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Friday, August 29, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Serene he stands...
Its midday and the sun is trying to break through the clouds and defeat a stiff offshore breeze.
There are only a few swimmers in the area that's marked out as the designated swimming area.
Yet the lifeguard stands at the waters edge - vigilant and ready to don his flippers and aid swimmers in difficulty.
I've noticed over here that the lifeguards patrol at the waters edge and don't all stay in their hut. They also have radios and a rescue boat which seem to be unavailable to Irish lifeguards (certainly the last time I was in Garryvoe they didn't have a boat or radios ) - I suppose the Celtic Tigers riches didn't get the chance to dribble down to such services.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Shozu problems ?
I've been using Shozu for a while to upload photos from my phone to this Blog and to Flickr.
However since the beginning of the month I've been getting an error that my account is suspended but I didn't get any notification of this.
I emailed shozu to no avail and from what I can read on their forum (hard work on a tiny screen) there doesn't appear to be much news out there...
Anyone else having problems ?
Monday, August 11, 2008
Oceanopolis - Brest
We visited Oceanopolis today. Got there shortly after 9 to beat the crowds. Left around 5 hours later.
Oceanopolis is a massive aquarium laid out in polar, tropical and temperate zones and is a wealth of information as well as gazillions of sea creatures. Its well worth making the visit and has good facilities for eating etc.
Its probably suited to kids that can read (or who will stay in the buggy) as its not a place than can be rushed through - rushing would do it an injustice. Get there early though as its popular - on one wet day last year over 8000 visited....
The drive was around two hours on dual-carriageway and it was boring. Thanks to satnav we got there sans problem and had advance wanring of fixed speed cameras. We noticed that in Brest we were brought on slightly out of the way routes but these were better than the madness of the main roads.
Musings
Sitting on the balcony and looking out at the sea. It's amazing the way the inbound hydrofoils from Jersey suddenly appear on the horizon on their way to St Malo. On Sunday we saw a cruise ship - all decked out in lights - cruise across leaving from St Malo. It had arrived that morning and laid anchor in St Servan and was using its tender boats to bring passengers to St Malo. Arriving by ship into St Malo in good weather would be a gorgeous sight withs its island forts and walled fortress town.
The beach across the road has a life cycle of its own - during the core of the day its families and traditional beach activities. Outside of that you have individual swimmers on their way to/from work as well as kite surfers and kite flyers. If its a high tide there's a buzzing swarm of kids on scooters arriving with their boards to ride the waves.
And of course not a hurdy-gurdy or sunlounger in sight !
