Mary has a taste and think it's a bit spicey actually. Hmmm, ahhh, I realise that my buds are a bit zapped. But it'll be grand. After all it's not _that_ hot.
While eating dinner Fionnuala & Mum watch Dad eating & almost dying. Poor guy ... much mellowness. Mum takes pity and swipes his plate and replaces with edible food.

:-7 sorry Dad! Mary has to leave it too.

Do hex tutorial effort with MArkH, Tornado BSP book & install, Ben's back, looking up PIC docs. Unicycle gets delivered to work without contact name so Dorothy sends a mail to leopardstown. Eek! I setup netscape, new profile, delete mail, tell it to REALLY delete mail, delete it. Gone. Bike not ready until tomorrow.

telnet headyin 389 (ldap)

Ring Fionnuala & head home walking after stashing unicycle. In creche I head in & Daire is as usual stand-offish for a bit. We get coat & hat & Daire walks all the way home with me. A bit slow going ... we meet Fionnuala in car at top of our row.

Cook miscellaneous stuff for dinner, sausages & waffles for Daire. Reheat stew & potatoes for me. Orange spicey chicken/veggies plus toast for Fionnuala.

Nice walk ... not as frosty as recently ... over fence, path/mud, brisk. The path has LOADs of rubbish on it :p[

I realise credit card missing from wallet. EEK! Diary (future & poast), play with pics/GIMP another little, work/family/friend emails. After completely forgetting credit card I find it on my desk. EEK! Lunch, sate meatballs, Bronwyn has burnt her finger with soup. ow. Walk/talk with Ian. Ian,Fermoy.

Birds at home are doing interesting things. Little tits eating the nuts from bird-feeder hanging on tree. Other birds can't hang off it. Robin comes occasionally. They all look very fat.
Neighbours next door have lots of rubbish bags in their back garden and a magpie has found a big piece of bread. One gets dropped in our garden and a flock of starlings pecks at it. We also get a close-up view of one of them shaking a worm and then gulping it. (D&me having breakfast). We see 6 (house probably) sparrows on the fuscia also interested in the bread. Another magpie sits for a while on top of shead with a different piece until rook & more magpies come along.

Big fry-up at 12ish for Fionnuala's breakfast. Daire Heads to bed for a nap by himself after fry-up lunch. Assumpta calls in afternoon stuck for babysitter, chat about Christmas doings.

Now ..... MORE Shopping!!! (well, for Fionnuala) We drive into town, half-forgetting Santa is calling. Drop Fionnuala & head out to collect stuff from Eogahn's house. People aren't there until 16:00/later. Ds & myself walk by surfdock & look at lots of boats down to Ocean bar. Meet a man & Daire gets jelly-beans & really likes them. Get Eogahn's stuff & head home. No sign of Santa but is sign of postman.

We cook celery+Aubergine+garlic+tomato+herbs/condiments + lamb+Aubergine+tomato+stock + potatoes on top stew. Everything fried first. Daire stirred. When F comes back we pick her up. Stew is roasting hot & yummy. We have chilled rosé with it. I like it this time but not F. D plays a bit by himself, then film with Santa on TV ... more worrying/confusing than anything else for D. Then D to bed by F. Guitar, Glenroe

Fionnuala babysits for Assumpta, I play guitar a good bit, play tin-whistle, watch TV. Chop up veggies & marinade chicken for tomorrow 00:20ish when F comes home. We head to bed ... no shower, relative cleanliness discussed again. Eeeeuwww.

I showered, got breakfast with Daire finishing his, then F&D gave me a lift into the Gallops. I walked across the fields to S3.

F was shopping today & did found some decorations in Dun Laoighre as well as getting a few MORE prezzies.

We head for a drive, stop ladies view, meet Tomek, Radek?, Slawek out for drive, robin eats some mince pie. Gap of Dungloe. Lovely lakes & rocks all over the place.

Drive for Limerick ... 1:30, traffic in Limerick itself looks terrible. We visit Fionnuala's parents, watch space cartoon thing & then Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Cheese & salad & bread + tea and then more fry for tea.

Drive back fine, some traffic but mostly 60mph/70. We drop Eimear to Castletroy, visit her student house. 20:30 leave for DSublin, arrive back 23:00 (stop for 72.?p petrol + milk) Daire sleeps at the start, wakes at garage & sings/gives out.

Rush cycle against BLASTING wind to pick up Daire who is in kitchen with Helen. I collect him at 6:15. There is a bright half moon, the stars are out and Jupiter/Saturn are bright too. Fionnuala is playing soccer. Make ham+egg and toast for Daire. I have some Quiche Fionnuala had cooked. F comes home & has dinner too.

Neanderthals, The crow ar an teilifís.

Fionn cross with Daire over stuff during morning & I get extremely cross at dinnertime, then sleep for a few hours. Late film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

We set the big kite up and fly it a little bit but then half the neighbourhood descends around us and participates in the kite flying - which is quite entertaining. They first have a go of the little kite - which then gets passed from person to person until much later. There is also another stunt kite being alternately flown or wrapped around trees. I bring Daire in to the toilet and we head back out again.

Christopher is out with David and Daire/David and two little girls of about the same age and Patrick who is a little bigger play with kite lines/launching kite or just watching. The bigger girls _try_ to fly the kite - it's BRUtal - but thankfully the big kite is of very solid construction. Much repairs & relaunching. It has to be kept downwind by continually turning it back and forth so almost every time they fly out of the window and eventually crash to ground or into the trees. Kids love running around after it though.

I fly it a bit and they get the hang of it more ... before one of their charges goes missing (back to a neighbours house). Then Christopher flys it ... gets a bit better too. Daire & David play together - David has his footbakk. They head in general downhill & downwind. Fun fun! I get them back a few times and follow an expedition through the prickly gorse. Show CHris how to launch kite by self too.

Eventually they head in, I bring Daire inside too (Fionnuala is asleep) and head back out for one last fly. Attach blinking light which makes a spectacular high curve, very slowly landing in gorse. EEK! It went SOOOO far! I recover it and fly more before heading in.

Kieran & Morgan's party, the apartment is quite easy to find. Lucia & Paul are the only guests there before us. Inside there is a lovely high ceiling, a large figgis tree with lights, nice paint colours, floorboards. Daire eats some things and is quiet in general but does go hunting for tortilla chips. He asks to go home and Fionnuala headed away with him (& visited Aedin on way home). Darren & gf ?Denise? had arrived & a few others.

I stay on, lots more people, lots of white & then red wine. Yummy bits of vegetables & dips. Lift home from Paul & Lucia with Mary. Cook toast+ham+egg before bed.

Shopping - Stillorgan shut, go to Cornelscourt. Aedin visits. Daire into bed sometime in night ... a bit disturbing. Cold toddler kicking feet.

MyrIAD context, timers driver study&chat, UART

Messrs, waider, Pauline, Conor, John, Diarmuid, Mike, ... Great night - much chat about lots. We arrive in - table with 3 longish haired, 2 with almost-beard, big Diarmuid, 2 others. Eek! Pauline gets on grand :) Much talk about Genie going on about Parachuting on dspsrv. Yummy pils, then lots of cokes for me. I get a goldslager for John when no jammy. Run completely out of money. Drive back ... wired on coke (acola).

Mary's 18th party in ramblers. LOADs of food - sandwiches, etc... Bulmers, Brian, Jennifer, Sinead, Brendan. Pauline & Brian have a fight. Not talking first, then talk. Pauline crying and gets a bit drunk, sick. We drive home, D won't sleep on floor ... :-7 I sleep on couch, watch the rest of the Matrix, lovely.

Necks stiff but okay, would love massage .... Daire gave me a little one this morning :-D

Finished up perl scripts for InProjectAudit/KPA checklists ... small changes from Fionnuala & tidy.

Andrea visits with Emily & with tummy tubby & other of Daire's baby things. She brings a lovely lego duplo present for Daire. He opens it up & we put it together & play a bit. Emily gradually gets more brave and crawls a little.
I cook pasta & spicy tomato+chilli+ham+yellowPepper+onion+garlic sauce.

Pauline's party. Aedin comes to babysit at 9. We head in via Dundrum, much talk (me trying to retell the old stories from Fri night to Fionnuala - the missions - one huge redemptorist and a younger smaller priest, the huge drover & the wee dog "just throw hime a little bit" - poteen). We park across road & head in.

We have mulled wine (WINE!?! WINE!! it emerges it is mulled wine+brendy+herbs but the non-alcoholic ingredients are lacking - we drink from large glasses and it is difficult to drink without inhaling noxious fumes - blowing them away is a tactic we adopt. It splashes and attacks Fionnuala's eye.)

Loads of girls. Brid, Audrey, Jean, Laura. (Pauline knows Brid, Brid knows others). Jacqueline, Sinead McKee, J..... Buckets of cocktails. Bill & Susan arrive after pasta milanos. Fionnuala heads away 11:30. I stick with red wine. Much chat & talk. Bill & Susan head ... I hang on a bit talking with Pauline. Then she comes to Burgerking with me to get fresh air & we run out of Burgerking after a wee bit to get more fresh air. Meet the girls who'd headed off to score coming back. I head soon enough after that. 3:00ish

Walk down O'Connell St., across through throngs of nitelink Qers, up along E side of Stephen's green, down Leeson St., out past Donnybrook. There I see a taxi with light on & hail it. 04:00ish. Get home 04:30. Eat miscellaneous & drink juice, Fionnuala a bit awake.

   Subject:           Re: EEP!
      Date:           Fri, 03 Nov 2000 18:14:06 +0000
     From:           James Coleman 
       To:           "Clarke, Sheila - RI Japan" 
       CC:           finnc@s3group.com

Week just about over.

