Airspectacular at Bray

it was the 25th of July and I had been waiting for this day since 2 weeks. Reason; The air show of Ireland. It was called the Air spectacular to be held over the beautify Bray coast. This event was a free public so did the public under stand that so well that sixty five thousand turned up to witness.

I had to take the train, and we were packed like sardines. with my nose scraping against the glass door of the train every time it opened !! Finally made it to the super busy coast which was set with many fun games.
Now let me stop before i start describing the show. I have been to the air shows in bangalore, three of them to be exact in Bangalore. The largest air show of its kind in the East. Air show where we had F 16, F18 Hornets, C-180, Antnov, Sukohoi 30, Raphel, Mirage, Euro fighter Typhoon, Harreir jump jets and the list goes on and on which all performed like an over excited dog in air for the audience. Now you know, my expectations was high and the bray air show was no where close to it.
The only impressive display was of a massive B 52 bomber with its 8 thundering engines just do a slow fly past.
There were a few not so famous helicopters with the rescue team who managed to pull of a parachute crowd to get an occasional WOW and applause.

I headed back home a little early to beat the crowd and even more important to retain my glorious memories of a true air show fresh

Kilmainham Gaol

You must be puzzled at what the title means. Honestly when I was leaving to visit this place enthusiasm in me was a little below nothing, but now after having being there I feel that I should have visited this place much earlier. I have a new sense of respect for the Irish, I feel more connected not only due to our flag appearing similar but also to the agony and struggle our forefathers faced. Listening to what the tour guide has to say actually struck a chord in me because India and Ireland both have undergone the same kind of history thanks to the "Empire". For hundreds of years Irish have strived to get a republic and finally when it was given in 1912 they did what they did to India; split the nation and hand it over so that peace will never remain. The loyalists and Unionists of Ireland do engage in constant conflicts.

Kilmainham is Ireland's oldest prison. Built in 1700's and closed down in 1912. It was reopened as a museum in 1962 by the then president of Ireland who was an inmate in the same prison.

In 1916 the Easter rising was a land mark event in Irish history where fighters occupied key buildings in city center which was nerve center for British control in Ireland. But they were subdued and many of the freedom fighters were sent to this Prison. Out of them fourteen of the leaders were executed. Everyone this death is the end of everything but i now believe it is the start. The news of the execution spread like wild fire which motivated every single Irish soul to fight for a free Republic.In 1922 the glorious day did arrive, the day the flag unfurled symbolizing the green unionist and the Orange Loyalist living in harmony with peace as pristine as White in between. Outside the prison in commemoration tot he 14 great souls of Ireland you can find an artists impressions with holes on the chest. Those 14 lives were taken by a firing squad!

This prison left its mark in 50 Hollywood movies and Ireland's own son Bono made an early video of his song 'celebration' here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TLkbrQBhaU

For More pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/badri.nair/KilmainhamGaol#

Visit to North Bull Island

Finally I have scummed to the pressure at workplace. Earlier I had never thought of the weekend as a stress relieving day, but this weekend sure was. Sunday was looking fantastic. Start to finish was absolutely shining. I googled up and found that nearby is an Island called Bull Island.
Its one kilometer from the sea shore of North Dublin. My trusty, rusty stead and my nikki all set for the action headed off taking the long route. It was a 12km route where i did not worry about time or speed. I did a little bit of dirt biking on the sands to get to the beach. The beach was full of Dubliners, young and old with friends and family enjoying the sun shine. Some even to the extent of taking bath in the cold Irish sea.
Kites spotted the blue sky and the noise of children riding the Quad bikes on the sand beach filled the air. I too cycled along the beach for a good long one kilometer.At the end was the pier that headed out into the sea. many old timers had gathered there to enjoy the view and chit chat near the memorial at the end of the pier.
I had the opportunity to talk to one fine old lady.
She has been living in that area since 50 years and was telling me on how times have changed. She was asking me to always lock my bike. On the way back discovered the shorter route home where I had to traverse on an wooden bridge to get to the howth road. Great day it was and now I can say this weekend inclusive of this short visit is a stress buster for me.
For more pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/badri.nair/VisitToBullIsland#

