Browsing all articles from June, 2011

Review : My fantastic new Leather Satchel

Posted Posted by McAWilliams in Review     Comments 3 comments
Jun
20

No I am not going back to school, but some of you may remember these bags from your school years, well this bag arrived to me from my friend who is making these bags now at the Leather Satchel Co. and since my blog has now changed I thought it would be worthwhile talking more about it. I have always been looking for a good laptop case and I have to say this fits the bill perfectly.

The packaging when it arrived was something to behold, inside the box was a brown paper parcel tied up with twine with a personalised letter for me to read. I was loathe to open the parcel up further but I had to see what was inside.

The smell of leather hit me as soon as I opened the package and there it was, a beautiful chocolate brown satchel. The thickness of the leather amazed me and I could tell my laptop would be very safe in this. One thing I did notice though was that the leather was very stiff much the same as a new pair of shoes. The other thing I did notice was the cut of the leather which was so clean and also the stitching all over the bag was beautifully done, you could feel the strength of the satchel.

Of course I had to try and put my laptop in it to try it out properly and my 13 inch Macbook fits snuggly into it. One thing I did miss was a separate compartment to put the mains adapter in but it does fit in the main area with the laptop, but maybe a compartment would be something they could look into for a different design.

So what else can I tell you about this satchel well after a month of having it, it still looks like new and even after walking with it in the rain I see no water marks at all, and yes the leather as I knew it would has softened really nicely thus adding to the vintage look now of the bag. In many ways I would have loved a handle on top of the main flap, which I know if I had said this from the off The Leather Satchel Co. would have happily obliged to include.

The Leather Satchel Co also provide these bags in different sizes and a massive array of colours, recently they have also started to do personal embossing on the bags aswell. If you want to see their range check out their store on amazon and they also have deals for fans of their facebook page too.

But what was to be found in that envelope, well heres the great thing when you order one of the satchels online you get a 5 year warranty, yes 5 years! so there were the instructions on how to go about registering and also a lovely letter telling me about the bag, but looking at how it is holding up with me using it daily I really dont know if I will ever have to call on that warranty.

Wilbur goes camping : Wolohans Silver Strand in Wicklow

Posted Posted by McAWilliams in Wilbur Goes Camping     Comments 5 comments
Jun
7

In a new addition to McAWilliams.com I am glad to let Wilbur tell you all about his camping adventures, and his first outing was down to Wolohans Silver Strand in Wicklow. This was Wilburs first time down but had nice nostalgic memories for me. I will let Wilbur carry on from here.

As a child, John spent the majority of his summers there in his parents mobile home and this was his first time to go back in roughly 19 years. The site is made up of two fields one for the permanent mobile homes and the second field, where we camped is mainly for tents. The site has a few electrical points for camper vans and has water taps dotted around the park. There are also toilet facilities in both fields and showers and washing rooms available too. What you can see in the photo to the left is the main entrance to the park and the green unit in the center is the shop, which has essential food and other grocery items, but it also sells a lot of camping equipment ranging from guy ropes to 8 man tents. The prices are not unreasonable either and compare well to all the camping shops around Dublin and are cheaper on many items.

Obviously the name of the site, “Silver Strand”  means there is a beach nearby, and you would not be wrong.

A beautiful private sandy beach can be accessed at the bottom of the first field. It is kept very well and is nicely surrounded by high cliff faces thus helping keep the winds down. You can see from the photo to the right that the beach is unfortunately not accesible to wheelchairs or those with mobility problems, as the climb down to the beach, down the side of a cliff is very steep, at the same time if steps are not an issue the beach really is stunning when you get down there. Litter wise the beach was very clean and a lot of people had used the beach the day I went down. If you want to swim there is no better a beach to swim from with a very gradual sandy walk to the depth you require to swim, no nasty drop offs to be found on this beach!

One disadvantage that affected us was the fact that dogs are not allowed on the beach, this obviously helps the cleanliness of the beach but most dogs enjoy swimming and fetching things from the water and it also makes it difficult to go down to the beach since you cant really leave a dog in the tent on their own. Dogs are very welcomed to the park but need to be tied up at all times and on a leash if you want to go walking.

Rates for the site start at €20 for 2 people per night for a tent, but the price is based on the amount of people rather then the pitch itself, and the price increases by roughly €7.50 per person thereafter. Even thought the site was very busy over the weekend there was lots of room for children to play football, tennis, badminton etc and also the site is very secure with the owner John Wolohan driving around each night nearly hourly making sure everyone is ok, also the gates to the field are locked up at 12am approx, adding to the security.

So would I return again, yes I would for sure but possibly not on a bank holiday weekend, it was quite busy and people were constantly passing the tent so you had no real privacy at all, but with its proximity to Dublin and the stunning beach it would bring me back tomorrow without a shadow of a doubt.

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