It's dark here at 5:30 now :( ... and my poor bike had it's lights smashed a month or so ago :(.
The cycle home involves navigating mounds of earth, huge puddles and soaked grass.
  (in area without street (or rather field?) lights)
  (record levels of rainfall this Oct (& I'm guessing this Nov too so far))

"Clarke, Sheila - RI Japan" wrote:
> 
> Gosh, it's only taken me 4 months to reply to this!!!! My most humble
> apologies - my rate of correspondence has hit record lows in the last year.
> I'm sooooo behind...  If it's any consolation, you're not the only one who's
> been kept waiting!! Waider actually resorted to emailing my mobile (yep, I
> have one of those now!) to see if I was still alive!

Cripes ... actually I hadn't realised that subject line was originally mine ....
though it makes a bit more sense now!

> 
> Anyhoo... sounds like things are as hectic as ever your way (or were back in
> July at any rate!!). Hope you've managed to catch some surf since then! My

Managed to do a good bit ... but never enough really .... maybe this weekend again
 ... last weekend was force 8-9-10 & huge waves ... much too much for me :(
 Today was actually SUNNY after a week of wet cycles to work. 
So far ... I've not gotten myself in any trouble ... though I've developed my
upwind sailing once or twice through necessity!  ... I'm still terrible with
 technique .... my tactic so far is to hang on until close to large obstacle or
 falling off. The harness at least usually prevents board from ending up too far
 away.

> roller-blades rarely saw the light of day this year, pretty sad really. Did
Mine have been in the attic for a year now! :(

> manage to get in some _serious_ sailing though! See attached pics! That was
no attached pics :(
> about it for sporting activities. I was in another play last month though,
> so that kept me busy for a couple of months. My last show in Tokyo *sniff*.

 -.-

We managed to spend about 3 weeks in France ... yummy food - we drove.
Daire likes steak-hache-frites in restaurants & also got quite a kick
out of sleeping in hotels and regularily inspecting the toilets of many varied
French establishments.

Funny in work - have been sooooo busy after having no project.
Things should improve soon as new project starting up now.

My sister Pauline's working in Dublin now for the last few months (in same company
as my brother Bill) ... & she babysits a bit for us allowing escape to Ballroom Dancing
 these days. eep!

> 
> Oh yeah - I'll be home for good on Dec. 18th!! Yep, finally decided that
Oh yeah ... like that just reminded you.
Please allow me to climb back off chair (fell off it Tuesday when I read this!)

> I've had enough of Japan, for now at least! Am currently in the process of
> trying to sort out 6 years worth of crap and figure out what to keep and
> what to dump! Great fun...
Jayzzzz! Hire a big container truck & mail it to yourself.

> 
> That's the "big" news really. I'll be heading to Australia at the end of
> Nov. for a couple of weeks, and then it's back here for 3 nights to pick up
> my suitcase, and then home!! After that, I've no idea!!!

Wahooo!
The possibilities!!

> 
> Talk to you soon (sooner than 4 months at any rate!),

Leave us know when you're coming in ... (dec 18th is a Monday).
We could do drinkies out in the airport like something I vaguely remember from ages ago.
We've also got a spare bed out in our place if you'd like to visit a wee bit longer at any stage.

Talk tya (urgh --- ultra-chic young-Dub speak)

James.   :)

I collect D from creche and we get home. F home too. We put on spagetti, Saute onion + garlic in butter, add peeled chopped tomatoes + salmon, cook packet of hollaindaise sauce, debone salmon, chop & add it with prawns & sauce back. Pauline arrives in middle of all this. Myself & F head off, D is a bit happier than last week.

Samba, rock 'n roll, waltz, .... Collect money in Stillorgan. Back, much present & talk.

Christ! Aug is missing!! Aug4-Sep8 Practically all of diary written into Palm at home or in odd waiting moments. Copied in today, holiday diary typed up in email & here yesterday, still pencil notes to be copied in. Dream in morning after sex ... in hotel in Avignon ... very sensual, squeesing berries in mouth .. dripping onto nipples ... yeow. btw ... lots of sex on holidays ... not v risky but we're going to have another baby soon.

Web browsin, help mark a bit with IOP makefiles, SMX, CMX demos. 16:00ish oil burner repair guy calls, I leave note for F & take car home. He's very chatty, burner doesn't co-operate straight away ... waits until it's been taken apart a good bit and cleaned. The pipes also are a bit kinked and moving them helped enough oil to get through. We go through all the radiators in the house, back to shed, talk renault cars, 30 pounds. back to work at 17:00, meet Martin & put drill in car & talk, change note to F when I head after 17:30.

Irish TV - yer man Eamon something visits Copenhagen, visits Carlsberg, loathes Irish bars, harley, gay pride. TnaG good.

wake up with naked cuddle from behind - mmmmm. D arrives in while we're having sex. He's quite blaze about it, we're pretty gentle.

Everyone up by 830ish, me into shower, down for breakfast in a bit. Lots of misc packing, clean of kitchen, take down hammock, tidy garden, eat leftover food. D cranky, me too a bit. Liam visits outside. Leave just after 10ish.

V calm drive, Derek Davis & Darrina Allen talking food of radio. Starving when get to Wexford. Parking is difficult, 1st pharmacy, then soup+sandwiches+eclair+cappuchino, walk up+down shops, grapes+groceries car. £15 petrol 20l. Rosslaire, straight in, car Q, D out with toy car, then cars onto boat.

F rests in cabin (786 front left) while D&I explore - inside, then long time on deck, at side 1st looking at shore, then chimney, up front, scary smoke, down back, heli circle, lots of ppl& jumping on orange floats. Back to F, eat grapes, D has a nice spot on windowsill, then F comes explorlng shops, restaurants, cinema, excellent kiddy corner - we stay a while- headache from deisel, then food - tikka masala bud chcps saus salad £17!!ow back to c, D loo&poo, wash hands w soap every time, scary flush. I writeup diary, Din PJs & to bed, F too. Me diary & X files, lovely night moon & lights on water. Bed on floor after cuddle.

Diary, mum & dad back from mass. Fix chair? Get poppy seeds. French mariqolds & onion line We visit Granny, we all walk up the road & the dogs come with us. D & myself eat blackberries. Talk, pick apples, F weeds Js trees a bit.

Drive back afternoon, tidy bike, tractor, stop in ? Explore, Chinese, big wait. Takeaway.

We head out & see start of cow milkinq, I head in to get slightly more dirtiable trousers (& P's boots). D has great fun splashing water beween bin & bucket in Dairy. More bkfst.

Garden tour - sunflowers! Attempt at repairing chair, fish out old bikes to help & end up repairing that.

D+grandad+me+Sam in tractor over bumpy tracks to count cattle. I open gates/wires. D scared of big cattle a bit. Back for dinner, then more bike repair, scrape rust & spray white. Go spreading fertiliser in tractor, D falls sound asleep.

Have tea & call Fionnuala, then drive to Cork to collect her. Back in Cobh D sound asleep in car, garden tour, bike repair - then D awake with wet carseat. F cleans D who's V groggy & hot. I rinse out clothes & seat.

We all have tuna salad for tea, D cross & heads to bed with F. More bike repair, in looking for wheel I find an orange tractor in the rafters. Photos are taken & tractor is cleaned, sanded & rustpainted.

Shower, car to town, the Voyager loud music & Guiness. Outside for 1 drink, then inside. Meet Denis & Emma. Burger & chips, home, tea, bed.

Use case reviews in work, talk Flavio + Rachel, fraggles, doozers, Hubert, Kamila, buy Polish hses. Then proj can mtg- all IOP, 15 eng, Ru+Bernard+Ferg. Mot=>too much money, good eng work, negotiate final deliveries now. Ferg=>lots learned, me=>keep&publish it e.q. Use cases, RPC. Dinner, walk w Mark, markc shows me IOP machines & cdburn. Use case rev takes all afternoon. Update mine, pcopy car stuff,check mail.

Hi Fionn, collect Daire, lots of parents, D climbs up bike onto pillar, cycle home. F cooks, I make box of replaced broken cd boxes, D eats ice-cream. Sausage+mash+chilliBeans+spinach. Olivier & Martin headto Killiney with "jolie filles". We talk French to O.

I type up diary in Palm, ideas for apps, fionn on phone, eventguide + himalaya + beauty Q of Leenaune + tvplay + comedyclub. Talk of work - PIO process fagan reviews ... doesn't quite lead to sex .... :)

D & me file stuff & put wsurfer on car. Killiney, few ppl out, put wsurf together, lock car, board, then sail to beach. Wind not quite as onshore as had thought. Interesting trying to get up initially in the waves. Turn around & beat away shore NEish, then back SW. Chop/waves interesting, going about ugly but fall in only on occasion. Closer than comfy to break waves on shore 2wice. Avoided fish lines, pibn't scare fish too much I hope, went over drag-patch of weed 2wice. Lights on when coming in. Waves grab me+gear when land. Carry board+sail up beach, then seperate,phone, pack gear, dress, home.

up real late, lice stuff in my hair, filing F's bank, share docs, rec mobile phone info in palm, shower, detangle, chilli olives + mi-wadi+ice

Move car to Stephen's green, park on 2nd pass. Daire goes in buggy. I qet coke, then Great Outdoors watersports is inspected, in Temple Bar we get OS 51 & Fionn looks at boots & Daire likes walking stick. Cross river & visit food centre, lobsters in tank, seafood chowder+pasta, no seats, F & me cross. We find a nice doorstep & lunch, then Daire goes to loo, then into café mocha for hot-choc-esp, Capucchino & hot-choc. Visit Boots - shave gel, lice shampoo, condoms, hairties. See Marina exiting Boots. Brisk walk back to car. Daire sleeps, I get key cut & bike pump in Stillorgan. At home Daire heads to bed & it later up late watching film.

