Abseil down 12 floors of the Irish Life Building in Abbey Street on Saturday the 14th May.

A unique opportunity to enjoy the breath-taking views of Dublin 150 feet up before abseiling to the ground. The money raised will help Age Action to continue to provide their free services to Irelands older people. These services include a Care and Repair programme, a free Information Line and free training on How to use the Internet and a Mobile Phone. Apart from having the courage to do abseil all you need to do is raise a minimum of €300. This event is limited to 100 people and the spaces are filling up fast!

Email email hidden; JavaScript is required or ring Rhona on 01 4756989 www.ageaction.ie

Must attend:

• Hong Kong Sevens Tournament (rugby) – there are loads of rugby 7s tournaments, this is the original headline event.
• State of Origin series (Australian rugby league)
• A Superbowl (American football)
• An All-Ireland GAA football final with Dublin beating Kerry, Meath, Cork, or Tyrone.  Actually, make that 4 All-Ireland finals (with Dublin …)
• Tour de France Alpe D’Huez stage finish

Would like to attend:

• Heineken Cup final (rugby), preferably with an Irish team, preferably not Munster again (I don’t mind Munster, it’s just the bloody fans that are annoying).
• Rugby World Cup final
• Snooker World Championship match at The Crucible
• The Ashes (cricket)
• CFB Bowl game (American college football)
• MLB World Series Game 7
• NBA Championship Game 7

What about you, sports fans, what sports events must you attend before you meet your maker? Post a comment and let me know!

Updates from Twitter (I’m @AMcDermott):

@TheMenace said: @AMcDermott Ireland vs England 6 Nations at Croke Park. Although I think you’ve only got 1 more chance to do that :D

@interactivemark said: @AMcDermott Stanley Cup game 7 (preferably w/ NY Rangers) any Olympic event (preferably ice hockey) and the running of the bulls.

So my options are to reinstall the original theme and make some changes, or look for a new theme to work off.

I think I’ll go with the latter – so I’m looking for your suggestions! I’m interested in finding a decent looking theme. SEO optimisation would be a nice bonus, but I can add it myself if that’s not there already.

Please, if you know of any cool looking themes that might suit a sports blog, or if you really like some sports site design, let me know and I’ll take a look!

Thanks!

Alastair.

My new business has been on the cards for a while now and I finally worked up the courage to take the risk and back myself. My company is registered in Ireland as “Log On Technology”, and I’ll be focusing on internet marketing in Ireland. I’m calling myself an Internet Marketing and Technology Consultant, because I keep hearing stories about consultants making all the money.

I’m interested in internet marketing because there’s a great mix of really technical stuff (SEO) along with concrete (non-abstract) business involved. Running my own business is a good challenge that I’m really looking forward to.

So that explains why I haven’t posted about Millar losing out on the Paris-Nice, nor about one of the most exciting Six Nations competitions ever – you’ll have to wait a couple more days for my thoughts on that, sorry!

I am writing from Oxfam Ireland . An incredible donation was recently made to one of our shops – an Irish rugby jersey signed by the entire 2005 Ireland squad. One of our supporters is auctioning the shirt off on eBay, and will be donating 100% of the proceeds to Oxfam Ireland . Would it be possible for you to post about this auction on SportCrazy? We are hoping to let people know about this through word of mouth, and as SportCrazy is one of the most popular and widely read Irish sport blogs, it would really help us out if you could mention it.

Here is the auction link! After such a flattering email how could I refuse?

Best Sport & Recreation Blog – Sponsored by Boards.ie

• ArseBlog
• Fustar’s World Cup
• In Fact Ah
• The Kop Blog
• Laois Talk
• Tom’s Sporting Almanac

Thanks to anyone who voted for sportcrazy! I know I got some votes from my family and from the crew of Pippa IV (thanks guys) so hopefully I passed the ignominy of a single figure score ;) Richard Hearne over at RedCardinal.ie looks like a really good Irish SEO guy. He’s offering free consulting for the IBA nominees and I’d love to take him up on his offer.

Richard, I really don’t want to take 2 hours of your time – 15 mins should suffice. I’ll tell you where I think I’m weak right now here on sportcrazy.net:

• This template has sidebars before content. I really need to get around to this one, I’m not so hot on CSS layout I’m afraid.
• I have a tendency to hotlink images from news sites rather than have local images.
• I don’t have www.sportcrazy.net 302′d to the www-less version right now. (Not too bad because G’s webmaster tools knows my preferred version.)

