I have an acrobatic kite. It is a 10′ model. I know how much power is in it when I fly it in normal enough force 3 or Force 4 winds. So I know not to be an idiot and try to fly one in the middle of a tropical storm. Like this muppet:

http://view.break.com/557265

Gizmodo says 26-year-old Kevin Kearney is in hospital at the moment in a critical condition. He is probably lucky.

I saw this discussion on the Economist about UK National Lottery funding and how it may be the key to Britain’s impressive Olympics performance at the moment.

Which got me to thinking about how we seem to have been spending our lottery money. When I think of sports and lottery funds it is golf courses that spring to mind, and not struggling athletes. I haven’t really looked into this, but I have always had the impression that in this country the lottery funds have often been used more as a political slush fund, or as a fig leaf for the government to cover up their lamentable spending record in a load of areas.

The National Lottery disperses about €200m per year. Their website is very vague about where that money goes. I can’t see any link to something like an annual report on where exactly they are spedning the public share of the money (unlike let’s say the database on the UK lottery’s site). Of course it isn’t actually the national Lottery that hands out the money, but a range of government departments. So right from the off the politicians have their grubby hands on the cash. It would be far better if there was an independent body with a clear charter and a remit to work for the benefit of the country and not just Fianna Fail, and which had to be totally transparent about where and why money was handed over. And, one area in particular that I feel should not be funded by the lottery is health services. That is the government’s job, and they should not be using lottery funds to cover for their penny pinching. If a health initiative is worth funding then it should be done by the department.

If we had a better approach to how we were spending our lottery money they we would be having more to celebrate at each Olympics, as well as in a range of other areas.

SAS (the airline not the special forces group) sent me a customer survey to complete. I like the questions they are asking, even if some of them are a little obvious. I was surprised by a few though, in particular question 7 below. Here my answers and thoughts on air travel anyway (sent from the hotel in Stockholm after I just made the trip up). The questions are in bold, my answer (it was multi choice) in italics, and them my thoughts on each one.

1. Would you prefer your flight costs (checked bags, online fees, pre-assigned seat) be included in the initial fare advertised or itemized during the booking process? - Advertised
I don’t like the Ryanair approach of telling you the fare is one thing and then seeing it double by the time you come to give a credit card number. That is just bullshit.

2. Do you find airports more or less stressful than 5 years ago? - More
Do you have to ask? What with congestion, stupid regulations and amateur travellers.

3. Would you be happy to pay extra for faster and easier check-in and security at airports? - No
This might be a surprise, but I think everyone is entitled to a speedy hassle free journey from the kerb to the plane. I get faster check in and access to the priority queue in airports because of my frequent flyer status. But I don’t think I should have to pay extra for it, and I don’t believe that anyone should have to put up with the delays, agro and queues that I see from time to time. We are all entitled to expect a 5 minute trip through the system.

4. How important are train and metro links at destination airports to you? - Important
I didn’t go for Very Important, and the list went through unimportant and very unimportant. A reasonably priced train is my preferred way of geting from an airport to a city centre. Bottom of the list has to be a taxi. And a Dublin taxi is a particular extreme case here (for Western Europe anyway). Think of a opinionated bigot driving a 10 year old Nissan that smells of stale cigarette smoke and you will know what I mean.

5. Have increased fuel prices affected your leisure travel plans? - Yes
Air fares are a bit more expensive. Not that I buy that many personal plane tickets. When you make over 100 trips a year, flying somewhere for the weekend is not your idea of a break.

6. Have increased fuel prices affected your business travel plans? - No
I haven’t heard much from work about this. But then as a consultant all my expenses are billed on to my client. Personally I have been leading the push for us to use video conferencing more often. But it hasn’t led to a reduction in the time I spend in airports yet.

7. Do you think Irish or Scandinavian people are more attractive? - Irish
Okay, now this one surprised me. I can only guess that it has to do with SAS trying to decide on what type of face is better in their advertising in Ireland. And I do have to say that I do prefer the Irish face. In particular *ahem* red heads. [Disclaimer - this does not include Irish people that are caked in make up, have bleached blonde hair or look like Oompa Lumpas from fake tan.]

8. What do you least like about Dublin airport? - “Overcrowding and resulting queues/congestion”
Only one thing? This was a free entry one, so I summarised my pet gripes. I could also have said lack of a rail connection (or just the fact it is on the north side), long walks, poor range of shops, etc, etc.

9. Do you think there is still a market for Business Class on short haul European flights? - Yes
I need to have fully flexible tickets and I like getting a meal on the plane. But I particularly like having a dedicated part of the plane. It means I don’t have screaming kids near me, I can get on/off easier, and it usually is less crowded so I can try to do a bit of work if the seats around me are empty.

So that is what I said and why. Will it make a difference? I dunno. If I win the 32GB iPod Touch they are offering then yes. Otherwise, no

Sitting here in the airport lounge I saw the news that Musharraf has said he is resigning. That isn’t too much of a surprise. He has been tottering for a while and is very unpopular. What surprised me was that I saw he took over in 1999. Was it that long ago? It doesn’t seem like 9 years.

