SILENT NIGHT: The sultry rolling wine region of the film Sideways comes to Dublin on Tuesday September 15th when the Napa Valley Vintners arrive in town. The Vintners and the Abbey Theatre are holding a tasting event and "silent auction" at Fallon and Byrne on Exchequer Street, showing off some of California's best vintages.
A silent auction means that there is no auctioneer; over the course of the evening, people outbid each other on paper and when the final bell is rung, successful bidders will have bagged themselves a tour of the Napa Valley wineries and accommodation, bottles of wine from the Vintners' own private cellars or tickets and flights to La Traviata at Covent Garden.
The Napa Valley Vintners nominate a charity to support in each country that they visit and all proceeds of this night go to the Abbey Theatre. Tickets cost €40 and are available from Áine Kiernan at the Abbey at 01-8872229 or ainekiernan@abbeytheatre.ie.
Nicoline Greer
KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOURS
There are plenty of websites for finding romance and tracing old school friends, but so far there haven't been any attempts to cater for Irish neighbours who want to interact with each other online, until now that is.
Neighbours.ie is, like all the best ideas, incredibly simple. It was created by 29-year-old Ciaran Killalea from Athlone, who spent a decade living in apartment buildings where the most interaction you'd have with your neighbours would be a nod on the corridor.
Last year, when he moved into the Gasworks complex, or Googleland as it's called, near Grand Canal Docks in Dublin, he decided to do something about it. "Googleland.ie is a very simple web forum," Killalea says. "New residents can post about problems they are having, or arrange get-togethers, and so on. That worked so well, I thought there was no reason I couldn't make it nationwide." Neighbours.ie was conceived, and so far more than 2,000 people have logged-on to the site. Essentially, it's an online bulletin board and conversation room, perfect for people who'd like to interact with their neighbours, but whose busy lives make that difficult to do.
Many of the forums cater for new developments and estates. "The newer areas are in more need of it, definitely, because the communities are just developing," Killalea says. "Adamstown (in west Dublin) is a classic example: there are 200 members on that forum, but nobody has even moved in yet. New developments also tend to have more young people, but everyone's getting tech-savvy now. Anyone can create a forum for their own neighbourhood on Neighbours.ie. It's very simple to set one up."
Killalea hopes to recoup the considerable investment and maintenance costs through sponsorship rather than advertising, but says he didn't create Neighbours.ie to make money. "That wasn't my motivation at all; it's just great to see people getting to know each other, fostering a sense of community."
Davin O'Dwyer
FOOD IN A BAG
Linda Jagobin from Germany has been living near Cleggan in Connemara for the past year and came across an intriguing idea on a visit to America - "Vacation Food" by Jagobin's company Jagur Organics, easy-to-prepare healthy meals that are perfect for holiday-home renters in the west.
The five packs of dry ingredients, which cost €8, include classic mushroom soup mix, Mediterranean pilaf and rainbow pasta salad mix which includes local seaweed. Simply add your fish, meat or vegetables to the ingredients and spices in the pack to make a healthy, tasty meal. It's all organic and sold in shops from Oughterard to Roundstone and Letterfrack. You will also find Jagur Organics at a stall every Friday at Clifden Market. Jagur Organic provides an organic fruit and vegetables box scheme that starts from €9.50. Call 095-44855 for details.
Nicoline Greer
BUILDERS GET CABIN FEVER
Finnish-designed LogArt houses are so thermo efficient, made from slow-grown Arctic pine that come from sustainable Lapland forests, that when people first walk through Logart homes they think there is underfloor heating, according to company owner Daphne Wynne. Apparently, owners report that they rarely have to turn on the central heating.
LogArt supplies the houses, recommends builders to build them and stays very involved throughout the building process. Logart also makes extensions which can go onto existing concrete houses. "They breath," says Wynne, and, due to the nature of the wood, are the "nicest, most comfortable places to live in".
See for yourself at the Logart stand at the SelfBuild exhibition at Punchestown in Co Kildare this weekend. For further information, call 01-2802879 or see www.logart.ie and www.selfbuilding.ie.
Nicoline Greer
BATTLE OF THE BRIDES
You could win the wedding of your dreams at tomorrow's wedding fair at the Radisson SAS St Helen's Hotel on the Stillorgan dual carriageway in south Co Dublin, which runs from 2pm to 6pm. Just go along and tell them why the hotel is the ideal venue for your wedding, and you could bag the prize. The hotel will pay for 50 guests, but the winning wedding must be booked by the end of the year, so make sure you have a potential spouse, poised with a ring.
Nicoline Greer
CLASSICAL FOR BEGINNERS
It's that time of year again when we think about what to do with the long, dark nights ahead, and sign up for all manner of "self-improvement" courses. A new initiative from the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra aims to demystify classical music, with a series of Friday night concerts at the National Concert Hall on Earlsfort Terrace in Dublin 2. The programme has been designed to attract people who may be new to orchestral concerts, but who like classical music and "the live symphonic experience". There are discounts for booking blocks of three or five concerts, with prices for three concerts ranging from €25 to €80, and all five coming in at between €40 and €135, depending on seat location. The opening concert is on Friday, September 15th. Book on www.nch.ie.
NOODLE DOODLE
Queues form out the door for the lunch boxes (Singapore noodles, €4.95; vegetarian noodles, €3.95) from the wok cooking station at Donnybrook Fair, 13 Upper Baggot Street, Dublin 2. Watch out for an adjacent crepe counter, making hot breakfast crepes, due to open later this month.