Whatever you can find after that I’d love to know about – cheers!

Update:

And finally, in honour of sharing the link love here’s the full list of nominations, gratuitously stolen from Redmum ;) I’ve cleaned up the list a little, removing typos and spaces in URLs and removing the cursed “Open in New Window” target (may it die roaring and screaming of the plague).

Best Blog

Alive in Limerick
An Irish Craftworkers
Good Life
An Spailpin Fanach
An tImeall
Arse End of
Ireland
ArseBlog
Backseat Drivers
Barbara’s
bleeuugh!
Beaut.ie
BifSniff
Biz Growth News
Blogorrah
Bock the Robber
ElBlogador.com- The
Voice of Irish Nationalism
Fustar
Head Rambles
I Take Photees
Ireland 16
Days
IrishElection.com
Letter to America
Manuel Stimulation
Mcawilliams.com
Mine’s
A Jack Daniels
Nialler9
Pygment
RedMum’s Blog
Skinflicks
Snackboxdiaries
StigOnline
The Cedar Lounge
Revolution
The Community At Large
The InFactah Blog
The Limerick Blogger
Tir na Blog
Twenty Major
Womans Aid

Best Blog Post- Sponsored by Hosting365

Ach go hairithe – We love Irish we do, but if we want our signs in English
An Cainteoir Dochais – Ag toraiocht na ndilseoiri i mBaile Átha Cliath
andcurve – Cock-blocking beats
Annie Rhiannon – Three years too late
Arse End of Ireland – Where do you get your smoke from?
Arse End of Ireland – The Bertles
Balrog – McDowell should walk over Rape crisis
Bifsniff – Should You Be Laughing At This?
Blather.net Snackbox Diaries – Introducing AbuseOS
Blogorrah – Rochegate: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?
Bock the Robber – Haughey
Conor’s Bandon Blog – You may feel a small prick
Cruiskeen Eile – Boys will be Boys
Cruiskeen Eile – Phwoarr. How to Report on the Troubles While Getting
David McWilliams – The Dundrum Paradox – Don’t be Paddy Last!
Dervala.net – The Passion-Industrial Complex
Earth and Universe – The day I quit as an Altar Boy.
Earth and Universe – The legend of Uncle Tom and the Bubble Car
ElBlogador – Bloody Sunday In Pictures
ElBlogador – Peter Robinson
Empire State View – Barry Egan, Journalist of the Year
From Bath to Cork with baby Grace – After traffic in Cork
Fustar – David Sque Interview Part 1.
Fustar – Chess with balls
Graham Ó Maonaigh – Ending Gun crime
iQblog – Irish kitchen sink usability
Irelands Few – Corruption WithIn Unionism?
IrishEyes – Richard Waghorne has a closed mind
Letter to America – Drama – Thy Name is Pong
Life is a Journal – Self Help and Personal Development for Lazy People
Madspoon – Sheep 34 Banana
Maman Poulet – 35 going on 13
Minesajackdaniels’
Blog – Pompoms and bottle tops.
Old Bitter Balls – Keeling Time
Political Quote – Bertie Ahern does a ‘Nixon’ over money scandal
Red Cardinal – Golden Spiders – Are These Really Ireland’s Best Websites?
Redfly Marketting – DMOZ Submission Guide
Ricks Breakfast Blog – A Religious Experience…
Ricks Breakfast Blog – Most Extraordinary Day of my Life
Skin Flicks – The JC Skinner guide to drinking
Stig Online – The most painful 12 miles of my life (and the other 14 were hardly easy)
The Adventures of Truculent Horse – Culture Shock III – The Language Barrier
The Dossing Times – The Riots and the consequences.
The Dossing Times – Riots in Dublin
The Great Wee Azoo – Awfully Awfully at Castleward Book Fair
The Midnight Court – Paper Round Exclusive!
The torture garden – the best songs of 2006
Twenty Major – A thousand words
Twenty Major – Countdown to the next election
Young Unionists – Ignoring the Big Issues
Young Unionists – In defence of the Act of Settlement

