Pucadinga’s Blog

First glimpse of Ireland

Ireland has been just as cold, if not colder than Wales. Temperatures only climb to an average of 4-8 degrees and much colder at night. Frost can be seen nearly everywhere, and it doesn’t have the chance to melt before night comes around once again. One thing noticeable is that Dublin has not rained at all for the full duration we have been here, which has been nearly a full week. This should be considered unusual as it is approaching the middle of winter in Europe, but hey, who’s complaining?

We arrived in Dublin, Ireland without any trouble, and people from Irish Badminton picked us up promptly at the airport, and took us to The Clarion Hotel

Clarion Hotel

. I must first mention that the flight we went on from Cardiff to Dublin was the fastest and most efficient flight I have ever been on. The flight got off to a good 5min head start as we left early from Cardiff, and we ended up flying faster and getting to Dublin 15min early. After landing, we felt like we were taxiing at 100km/h, and we were taxied in just a few minutes. The plane door literally opened 30 seconds later, and before we knew it we were off the plane and on the airport bus going to our gate to collect our luggage. All this happened in less than a duration of 5min, why can’t they be like this all the time?

Clarion Hotel I must say is extremely nice, and luxury. It has everything you can possibly ask for in a Hotel, spacious rooms, free internet, fridge, nice showers, etc…The only thing I would have liked is cooking facilities, but it is a Hotel after all.

Clarion Hotel Room

Our first session of training at the Dublin Baldoyale Badminton Hall was a freezing one, and the floors were mighty slippery without any mats. We were told that the tournament was going to be held there, but our match against the Leinster Irish Club will be elsewhere. We were originally going to also have a team match against the Irish National Squad, however that seemed to have turned to custard as there were some complications as we were told when we arrived in Dublin. As we arrived at the Leinster Club Hall, we were told further-more in regards to the uncertainty of the team match as we waited, due to the lack of availability of players.

Baldoyale Badminton Hall, Dublin

This was unfortunate, as we were looking forward to some good games against the Irish! We ended up doing our own training in the hall as the lack of availability of players became reality. The Irish hospitality has been great through-out though, and they were equally disappointed if not more in regards to their inability to have a team match with us. 

The next day we had to travel to a little club outside Dublin called Kilcullen, where they have organized a fun night for their Juniors and Seniors to come along and watch us train, and then have some fun hitting with us. The hospitality was superb, and the kids were great. Everyone was so thankful and really nice, which made everything worthwhile. We were afterwards taken to a home of one of the organizers to have some home-made dinner, dare I say it’s the best meal I have had so far!!

Breakfast @ Clarion Hotel

Team at Dinner in Kilcullen

Nice...

We had 2 days in between to prepare for the Yonex Irish International, which was being held at the Baldoyale Badminton Hall. Friday came pretty quick and before we knew it, we were at the hall warming up for our matches. We all had reasonably tough draws, and amongst the Kiwis no one managed to make it to the quarter-finals this time. Personally I felt much better than the last tournament, but still lack the pace and experience. It was still obvious that we (the Kiwis) still lack a lot of experience and still not used to playing in these tough European Tournaments. Hopefully we will all step-up in our final tournament in Italy!

Yonex Irish International 2008

Tomorrow early morning we leave for Rome, Italy on an early flight. Tonight we were starving and tried to find some Asian food to relieve our hunger. The receptionists at the Hotel weren’t exactly helpful in this aspect, as they have been told to only promote their Hotel restaurant. After some lengthy discussion we decided to taxi to the nearest Chinese takeaway and get some food from there. Little did we know that the taxi, upon arrival, had 9 euros on the meter already, and ended up charging us 13 euros to get to the Takeaway! The Chinese Takeaway was good though, reasonably priced, and good proportions. After ordering the food, we soon realized that we had no means of getting back to the Hotel, and we weren’t super keen to pay another 13 euros just to get back to the Hotel. We saw the takeaway menu, and the menu said delivery was possible for a small price, and suddenly an idea popped up, and we wondered if “we” can be delivered together with our food back to the Hotel…
Pretty funny idea we thought, but nothing to lose really, so we paper-scissors-rocked to see who would be the unlucky one to break the question. Henry was the unfortunate one this time, and he went up to the counter:

Henry: “Hey, err, I saw on the menu you do deliveries for a small extra price right? We are from overseas, and we don’t have any way to get back to our Hotel, are you able to deliver us back to our Hotel with our food?”

Takeaway Assistant (puzzled look): “Yes we do deliveries. The cost depends on what zone you are in, and you can phone in next time to get your food delivered.” answered the shop assistant.

Henry: “Sorry, I mean, WE don’t have any way to get back to our Hotel NOW, so we wondered if you can deliver US back to our Hotel? We will pay.”

Finally the shop assistant understood, and eventually the driver came back. We agreed that he would drop us back in our Hotel for 8 euros, not bad, as we are saving a whole 5 euros for the trip! We can’t help it but think; What tight-asses we are!!!

Shopping in Dublin City

Doubles Squad after Gymming (minus Catherine!)

Nice Picture!!