New Bewleys hotel in central park. No lock on bike.

I think Kate & I help make dinner? Chop carrots. Not sure. Pauline Mary Patricia around? Getting up? Fionn headed away to Cork to shop. I slip out Fionn gone to Argos after Mum & F had successfully avoided mention of Argos when getting directions from Mary.

Drive to Ruth's party in Limerick, Fionn drives back.

Source from Shobha, Greek Swedish German and releaseto Shobha. Chat to Shobha on xchat. Get small messy things out of way in afternoon. Looked up Ingenico terminals and Dalgety bay in Scotland. Must do changes on server. 17:07 quite tired now - doing diary. Phone tmb - appointment next Wed.

When I get home Fionn just getting up. Kate wakes & cries. I go and bring hewr into our bed. Then down for breakfast and Daire up too.

Even though up real early putting on wash & making lunches & breakfasting and dressing takes so long we're ready late as David arrives up. More traffic this morning. Lads run into school again themselves, park on yellow line where I can watch them and not leave Kate.

All up to get dressed while I finish lunches. I go up after & help them - slightly crossly. Daire dresses self. Kate objects a bit but get her changed. Daire goes to brush teeth & Kate follows. Shoes. Then kids into car - they want to so that's okay. I don't tie Kate into seat. They both do colouring. Daire passing pencils over to Kate as she asks for them. I eat kids left over weetabix. We're waiting for David. Daire calls down & comes back to colouring. David is just eating big bowl. Housework. Daire remembers violin just as David is coming. I get violin. Then all into car. Drive school. I don't take Kate out. Park close and watch till David & Daire into school. Then drive to S3. Park far over - Kate doesn't want to wear coat. I carry her over. Every time I bend down or walk thighs complain. Cycle - wind against also thighs slow me down a bit. I go on footpath from roundabout out of way of traffic as wind makes me much slower than usual.

Out with Fionn in evening. Me confused why? Too late for cinema. Walk in Dun Laoghaire. Settle that we're just out - kindof reluctantly. Then into GTI. Yum milk shake & antelope for me. Much improvement in situation.

http://iis1.cps.unizar.es/Oreilly/perl/learn/prf1_01.htm
http://iis1.cps.unizar.es/Oreilly/perl/learn/prf2_04.htm
Learning perl

also Advanced perl programming

and perldoc perldata

interpolation

A literal of the form "v1.20.300.4000" is parsed as a string composed
       of characters with the specified ordinals.  This form, known as
       v-strings, provides an alternative, more readable way to construct
       strings, rather than use the somewhat less readable interpolation form
       "\x{1}\x{14}\x{12c}\x{fa0}".  This is useful for representing Unicode
       strings, and for comparing version "numbers" using the string compari-
       son operators, "cmp", "gt", "lt" etc.  If there are two or more dots in
       the literal, the leading "v" may be omitted.

           print v9786;              # prints UTF-8 encoded SMILEY, "\x{263a}"
           print v102.111.111;       # prints "foo"
           print 102.111.111;        # same


tr/\x89/f/;
okay

but 
$c = \x89;  #?
$c = 0x89;
tr/$c/f/;

tr/\xc4\xc5\xd6\xe4\xe5\xf6/\x8e\xb6\x99\x84\x86\x94/; #?

#something like this?
our %hypercomPrintMap = ( 
			  "sw" => {
   			      hyper => [ 0x8e, 0xb6, 0x99, 0x84, 0x86, 0x94, ],
			      iso8859 => [ 0xc4, 0xc5, 0xd6, 0xe4, 0xe5, 0xf6, ],
			      desc => [ "A-diaeresis ", "A-ring      ", "O-diaeresis ", "a-diaeresis ", "a-ring      ", "o-diaeresis ", ],
			  },
			  "de" => {
			      hyper => [ 0x8e, 0x99, 0x9a, 0x84, 0x94, 0x81, "ss" ],
			      iso8859 => [ 0xc4, 0xd6, 0xdc, 0xe4, 0xf6, 0xfc, 0xdf, ],
			      desc => [ "A-umlaucht", "O-umlaucht", "U-umlaucht", "a-umlaucht", "o-umlaucht", "u-umlaucht", "ess-tet", ],
			  },
			  );

I head home and make breakfast for me. Scrub dirt off bench ... don't make any indent into the paint though. COFFEE!!! Just remembered I made coffee while ago to keep me going and I'm still going without it but NOW I'm hungry AND have caffeine hankering. (it's 12:30 and most of rest of morning on email. Checked weather pages too. Must add latest few good ones to my list.

Head to ACE tyres. Park and almost go away - nobody in office, all mechanics look busy BUT then young guy asks me can he help. And he can do it now so I reverse car all way round. Drive into garage. Wheel out. It's down to 10psi just from sitting in boot. I'm impressed with Dave ... he finds puncture but keeps looking and also finds a leak around the rim. Looks for some kind of tyre drill and nail out, then stickey paper stuff drilled in to tyre from outside. Tyre off, clean inside and black sticky stuff on rim to help seal it. Inside tyre there is black where it was driven quite soft. Probably this weekend. Tyre still okay legally but probably our oldest tyre. Keep it on back for now.

Quick now 1100 jump into shower, shave, dress head in car.

Finish C.S.Lewis's The Horse and His Boy tonight with Daire.

Pack up, K changes clothes, drive. Zoo 1st, animals active, monkeys whooping, K out of buggy. Then picnic. Sparrows Jackdaws Peacocks. Playground reptiles bats.

Drive, Kildare match traffic we escape onto Dame St., park, Waterstones. Kids bks coffse Walk ksleep shop on Grafton St. Daire minds self hiding inside clothes racks. Milano's restaurant, pizza for me, canneloni for Fionn, lasagne for Daire. home kids tired D sleep in car. K out seat but doesn't want get out. Climbs round car. Then in. Lovely in dress. Plays stuff, reads books, play outside by self, radio on & dances. Orla visit. K tired up, change, bottle bed. D in. Biscuits chat pineforest tired. F & I tiredish to

Home. Food. wsurf 2ish put gear on car Waugh! Flat rear left. Jack up car, nuts off. D helps. Wheel won't come off? Take off centre & play handbrake & gears. Resort to pulling hard. Apply some oil. Ringsend wind ok, waves, tide high coming in others out beginners, 2 girls, guy on 8.8 techno 283, Dominic

Wedding talk in night. Start with list of ppl Fionn made. Only 1 date in registry office. A tue, 1530, oct. Maureen away on lots of hols sep/oct. Some family away during Summer. John&Carly & Pauline away after this year. Have small ceremony & different day - Fri to suit ppl travelling from country - have blessing (catholic/DaireJF/pagan) then party Airfield house. Goto church altogether for civil ceremony? Bed late.

Then food, then shower and dress and head by car. 5/10 mins early. Wait and read times. Then follow Ray through Alphyra open plan area to meeting room. Kathryn comes too. First Ray talks a good bit about Doolin and what they do. Then we go over my experience. I lead it and do it a bit scrappily I think but okay. C development lots of projects. C++ and C for Lucent's OMC also there sql and database and unix server development and test. Scripting there in ksh and tcl. Then how I started perl and tel.cgi and QA/QS doc tools in S3 and on to InProjectAudit and other side using perl on NP-Complete for OO development environment scripts. Scripting bash and perl NPCOmplete. Philips MyrIAD perl script for combining objdump and register dumps from simulation. They also ask about my assembly - so I go into MIPS and PowerPC. The boxes are Z80 based and that like :) I go into how I couldn't figure out assembly when I had my Commodore64 and Amstrad6128. then Z80, 8080 and 8051 and 68HC11 in UL and Analog Devices.

After that some back and forth discussion. Getting someone to offload work of other developers, free resources for internal investment into design/architecture thinking, testing strategy, modules release as open source. Maybe of course extra work will come and will use up extra capacity. Some on flexibility of working hours and holidays. I bring up Malaysia and Australia this December and that fits in as Oct/Now capacity is added and system stabilised and no development done in December so system can cope with 50% increased demand by Dec 24. Interesting.

Kathryn heads and Ray & I talk money. That was good ... I ask him "bleh think he will have a positive call for me?" Oh urgh! My language skills desert me. He nods & smiles.

Home to Fionn and Kate is asleep. Fionn stays a bit talking before back to work.

Evening time get call from Ray McGuigan in Doolin, company waider works for. Interview ... tomorrow? Yep. Earlier than 4 better for me as don't have to rearrange minding kids. 13:00 lovely. Fionn says she'll collect Kate on bike & bring her home and mind her for however long.

I have been firing my CV at places ... Alphyra included.
And Ray McGuigan just called for a position in Doolin development
I think. So you in Sandyford office tomorrow? Interview 1pm.

eek?

yay!

Must go stop Kate tearing up ... eh ... whatever it is I hear
her tearing up. And put her to bed.

*scuse me*

right ... whew.
Kate's in bed now, Daire too (no Narnia tonight - he found a video of Star Wars (Episode IV)).
Oh .. the tearing up was just all the nappy wipes pulled out of their neat package and used to clean up the whole of upstairs. Then she
came in and scared me quickly away from puter.

