IT has Happened ~ Gatherings from Ireland # 348

Sitting over breakfast this morning, my brain went into ‘wordy’ mode ~ all sparked by thoughts of a van I saw the other day with the words You Surf and We Deliver. 

Back in 1973, a rather progressive scheme was introduced in our school. Sixth year pupils were paired with teachers to do a bit of work with the ‘kids’ in First Year.  My most vivid memory of all this was being ‘told’ by the teacher to prepare a presentation to give to the youngsters on How the World will be in Fifty Years Time.‘I ended up finding a piece in The Reader’s Digest that pointed to possible developments in relation to technology and gave a lip-wobbling talk about how robots and computers would make the world unrecognisable. The fact that I was a big Dr.Who fan influenced some of my more crazy predictions that day.

Dr Who 1970s
Image: http://www.starburstmagazine.com/

Computers in College needed whole rooms to themselves ~ big yokes like industrial fridges and printers that spewed out miles of incomprehensible code that you’d collect a few days after you’d pressed Print or whatever it was called then.

In 1990, I was catapulted out of my comfort zone and asked to lead a course on Social Aspects of Information Technology. Really, I hadn’t moved very far from Dr Who and the readings had elements of fantasy land about them.

This morning, so many familiar and double-edged words came floating by ~ tablets, not the kind you swallow; pins, a million miles away from the dress-maker who fascinated me by the way she could talk with a moutful of pins when she was fixing the hem of my box-pleated grey flannel school uniform; walls, no, not the lovely stone walls of places like Co. Clare or the walls that served as my tennis practice partners for so many years; Yahoo, anything but the galute, eejit, gombeen that my father meant when he’d laugh and say: What kind of a big yahoo have I reared?

But, nothing, just nothing has surprised me more in 2013 than the fact that hubby moved in the space  of 6 months from being a guy who had huge issues with hole in the wall cash machines to being addicted to his Smart Phone. This is a revolution to beat all revolutions and one that no one, just no one, could ever have predicted.

I wonder will I be needing to share these words, that make me chuckle,  with him sooner rather than later?

No one ever said on their deathbed, ‘Gee, I wish I had spent more time alone with my computer’. (Danielle Berry)

 

Tramore’s Surfing Santas ~ Gatherings from Ireland #5

There was a gathering here on Tramore Beach on Saturday that brought lots of cheer and smiles. It was a fundraiser for two children, Ethan and Ryan, from our community who have a rare medical condition.

Tramore is synonymous with surfing and the aptly named Freedom Surf School organised the event ‘Surfing Santas.’  It was a magnificent sight to see such a blaze of red and white Santas surfing the waves against a glorious sky which seemed set to add even more wonder to the occasion.

Waterford Waiting for the Tall Ships Festival 2011

Waterford’s Tall Ships Festival 2011 will be in full swing from June 30th-July 3rd. With this very much in mind, I write about the diverse range of boats and boating activity which are central to our lives here in Co. Waterford. The article is in Section Six of  Feature Writing.