Most Humorous Post – Sponsored by Beecher Networks

Ach go hairithe – Reasons Behind Australian Rough-House Tactics In International Rules Series (Exclusive)
andcurve – Cock-blocking beats
Arse End of Ireland – Berties Perspiration
Arse End of Ireland – Won’t Somebody think of the children
Backseat Drivers – Sex – Breakfast of Champions
BifSniff – Dry White Seasoning
BifSniff – Spyware
Blogorrah – The Twink Tapes
Blogorrah – Why can’t we all just get along?
Captain Purplehead – Ah Tis All Too Much
Chetwynde Downs – The Naile Raye Quintet
Dublin Opinion – Property Market Causes Ireland to shit its brain
Earth and Universe – Legend of Uncle Tom and the Bubble Car
ElBlogador – DUP In Gay Marriage Shocker
ElBlogador – These are a few of my favourite things
Fustar – Dis-courtesy Call
Fustar – Manky Toy Monday: League of the Transformable
Gingerpixel – Garda Prank Call
Green Ink – Beep Beep Beep
Head Rambles – Giving Up Smoking
Head Rambles – Translation Help Needed
Irish KC – A Kansas City Phone Call To An Irish Mother
Irish KC – Irish Conversations
Kav’s Blog – Westside Story Bud
Letter to America – Drama – Thy Name is Pong
Life’s a bastard – Scientists – I’m against them
Manuel Stimulation – From Bad to More Bad
Manuel Stimulation – Victory to Moroccan Imperialism
Old Bitter Balls – Or was this just a dream?
Political Quote – PDs new Spin Doctor
Pure Cork Boy – Music: The Roaring Forties
RedMum – Guilty Pleasures
Rick O’Shea – Ketchup… Catsup..
Rinceoir – Cry Havoc
Skinflicks – Babys called Bad Bad thing
Snackbox – AbuseOS from TwinkSoft
The Great Wee Azoo – Awfully awfully
Twenty Major – Countdown to Next Election
Twenty Major – Post Secret
Wayne Ordinary American – Wayne loves you one and all

Best Photo Blog – Sponsored by Pixenate.com – The online photo editor

Caitriona.net
Capture Capture
Dancing Shades of Light
Derek
Knight Photography
Donal’s blog
Focus Pocus
Gingerpixel
Glassey Alley
Headphoneland
How your mama now?
I Take Photees
Iced Coffee
I’m
never gonna dance again
In Photos
Ireland from a Polish
perspective
Kind I Like
Leigh
ar mo T-leine e
Letter to America
Mcawilliams
North Atlantic Skyline
PAD – Photo a Day
Photographe
à Dublin
Pygment
RedMum
Rymus.net
Seth Wheeler
Snoother
This is Diopter

Best Arts and Culture Blog – Sponsored by Poetry Ireland

Alan in Belfast
BifSniff
Blather.net
Contemporary Arts Review
Dead Beat
Empirestate View
Fustar
Georgiasam
Green Ink
In Fact Ah
KC Irish Fest
Letter to America
Maguires Movies
PaddyC Movie Reviews
Poet Blogg
Sinead Gleeson
Soundtracks for Them
Stunned
The Cat Flap
The Dreaming Arm
The Harlot’s Progress
The Torture Garden

Best Political Blog – Sponsored by Technofutures

1169 and Counting
A Tangled Web
An Caomhach
An Saol
An Spailpin Fanach
Balrog
Best of Both Worlds
Bock the Robber
Damien Blake
Daniel K. Sullivan
Dominic Hanngian’s blog
ElBlogador.com- The Voice of Irish Nationalism
Extra Extra
Graham O’Maonaigh
Green Ink
Harry McGee’s blog
ie-Politics by Gerry O’Quigley
Ireland – The Voice Of The Nation
IrishElection.com
Maman Poulet
Richard Delevan’s blog
Seamus Ryan’s blog
Semper Idem
Sicilian Notes – Richard Waghorne
Skinflicks
Slugger O’Toole
The Cedar Lounge Revolution
The Dossing Times
The Tuppenceworth Blog
The United Irelander Blog
The Young Unionists

Best Group Blog – Sponsored by PutPlace.com

Backseat Drivers
Balrog
BifSniff
Blather
Blogorrah
Howth Coastguard Blog
In Fact Ah
Ireland 16 Days
IrishElection.com
Links Heaven
Old Rotten Hat
One Breast Less
Sligo Camera Club
Sligo Rugby Football Club
Team Geared Up
The Cedar Lounge Revolution
The Community At Large
The Dublin Blog
The Limerick Blogger
Tuppenceworth
UCD Science Librarians
Womens Aid Blog
Wow Blog

