The Guardian have just published the best multimedia story I’ve seen on the web. Firestorm details the ordeal of the Holmes family, who were caught in the devastating bush fires that swept Tasmania last year. I highly recommend you click through and experience it.
I was looking for an alternative gift for a friend last Christmas and came across a deal for powerboating with Adventure Training Ireland. The lads run city kayaking, powerboating and sailing from their base at North Wall Quay by the Jeanie Johnston. We booked in for last Saturday morning and on the stroke of 11am, made our way out onto the river for the two hour experience. Jonathan, our guide, ran us through the basics of powerboating and then handed the controls over to us. We cruised up the Liffey as far as the Ha’penny, getting to see a few bridges as we went but the low tide wouldn’t allow us to venture further.
Turning around and heading for the harbour, we got some practice at slaloming through the dolphins that protect the Samuel Beckett bridge and passed the Lauren L luxury yaucht moored by Sir John Rogerson’s Quay. The rent on that for a week? €700k. Once we’d cleared the East Link, it was time to take the speed up a notch and we spotted a tall ship in the distance. Racing out to meet it, we saw it was the Cisne Branco from Brazil with one of the Dublin tugs waiting to escort her into the quays. We spent time in the bay learning how to do some more advanced manoeuvres before returning to overtake the incoming tall ship. It’s hard to describe the thrill of a powerboat experience but I’d highly recommend checking it out at some point. ATI’s site is over here and I’m hoping to do the city kayaking soon. Good times.
The Gardiner St Gospel Choir, of which my flatmate is a member, launched their new album tonight with a fantastic gig in the O’Reilly Theatre, D1. Proceeds went to Headway and Temple Street Children’s Hospital. Details on how to get the album are here.
This actually looks damn funny (and NSFW). Plus it’s directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber who did Dodgeball.
This time last week I was going to bed in preparation for Pieta House’s Darkness Into Light 5k in the Phoenix Park. In aid of the suicide and self harm crisis centre, you can run or walk it. I walked it this plus the addition 15k home to Sandymount. I’ll run it next year and fundraise as they’re a tremendous charity.