tGC AMA with Padraig Mor

ancapailldorcha

Padraig Mor has stepped up. Ask him things.

KrustyUCC

What is one historical event you wish you were able to attend?

Padraig Mor

KrustyUCC wrote: »

What is one historical event you wish you were able to attend?

The German surrender at Stalingrad would have been something to witness - the world was never quite the same after.....

KrustyUCC

Good call

Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor is a very good read

mik_da_man

• Pick your favourite Fragrance :P
• Favourite song to drive to
• Favourite car you own/owned
• Opinion on the new PUC
• Favourite book you read recently

Padraig Mor

• Pick your favourite Fragrance :P
  Wouldn't pick just one but Creed Spice & Wood, Amouage Jubilation XXV, Atelier Cologne Bergamote Soleil and Terre d'Hermes are all excellent for one situation or another.
• Favourite song to drive to
  Don't really have one TBH. I get very lazy with music in the car - I have a USB connection but can't be arsed using it mostly, so end up listening to the same few CDs over and over for months on end until I swap for a new bunch!
• Favourite car you own/owned
  Driving an electric Nissan Leaf now and really like it despite the (many) detractors! Still miss the luxury of my old Lexus GS300 (don't miss shoveling in 300 quid of petrol a month though) - love 'luxobarges'; ideal car would probably be a Lexus LS600H.
• Opinion on the new PUC
  Not the remotest interest in it! If it stops GAA-heads parking like pricks around the area I'm all for it.
• Favourite book you read recently
  Haven't read a book in years TBH! Just never seem to have the time. Have vague plans to read the Game of Thrones books but will probably never happen....

Pat Mustard

If you were going to have a barbecue, what food do you serve, what drinks (if any) and what are you drinking, yourself? What kind of music would you have?

Padraig Mor

Pat Mustard wrote: »

If you were going to have a barbecue, what food do you serve, what drinks (if any) and what are you drinking, yourself? What kind of music would you have?

Apologies for the slow reply - abroad at the moment.
Food: I've recently been introduced to the delights of barbequed chorizo so there'll be plenty of that - delicious!

Drink: there would be a ****load of drink - anything and everything! I normally tend to craft beer or red wine, but would probably hit the cider for a bbq.

Music: probably wouldn't be any. The stuff I listen to (metal etc) is a bit off the wall for general consumption so I ain't going to subject people to it!

anewme

Cheers for the kebab recipe...my go to guilty treat!

mzungu

Blur or Oasis?

Favourite film / tv show?

You are given a million euro, but have only 24 hours to spend it, what would you buy?

Tom Mann Centuria

Work to Live or Live to Work?

Padraig Mor

OK, back in the Emerald Isle.....

anewme wrote: »

Cheers for the kebab recipe...my go to guilty treat!

Hehe.....yeah it's bloody good (but not mine) - the Kindle book it's from (Kenny McGovern's The Takeaway Secret) has a load of great recipes.

mzungu wrote: »

Blur or Oasis?

More of a metal head myself but I'm of a vintage to remember when this question really was a thing - guaranteed a bit of both in Gorby's (Cork nightclub) on a Thursday night in the mid to late 90s. I'd probably go with Blur....

Favourite film / tv show?

Hard to pick just one of either - for film, even though I watch a good bit of more oddball stuff, I'll go with the schmaltzy charms of The Shawshank Redemption. Also looking forward to the one day rerelease of Terminator 2 remastered in 3D in a few weeks - tickets booked!

TV: not going to stretch the limits of imagination here with Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones - they are really good. I'll add a classic though in the shape of Yes Minister, which must be one of the most deftly written programmes of all time (the script books are well worth a read BTW even if you've seen the show).

You are given a million euro, but have only 24 hours to spend it, what would you buy?

If really in that situation, it wouldn't be wasted TBH. Pay off the mortgage, set up a trust fund or summat for the kids, that kind of thing.

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

Work to Live or Live to Work?

I don't think you can really separate the two that much, depending on your circumstances anyway. If you're 'living' too much, you won't be working for long!

Balmed Out

Were you a metal head when going to Gorbys? Can't remember Gorbys ever playing anything decent.

Padraig Mor

Balmed Out wrote: »

Were you a metal head when going to Gorbys? Can't remember Gorbys ever playing anything decent.

Yes, sure was. You'd never hear any 'proper' metal of course - would have to make do with RATM's 'Killing in the name of', a song which always brought the bouncers onto the dancefloor in case people went too far!

There was a run of decent metal gigs in Cork at that time (~91 - 95) with the likes of Obituary, Paradise Lost, Primordial, Anathema etc playing - generally in Nancy Spain's, a venue and pub I spent much time in back in the day.

Balmed Out

Interesting I would be a couple of years younger and would have gone 2:1 hennrys:Gorbys. Henry's for the music Gorbys for the ladies. I think I first went at 16 in 96 but the nearest thing to rock music would have been Mr Jones or Brown eyed girl.
So fellow leaf driver have you ever run out of battery, your longest journey on a single charge and do you use local points when you don't need to simply for free power?

