Team Marksy

I'm on my way back from England with work. I've been away for two days (one night) and was away two nights last week. This isn't normal for me at all. I normally don't fly with work, but I'm working on a fairly intense SAP implementation - its my first one and I'm working on it with just my manager. So what have I learnt? Travelling with work puts a lot of strain on family life. Kids start complaining to their teachers about their daddy flying away, wives struggle to balance everything with just one pair of hands (I guess moving house tomorrow isn't helping) and young sons lose a little of their confidence and swagger. Poor old daddy has project pressures and guilt. It has to be done to pay the bills, but kudos to those who do it regularly, because I'd hate it. No amount of nice hotel steak could convince me. I'll be happy to see out the project successfully and retreat to my desk!

Lathar Na means the lands of Lathar - Lathar being the son of an Irish High King. It is anglicised as Larne, on the North East Coast of (Northern) Ireland. It is the oldest inhabited spot in Ireland, and has been visited by Romans and Vikings. The Vikings liked it more than the Romans and stayed for a bit. It is my home town, where I still live. We fight dragons in the winter..... I was walking the dog along our old Victorian promenade the other night. The promenade runs along Waterloo Bay, an area of eroded limestone cliffs, atop a basalt shelf, with granite shot through by tectonic uplift. It was a clear starry night after another wet day. The waterfall beside the promenade was in full flow, where sometimes it is a tiny trickle. There wasn't a sinner about so I had the dog off the lead, charging about. Suddenly he stopped to stare into the darkness below the promenade. There on the rocks was a large heron. It looked at us and flew off. I chuckled to myself and though

Geocaching as many people will know, and others will not, is a giant global treasure hunt, with more than 2.5 million 'treasures' or geocaches located in various countries. It uses GPS to locate these and the most accessible way for most people is through an app on your phone - just search for 'geocaching' or 'Groundspeak' in your app store. The main website for all of this is www.geocaching.com  - please go there to learn some more. It's essentially using multi-million pound satellites to find tupperware in the woods. I'm by no means an expert having only found, at the time of writing, 32 geocaches. Most of these have been around Larne. However, I love this game. It allows me a good excuse to get my kids outdoors and having a little adventure. The kids love it too, as they inevitably get to swap some small treasure for another. Most of my finds have been with one or both of the kids in tow. One of  the best things about it is that there are so ma