Best Personal Blog – Sponsored by Interactions – Creative Strategies for Business

Annie Rhiannon
Barbara’s
bleeuugh!
Conor O’Neill
Dec’s Rambling
FatMammyCat
From Bath to Cork with
Baby Grace
Gerry Gainford
Gingerpixel
Hangar Queen
Head Rambles
Kav’s Blog
Mine’s a Jack Daniels
RedMum
The Newbrowne Blog
The Rambling Man
The Waiting Game
Una Rocks
Wayne Ordinary American
Winds and Breezes

Best Use of the Irish Language in a Blog – Sponsored by Edgecast Media

Ach go hairithe
An Saol
An Spailpin Fanach
Arm Runda na Gaeilge
Blag Shomhairle
Chetwynde Downs
Hilary NY
Leigh ar mo T-leine e!
MH Wombat
nobyegarawn
Roinnt Smaointe
Seo Panu ag labhairt
Smaointe Fanacha Aonghusa

Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere – Sponsored by FirstPartners.net

Bernie Goldbach
Cian and Simon for Irish
Election
Conn O Muineachain
Donncha O’Caoimh
Gavin Joyce for
Kick.ie
Macdara in the Leb
Michele Neylon for IrishBlogs.info
Rick O’Shea
Sarah Carey
Simon McGarr
Tom Raftery

Best Technology Blog/Blogger – Sponsored by Bitbuzz

5Pieces.com
Aidan Finn
Bernie Goldbach
Clare Dillon
Conor O’Neill
Creative Imagination – Ken McGuire
Donncha O’Caoimh
EdenWeb Blog
Firstpartners.net
Francis Shanahan
Ina O’Murchu
IQ Content Blog
James Corbett – Eirepreneur
John Collins
John Naughton
Justin Mason
Michele Neylon for IrishBlogs.info
Mobileblogr.com
Pat Phelan
Red Cardinal Blog
Robert Burke
Tom Raftery
What Will you see next?
Your Tech Stuff – Adrian
Weckler

Best Designed Blog – Sponsored by Equisoft

5 Pieces
Ach go hairithe
Beaut.ie
BifSniff
Clamnuts
Creative Imagination – Ken McGuire
ElBlogador.com – The Voice of Irish Nationalism
From Ireland to Kansas City
Fustar
Ginger Pixel
Inside the mind of an idiot.
IrishElection.com
Jason Roe’s blog
John Handerlaar’s
Blog
Kind I Like – Things that look like people
Leigh
ar mo T-leine e!
Letter to America
Magooo
Nialler9
Pretty Cunning
RedFly Marketing
Soundtracks
for Them
Spoilt.ie
Stunned.org
The InFactah Blog
The IQ Content Blog
Twenty Major
UnLaoised

Best Sport & Recreation Blog – Sponsored by Boards.ie

ArseBlog
Billy Lyons
Fustar’s
World Cup
In Fact Ah
Irish Go blog
Laois Talk
Liverpool Access
On the Ditch
PaddyC Movie
Reviews
Piranha Triathlon Club
Rebel BMX
Sligo Rugby Football Clun
SportCrazy.net
Team Geared Up
The Kop Blog
Tom’s Sporting Almanac
Wiffy Blog

Best News/Current Affairs Blog – Sponsored the Sunday Tribune

Adam Maguire
Alive in Limerick
An Spailpin Fanach
Best of Both Worlds
Dublin Opinion
IrishElection.com
Public Inquiry
Road Deaths.ie
Sarah Carey
Skinflicks
Stephen Spillane
The Limerick Blogger
The NewsWire
The Story

Best Specialist Blog – Sponsored by iQ Content Ltd

4Basra
An Irish Craftworker’s
Good Life
Ask Direct
Ball*istic
Beaut.ie
Bibliocook
Burma Review
Clear of Cloud
Clerical Whispers
Graham O’Maonaigh
Green Ink
Howth Coastguard
Ice Cream Ireland
Ireland 16 Days
Irish Go blog
Irish KC
KC Irish Fest
Lean Healthcare Services Blog
Lexferenda
McGarr Solicitors
Munster Pubs
Myers Watch
One Breast Less
PR Matters
Random Grub
Siopa Eile
SSIA Watch
The Good Life
The Waiting Game
Wearie
Whois Ireland
World Debate Website