Great Ireland run 2010

I am pretty renowned for missing out on the dates for these runs. Three days ago I came to know that there is going to be a mega Great Ireland run in Phoenix park. Instantly I put a request on bulletin board and one nice girl (Niamh Daly) was selling hers as she was injured. I had to pick it up at a place 15 km from my home. On Saturday cycled all the way across from Dublin 4 to Dublin 15 and got the entry number, and timer chip. Rested well on Saturday after 31 km of cycling. On Sunday was totally excited to get to the park. Latched the timer chip on to my shoes and there the race starts with eleven thousand other participants. Fantastic crowd!! One lovely man was actually pushing his stroller with two kids in it and Boy;were kids were in for a ride!!
I never stopped and kept my foot in a constant rhythm. I was just focusing on the timing of my breathing. The fact of the matter is I have done 10k on the tread mill more than twice, but the real life situation is totally different. Other runners become your obstacle and decelerate you, the track quality keeps changing and gradients are a major set back to a constant pace. I forgot to start the timer on my phone so had no clue what time I was doing. With a palindrome (10301) race number on my shirt, stating that I am running for County Carlow was glad to see the finish line. Just took the goodies bag and headed home waiting for race results to be uploaded. When I dug deeper into the goodie bag, i found a medal and it was perfect memorabilia.

I was totally delighted.

http://raceresults.greatrun.org/results.aspx?race_id=152

select "SPAR Great ireland run 2010" and race number as 10301 that is my race time

I have just met my target. Now Frank Duffy 10 mile mini marathon, here I come.

Visit to Co Donegal and Co Sligo

Pressure was building up at work place as I took on a new role which also means that I have moved away from my comfort zone and hence the pressure. The easter weekend was just around the corner. With a few of my colleagues we planned to head north of Ireland and make no further plan.

Booked the car and booked an accommodation in both places being ignorant to even check how far was this accommodation from the County capital. Ready with our luggage and snacks to eat on Friday morning, with prayers to good lord begun our journey. We did forget to pray to the GPS god and hence the GPS was not working, headed to the rental and got a brand new Garmin and off we went. The rental car was a Toyota Avensis. The car is fantastic; effortless drive. One can never hear the engine reving high or tyres screeching. But this was definitely not my kind of car. All the while I felt so disconnected from the road. It was like driving a virtual car, but the journey had to go on. Our First destination was Donegal and en-route we took an accidental detour which was the best accident. The road led us to mountain tops where carpets of snow enticed us to stop not once, but thrice. Literally we had a ball and then we realised that the accommodation is at the extreme corner of the county. That was the northern most tip of Ireland and this was again a fantastic accidental booking. The tiny village of dunfanaghy has inspired Artists and Poets for centuries.

Day two started off with a drive to the Horn head to see some of the deadliest cliffs. Some of them more than 650 high. Way back we decided to be a little more adventurous so decided to take a hike through a nature reserve to a secluded beach. Not many tourists get to this place. The nature reserve is three mile sand dune covered area with thousands of borrows of Hares.

The beach was like what Jodie foster saw after going though the space worm machine in the Movie 'Contact' .
Absolutely serene and pristine. Made me wanna stay there but had to move on and picked up a pebble that I have on my desk at office to remind me of the tranquility I experienced. There was lake called the "New found lake" on the other side of the reserve. Its' called so, because overnight a storm blew sand off the shores and closed the strait locking up water in the land. Earlier the sand was held by tall reeds which was cut during WWII for bedding. My friends wated to enjoy the scenic coast , we decided to take the Atlantic drive which is 40 kms longer. That was a bad idea. The Roads not only swung left to right but was bobbing up and down as well. Two of of three had to spill things out the way It went in.

Driving towards the destination Sligo we drove through the Glengesh pass.
More than the beauty of the valley what amazed me was the weather. In under five minutes we experienced bright sun shine, followed by few seconds of rain, then by savage hail storm pelting that made us run for cover then as we shut the doors the sun was out mocking at our helter-skelter run.We reached our second destination in Sligo, called the Arrow head.

