Its Ten-Ten-Ten or 10/10/10 today, or if you are pedantic its 10th October 2010. Nothing special happened today except in 732AD Charles Martel and the Franks defeated a large Andalusian Muslim army led by Abd er Rahman at the Battle of Tours thus “saving” Europe from Islamic domination. I also realized that I have not blogged an entry in 4 months. There is not a lot to blog about.

The family had a nice holiday in Lisbon which is a very child friendly city and where my Daughter fell in love with the old trams and showed a love of Flying and airplanes – so much so she frequently asks to go to the airport to watch planes take of and land. On the flight back from Lisbon and just as the plane hit the runways and started to violently jolt from side to side as it decelerated my Daughter Maeve started to giggle with joy. When the plane eventually stopped jolting and slowed down she start to shout towards the pilots cabin “Again. I want to do it Again”.

Maeve has come along rapidly these last four months. She is almost completely potty trained and her English has improved a lot for one who is only two and a half. Phrases such as “No Daddy don’t do that – your are bad boy”, “Is Daddy going on the cho-cho (train)” are common. Her memory and understanding are progressing a pace to. For example we went down the village show for some “Bread, Milk, Pop and Potatoes” – and Maeve remembered the list without prompting. When we got to the shop I asked here what we were looking for and she recited the list off pat before pointing out the items on the shelves. Impressive.

As onto grander things Ireland is still in a deep recession. My family have been lucky so far, but many friends are now out of work and things look bleak for the immediate future. I know we all have to suffer, but the politicians and their backers in the banks and building trade seem to still have their noses in the troughs. All this doom and gloom reminds me of the 1970’s and 1980’s recessions which were pretty bad. Why did not the government realize we seem to a “downward spiral” every 10-20 years and plan for it and base most of the tax income off the one source? Pretty dumb.

Anyway time to look at something positive – my mom is throwing her 70th Birthday party next weekend.