She's very funny when she catches me at the computer. She goes and gets little blue plastic chair from Daire's room. Carries it in (which itself takes 10-15 mins (between all the distractions in between and her being so tiny)). Pulls it up next to me and then sits and smiles up very pleased :).
THEN she starts "helping". i.e. pressing switches on printer & puter
front and inserting random objects in every orifice puter or printer
have.  Yeek.

Daire's going to Pine Forest Arts Summer camp these two weeks.
http://www.pineforestartcentre.com
Thought it was going to be a long day (get bus 9:30, back 4:20)
but he arrives back beaming every single day. AND he's not even
taking time to eat much of his food as there's too much fun
stuff to do.

Going to bed select shirt & tie etc with Fionn's help. Little more perl fun with objdisasm then bed. Can't sleep immediately. Fionn disturbed too. Eventually I get up, bring book, go to loo, grab stuff to eat. Then back to bed ... a bit sleepless but eventually sleep.

Home, some email, dentist 10:30. One filling & patching tooth beside.

Park and all out. Dog barking over at house. We walk over, through gate (which forbids parents from passing). Meet friendly pussy cat. Kate thrilled. Then I lift Kate up steps and she thinks I'm sitting her down. So I leave her there with the young teachers. Enqire ... yup he's on list. Then get cheque and give it to Katie and ask about making sure about bus. She assures me it's okay and he'll go on bus this evening. Grand. Kate & I say bye. Car park is getting mad. Guys directing cars I try to ask about where bus & what time but they're too busy so we just get out of way. Head home. Breakfast for me. ? Potter around busily. Set jobs done put ant powder around front door. Collect bottles into car - Kate empties water out and carries some too. Food for Kate. Collect shopping bags & head shopping 11:30 (later than intended). Kate tired (bed really early last night 6pm). Wake her up after doing bottles. Groggy first but in shop gets sample of fennel & tomato bread. Then a banana. Shopping takes an hour. Phoo. Home, some unpack, dinner Kate, after bottle & bed.

Typing big emails ? Wake Kate 1600 & out to car. Wait Lamb's cross walking round. Kate walking too. Eventually bus comes ... try chat to driver where is stop, get mostly figured out. D very bright & smiley. Tells me about doing rocket for more than half hour. And they did stars with white crayon first before painting over. And he made two friends. Brian and his younger brother. Daire & Brian's yb went on walk in woods without Brian & yb was crying a bit. They're his hide-and-seek pals.

D plays with Conor. We pick gooseberries and blackcurrants for making into apple crumble. Kate loves just standing by the bushes taking fruit off and eating. I'm preparing potatoes - Assumpta steals Kate for look at new slide. Then prep celery and carrots. Food falls behind with minding Kate. Fionn home ... eventually steaks cooked, dinner served ... I'm still chopping cooking apples so I just throw that in oven and eat. Back chop last apple and make crumble on top. Into oven again. Fionn baths Kate. Then I get Daire in. Daire lies back to wet hair and to rinse it. After he stays in bath a long time. Tea for Fionn & I ... ice cream with crumble. Yum. D to bed & Narnia.

Fionn goes to visit Andrea. Watching crap TV. CSI, .. ? Got prc-tools to compile dialTone app & put on palm late @ night.

Kate in buggy, Daire tired walking. Fionn pushes buggy, doesn't leave me. Pass by house. Garden out back with fountain and music and lots of people. Stay there a little. Then into walled garden. I wheel Kate in buggy. Then Daire off with Fionn to toilets. They've got picnic boxes when they arrive back. We go over to boat pond for picnic. Back over, into house - big gang of people inside. Then sunken garden after change Kate's nappy. Kate wants to throw stones in. Daire & Kate shoes & socks off and dip feet in water. Quite deep, scared Kate will topple in (or JUMP in). Going back to car Fionn cross (because I'm cross only I've been mellow/okay since we got here especially after food?). Goes long way round with buggy. Daire & I go under fence straight over to car. Out back way and into city and home.

Dunno if you knew but I was uhhh ohhh sick after Ben's birthday.
Grand on night but got up quick day after and stomach was really bad.
Not good for 3 beers!!
Dunno what it was.

I really stuffed myself alright
Tea with kids 6ish ... who knows what I snacked on.
Then 2 tiger beer with guacamole, beef burritos, some (a good bit) of pauline's salmon & pasta), other tastes of peoples dinner, then much of banoffi birthday cake and coffee.
Lots of food was v spicy too. Hmmmm.
And had stuff with raw garlic earlier in day.
Then one slow porterhouse red on top of stretched tummy.
Doesn't sound like recipie for a grand stomach but I'm usually grand.

My current theory is that something I ate during day was a bit dodgy.
And then eating loads I overstretched tummy a bit so digestion didn't
kill all the bad germs as fast as it could and they got a chance to develop.

Sound probable to anyone?

Anyway functioned that day after but kept having to lie down.
Brought Daire swimming & got Kate as usual in afternoon.
After tea time all limbs were stiff ... like flu kindof ?   Funny.
Didn't eat anything at all until night.
First spoon I had .... thought about it .... then tummy went gurgles,
burp, more gurgles ..... I lay down for a while.
10 mins later all was okay and I ate the rest.
Been back to grand since.

Would anyone know if stiff muscles/limbs/sides could also be
symptoms of food poisoning?   Or could this have just been a tummy bug that got me at just the right moment?

Exciting times!

Anyway.  Back to normal rest of this week.

Kate up now after short enough sleep ... house is starting to get untidy again!! :-7

Daire's finished his first week of summer camp.
Well it was swimming camp so just 1 hour each day. 9am - 10am
He's good in water and those lessons really bring him on.
He's plunging head under and swimming for a bit now no problem.
  Just got to work on coughing and choking a bit less!! :)
He's booked in other summer camps now over next few weeks.
Pine forest Arts http://www.pineforestartcentre.com 2 weeks
And Newpark school (which also do the swimming camp).
 http://www.newparksportscentre.ie

We were both in dentist Wed. Daire has 20 teeth. I've 27.
All lovely & clean now.
Hmmm ... I'm sure you love to know _that_!

Kate's going great too. Very much trying to do exactly as
Daire does. She can climb up on the kitchen chairs now too. EEK!
So she can reach all the breakables on table and on counters
if chair left beside.  (She can also move chairs only they get stuck on tiles and she gives up).  Everything breakable now must move up to above
adult chest height!!! Oh dear.

Palm in pocket, don't hear it. Fionn leaps up 830 (time we need to leave). F does K. I feel stomach sick. I grab clothes for D. He's downstairs. TV off. Clothes on (missing pants, I've got my boxers on). Cheerios. I 4get milk, he gets it. I make Kate lunch. D's bag mostly 2gether last night. Say I'll cycle w D if F could take K. But I get sick (a little comes up, but wind & indigestin). Urgh. So I head 850 D car.

Little late. Throw car on dbl yellows. I go with D to changing. Bit sick again. D ready, goes for shower (pool rules & I've been prompting him). Class started. I go in briefly, then out to car. Lie down. Same 2 mothers w kids I talked 2 b4 in watch area.

Help D dry & dress.

DunL sign on. Park past, walk back. D playing don't-step-on-the-cracks on path & tiles inside. He gets lives back standing on tar.

Back home get D snack & I lie down. We brush our teeth again. Get bike out & cycle gently to Dentist. Fill in forms then I go first. D in wicker chair watching. Sunglasses mm. She counts teeth, calls out missing or what needed. Nurse Bobby takes it down. Then xray. Small room, space sounds. Informative. No sign of ever having wisdom teeth in bone. One of my front top 4 never grew. Cleans my teeth then. She shows he ots of gunk behind bottom front 4. Much buzzing & pulling & hauling. Close to yeow sometimes "sensitive". Gritty, feels like something left behind. Then Daire's go. Counts all teeth. 20. Lovely spaced. Polishes them & gives lecture.

Cycle home & get car to collect Kate. She's outside playing in sun with all kids. On rocking toy with other baby. She beams when she sees us and shows us how she can rock. Other baby looks worried. Inside talking to Clare? I feel a bit sick. Out to car, D spill yoghurt he's eating when moving seats so he can give K tax. Home & kids great giggles after yoghurt finished. K plays with D a bit. D gets ? off her by distracting her with special olympics flag. She's a bit hyper. Bottle & bed when she gets cross.

Afternoon I lie on couch/bed mostly. Just have water. Play othello downstairs & then D plays risk by self. K awake, noise next door maybe gardening ppl mowing & chopping & digging & planting. She is tired, keeps soother for a bit & rolls around in bed quietly enuf for a bit with me. Then explores and finds things to pull apart. D & I play space-word game, trampled on by K. D does lots of "work" rolling die for me & moving piece & getting bits.