Collect Daire from creche. Thunder & lightening Pauline visits. Cook potatoes & pork chops in with veggies (& two courgettes from garden). Mushroom soup/sauce. Chilli and red currants decorating. QUite nice. Daire has pasta. Much guitar playing & tin-whistle/recorder. Bring pauline home, play through irish tunes, sex, bed.

drive Milltown, stop+look at TVs. Thsn 15:00 MM-Inagh-Corrofin-Gort-Loughrea-Athlone--Dublin I ram wheel into break in road surface at side of road while keeping in for potential overtaker. It deflates fast. We change it quickly, D sleeps. Slowish 40ish mph traffic for a good bit. Have difficulty getting by one Polo driving in middle of road. Now home, courgette harvested & bakep on top of pizza. Unpack & wash on. F thinks her arm has been so sore as it has been developing muscle.

F tired, we head back to hse, GPs arrive & sandwiches. D goes down for sleep bua bounces around. we mow lawn & pull weeds. I packed power saw instead of drill. Doh! Except F is really pissed about it - I don't like this. Anyway - mirrors not hung, doorstops are also a hames.

Drizzly weather but still warm (I think). Daire to bed, TV, then F & I head out to Milltown Malbay. F brings me up & down to check out the potential pubs. We go in the one we parked right in front of. Guinness for me and G&T for F. Families in bar for a while. The two sitting next to us turn into trad players. An older flautist and a Californian fiddler. Another guinness, foreign girl (Spanish prbly) likes the music, barman buys cd & gets autograph. F is not persuaded to walk home. (just as well - in the dark)

We grab icecreams & coke for me. I help Daire keep his tidy. Then look at shop and up into Potato bar, buy local map, soup for D, chilli+potato+salad for me, cheese+chutney+p+s for F. Coffes+biq deserts. Apple tart, icecrm+jelly, biq brown heavy. Buy cheese in farm shop, D runs around, likes stones, Piqeons on roof. Walk back to car, pile in, drive & see the dolmen. Ha! Ths new map had it.

On to Lahinch, debate what to do, I get stuck with washer jammed in wsurfer gear. Hammer, tear hand, squeeze, check car(locked- don't know where others have gone) Finally break washer, gear together (new enemy- sand), out. I get qoing v little, schlumplerfled by the waves, come in then, leave sail & head surfin. Good few surfers out, catch some waves, board handles interestingly- v buoyant, scoots & fast in water, look for F a few times.

F & D have had a great time in swimpool. Pile gear in, board on top, back getting sore, dress. Drive back home, I unpack, F cooks, D tired- helps cook, rinse gear, wee on loo, ready for bed. Dinner then lots of tea. Diary, F asleep, back sore, shower bed.

Motorola ppl in work ... don't see James much except for 9:30 meeting. James in meetings with Motorola in work, much tidying & doing stuff which hadn't chance to do earlier in week. Kamila looking at gigantic use of shared memory.

Head home & collect Daire. We tidy up inside, collect wetsuit etc, then use up stuff in fridge: bacon+mushroom+beef+mangeTous+garlicButter+cream(sour) +tuna & pasta from night before. Fionnuala comes home & starts packing with Daire before dinner. Then pack wsurfer, tools, Daire plays in car. Eventually we're ready & head. Roads ok, miss N7 turn off M50. Nenagh bypass open. Arrive 23:x Daire qoes into bed & then in cot. We have tea & sandwiches & chat.

Out on water there's plenty wind for me, see Ken a few times. I start with accidentially clipping into harness and actually manage to use it quite well within a short time .... sitting down when wind is strtong enough, knees bent to pull my weight in over board when wind drops a bit. up-down-up-down-up-down-up-down-up-down-up-down-up-down-up-down-up-down Randall gives me some advice on water/dryish starts: push arms high up ... objective to get sail as high as possible ... then foot up on board right under self. I manage it a bit later with a bit more wind. Stay out a good long bit, talk to Ken, then I head in after the guy from Iona heads in too.

It's quite dusky .... derig & pile stuff in car, board on top. Phone Fionnuala, wetsuit off, it's quite dark at this stage .... most wsurfers gone, two other cars arrive & go though. Drive home through town, stopping in Aprile's in Stillorgan for cod+chips+Coke. Martin & Fionnuala are discussing ?(work&diy&...) at home. Bring in wsurf gear .... it lashes rain & soaks things ... handy for cleaning the gear. I leave stuff out a bit, then bring in everything but board & wetsuit on line.

Motorola User View reading ... thinking ascii iface should be implementable. What ifaces used? FIFOs/shared mem/RPC where? Catch Alistair in morning, checks some stuff on network. Other hacking just reveals what know already, nslookup, telnet to cook looks funny (belfast). Using oldfield .... 2G used up on C:, I clean out old stuff & then compress the drive ... that actually seems to qork quite well.

Review Paolo's doc half before lunch. Then Fionnuala arrives with Daire and a picnic for us. She heads to Icon for Bill's going away dinner. We walk past S3 and down the road and we find some lovely rocks. We have ham&cheese&... rolls and yops and apples and grapes. Then Daire plays a little with his cars, climbs on the rocks ... and wanders further away too. People start kicking footballs and throwing frizbees & it's time to head back. Nappy change then we drive to Icon, head inside, meet the gang & I walk back to work.

Finish doc review & head to meeting with Paolo & Orla. Radek works with Footprints in afternoon .... network init problem DID need the admin password. Install thewn went no problem but HDD corrupt so mightn't be so good reinstalling stuff.

Just about to leave work when Ruarai calls, mtgs in Cork next week. Talk to Alek - wsurf+msg to Kamilla. Home just before 6.

I collect Daire from creche, he's there with Brid & Lauren in the back garden. Shows us the fish again.

At home we get a quick bite of soup to eat, then collect saws & head on bikes to Aedin's house. There we meet Fionnuala's Mom & Dad and have some tea and then chop down a dead tree and a branch of a live palm in front. Head back ... getting tired & hungry. Daire in great form though ... singing "NeeeNahhh NeeeNahhh NeeNahhh" on the bike. Much snacking on peanuts+figs+olives+feta to satisfy hunger. Fionnuala gets D to bed. Then tea+TV, then bed, little of GEB.

Softball match in Terenure. I arrive quite late 7:20ish. Austin is umping. We play quite well first innings, other team (Loan Homers) find their balance and really get going ... scoring lots of runs. I play later on, really is hard to hold the other team .. they're good batters.

At home we grab a bite to eat, then head to woodies, get paint, wood, nuts&bolts. Home again, we put composter together, splutch compost heap out of corner. Wash & paint wall yellow. Put composter in corner & compost back in it. Fionnuala heads for a jog in the middle & paints again using up the last of the paint afterwards.

Softball practice ... Fionnuala reluctant to leave me go ... beautiful blue skys, warm, sun. Head back to Clonskeagh with Diarmuid & Aevanne to get gear. Warmup, throw a bit, Then hitting practice (& fielding & running).

Talk with Bruce (email) & Masood, restart & install useless Framemaker on PC - won't open any of Lucent's frame 5.5 docs :(. Lots of jag4.8a/jag4.9 messing for GPRS. Still getting seeming nameserver problems. BSS sim in jag4.8a hardly gets going at all. In 4.9 it runs & does big tree audit happily .... and seems to rtestart when it runs into the same error. Hmmmmm. I attempt to edput volume file back and it KILLS me. No matter what template I use it won't go back into sablime :( I update status report getting ready for Friday.

Waider's in Norway, coming back to Ireland tonight? I tout the dark spiritual nature of electronics on the dspsrv.

Head with Martin dinnertime to collect roof bars for car. Kind of excited late afternoon, can't wait to get going. Arrange for Pauline to come & bring Ciara. Talk with Alex about buying board. Fionnuala comes 5pmish and I grab gear from Martin's car & head.

In N11, right after Merrion down to Blackrock-Dub road, cross DART line towards Ringsend. Straight on then right & then turn in right after bridge. I see Randall first over by prefab and talk with him a small bit, ... then head over to the shop. Talk with person minding shop a bit, then Brian comes back from water and we start collecting stuff together, talking about prices, etc... Ben & Ken call over to see how it's going & Pauline & Ciara come to say hello too. We rig up sail ... all colecting etc takes about an hour.

Lots of link mails & some IS updates & MR noting.

I collect Daire & we go to shop & get some shopping. Then we head home. Daire has some yoghurts, we cook pasta too and he has very little ... but I have more. Then we do some tidying/washed, water/wash the flowers. We turn on the TV and see some of Portugal vs France. Quite good football really. Daire has loads of "tea" - ovaltine & drinking chocolate ... and I'm telling him to hold it properly all night & eventually he spills a full cup onto himself & couch. We clean up & dress him for bed.

Bed for Daire, more football for me & removal of socks from washing machine & washing/hanging out washing. Don't quite get around to tidying some things into attic. Reading GEB too ... did I say I finished the latest Dan Simmon's "The Rise of Endymion".

Fionnuala comes back - she's been in town, first in the Doodle place making the present for Ronan & Ritva. She brings back Daire's bowl which is actually quite nice (inside). (Daire says "wash it!" though. She then took Pauline & Ciara to a couple of pubs. Martin back from doodling too.

