RIP: My Taste in Music

Earlier this week I was reading the latest post in Neil Gaiman's Blog. He had posted a link to an audio file of William Shatner singing Pulp's "Common People". Since then I have found myself listening to over and over. I think I might like it. I think this might be the final nail in the coffin of "My Taste in Music" (previous nails have included the "Final Countdown" as my mobile ringtone, and a penchant for anything sung by Meatloaf).

A strange thing happened over the weekend. Josephine's little cousins were in Dublin with their mother visiting us. While I was training with the Irish Squad in the morning they went to see Shrek 2, so I met them later that day. The previous time they visited I had entertained them with a display of juggling and it had gone down a treat, so much so that apparently Elizabeth (the younger of the two at 3 years old) had been talking excitedly about meeting "The Juggler" again coming up to the visit. Apparently I didn't quite live up to her expectations this time round. Upon seeing me she was scared stiff, in fact the one time I went anywhere near her she screamed blue murder...perhaps it's time I got that hair cut?

On the fencing front: It was the final day of training last night, before Salle Duffy closed for the summer. There was a foil competition (the Touhy Cup) to mark the occasion, and yours truly was delighted to walk out victorious. I must ask Philip if I can fence in Pembroke for August; I've worked pretty hard this year so I don't want to be starting again in September.

Let's not forget the girls!

In my last post I gave the results of the men's Federation Foil but omitted the result of the ladies competition. Aoife Lennon (captain of the Irish foil team, and fellow Northsider) won the competion with a good win over Suzanne Clayton in the final.

I think that it would be remiss of me not to mention the afters. The IAFF organised a Barbeque in the Kingston hotel in Dun Laoghaire. The food was not stunning; I mean what's a barbeque without a burger? We had a great night none the less, I was out for the count the next day. Must have had a bad pint ;-)

Here's a picture of where we had the BBQ:


After this we went to a bar called the 40 Foot. Apart from having Nazis on the door, this overpriced outhouse had no atmosphere and poor Guinness. We stayed there for one and then headed into town on the bus. We met a few more fencers and had a few more drinks at the far superior Portobello bar. From there I went home (I'm getting too old) while the lads went on to Tramco.

As far as scandal is concerned I didn't witness much, however we did all have a giggle at Hamsandwich's dangerous liaisons with an older woman! Could we be witnesing the blossoming of a new romance on the Irish fencing scene?

Watch this space.

5th place.

I came 5th. Not stunning, but not too bad either.
I lost just one fight in the poole to Darius Veseghi (5-4) that was enough to seed me 5th and Darius 4th. So we were destined to meet met again in the last 8; First I had to see off Ruari MacUnfraidh.

Ruari and I started fencing together in Salle Duffy at about the same time (hundreds of years ago); Now that we are both fencing back in the Salle we fence together every week again. I knew I should beat him, however I had no intention of taking him for granted. At the start of the fight he confirmed that my trepidation was well founded by quickly going 2-0 up. I forced myself to settle down and shifted my mind up into "fencing" gear. I went on to win the fight 15-3. I was very happy with that result; I had put myself into the zone and didn't allow myself to relax till the fight was over.

It was Darius next. Some months previously he had knocked me out of the Nationals so I knew I would have to be at my best to beat him. This day it was not to be however, and he comprehensively beat me 15-7. Darius is a good fencer currently ranked first in foil in Ireland, so I can't get too disappointed loosing to him.

He'll probably laugh at this; I think our styles are quite similar. We both let our feet do the talking on the foil piste and get our hits through distance and timing. The reason I lost is because his footwork and distance are much better then mine, so when I try to match him on those criteria I'm probably always going to loose. Next time I'll have to try something new.

Overall winner of the competition was Conor Nagle, fencing for UCD.
Second was Philip Lee and joint third were Darius and Evgenyie Kazantchev all of whom fence for Pembroke FC.

In which the author finally get's somebody to fence

Good stuff,
With the competition coming up some of the more experienced lads came down to training last night. So we got some good work in pity they wouldn't come down more often ;-) Should be a good level of competition. It's good when there is only one weapon in the weekend because it means that we get some of the good epeeists bolstering the numbers.

Right! This is probably my last post before the weekend; Wish me luck!

Federation Cup preview

Ok,
For those that don't know about these things, the fencing "season" in Ireland is between September and April/May and we take a break for the summer. This is mostly because the summer heat makes competing in all the gear quite hot and unpleasant.

However this year for some reason the Federation Cup, a foil tournament, is being held next weekend. UCD Fencing Club are hosting it. It is for this competition that my training over the last few weeks has been aimed.

Due mostly to my absence from the sport my ranking in Ireland in foil is currently 20th my aim (by this time this year) is to bring it down to 4th.

It starts this weekend.

Best weekend ever?

Yep didn't even look at my taxes :)

Iwas a good weekend however. Now that my current project in the house is finished I was able to have a proper weekend just like normal people!

Went out on Saturday night; it was Marcos's surprise birthday party cunningly arranged by his wife Joanne.
Spent most of Sunday afternoon in the Hammock, reading and snoozing.

"Best weekend ever"? Probably not. But highly satifying none-the-less.

Weather permitting....

Ho hum,
Done for the week and moving on into the weekend.
Dunno what I'll do for the weekend. I'm meant to be doing my taxes but I suspect that if the weather is good they'll be put on the long finger.

Too much beer.

Just turned 29 on Saturday.
Had a bit of a get together down in Beaumont house, a pub just down the road. Then we went back to my newly decorated house. Everyone was very impressed :-)

One problem with starting a party in the pub like that is that it can be difficult to get people out of there again. I was planning to get back to my place at about 10.00, it was actually closer to 1.30!

Now we have a ton of left over beer. I'll have to have another party to use it all up.

Gmail

Just got a gmail account :-)
Just wandering through it. It's nice and fast but doesn't currently have the features of Yahoo. I certainly wouldn't mind a way to upload my contacts into it.

On a separate subject. I seem to be adding stuff to this Blog far too infrequently. I must make a better effort. I'm now going to

I don't believe I have mentioned that I'm a fencer. I have been since I was a kid. I fence all three weapons, and have fenced sabre for Ireland. Now let's see if I can get a couple of posts out of that ;-)