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Am heading to Oz and New Zealand over Christmas and the New Year. Spending Christmas with family in Auckland and then looking to fly down to the South Island on the 27th. Trying to fit in as much as I can in 7/8 days from:

Mt. Cook
Lake Tekapo
Fox Glacier
Franz Josef Glacier
Milford Sound
Queenstown.

Had planned to base myself in Queenstown the entire time (and need to be there for NYE) but it's looking difficult to get (cheap) accommodation sorted for 3/4 nights over new year.

Anyone any suggestions? Friend recommended flying to Christchurch and then doing the drive to Queenstown, fitting in Mt. Cook and Lake Tekapo on the way.

Hi,

Am looking to visit Oz and New Zealand this Christmas and was wondering if anybody had any tips on the best possible way to organise flights. Current schedule looks like:

DUB-BNE (anywhere from 7th-10th December)
BNE-AKL (23rd December)
AKL-DUB (3rd January)

I plan on visiting friends and family, so the destinations are fixed. Whatever way the various airlines' algorithms work is beyond me - currently looking cheaper to buy the BNE-ALK leg separately. Best option time-wise appears to be through the Middle East with Emirates (but is expensive) but the sites I'm using (Skyscanner, Expedia, Kayak etc.) are throwing up so many permutations I can't keep track of them. Anybody any experience with flying to that part of the world who could offer a few pointers?

Called down to my old house today to pick up some post. There was a series of communications from e-Flow and finally one from Pierse & Fitzgibbon solicitors in Listowel regarding an unpaid M50 toll from August. Given escalations, the fine is now nearly €150.

They were sending letters to my old address as that's where the car was last registered (they use the tax database to take the address). I moved house on the 3rd of July and never got around to changing the registered address of the car as, frankly, down here it's an absolute pain in the hole which involves filling out various forms and sending them off to Shannon. You can only update online when paying your motor tax (not due until February). I have previously paid a fine of €3 for a separate incident when the notification letter arrived at the house I was living at, if that will stand to me at all.

Have I any chance of getting away with it or will I just have to bite the bullet and pony up?

Was anyone else at this gig last night? After all the messing around of the Croke Park gig in 2008, this went a long way to making up for it. Absolutely incredible performance.

Could have played for a bit longer and I would have liked to hear I Would Die 4 U and Diamonds and Pearls, but it was unquestionably one of the best concerts I've ever been to.

Not sure if this has been mentioned already.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/13996856.stm

I await the indignant outrage.

Anyone see this show last night? Professor Brian Cox's follow up to the excellent Wonders of the Solar System from last year.

Looks very good again.

[The former head of NI Water was convicted of embezzling £2,000 from a church in his native Scotland in 1982.]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12150307

The former head of NI Water was convicted of embezzling £2,000 from a church in his native Scotland in 1982.

Laurence MacKenzie resigned last week after NI Water was severely criticised for its handling of the water crisis.

The details emerged after SDLP MP Alisdair McDonnell asked Environment Minister Conor Murphy to confirm whether he had prior knowledge of his spent criminal conviction.

NI Water have refused to comment.

Mr Murphy has yet to comment on the issue but a Department for Regional Development spokesperson said:

"The Minister was not aware of this issue until it broke in the media today. He is advised by NI Water, as the employer, that it is currently looking into the matter."

It emerged that Mr MacKenzie stole from his congregation while a treasurer in a Church of Scotland church in Caithness in the north of the country.

Subsequent to his conviction, Mr MacKenzie studied accountancy at the University of Abertay before a career in privatised utilities eventually saw him in charge at Northern Ireland Electricity and most recently NI Water.

Last March Mr MacKenzie ordered an internal probe into a number of contracts which he believed had not been competitively tendered.

When the review confirmed his fears, Mr MacKenzie was said to be so perturbed by events that he he tendered his resignation, only to later withdraw it.

Following the report, the Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy moved to sack four members of the NI Water board, including the chairman Chris Mellor.

In December 40,000 homes and businesses were cut off from the mains during the recent crisis which happened after a rapid thaw caused pipes to burst across Northern Ireland.

NI Water was heavily criticised for its response, answering only a small proportion of the public's requests for help.

Following his resignation, Mr MacKenzie said his staff had made "tremendous efforts" but added that he "believed firmly in the principles of responsibility and accountability".