Running 4.9 OMC all morning realising nmcIntf has been badly affected by MIB changes.

Afternoon, link mails & miscellaneous stuff IS updates & mails, diary & nmc 4.9 messy config .... trying out different BSS simulators. Looks like currently in 4.9 no alarms forwarded? M-GET of logRecords => only ACC alarms are retrieved. Changes in database or data for other alarms/logRecords? Can see objCre/Del/stateChg records not being retrieved.

Softball BBQ in our house. Home, prep stuff with Pauline & Fionnuala. Daire helps too! We're pretty rwady by 20:00 and light BBQ a bit after. Chris arrives & then Ken on bike .... then Dutch guys and after we've all drunk & eaten Darach comes with Diarmuid and Martina & they have burgers on the last heat of the BBQ.

In work link is fully broken. Mail about this to&from many. Tired of work since hassle recently but I get some fun fixing paths in Cygwin for palm dev tools, asdk1a1, sdk, m68kpalmosgcc. Dinner yum, sort some payslips, slowish taxi all way down Torquay Rd emerging in Cabinteely (right & quik left) Mtg longer than Bernard expected I'd say. His wife is expecting Fri. Loads of comments from Marina who does minutes. Updates tbd asap.

Softball match in Marlay park. Quite wet, collect Sarah at yellow house as we're short a girl. I head to Nutgrove, shops closed, Stillorgan closed. Back home, Pauline's there. Fionnuala's headed to Leopardstown Heights Residence comittee with Assumpta. Do shopping all in a rush in Cornelscourt. Get loads of burgers, sausages, ....

Daire gets me up at 9 and brings his Elmo flap book in to read. Go through letters & shapes & etc.... fun! I get up & dressed & he heads down to get his baloon & toys. Play with soft WinneThePooh jigsaw then breakfast. We eat, then I get bike from shed, water plants, get Daire's clothes on & head to creche & on to work.

A few mails to people to try & get my mib working & about softball BBQ. Review status & schedule with Orla.

Dinner with Ben & Joel & Mags & Fergus - nice baguette, almost too much - then walk. Joel's holiday photos are good - especially ther one AFTER the pounding against rocks with waves.

Fionnuala back, get ready for Conor's birthday. Present wrapped, card made, Daire dressed. I head in, we first mull around, then blow bubbles inside & outside with kids chasing them. Daire stays in car outside. then pasta & sausages & sauce for little people - Conor & Daire & Nicola & Orla. David comes later with Christopher. Fionnuala arrives after shower. Baby Emma is crawling round & sitting in Conor's car. They all get popcorn & crispy buns & smarties & are soon off playing again.

After a bit of a tidy we go kiting - I eventually get lots of kites up, Chris has his diamond, We've our diamond, but wriggly drogue is too heavy for it, Stunter really zooming in the wind once it manages to get up, Too gusty & windy for triplane, Stan's kite is loose & funny & won't fly. Other kids out too. Chris & myself stay out flying a bit after the others head in. fionnuala gets Daire & I manage to get all kites in eventually.

Inside I get Daire to bed as he's wrecked. Fionnuala heads for nap too & I doze in front of crap on TV. Some soccer & formula-1 too.

Start cooking stuffed cabbage thingies from Crank's cookbook. (stuff w rice+onion+tomatoJuice+mint+walnut+sultanas) Fionnuala gets Daire up a bit after 6. We have stuffed cabbage with potato & roast tomato & lemonade.

Pauline arrives in the back & Fionnuala gets to bed early. We watch funny "Kevin's guide to being a teenager" on TV. Fionnuala's not pregnant as she's prbly started her period. Awwww, ... still, now we can go & do eye thing. Tired, read a bit, hot, hot babe :) ... sleep.

Orla back to work - schedule & status talk. Mails to Bernard, MIS, .... link. Build finally works YAYYYY! Over last night.

Head & bring Daire home for creche, Fionnuala makes me a sandwich & I demolish watermelon. I go sailing with Ben. :) Collect him & head to Dun Laoighre. Get harness & buoyancy aid, dressed in wetsuit, meet people, head over to boats, uncover, bring down to slip, rig them & launch. A bit inelegantly. Beautiful sunny & strong enough wind. Excellent fun Laseer IIs. Sail around harbour first, getting a bit of practice hooking into harness & hiking out. Then all boats head out and sail a bit before race. Ben gives me a go as cox too and we sail around a bit. Fun.

Other laser capsises right before race buyt we completely miss this till later. Head fast towards first mark then tack, get forced to tack out of way, then end up trying to go round mark the wrong way. Close to girl's laser so everyone's confused

Ben: tacking
We go about.
M?: starboard:
We go about again.
Ben: WATER! WATER! 
M: Get out of the way!
Ben: You MUST LEAVE ROOM!
M: Get the fuck out of the way you prick!
*SCrunCH*

 B- mark, b- rescueBoat/start, t-tack, s-scrunch, o-oops&turn around
  b. B      
   .
    .
    .
     t       B
     t
   Bs
 o..
 
/
wind

De-rig, bring boat up, cvhanged, shower, pub. It's 10:30-11, I've a rock shandy & a Guinness & then talk. Then it's 01:12 eek! So I head home ... others are going for food, salsa, ...

Dan from New Zeeland Conor 1 driving rescue boat, Conor 2 crewing for Dan. Conor & Dan Capsised 4 times tonight. Margret? & ? girls Rumba/Salsa/... ? is much nicer and shocked at her swearing. thought she had said something much more civilised.

We head with nappies to creche. Daire wants some toast and he's happy enough to head in once he knows it's coming.

Nice sunny day, some clouds, quite windy.

Network's a bit better .... I edit doc & send emails & there are a good few cases of link being dropped foo.recover.recover.fm. By evening I've sent doc out (using mutt). Collected a list of all bad in network and sent it to various systems people - ftp & http cut off, general instability, lucent mounts missing from some machines. And GUI jag4.9 runs.

Network is unbelievable in work. Unix disks have crashed so mounts are missing - frameMaker is gone in particular. Link to Lucent terrible - xterms/telnet/... dropped within 1/2 mins sometimes. Problem due to network hub upgrade & incompatable ntwk cards in S3 and also Lucent network has mounts missing and won't run sablime, ....

Joel has had an entertaining weekend .. in Dingle, staying in hostel & biking around. In sea with big waves attempting to get photos ending up fighting the rip currents. Clabmering down onto a cool rock for another photo - getting soaked & almost being washed away. Climbing back up cliff with stones & rocks giving away at feet & in hands.

Manage to update IS document eventually and mail/track down systems people, setup netscrape on my PC for Paolo as his PC won't log on at all. External http gone too. Do status rep & send it out ... lots of unscheduled.

Head home in reasonable time, Gregory walks with me, then on to get Daire. Fionnuala's not home yet, myself & Daire stay in the garden. I put the hose on real low dribbling - it makes a terrible noise when on low. Daire is quite good and water/washes all the plants in the raised beds & I help him with others. Meet Fionnuala at home round the front, then she makes tuna+pasta+sweetcorn. I grab bags, change into shorts & runners & head to softball. By car.

Training - jog around with exercises, stretching, then throwing practice. Putting a spin on the ball does really help the distance. Throw ground balls and straight with Conor before we get tired. Then we do some fielding practice with runners. Outfield first, then infield - shortstop where I make myself voluble, then catching/basecoaching/umping/runnung. Good fun. Slide into Simon on 3rd getting finger crunched somehow & inside elbow scraped. Conor collects ball in face & is bandaged by Aevanne & heads home.

I head shopping to Stillorgan - they're reorganising the store so stuff is being moved. Collect lots ... little meat ... £70 (I'm usually around 140).

Home, unpack, icy peas around finger, eat watermelon with Fionnuala & Pauline. Soppy film on TV with girl from Romeo&Juliet and Michelle Pfeiffer and ... "To somebody on her 37th birthday" or something.

Help chopping chicken for chicken & veg stew. Replace fuse in plug but discover the switch was wrong. DOH. Out measuring the boat & talk with Dad about Pauline. Fionnuala packs up & I pack car.

We head in & have dinner, soupy, Daire likes it, Bill arrives & has dinner too. Bill & Pauline & Daire & Fionnuala & myself all head in our car to Dublin. Nice weather .. had to brake hard once when car pulled onto main road in our way ... good APS brakes. Drop Bill off to catch 46A bus.

Back home, tired & hungry. Emergency fry made & consumed. Daire to bed with Fionnuala. TV, Bed, book.

Fionnaula up & breakfasted with Daire while I sleep. I get up later and breakfast. In house almost all morning. Daire heads for a nap before 12 but can be heard chatting to himself & Barney the whole time. After dinner Daire gets up and we all get into suits. Daire doesn't mind pants, shoes & shirt this time. But doesn't like tie. Fionnuala looks real nice with her hat ... but Daire likes the hat too & has a go.

In to the cathedral & meet Denis & Dan outside. Daire's quite shy, we go in & out but in the end he won't go with the flowergirls up the aisle. During mass myself & Fionnuala hold him. He plays with his car a bit, sits up & kneels & stands with us sometimes. I point out what's happening on the altar and behind with the organ & singer sometimes & that interests him a little. He steals Fionnuala's hat and has great fun hiding under it. A bit bouncy but not _too_ noisy. Eventually we give him a soother & he's quiet. Eoin ?? sitting in front. My Mum & Dad in seat behind but away from the aisle. I go & say prayer of the faithful with Stasia, Rebecca, ... I carry Daire up to communion & then we go outside to wait.

