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My non-ranting, non-baby related news is that my dad has just recently attained the rank of Bridge Grand-Master…

We shall all now marvel….

I’m probably in for a slap with this one…

My dad has pointed out that its not technically the Summer Olympics but part of the Mind Olympics which takes place after all the running and jumping is over. It includes things like Go, which I think is Reversi/Othello, Draughts and of course Chess.

As you might be aware I come from a family of Bridge players (the O’Briain one in case there is any confusion) and although I don’t play myself for many and varied reasons I have been present at a number of competitons both in Ireland and once abroad.

Bridge, is now an Olympic sport, believe it or not. And if you’ve ever seen or met a bridge player, you may be in the not camp. Bridge players tend not to conform to the Olympian Ideal, some rooms allow smoking in them! They tend to drink, both coffee and alcohol. Some have been known to supplement fundseither playing rubber Bridge or poker. They enjoy their food. And it is a very sedentary game.

Originally, or so I had thought, Bridge was to have been a Winter Olympic Sport, but I have since learnt, as my father may be heading of too Bejing in September, much to my mother’s chagrin (as she will have to try and rearrange our holiday in Cork), it is now a Summer Olympic Sport. This is not good, I’ve been to Italy in the height of summer during with the Irish Bridge team for the Europeans some 12 years ago. It is not a pretty sight.

I rather imagine the Bridge players’ Olympic village with its steady stream of edible goodies and Chinese jet-fuel-like liquors with the rest of the atheletes looking on in a mixture of awe, envy and horror. But I suspect mostly envy.

Of course I’m dead chuffed that my dad might be going, although I have pointed out to him that he has to make sure he definitely gets on the team for 2012, when it will be in England.