Life in Ireland

It turns out our random observations at the pub weren't all that uncommon . . . ~60% of pregnant women in Ireland continue to drink (and smoke) through the term of their pregnancy. What brought up this whole topic of conversation was that Whitney met a girl in the washroom in the pub one weekend and they struck up a conversation. The girl could barely stand, but was able to communicate the fact that she was out celebrating with her friends (what the event was, I'm not sure), but she also said that she was 5 and a half months pregnant!

Just by chance, when I picked up the paper on Monday, this was the leading story. I'm not really sure what the rates are like back home, but I never would have thought it was close to this - I can't really ever recall seeing a visibly pregnany girl lined up at the bar doing shots back home. This quote summed up most of the article:

"The highest percentage category, reporting drinking over 10 units per week, was the 18-24 year-olds, while more than two-thirds of all pregnant under-18 year olds reported drinking alcohol during pregnancy."

In other news, If you have been following along with my site, you know that the Rugby 6 Nations Tournament is in full swing over here. In trying to fit in with the "Irish Life" as much as possible I started looking into placing a small wager on a couple of the matches. There are bookies on just about every street, but the most popular is Paddy Power Sportsbooks. I looked them up online so that I would have a general idea of what/who to bet on, but was taken completely by surprize to find that you can bet on ANYTHING in this country. Who will be the next Pope? What's going to happen next on [insert TV show here]? Who will win the next election? and my personal favorite, What will the weather be like tomorrow?

These are all in addition to the typical sports bets that you can place. Speaking of which, they don't simply bet on a win-loss-tie, like at home. For a game of hockey you can place up to 60 different side bets (first/last to score, first/last to get a penalty, score totals at the end of each period, final score, etc.). This goes for every single sport around the world - they have betting lines for everything.

The thing I don't understand is that casinos are illegal in the country (but "private clubs" are alright).

As for other Irish vices, they have just passed a law banning the sale of 10-packs of smokes. Not exactly sure why this was done, but people are up in arms about in nonetheless. I've never seen such young kids smoke - I swear the kid I passed on the street on the way home from work was only about 7. Maybe they think that little kids can't afford to buy a 20-pack and getting rid of the 10-packs will stop them from lighting up . . .?

Tricia (Wone) has booked her flight and is definitely coming to Ireland in April (from the 1st-17th). My contract will be over by then, so I figure we'll do the tour of Dublin the first couple of days, then take off and backpack around the Republic and Northern Ireland - there is a whole lot more of the country that I want to see and this should be the perfect opportunity to get out and do it.