Daire likes the freedom ... he runs around & we look at the boats, the car, ... He goes in & out a bit with the tourists & people waiting for a baptism. Eventually everyone is taking photos, but myself & Daire missed it. We head in & meet Fionnuala & Dad & queue to get out again.

Everyone heads to Marloag after some photos. We make a yop stop on the way.

Arrive cork 4:10ish ... traffic busy .. park & get discs. Emergency food stop in Burgerking. Daire gets my milkshake as his water turned into 7up mysteriously. He gets chips & fish too. I get bacon dbl cheese, Fionnuala chicken & coffee. Daire waits with me, brings straws over, is pleased to be out of car/buggy.

After food I head to Clarkes, pick shoes, wait ages - one pair not found, others fine. Fionnuala meets me, picks nice looking shoe (one that wasn't found) and heads to Black Tie with Daire. when I meet them in Black Tie Daire's VERY cross, doesn't like trying on shirt, pants, etc... After THAT struggle I head back to car (parking up), move it to Merchants Quay carpk (which was roadworked off). Head to Easons, looking at nice pasta cooking book. Roughly search for F&D but can't find them ... head all the way up&down Patrick's St. Meet outside Black Tie, then change Daire's nappy, collect his suit, head to car via sock+wee bag+stuff shop in Roches/Dunnes.

Get to Cobh before 6? Head to Denis's. Up left after ferry, first right. Then right before pirates into estate, first left, first right.

Meet Denis & Emma & Rebecca & Cian. Daire gets a lovely (but loud - Frere Jacques, Brahms Lullaby, Row-row-boat, ..) bedtime Barney. Shy at first but soon happily throwing stones withat the others.

We head home to Cobh, meet them all, have some tea, Daire to bed, then we head out 10:30ish - late. Roaring Donkey - meet Denis & Emma - 1 pint + drive. Denis is ordered home just after 12.

I rush-cycle into work for 9:35ish, catch Orla, print status rep, head to Lucent. Status meeting long but we're prepared. Much talk about each task .. what must be decided/defined & scheduled. Back to S3 11:30. 4.9 building, various setup & emails

Phone Pauline - Fionnuala's gotten canon APS camera in duty free okay. Dinner with Ben & Joel. Joel's washed his passport and heads to Stillorgan on my bike to get photos.

I service the buggy wheels - oil & air. I burn lots of eucalyptus leaves & other sticks in the BBQ. A nice fireman visits over the wall (looking after something else - and says other neighbour complaining of smoke ... & burning rubbish in suburbs IS illegal. oops :) Hurmmm ... a bonfire night WOULD be handy. Will have to chop garden sticks up small in future.

Daire sleeps quite late but wakes eventually after I bustle around his room a bit. We have a pear, change and head to town. We get parking very handily and walk to Waterstones. Daire sees PoKeMON books first & we have fun looking at lots of them. Fionnuala arrives with a HUGE hat box and more shopping. She heads and finds Crank's cookbook whoo! And another cookbook and we get Daire a Richard Scarry book.

Then on to Yamamoto Noodles where we get a BIG table, noodles for Daire & shared dish of fried noodles (seafood) & sushi for us. YUM. Daire tries the salmon but finds it a bit difficult to chew. He likes soy sauce on his noodles. And likes the little prawns.

We head, Daire licking a mint. At home we get capuccino's (& ovaltine for Daire). Daire heads to bed. Fionnuala trys on wedding dress, new shoes, hat, ... looks great! Much compliments to her fashion taste over the weekend ... after noticing that many female engineers do dress woefully (SORRY!)

Pauline arrives back. We have tea & read (me Crank's) & watch quite a good film on TV about a song-writer/singer in 50-60s. Denise Waverly. Pauline & myself finish the sushi before bed.

Home early, pack a bit for travelling & extract things from attic before Fionnuala comes home from LONG unproductive day shopping. I collect Daire & we get dinner & putter around packing & stuff.

I wait in car with Daire, eventually Eoghan calls slightly lost. We pick him up & head .... traffic is quite reasonable, mostly calm. In Limerick Daire goes into one of the beds and transfered to cot much later when we go to sleep.

People on course:

Richard Lewis

Marcus, Hubert      Paolo
Ger, Brian Forde    Marian O'Shea
Aevanne, Nicola     Madhav
Aidan, Mark         Wayne (Welsh despite Austrailian accent)
                    Me     
Aevanne persuades me to go to softball in Ranelagh in Ganzaga's school.
I drive & keep the score. Meet some of the new people, a few Dutch there - Simon from city centre visits.
Pub after a HUGE hammering 51-6 or something.

In work 9:30, eek, rush to desk, check - Orla not in yet. No taxi from Dorothy but have luck with a Hackney number. Meet Orla coming in at 10. Very friendly lady taxi driver, just in time in Lucent, wait in reception a little then up to mtg with Bernard & Marina. Go through status of stuff & tasks. Then with Marina review IS document.

Back to S3 12:00, meet Jim & Orla in reception while waiting for taxi. See F briefly at lunch. Post letters, talk outside a little in the sun. Sun sharing sky with black clouds.

Daire heads into the tennis court & runs around with me. Very cross when I try to leave ... he tries to lock me in with the gate and seems very happy when he thinks I'm stuck. I break out and he's displeased. Screams a bit. I head over & lie on grass. He calms down, we wave at each other then he does a few circuits - climb rock ... go back down & around on path to bottom of rock. Very funny as can see red Lucent hat disapear behind rock ... then reappear climbing up.

Then he heads up the path and we take the roundabout way home going over some rocks and through some overgrown bits.

We have dinner outside - very nice ... but Daire's tired and heads to bed at the end.

Test fly rerpair of Delta - works well, but there's very little wind.

Repair wooden triplane kite.

Shopping in Stillorgan - I collect lots of groceries £123 - scouts are packing, I half recognise one of the leaders and he's not too confused by click-clack boxes & bags.

Kite repairs are investigated, some bamboo used on the delta to replace missing spar. I test it & works initially but sticks used in ends of bamboo not strong enough. Other sticks tried in/out, head in eventually. Use kebab stick to repair further.

Some gardening - cut grass, pick stones, ... F & myself thinking about bringing boat up & putting gate across side of house for it.

Busy sorting out all small messy stuff in work & talk with Orla about status/Bernard.

Bernard calls in morning trying to reschedule us all AGAIN. (same yesterday evening via email) I got the impression I'd said we're sticking to schedule. BUT .... Bernard going with Marina's est of 5 days thought I'd agreed to fully solve this thing by next Fri. AND .... I'm on a UML course next week Tue-Fri. (Orla's obviously the only one who's got her head screwed on here)

So basically Orla&Bernard talk around 3 & have big debate .... Orla valiantly fending him off & we talk about NOT COMITTING and lowering their expectations. Must remember: never agree, must always check it and get back to them. URG.

home after much work & martin confused with pointers. Bit of a rush, collect Daire before 6. At home wind is nice so Daire & myself head out flying kites. We fly the delta - & Daire is really good. Launching it he usually picks it up upside down but after a go and if I say "WONG WAY WOUND!" He turns it and throws it up properly. Excellent! He also has a go at holding the lines, though that's a bit hard .... but the kite does fly through the air a nice bit before crashing. While he's launching we lose one of the spars :( Another kid comes over & flys kite a little while broken but it's a bit difficult. He was 13 yesterday and has a talkman thing. I search after a while to no avail ... & Daire getting tired/hungry so we head in.

Pauline had arrived - she cooks pork chops & gives me some. we get message on phone from Fionnuala saying she'll be a bit later. We make huge omlette thing with mushrooms (a bit watery) and potato, tomato, onion, ..... And we fry eggs for Daire.

Then we all put on blades, me & Pauline in house, then F & Pauline are brave enough to head out, and Martin follows with the friction/plastic ones. We see P&F zooming on the bike path & falling over. Daire & myself look in earnest for the kite spar. No luck except for picking up some rubbish.

Martin discouraged :-7 Daire tired after a long search so we head in.

We have tea. Daire csaalls his Ovaltine/drinking chocolate tea. He's very amusing drinking it. He orders his bib, then towell, and holds cup very carefully. A proper Japanese tea ceremony. Lovely.

I bring Daire up to bed a bit late and read him a poem from his bear book. He goes off to sleep while we talk and then veg in front of TV. Talk about Pauline getting apartment ... the girl renting wants two & is holding Pauline off a bit. Talk work & stuff a bit. telly - Working Girl ... Harrison Ford & baby-voice ? Nice stuff.

Bed for Fionnuala & me, washed&brushed. Mmmmm.

workworkworkworkworkworkwork review IS doc, updating IS doc, Paolo checks & reviews V thoroughly.

Head home after lunch looking for Fionnuala's wallet. Nowhere to be found - in car or house :( Some money & stuff has disappeared from Clonskeagh.

In evening rush home & get Daire just at 18:00. Meet Fionnuala cycling off to collect him at our house. I cook chicken & mushroom stuff with pasta. Daire's a bit tired & cross but Fionnuala is nice to him & when Pauline comes home we all have some dinner. Yummy value good.

Pauline's gonna call about apartment & call home too and she agrees to babysit whee! So after Daire heads to bed (& I read him teddy bear story) we head off to town - get in in 10 mins! Park on the Green, walk around, .... through Temple bar, ... have pint of Plain in Messrs, then long walk looking at all the closed cinemas .. the Screen, The Laughter Lounge with long old car in front, the Savoy, UCC(was Virgin) and IMAXX.

Sheila's Birthday. Send her funny mail, get response from Adele.

I get breakfast with D. Breakfasts are very ordered. Daire carrys over cerial and/or bowl/jip&janneke spoon. Gets bib on, 1 weetabix, milk, some justright (no nuts/rasins) ... and some banana.

