifically to protect consumers against ’shock’ bills.

New EU laws on data roaming

Although EU laws on roaming charges have been in place since 2007, they didn’t include data and text messaging until July last year, when the Commission introduced a cap of €1 (excluding VAT) for every megabyte (MB) downloaded while abroad.

One MB is the same as around 200 emails without attachments, or less than an hour of browsing time, but only one minute of MP3 compressed music.

However, this cap didn’t prevent many consumers in Ireland racking up considerable charges for downloading data while on holidays or overseas last year, says Ann Neville, manager of the European Consumer Centre in Dublin.

The latest EU rule was put in place in March 2010, whereby operators must cut a customer’s mobile connection when their data roaming bill reaches €50 in a single month.

“Even with the protection of the cap on data downloading that was already in place, the introduction of a cut-off limit is necessary to prevent unpleasant surprises such as one case of someone using their iPhone as a sat-nav and incurring charges of more than €400,” said Ms Neville.

Take care

While this is all good news for smartphone users abroad, users should still take care, says Niall Kitson, editor of the digital consumer magazine ‘PC Live!’.

“Whatever about the price of calls skyrocketing when you call from a foreign network, charges for data vary significantly from network to network,” he said.

Downloading applications and music away from home will also “eat up your data allowance in no time”, says Mr Kitson.

“When I travel with my iPhone I make sure data roaming is switched off, and rely on Wi-Fi for data,” he says.

A Wi-Fi enabled device can connect to the internet when within range of a wireless network connected to the internet.

DOWNLOADING MOBILE DATA AT HOME

If you buy a smartphone, you may find yourself downloading more data than you might expect, so if you stick with your existing mobile price plan you should review it after a few months, particularly if you have gone overseas during that time.

Each of the four mobile operators here offer a number of different price options for downloading data, depending on whether you are a billpay or a prepay customer.

If you are a Vodafone billpay customer, you will get a monthly 2GB data downloading allowance if you pick a ‘data’ plan like Perfect Choice Access, but if you pick a standard plan you can buy an ‘add-on’ allowance of 1GB per month for €9.99.

O2’s Advance billpay smartphone plans also offer a monthly 2GB allowance but if you are on its standard Clear mobile plan you can buy an additional 250MB bundle for €7.47 extra per month.

Meteor’s Smart billpay plans include between 1 and 5GB of downloading allowance depending on which plan you pick, but an additional bundle of 250MB costs €4.99 a month or you can pay €14.99 for up to 10GB a month.

Three Ireland offers its billpay customers a monthly 1GB allowance for €9.99, unless they pick a plan that already includes an allowance.

PREPAY OPTIONS

If you are a prepay user, things are much simpler, but possibly more expensive. Vodafone, 02 and Meteor charge 99c for up to 50MB per day, and between €1-2 for every MB downloaded thereafter.

Three Ireland claims that its prepay customers get unlimited mobile surfing, but in reality this is subject to a ‘fair usage’ limit of 250MB a month, not to mention other conditions.

If you use the mobile internet a lot but on a prepay tariff, it may be worth switching to a billpay contract since you cannot generally buy downloading allowances for a fixed fee like you can on billpay plans.

The only exception is Three Ireland, which offers its prepay customers a 1GB allowance add-on for an extra €9.99 a month.

This article first appeared in the Irish Independent

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Have you ever been mugged by a deaf person?

By admin | Published: June 15, 2010

I thought this was very original:

Posted in Miscellaneous, Writings | 1 Comment