TRAVEL
Home & Away with Robert Walshe Once a playground for the rich and famous, these days cruising is more popular than ever before across all age groups and occupations. But before you set off for your relaxing fun in the sun, there are a number of health issues to keep in mind and prepare for. Tropical Medical Bureau offer the following advice for travellers to ensure your time cruising is healthy, happy and devoid of any calamities. Everything in moderation: One of the most common problems on a cruise is that there is a great variety of food provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Many travellers feel they have to constantly eat! Passengers should be sensible and eat well cooked foods and avoid anything too rich. The heat of the summer months in the Caribbean can be very significant and, especially for the unprepared Irish traveller, it is really important to limit any sun exposure - especially in the early part of the trip. Even though the cruise liners themselves have extremely high standards most travellers to the Caribbean are encouraged to consider having vaccines to help protect against illnesses which they may be exposed to while on shore. Respiratory illness is probably one of the bigger issues on a cruise liner. If you are close to an individual who is coughing and sneezing it would be wise to move a suitable distance away. Also use one of the hand sanitising gels regularly and especially before and after meals. Tropical Medical Bureau has 23 clinics nationwide offering country by country vaccination requirements as well as health advice and safety guidelines for travelling in any part of the world. www.tmb.ie
Weekend Hotspot
The Lowry Hotel is one of many Manchester hotels located in the Chapel Wharf area, right around the River Irwell and Trinity Bridge. The location is convenient, situated nearby the busy commercial area of the city centre and is near the railway station as well as the airport. Rooms at the Lowry Hotel are spacious and come equipped with the latest in modern comforts like two telephone lines, voice messaging,
fax, interactive satellite TV and a data port. There are 165 rooms in all, including a Presidential Suite and six riverside executive suites. Bedrooms are spacious at 350 square feet and immaculately decorated with pleasant river scenery out the window. The Lowry Hotel was first built in 2001. This is a five-star hotel offering the largest bedrooms in the city along with the most luxurious designs. Amenities include an onsite health spa and gym. Designs include glass and steel combinations that are quite striking upon entry. Although now best known for its football teams, Manchester was once one of England’s greatest Victorian cities and was the birthplace of both rail travel and Rolls Royce. It is situated on the east bank of the Irwell River, in the north west of the country, and is the centre of a huge metropolitan area, which now encompasses the surrounding towns of Bury, Bolton, Wigan, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport and Oldham, and a vibrant and friendly Gay Village, concentrated around Canal and Chorlton Streets. Liverpool is just 30 miles (48km) down river. The area has long had a reputation as a drab, industrialised sprawl, but Manchester has succeeded in reinventing itself, becoming a vibrant metropolis with nightlife second only to London. The city boasts more than 50 free museums and galleries, a worldclass sports centre that recently hosted the Commonwealth Games, and plenty of parks, gardens and other attractions. The city’s architecture is largely a reminder of its central role in the cotton trade and many of the original warehouses can still be seen, although modernday Manchester is now very different from its heyday as an industrial hub. When the city centre was badly damaged in an IRA bombing in 1996, much of the central area was beautifully renovated. Now renamed the Millennium Quarter, it is a marvellous contrast of splendid Victorian architecture and towering glass edifices, including the eye-catching Urbis exhibition centre. Manchester City and
Pet’s Corner...
