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!

Just work

Not much to report on for the month of February, unless you want to hear about how bad work is at the moment. I haven't spent a weeknight at home the whole month, and basically I get home late on a Friday night and usually have to leave again Sunday night or really early Monday. So weekends are spent washing (it takes my washing machine over 3 hours to wash and semi dry) and my most loathed activity - ironing.
I did get to London one Sunday to catch up with Jason and Rachael for lunch in a new trendy restaurant, it was OK but expensive, but it didn't compare with my new favourite pub in the Valleys.
We took a train up to Pontypridd (birthplace of Tom Jones) one Saturday where my friends had found a great pub called Bunch of Grapes.
It is up in the valleys, the sort of place you would not expect this gem, as soon as I went in I thought... This is my dream pub. Locally brewed craft ales, really really good food, and about half the price you'd pay in London. I did get back there with a work colleague from the USA the week after for the great British Sunday tradition, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. I found out that the only game you can play for money legally in a pub in Wales is cribbage. I wish I could remember how to play it, my dad used to...fifteen one, fifteen two...

Most of my time now is spent in Pembrokeshire, the southwest point of Wales, which apparently has beautiful country side and beaches but I never get to see it.  Its somewhere I'll have to take my parents when they get here.

App crazy

Just bought a Google tablet so I'm just trying to blog on it. Already downloaded too many useless apps and draining the battery too quickly. But it's fun. :-)

Snow long, Dublin.....

Right, last weekend was my only really free weekend before my work kicks off in a big way for about 2 months. So I booked a flight from Cardiff to Dublin on the Friday to return on Sunday. I've only ever been to Dublin once before, that was with Paul Sellenger, and we flew in and drove the next day for the week in Ireland. (Can't remember all that much, ask Paul, all we really remember is cheap smoked salmon and LOTS of Guinness).
The weather has been cold since Xmas, but the report said they were expecting below freezing temps and snow storms for South Wales last Friday morning. I thought...meh, it won't be that bad in Cardiff, we're right on the ocean. WRONG!

Woke up that morning and this was the view from my window...and it only got worse.
Radio said there was chaos on the roads, the M4 closed (so I couldn't go to work if I wanted to) and Cardiff airport closed. Checked the website, it said that my flight was still scheduled and I should check in, but all the roads to the airport were closed. So, what are you meant to do? I got in the car and drove out there...very slowly. I haven't really driven in the snow before, when I got to a big roundabout I hit the brakes, the ABS kicked in and I just skidded slowly backwards around the roundabout. Lucky the roads were relatively empty.
Got to airport and checked in, but every other flight out was cancelled. An hour later my flight was confirmed cancelled, so they put me on a flight for that afternoon. I went home, kept checking the updates and watched the snow come down harder. Finally saw that the afternoon flight was cancelled too. Aaargh! Rang Aer Lingus (no jokes please) and they put me on a flight for the next day, but it wasn't worth going then so they refunded me. All I wanted to do was go to the Guinness Factory I have my ticket still, so I'll just have to wait.

At 3pm, the guys I go to the local with rang to see if I'd got away. They were at the pub already...well no-one could get to work. (I know everybody says this, but it's not as if it's never snowed in the UK before or they don't get enough warning, but the snow does really shut the country down) So I thought I have a few Guinnesses anyway. It was fun, snowball fight in the so-called beer garden, lots of people there with the same excuse (couldn't get to work).

After too many hours and too many drinks it was finally time for the challenge I'd been dared to take...that British delicacy...pickled eggs!

Mmmm...pickled egg

Tastes as good as it sounds

That didn't end well. I can still taste them....I will have to blog about the food situation here another time.

So last week I was out in Pembrokeshire for work the whole week, it was cold but didn't snow where I was working or staying, but it would have been a effort if I wanted to get back to Cardiff. It was sleeting the whole way back yesterday, took 5 hours to get home, but the snow has all melted now and its back to the usual miserable grey skies. Not even cold enough for long johns (they're the best!).

I've just joined the modern world and bought a tablet today, a Google Nexus 7, I don't know how I ever got on without one before...even though its still charging and I haven't turned it on yet. There's the rest of my weekend gone.