Hear Fionn home. Go down. She makes food for kids & her. I eat some grape & banana. Fionn does loads of tidy. Limbs feel stiff sore. K & D & I in hammock & garden. Fionn out dressing for soccer. She gets K to bed. I read D story. Shashta Aravis Hwin Bree reach garden of hermit. Shashta runs on. Later I have cerial. 1st spoonful doesn't go easily. Lie down

Going nuts looking for phone & camera chargers.

Stillorgan with Fionn.

Fionn & I leave Derval starting babysit. Christopher coming later after film. Bill Susan, Pauline Mary Ben R Carly. Mexico To Rome. tiger beer, guacomole, beef burritos, Pauline's pasta salmon, Ben's slice of birthday banoffi, coffee. I'm stuffed. Uncomfortable. Porterhouse red.

Home 0040ish. Water. Bed. Massage Fionn's back.

Daire's drawing pictures on his blackboard & I've to guess what they are. We started with animals - hedgehog, cat, deer, crab - then stations - police, fire, bus, hospital now superheroes!! :)

Went to library & butcher this morning. Inside mostly since ... keeps on raining so gazebo still out.

D & D finishing off pasta & tomato+mince+veg stuff (with pepper for David, parmegiano for Daire). Apple juice too. In morning Fionn got up with Daire. He was watching TV ... I woke up Fionn was trying to get D dressed and he was being slow. I've not heard her shout at him before ... that's usually me when he's frustrating. TV makes D cross in mornings. ANYWAY. I go down and make D lunch for school while he has breakfast & Fionn collects herself and heads to work by bike. D plays a bit while I get myself cerial. Then D off to school and Kate up. Cheerios for Kate first ... then we sort some clothes for wash, distribute clean clothes and get Kate dressed. We turn on puter but Kate doesn't play by herself at all. She sits up and bangs happily on keyboard for a bit. Fionn calls and garage has key of car ready to be programmed so after K & I put wash on we head there. Park and in. K having banana in car ... finished by time we get there. I chase her a little keeping things clean. In and get coffee for me ... K loves the look & sound of the coffee machine .. AND the coffee too. Distract her and go over to toys. Have coffee, K plays ... two other kids and Dad come & go quickly. Staff get me chair. In a bit wander back over ... get small coffee and right then mechanic comes and gives us keys. Off we go, take coffee in car, yum.

At home Kate wants to stay in car. Okay. I try cut some grass but clippers is blunt blunt. K out of car and we go across onto green. Then over to tennis courts. Find plastic bags and fill two with rubbish. Kate likes it at start but gets trickey underfoot and lots of loose twigs to catch legs and thorns around to prickle. Home we go and get dinner for Kate. Mince & veg from yestarday with some polenta. Yoghurt first. She asks for "cheese" after and is very pleased when it appears from fridge. "Cheesy grin"!! Clothes out on line after wash Kate. Kate underneath ... very windy now. K getting a bit cross/tired. Nappy change, Martin phones, then off to collect lads.

Vrmmmm K awake most of way there but asleep at school. Disturb her out of car, get lads, home. Get bottle for Kate and she goes to bed asleep happily. Cook pasta for boys ... they play, play some recorders, then Narnia tape on. I have dinner with them then run up here. Do lots & lots & lots of diary. Email recruiters. Then 5ish K still asleep, D after playing upstairs, then down - recruiter calls back. Hadn't seen first email. Sounds alright. Sending on job spec must reply to it.

K STILL asleep. Down and start dinner. Chop carrots and mushrooms. Put on polenta and chicken with veg. Then Kate up. She's sleepy and huggy. Get food for kids - pasta with the tomato sauce and parmesian. We call Fionn, she's working late till 1900. Pauline calls. D has yoghurt then, Paddy visits and has one too. Kids soccer on green I'm wondering is Paddy late as I can see activity. Trying to persuade him to put on shoes when one of his sisters calls. He goes home for dinner!? Then D & Kate & I head up to see what's happening, People trying to put together goalposts. Lots of kids running around playing. Very windy and getting more rainy all the time. Kate likes running round and has fun even though it's cold. Daire finds Paddy after a while and then is V happy. I go back taking Kate. There are loads of mushrooms on green today and see interesting ones on bark chips under trees when Kate runs in. No sign of weedkiller yet. Fionn not home yet. I tidy. Then she comes and put on dinner. Kate has some polenta and likes it this time. Polenta pie, veg & chicken on top, chilli soy sauce dressing. Yum. Beer for me. Then it's 8. Fionn starts bringing K to bed and I go get D. Paddy's playing, D is standing watching looking freezing. Wants to stay but I say at half time we're going. Run home, dry, get D changed, F gives K her bottle, Then I read D Narnia, interesting Horizon on homeopathy. Dead-pan commentator finds nothing funny saying "found a scientist willing to consider possibility of something new/unknown". I spout on about complex systems to Fionn a bit. Then she heads off in storm to football.

Spend ages - too long - replying to job spec. Finish just before midnight. Denis email.

Vrmmm troads quiet to Mary's house. Fionn goes & gets Mary .. bike on .. then on to Tallaght. Kids out looking at cars & bikes in field car park. F & Mary head away. After a little we head home. Very busy get us all breakfast then get picnic set from attic, koolkast too, camping chairs. Collect swimming gear + towells. Collect food together. After 10:30 we're just about set and Fionn calls. Nearing Laragh, Mary headed back. We drive out via Stepaside-Enniskerry then smaller road Roundwood. We catch up with Fionn then pass a bridge. Turn back and wait at bridge for her. Young horse in field, dumb-blonde labrador runs out in front of a few cars. Kate asleep. Fionn on and we stop once more at top of hill ... then park in Laragh.

Look around, meet Fionn, bike onto car. then drive and find farmer's market very close. Go buy some veg & cherries & strawberries & taco & buritto. Then picnic on long rough grass. Ham & tomato & cheese sandwiches. Fruit, water. Get our photos taken by someone. Then visit toilets and back into car for quick trip down road to Glendalough. Mountain rescue are collecting there too so go over with D & Kate. D puts more money in box. We meet young husky dog. Very licky and pleased to see us. D gets sweets. It rains right then but stops. Fionn tired collapsed across seats in car. Stuff collected and off we go on walk. Around towards small lake then around towards big. Kate sleepy in buggy but not asleep for a while. Fun crossing stream on stepping stones. On to lake ... D slow throwing stones in water ... then onto long path beside lake. D tired but Fionn tells him story about young Kevin and older (9, Kevin being 6) kids in village long ago (Matthew, Mark, John and Luke). Older guys playing football then lose ball. Matthew and Kevin go off up mountain. Maybe catch rabbit for dinner. See silver on mountain in distance. Turns out to be waterfall and stream.
D doesn't want me to do story. Other story Kevin has catapult. Shoots it, deer appears and nearly hits him but leaps out of way. Deer says did you see that?? Ralph. Brings him (yikes scary ride) home to convince other deer. Kevin uoh ohh! Meets huge Daddy deer. Anyway after big explanation Kevin brought home. Brings him to Shannon ... is this the place? No. Brings him to the Liffey ... is this? Kindof. Runs fast up liffey to Kevin's home.
Then I'm allowed to contribute. Finish off deer stops and Kevin yeowp falls off. Britches left tied to antlers. Other people in village deer zooms off home. Stag home, mummy deer says: "Dear!" Oh ho ho ho! :) (poke with umbrella from Fionn) why are you wearing _that_ on your antlers? "What dear?" Oh ho ho ho! :) etc...
We get to piles of stone from mining and turn round when buggy gets stuck. Walking home I do story about Briget, Kavin's younger sister who is 2. The same day Kevin went off on mountain Briget ventured following boys over wall into field. Big sdtruggle through long grass. Meet big brown eyes in furry brown face with brown floppy furry ears. Struggle through grass can't catch rabbit. Tires lies down looks at clouds. Viking ship cloud caught by sea monster cloud. Dreaming. Then awake, tired & hungry. Mom comes and ges her. Kevin back later.

We pass Pierce Brosnan in the road. Puts me off blathering on the story a little. K awake now give her strawberries keep her happy. Stop, Fionn lies down, we have break, D & I & Kate (who was sleep but woke up) go up steep hill a bit. Find some nice yellow mushrooms. Then back to walking. I carry D on shoulders a bit. Stop at end of lake. D & Kate & I go paddling. Stones a bit sharp on feet. Water cold but okay. Kate sits down a bit and gets pants wet ... doesn't go in through nappy though. Befiends indian lady and gets her to help her walk down to water. then feet dry, back over to car.

Back driving home ... on hill outside Laragh we stop. Bike off car, adjust saddle, grab snacks. I cycle home. Am I nuts? It's not easy ... keep relaxed pressure on whole way. Wind a bit against. I go back the way I drove, just past Roundwood need to follow sign off to Sally gap to get on quieter roads. Thought roads would be hillier so mentally had prepared myself for worse so when got to part I recognised by Djouce woods was very pleased. Was thinking home by 7ish. Yeaigheeeeeee! Hill down there VERY steep. Zoom. Anyway ... get back through Enniskerry, then Stepaside, get coffee filters in Londis in Sandyford hall. Home just before 6. < 2 hours.

