Failure

The past few days can be summed up very well by this picture. On Friday I figured out that the compound that I have been working on for the past week or so degraded so it is now useless. Today I attempted to go up to Thurles to watch Cork play Galway in hurling but we were not able to get train or bus tickets that included a return journey so we gave up. Both disappointing, but these things happen.

It was a gorgeous day in Cork today and walking back from the bus station after realizing that going to see the match wasn't feasible we saw some people doing a bizarre sort of martial art seeming thing except it was not any recognizable martial art I have ever heard of. In any case we returned home and watched the match on TV. It was an incredible match that ended up as a Cork victory by a mere two points after battling back from being behind at halftime and playing a man down for the entire second half. It is disappointing to have missed it but the match itself was still very exciting on television and there was no real way that we could have made it to Thurles in time once we realized what was going on with the train and bus.

The past couple days have remained sunny (for the most part). It has been over a week since it last rained harder than a 20 minute drizzle. It's almost spooky.
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A Weekend of Hurling

This weekend is shaping up to be a potentially rather sports-packed few days. Later today Cork play Dublin in an All-Ireland hurling qualifying match at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork. I'm still debating if I should go and watch that match live but i will definitely at least watch it on TV. The more exciting hurling-related event of the weekend, however, takes place considerably further away.

The Munster hurling final is on Sunday. It is Tipperary versus Claire and is taking place in Limerick at the Gaelic Grounds there, one of the largest GAA venues in Ireland. The plan is to take either a train or bus up there from Cork around noon to make it there in time for the 4pm match. Its supposed to be quite a good match, and I get to see a town that has poems named after it in the process.
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British Airways is a strange beast

I got my plane tickets in the mail from British Airways today. Yes, in the mail. Apparently the magic of the internet and such things as electronic tickets are foreign to them, or if not foreign than at least vastly overrated. Unfortunately, these tickets only had "Cork" as the final destination and not the three letter abbreviation for Cork Airport. Normally this would not be a big deal, but Cork's abbreviation is, awesomely, ORK. Every piece of paper that says "Cork" instead of using ORK is a sadly wasted opportunity by the powers that be. Evidently British Airways eschews both ORK and etickets. For these reasons, I will never understand them. Read more