We put white wash on after collecting clothes from all over. Then we upend washing machine and extract two of Daire's socks. Then plug it back in the wall (the upending dislocated it). Late into creche at same time as Kiara and Kirill, D a bit clingy.

Lucent std docs in work, some web grep, mail, diary updating, updating IS doc.

I leave (9:40ish), bags loaded a bit with food, D's helmet, bikepump, ... Wind against all the way downhill to citycenter. Then with me on road beside sea to Sutton. Overheat - transfer to nice bike lane & remove coat halfway out. Many cars with bikes passing, then near Sutton many many bikes collect. I arrive before 11.

I find Fionnuala's bike but not her, head to DART station and wait a bit. 11:15ish we meet up with a couple more S3ers and Daire gets into bike seat & meets Teletubbies. We start out a little late .... cycle cycle cycle ... eat banana on way ... then first pitstop, drinks & bananas & music & we meet Paddy & his bike attachments & family.

Much more cycling, good day, cloudy at start, cycling in jumper. D stretches legs at pitstops & we meet a few others. 4person bike. Gardai every so often.

Spend a good while at Blackrock pitstop, Daire rides the train and timidly goes on the bouncy castle. We cycle a few times around drummers before heading. Steep uphill out of Blackrock park, then onto roads ... roads & traffic & up/down footpaths all way through Blackrock, to Deansgrange, out onto N11 by Cornelscourt. It's baking hot on the big road, probably where Daire picked up sunburn on his cheeks :-(.

Good long stretch N11 down hill & Loughlinstown, up steeply to Shankhill roundabout, through Shankhill until next pitstop at side of road near cemetary? We drink Lucozade & eat bananas & figrolls. Then head on final bit to Bray. Get there 14:30ish despite all our pitstops.

Loads of people in Bray SC carpark. Daire has fun learning Qing and sliding (repeat many times). I be large parental figure frowning on Q jumpers which seems to work. Then D heads into small bouncy castle with balls thing & I transform into parent frowning at BIG kids invading with shoes.

We eat hotdogs and Daire runs around very fast like a nutter. Then cycle on to the DART station, put Fionnuala's bike in, decide mine won't reayy fit. Drink YOP, D really likes Yop we discover.

Fionnuala heads home with D & I, well, lead for a bit, she overtakes near Lucent, I overtake again, then we meet up on roundabout. Cycle home is mostly uphill .... through Shankhill first, then up to Loughlinstown roundabout, meeting some Wexford cyclists. Down & up N11 ... then long contra-wind steady up gradient. I lose wind turning up towards Cornelscourt. Up hill to Leopardstown, Torquar Rd, last bit up Leopardstown road and up steep hill in our estate is a bit of a killer.

17:00, home, D asleep in bed, F almost asleep, chill out a bit making tea for us. Then shower and change, make dinner from chopped veg BBQ leftovers. Daire gets up with F, drinks a bit of juice & has some orange but his cheeks are V red & look sore :( I'm a bit scorched from direct sun/wind on way back mostly.

We settle to dinner & D's happy to eat pasta. Pauline & Brian arrive back & cook steak & have coke. I bring D up to get ready for bed when he's a dirty nappy & then F brings him up. Some chat, Simpsons/stuff on telly, tea, bed.

Collect Orla, LOADS of traffic in city center :-7 13:00ish. In Dundalk we all meet Grandad & Sheila. We join them cleaning the BBQ and sweeping up outside & fishing out chairs from shed. Michelle & Kathy & Sinead & Owen arrive. Daire & Owen really like playing together. Food is prepared & games outside with football.

BBQ lit & food cooked & served, John arrives. Everyone eats outside a bit till rain threatens & proceedings moved in. Cake & tea & tiramisu. Weather improves a little & Sinead is nuts about races so I carry Daire in some. Rough & tumble with Daire & Owen .. yikes.

We head after 8, F gets D dressed for bed. He eats apple in car on the back window. Get Gardnier St turn right .... in town, much less traffic, can spot the new Garda grey speed-camera boxes though now on the way.

We're back 22:30ish, watch Species with Pauline & Brian .. good stuff. And the end of a Rocky. Then bed.

New Lucent building is quite nice ... airy spaces. Go through some stuff then head to meeting room & go through Vertel software licencing & upgrading mess in detail. Then lunch ... which is as awful as it was in Bray. (everyone was saying it was wonderful). STRONG coffee, then lost looking for mtg room.

Meeting drags a bit talking about Lucent process breakdown & where customer/product management/engineeing interface is. ... but we survive.
Back to S3 with ORla, status rep & timesheet & mail.

Fionnuala arrives with Daire to give people bike reg things. I bring Daire up by lift and we mail Orla the statusrep/timesheet. Then we head down to coffee station and drink water and talk to people that pass. Fionnuala heads with D and & finish up & head home too.

I visit next door with Daire, they've been out & Stan's taking the others to McDoodles & Assumpta's taking a break minding the baby. Emma's crawling after coloured things.

Pauline phones, chat & she'll be up tomorrow morning with Brian.

Home getting Daire, see Chris & David, D gets trike, cook pasta+sausage ragu-stuff. Daire to bed with teddy story. Phone home, talk with Mary & Mum (1 hour). Head for swim with F, lots of ppl. GEB a bit & more making of babies. Terrible engineering anologies, process & CM, ...

Official start of baby making. Mmmmmmm. :)

waider says, "Within the next fortnight I will no longer be working in Glasnevin. Where I /am/ working is, well, a maze of twisty passages, all alike. I don't have a desk in the new office, but I will have a shit-hot laptop and such like."
fiocco points. Silly grin.
waider says, "And there's a strong possibility of working in London and other places on an as-needed basis. Whee!"

Fionnuala's at home in garden, we have dinner - chicken & salad & fresh rolls. We do some planting. D heads to bed for a sleep. We spend much of the rest of the day trying to get through the Sunday paper. Also more washing & hanging out gets done. Fionnuala heads to Argos (closed) and gets some stuff in Nutgrove. Cards for Daire, bedtime story book, ...

I tidy stuff in attic and Daire appears at bottom of ladder with his shoes & clothes. He climbs up and I haul the other half of hiss bunk bed up, also haul up dissasembled cot, wood, boxes. Daire has great fun laughing at the things appearing up through the trapdoor accompanied my grunts & etc..

Fionnuala arrives home & we're reasonably tidy. Martin fails to make popcorn so I make a pot ... while eating we're visited for a little by Christopher & David (who's "strange" until the teletubby dome is brought out). Everyone eats popcorn and has juice.

Glenroe open farm quite nice. Daire's asleep when we arrive. The sun is starting to shine through the clouds. Lots of animals. Daire is a bit cautious of all but does like the little ones. I really like the gander who tests his beak on my hand. Goats & lambs, ducks, chickens, rabbits, cows, calves, pigs, peacocks .... We arrive when it's quiet but it hots up with 2 busloads - beavers & gardai community liason. Daire watches kids running as much as the animals. Daire has soup and butter with some bread. We have shepherds pie & salad. Last look at the houses and Daire runs excitedly around the yard a bit.

We head south again, through village and along small country roads. We head into powerscourt, into garden centre quickly 1st, then through house into gardens. Daire walks around for a good bit. He gets back into buggy and we go down loads of steps, around pond, down windy through small paths in Japanese garden. We pause for break, sustainence and massage coming up the hill on the grass.

Coffee at the house, meet Bill Culleton & Mareike & Emile & Lin. Daire drinks ribena & eats chocolate (after getting it out of the bag himself). Then I take him to playground while Fionnuala shops. Starts slowly ... climbing big steps on slide with other kids. Soon gets into the swing of things and repeats climb, ready on top, slide, run around many times. Lots of other kids on slide too all having fun & near escapes. Fionnuala arrives, Daire eventually moves away from slide, tries out swing, then great fun on wobbly bridge after two scary big girls go away.

At home, we head to town to Temple bar taking Lisa. Conor doesn't want to come. Les ? animaux, the talking vegetables are quite good, lady up front has VERY expressive face. Part of Temple bar diversions. The carrots are french & female, naughty ... snakes?, old marrow/gourd/cabbages. Gourd in love with carrot. Tomatoes are italian, radishes, leaky leeks, .... Daire clings to us alot but does watch what's going on. Then we walk around a bit, Daire leads and seems happy to wander off around Temple Bar himself. We stop, get hotdogs + drinks, then head back in car.

ExtreeEEmly busy & a bit pressured updating NMC Impact Statement. Give to Orla for review after mostly done. Managed to check BCF info model & compare with NMC ... content getting better.

Deep nmcIntf code reading in afternoon again, don't get around to updating Impact Stmt. fk. Start possible build to fix prblm.

Home, collect Daire, Fionnuala makes lovely omlette & stuff. Daire helps cook. The lovely weather's broken.

Ben & Martin & Joel & myself grab sandwiches and go have picnic looking at the moorhens in the old walled garden near the hospital. Very sunny ... we sit on steps.

Back in S3 meeting (status) with Orla, then meet Bernard but they talk mostly about DED stuff. I look at MR stuff lots.

At home, head 5to6 eek. House first, no Daire, onto creche. At home we meet Assumpta Conor Keith ... . Fionnuala cooks noodles & stuff. Keith & Conor come in playing with water. Daire's very tired and heads to bed a bit unsettled. Aedin drops lawnmower back.

Enjoying GEB ... flick through alot and then before page 1 spend time decoding what looks like intro/dedication/... then up, wash, sleep.

Head home & collect Daire, we cook salad (green+sausage/rasher+tomato) + couscous of leftover soupy/bbq stuff.

