Inside track Mosquitoes are a major distraction for Mediterranean holidaymakers throughout the summer, but investing in insect repellents and using common sense will help to lessen the problem.
It's best to protect yourself through the use of a product such as Deet or by wearing longer sleeves and shorts. Mosquitoes and sandflies are particularly bad at this time of year, with dusk and dawn the worst parts of the day.
- Graham Fry, Tropical Medical Bureau, Dublin
Cool for kids
The National Concert Hall's series of summer events should be fun for children. This weekend it is holding workshops in making masks, for six- to eight-year-olds, and in making instruments, for nine- to 12-year-olds. Tickets are €12. Later in the month it will be giving children the chance to hone their rhythm and form an instant orchestra (August 21st and 22nd, €8), among other events. For more information call 01-4170006 or visit www.nch.ie/education/ whatson.asp
- Louise Holden
Watch out
"The beach was made up of the most magnificently polished and rounded pebbles of quartz, jasper, sandstone, limestone and flint . . ." That's from By Cliff And Shore, in which Michael Fewer describes the Waterford coast. His unfrequented beach was beside a cliff of boulder clay - the mix of rocks, stones and silt dragged along under Ice Age glaciers. This is typical of much of the south-eastern coast, where storms have tumbled masses of rock fragments, in great variety, into the tide. Such cliffs of glacial till are also on the west coast.
- Michael Viney
Stars and gripes
Peter O'Brien, fashion designer
Best holiday
When I rented a farmhouse in Provence. I loved the atmosphere, the food and the whole lifestyle. It reminded me a lot of the west of Ireland. It was quite rugged and there were no tourists around. I'm not very good at holiday-resort vacations.
Worst holiday
When I took some very bad advice from a friend and went to Mykonos, one of the Greek islands, in the middle of August. It was loud and full of people walking around with no clothes on, just like what's happened to Ibiza. We managed about three days of it and then escaped.
- In conversation with Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
Get out
Where to go, what to see: For entertainment listings, see The Ticket, every Friday in The Irish Times, or go to www.ireland.com/theticket
For other events see the What's On column in the main paper every Thursday and the Saturday magazine
Off the shelf
Under The Banner Of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, Macmillan,
£17.99 in UK
Although by no means light reading, this is a fascinating account of how two seemingly ordinary Americans became murderers. At a time when "fundamentalism" conjures up images of the Middle East, Krakauer discusses the fundamentalism of thousands of breakaway Mormons in the US, whose values are both shocking and deeply disturbing.
- Kevin Connolly, The Winding Stair bookshop, Dublin