Fionn has mince & veg cooked. Yum chomp. Eat, tidy stuff in from car, Conor & Paddy visit a bit. Fionn has nice hot bath. Getting stuff tidied and kids bed. Conor & Paddy home at 7. Paddie's other 2 triplets call for him. then he reappears back with dinner on his face! Kate into bath and myself too. Kate to bed, Fionn sends Paddy home, D into bath. I get D out, dry, teeth brushed, more Narnia (Fionn finished Tintin with him last night).

New reality TV series Cabin Fever on. Good fun ... land challenges ... not much film of sailing :-7 I massage Fionn's legs while she is on phone home. Then we both go up to bed ... I massage her back (difficut at first she is on one side reading). Then she lies down and I get a good massage done.

phew. I go windsurf again. Fionn suggests. This time setting off 6. So difference in water level is 3 hours which is nice. Get to poolbeg. Wind looks great. Sniff ... change harness lines onto small boom. Rig up 5m sail. On grass so sand less of an issue. Dress in gear ... all goes much faster as rust all gone from gear and my head. Then out and guh! Wind dies almost all away almost immediately. It's quite slack and I slog Wish missing rocks on one end of beack across waves. Then back more against waves. Wind changes more S and picks up a little. I have fun. Slog going out ,,, over nice small waves. Then coming in I keep on feeling getting more wind. I'm, coming in directly with the waves and picking them up and surfing along them. I eventually realise with wave pushing me I'm going faster and can edge more into wind so apparent wind to hold me up is greater. Even get planing off front of waves a good few times.

Pack up 9ish and head home. Fionn's getting gear & bike ready for morrow. Frustrated with a couple of things. Snapped allen key - can't find other I might have had in my coat. Can't find small bike pump. I help a bit put bike carrier on car. Collect stuff to bring. Allen key with shifting wrench works. Where is our vice-grips?

In for tea and TV. Silly boy watching TV late. Hi-Lo country. Complicated! Jean Claude van Damme. 2am I think. Augh! Puter still on at power down message. (just before surfing couldn't find tv remote control for looking at teletext so puter on, used lynx to look at met.ie.

After D home from school I get time to go on puter. Replying to emails. Distracted cp tet.c rain.c and getting a raining letter game started. Some bits of tetris (screen positioning co-ords confusing) very bad by me.

Fionn home from work just before 6. We all have dinner - chicken cooked with curry and coconut milk. With rice. Then windsurfuing? Yes. Grab all gear ... had made a little start pulling it out of shed with Kate in one arm. Packed up, gear in, board on car. Set off 19:00ish. Know tide will be dead out 22:00. Wind will be funny this time of evening too. Yep ... wind not fab, water going. Rig up big sail. Need to swap over harness lines from small boom. All gear is stiff, dry, salty & sandy. Dry, salt & sand in my hands and brain too. Saw some sand got in upper part of boom ... knocked it out (but realise later should have been careful) Snap downhaul ... felt like it would snap maybe when I looked at it. New one on. Wetsuit hard to get on. Feels like it has shrunk or I've grown.

Out I head. Whee! Get just about almost not-quite planing. Heading directly out parallell to harbour wall. Waves small but very cute & pert. Sharp faces on lots, wind just flicking foam off top and holding them up too from side/on. Wind good bursts can't help but jump over them. A few series of small jumps. Great fun. On way in then surfing on the waves. Don't manage even one half-decent turn whole evening. Sail bloop half in water every time. Water going out further & further all the time. Wind slackening too. Near end I'm out a good bit and a set of big waves comes in breaking right where I am. Yeek! Where they come from? Ferry? 6 feet .. maybe 10?

Anyway ... that's it for one night. In ... carry sail on head board still attached until out of water and board waggles dangerously. Then carry sail in. Then back out carry board in. Longish way but not so long as I've ever really done it. Sould have brought car down ... would have had to drive round huge area with inch puddle of water and up soft sand st top of beach but looks possible. De-rig sail. Mast -- is -- gnnnnnnnn -- ngggggggg -- stuck. Gah! Know exactly for sure it is the sand. Time to practice the advice given out on windsurfing email groups. Try hopping mast a bit .. on sand? On grass? find two handy rocks close enough together that can jam mast into them. Being careful not to bend/snap mast too much combine pull & jamming it (scrapes outside of boom but looks okay) with jamming and twisting and battering around joint hoping all this is breaking sand particles down smaller. Eventually after a good bit of hauling and battering get it loose. Whew! De-rig, tidy stuff into & onto car, dress, phone home just before 2200.

Home ... gear off car, TV, bed. Had shut down puter earlier before going surfing ... was still on ready to be powered down! Happened Sat too.

Out this evening. Cycle after kids gone to bed. To Blackrock. O'Rourkes. Jaczek, Stephen Dolan there at 9. Then Trish. Later Ronan Devins, James, Sheila, Paul, Micki.

Fionn brings John and Brid to give blood. Leave 7ish. Pauline comes after that ... get her food ... can't remember what. After 8 I head by bike to give blood. D still awake watching just a little bit more of film. Get through sign in Q quickly. Then start long wait. Talk to Fionn ... she gives me her palm before leaving. Thank *&%$ for palm. Don't watch time ... play hardball ... bomb canada ... giraffe. Get hi scores in all./ Finger prick and notice laptop running reflexion title "login to unix" and simple text app running on server. Not being used except for entrance desk as far as I can see. More wait palm games, eventually blood give. Then have coke + sandwich + crisps. Head home bike 10:30! Yeek.

Collect lads 1:30 then Kate. Kate is tired ... bit too long in creche. Just awkward with time lads leave school.

Jeaysus Christ - just caught myself chewing nails. Doing diary and todo lists. Last week was on PC for good while. Day after my fingers were sore ... bitten.

Just after 2 head and collect the boys. Grilled alphabet chips, tuna burgers, beans, potatoes for Daire & me. Conor comes in to visit and they play in garden. Spot a sparrow in our tree bird house. Yay! Attempt taking pictures. Bird is fast. Bird close he tweet tweets, chicks twitter more then. Bird won't go in one time D & Conor too close on wall. Late I get some PC diary and CV done. D & Conor play dressing up in a bit. Very soon it's 1700, go get F & Kate 1730ish. Fionn cooks omlette.

We all pack up, get K ready for bed and head to Fionn's soccer. It rains a bit, I've umbrella, Kate's pants bit wet. She likes running a bit. She stays mostly on ground. I keep grabbing her before she gets over white line. Daire stays by self near goal end of other team. A bit after half time Fionn goes on. Swing Kate around a bot, Daire too. Full time we go home without Fionn. Get D dressed, K into dry things, D drink of milk, teeth brushing. Fionn home and gets hat for Brid. Fionn gets Kate to bed and I read Asterix for Daire. (in Switzerland)

Back to diary late night 11ish (was watching TV with Fionn - couple in England, surgeon & nurse, loads of arguing (not too serious) but guhhh) guhhh now it's 1245 ... tired hungry and yet to have shower more diary ...

Fionn cycles back to work. We go get D & D. Kate falls asleep on way there and stays asleep in my arms until back into car. Back home, some food for D & I. Nad Kate too - she doesn't go sleep. Then off we go to Deansgrange library. Bring books back, D piles books with difficulty up as soon as we get in door. Renew Kipling and Malaysia ones. D picks Asterix & Tintin book immediately. I go get kids Malaysia book and nice looking book with a cultivated wolf. Attempt adult section with Kate but have to escape. Kate quiet in my arms with soother but very wriggly - wants to get down and run.

Back into car. Kate falls fast asleep. We go to Cabinteely park. Playground is VERY packed. Lots of queues. D Qs up for new wire-run-cable-car-thing. It takes ages ... some big kids mess a bit and kindof have 1 + half + time wasted. One little girl gets back off onto front of Q and has another 4 goes at least until I'm nasty and tell her where the back of the Q is (up high in the playground towers). another smallish girl is great helping pull many of the kids back up. I do that job when all those puller backers seem to disappear for a while, Then it's Daire's go. He's shining happy after and does more stuff .. slide doesn't go fast. It rains a little on us, cover on sleeping kate in buggy. Again Q for whirly round asnd swing thing. Much shorter Q though. I dump off kid who answers mobile who has hogged it a bit. I'm a bit bossy ... but sure ... organise pushing for some kids. Phone Fionn. After that over and D has go on stuff in smaller playground. And another cable-tyre thing go. Then back home.

Pauline comes out. I cook potatoes, brocolli and chop lamb off the leg and grill wioth herbs and pepper. Oh yeah - onion and mushrooms fry too with brocolli. Mark Hayden calls and brings back hammers and stuff, give him parachute book. Bit mad with kids & Pauline when he calls.

Fionn home then. after tea, kids to bed, house tidy. Lookup film times. Girls in work going to the actors? Go with Fionn to The Matrix Reloaded at 2100. Woah! :) I like.