Joel has been locked out, heads back to S3 then eventually home. Arrives at our place while Conor is visiting. Much collecting & changing & plans change so we head to Beach. Driving discover we've hardly any petrol .... head in rough dir of Killiney near Cabinteeley past Dalky quarry, through Dalky centre, then park. Big walk along beach towards Bray, break throwing stones & nibble. Head back after 9ish ... tough on knees/ankles ... chill out side Killiney hill looking at night view.

Make dinner & eat before heading to Kiril's birthday party. This time we're not _quite_ first. Anna banana gets there before us. Kiril & Daire are quite shy for a good while until others start arriving.

I'm fed white wine & talk and the kids amuse themselves alot. Anna banana is quite good and manages to hold them for a good bit. Much play later & we're last to head after Oisin & his parents.

Fionnuala has planted lots of things in garden while we were away. We make a BBQ . . Daire is amazed by it.

After Daire has a sleep and we garden & stuff I spend about an hour fixing my brakes before Fionnuala makes picnic and we head off for cycle.

                                             __*_
                                       ____--    --_				                                                                                            sheep! (and lambs)
                                 __----             -_                            __--__                                                                                  ___-----___
                               _-                     -_ Johnny Fox's         __--      ---___        ___                                                            __---           ----__                             ___       |
                           __-- horses                  -_*__--_            _-                --___---   ---___                oops                              __--                      --_ 	___---___         ___---   ---___---down hill to Eniskerry
                       __--                                     -_        _-                 |                 ---_|_       ___---___    picnic           ___----                             --         ---___---
                   __--                                           -_    _-                                           -__  _-         -_  *        ____----                                                   |
Our House        _* Stepaside                                       -_*-                                                --             -- --__----
*--__         __-                                                   Glencullen
     ----___--

Keith visits when Daire & me arrive home. Fionnuala is getting hair cut & shopping in Stillorgan. I lay down some sod and plant daffodils still left lying around. Daire & myself have noodles .. and then sandwiches again when Fionnuala arrives.

Bed after TV, reading DOrian Gray, sleep, then Daire wakes, Fionnuala settles him but can't sleep so reads, then I can't sleep so I read more. Wrecked tired. Sometime early sleep is easier.

Very nice job really. Plant plants in raised beds with Fionnuala.

Daire sleepy standing up, I get him and bring him down to look at weather while he wakes, then leave him off upstairs. He fetches his sandals and a jumper so we put those on for breakfast. Martin's neck is REALLY red, Daire looks at him worriedly. Argos rings about delivering bunk-beds. I set video to catch more teletubbies & Barney, oops - I told video it was the 1st.

We get Daire dressed - shorts & suncream, then head on bike to creche & work.

email, diary, Joel's doing something with FTP, much detangling of hair, Paolo's back. New girl Margaret from Kerry, update status rep, help Mariusz running omc. Dinner, Fionnuala's here after cycling to Clonskeagh and taxi-ing around. Walk behind Microsoft along through trees near hospital with Ben.

We go straight through stepaside up steeply, straight through glencree junction at Johnnie Fox's. Down steeply, up & down turning right (onto road just heading away from Enniskerry). Past wicklow-way parking take a very small left following the way a bit around a contour until we're at parking near the river.

Daire gets into buggy, suncream on, we head walking down the hill. The river's quite nice but there's loads of rubbish so we pick it all up into plastic bags. Daire wanders around with his Lucent hat on.

Head on walking by the river, past sheep with lambs, tents, lots of people at the footbridge near crone. Up the road we go to crone carpark where we lunch on yoghurt, plum, apple, change nappy.

We head back, collect the rubbish (must bring togs next time), back at car we find a sheet to wrap rubbish in, pick up some more and head (3:00).

House, Daire plays, snack on bread, peanut butter, mashed potato. Fionnuala fills Daire's boat with water, Conor visits & they splash around. Daire tends to look for trouble a bit. Conor cooks shortbread. I iron.

Martin heads off camping with Ben to the Mourne mountains, Slieve Donard etc.

We cycled to Aedin's place in the afternoon after a morning gardening. (where gardening = making big holes digging up shrubs where raised bed is going) We were just heading away (swapping Fionnuala's bike for Aedin's) when their parents arrived. I tried to fly kite, observed by a kid. Then we headed home after a bit.

Marinaded steak in soy+lemonjuice+herb+garlic+pepper+redwine. Cooked potatoes, and carrots+onions. Steak just >1min per side, then marinade into pan, then carrots in. Brave enough to finish the white wine.

Men come looking at building wall in garden. Fionnuala talks with them while I run around chasing Daire.

Meet Ben & his girlfriend later, Martin's going shopping for a torch & stuff, Ben's shopping for a tent.

In work 11ish, looking at running GUI & loading DEDs again.

jagXPMIcon::ReadImage(): Unable to allocate enough memory for the icon: /users/jamesc/jag4.8a/config/bitmaps/fmDTNone_icon.xpm
jagXPMIcon::ReadImage(): trouble decoding scan lines in '/users/jamesc/jag4.8a/config/bitmaps/fmDTNone_icon.xpm'
/opt/projects/jaguar/NEWCOMMONENV/bin/rungui[84]: 3584 Bus error(coredump)

theImage = new char [_width * _height * DefaultDepth(_display,DefaultScreen(_display))/8];

Home, more washes hung and on. Nice salad with radish & coriander, lemon, chillie, soy - thai/oriental + omlette. Origins with the naked chef guy on BBC.

In work I go through SPMP and am then quite early for meeting. time to try & fix radiators, etc. ... Paul & Siobhan arrive, spend morning reviewing Estimates & talking about NMC Intf, then review SPMP quickly. Dinner with P&S.

Afternoon spent trying to get omcGUI to run ... memory poroblems when running remote X? Looking at aui, alternate ways to load DEDs, looking at siobhan/Marina's DEDs, ...

Had fun looking at C++ constructor init list and weird compiler errors Martin was having. ...... insertion of a ; after a class definition right down the end of a header file soldved it. :)

Cycle home via creche where Daire's already gone. Fionnuala cooks us fishfingers+beans+chips+sweetcorn. yum. Gives Daire a bath while I laze. cooks on TV - miss fat ladies, see naked chef, then rush make shopping list, head out shopping 9:20, finished with store closing around me. Home, unpack, rhubarb+apple & yoghurt, bed, sleep after some Dorian Gray.

Catch up on mail in work, ... few things on nmcIntf, mtg w Orla after dinner.

Head for a very bumpy trip in the tractor spreading fertilizer on the awkwartdest field on the whole farm with Grandad & Daire. Only bumps head a bit once. Seamus had powerhosed calf sheds, we collected loads of rubbish & bonfired it. I was hopping round in my goodish clothes! :-7

Daire eats and heads to bed..... during our dinner he's awake & listening to us.

We go for a good walk ... up with Mary to Esther's where she's picking stones with Seamus etc. Ger's buildiung, see Buzzes Mom, small dog Jennie? See their lovely upside-down house. then after Granny collects the fool dog :) we head onto East ferry, chuck stones in water, find crab, drink coffee, walk back, pick a bucket of stones, drop in to G-Granny, Pat & Stasia are there, Pat's teasing Daire over chocolate & cars :), then home.

Dad's milking at home ... then they head off to Nell Aherne's funeral.

Pack up the car tidily, head 20:15ish (clock reset - Fionnuala fixes to 19:00!! - it works ... feels like a while travelled but at 23:00 (really 00:15!) I still don't feel very tired. 4 hour trip, not too much traffic, wetish & dark though.

In Dublin we unpack car, hi Ray, eat, chat Martin, open presents, collapse in bed.

Dinner + wine, watched Les Mis on video while Daire napped, outside? garden? Later we go with Grandad changing wires for cows putting the heifir's back. Daire carried most of the way *pant* Sam happy enough. Seamus milking. Tea + MORE wine. Fixed chair after much fiddling with wire. :) Glenroe, ... Sammy's getting more used to everyone. Stays inside watching TV a bit.

I get anxious about going to Cobh, we eventually head off in the afternoon, arrive before tea.

Shep's dead :( poisoned :( slug stuff. His brother Sam may replace him, he's quite nervous and heads away looking for home. Grandma takes Daire feeding the calves and I milk cows with Dad. Then tea - soup + sandwiches. Girls into town in car .... Mary back home via Mum.

Dad minds Daire while F&I head to Roaring Donkey. Meet Ger and Brid (O'Connor) and Patricia, Denis, Brenda, Emma. Good night ... talktalk about wedding, Denis traveling to Israel, buying industrial estates? Brid & Ger lived in London for a while ... their new house on Esther's acre sounds lovely. Ger's carpenter. Degenerates :) to singsong at the end.

Back at the house we do more mop testing, tidying, fixing and electricians call too. Daire sleeps. We pack & head to Limerick. Traffic against us getting busy.

urgh Daire awake early, rescued from cot by Fionn, distributes contents of bags around room while we sleep. 8:20 I get up (after some encouragement), dress (D puts on a Tshirt over PJs), breakfast of weetabix.

Much cleaning of cupboards, shifting sawdust around, more bed assembly, ...some dry toast+cheese+water, we're all slightly cross at times from tiredness+hard floors. Head to Miltown Malbay for shopping !TEA! and pasta/rice/.. And mop bucket, stuff. Back to house, pasta+mince dinner, D small nap, more cleaning, new mop thoroughly tested, lino put into small closet, glass insulation stuff into attic.

