Jonathan, Triona & Diarmuid's Blog featuring Kipper & Rosie: August 2005

Visiting Kerry

We just spent a lovely weekend with my cousin Kerry and her family over in Liverpool. It was Kerry's son Matthew's 8th birthday as well which gave us a great excuse to have a barbecue :)

Kerry with her daughter Gemma and her sister Pauline

Matthew with his Dad Mark on his new birthday present.

Kerry with her friend Janet, and Triona

My cousins Pauline and Bernard.

Lough Key

We spent a great weekend in Lough Key kayaking with Jenny & Tim (the boat looked mad towing 4 kayaks and a dingy after it). After a couple of hours of zipping around the lake we decided it would be a good idea to practice capsizing and righting. Talk about fun! - good job we had floatation gear because I think we would have drown with all the laughing. All I'll say is that that double kayak is a serious piece of work for two people.

The Boyle Pony races were on at the same time in Lough Key so I snook off for a while on the Sunday and took some pictures - gave my aching body a chance to recover as well.

Kayaking on Lough Gill

We got a couple of Sit-on RTM Kayaks (a single and a double) last week and after a trial run on Lough Key with Jenny and Tim we decided to tackle Lough Gill here just outside Sligo. We got access to the lake at Hazlewood and spent an hour having a look around. We only got a small corner of the lake covered (and two islands out of twenty two!) - plenty to look forward to for next week.

I was originally in the double with Triona but decided that it wasn't worth risking the camera. Diarmuid isn't quite so sure about getting into it :) The double isn't as stable as the single but it's a fast boat if a little tricky to keep straight.

It wasn't long before they found their stride. Diarmuid seems to be a bit of a natural.

The pair decide to have a race! Diarmuid won by a hair - the double is a bit of a tub when it's only got one set of arms pushing it. We are going to take Jomani out for the weekend and bring the Kayaks with us - which I can't speak highly enough about, they are so much fun and very easy to use - roll on the weekend!

Tracey & Jon's new arrival!

My cousin Tracey and her partner are the proud parents of a second baby girl. 'Baby' (no name yet) was born yesterday a few weeks premature and herself and mom are doing great.

The proud daddy - Jon, tells me the reason they haven't got a name yet is because they were expecting a boy! Tracey and Jon have a girl already, Bethan (she's the flower girl in our wedding photo's) and I'm sure she's delighted with having a sister over a brother any day.

The Rally Pictures

At last I hear you say! The pictures (well some of them) from the Shannon Rally 2005 are here!

This was our first morning on the Rally at Dromod Harbour - we were still just getting squared away and didn't have our bunting up yet.

Diarmuid fast a sleep as Triona takes us across to Carnadoe from Dromod. We are able to slide the roof back on Jomani when the weather permits which is great.

At Carnadoe - we were moored down the third cut known as alcatraz with about 30 other boats. It was a lovely spot.

The Swans were very curious about all the boats and were spoilt rotten!

Diarmy out and about in the dingy. Little fiend went through petrol like nobodies business.

Ciaran & Nuala's boat 'Gardiner's Way' under going a boat inspection by one of the Rally Judges

Can you spot Jomani? This is a shot from Jamestown with most of the boats present. It was quite a site from the Bridge.

More craic on Jomani! Jenny, Nuala, Carmel, Martin, Ciaran, Triona and Brian. This was the start of a serious session which went well into the dark hours and involved a good deal of singing (and shouting)

Diarmuid and his friends during the Commando competition at Lough Key. They had to carry water up the soapy slide in the wee buckets - 9 times out of 10 they ended up in a heap...

See what I mean?

Yes - that's a chef on our boat!! Triona successfully bid for a champagne breakfast at the RLNI auction. The chef came on board, brought all his own supplies, then cooked for us and cleaned up after. Absolutely fantastic.

Kevinsfort Residents Barbeque

We had our first ever residents barbeque in our estate last Saturday night and it was a great success. There was lots of stuff for the kids, plenty of food, nice surroundings (our 'central park'), good company and lovely weather.

Everybody brought their own furniture and drink and the rest was provided (and plenty of it).

Doesn't she scrub up well?

Tara and Ciara patiently waiting for their go on the bouncy castle.

Diarmy giving it socks in the 100 metre sprint - he can move when he feels like it.

There were two bouncy castles for the kids to play on and a lots of other events to keep them busy.

We spent the evening with our next door neighbours, The Keavneys, Mahons and Gilroys and more joined us as the night progressed. I'm afraid The Orchard (our little corner) were all light weights though as we retired well before the coals went cold (5am!).

We all hope that the organisers come together next year to do a repeat performance.

More Party Pictures

Jenny, Tim and Sarah just boarding at Carrick

David (Lenny) and Ann Marie

Laura and Suzie

Aiden - The Commentator

Shannon Rally 2005 - Lough Key

I was asked to take a group (well those that got up for the morning skippers briefing) photo shot of the Rally participants when we were at Lough Key recently - an opportunity I jumped at!

The Lough Key complex is set to be demolished in a few weeks time and this will probably be one of the last formal group photos in front of it. Perhaps this picture will become a little piece of Inland Waterways history, a nice thought.

I'll post some more rally shots shortly.

Eilish's Graduation

I popped up to Roscommon today to get a few quick pics of Eilish before her Graduation tonight

Doesn't she look fab?

Ah.... the lovely couple - Eilish and Kenny. Nice shiner Kenny :)

I have a great picture of Eilish from Triona's party being man handled by Chris (O'Dowd) - would anybody like to see it posted here? Vote by comment!

The Birthday Party

We've been away since Triona's party on the 22nd and I haven't had a chance to update the blog since then - sorry about that.

Well on the 22nd we had Triona's party on Moonriver and it was a great success. I'm still going through the many pictures from the night and I'll put up a printable album shortly, for the mean time here are a few you can look at (in no particular order):