We visit Newpark to pick up summer camp and swimming info. Then to Blackrock. Roches stores. Kate runs in store delirious with delight. Allow her a little but grab her a couple of times when getting dangerous. Get cute old style wind-up clock. D beaming smiles. Then back over and get loads of grocweries (need them at this stage). Get leg of lamb too and whoile salmon. Fionn was saying Renaud buys them whole & freezes them. If it's okay for the French to freeze them well I'm going to try too :) I'm thinking again (crazily of course (slightly)) of sushi etc.... It's only 9.99 for the whole. wow!?

Afternoon out on green with Kate and Daire and Conor. I pick up more stuff and clip more thorns (gorse + brambles) out & inside tennis courts. Kate is very cute & clever. We started on thorny place behing tennis courts. She went over to corner and carefully wriggled through hole herself. I had taken her through it on weekend. She was well pleased inside there. Conor and Daire come in to visit her after playing around the place. Big kids on skateboards come too. Eventually K & I head away. D & C have headed a bit before us.

Dinner I am disorganised. Kate & I headed out to pick nettles. Do that then Kate helps me pick out Israeli potatoes. She likes putting them in saucepan. She puts them in saucepan after they're washed too. (standing on chair beside sink) Then clip clip clip I do the nettles. Fionn comes home. After nettles I haul out the salmon, whack off good tail section, back into freeser for rest, slice open tail more, season & herb, lemon juice, stuff garlic & nettle leaves, into oven. So ... potatoes cooked, nettles fry with onion fast. Wait for fish. Nettles put milk in ... _kindof_ florentine fish. Very bad timing but sure..... Kate well fed by time dinner ready. I love rough taste of nettles. Some on outside of salmon really crisp!

Kate okayish. D makes great friends with Hannah. Rains and lots of kids in car drinking cans and burping. I go with Kate, get her some food, put on coffee. Fionn comes and carried tea/coffee/biscuits over. martin is suffering from hangover. Back to hacking and clipping and dragging then. Fionn takes Kate home after a bit. Chainsaw chain off .. no problem fix a couple of times. Fionn brings lovely sandwiches out in a while. Later chainsaw chain off and won't start at all for us. Spend ages trying to figure it out. Martin gives up and I spend 30 mins maybe trying. Eventually realise the guard is holding the cogs - whether on a bit incorrectly or just set to off. I do lots of chainsawing then. Nearly done by time it's time to finish ... only a couple of branches left undone. Great fun. Last bit of chainsawing didn't have my gloves and back of hand all scratched. Fionn brings heineken ... tastes gorgeous ... 4 of us left. I head back ... Kate sleep in our house.

Getting a bit stiff later. Do some yoga which seems to help.

Then K into buggy and head to shop. Get bread, ham, actimel drinks, biscuits. Back into car. Drive up road to zoo. Out of car, Kate into buggy again. Back into zoo. Over to playground and picnic table. Simple ham sandwiches + milk. Some phesants and a sparrow too come for crumbs.

After food Kate runs around a bit. Over to other playgrounds. Into excellent bat cave we go. Wow bats climbing on ropes with their arm/wings. I like it. Dark too. Kate goes through one way, then all the way back, then all the way back again. Screams with pleasure once. Out we go over to elephants. It pours rain ... we put buggy cover up. D & I have peaked caps. We see gorgeous otters, then penguins and sea lions. Loads of herons around looking for fish. Sea lions swimming and also climbing out. Much less people around now, school tours gone.

Back home via stop for petrol.

Last linux talk for while. Mike forgot and has booked Matrix Reloaded tickets instead. Pauline comes out to babysit for us. (Fionn's going to ?) Pauline and Fionn come a bit late. Kids finished food. Earlier Kate & I collected nettles and made soup (lots of veg + the nettles). Soup is yum alright. Fionn tells me later she thought I was joking about the nettles. I cycle in. Just a minute or so late. Padraig in after me beside me. Quite interesting .. hmmmmm .. lots of questions after. Then to pub - life bar. Guinness first, yum yummee, then coke. Waider gives me lift home. I promise him my CV. Nothing came of Alphyra job so far - Rafe is looking too.

Sending of our flight info to John and Mum. they're getting organised and booking things now too. Mum's looking at accomodation on web too.

Try to go for walk on way back to Dub. Turn off road after river, go to another bridge. Walk up a little way there but it looks like someone's garden? Cross back over road. Daire a bit disappointed. Drive back seems longish ... but it goes well. In Dublin 1930 or so.

yah! forgot to sign on! Phone them, phone bike people. Go with D & Kate to sign on. 2-4 Collect bike in town. D spots spike.

Dither ... want to cycle to town but will not have bike on way home. Look up buses .. 44 thru Dundrum? Leave car in UCD and get no 10 or something? GAH! Head to town with bike on car. In via rds, left before Holles St hospital. Park Fitz sq, (drove 3 sides looking numbers), park, crossing street, wandering down and along ... numbers wrong!? DOH! I had parked 2 doors up from right door. So close. HDD not there yet. Drive on. Dump car under DART bridge nearish (under) Pearse St station.. Money in meter. Cycle to Cycleways.

Drop in bike for service. Talk about handlebars stem. Ohhhh! can cut off ends of bars self, they'll put on raised stem maybe. Get receipt for child seat that didn't work out. Also talk to Brendan about handlebar height. He says maybe it's more a problem with my style. Cornering and downhill should be placing weight on front of bike. That sounds good to me as I would be tending to sit up & lean back!!! Just like skiing then maybe.

Walk back via Coke, look at Library in Ilac ctr, money machine. HDD there, pay cash. Home. ? collect D & D maybe ?

puter open ... for next 4 weeks! Great fun ... borrow red-hat linux 9 from Mike. (See his apartment in Foxrock). New HDD in but can't get it to work on ide iface with CDROM at all. Also can't get it to work with other 40G drive. Can only get it to work where old 40G drive was... duh james. Very confused. Try loads of master/slave combinations. Very messy. All this over a week or so. Install linux with drive in as hdc (i.e. master on 2nd ide bus) anyway. EVENTUALLY figure out HDD won't work as need to tell BIOS lies about cylinders etc... Straight copy of other 40G drive info works fine and allows boot. Now BIOS wants to boot from hdb (old 40G drive) which has no boot record :-7 Hurmmmmmm. Install goes beautifully .... disk partitioning is a dream with disk druid. No problems with big drives.

Looking up imageMagick, x and gimp stuff. Wonering can I script gimp. have a look at it's scripts but don't quite get it fully. xmorph warp image of Daire & myself.

Telly ... intend going to bed but current affairs thing comes on. Later John thrumvian throat singers with arts prog. William Gibson book on it. 4 interesting panel. Roddy Doyle's the woman who walked into doors. The documentary on the Stars on Sunday picture newspaper which lasted a few months before folding.

Home and I get breakfast. Still congested with cold thing. Cough a bit. Check email, do a bit of web reading. Tired ... not in mood for stuff really ... have grapefruit 11ses. Do diary on pc a bit.

Guy rings at door - cleaning gutters. Hmmmm.... did notice one of them leaking at side. Hurmmm 30 euros ... okay. I get him plastic bags and tidy kitchen. Gets gunk from front and side. Also bits of broken tiles. In between showers. I hold ladder. Then away and back. Very quick fix loose tiles ... wondering did he do anything? Huyrmmm ... anyway 50 euro for all.

Get Kate dressed. She wriggles and is cross over clothes changing but okay. We play upstairs a bit, hang out clothes on line, break some sticks, she helps hold bow-saw while we saw some logs. Those eucalyptus and ash cuttings are now nearly tidy. Weather is bright sun, dark interesting clouds around. Threatening and just about starting to shower on occasion.

Kate & I go out walking on green and pick up rubbish. Tennis courts surprisingly clear .... must've been others picking up rubbish. New plants birch mostly okay ... one tree not vandalised doesn't look good. Laurel majority survived grand. One or two definately dead. Kate was playing with water. AND had some pretty snail clutched in hands ... licking him! For a bit. Snail I got off her when we washed hands. In a while I found him heading for the coffee machine. Out he goes. Get Kate mashed potato and remains of a jar for dinner. Prunes before while heating that. Then yoghurt after. She feeds herself.

Fionn home and she gets lunch of bread & cheese & tea. Rush out rescue clothes on line from shower. Freshen Kate's nappy and top. 13:10ish out to car, Kate in, drop Fionn to S3, collect D & David. Meet Conor outside (he had no school today). Kate is sound asleep and I carry her upstais. Then David into our house briefly - play with Daire's brio train set which was left out last night under coffee table.

Get Kate & myself breakfasted with more leisure. Then K dressed. I'm still congested - coughing & sneezing stuff out urgh. Dosing self with fruit juice. Computer on and pingu on ... Kate likes it a bit. I get through some old emails. Clothes wash on. Day is showery/sunny. Out in garden a bit hanging clothes, chopping sticks. Kate plays with water, helps carry sticks.

We have 11ses and lunch about 12. After luch head to collect Daire & David. Kate tired in car but still awake when we all get home. I give her bottle and she heads to bed. D very pleased - two new reading books again and a letter about school tour to art place next tuesday. Get ourselves dinner. After D plays and a bit later with Paddy in our house. I get chance to download email but not read much. Out in garden I chop some wood and tidy it. Paddy falls off wall so I take down ash monkey-branch and ban climbing on wall.

