Dublin...finally

I thought I was cursed to never get there...my flight out was delayed for hours because of the weather in Dublin...and when I landed...white-out! I missed the bus into the city from the airport because I couldn't see the bus stop and had to wait another 30 min in the snow!
The hotel was nice, but it was opposite the Christchurch Cathedral so the bells rung all night...every 15 minutes, not great when you're trying to sleep, you can hear what the time is all night.
It was freezing, and snowed (not settling) for the first 2 days, but it was kind of nice. Its better if its snowing and not raining, its still dry, and everything looks cleaner covered in white.

 You can't really see the snow in the photos, but it was only about -2C.
Dublin is a great city to explore, you can get most places on foot and I was staying in the Temple Bar which is the tourist epicenter, but still full of pubs as you'd expect (most charge for the Irish music and dancing though).

I did the cultural things first. There's a place called the Chester Beatty Library which has one of the the world's best collections of rare books and manuscripts, very impressive. More interesting was a little place called Marsh's Library (which I saw on a TV show a few months ago), its the first public library, founded in 1702, and hasn't changed since 1800. The old books are all locked up, but they are all original editions. You can ask to see a reference book, but the librarian has to handle it with gloves. They have books on display in glass cases, this month the subject was science and they had editions of works by Newton and Galileo. I though that was pretty cool.

Marsh's Library est 1702

That afternoon - lifelong ambition - the Guinness factory (Guinness Storehouse as its called). Its situated in the original brewery which closed in the 80's. it really is a big tourist trap but  it is done so well. The Guinness people (and I suppose the Irish as a whole) are the masters of alco-tourism.
You walk in at the bottom and you have about 5 levels of the old brewery to cover the history of and process of making Guinness. Each section has a video featuring a man who is one of the brewers who is so excited about Guinness, but each video must have been filmed at different times because his hair is longer or clothes more dishevelled in some videos, but not in order.

By the time you have got up to the fourth level, you are absolutely gagging for a pint. Genius! You get a coupon for one free pint only (sad) and you can either use that to pour your own on the fourth floor bar, or use it in the rooftop bar. Some English people were queuing up with me for the pour your own, but still wanted a drink up top like me. We were told we could pay an extra 5 euro (which is the cost of a pint in Dublin) for the pouring and use the coupon up top. We conveniently forgot to pat the 5 (as the suggestion of the barman - but I think he says that a lot) and still got the freebie on the rooftop. Luck o' the Irish!! Scam!

Bucket list!

Needless to say, we stayed until it closed and went to the nearest pub for more pints. Back into town, and we went to pubs not in the tourist area, its true, the Irish are really friendly in their pubs and I ended up in a pun called Mulligan's listening to jokes all night.
The next day I went to this little old church I was told about where there is a crypt underneath 800 years old with mummies in it. A little Irish tour guide stroke amateur actor gives you the history/performance piece and at the end you can go into the crypt and shake that hand of the mummy who was a crusader - for good luck! Only in Ireland.
After that,  alco-tour number 2, the Jameson's Whiskey factory. Not as good as Guinness, but free samples, which were perfect on a cold day.

Dublin is a great city, pubs are fantastic and great food. Its also more cosmopolitan than you would think.
I would love to live there for a while too, but stuck in Cardiff for a few more months.
Daylight saving has started here, seems weird while its still so cold but at least I'm seeing more daylight. I think I've got that S.A.D. from lack of sunlight.
Until next time....

Molly Malone - cockles and mussels and boobs

Oscar Wilde- pre prison

Been a while

I know its been a while, I have been busy, we had a go-live at work, which is the culmination of all the work I've done for the past 6 months (and what I'm paid to do here). Did it go well? It was not the best I've been involved in but we got there in the end. Now we're in the mopping up and hand-holding phase of a project (which I will be stuck with until I leave).

Enough about work, but I did hold up the go-live date for one day because Peter Laukens was in the country for a weekend, couldn't pass up the chance for a big weekend, and an "old-times" weekend because I first meet Pete and Ann in London 25 years ago...can you believe that! (I knew Charmaine before that from working at the Alfred).

Pete flew in on the Friday night from Germany where he'd been on a week-long (I would say, Pete would differ) junket.

The Saturday was our big day out in Old London Town. We caught the train in from Ann and Raj's at Kings Langley, got of at Euston and hit our first pub, the Euston Tap which is in a old war memorial.

Hit the West End, City, Southwark and ended up in my old neighbourhood, Whitechapel in the East End, where we caught up with Charmaine and Ian in a cool East London bar (its for hipsters now, not like I lived there, but I always knew it had potential, just 20 years too late!).

Had to have a curry in Brick Lane, and we ended up in a typical East End boozer listening to the locals do karaoke.

On the Sunday, Pete and I drove down to Charmaine and Ian's in Hampshire so Pete could see the house and we had lunch in a local pub. Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding...again, it seems compulsory to have a Sunday roast in a pub.

The food in most pubs is good generally, but I find it a bit samey in the end. It could be worse though like it was 20 years ago. Cafe and coffee shop food is horrible, its all pre-packaged, even it little cafes. 

Monday, Ann and I showed Pete the best the UK has to offer...Hemel Hempstead town centre. I had to get back to Wales later that day and Pete flew back to Aus.

Great to see someone from home, especially since Pete and I met in London all those years ago...we can still hit it hard...as long as we could get the last train home!