Best Newcomer – Sponsored by Edelman

4Basra
Alan in Belfast
An Irish Craftworker’s Good Life
An Saol
Arse End of Ireland
Beaut.ie
Betty the Sheep
Blogorrah
Bock the Robber
Dario Sanchez’s Angry Dome
Elly Babes
Fastlad
Harry McGee
Head Rambles
Ireland 16 Day
Ireland from a Polish perspective
Kav’s
Blog
Lexferenda
Linkmap
Michael Flangan
Notes on the Front
Peppermint Tea
Skinflicks
Style Treaty
The Cedar Lounge Revolution
The Great Wee Azoo
The Midnight Court
The News Wire
The Waiting Game
What will you see next?
Where’s the Salt?
Womens Aid

Best Business Blog – Sponsored by logic+intuition

Allagi Blog
Argolon
Ask Direct
ATP Blog
Barry Walsh
BH Consulting Blog
Biz Growth News
Bubble Brothers
First Partners
ForestHill Blog – Ice Cream Ireland
ImageFile Blog
Inter-Actions
James Corbett – Eirepreneur
Keith Bohanna
Kevin Kelly Unlimited
McGarr Solicitors
Michele Neylon
Piaras Kelly
RedCardinal
Roam4Free Blog
Voicesage Blog

Best Music Blog – Sponsored by Clubbing.ie

Cumann Carad na Gaeilge
Faoi dhein an dorais
House
is a Feeling
In Fact Ah
Kilkenny Music Blog
Magoo
Mp3Hugger
Nialler9
Sinead Gleeson
Soundtracks for Them
Spudshow
The Torture Garden
Una Rocks
Wearie

Best Podcaster – Sponsored by Microsoft

2 Irish Geeks and a TV
An Saol
ArseBlog
Cumann Carad na Gaeilge
Doop Podcasting
EdgeCast (Conn O Muineachain)
Faoi dhein an dorais
Kevin Kelly
Letter to America
Okey Doke Football
Oldbones
Open Source Podcast
Podcasting.ie
Podleaders
Richard Delevan
The Persuaders
Twenty Major
Wargeek.net

Best Podcast – Sponsored by Newsletter.ie

An Lionra – 06 12 06
Arseblog – Episode 1
Arseblog – Episode 10
Arseblog – Episode 12
Cumann Carad na Gaeilge – Podchraoladh Caoga a Naoi
IT@Cork – Eddie Hobbs
Letter to America – Chapter 29 – The Lift 2.0
Letter to America – Chapter 43 – The Date
Letter to America – The Irish Blog Awards Podcast
Oldbones – The Favour
Podleaders – Dan Bricklin
Twenty Major – Pizza Delivery
Twenty Major – Scientology

Best Videocast – Sponsored by Cork Internet eXchange

Aine Chambers Dooney Rock, Sligo
Allyn Quigley – DWIC – X-mas No#1
Allyn Quigley – Size Matters
Brody Sweeney on why he decided on politics
Disappear by JP Pagano
Minister to Nowhere – Simon McGarr
PD Election Video
Technolotics #44 – Flying Naked
Technolotics #29 – ZZ Fops
Uisce In New Hampshire
You pay taxes so we don’t have to

It takes less than 30 seconds. Here’s how you do it:

1. Go to www.awards.ie/vote
2. Enter your details
3. Scroll down for “Best Sports & Recreation Blog” and pick “Sportcrazy.net”.
4. Check “I have checked my nominations”
5. Submit
6. Bask in the reflected glory

Please don’t wait as voting closes this week! Thanks! :)

Experienced in the ways and customs of the Northsoide, your guoide will smooth away the stress of your journey, from the river-crossing to the bombsite at the 5 Lamps on the so-called “North Strand” and into the safety of the concrete behemoth Culchie HQ.
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P.S. Special offers: Trip to any of the Roundabout, the Beachcomber or the Goblet (requires upfront hazard pay). For only 1000e we guarantee you to score a local in Clontarf Westwood.

(Yep, I don’t have a ticket)

• Home Team (score)
• Visiting Team (score)
• Date
• Location
• Was this a league match or special event/tournament
• If so, what league/territory/division
• Notables
• If there are photos, what’s the website
• Other information

This kind of thing looks ideal for Microformats if you don’t want to go down the database route. I jumped on the Microformats IRC channel to find out if such a beast already exists, here’s what the guys had to say.