Living n The Lowry Hotel rooms
n Manchester City
Home and Away Extra
Manchester United are two of the biggest football clubs in England and Old Trafford (home to Manchester United) has become a huge tourist destination. The city also plays host to n The Lowry countless Mancheste r events, concerts, f e s t i vals and parades, is home to worldclass bars and restaurants, and has the Amalfi Coast plenty of shops and markets. Man- staying at a 3 Star Lidomare for chester is also home to the United 7 nights B&B from €625 per person. Kingdom’s largest Chinatown. www. Departs 3rd September. Price inthelowryhotel.com cludes transfers & tax or Rome at the 3 Star Augustea for 3 nights B&B from €424 per person. Departs 2nd Weekly Best Buy May. Offers include return flights With the latest hot offers from Cit- from Dublin, airport taxes, return alia by Travelmood you can get to transfers www.travelmood.ie Disthe heart of Italian culture. Immerse ney is bringing one of its cruise yourself in the home of high fash- ships to the Med for family holidays ion, taste divine dishes of authentic and Magic Vacations has discounts Italian food, while casting your eyes of up to 35 per cent for Irish famion some of the most iconic sights in lies. Departing Barcelona on August the world.Citalia by travelmood pro- 6th, 13th or 20th on Disney Magic, vide holidays to Italy that cater to a week is from €799 per adult and all tastes and budgets - whether you €650 for children. This includes full are looking for a relaxing beach hol- board, kids’ clubs, Broadway-style iday, a busy city break or a lesson in shows and some special guests. culture. Early booking offers include www.magicvacations.ie
with Kathleen Murray
BMI has been ranked as the leading UK airline brand in the 2010 Corporate Reputation Index released by TNS, the leading research company. The study ranks various organisations based on a number of key factors: their business success, favourability, trustworthiness and service quality. Bmi achieved the highest score, just ahead of British Airways, out of all the airlines rated in the latest index. This top ranking was boosted by a strong overall reputation score and success in the key factors as well as having developed a strong reputation with consumers. www.flybmi.com Ryanair has posted a YouTube video as a riposte to striking Belgian students who staged a mutiny over luggage charges. The video, complete with Benny Hill music, is a tutorial on how to pack a 10kg carry-on bag for a fortnight’s holiday – the video lasts for about one-anda-half minutes. It shows how to best fold T-shirts inside shoes and in between jeans to make the most of the space in the average carry-on bag. A sizeable holiday wardrobe disappears into the bag which zips up easily without having to be sat on. Robert Walshe is a freelance contributor / broadcaster and is guest travel writer for River Media newspaper titles across the island of Ireland
Who is poisoning dogs and why?
with Kathleen Murray: Animal Behavioural Therapist Dogs get poisoned every year for many different reasons but the main reason is to get rid of them. Who is doing this? Which dogs are most at risk? The reasons that I have heard mentioned over the years for poisoning certain dogs are… to stop dogs that are involved in nuisance barking, killing sheep, wandering into the garden, hanging around someone’s house after a bitch in heat, getting rid of dogs when breaking into their property, just because they feel like it etc etc etc. None of the above reasons are any kind of reason to put a dog through a horrific experience like being killed in this manner. This is a cowardly act. It is no solution to any problem
and it is certainly not something that anyone could be proud of. In the past before there were laws this was a method of control that was widespread. Nowadays there are Dog Wardens, better Law Enforcement and other ways to deal with these age old problems. There are still dogs that are allowed to wander, to bark all night for no good reason and that kill sheep so clearly poisoning is not any answer to these problems. With regard to poisoning Guard Dogs I am disgusted at the thought that there are people who think it is ok to break in to someone’s property and steal what they can. How dare people break into
yards and just take something that someone else had to work hard for a lifetime to build up. People have had to do without many luxuries to put everything they had an more into building up a business over the years and some thief thinks it’s ok to go and intimidate or kill his Guard Dogs and take what they want. How proud they must be of themselves when they look in the mirror each day. Setting out to poison dogs (that are actually working for a living) on purpose, so that you can crawl in and steal, is wrong, very wrong. Most guard dogs are scared. They are afraid like you and me that someone is going to
hurt them so they defend themselves. They are just defending themselves and their owners property as a result. They didn’t ask for the job, it was landed on them and then some lowlife comes and kills them for never having done any wrong to anybody. These dogs have never attacked anyone for coming in and buying something and paying with cash. Poisoning dogs, for whatever reason is wrong and it is a practice that should be stopped. If owners let their dogs wander or bark all night or whatever then the owners are the ones that should be punished and there is plenty of law there to do that with. Leave the dogs alone.
I am appealing to owners to protect their dogs from poisoning by making sure that they are supervised at all times either by a person or by a camera. Don’t let your dog bark all night or wander. Other people have lives too and looking at or listening to your dog is not high on their priority list. Guard Dogs also need protection, please call for advice.