I wish to extend my sympathies to my colleague Pat Brosnan on the death of his brother Andrew Brosnan recently. I also sympathise with John Quinn, Glenbawn, on the recent death of his sister.

Best wishes to the Estuary Macra group which was founded recently in the area. They held a fundraising quiz in Knockdown last Thursday night and it was lovely to see all the young men and women in camaraderie with one another.

I am following the Tomathon2012 walk on Facebook and it is great to see that on Monday night they had reached Portlaoise. Well done to them all. They seem to be enjoying the challenge and even take time out to do a bit of crossroad dancing, so the legs must be holding out well.

I was talking to my daughter in Perth recently and she was remarking on the different modes of transport people use to go to work out there. Some use buses, cars and taxis while other more adventurous people use skateboards and roller skates. You would see people dressed up in a business suit with sneakers underneath as they walk to the office or a lot of people dressed in their lycra in order to cycle or run to work, where they then have a shower on arrival. Most offices, apparently, are well kitted out with shower rooms for such travellers. All have bicycle racks and lockers as it is a very popular mode of transport. Of course the weather enables most to travel in whatever way they like as they do not have the constant threat of rain that we have here.

 And here we are at Listowel Races week already! So a hope of a summer has finally gone. Still, we may get a nice Autumn and Christmas.