My two favourite pastimes - golf and genealogy - competed for my attention all week, and at no time have they been more in conflict than the past few days.
After years of waiting and hoping, the Irish vital records were released - hopefully unlocking some mysteries that have been driving me crazy. I wanted nothing more than some uninterrupted time and maybe a cup of coffee, to peruse them online. They are still waiting for me and one day this week I shall turn off the phones and settle in for a good long excavation of information.
Here it is Sunday evening after an exhilarating, if more than a little bit busy, weekend. I was pulled in two directions. The conflict between playing golf and continuing the family history quest was never more at issue. I needed to be two places at once. In the end, I split the time as best I could and overall I think I made the right time allocations.
Over many hours during the past week, working with my co-organizer, both at home and at the golf club, we got everything ready for the multiple-match play format for our Williams Cup event. This is where a team of ladies from the morning league takes on a team of ladies from the afternoon. We kept the same three match play formats but instead of players being assigned only one format over 18 holes, everyone played three formats, for 6 holes each. Tricky but generally enjoyed by the players.
For the first 5 years of this event the morning ladies have won and only last year did the afternoon ladies wrest the trophy from their grasp. Today the afternoon ladies won by a large margin. To a non-golfer an explanation of the hows and whys would be boring. Suffice it to say that with wide-ranging handicaps it is very hard to find a format where one team does not hold a huge advantage.
It was so much fun today - I was not playing - just setting up, following the matches and doing the scoring, that I never made it to the conference for the very compelling talks that I'd been looking forward to. The promise of tasty snacks afterwards was another reason. They didn't disappoint but I digress. My fingers are crossed that the presentations were successfully recorded and available on the BIFHSGO website where I can "attend" them at my leisure.
The weekend actually started on Thursday evening with a reception at the home of the new Irish ambassador to Canada where we had a special presentation by Maurice Gleason that set the stage perfectly for the conference. The coffee and scones in that beautiful setting topped off the evening.
Friday night the conference had started wonderfully with the Whiteside Lecture about the events in Ireland around 1916 to 1922. I spoke with a few friends of my plans to spend the coming Winter in Ireland, researching and writing. I really want to be in a town with some shops and a library that I could walk to and not have to drive everywhere. My first choice was Bunclody, Co Wexford, still in the heart of Byrne country, and minutes from family. But I'd had no luck finding anything. A chance conversation with Shirley Monkhouse led her to recommend Moss Cottage. So - I checked it out online, sent an inquiry to the owners and Saturday morning's email brought their reply. Moss Cottage would be mine for the winter at a good price, and it has even more space and amenities than I had dreamed of. The day could not have started better.
The talks were terrific and as usual at these events, stirred up the old motivation to keep learning and digging and writing. It is wonderful to re-charge the battery and jump start all those projects I'd been trying to get around to. Saturday evening was nicely wrapped up with a fine dinner at Summerhays Grill with fellow participants, and topped off with the Northern Lights presentation on Parliament Hill. We even managed to get back to the car just as the rain, thunder and lightning were starting their own light show.
Today the plan was to get the Williams Cup event underway at Hylands and send the lady golfers out on their quest to win points for the team then head to the conference. Once that was done it was just so much fun catching up with the team, watching some great shots, recording all of the scores that I couldn't get away for the final conference presentations. The decision wasn't easy but I couldn't pass up the camaraderie at Hylands.
So as I sit here typing I can reflect on a wonderful week that unfolded as it should. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to showing off some Ottawa highlights to an out-of-town speaker from the conference, and then settling down with the Irish vital records at last.
The coming week certainly has the calendar quite filled up but there are spaces for some alone time with the computer. Perhaps I should let it rest now and cool off so I'll call it a day.
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