After tea+bread+cheese/banana snack we drive up coast to Lahinch. It's REALLY windy, huge waves crashing, Daire doesn't really like the wind blowing at him so much outside. We walk up&dn the seafront & then spend awhile in the Aquarium. Lovely place, only a few others there. Iinitially D is scared by wave pool but he starts to enjoy himself and at the end he's running around.

Out we go, carrotcake, coffee and a special sausage for D. Then More running around in the rain, eventually we corall him into buggy & head up to walk around town. Some tourist info, fish&chips&milkshakes all round in car.

Off we go after a last look at the now even bigger waves. Up coast to Liscannor, then on to the cliffs of Moher. Fun wheeling daire in bugqy round&round castle fighting wind. Back to Brian's, finish fish&chips, bed for D, diary for J, book&tel for F.

Cripes *pant* just won battle getting lino under boiler *collapse*x pause gets up,strip, shower, bed

Up in reasonable time, I mind Daire lots, pack only a littls, F packs lots, our rm lovely for guests. Car pretty full: D's baq clths+toys+stuff, suitcase for us, trvl cot, buggy, tools, for Brian's: hoover, sheets/towells/misc. Fly kite with D, good wind, whorly kite, fun.

Leave 11:30, arrive 15:00, tfk v bsy in Monasterevin & Lk. Dinner, D mental, likes visiting, tea 18:00ish, stuff car to capacity with duvets, mops, ... D takes walk dn rd & we head.

Head from Lim after 18:30 ... Busy traffic, into Ennis & deliver letter to furniture shop, onto Spanish Point. We unpack & make some tea w/o tea & clean dishes, more. Daire runs outside a little. Bed 22:00ish, V late, abit cross, still some light outside even. One bed assmbld, shower for me, sleep in bags under duvet on carpet.

Up too early crawl back into bed while Daire plays ... eventually Fionnuala gets up. I take over after breakfast and we organise, get coats, clean, brush teeth and head to creche. The traffic is woeful, 8:45, early for us, David's Mom arrives at same time and seems late+rushed. They sit down together at table ready for breakfast. Daire is pleased.

A loud motorcycle leaves Sandyford hall at same time as me, I pass various people including Gregory, coat-matching S3µserf, Martin, ... meet motorcycle coming into Microsoft.

Nice day ... still slightly chilly enough for gloves though. Meet Paolo coming in, then mail, faff, webshots, tidy notes, REM, winamp & ccdb? Estimation. Latish for lunch but get lots of dinner - couscous+fruitypork. Yum ... mix Dutch guy Ruairai Micheal, James, Olivier, Deirdre, Alistair.

A bit more camera crunching goes on before I've decided I know the problem but it would take too much to go and diagnose it further. I draw a plan of the garden and Fionnuala does too. "Initial discussion documentds", not proposals. Decking? Where to put a raised bed, .....

Daire heads for a nap & I hang out the hammock on the Eucalyptus. Attempt at protecting the growing wood with some cardboard. Hammock hanging more nicely than last year .... but facing into the corner. Remember:

• Untangle hammock ALL the way before carrying it up tree.
• Also figure out where front is and face this towards garden.
• (all stuff I DID remember) cardboard, rope to stabilise branch, ..

Much digging ensues in the afternoon. I clean out between the oiltank & ched first. TYhen decide the huge travelling vine must go. A huge battle ensues involving spade, fork, & snippers. I dig & dig & dig a big hole uprooting the roots and eventually, after chopping some of the wider ranging ones off I manage to haul the stump from the ground. I also disvocer that there's really quite good earth there.

So I've a funny bruise that appeared suddenlt on my right ring finger between palm knuckle & first knuckle. And scratches from rose on arm, and left upper arm is twisted a bit.

Not really hungry for dinner/tea - funny. Fionnuala makes tortilla wraps with mince & salsa & stuff. Yum. Daire & myself eat fruit. He heads to bed, Fionnuala & myself veg TV Glenroe, news, ... then Bed - untangle hair lots, shower fixes muscles a bit ....

We head shopping ... I do groceries in Stiillorgan while Fionnuala & Daire get shoes, underpants, shoes for dolly, .. we head together to car shop and survive the model cars, steering wheels, etc... Head home via PROPER builders suppliers.

Funny risotto :-E for dinner. The avocado was a mistake I think.

Fionnuala heads out to Caroline's hen night in thunderthingy.

nasa mail orla, rosie, run RUN taking a half day. Cook stuff, make salads then complicated "I'm going shopping" tales ensue whereupon I drive nuttily to Bray, get shopping (it's VERY busy), head to S3, get plates & stuff, head to Stillorgan, get glasses & easel for a present. When I arrive home I manage to hide it with luck and deft coverment with coat.

PARTY! :) Maureen & Ruth & Colm & Ronan & Ritva came up from Limerick. There was a bunch of S3 people there :- a bunch of French guys, some Polish, a canadian, ... and a couple of Irish too. Rachel, Ben, Fergus, Joel, Romain, Wioletta, Witek, Gregory, Olivier.

Bill made a guest appearance with Susan in tow .... not too late for the Garlic bread & Tiramisu.

We'd LOTS to eat but people brought more wine than we managed to drink, so we'll have to have another party to finish THAT off. Our Tiramisu (and my arm/wrist) is developing nicely too :).

Eventually people taxi home. We haul Futon flat & cover the unconscious body of Colm. Maureen & Ruth head to bed, us too.

Funny birds out back, two (?yellow tits) one sitting on wall watching other guy fight his reflection in the mirror. A territorial thing? Over the wall there's a robin and there's also a (?finch) hanging around .... besides all our starlings & the magpies.

No framemaker licence, funny dialtone at motor tax office, couple of image edits, telnetting to baked on dspsrv via text.iol.ie, sent party directions to many people after making up maps.

busy busy busy working & update status & timesheet, finally y2k updates done too get how much from motor tax office

heading home latish ... Daire's having pasta .... bath later after dancing to music while Fionnuala cleans MORE.

Make tiramisu (lots), Fionnuala prepares chicken & cooks ham & potatoes, Martin cooks potatoes too. Bed late enuf.

Rush again ... not so bad ... but dunno where 9:30 mtg is Clon/Leop? Calling by phone during breakfast ... then fast cycle in when I finally get Orla. Fionnuala takes Daire to creche.

Polish guys only when I arrive ... then Orla then Paul&Siobhan and finally Paolo (who HAD gone to Clonskeagh). Good OSP presentation by Remek. 600page:6 compression :)

Working far to hard ... NMC interface stuff, more timesheet & status editing.

Takes 5 mins to get to S3 (cycling) in, grab stuff ... but nobody in 233 ... I run around a bit looking for Orla and eventually catch up with her & Remek & Maciej. Brian Martin's real nice to teleconf with and has own ideas on setting up B2000 wkstns/parallel build machines for Poland. Rest of morning adding more to status report. Initially was putting in vague statements as per status reps for last few years .... but detail in it will force work, help xfer, ... good. Dinner with Olivier & Fionnuala.

Zoom off coming up to 6, change, cycle. Arrive at softball training in Deer park at 6:05 after fast 10min cycle from S3. New excercising - jog around field, then stretches, throwing practice - lots over ... puffed. Head home just after batting practice start. Daire orders bike in shed before I come in. then orders Fionnuala off to watercolours.

After food we head up and have a bath, then dry, talced, dressed, teeth brushed and he heads happily to bed. Usual Mon TV - Friends, Ally McBeal

Polish guys are in S3, find a proper gcc (after downloading an update), compile ssh2 (but can't sftp2 out), setting up Polish guys in Lucent & tidying ~jamesc. oops ... CC'd frustrated mail to Brian/Philip/Oonagh so Orla's got to take c**p for it :( Anyway she's nice about it and we've a long needed chat about work & stuff.

Must think about what I want to do in work. New project? No Lucent work?

Home & struggle for hour fixing lights .. BUT they're FIXED. Yay.

Head over to visit Ronan, Martin babysits (Daire cries after we leave - unusual :( ) Meet Gwen and see the whole house. Lovely. I have a not-good-passenger time on way over .... sorry Fionnuala. :(

Fionnuala heads to watercolours, Daire knows she's going painting with a brush. We play (tubbies on a bit) then bed. Daffs in Bandon & west Cork are on TV. Then Friends, Ally McBeal & bed. veggie night.

Fireworks are very good from our house later, Daire

Head off to Limerick in the evening, ... Daire sleeps a bit 3.5hr journey, in latish & Daire to bed 11ish.

Manage to do some - slowish, take a few calls too, gradually feeling better.

Head over to "S3 y2k kickoff mtg" 3ish through M$. They told us how S3 is, what we're doing, what we're going to do etc ..... Only this year it wasn't quite as sleep inducing as other years. They got George Hamilton to present it and he introduced the various Financial and Management people and quizzed all the section leaders as if it were half-time in a soccer match. Quite funny at times.

Wine and a bit of finger food afterwards, tchalk with Ben, Rachel, Olivier, Martin, ... look at new building pictures, then we head away Ben to powerboat course. We walk around the construction site through Microsoft both ways ... cycle home where Conor & Daire are playing with the sandpit. Fionnuala & Daire have been gardening - cutting grass, planting seeds, putting greenhse thing together, weeding. (& cooking pasta/carrot stew)

Conor stays a good bit and even eats a bit with us. Assumpta calls in a bit saying Fionnuala's saved her today ... sounds hectic with Emma, Keith, Lisa & Conor all on the go.

I rewire the DECT phone again ... sound was terribly attenuated. Making both Irish & English compatable obviously adds too much interference/termination/something. PCB in phone socket ... with traces mysteriously travelling VERY far circuituitiously around board.

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