My fiancée and I will be visiting Ireland for four days in early April, but we don't know where to go. We're flying in and out of Dublin, arriving at midday on Wednesday and leaving at 9am on Sunday. We'd like to spend two nights in Dublin, but we're not sure where we should go for the other two nights. We don't want to hire a car while we're there so we're limited to places accessible by public transport. Any suggestions?

Tennis, squash, and other sports

I was watching a bit of the Australian Open tennis on TV today. I saw bits of three matches. Alicia Molik was playing Amelie Mauresmo in the first match. Molik was very competitive, but seemed to let herself down at the crucial moments. The third game, between Andre Agassi and Paradorn Srichaphan, was similar. Srichaphan was competitive, particularly in the first set where he had five set points, but failed to capitalise on his opportunities. Later in the match he suffered a slight ankle injury which didn't help him.

Normally I don't watch a lot of tennis. I'd rather sit in front of the cricket or football (soccer, Australian rules, or rugby union). Speaking of cricket, yesterday's one day game between India and Zimbabwe was excellent. India scored 280 in their 50 overs and Zimbabwe stayed in the match right up until the last over, eventually falling three runs short.

Playing tennis is a very different matter, and I really enjoy it, much more so than cricket or football. I'm playing later this afternoon. I usually play against one of my mates from uni, which is excellent because we're so evenly matched. Last weekend we had a game of doubles, and the standard was very high.

At work we're having a squash tournament shortly. I wasn't too keen to go in it, but I was persuaded to do so. I've played in previous years, and found that squash never gives me the same level of enjoyment that tennis does. I find the enclosed court quite confining, and the speed of the game means I have trouble getting my timing right.

The digital photo experience

I'm getting some digital photos printed. On Thursday night we went to the movies (Underworld, very poor), and the Kmart at the shopping centre had a machine that would do prints for $0.47 each. This would have been great if we intended to go to the movies there next week, but it's too far out of the way just to pick up some photos.

On Friday, one of my friends tried installing the Agfanet printing software on his computer at work. It installed successfully, but he had trouble getting it to work, presumably due to a firewall or something.

Yesterday I went to a Kmart more convenient to me. They had a similar machine, but it was making prints instantly for the rather less appealing price of $1.50. At Coles supermarket they had a sign up saying "make prints from digital photos - ask us how!". So I asked how much they were. The woman there wasn't too sure of the price, but said she thought they were $99. I didn't press the matter further.

After that I went home, installed the software on a spare Windows box I had lying around, and spent two and a half hours uploading the photos. Perhaps I should have saved a lot of hassle and done that in the first place.

Australia Day fireworks

Monday January 26 is Australia Day, and as is the tradition in Perth there will be a big fireworks show over the river to celebrate. On the news last night they mentioned that Perth is spending $450,000 on the fireworks this year. In comparison, Hong Kong spent around $750,000 on their Chinese New Year fireworks. For a comparatively small city, I think Perth stacks up very well. The expected attendance is around 350,000. Not bad in a city of 1.3 million.

Australia Day is one of my favourite days of the year, almost entirely due to the fireworks tradition. We typically go down to the foreshore in the early afternoon, then relax in the company of good friends as we watch the crowd build up. The plan this year is to go to a mate's place for a barbeque lunch, then head down to the South Perth foreshore around 4pm. I'm looking forward to it.