Barcelona - Here We Come!!!

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One of my good friends, Donal, is getting married to Sofia in Barce later this year. Just got hotel booked so we're all sorted. All that's left to do is wait for it to arrive.

Gettin Big!!!

Soon be eating us out of house and home!!! Not to mention terrorizing the dog. Homer's gone into hiding.

Back in One Piece

We made it back without any casualties - well a couple of sore heads. Skiing conditions were great. Took a few pics with my k800i during the week. I left it till Friday to bring up the camera - and predictably the fog was out in force. Still managed a few decent pics. Here are a sample.

More posted on my Flickr page.

Later

Skiing

Nearly that time of year again, when we head for the slopes of St Johann en Tirol in Austria. Was sorting out all my gear last weekend and am now really excited. 9 days and counting!!!

Cillian

Cillian's been flying it lately. He's started moving under his own power - he's stared crawling backwards. Into any sort of divilment he can get into in. If there's something there that he's not supposed to be at then you can be sure that's where he'll be!!

Broadband

I got it. I ordered my broadband connection just over a week ago and was not surprised to be told I'd have to wait until 6th Feb for a connection.
By chance I connected my router to the phone socket to see if there was a light chance they'd have it connected early. And when I spotted it today the dsl light was glowing back at me. My 3MB line is up and running so I have no more excuses as to why the blog can't be kept up to date.

Got my golfing year off to a decent start Saturday week ago. 32 points - so overall I was happy. Played another 18 holes yesterday and to say the golf was up and down would be an enormous understatement. Playing again next week but am going to try and hit the range before then.

Skiing coming up. We head off the St Johann en Tirol in less than 2 weeks for our now annual ski fest. Am really looking forward to it. Maire is getting back on the skis this year and we have 3 first-timers so it should make for an exciting week. I've all the gear found so I'm pretty much set. Even collected the tickets last weekend. Austria here we come......

Update

Hey,

I know blog's been quite fir the past few weeks, ...eh months.
It's mostly down to the lack of broadband, but partly duw to a lack of 'couldn't be arsed' ness.

It will improve.

OK Donal?

Move Is On!!!

Finally....at last....we have a definite date.
The last of the work is being completed this weekend. We can start cleaning and moving stuff in next week.
It's been a long wait but we're finally there. It looked like another postponement was on the cards as the painter was late getting to house but he got there so all is good.

Links

my del.icio.us

Howya now

I know the posts have slackened off over the last couple of months or so but with good reason. I've been busy. That and the fact I've had no internet connection at home.

There's a few things I've wanted to write about. First, is my new house. It's nearly finished. After nearly 20 months of slogging at the weekends, of deciding what colour kitchen to what colour paint for each of the rooms. The last decision was made last week and that's it. No more changes or looking at something else, or being asked for my opinion on whether this unit would look better in this room or that room or will we change it altogether. I know I'm whinging and sound like I didn't enjoy being so involved the the building of the house but I actually loved it. There is something very rewarding about looking at some part of the house and know that I had something to do with getting it done, however small it may be. Hoping to move in Friday week. I'll post a few pics in a bit.

Next on my list is the Vodafone 3G Broadband modem. On their website they have a map of the coverage that they provide a service for. Athenry, where I live, is supposed to have their 3G broadband speeds. I say supposed. No where near broadband speeds. I've tried the modem in a few different locations around the town and I can't get speeds anywhere near what they say is available. I got the modem last week but only got it hooked up on Thursday last. I have to contact them regarding it, because it's not cheap.

Next up is my golfing. I got to play the Monty course at Carton House a couple of Sundays ago. Class layout, course a bit dull but very testing. If you have the misfortune of finding the bunkers you'll need a ladder to get in and out of them. I had only managed 18 holes on the course and 45 mins on the range since the Cecil Ewing final. The 18 holes I played were an awful mixed bag, ranging from ok to dreadful. So to be honest I actually thought about pulling out of the trip to Kildare. Was I glad I didn't. I managed to play pretty good for the day. I had 21 points at the turn, and although I only managed another 10 on the back 9 it wasn't solely because of bad shots. I did have a few bad ones, with my short game really showing up my lack of regular play. I hit alot of good shots only to find bunkers or a bad lie. All in all I was very happy with how I played and was glad I went. I'm really looking forward to when my time i my own again and I get get back out playing regularly. (House nearly finished so I'll soon have my weekends back).

Last but not least, if you know of anyone looking to buy a house in the West of Ireland you could do alot worse than the house I'm moving from. Up for sale now with Remax. If you know of anyone interested mail me at pleader@mac.com

Later

Been a While

I know it's been a while since my last update but I'm in the middle of moving to my new house.
As a result I have has to cancel by broadband connection while Eircom gets me set up.