Make pancakes for tea. Feed Kate cheese and apple slices while she waits. D has some apple too. D & Paddy inside play with train, have half an egg-rasher-cheese pancake each. Then waiting for Fionn who's on internet looking up Frankfurt and Sydney holidays. Ray calls - Dave & Aine are moving out and he's meeting estate agent. He comes in and we chat - they're expecting new baby in July. Eventually Fionn home. It's after 1830 ... we send Paddy off home. We all have pancakes from oven then I make some more savoury and sweet ones. Kids to bed - reading Daire Wind in the Willows. He's not sure about more after reading chapter where the rat meets a wandering seafaring rat until we look ahead and see toad doing exciting things and weasels with guns! (or I think actually it was a ferret)

I read email on PC and get distracted ... play some FreeCiv. Later Fionn up to bed. Cross as she's organising money and new morgage by herself.

Paddy and Liam and his brother and Conor are all playing out hte back. Emma visiting too! Fionn's Mum & Dad arrive. Then Fionn comes back with Eoghan and Mary from collecting them in Dun Laoighre. Make cappuchinos all round .... Aedin and Paul arrive not too late to get two. I don't have one for once! Some food - bread with frech yum tomatoes and cheese. Tea with that. Chat. Kate fascinated by wildlife program again. Gorilla's, more elephants, deer, .... all dogs!

? lunch ? Fionn buys chicken and mince. Stayed at our house whole day.

John & Carly and Mary head off late enough ... it's after 1700 anyway. V late for going shopping. We make tea and do bedtime.

Fionn goes to get Ruth. I read Daire Wind in the Willows. Kate in bed. We head 19:40ish, in via Terenure, park near Smithfield. Brief cross flare ... I say Fionn doesn't support me ... she gave out to me for driving and hmmmm ? Last week or so she told me I should give out to her more! Anyway. Find the Voo-doo lounge.

Food, kids to bed, much unpacking, clothes washing. Bed.

D starts doing picture and Kate wants stuff. Screeches a bit. I fetch her some paper and give her some crayon/pen/pencil. D does very nice grass, houses and mountains (in distance - three rock and sugarloaf). I'm instructed to draw a lamb and easter bunny with empty basket (copied from things he made in school).

We head upstairs after a bit and get Kate nappy changed ... don't quite succeed getting her the whole way dressed. Daire bounces around and knocks against her AND knocks himself off things. I'm getting cross with him again. Kate finds two soothers in cot! I get them off her after a bit. John phones and D cries as I answered it. ANYWAY. He has the good idea of starting to pack ... I take clothes out of hotpress to sort them and get one or two done. Daire opens attic and I get down ladder. D heads up ... we get down bags, travel cot, Kate's travel high chair, D's sleeping bag. D knocks his head off rafters!

It's about 11 and time for a break. Get ham sandwich for D and Kate. Then milk for Kate, cucumber + tomato + cheese + pesto sandwich for me and cup of tea. D has orange winder ... fun eating it alright ... likes the cartoon. Kate has a bit of kit-kat.

Then I bring plastic and pots to be washed outside with basin. Kate has great fun ... and Daire joins her. Put suncream on Kate and D. I clean kitchen. Conor comes in for visit. They climb on wall. "He's not my friend". Dunno why but Daire wasn't waiting for Conor when they were climbing on wall. Also Paddy is grounded after throwing varnish on tennis courts.

Not long until it's after 12. Kate inside ... get her out of wet things. She runs around naked and then with nappy. She can climb from elephant up on to chair at table in time it takes to chop half a leek! EEK. But she seems steady. She does a little colouring there. After while Conor heads home and D is crying. I turn on TV for 10 mins while I finish dinner. Leek in oxtail soup with noodles. Conor comes back with football. We all like dinner. (not Conor) Then custard for D & K. And D heads into Conors house (and there gets spagetti bolognese!) Kate & I get her clean ... practically a bath ... and dressed. Kate finds soother in her green bag. Very clever she is. Head upstairs ... she doesn't like the idea of cot. I fold clothes while she wanders round. Then she's tired and comes to get hugs. I brush her hair and then she goes for a sleep without much objections.

I put on REM and turn on puter. Do diary. Can anyone help with this: ? ;;;; urgh ... key one and down arrow mapped to goto-line!?!? ;;(global-set-key (read-key-sequence "ESC g g") `goto-line) ;; now t ... I _was_ going to say tHis works BUT now lowercase H is mapped to goto-line too! grrrr! ;;(read-key-sequence "enter seq:" nil nil) ;(global-set-key (read-key-sequence "gg") `goto-line) Mail school hols and morning happenings to Fionn. ... not quite ... K up again 15:30 before mail sent. Take her up .. she's got soother and is tired yet. Feed her yoghurt and custard until she is cross. D climbs in over next door's fence and wall. He's being bold and lying about it. I give Kate my wallet to distract her then try check email. Finish diary... Martin calls. Wants to borrow digial camera. Call tonight.

Packing all day but remarkably little done :( Fionn crossish. Call Martin ... he can't have digital camera.

Home and I get breakfast. Then bumble round house collecting and tidying befuddled. Cycle to Dun Laoighre ... zoom nice new bike. Sign on then over to coal harbour. Our boat is already out ... being moved as yacht is moving in. Person helps me move other boat to get her back in. There's hardly any water in her ... I mop it out anyway. Then cycle to Bullock harbour. Mmmmm nice big chandlers. Yeep ... eye costs 6 euro .. okay I guess. Screws too then back to fix it on boat. Cycle home get there 10 to 12.

Prepare dinner ... D home. Beautiful day persuade him not to play scalextrix as it's my day off too! So we cycle with sails & sailing gear. Dun Laoighre I rig up. D asks lots of questions of person fitting floorboard to boat next to ours.

Then sail off ... tricky putting up mainsail. Pick up a buoy. Wind bit gusty but quite good inside harbour. Daire is impressed! Outside there's a swell and wind really going. We sail a good bit luffed up. Ferry coming in so we keep tacking up close to harbour wall. Motor boat zooms out .... just in case I think. Big waves and last going about we fail from lack of speed twice. Get there eventually and head in for shelter. Running faster and much less bouncy. D has hula hoops. Inside harbour we go look at ferry ... lose wind completely there.

Then back to slip. Tide VERY far out. Landing on steeper part of slip I get pants bit wet. Zip them off. Derig & fold up, then go for a row. Eat fruit and junk while rowing. Meet a seal over by wall ... he comes up blowing bubbles with his nose right next to us. Rolls in water looking at us. Then right by oar and swiming nearly under us. We fend off from some yackts. Then he goes over and plays with a cormorant. In we go and I take boat out ... struggle up steep slope. 2 guys putting motor boat in (still tied to trailer first time!) D wanders and has pineapple juice. I get boat all way up - feeling quite tired now. EEK! It's 17:00. Get shoes & socks over to D and I phone Fionn. She'll collect Kate. I stow gear and cover boat ... D comes over sock half on damp foot. I haul it on and he keeps going.

Eventually ready and zoom cycle up many hills home. Home 17:50, meet Conor and other kid, they say they've seen Fionnuala and Kate and want to visit. Phone Fionn's mobile, our house. Answering machines both. Fionn rings us back. She's still in S3. Bike in around side safe then drive off. Meet Fionn & Kate walking home near S3. Drive to home ... Fionn changes into soccer gear in traffic. At home grabs some food. I start feeding D & Kate.

Tired. We eat, watch teeny bit of TV but Kate too tired. We all go up, D & K have bath. Like it. I shave. Then K out, bottle, bed. She settles no problem. I read a little Kim then D wants out. 2nd last chapter of hobbit, then Fionn home.

Fionn's in bath after D's story is finished. After shower some food, then bed. Read Kim a bit before sleep.

Afternoon visit Cabinteeley park. Kate fell asleep in car but woke up and stayed awake in park. She had hardly any nap. D puts ALL armour on. Then walks with switchboard, then scoots carefully down hill. Check out new playground first. 3 guys putting down red plastic flooring stuff. Machine to mix red stuff with jug of nasty chemical. Then down hill more and D plays on fallen logs. I wheel Kate around in buggy. Then on a bit up hill. Pause to feed oranges and things to us. Kate happy out of buggy ... sits on log first then walks around. Then Kate in buggy and on further. Daire climbs around trees. Then on further again under pine tree. Kate out again. She follows some dogs and walks lots. She starts walking back to car and pushes buggy while I carry her. Big diversion to see guys working on playground packing gear into van.

Chicken (bit spicey) with peas and carrots and celery. And tagliatelli. Kate after peas + potato has lots of chicken and yells for more. D also loves the stuff. I thought sauce (chicken marinaded with paprika, pepper, ginger, ... and hollandaise sauce from packet made with milk) would be too hot maybe for them.