In these damp wet days thoughts turn to swimming, and not just as a means of escaping the country.

Snopes was timely in showing me the word’s largest swimming pool. This is a monster, 1km long and up to 40m deep. That is a real pool! Although to be very correct it is more of a lagoon.

You can see it for yourself here on Google Earth.

When I was in Chile in 2001 we visited this part of the country. There are a load of hotels and pseudo resorts there. It struck us as being a bit like a poor man’s Spain. I have to be fair and admit that it was winter at the time. But the locals did say to us that a lot of the hotels were poorly occupied even in Summer. Why? Because many of them existed only to launder drug money. No word of a lie. If you don’t believe me, go to La Serena and ask them yourself.

Of course now that I am reminiscing I do remember that it was bloody wet there. They had had a drought for several years. The Paddy’s turned up and it didn’t stop raining for 12 hours. There may be a possibility here to start an alternative career as a rain bringer to drought stricken regions…

A quick bit of outrage before I head to the airport. Ben Goldacre linked to this story from the UK Telegraph. I had a gander at it and was stunned.

Here you have a grown woman, who presumably is competent and mature enough to get a job as a journalist with a broadsheet newpaper, who has parked her brain and let herself be totally fleeced by these “alternative health practitioners” (the meaningless description sticks in my throat even as I try to say it). She seems incapable of applying even the most basic standards of sceptical questioning towards the nonsense she has been told (”an electronic device called the Quantum QXCI, which scanned my system for vitamins, minerals, food intolerances, toxicity, organ function, hormone balance, parasites, digestive disorders and stress levels” - WTF?).

And as a result she walks out of the shop with 120 pills (isn’t this alternative medicine crap supposed to be easier on your body?), and a wallet that is £150 lighter. Truely a fool and their money are easily parted.

Something came up in discussion at work about family names and what they mean. I did a little Googling, and it discovered a bit of family history.

As my father’s family came from North Kerry I guess we were an off shoot of the branch of the family which:

After O’Neill’s flight into exile in 1607 (some O’Cahanes were not always loyal to O’Neill) and these other the 17th century Ulster southward excursions, the clan became scattered throughout Munster and south Connaught.

This article say that the family motto “Felis Demulcta Mitis” which literally means “the stroked cat is meek”. This is odd considering the family hatred of cats. Although I believe the customary translation is “Gentle in peace, fearless in war.”

There seems to be a bit of a difference of opinion there as to whether O’Catháin means “Beloved one” or “Fighting one”. Which may just go to show genealogy and heraldry isn’t an exact science.

This poster would really make a difference to the burger joint everyone loves to hate:

My work by it’s nature is globally focused. I only rarely touch on purely Irish business. But long term my career is most likely to be here. So I decided I need to do more to keep on top of what is happening in Ireland. With that in mind I broke with a long standing rule about Sunday papers and bought the Sunday Business Post last weekend. It’s not that bad a paper I guess. Certainly it outshines a lot more of the rags it shares shelf space with at the weekend.

Anyway, in it I found a story on options the Government has to save money as the tax take tanks. I was gladened to see mention that:

The plan to link the green and red lines, meanwhile, has already been quietly put on the back-burner

If it is true then this is great news. A hare brained idea, which I would be sure the guys in the RPA weren’t too happy about implementing, as been ditched. And then there still is hope that the new metro line will be connected to the green Luas line as was always intended. It is just a shame that no one has stood up and been honest with the public about why linking the two luas lines was such a daft thing to do.

As I said in an earlier post Laura and I were down in Schull for our holidays last week. And while we were there we took part in Calves week, the big sailing event run out of Schull. We weren’t on Chico though. The 250 nautical mile journey is a bit far for us just yet. Instead we helped bring down a 32 foot boat (for some reason most boats lengths are still given in feet, even by the French. The notable exception that I know of is J-boats, a US company who size their boats in metres. Go figure) two weeks ago and we were helping her owner, Eoin, race her for the week.

The first race of the regatta was an offshore one, from Crosshaven in Cork harbour to Schull, around the Fastnet. This was an overnight. I thought this would be interesting to do, and volunteered. Which is why I found myself crossing the start line at “Weavers point” in Cork harbour at 19:30 on Friday evening. We had 7 on board, all reasonably experienced sailors, but myself and Eoin were the only regulars on his boat. Laura and I race with Eoin every Thursday in Dun Laoghaire you see. This immediately elevated me (a relatively inexperienced sailor) from the status of “rail meat” (someone who is there to sit on the side of the boat as movable ballast and to do what they are told) to someone of importance telling people where things went, and how they were done. The sudden rush of power went to my head until I was brought back to reality when I was refused permission to tie slow moving crew members to the mast to be lashed with the cat-o-nine-tails (I always have one in my sailing bag for emergencies).

