As some of you will know last w/e was a Bank Holiday in Ireland. Strangely enough there wasn't a UKGSer run organised 
but that was probably just as well as my 'brownie points' total is at an all time low since my 3 weeks in Morocco followed closely by a weekend at the NW200 
So I had to be a little more circumspect....
Saturday
My eldest lad finished his first year in secondary school on Friday so he & his friends organised an evening out on Friday & a 'get together' in a friends house on Saturday which left the middle lad, Daragh, at home with nobody to annoy except Daddy In order to avoid being nagged all day by him and his mother I agreed to take him out on his bike.
The closest trails are about half an hour away so we loaded up & headed there. They're not terribly long tracks but I knew we'd find enough to keep him & his little bike amused. There'd been a fair bit of felling carried out since I'd last been there & they'd also created a new roadway for the digger. This was still pretty fresh & suitably rough. As he'd never done anything as hard as this before I was a bit apprehensive but he was willing to try it.
And full marks to him for his effort - he didn't fall off once & the only problem he had was dropping down into a couple of streams & powering out the other side but as his old man made a horlicks of them too I can't really say anything
We only covered about 14km in over 2 hours but it was enough for him.
Sunday
It was wifeys mothers birthday so she & grandad were coming down for a bar-b-que but we had a few hours spare in the morning so I let the lads persuade me to go to the Hare & Hounds in Stradbally AR14 & BB1 were competing so we thought we'd support them. Unfortunately, shortly after we arrived Andrew withdrew so I've very few pics of him. I've none of BB1 'cos he changed his helmet & didn't tell me 
(next time Eoin 
) We met DaveR near the timing booth & spent a good while with him watching the guys blasting in & out of the refueling station before heading home.
Monday
I'd already laid the seeds for this over the last week or two. The bikes were due to arrive back in Cork from Morocco & I 'needed' to collect mine 'cos neither Daithi nor ShortArse had room to keep it indefinitely
. Besides, I need it for the coming w/e 
So arrangements were made to meet the 2 lads in Cahir for breakfast & recce a few off-road bits for the UKGSer event in Tipperary. Padge also agreed to come along to make sure we didn't get lost.
He arrived in my place before half eight and after loading his DR we set off. A nice brekkie was had while we talked sh1te & planned the day.
When we got to the start point it turned out Daithi's bike had a flat battery & no amount of pushing would get it going So the three of us set off to do the 'work'. I won't tell youse exactly where we went 'cos that'll spoil the surprise for anyone attending the event but suffice it to say we had good craic and, apart from a shortish blast back to the van at the end, we avoided tarmac all afternoon
All in all a very enjoyable w/e, especially considering it had looked like a very long, bike-free weekend The weather was brill all w/e with the exception of a shower at about five o'clock on Monday when we were almost finished.
but that was probably just as well as my 'brownie points' total is at an all time low since my 3 weeks in Morocco followed closely by a weekend at the NW200 So I had to be a little more circumspect....Saturday
My eldest lad finished his first year in secondary school on Friday so he & his friends organised an evening out on Friday & a 'get together' in a friends house on Saturday which left the middle lad, Daragh, at home with nobody to annoy except Daddy
In order to avoid being nagged all day by him and his mother I agreed to take him out on his bike.The closest trails are about half an hour away so we loaded up & headed there. They're not terribly long tracks but I knew we'd find enough to keep him & his little bike amused. There'd been a fair bit of felling carried out since I'd last been there & they'd also created a new roadway for the digger. This was still pretty fresh & suitably rough. As he'd never done anything as hard as this before I was a bit apprehensive but he was willing to try it.
And full marks to him for his effort - he didn't fall off once & the only problem he had was dropping down into a couple of streams & powering out the other side but as his old man made a horlicks of them too I can't really say anything
We only covered about 14km in over 2 hours but it was enough for him.
Sunday
It was wifeys mothers birthday so she & grandad were coming down for a bar-b-que but we had a few hours spare in the morning so I let the lads persuade me to go to the Hare & Hounds in Stradbally
AR14 & BB1 were competing so we thought we'd support them. Unfortunately, shortly after we arrived Andrew withdrew so I've very few pics of him. I've none of BB1 'cos he changed his helmet & didn't tell me (next time Eoin ) We met DaveR near the timing booth & spent a good while with him watching the guys blasting in & out of the refueling station before heading home.
Monday
I'd already laid the seeds for this over the last week or two. The bikes were due to arrive back in Cork from Morocco & I 'needed' to collect mine 'cos neither Daithi nor ShortArse had room to keep it indefinitely
. Besides, I need it for the coming w/e So arrangements were made to meet the 2 lads in Cahir for breakfast & recce a few off-road bits for the UKGSer event in Tipperary. Padge also agreed to come along to make sure we didn't get lost.
He arrived in my place before half eight and after loading his DR we set off. A nice brekkie was had while we talked sh1te & planned the day.
When we got to the start point it turned out Daithi's bike had a flat battery & no amount of pushing would get it going
So the three of us set off to do the 'work'. I won't tell youse exactly where we went 'cos that'll spoil the surprise for anyone attending the event but suffice it to say we had good craic and, apart from a shortish blast back to the van at the end, we avoided tarmac all afternoon
All in all a very enjoyable w/e, especially considering it had looked like a very long, bike-free weekend
The weather was brill all w/e with the exception of a shower at about five o'clock on Monday when we were almost finished.
it puts a smile on my face to think ye had such a good time. 
Didn't notice that on the day. He probably forgot them. Kids eh ?