Urgh. Fionn up first. Rescues Kate and brings her in. We're both a wittle bit hungover. Daire comes in then. I get up & dressed and go down with kids. EEEP! No milk. D gets muller and heats himself. I try put Kate in carseat but she objects strenuously. So I put her in high chair, give her cheerios and Daire feeds her from his yoghurt. I drive to Sandyford. Get paper, milk, fresh baguette, panorama. Home D & Kate getting along famously. Half thru yoghurt. I make K weetabix. She half feeds herself, half from me. Daire gets bowl of cheerios. Full after half gone. Share them out between Kate & myself. Making cappuchinos. I mix up Daire's with ours and pour coffee in it. Then Fionn comes down. She makes bread & jam & cheese things. I read paper ... Fionn a bit too but she minds kids more.

Kate's having great fun walking all over everywhere. Stairs are now just about okay too. She's funny going down steps ... she'll get down flat on her tummy maybe even a few feet away from steps and wriggle reverse backwards to start down safely. She doesn't quite always get both feet going in the right direction though! :) We've a little slide in the garden ... and she can climb the ladder (eek!) wobble around on top (EEEK!) and also zip down the slide! (whew!) Weather is really weird ... has rained only one day in last ... maybe 3/4 weeks! Tempreature varies ... but anyway Kate's been exploring the outside world lots.

Oh oh! Kate is starting to talk too :) Tea is "hosh hosh" (in a hushed dangerous whisper). To get out of chair or lifted up "Op! Op!".

Daire's getting even higher up climbing trees. (Ash tree in our garden) New rule he's not allowed climb if any kid is visiting. We've also been going on hillwalks and he's not needed to be carried at all ... and they're shortish but still 2/3 hours. Very impressed we are :) Looking forward to his easter holidays (and eggs! (and visit to Cobh)) Starting to pick out bits from books and reading them himself. Asterix and Oblelix - The Big Fight (AGAIN!) tonight.

I spent today in garden tools & nuts & screws flying everywhere. Used old philips screwdriver as chisel to shave a chunk off shed roof. hard going ... morning and into afternoon until finished. Green paint on top of door catching andshowing me what needed to be hacked off. Mortar flew everywhere ... how _does_ it manage to get inside pockets and under clothes!? It's in my eyes ... gravelly under eyelids ... it's in my underpants .. falling out of my sleeves ... everywhere. Also screwing back on the door fully and putting protective sheet of wood on bottom properly.

Fionn head's shopping after getting Kate off for her sleep. I continue hammering outside until D comes down (from computer and playing outside). He's hungry. Me too. I make him cheese sandwich. I have smash and tikka-masala beef stuff (still going cooked from thur!) John calls (out shopping in Cork with Carly). Then after Mum calls. Daire remembers where there were easter eggs hidden last year and he's going to look there first!!!!! (in little bird feeder/box?)

Late afternoon wire catch done very quickly and nicely with old bucket handle. Fionn suggested it. Child seat experimented with and off new bike. Get big old bike seat attached to new bike (only requires carrier to be unscrewed every time off or on ... awkwardly placed crossbar join. Daire's saddle raised & bell on. Daire's been visiting Conor's lots of the day and he arrives in with Paddy. A bit later 17:00 they head to Paddy's house. But he arrives back crying after half hour. Paddy told him go home. Fionn consoles him ... Kate cries and I mind her a bit but she's cross. Fionn runs aweay from her in circuit. She follows closely and I follow her closely woofing and growling to distract her. Fionn closes door in Kate's face :( I take her outside but she's very cross ... doesn't want to be held or put down or anything. I leave her (crying :'() and finish bike stuff. Fionn rescues her ... call's me in for much needed tea after. Kate v happy & Daire & myself pasta with egg and parmigiano. Wine for me too from bottle Martin brought. Fionn will eat later at dinner in Bronagh's.

After tea baths for kids and Fionn gets ready and heads away. Kate doesn't like hair rinsed. Both out & dried & ready for bed with teeth brushed 19:30.

Tracey there when we get home. Cup of tea. Whew. Then tools fly and work on bikes (move bell + light fixing from old to new). Also broken shed door (hinge on bottom gone since yesterday evening ... one on top loose on examination). Take off door and make stronger. Kate plays in garden whole time. Has some to eat.

Meet Fionn 11:55 well, we're late 12:05 qand fionn is later 12:20. Visit market ... get cheese. Then olives & stuff. Then bananas and tomatos 8 euros!!? Then fish cake and potato cake and share with Kate for lunch. Kate tired of buggy and gets out. We've lunch sitting on steps ... Kate standing between us. Then into inside place ... look at some things. Kate runs around happy but wants to explore outside.

Collect D & David 13:30 as usual. Kate not asleep yet. Does fall asleep on way home. She's very tired. We leave her asleep in car. Get food for Daire & some more for me. Keep checking Kate. D changes clothes and I do too. Green paint on shed door and wood to protect it. After a good while D heads visiting Conor (and Paddy is around too). After that Kate wakes (I just catch her waking up). I mind her and we swing in hammock a bit. She wakes up, has banana and then helps me with tools. I lift green painted door up high out of way and carry on hammering and screwing bits of it. Hang door with wet paint so I get green.

20:00 Martin visits. Catches Fionn just heading out to talk in Balally by John Lonergan. Catches me screwing shed door. We get food out, start him munching. I finish up quickly and tidy all outside. Then D already in pyjamas, Fionn had put Kate to bed. D brush teeth and bed ... read the lost world that he got from school library.

Yummy food ... Martin has brought breads. We have olives and anchovies and cheese from market (and before). Finish southern italian wine .. yum. merlot + p? AND when Fionn comes back open the one Martin brought. (A southern italian (from Marks & Spencer))

Back home Gerry just finishing. Kate glad to get out of bush baby but poor thing into car soon.

Chopped up lots of vweg & meat and make tikka-masala stuff. Slow cook in oven for hour and half. Collect Daire & David. Cook spagetti (with mange tout and frozen veg for me), with meatballs & tomato sauce for D. Kate loves the peas.

D & K & I get packed up & into car ... well not quite. Phone bike place & they dunno if bike is there, Brendan's not around. PHEW! Few minutes after Brendan calls. Yep. Bike okay. In route I drove wed. Park on street opposite church not far from bike shop. Kate slept in car but wakes up and stays awake in buggy. Daire coloured but then was asleep in car too! I'd to lift him out then set hime walking. He's grand though. Visit 2 holiday places inquiring about trip to Australia via Thailand maybe. We see spire from several angles. Daire is watching for it. Collect bike after. Bike sitting there waiting. Wheel bike beside buggy up road, attack bike to car, stow buggy & bags. Across road we go to church. Daire lights candle and wanders around looking. Then off and home.

Fionn not home 18:00 ... we're outside ... Kate wandering and D playing with Conor and girls (chasing) when Fionn comes home on bike. I see her from afar and I think Kate does too. Trundles downhill towards mummy and makes a last excited dash onto road towards bike. Get food ready, rice with tikka masala for adults, spagetti with meatballs & tomato sauce for Daire, same (ish) for Kate. Kate feeds herself from bowl. Also had fruit.

You probably intended saving some space and processing
by wanting to do LV_CiAppliList.appli[0]->text_char = "zero";

The way to do this and avoid the malloc and strcpy
 (and avoid having two copies of every string).
Is to put "zero" in global memory (static) and assign the
 pointer to it.

static menuitem0[]= "zero";
LV_CiAppliList.appli[0]->text_char = menuitem0;
 .... see examples below

void BadSetup(void)
{
  LV_CiAppliList.appli[0]->menu_string_length = 4;
  LV_CiAppliList.appli[0]->text_char =
     OSA_MemAlloc(LV_CiAppliList.appli[0]->menu_string_length+1);
  LV_CiAppliList.appli[0]->text_char = "zero";
}

This should have given you a nasty warning!
You must listen to compile time warnings.



void WorkingSetup(void)
{
  LV_CiAppliList.appli[0]->menu_string_length = 4;
  LV_CiAppliList.appli[0]->text_char =
     OSA_MemAlloc(LV_CiAppliList.appli[0]->menu_string_length+1);
  strcpy(LV_CiAppliList.appli[0]->text_char,"zero");
}

Now this is okay but in global memory you have "zero" mostly unused except for the initial copy.
Also on the heap (malloc) you have "zero".
Also you have a call to malloc and strcpy which make
code size that little bit bigger and also at run time
take up time.


void BetterSetup(void)
{
  // store menu string in persistant(global)(static) memory
  static char LV_menuItem0[] = "zero";

  LV_CiAppliList.appli[0]->menu_string_length = strlen(LV_menuItem0);
  LV_CiAppliList.appli[0]->text_char = LV_menuItem0;
}

Now only one copy of the menu string.
No malloc or strcpy needed.