Hopefully it won't be too much longer......

Connaught Champions

We went down to Carrick-On-Shannon yesterday for the 2nd leg of the Cecil Ewing shield. We had a 3-2 advantage from the 1st leg and were looking to win at least 2 matches to make sure we could go to a play-off.
Myself and Jim were up in our match from the 2nd hole. And bar 2 holes that we halved when we should have been lost them we were never in any danger of loosing the match. (We kept our 100% record together. The 5 matches I played with Jim and the match win in the first round gave me a 100% record for the whole competition. )
We were well beaten in the first 2 matches and were down in the other 2 after 10 holes. A come back in both of the matches before mine gave us a 3-2 win on the day, with a 6-4 win over the 2 legs.
It was a great feeling to win. Well worth all the time spent traveling and preparing for the matches.

Athenry Golf Club. Cecil Ewing Shield Champions 2007.

Class

iPhone gets launch date for UK

Apple and O2 have revealed that they are to release the iPhone in the UK in November. Apparently O2 are taking a big hit to be the ones who carry the iPhone. No word of when it will hit the Irish market yet, but with alot of unblocked phones readily available to buy on eBay and run on any network in Ireland it can't be too long before Apple cop that they are loosing money.

I've bought one of the new iPod Touch's so I'm not in as much of a rush to buy one of the phones but if it were to launch here next week chances are I'd be in the que to buy one. Can't beat a good gadget and the iPhone is THE gadget.

My New Ping Raptures

I recently aquired a set of Callaway X20 irons. I got them through my uncle. I hit them ok but wasn't really tempted to leave Ping irons.
The option came up to trade them in against a new set of Ping Raptures. I've been hitting my G5's really well lately so the raptures had to be at least as good before I'd consider changing. I hit them at the range and I could definitely see an improvement. At least 15 yards longer.
So the decision was made - the x20's for the raptures. Still have my G5's and I'm not sure that I'll start using the raptures till after the final next Saturday. I'm going to play 9 holes tomorrow evening and see how I get on.

Cecil Ewing Connaught Final

Well, we won the home leg 3-2. It gives us a slight advantage to bring with us to Carrick-On-Shannon next Saturday. I won my match and played fairly well doing so. Bar on duff chip and a couple of wayward drives I was very happy with how I played.
Hopefully we can get the result we want on Saturday and bring the title back to Athenry with us.

The Captain's prize presentation as held on Saturday also. For my 4th place finish I won a nice set of cutlery. Very fancy indeed!!!

New Taxi Service for Dublin

Cecil Ewing Connaught Final

We play the first leg of the final tomorrow against Carrick On Shannon. First pairing goes out at 1.30pm, with the first leg been played in Athenry. 2nd leg to be played in Carrick on the 22nd.

I'm out in the last pairing. Keeping the fingers cross we can bring a decent advantage up to Carrick with us next week.

Come on Athenry!!!

Time for Stan to Go

While I have always been a fan of Steve Staunton, both as a Liverpool and Ireland player, I couldn't believe it when he emerged the successor to Brian Kerr as Ireland manager. He appeared to me to be the cheapest the FAI could get that they thought the fans would accept. I know people will point to the run of unbeaten games that Ireland have gone on during the last 10 games or so as proof that we have made progress under Staunton. Some other people may ask that if not Staunton, who? But it is, plain and simply, time for Staunton to go.

While he was a good player he is not even an ok manager. It's hard to criticise him too much. Who wouldn't, if asked, not want to manage their country? The fault lies with the FAI. Delaney and Co. should also get the bullet. Look at the way the English FA run their association. They have a proper set up. Not people looking after their own skin. Delaney should have gone after the whole Saipan incident. Paid a fortune for the Genesis report and then practically ignored it. Typical.

We've fallen to about 36th in the world rankings and after the draw last Saturday coupled with tonight's defeat I'd say we're going to slide even further back. I think we have a decent enough squad - not great but good enough.

We need to get someone in who has experience - the more the better. And the sooner the better too!!!

I gave in!!!

I watched Steve Jobs' keynote presentation from last week over the weekend. The ipod touch looks so class I couldn't resist. I bought myself one of the 16gb versions today. I'm really looking forward to seeing how well the wifi works in the hot spots around town. The widescreen display really makes browsing the album artwork look class.

I was going to hold out for the iphone but with Ireland not likely to be included in the first european countries it's launched in I splashed out. They're shipping for near the end of September so should have it some stage during the first week in October.

Can't wait!!

Miss Teen South Carolina

This thing is doing the rounds on the net now. The video of Miss Teen South Carolina making an ass of herself.
Ben and Eric from benanderic.com have done a version of the Plain White T's Delilah. Absolutely brilliant.