Inside Track: Budgeting is an important part of a holiday: be careful not to overspend. When people are away they tend to rack up credit-card bills, so they can get in a little over their heads.
Traveller's cheques can be a way to avoid this problem, as the amount of money you can then spend is limited. But remember: traveller's cheques are covered by insurance only when they are in places such as the hotel safe. If they are stolen without due care taken, they won't be covered. - Dave Matthews, Irish League of Credit Unions
Cool for kids
Fort Lucan, in west Co Dublin, has an assault course, tower walks, water slides, pendulum swings, crazy golf, go-karts and lots more supervised activities for children between the ages of two and 14. Families can take advantage of outdoor and indoor picnic areas. Admission is €8.50 for children; they must be accompanied by an adult, who pays €3, although that includes tea or coffee. Call 01- 6280166 or see www.fortlucan.com. - Louise Holden
Watch out
Among birds it's not just flycatchers that catch flies. You can see feats of vertical take-off and hovering by robins and wrens, chaffinches, warblers and wagtails. Biologists have noted that "starlings that have not caught flies for some time may go through the motions of catching and eating non-existent flies". But mostly, in an Irish August, the flies exist all right. People returning from pesticidal England can be taken aback at how often they must clean the windscreen on the road home from Rosslare. - Michael Viney
Stars and gripes - Paul Muldoon, poet
Best holiday
In January in Jamaica. In addition to lying around for 10 days we also stirred ourselves to take a bike trip into the Blue Mountains. That's to say we were bussed up and freewheeled down, admiring Ian Fleming's Goldeneye retreat along the way.
Worst holiday
The very same one. We'd left our winter clothes in the car at the airport hotel. As we flew home we heard that airports were closing down along the east coast of the US. A major blizzard. We ended up in JFK [in New York\] rather than back in Philadelphia. Three days later I was finally back at the hotel, pouring boiling water over the frozen lock of my car. - in conversation with ... Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
Off the shelf
The Ninth Life Of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen, Bloomsbury, £9.99 in UK
Louis is in a coma after an accident on a picnic with his estranged parents. The narrative switches between the efforts of Louis's doctor to understand what went on that day and a portrayal of the mind of a troubled nine-year-old boy and his family. Childhood is unsentimentally evoked, love is questioned and the truth is elusive. A fascinatingly original mix of psychological thriller and neurological case study. - Stephen J. Place, Hodges Figgis
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