[23:02] * Now talking in #microformats
<sportcrazy> hi y’all
<sportcrazy> I am looking for a MF for describing sports results
<sportcrazy> do you have such a thing?
<bewest> like a news update?
<bewest> or is that like an event?
<sportcrazy> it’s an event I guess
<bewest> that’s kind of like the results of an event
<sportcrazy> an event result
<kingryan> box scores?
<sportcrazy> e.g. sport=rugby homeTeam=x awayTeam=Y homeScore=45 awayScore=22 etc
<kingryan> well, you could start by making them hCalendar events
<bewest> yeah, but that’s only the last bit of it, right?
<ntoll> hmmm…. what about ordered results (e.g. sprinting)? Use event mf within a result mf?
<bewest> the most important thing is where and when it took place, correct?
<sportcrazy> I was thinking about that
<sportcrazy> and diving etc
<bewest> that part is easy
<bewest> ordered list
<sportcrazy> the most important thing… that’s debatable
<ntoll> sportcrazy, the important thing is to re-use what is already there and only extend when needed after looking at how other ppl have marked this sort of thing up
<bewest> I suggest you start experimenting with the who what when where of a sporting event
<sportcrazy> sure
<bewest> and then try adding on top of that with scores and stuff
<bewest> perhaps with XOXO
<bewest> with some small pieces to describe the game, resulting scores and other information
<sportcrazy> XOXO?
<ntoll> so so… my first thought was to use hCalander for when, hCard for where
<ntoll> sportcrazy, marking up lists
<sportcrazy> k, thanks for your help guys, I’ll go explore what’s available
<tantek> hCard is good for marking up hCalendar locations: link

Sounds interesting – I’m going sign up to their mailing list and have a look into creating a suitable Microformat, I think it’s needed at this point. It’d have to be fairly flexible to support the many various results types. Anyone else out there working on similar ideas?

Left: me in 2005.

Right: me in 2006.

I won’t tell you what my resolution is, but I reckon you can guess ;)

Ooops, my apologies – what I mean to say is:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday (or summer if below equator), practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make this country great (not to imply that Ireland is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting the following terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Disclaimer: No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.

Alastair.

Thanks to the guys over at the Geared Up blog who posted about the [tag]Dublin[/tag] Port Tunnel [tag]Run[/tag]. They admit to being late with the news, but hell, I sit 100 metres from the tunnel entrance at work and I didn’t know!

Anyway it’s on Sunday December 10th at 11:00am and you can register here. It’s 25 euros to enter and you need to do so by the November 29th or even before if it fills up too quick.

Oh great, that’s the day after I’ve planned to have a major Christmas party… run off the hangover? Hmmm, I might have to rethink this plan!

Help them out now by sponsoring my sister on her 3 day holid trek in Scotland:

I’m doing a sponsored 3 day trek for charity (http://www.amnesty.ie/content/view/full/5101/) and I have created a fundraising page on www.mycharity.ie. The Amnesty International is a very worthy cause and I would very much appreciate your support in helping me to raise funds for this charity.

Click on the link below and see what I am doing and when I am doing it.

www.mycharity.ie

You can sponsor me by credit or debit card through the www.mycharity.ie webpage that I have created. Don’t worry, the site is very secure and your credit card information is very safe. Please give as generously as you can. Or you can always sponsor me the old fashioned way – any donations would be greatly appreciated guys!!

The important ingredients of a sports drink are:

• water keep the body hydrated,
• salts to both
  • aid in that hydration (salt makes the solution isotonic) and to
  • replace some (but not all) of the lost salts from sweat, and
• carbohydrates (sugars) for energy.

It’s pretty easy to figure out a simple recipe if you want to make your own sports drink. Mess with the amounts to make it taste ok but don’t over do the sugar or salt:

• 70% water
• 30% orange juice
• small amount of sugar to your energy and taste needs
• pinch of salt (sodium is good, great if you can get some with potassium also)

That’s it. Simple, eh? Covers the basics, is dead cheap and tastes just fine. So that’s a bit basic, what else can you make?

One I’ve heard of cyclists using a lot years ago is flat coke, they shake it up to remove the gas which can interfere with digestion. I don’t know if they add salt but would make sense. This explains why a lot of pro-cyclists have bad teeth :)

Here’s another energy drink do it yourself receipe from Mike Greary:

1. Make a big iced tea mixture using green tea, white tea, and yerba mate tea. I like to add a little fruit flavor, so I’ll use 1 tea bag of a raspberry or blueberry hibiscus tea, and then use 2-3 green and/or white tea bags, and 2-3 yerba mate tea bags, and make a gallon container of iced tea. I just use a small amount of stevia to lightly sweeten the batch of tea.