Once clear of Cork harbour things settled down. There were 9 boats in the race, and we had about 50NM to go to the Fastnet. Unfortunately the wind was blowing directly from that direction so we would have to “beat” our way there. This meant sailing alternate “tacks”, port and starboard, each about 45° off the wind. As the waves would be coming from the wind direction if meant we would slamming the boat into and over the waves all the time. This doesn’t make for pleasant on board conditions.

We started with 3 in the cockpit responsible for driving the boat, and 4 more of us sitting on the rails using our weight to give us more stability. Mercifully it didn’t rain, but from time to time the bow of the boat would punch into a wave and you would find yourself sitting in cold sea water. I had waterproofs on, but they weren’t totally waterproof, so gradually the damp seeped through stealing my heat. Still I did have waterproof boots. The two young fellas either side of me only had shoes which they had to take off and drain out every so often. Sitting out on the rails the boat’s healed over position and continuous rocking wasn’t too bad. But when you went below it made everyone very uncomfortable, and one person started to get sick. The only reasons to go below were to sleep, use the toilet (it was too rough to do the traditional over the side) and to get food.

This then was our situation for the 14 hours as we pounded our way towards the Fastnet into a Force 4-5 wind. While I was on deck I didn’t feel close to being sick, but I got quite queasy below. Other than a loo run I tried to stay on deck as far as possible. Instead I sat on the rail wrapped in my own thoughts. No one really was in the mood for talking. Each of us just sat there looking at the sea and occasionally if we came close, the other boats we were racing against. My biggest worry was that I would get too cold. The lack of activity, and the occasional splashing meant I could feel the heat very gradually seeping out of me, and with it my energy to do anything. It was good whenever we had to do a tack, as it got you up moving about, and got the blood circulating again, if just for a few minutes.

Once it got dark we organised a watch system of 3 hours on, and 3 off. Our turn to get some sleep came at 02:30. Once the others were up four of us stumbled downstairs to find somewhere to crash. I was lucky enough to get one of the benches in the main cabin. Undressing was limited to taking off my life jacket. It took a few minutes to drop off despite how tired I was. The pounding of the boat meant you never really got to get a proper sleep. You would startle awake periodically when we slammed off some particularly steep wave. Then when the boat tacked my lovely bench moved from the down side of the boat to the up side and I couldn’t stay in it anymore. I ended up on the floor, wedged between the table and the base of the bench, lying on some bags which actually was pretty comfortable. All too quickly though it was 05:30 and I was back on deck to watch the sun rise at 6. That was all the sleep most of us got for the night.

By now we were in sight of the Fastnet (and a few of our competitors). But it still was hours away. As one of the most experienced sailors on board said “I don’t know what all the fuss is about the Fastnet, it is a slog to get to from whatever direction you come”. At about 09:50 we finally made it to the famous lighthouse, turned right and pointed the boat for Schull, about 8 nautical miles away.

As soon as we turned through 90° we were now moving downwind and with the waves. The transformation on board was remarkable. The boat which had bucked and dived to 14 hours leveled out and cruised. Eveyone’s spirits lifted. There was a rush to use the head or just go over the side. Most of us had decided that the discomfort of a full bladder was less than that of struggling with layers of clothing on a rolling boat or even risking being tossed over board.

After our 14 hours racing we had rounded the Fastnet with one other boat. So we were going to have an exciting finish as we chased each other to the finish. Eoin asked his crew did they have energy to hoist the spinnaker. In minutes it was flying and we had the best part of the race as we chased the other boat down to Long Island and into Schull harbour. We finally crossed the finish line at 11:09:52 on Saturday morning, and I had done my first offshore race.

So what did I think offshore racing? Well it is a lot tougher than the inshore sort. Our races in Dun Laoghaire are over in 1-2 hours and then it is back in. Even in the worst of conditions you know you are never too far from a shower and a hot meal. This was very different. The only hot thing we got was a cup-a-soup breakfast. No one felt much like spending time in the galley otherwise. Most of the time you were cold, felt queasy, and were really really tired. Although to be fair the experienced guys said that it was unusual to have such a long (14 hour) beat outside of a big offshore race like the real Fastnet Race or the Round Ireland. Another thing I noticed was how dull much of it was. Most of the time you have nothing to do. Apart from when some dolphins turned up around dawn the sea is pretty boring to look at. With mountaineering (my first and recently neglected love) there almost always is something spectacular to look at, and you are at least concentrating on your route and where to put each foot.

Would I do it again? I don’t know. It was tiring, it was uncomfortable, and it was monotonous. But it was an achievement, and I do feel you need to do difficult things every so often to add colour to your life, to test yourself, to show you are still alive, and to make you value the comfortable times even more. I suppose the answer is maybe. I shall see.

Postscript:
The day we got in, while I was sleeping for 13 hours, Eoin left a message with Laura to let me know we had finished 3rd in the race. I wouldn’t say it makes it all worthwhile, but it certainly makes it easier to consider going out to do it all over again.