Also your Setup routine does the same thing 3 times.
That should be refactored.


void LF_SetupOneEntry_LV_CiAppliList(t_Appli_InfoPtr *AppliInfoPtr,
   unsigned long appli_id,
   unsigned short logical_ad,
   unsigned short application_manufacturer,
   unsigned short manufacturer_code,
   unsigned char application_type,
   char *menuItem)
{
 AppliInfoPtr->appli_id=appli_id;
 AppliInfoPtr->logical_ad=logical_ad;
 AppliInfoPtr->application_manufacturer=application_manufacturer;
 AppliInfoPtr->manufacturer_code=manufacturer_code;
 AppliInfoPtr->application_type=application_type;
 AppliInfoPtr->menu_string_length = strlen(LV_menuItem0);
 AppliInfoPtr->text_char = menuItem;
}


void LF_Setup_LV_CiAppliList(void)
{
  // store menu strings in persistant(global)(static) memory
  // we don't use a 2D array LV_menuItems[count][maxstrlen] to save a few bytes
  static char LV_menuItem0[] = "zero";
  static char LV_menuItem1[] = "one";
  static char LV_menuItem2[] = "two";

  LV_CiAppliList.nb_appli = 3;

  LF_SetupOneEntry_LV_CiAppliList(
     LV_CiAppliList.appli[0],
     0,0,0,0,'0',LV_menuItem0);

  LF_SetupOneEntry_LV_CiAppliList(
     LV_CiAppliList.appli[1],
     1,1,1,1,'1',LV_menuItem1);

  LF_SetupOneEntry_LV_CiAppliList(
     LV_CiAppliList.appli[2],
     2,2,2,2,'2',LV_menuItem2);
}

Then get Kate dressed. Kate objects very much to nappy change and getting clothes and shoes on. We cycle to creche. Blue sky and sun but chilly wind.

Finish reading The Perfect Storm. Start into What colour is your parachute. Perfect storm was quite good ... I really got into it. The first few pages I found almost put me off but well worth the read. Very interesting mix - descriptions of the people involved & their day to day life as well as what happened during the storm. The science - meterology, simulating bad weather. The history. The way the coastguard + navy + other organisations work. Amazing way of telling the story of the boat which is essentially unknown but very well illustrated by the wealth of material from other people.

Kate with me whole day. Has a good sleep early for her ... bed after 13:30 with no objections. (After collecting D&D from school). Remembering old things e.g. Denis & Patricia's granny peeling mandarin and keeping peel in one piece fascinated me. Then saw I could do it myself. Kate climbs up ladder and goes down slide all by herself a few times. Day overcast mostly. Sun breaks through sometimes, still chilly. Clothes washed and out on line in morning. Cook fish pie - start chopping 16:00ish. Then power goes out till 17:30ish. So fish pie is more of a rush. Tastes nice though. Get Daire in from visiting Conor. Kate quite cross going to bed. Won't take bottle. Fionn trys first. Roars crying ... I lay her down a couple of times and put on music and she gradually settles. I read Daire Asterix & Obelix - The Big Fight in bed.

linux find /dev/modem link okay but /dev/cua2 needs setserial irq 7 autoconfig done as root again. I fiddle with scripts in /etc/rc.d/ Make rc.serial. /dev/hda3 is gradually dying ... inodes fixed but file system must now be getting holey.

Fionn home early 17:30, K sleeping (since 4ish V tired & cross, tough to settle), D visiting Conor. Fionn off to soccer practice for 18:30. Read Daire end of Tintin book (baddie Rastapopulous - submarine - "sharks" in lake) in bed.

Yayy with linux find /dev/modem link to /dev/cua3 is wrong! Seyon happy when starting. minicom dials ... all screechy noises good ... but it times out!? Hurmmm ... I think I could've attached ppp. Reading linux SUG, SAG and howtos.

Food - emporium busy ... I goto banklink. Find one in ilac centre (working though roped off). See one on way back. See quieter tapas bar on way back into food emporium there. Persuade Fionn to come. D not happy as he's already chosen. Nice food - fennel & ? soup, bocquerones for me, tortilla for Kate, croquettes for D. Red wine. Cycle shop v busy but at end do manage to speak to Brendan.

Whew ... back to temple bar. Car park. Home. Garden.

windsurf! Oh yeah! Thought wind would be less ... but nope. Sail from Dun Laoighre. Rig up 5m sail. zoom out & back. Swell making balance trickey. Tide over half way in & coming in more. Can't bring myself to practice gybing or trickey stuff .. all deep cold trickey water. Zoom across & back squeezing into wind ... make up to Blackrock DART station. Scare up a lovely flock of birds ... roosting/sheltering on deserted water side of DART line. I tack and find myself heading for them again as they circle me. Trickey moment below there near a pole marking something near a slip. Getting a bit tired uphauling. Also coming right into wind salthill fall in near beach. And can't get going to sail in last 20 yards ... so eventually give up and swim.

EEek! panic! Message saying to collect D&D 1:30 as there's no dancing. I phone Fionn .. it's okay as they're being minded and Derval gets them anyway. DOH! It _was_ Derval's turn! As soon as I heard the time was changed I forgot I wasn't meant to collect them. Anyway ... they come home after 2:30.

We go get Kate by car 16:30ish.

Cycle home, see Hector, Brian McSweeney on bike going to S3. Very tired so I lie on bed and rest. Paul Kavanaugh turns up wondering where the seat for the green is. I direct him over to the granite works place on Murphystown road. He disappears leaving purposeful cement mixer etc on green and two guys planting blackthorn. I call Fionn & she phones Paul and she comes home for lunch.

In meanwhile I tidy kitchen, house (really needs a tidy), clean stuff, put on clothes to wash, fold and sort dry clothes. Turn on puter and leave scandisk do it's thing with F: it's VERY slow and requires someone to hit "Fix-It" at every bad cluster it finds which means that from 1100ish to1500ish it gets through scanning 10%. I hit return while popping in & out doing stuff. Files I look at that are damaged are in carmadeggon.

Mum calls too. She's finding physio/yoga/back classes great. Lying on groundsheet leg exercises. She finds her abs are getting toned and it's great. Says Mary found herself & Buzz & Sam lying on floor in living room. Says printer causing hassle ... hurmm ... mix of getting old, taking in recycled bent paper, sometimes corrupt => dodgy connection or driver reinstall worked for them? Messy. Also SpamAssasin ... mom removed the Spam folder and since it's been VERY slow fetching mail? Filter doesn't know where to put it? Anyway might contact indigo and get new account.

Fionn home before I know it just after nice guy from Eircom called again. I'm just started peeling an orange. We head over to two guys who are having their lunch. Chat ... Paul's not been back since. Put on spicey chicken tomato veg dinner to heat and microwave potatoes. Fionn does something in garden, tries out bamboo screen. Paul back and Fionn goes with them to get bench. I change bulb outside our front door (two unmovable rusted screws, one better, different - I vaguely remember doing this b4). It's 1305 & I have to go. I get dinner, eat it and hit "Fix-It" on scan-disk a few times.

See van on green and Fionn talking to Derval just as I'm leaving note & heading. Get D&D in school. oth take off coats & jumpers and we stuff them in schoolbags. Then they walk s l o w l y up to car. David opens it. Traffic sticky turning out by Balally shopping centre. Get Kate. She marches out by herself ... then turns and goes wrong way. I throw her over railings. She objects being put into car seat but giggles a bit with cuddles & tickles. At home Fionn's gone. Derval invites us in for tea. Kate has soother in whole time. Very happy coming into house and to back garden. Not shy at all. A bit mad Daire David Joey Rachel Kate rumbling around on various bicycles and things. Out in sunny garden. Very impressed with Kate ... she gets down on tummy and reverses down over 1 inch step into garden! This week she's getting good on stairs and always reverses. Same with Our front & back door which have a good 4-6 inches. Tea, cheese & tuna sandwiches, biscuits. Then Dermot home for lunch, Derval going visiting.

Conor sneaks in to our house when gang in his house is all collected & heads home. D & he play happily in garden. I get Kate bottle. She doesn't like it and cries when going down. I visit her one time and she gives up and goes asleep then. I do puter (diary).

Assumpta collects Conor and then I help D change out of uniform and do homework. Also hang clothes out to dry and put on another wash. Fionn rings and D & I go over to inspect bench. D goes to visit Conor. Back in to puter & Kate.

Due to head to Waider's Samba lessons this evening 19:30 liberty hall, pub afterwards, Damian Moran and James Curran might come.

Reading books - Longitude - Anna Sobel, The Hacker Ethic and the spirit of the information age - Pekka Himanen (and forward by Linus). Put together DTMF tone info into C code, get compiling and into keepEupE.prc. Plan to hack back out keepEupE stuff after. Reasons for lack of celebration though. Both applications cause reset. (and have to hold down up key when pressing reset to get around my palm's difficulties currently) I've seen it before and know it's _something_ to do with the compiler. Went away with some cygwin1.dll and now back! Augh! Spend MORE of morning looking for cygwin dlls (find two I had in S3, find one on web) but no joy swapping them in. BAH! Frustrating. Now gcc (even after new upgrade to 3.2 and lots of messing) is fsked. As is my palm deelopment env. Hackety

AUGH!!!! looks like we're missing something. Pray that I have older but unhacked copy on backup CD or on hard disk at home. There was nothing below here :(