2. I buy a container of organic coconut water from a health food store, or buy fresh coconuts to obtain the coconut water from the inside.

3. For my healthy energy drink, I mix a half of a glass of the white/green/yerba mate iced tea mixture and fill the rest of the glass with the coconut water.

This is actually a delicious and truly healthy energy drink instead of the chemical-laden crappy energy drinks that everybody is getting suckered into buying these days.

Here’s another DIY energy drink recipe which I saw over at Yaniverse – (s)he calls “EnerT”. The ingredients for 1000ml:

• 2 Tea Bags
• 6 level teaspoon sugar (24 grams)
• A pinch of salt (0.5 grams)
• 2 oz lemon juice (about 55 grams)
• 30 oz boiling water

I opted for tea as caffeine has a beneficial workout benefit, and tea provides a low-level caffeine, striking my personally preferred balanced between ‘waking’ and ‘wired’. Any level of sugars under 8% is acceptable, but I find Gatorade to be overly caloric for those of us trying to balance increased workout performance with weight loss/maintenance.

Good point on the caffeine, and the sugar content is interesting too, I didn’t realise Gatorade was so high in calories.

Further reading:

• Can Energy Drinks Actually Improve Your Strength
• Do Energy Drinks Help You, or Can They Actually Make You Fat?
• Yaniverse EnerT recipe
• Messenger of Doom’s recipe
• Wikipedia – Sports drink
• Wikipedia – Isotonic
• Wikipedia – Electrolyte
• Wikipedia – Water intoxication
• Wikipedia – Energy drink

Stade de France, early on Saturday afternoon, found itself host to the first game of the tournament. With France being off form, and Scotland wooden-spoon favourites, this was not expected to be a classic, and lived up to its billing. However, it did manage to create much controversy. A lucky French side scraped passed Scotland after some dubious calls from the match officials, including a disallowed try upon which Scotland’s fate hinged. Unfortunate and disappointing – rugby’s superb officiating (normally far superior to that of almost any other field sport) may have let us down on this occasion. The Scottish management team strongly agree. Final score: 16-9 to France.

Wales – England was the second game, starting a useful 2 hours after the first game ended (thanks to the BBC for their fantastic scheduling!). England were just about favourites for this one, Wales having proved themselves recently with some good performances, notably their single point loss to New Zealand in November. Against expectations, Wales took the lead 4 minutes from time, with a fantastic penalty from their new star Gavin Henson, to take a dramatic win at 11-9.

After watching the first 2 games, particularly noting the poor kicking at goal and bad performances from England and France, I was feeling quite confident about Irelands chances in 6N 2005. Wales are an unknown, but we have them in Cardiff, and we always beat them in Cardiff – well, since 1983 anyway :)

Set up for a strong Irish performance as we were, we knew the Italians would be tough – they have a very powerful pack and have consistently improving lately. We expected a hard game. Little did we realise just how hard…

Italy played brilliantly, the best I’ve ever seen them. They rucked mauled and scrummaged us off the park, were consistently faster to the breakdown, and adapted to the law changes better than we did. Our pack was slow and ineffective, and our backline received very little ball. Luckily for us, our backline are on another level, and don’t necessarily require a whole lot to turn a match on its head. O’Driscoll is rugby genius personified, regardless of how much we dislike his haircut. It’s easy to recognise his calibre: he simply makes it all look so easy.

So it almost brought me to tears to see both O’Driscoll and D’Arcy, his centre partner, go down with suspected torn hamstrings, and their associated 6-8 week recovery period: the last game of the 6N is March 13th! Thankfully today, after scans on Monday evening, Eddie O’Sullivan announced that the pair “came through their scans last night, and it looks as if things aren’t as bad as we originally thought”. Great news!

What abouty the result against Italy? Well, that was a fairly close 28-17 to Ireland, and we’re still in the hunt for a Grand Slam this year thanks to our wonderful backs.

An interesting start to the tournament – we’ll see how the games go this week, with Ireland in Edinburgh and Wales in Rome on Saturday, and England away to France on Sunday.

Tags: sports, rugby, SixNations.