Starting young

After a work session, I set out this afternoon to go on this. Judging by the crowds walking in that direction along with me, there must have been something on in the Point Theatre this evening, and that may also have explained why the queue to go on the Dublin Wheel was so long. So I gave up on that idea. Since I'd made it down this far on the north side of the river, I decided to go across the East Link bridge and return on the far side. That's when I spotted seaman-like activity down below on a pontoon I don't remember noticing before. It looked as if there was access down to the pontoon, and I thought it could be blip-worthy if I got down there, so I went to investigate.

As it happened, the pontoon is part of St Patrick's Rowing Club, Ringsend, and there was no direct public access. Just beside the club house was this plaque, complete with an original approach to punctuation. I was just walking away, wondering what 'hobblers' were when two guys came out of the club house and came over to talk to me. They wondered if I'd like them to stand beside the plaque for a photo. I told them I was okay in that department, but innocently enquired about hobblers. That innocent question led to a remarkable encounter with Gabriel Murphy, who brought me down to the pontoon to see the boat up close, explained that hobblers were oarsmen who rowed while standing up, and went on to invite me inside the club house to see more boats, to examine their weight-training facility, and to view their extensive photo gallery upstairs. Talk about enthusiasm! I learned from Gabriel that the club's newest boats (that's one of them he's pictured beside) were made by a guy who came over specially from Cornwall, and that the Club will celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary next year.

When I finally got away, Gabriel urged me to drop in any time, not to be a stranger, and to make sure to keep an eye out for further news about next year's celebrations. It was a really wonderful encounter, and it was touch and go to devote today's blip to it, but ? I continued along the south shore of the river and found my way to Grand Canal Dock. It was during a bit of a wander around here that I stumbled on this father-and-son moment, whipped out the camera one more time, and captured the moment. Sorry, rowing club, but I couldn't resist it. This just had to be today's blip.

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Finally, I've plugged the unsightly 2-day gap which I'd forgotten about. It's a month ago now, and I only remembered that it needed to be filled when I spotted the approach of blip number 1200 coming up. This was 1197 when I uploaded it, but now that this and this have been uploaded, suddenly I'm up to 1199. Sure, 1200 isn't anything all that special. No need to panic. It isn't as if it justifies a celebration. Still, it isn't every day the counter clicks over to yet another hundred. Maybe, just maybe there'll be something special tomorrow ...