A few weekends back we had a nice visit from Brayden’s friend Katie, from back home. Katie’s parents are living in Germany so this was a nice long weekend trip for them. Katie arrived on Friday evening and we took her to the National Basketball arena to watch Tolka’s under 19’s team play for the national championship. Despite a great game (and even greater performance from our friend and acting mascot Sean) Tolka finished 2nd. There was also a disappointing ½ time show from a Harlem Globetrotter... they aren’t what they used to be!
(Sean being a Tolka mascot)
Later that evening, despite the Tolka loss, we took Katie to the local Tolka hangout, McGowan’s. Located on the North Side in the heart of Dublin’s classist, McGowan’s is a typical Irish pub filled with locals. Due to the high ‘class’ of the clientele this is not Brayden’s favourite hangout, but none the less we had a good time and showed Katie the real Dublin!
(Katie and the Guys) Saturday was a rainy day and since Katie’s parents were joining her for a few more days of sightseeing we just layed low, relaxed, played more than a few games of hearts... Then later we had some of our friends over and showed her the Temple Bar area.
Sunday Katie’s parents arrived and we joined them for a Sunday afternoon carvery. Carvery is one of the most exciting food options in Ireland. It is basically like a big Thanksgiving meal where you can pick which meat you want freshly sliced and then chose all the sides. It’s amazing and we all enjoyed!
Now onto the next weekend, the weekend of 5th-6th of February and the National Intermediate Cross Country Championships! This was the biggest race for my team, Donore Harriers, all year, and finally my last of a long season. Since it had been raining all week the conditions were less than desirable, ie 6-inches of thick mud. It was actually a really unique experience which I’m sure I will never elect to do ever ever again. In the end I was extremely muddy and cold, but really glad to have raced and helped my team to achieve a Silver Medal! It wasn’t my best race but it was good enough for a silver! Very relieved to finish off the season as the second best team in Ireland!
(This was actually a good part of the course)
In other sport related news Brayden’s school team, DBS, continues to be undefeated. Just Friday they played in the semi-finals and won by something ridiculous like 58 pts! If we haven’t explained already in Ireland the collegiate sports would be much more recreational and less competitive than the clubs, which would be like the professional teams. On that note the club team, Tolka, is on a winning streak and also won this weekend, clinching a no.2 seed for the National tournament! Brayden’s once unrecognizable ankle is doing much better and played in the last two games. We will keep you posted on our ‘March Madness’.
