Personal

Our wood decking has endured a few years of weathering. It's taken its fair share of rain and wind, including the occasional rays of sunlight and downpours of snow.

The result of this continued exposure to the elements clearly shows in this photo. The wood turned to an unattractive gray colour and stubborn mould covered its surface.

Today I married Wala.

Visit our wedsite to find out more and see our wedding photoes.

Rossnowlagh. Wala and I have been there. We surfed, ate vast seafood platters, drank refined wine, walked the beaches. We spent two wonderful days there, but we still don't know how to pronounce the town's name!

What a wonderful spot it is. Just north of Bundoran, it is one of the best spots in the Irish surfing mecca that is Donegal county.

On Sunday 29 March 2009, I ran a distance of 10km in 42 minutes and 27 seconds around Phoenix park, Dublin.

No, I wasn't being chased by a giant panda bear. No, you wouldn't commonly find panda bears in Dublin. Besides, there is still some controversial debate on whether pandas are actually bears.

I ran in the Great Ireland Run 2009, one of the top running events taking place in Dublin. The race attracted over 11,000 other participants and was even televised on the national channel.

I covered the 10km distance in 42:27, finishing in position 392. I was delighted with the result!
I had set my heart on running the race in under 43:00, so I patted myself on my back after crossing the finishing line. Mission accomplished!

I won money on scratchcards!

Considering that I paid nothing to get the scratchcards, my ROI approaches infinity. Pretty good, huh?

Here's the proof: this photo shows the three winning scratchcards, together with a clear shot of my left thumb, index, and middle finger. You might also make out some of my other left fingers... but the real focus of this photo is the scratch cards! They paid off 15 euro, 4 euro, and 5 euro respectively (from top to bottom), bringing the grand total to 24 euro.

If you are wondering how I came into possession of three winning cards without having to pay a cent for them... it's no big mistery, I got them as a birthday gift.

Picture a hot summer afternoon, a dry lazy wind blowing, the sun shining down on you, with no shade or shelter to be found anywhere. The incessant heat and torcing sun are conspiring together to work up the mightiest thirst you'll ever experience, driving your craving for a drop of water through the roof. Now imagine the "Aaah" sound of satisfaction that would come out of your mouth after drinking not a drip, but a whole pitcher of water. Can you hear that sound?

Today I asked Wala to marry me.

She said yes.

What a great weekend it was! It does not get much better than this...

It started on Friday night, with a good few pints at the pub down the road from work with the work mates. Since I hadn't had a nice pint of Guinness in more than a month, the black stuff tasted delicious.

Buckets of water and a good nights sleep later, I was ready to enjoy my windsurfing lesson in Malahide on Saturday afternoon. The sun was shining, the wind was fairly consistent, the water was comfortably cold. I started off practising my tacks and jibes, then did a few water starts, then sailed out and back a few times. Two hours had already passed, and the wind was slowly changing from moderate to fairly strong.

As of today, IONA Technologies, the company where I have worked for the past four years, has been acquired by Progress Software.

As a famous and distinguished journalist would say: "I, for one, welcome our new progressive overlords!".

I recently bought a Garmin Forerunner 205 high-sensitivity GPS receiver and personal trainer to help me keep track of my running sessions.

It's a great device! I have used it a few times and I am very pleased with it. Although it can't quite disguise itself as a normal wrist watch, the device is very small, compact, and light. It is definitely much lighter than my traditional watch I wear every day.