Oh yeah, Happy Australia Day. I dropped into the only Aussie Pub in Cardiff, Walkabout, this afternoon....really don't think we'll be going back tonight...pretty tragic in there.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

That means Happy New Year in Welsh, though I didn't hear anyone say it that way in da club. Gangnam Style ushered in 2013 in Cardiff as I suppose it did every else around the world. Over it.
New Year's Eve started off with drinks at my Kiwi friends Josh and Pip's place the we met the others down the local pub, The Packet. That was boring so we jumped in a cab and into Cardiff city for some clubbin'.
First on was called Retro, but I don't know what's retro about Call Me Maybe and Gangnam Style, but what the hey. Don't know the names of the next two clubs but the last one was the best, called Live Lounge I think, it was packed but great music and a great crowd. I would never go the a club at home any more...way too old... but here all ages like to go out to clubs, I definitely wasn't the oldest bloke there.
The city was full of people and there are lots of pubs, clubs and cafes open. Cardiff is really well organised for this sort of thing, whether its NYE or a big game at the Millennium Stadium. All the streets are closed off to traffic and all the entertainment is within walking distance. Police are around but not in your face and there are plenty of taxis and night buses to get people home.
Cardiff is meant to be the binge drinking capital of the UK, but I didn't see any fights or street pizzas (vomit) on the pavement like you would in Melbourne. Weird having NYE in the middle of winter though.
No night out in Cardiff is complete without a visit to Chip Alley at the end. Its a laneway full of chippies and kebab shops, always popular after 1 am. I can't do the chips with chicken curry sauce which is the food of choice in Wales, but at 3 am chips with cheese and gravy with a weird deep-fired Welsh rissole on top was just the thing for our walk back to the Bay.

Sorry about the quality of the photos, crappy phone camera.

Fuzz on horseback

In Da Club!

Welsh raver

Queue at Chip Alley

Not really suffering today, I've just been out for a walk around to the Barrage, and watched the boats come in and out of the locks, the sun was actually out and no rain for the first time in a month. Got the last Batman movie on Sky tonight, but I'm really hanging out for my hangover cure, a Four'n'Twenty pie!

Happy 2013 to you all!

Merry Christmas (not white!)

Well, its Boxing Day in the UK, and following tradition we've just got back from the sales. Ann and Raj bought a new Dyson and I went looking for a Nexus 10 tablet, but there were none in stock.
I was lucky to have Ann and Raj invite me to their place for Christmas with Ann's parents Jim and Jean. They live in King's Langley, which is here, though the house on Google maps isn't their's. Its about a 3 hour drive from Cardiff on the M4 and M25, I drove here on Sunday to beat the Xmas eve traffic, which has been made worse by the flooding in South Wales, the trains were out for a few days. Christmas chaos!

Ann had been prepping and cooking for days, Christmas lunch is a big deal here, like it is at home. It seems the 2 must haves for Christmas dinner in the UK are brussels sprouts and little sausages wrapped in bacon, which we had. I did eat some brussels sprouts which were cooked with bacon and hazelnuts to be polite, though nothing can disguise the taste. Turns out nobody really likes them, so there's about half a kilo leftover in the fridge.

Even though its been really cold (I've had to buy de-icing spray and an ice scraper for the car) its been raining heavily for about a week and the temperature has risen to the giddy heights of 10C...so no white Christmas this year.
FACT: there were only 4 Christmas days in London with snow last century, and there have been 2 already in this century, so the likelihood of this year being white was always pretty slim.

Xmas day is geared to being inside in the UK, so the Xmas TV line-up is a big thing, along with the Xmas ratings (and the Xmas number 1 song...yada yada yada...). Raj bought a 3D TV and the highlight of Xmas day viewing is the Queen's message to her loyal subjects...this year in 3D! She's always so up with everything!

It did look pretty good though. I think next year they'll put 3D glasses in the crackers, we were all over it this year.


So I watched all the Xmas specials, and those we couldn't watch yesterday we can watch with catch-up today. Yay.
Do all the channels have catch-up in Aus yet? That's all I watch now catch-up and on demand TV.

Still raining and there's time for more Xmas specials...but no Boxing day Test! Hope you all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to a nice warm night for New Year's Eve! I'll be in my local in Cardiff for that. More later.

Queen 3D!