Thirteen-year-old Kyle Nolan punches for victory at the stage area for Olympic Gold medalist Katie Taylor’s homecoming. It is taking place at the seafront in Bray, Co Wicklow this evening. (Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

THESE ARE THE things you need to know as we round off the day in three easy steps.

THINGS WE LEARNED

#LONDON 2012 Our athletes returned home today, with a small reception held to welcome them at Dublin Airport.  Medal winners were showing off their prizes as they disembarked from an Aer Lingus aircraft shortly before 2pm. The airport’s air traffic control welcomed them home in their own style – have a listen here.

#HOUSEHOLD CHARGE The agency responsible for collecting the controversial €100 household charge has said it will send a second batch of reminder letters to households which have not already paid up. The Local Government Management Agency says a second notice to non-paying households will be issued “in the next few weeks”.

#TIA SHARP Stuart Hazell is to go forward for trial charged with the murder of his girlfriend’s granddaughter, Tia Sharp. The body of the 12-year-old was found in her grandmother’s house on Friday night.  Hazell appeared at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court via video link this morning.

#NORWAY Norwegian authorities could have prevented the first of twin attacks that killed 77 people in July 2011 – and arrested Anders Behring Breivik sooner, a new report said today. The independent commission tasked with reviewing the authorities’ response to the attacks submitted their report today, and were harshly critical of both the police and the government.

#ELECTION 2012 US president Barack Obama has described Mitt Romney’s pick for vice presidential running mate, Paul Ryan, as the “ideological leader” of the Republicans in Congress. He described him as a decent family man, but said he “fundamentally disagreed” with Ryan’s vision for the USA.

THINGS WE LOVED

• Leo the pup was brought into a Bray vet’s surgery in terrible health - we loved how Pete Wedderburn was dedicated to saving the young pup’s life, and was able to use the story to inform pet owners of some important issues. Catch up on Leo the Shih Tzu’s story (and pictures) and read more about what Wedderburn has to say about ‘meaningless’ vaccination certificates’.
• We love Google’s doodles – who doesn’t? – and we’re not the only ones who want to know more about them. Thanks to BBC News, we can take a look behind the scenes at what goes on with the team behind the search engine’s incredible doodles.
• How to travel the world in a few steps… Little Leopold Pross (2), from London, takes a leap across the Atlantic Ocean, part of ‘Our World in LEGO Bricks’ outside the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre in London.  The giant world map was built by 4,000 members of the public, and is made up of more than one million LEGO bricks in 21 different colours. Makes our childhood LEGO experiments look pathetic in comparison…  (Matt Alexander/PA Wire)

THINGS WE SHARED

• A group of fishermen were out on the ocean when they spotted a whale – and he definitely wanted to get up close and personal, as we can see from this video.
• If you’re looking to take up an unusual hobby, can we suggest finding insects at the dead of night? That’s what New York City’s chief naturalist Mike Feller does, and many people are fascinated by his job, as detailed in the New York Times.
• It rains more than it shines in Ireland these days, so Murphy’s has decided to centre its new ad campaign around this very fact. We love this ad not (we hasten to add) because we’ve been paid to, or because we encourage drinking every time it rains – but because the affable gentleman advertising it has the best Cork accent we’ve heard in a long time. For that alone, he makes today’s Evening Fix.

(murphyswhenitrains/youtube)