Youghal, Y'all!

We had another long weekend - the October bank holiday weekend.  So we explored the South of Ireland (as FABJ called it) to a place in the county of Cork called Youghal.  The best part of the town is how it is pronounced, which is very close to "y'all".  So I knew that we had to go!

The town is beautiful.  It's near the mouth of a bay, so it has a great location.  It has a bunch of historic buildings, and you can take a self-guided walk with lots of signs and explanations.  Although FABJ and ORBJ didn't have the patience to take the full tour, LBJ and I enjoyed the sites we were able to see (such as the old town walls).  Plus, thanks to a tip from a tennis-playing friend, we had a great lunch in the pub part of a nice seafood restaurant.

We stayed in essentially a town house, i.e. a holiday home.  It had three bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen (and even 3 bathrooms).  It had an indoor pool within walking distance, as well as being walkable to the sea (and a sandy beach).  The water was way too cold to get in, but the girls enjoyed building a few sand castles (as well as playing among the rocks).

OJ on the rocks

We also enjoyed two outings.  The first was to Cobh, a harbor just outside the city of Cork.  It is well known for being the last port of call for the Titanic, as well as the nearest port to where the Lisutania was sunk in 1915.  Plus, it has lots of well preserved Victorian buildlings, not to mention a scenic harbor.

A sunny morning in Cobh

The second was a wild animal park called Fota (also near Cork).  It had a lot of animals around the grounds, and we could explore along a 2km walking path.  The highlight by far was the feeding of the cheetahs.  Basically, they put meat on a zip line and have the animals chase after it (to maintain hunting instincts).  They are definitely fast (and hungry)!

Cheetah version of lunch on a stick

FABJ also got to attend a Halloween party (as our visit was a few days before Halloween).

Does this even need a caption?

Dublin Tennis League

In my continuing attempt to meet tennis players and find a good, regular game of doubles (or singles), I joined a tennis league at the club I joined, Lansdowne Lawn Tennis Club.

The October league is the Floodlight League, on Monday night for men (5 weeks).  Each team has four people, and each match has three courts - one court of doubles and two courts of singles.  The wrinkle is that the allocation of people to singles and doubles is done randomly.  Because you have no idea whether you'll play singles or doubles on a given night, you have to be mentally prepared for either.  This is more difficult than it sounds.

The league has 5 classes; class 1 is the best and class 1 the worst.  Any guesses where Lansdowne LTC put me?  Yep, class 5.  However, the level of play was not bad, and, to be honest, I can lose to a mediocre player just as easily as a good player - ask my teammates back in the U.S.

Although the tennis wasn't great, my teammates were great guys and it was an enjoyable experience.  However, the weather was not great.  The first week it was super windy - I lost one point when the wind blew the ball two feet wide as I was about to hit it.  In my next match, it rained throughout, and the rain picked up in the third set.  Why win in two sets when you can stretch it to three sets in the rain.  Which remind me, the courts here are astroturf with sand underneath, so they are playable in a light to medium rain (or at least good courts are).

Match #3 was near the airport (our opponents were actually called Aer Lingus).  In fact, the directions were to head toward long-term parking.  Fortunately, we found the courts before ending up in long-term parking.

Matches #4 and #5 had good weather (as did #3, actually).

Our last match, the quarter-finals of the playoffs, had good weather.  I just played poorly, so my partner and I lost a doubles close match (7-6, 6-3).  We lost as a team, too, alas.  This was particularly disappointing, as we would have been moved to class 4 next year if we had won. 

It's an interesting system.  Rather than having rankings, the top teams in a class get moved up a class (say from 5 to 4) to the next class and the bottom teams get moved down a class (4 to 5).  I like the system. 

The only flaw is that all new teams are automatically placed in the bottom class, which creates a strong disincentive to forming a new team.  For example, they have a senior league - over 35.  But Lansdowne LTC only has one team, and I'm not quite good enough to make that team.  But I don't really want to try and form a new team and start off in the worst class.

Last, the league has a tradition, like some of the leagues in the U.S., of socializing after the match with tea and sandwiches.  Our team did pizza and beer (in addition to socializing), of course.

It was a lot of fun socially, but the quality of tennis was quite uneven.  I'm not sure what I'll do next year.

2 degrees of bono

You've heard of "six degrees of Kevin Bacon", the idea that no person is more than six degrees of separation from anyone else (or Kevin Bacon in particular).

Ireland is a small country, so I suspect that four or five degrees should just about cover it.

With respect to Bono, I was suprised to learn that I am only two degrees of separation from Bono.  I've had a beer with someone who has had a beer with Bono.

What's even more amusing is that my common link with Bono isn't even Irish.  He's Spanish; we'll call him Mr T.  He has a friend in Silicon Valley who is friends with Bono.  So, when this friend was visiting Dublin, he met with Bono and invited Mr. T along.  Mr T., who said he was nearly asleep (it was 11pm), made the journey of course.

Mr T. is the dad of one of FABJ's friends from school.  The family is taking a work break in Dublin, spending a year learning English.