Last June, I got caought speeding at 90km on the M1 near the airport. It is an 80km zone, though the speed limit is acutally illegal and cases are being thrown out. Unfortunately, I paid my fine and got 2 points, I don’t know whether they’ll be removed. Anyway, that is irrelevant.
The point of this story is to tell a story about lego. Imagine the disappointment of a child on christmas day who opens their lego to find pieces missing. As a present for Christmas, SK purchased the lego traffic corps garda and his speed camera.
The chassis of the camera was missing. So I had to improvise. This is the car I built.
This is the car as it is on the box. Ignore the 5 – 12 figures. That is not the age the lego was for. Once you reach the minimum age for lego, there really should be no upper age limit. That’s totally unfair.
Quite a difference. Still, it serves as a reminder not to speed. I think I prefer my car to be honest, the actual lego deisgn looks a little severe, like it could do a ram raid. My car is less intimidating.
To be fair to lego, they do send out missing pieces, via their website. You just enter the set number and they will send a replacement, but try telling that to a small child who believes in Santa on Christmas day.
Over the Christmas break, my FIL took me flying. Up up and away we flew. Over Limerick and up towards Killaloe. Being in the air was interesting. I got to see Thomond Park from the air which was great, but far more interesting to me were the concrete piles they are driving into the bog near Limerick to hold the new road that is being built in place. I never really thought about how roads over bogs are constructed, but I have a new found appreciation for all the concrete piles that will be part of the road. There were lots of them. I also have a new found appreciation for the time it takes to construct these roads. Being in a small plane gave me the slight hebeejeebes before we took off, but once in the air, I forgot how small the plane was. Watching someone crank a propeller to get the oil into the engine or something makes you nervous. The plane was small and light. It was a day of light winds but the wind blowing down the lake made Jim (FIL) turn back. Jim is considered by those in the know (i.e. his son) a safe pilot. I have heard him discuss silly aeroplane crashes that were the result of pilot error and nothing else, where people basically kill themselves and those on board due to silliness. I think maybe that’s why I like sailing more, save going out in really dangerous conditions, it’s probably harder to kill someone, though, I am sure that SK would have some statistics for me to show that is actually not true, that statistically, flying is safer. I’m still not convinced I loved it enough to want to persue a private pilots license though. I was very glad of the opportunity to experience a small, single engined plane. It’s just a pity that it was so small it can only take two people and SK was unable to come up too. The highlight of the flight was when the battery in the camera died. It removed the expectation of excellent photographs when I returned to the ground. A zoom lens and a short person in a small plane don’t work well together.
this christmas was the christmas i discovered hyacinths. not that i didn’t know about hyacinths, but this year was the first year i bought any. i bought four in separate pots. they weren’t flowering when i bought them on december 23rd, but they are now and their perfume fills the house. not bad value for six euro. two weeks of pleasure at watching them bloom and a great perfume. i bought white ones, white being a christmas colour.
a neighbour also gave me some blue ones which i put in a jug to try to support the weight of the stems. unfortunately, the stems are too tall even for the jug. but, their root structure is phemonenal. it’s probably not a good idea to have the roots exposed to daylight, but i like looking at them.
the christmas break officially ends today. back to work tomorrow.