Padraig Mor

Balmed Out wrote: »

Interesting I would be a couple of years younger and would have gone 2:1 hennrys:Gorbys. Henry's for the music Gorbys for the ladies. I think I first went at 16 in 96 but the nearest thing to rock music would have been Mr Jones or Brown eyed girl.
So fellow leaf driver have you ever run out of battery, your longest journey on a single charge and do you use local points when you don't need to simply for free power?

Never really a Henry's goer, although they used to have a good multi club (all 3 venues) night on Friday nights for a while. Metal etc would have been (relatively) big from mid 80s to early - mid 90s and there would have been a fair bit of rockish stuff in clubs in the early 90s; things kinds fell off a cliff from 93/94 onwards for metal so perhaps why there seems to have been less from mid 90s on.

No, never ran out of battery! Don't think I've ever seen less than 10% on the gauge. Longest journey on one charge was probably Cobh to Cappoquin and back (~120km total), with 18% left IIRC. Longest single day's trip with charging stops was Cobh to Tralee and back (~280km). People get too hung up on range - for most people a range of <150km is perfectly adequate for 95% of their driving. I do more driving than average in the Leaf (~22k km per year) and it's never been a big issue for me.

No, I don't (ab)use the free public leccy (although I get most of mine free at work). For the first few months I did make a habit of hitting the fast charger at the weekend before realising that, frankly, I've got better things to do with my time and just charged overnight at home instead - I haven't actually used an FCP in 6 months at this stage I'd say. I do plug in the odd time in town or the Park and Ride - free parking is nice!

Balmed Out

I spent a long time lurking on the forum before buying and am pretty sure you have had a leaf for some time?
I went to 2% on my first trip bringing it to cork and longest without stopping was Cashel to clonakilty so you play it fairly safe?
Why did you buy an electric car to begin with? People seem to say for economic or environmental reasons and I pretend it's economic though tbh it's more a like of technology that made me interested.

Padraig Mor

Balmed Out wrote: »

I spent a long time lurking on the forum before buying and am pretty sure you have had a leaf for some time?
I went to 2% on my first trip bringing it to cork and longest without stopping was Cashel to clonakilty so you play it fairly safe?
Why did you buy an electric car to begin with? People seem to say for economic or environmental reasons and I pretend it's economic though tbh it's more a like of technology that made me interested.

Have it just over 2 years now, about 44k km. I play it safe on long trips (i.e. need to charge during trip) in that I allow for any particular charger I intend to use being unavailable and keep enough in the tank to get me to the next one. Sounds more complicated than it is - it's only come into play on a small number (<5) of trips. If there's any concern about charging, I/we just take my wife's petrol car instead.

Reasons were purely economic for me - I'm not interested in the environmental aspect; in fact my previous car was a 3 litre petrol! My budget was limited and I considered everything within it - from a 2.3 turbo SUV to diesels to a Prius etc. In the end it came down to picking from a 5 year old diesel blandmobile with 100k km, a new Dacia Duster, or a new Leaf - all would have had approx the same total running cost over 3 years. I chose the Leaf - unfortunate from a financial viewpoint as the depreciation is best described as 'catastrophic' but a far better choice from every other angle - it out accelerates most cars on the road and is as smooth as an S Class.

Balmed Out

One last question from me, I remember you live or have lived in Cobh. Did you grow up there and how do you feel it has changed since then or since you moved there?
Everytime I visit Cobh in the last few years it seems to have improved without property getting too expensive and I always find myself recommending it as somewhere that might be a good investment. Growing up in Douglas, Cobh had a rough reputation but now it is more reminiscent of a SCD seaside suburb like Dun Laorighe. Is that fair or does it still have its issues?

Padraig Mor

Balmed Out wrote: »

One last question from me, I remember you live or have lived in Cobh. Did you grow up there and how do you feel it has changed since then or since you moved there?
Everytime I visit Cobh in the last few years it seems to have improved without property getting too expensive and I always find myself recommending it as somewhere that might be a good investment. Growing up in Douglas, Cobh had a rough reputation but now it is more reminiscent of a SCD seaside suburb like Dun Laorighe. Is that fair or does it still have its issues?

No, from the city but in Cobh over a decade. It's definitely attracting more tourists the last few years (the number of massive cruise ships stopping there now is huge) which can only be a good thing but I still think it could do a lot more given its superb location - the range of restaurants is poor for instance. It's long had a bad rep, sometimes deserved, but I don't think it's really any better or worse than any other large town in the country. I do think there's definitely a bit of an insular (literally!) outlook among quite a few of the 'natives' though. Give it ten years, a few dedicated businesspeople / developers / politicians and a moderate wad of cash and the place could be a serious goldmine - where else would you get view like that of the harbour from the cathedral?