Day three begun with much joy thanks to the hospitality of the BnB host.He guided us to a Raptor center and to some ancient tombs. The Rator center was the highlight.
The German family took care of more than 170 different species of birds of prey. Most of the birds that could easily disembowel a medium size mammal was in harmony with peacocks and cockerel. These birds hunt when hungry and not for fun. Some fantastic demonstrations of these skilled aviators made me feel my existence is insignificant. They could spot a shard of meat from hundreds of meters across and fly to it with such pace and accuracy that even my DSLR could not catch up.

I gained a new sense of respect for these aviators and realized their importance for the eco system. Some interesting facts

1 .It seems the eagles always hunts for the weak and ailing prey, not the ones that are healthy.

That is because they want the healthy to reproduce to provide more food.

2.The female eagle is 33% larger than male because, then in the same territory both can prey on different sized preys.

3.Vultures have bald head so that they can easily get into the crevices of carcass to pull out meat and they do not hunt. they have to soar in air for longer hence they have the longest wingspan so that they can stay in air without flapping.

After spending a couple of hours which was literally flew past us , we headed to the tombs at the creekwell. These tombs are more than five thousand years old and one can spot many of such tombs atop all the mountains nearby. I just wonder what was going though the mind of the people then. The weather turned hostile and we had to descend. On the final return had a minor accident which was totally accidental but not a favored one; while reversing the car bumped into a pole and broke the tail lamps.It did dampen the spirit a little. Thanks to the extra insurance which total covered us which was a great relief. We reached Dublin 860 kms later.

But honestly my mind still wanders there in the far north west Ireland.

For more pictures you can click on the link below

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/badri.nair/VisitToDonegalSligo#

Meetup at Stephens Green park

Nothing much to say, but it was another meetup activity by the Dublin amateur meetup group.

http://www.meetup.com/Dublinamateurphotographer/

It had been a long time since I joined them. The weather was reasonable and so I headed out. I met my Philippino friend Rey and his friend another Rey, who had brought along a fantastic D700 camera with some fantastic lens. the 70-300 VR!! Richard was the professional Nikonian of the group and he for one had superb exposure to every culture in the world. When I told him that I am from Bangalore he greeted me with "Namaskara" . My surprise was written all over my face. Ronanld was a German project manager who got into photography just the way I did and in love with it. We took some good snaps and here are the pictures if you fancy them

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/badri.nair/StephensGreen#

Visit to Dalkey Castle

Irish weather has turned around in the past few weeks and its been splendid. To prove the same the birds acknowledged with their sweet chirps and songs. To make the most of It, as usual I googled up a palce that is nearby. Dalkey is an island jsut off the coast of the seaside town of Dunloghaire and it has a great history. Before the Dublin and Dun laoghaire harbour were built to accomdate the larger merchant ships that needed deeper waters Dalkey was the main harbor to Dublin. Merchant ships offloaded their goods here and over road merchandise was carried over. After a few fatalities at Dalkey the harbour was built in late 1800's. To protect the warehouse at Dalkey small forts were built and the one I visited today was one of the best preserved Dalkey castle which is now a heritage center. To my surprise this was one of the best experience I have had of a historic site. There were two hostesses who were dressed the old ways and talked the old talk.

The first one was a housekeeper who told us how the archers would attack the ever present looters and what food was the most sought after. If you insist I will tell you that it was boar brain and boar eyeball stew. They even had an olden version of WC there which was in first floor, the house keepers duty is to flush it with a bucket after everyone uses it and shout out to notify soldiers below to stay clear and not to lookup or open their mouth. She even told her that she is totally looking forward to her bath which will be on her birthday every year. Following her amusing and entertaining presentation was the barber surgeon. Back in those days both profession was one and the same. She showed some of her archaic medical tools. Tools that she use to use to remove a tooth or amputate. Her philosophy is remove all the good tooth before they go bad and tonsure before you catch fleas. One of her first steps in diagnosis is taste the urine.'eeeewwwww'.
She sang the song ,which is to invite the people of the town to her for a medical treatment.

I loved how the atmosphere was created by these two artist, they kept addressing us as 'My lords' and for the contemporary answers I gave them they looked dumb found. The penultimate part of the heritage center was a DVD video presentation of Dalkey's history and then a tour by the grave yard and Church. I was impressed and it did get reflected on the Guests comments book.

I cycled around the Dun laoghaire town to end a very gratifying weekend.

For more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/badri.nair/DalkeyCastle#