Bakker Bugle Blog Say it three times fast. In Luxembourgish.

15 August 2008

Olympic “Nations” — Who Decides? Part 1

Filed under: sports — Will @ 18:03

Dave asked,

Great Britain enters a team into the Olympics, not the UK. So, I think that England, Wales, and Scotland play as one team. I think that Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland also play as one team in the Olympics. In FIFA Soccer competitions, all of these “countries” enter their own teams. What’s going on?

Note that this is even weirder considering that Puerto Rico, a territory of the US, has it’s own team in the Olympics. I just don’t get it.

First, an introduction to the relevant parts of the Olympic Charter. (more…)

12 August 2008

Olympics Coverage on RTE

Filed under: ireland,sports — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Will @ 19:10

Radio Telefís Éireann (RTE) is the Irish national broadcaster, and it is my source for the 2008 Olympics on television. Its coverage consists primarily of three programs: Olympics through the Night, Olympics AM, and Olympics Today. All three consist of live broadcasts as well as overviews and highlights. At any time from about midnight to 4pm, the Olympics is broadcast on one of RTE’s two television channels — but never both to this point.

I record all three programs every day, so I see all the events that RTE chooses to show — although I see many of them at 12x or 30x speed. RTE’s choices are shaped by the sports for which Irish athletes qualified and the events of (putative) Irish interest. These are quite different from what I remember of US coverage, but that should be no surprise.

Still, I am surprised by what I’ve seen. (more…)

11 August 2008

Newsflash: Baby Pigeon Sighted

Filed under: entertainment — Will @ 22:12

Where are all the baby pigeons? In my garden, for one.

About six weeks ago, pigeons built a nest on the balcony of the second floor of my building (that’s the first floor for European readers). Every day, they make an unholy mess of my basement-level deck and the nest sits precisely above a spot where I like to sit in the sun.

Today, the flying-rat-spawn (as Anita calls it) ventured from the nest. (more…)

2 August 2008

Kippure Mountain & Me

Filed under: entertainment,ireland — Tags: , , , , , — Will @ 21:43

Anita left me the car on Monday and the sun was out. Naturally, I headed south into the Wicklow Mountains. (Technically, I stayed in County Dublin some of the time, but you get the idea.)

I wanted to spend some time outside the city, and the harshness of the Wicklow Mountains always attracts me. I’d planned to bike on the Military Road at some point during the week. The weekend was beautiful (as you saw at the Kings of Concrete). But rain was on the way and it was getting too late for a real adventure.

A walk up Kippure Mountain was perfect for my purposes. (more…)

29 July 2008

Last Sunday: Festival of Street Culture

Filed under: dublin,entertainment,ireland,sports — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — Will @ 22:38

I learned about the Kings of Concrete festival late last week, and I barely remembered to go at midday on Sunday.

It was a gorgeous day, probably the warmest yet, and the sun was beaming its love upon the whole land. Just to walk to the Dublin City Council building was a joy. (more…)

23 July 2008

Summer Arrives!

Filed under: dublin,ireland — Tags: , , , , , — Will @ 20:40

It was summer today!
Hip hip, hooray!
It was a really warm day!
Maybe it will stay…

People swarmed all over the public spaces of Dublin’s city centre today, to enjoy one of what may be just a few summery days of the year. I had a few errands to do, and I found myself compelled to take the long way round. (more…)

19 July 2008

Last Saturday’s Minor Adventures

Filed under: consumer,ireland,travel — Will @ 17:02

In June, Anita, Will and Will’s parents went to the village of Avoca during a trip around the mountains south of Dublin (in County Wicklow). We were looking for the famous shopping spot, Avoca Handweavers. (more…)

16 July 2008

Links, 16 July 2008

Filed under: dublin,ireland,links,politics,travel,usa — Will @ 17:18

Links to peruse at your leisure, presented in no particular order. (more…)

15 July 2008

Books Report: Ireland and the Whole World

Filed under: culture,expat,ireland,politics — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — Will @ 9:09

During a few rainy, cold days in June, I devoured two books: Jared Diamond’s Collapse, and John Waters’s Jiving at the Crossroads. It’s been years since I read an entire book in a day or two, so this was sheer joy for me. Plus, the fact that both of them were non-fiction makes the books themselves even more remarkable. (more…)

10 July 2008

The BBB&B No-Rain Pledge™

Filed under: B&B,ireland — Tags: , , , , — Will @ 20:24

Since its founding, the Bakker Bugle Bed & Breakfast has provided a special experience for visitors to Ireland. This spring, the BBB&B started making that experience even more special, through the BBB&B No-Rain Pledge™. (See below for more details.)

We are proud to announce the preliminary results of our innovative Irish Precipitation Undermining Programme. (more…)

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