shanemcdonald.org

With the recession it seems that certain businesses are reducing levels of service in order to save costs.

The boom is over and prices have fallen, but have levels of service also been reduced – getting poor service is something which is creeping in here in there.

From Restaurants and Bars to Travel Services and the general Service industry. I have seen many examples in the past year where I feel that service just was not up to scratch … not going to name any places (just yet) , but I’m just wondering if I’m alone. In one establishment, I held out my hand to get change and while looking me in the eye, the girl at the till plonked the coins onto the counter, another incident involved going to a till and the cashier just saying “20″ … not “Thats €20 please”, just “20″ – no please and when I was finished, no thank you.
Small things but I haven’t returned there!

With less than 20 days to go before the Waterford side of the M9 opens, the project itself is to be completed OVER 1 YEAR LATE. This has to be emphasised because you can be guaranteed that some County Councillor or TD will utter the words “The project was delivered on-time” … well it wasn’t. If you travel from Kilkenny to Waterford you will see signs at Ballyhale and Lukeswell saying “Opening Spring 2009″ ; well that date has passed and still the road is not open.

The road is apparently finished except that a “safety audit” has to be completed, which may involve a TD, a scissors, a camera and a ribbon, no-one is quite sure. I just think they should  “Open the Feckin’ Road !!”

So don’t be fooled – if somebody says the M9 Waterford section was opened ontime – this is a lie.

In Ireland we waste so much time in school learning a language we never use!

It would be so much better if Irish children could be taught something like French that they would actually use, after-all, French is the official language of the EU. If you look at the people who come over to Ireland from Poland or Czech Republic, their English is actually very good. I’m sure they can converse in English better than most Irish people could converse in French. WHY? Because in Ireland from the age of 4 to 12, Irish is drilled into kids, instead of a language they would actually use. It is at this age that children find it easier to learn a language – so why expect them to start learning French at the age of 13 when they start secondary school? Its too late for them to be actually fluent – start them learning from a young age.

Irish – What a Terrible Language

Lets look at some of the crap you learn as a child.

I left school with an Irish Vocabulary of about 10 words which included such classics as;

Also, Whats the story with this?
Take for example the phrase “Comhartha ar an mbus” – MBUS … is this some sort of Hanson song. MBus???
What sort of crappy language puts an M before a B ??

Irish, a Dead Language

I think they should get rid of the language and get the children of Ireland speaking a European language rather than a dead language. Nobody speaks it – unless you want to get rid of the kids and shove them off to an island for 3 months during the summer.

I wish we had a language we could be proud of but we don’t – so stop hooking it up to a life support machine and leave it die so that the children in Irish schools leave with something they can use.

Why, when you go to a restaurant can you not put pepper in your own meal?

Your meal arrives, the waiting staff go off and come back with a 3 foot long pepper grinder and ask if you want pepper. What’s the story?

1) Why is the pepper grinder ginormous?
2) Why can you not do it yourself?
3) Do these waiting staff have to do a Post-graduate Masters Degree OR PhD in Pepper Dispensing?

It’s just silly!

LEAVE THE PEPPER ON THE TABLE!!!!!

Why do passengers always clap when you land at your destination?

This may be just an Irish thing or it may just be on Summer flights to popular holiday destinations such as the Canaries… Either way it’s pretty strange when you think about it!

The pilots job is to land the plane. Therefore why is he clapped? If an 84 year old granny landed the Boeing 737-800 in a stiff 30 knot crosswind – I would certainly applaud that !!!

If you are on a local bus between your house and the shopping centre … Do you clap the driver?

Do you get clapped in work? I don’t get applauded for every advert I design, every script or app I write.

The Next time you are dealing with the service industry – in the bank, at the library, or in the restaurant – and you get good service ; give them a rousing round of applause to thank them and tell them you learned about it on your last flight.