Came home late Friday night and found some lad parked in my spot - I decided to take the one right beside him. Didn't leave the house until today cos i was feeling like shit and found my car had been clamped by NCPS. The one beside me in my spot had not.

Rang them up and asked they sort it out. They said they couldn't deal with me until I paid the release fee. I was legitimately clamped by the council about a month ago in town and paid the fee. This was inside a private, gated, residential complex where I rent an apartment.

Going to ring management company tomorrow and ask them to sort it out. If they don't do anything, I'm determined to cut the thing off myself.

Few questions:

Has anyone ever done this? If so, what's the best way?

Secondly, were there any repercussions?

Got our first UPC bill there today - there was €60 worth of activation charges on it, more than 50% of the bill. Never previously any mention of them.

Anyone know anything about it?

Help needed, folks.

Took a job on very short notice at the beginning of October - the first month of which was spent training abroad. As I'd never previously worked in the south I had no PPS number. On my return at the start of November this took a few weeks to process until I finally received it last week and was able to apply for my tax credits. Massive chunks of tax were deducted from my October and November paychecks in the interim as emergency tax.

On taking the job HR had advised me that I would be able to reclaim my emergency tax once I got the details sorted. However, Payroll has just imformed me that the tax certificate they've received for me from the Revenue does not include a refund for October and November.

I've tried to get set up using the PAYE anytime system, but An Post have currently suspended deliveries to my area due to the weather.

Can anyone shed some light on the situation? Am I, in fact, entitled to my tax back? If so, how the hell do I go about reclaiming it? Do I just have to constantly ring them up and find someone willing to listen to me?

I currently drive a 1.4l 1999 Nissan Almera with about 35,000 miles on it. Need to register, NCT and tax it in the Republic from mid November on. Can get insurance discount from work.

Does anyone know how much the NCT and re-reg would cost? Car is worth at most £500.

Anyone know how I ring a southern 1890 number from the North?

Anyone watch this?

Nothing new revealed really but the interviews with people who've left were interesting.

I still fail to see any potential attraction in the thing.

Did anyone just see that disgrace of a report on the status of what was referred to as the "Ulster Flag" (the Norn Iron fleg) on the news? At the start of the programme it was described as "as Ulster as Carson". It's astonishing some of the shit this programme continues to publicise. The report even paid a visit to the Union Jack Shop to get the insightful views of whoever the f**k the proprietor is.

News Worth Watching me hole.

Has anyone hear ever worked for the Dublin Airport Authority or its predecessor? I'm currently in the middle of the recruitment process for the Graduate Development Programme and was wondering if anyone had any experience.

1) Brendan Cummins
2) Paddy Stapleton
3) Paul Curran
4) Jackie Tyrrell
5) Tommy Walsh
6) Brick Walsh
7) JJ Delaney
Brendan Maher
9) Michael Fennelly
10) Damien Hayes
11) Noel McGrath
12) Lar Corbett
13) Eoin Kelly
14) Richie Power
15) John Mullane

Thoughts?

Lots of talk in the studio about Padraic Maher but I think yesterday's towering performance somewhat papered over the cracks of an up and down year. After Aisake destroyed him he took quite a while to settle into wing back.

Hickey probably lost out after yesterday but had been excellent up until then.

Not too many others I'd question with the exception of Damien Hayes. Reillers will be delighted to know I'm putting Niall McCarthy forward as an option. I thought he was excellent all year until he was wiped out in the semi-final.

John Henderson was arguing for Joe Canning who I don't think should be near the team. He needs a few months away from  hurling and to shift some of the weight.

Anyone catch this show last night? Saw the last 20 minutes myself. I know sweet FA about bike racing, but Joey Dunlop was an absolute superstar and by all accounts a gentleman to boot. Thought it was great to see the regard he's still held in ten years after his death.

A great little program that allows you to send texts from your desktop by accessing your webtexts for you. Don't have to bother with browsers or logins or anything and you can store a phone book easily or download it off the site if you have them backed up online. There's a version for mobiles as well and I saw a few people talking about similar things for the iPhone. I highly recommend it.

http://www.cabbagetexter.com/

Garth Crooks confirms himself as a knob by putting John Terry in his team of the season and asks where the poor form everyone was going on about was.

Also, Brad Friedel still plays for Blackburn apparently.

Dreadful joirnalism.

Advises some fella to slash his ex's face. Claims to have been mis-quoted.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/05/danny-dyer-zoo-magazine