And he's gone...

Funny to think that Tony Blair has now finally left Downing Street, though having said that, I can remember 1 May 1997 like it was yesterday. I was with some friends in a house in Leeds, watching the results coming in, seeing Michael Portillo lose his seat and realising how big a majority Labour had actually won. I remember getting up the following morning, and walking down to Horsforth railway station and thinking that the sky hadn't turned red after all. I had grown up under 18 years of Conservative government, so it seemed like the world had changed.

Obviously a lot has happened since then, and I guess a lot of people won't be sorry to see Blair go. Gordon Brown as the new PM seems to be striking a good note so far (24 hours in) and I for one approve of his action on debt cancellation and aid for the poorest countries so hopefully that's a good sign of what's do come. Douglas Alexander (who was interviewed in the Christian Third Way magazine over a year ago) has been appointed Development Secretary.

As for Irish politics and that awful Flynn woman (http://www.independent.ie/national-news/bev-says-she-has-nothing-to-be-sorry-about-772999.html), I am left speechless... I know, that in itself is worthy an entry in the blog!

Meanwhile, the annual Strawberries & Cream & Tiger Tim fest is under way in SW19. Having heroically survived his first round match, finally overcoming Carlos Moya 13-11 in the final set, our Tim crashed out in the second round to someone I haven't heard of, tasting some of his own medicine by going down in the 5th set after clawing back a 2 set deficit.

It reminds me of the day 2 years ago when Sarah and I were fortunate enough to win tickets to the Men's Final in the public draw. We saw Federer work his magic against Roddick, which was fantastic.

Sunshine in Dublin?

The weather has been cold and wet and generally grim in Dublin recently - our sailing was cancelled tonight due to gale warnings. However, we have seen some sunshine recently - when our friends Alison and Michael came over from Ripon, we took a walk a long the sea front between Blackrock and Dun Laoghaire. When we got there, we found the rest of the city was also there! Alison and Michael actually braved it for a swim - whilst Sarah and I sat on the rocks.

We also saw a seal swimming off the rocks. Looks cute? Apparently a sailor loses a finger to one of these monsters every year!

Charlotte tells us that there has been flooding in Sheffield - in fact she had to abandon her car and walk home in the pouring rain.

Anyway, looks like we're going to be blessed with a day of sunshine in Dublin on Thursday - I'm laying out my t-shirt and sunscreen just in case... http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=0031

New Arrival in Wicklow

Last weekend Sarah and I went down to Wicklow to look after Jacob and Zac while Philip and Laura headed up to Dublin - and last Saturday evening Beth was born!!

This was taken a couple of days ago, last Thursday when she was only 5 days old. I'm looking forward to going down to Wicklow again next weekend with Sarah and Charlotte to see her for the first time.

Meanwhile it was our job to keep Jacob and Zac entertained, and so we got the electric trains out again - I suggested laying the track on the kitchen floor. After some initial sceptism from Jacob ("My Dad would say this is a bad idea!") at which point I reminded him he wasn't around to complain! a great track was laid, winding around the chair legs and under the table.

The following day we met up with Ian and Jane and the gang at Redcross church before heading back to theirs for a Sunday lunch with Jane's parents.

This weekend we have started the dreaded house-hunting - things started looking up with a beer in our local TGI Fridays and then we decided to have a pizza next door in the little Italian restaurant. Today we met Kristin - or should I say she met us at our flat at 10am (good effort, Kristin!) and went to Glenageary church before returning to our flat for a delicious Sunday lunch of pork tenderloins (good effort, Sarah!).

This week, we have an extra sailing course tomorrow night as we missed a couple of sessions owing to the inclement weather - that is if our instructor manages to get back from delivering a boat to Kinsale - he set off from Dun Laoghaire at 3:30am Saturday. This week is our last week of the course - we have met some great people, and are looking forward to our end of term dinner on Friday.

On line photos

Rather than filling my blog with photos, I think I'll add some links from here to the online photo album. Here's a couple of Nicola's cottage we stayed in near Oughterard Co Galway this Easter. You may need to click on My Photos - not sure...?
www.picasaweb.google.com/dsmumford

Sailing Course

Sarah and I are really enjoying our sailing course with the National Yacht Club at Dun Laoghaire (http://www.nyc.ie/)

Sarah's Mum's cousin Cynthia and Andrew Gray introduced us to the club and told us about the adult sailing course.
It started last week - and runs every Wednesday and Friday evening in June. We are sailing 1720s yachts (crew of 5 plus an instructor). There are also one man dinghys (Toppers) but I haven't tried one yet.


We didn't do any sailing at all on the first evening due to a lack of wind - however, we spent a very pleasant evening sitting on the boat in the middle of the harbour soaking up the sunshine. On the Friday we got under way practising manouevres out in Dublin Bay, and yesterday with the wind stronger still, we became more adventurous and sailed around Dalkey Island and back to Dun Laoghaire harbour. As it is raining hard now, I am not sure we will be sailing tomorrow evening - so we may stay ashore and learn how to tie knots!

Our instructor, Cian, is excellent, very knowledgeable and only 18.

We have drinks and nibbles in the club house bar and chat with the Commodore! Watch this space...

How to enjoy yourself on a Dublin bank holiday weekend II

Yesterday afternoon we headed down to Wicklow to see Sarah's brother and sister-in-law Philip and Laura and their two boys Jacob and Zac. After dinner they got the old trainset that Sarah and the others all used to have back in Midleton years ago..........

How to enjoy a bank holiday weekend in Dublin...

We have really enjoyed seeing Andrew and Hannah in Dublin for the past couple of weekends. They arrived Friday week ago, and we spent the day sightseeing in Dublin before going out to celebrate Hannah's XXth birthday in Dalkey.

The usual Crinken church followed by lunch with Auntie and Kristin, followed by a quick trip to Greystones.

A&H then headed off to Galway and the Aran Islands for the week, before returning to Dublin for a second weekend with us. Sarah and Hannah had an inactive Saturday whilst Andrew and I went to see the Tall Ships in Dublin's Docklands: