An Ideal weekend??

Ok - couldn't resist that wee pun. Kev and I went to the Ideal Home Show yesterday - which was, to be honest, less than Ideal. Not really what we were expecting. We thought it would give us lots of housey ideas, but it was not really so good. Kevin being the gadget boy that he is did buy a magnetised gizmo for washing windows which even appears to work - so not quite a waste of time!

Sat night we went to a wedding reception for a friend of Kevin's - both Indian so we had the most amazing Indian food at the meal, and we even got up on the dance floor - no mean feat for me! Unfortunately we couldn't stay too late as there had been engineering works on our rail line and we didn't want to have to bus all the way home.

And on Friday we went to see V For Vendetta - another film of an Alan Moore comic book. We both thought it was very good, although I think it has been getting mediocre reviews.

So a weekend told backwards!

Fat man walking

Read about this guy on the BBC website so have been checking out his website. Quite an incredible story - and his journal entries are pretty interesting too. Musings on life and his journey etc. I love the fact that a weightloss company wanted him to promote a weightloss pill! Which bit of his whole trip do they just not understand...?? Anyhow - checkout
The Fat Man Walking

Dublin diary

See below for a diary of our wee trip to Dublin - involving delays, lost bags, great history, great beer, loads of Scottish men in kilts and some food poisoning...

Sunday - Croke Park, Guinness and it all goes downhill...

Sunday we headed off to Croke Park. We've been to a few stadiums on other trips so it seemed appropriate that we continue the tradition. Another great experience as well. It is home to the GAA and there was a really good exhibition in the museum on the history of the Association and its part in Ireland's history. It was at Croke Park that the British went in in retaliation against Michael Collin's killing of several British intelligence agents - part of the 30 killings on Bloody Sunday. Yet again it was another guided tour (the Irish seem to do these really well) and it was just great. Great mix of sport and history.

After that we schlepped miles across town to go to the Guinness Storehouse. Again this was something I had done when I first went to Dublin, but wow was it ever different! Very high tech and glitzy! So we went and had our free pint of Guinness at the amazing circular bar at the top of the storehouse. Stunning views - and the Guinness wasn't too bad either!

Then we went for dinner and it all went downhill... Don't know what it was but something didn't agree with me - had a horrendous night on Sunday. So endeth our Dublin trip (I won't bore you with the details of my health issues!). I felt so flakey on Monday that we didn't do much before heading out to the airport.

Saturday - Gaol, cowboys and a damn fine Thai

Bit of a slow start on Saturday - due to sitting in a smoke free pub you see... A real novelty for us as smokefree pubs haven't been brought in here yet. So we went out for brekkie to what was Bewleys - an Irish institution. It has been renamed Cafe Bar Deli but still does great breakfasts.

After brekkie (well brunch really) we headed off to Kilmainham Gaol. Again I had been here when I first went to Dublin and I was pleased to see this hadn't changed. The power here is that it is still so stark, and you go around with a guide which just gives you a completely different perspective. Still very harrowing - an incredible piece of Ireland's history.

After that we were feeling very tired - its a right schlep down to Kilmainham so we took ourselves off to the cinema and finally watched Brokeback Mountain. Which I just loved. Thought it was superb. Then we went off to a Thai restaurant and had a lovely dinner. So not very Irish but very nice nonetheless.

Friday - Book of Kells, shopping and a happy reunion

We spent most of Friday wandering around the shopping area and working out the lay of the land. First up was finding somewhere we could find some toothbrushes and contact lens stuff for me in case our bags didn't turn up... We rang the helpline for our bags in the morning (based in India ironically) who told us the bags were put on a plane due in Dublin at 10.30 and should be with us by early afternoon so with fingers crossed we headed out to explore... A lot of time was spent on Grafton Street which was full of Scottish men in kilts! It was the 6 Nations Ireland v Scotland game at Lansdowne Park that afternoon - if there were any men left in Scotland I'd be amazed!

Back to the hotel around 2ish, but still no bags. My stress levels were a wee bit high - my cup tends to be half empty rather than half full so I was convinced we'd never see them again - or that they'd turn up on Monday morning. But we couldn't do anything about it so we headed out again...

Went to see The Book of Kells which was something I had done in my visit to Dublin (10 years ago now) and had really enjoyed. When I first went you went through The Long Room which just blew me away (being the librarian that I am), and then down stairs to the room where the Book is displayed. Now there is much more glam exhibition that leads into the Book of Kells, then you end up going through the Long Room. Personally I think the old way worked better but there you go... Regardless, it is still amazing, and The Long Room still blew me away!

Back to the hotel via cake and hot chocolate at Cafe Mimo at Powerscourt Shopping Centre where we were reunited with our bags! Oh the relief! So we went out and celebrated with some Irish beers at The Stag's Head. Kev's tipple was Guinness and I was on Smithwicks - which went down very well!

Thursday (or should that be delay day?)

So we headed off to Heathrow after work - so far so good. Checked in ok, and with loads of time to spare for once. However this didn't stop us having our usual airport squabble... I am getting worse and worse when I travel and just want to get to the gate. Kevin doesn't - he can look in every duty free shop going rather than go to the gate (or so it seems to my tortured soul) and we always ending up having a stressed squabble about getting to the gate, missing the flight etc etc. And this happened again :-).

We did eventually get to the gate where our plane was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. No BMI staff to question, and when the plane finally turned up we took off just short of two hours late. Interestingly I noticed on the flight back to London that if it is over 2 hours late they have to offer compensation...

So we're on the plane. All well and good. Get to Dublin - fine. Go to collect our bags... No bags. Despite the plane being almost two hours late it appears the airline could only get half of the plane's luggage on. So for the third time in my life, I am at my destination with no luggage. I now know to make sure I put my toilet bag in my hand luggage...

So after logging our skimpy details with the airline we head off into town to our hotel - The Leeson Inn. Great taxi driver - highly entertaining which helped take our minds off our lack of bags!

The week that was

Despite thinking that I didn't have a busy week planned I ended up being a busy bee this week - hence no posts till now :-). Quick review below...

Saturday: Kevin went off to watch Villa draw 0-0 with Charlton and I went in to town in the evening to meet him and his friends for a very delish burger at the Eagle Bar & Diner. Bit like eating dinner in a night club but it was a fine burger! Friends of his friends were down from Scotland - all very happy as Scotland had beaten England in the rugby that day.

Wednesday: We went to see The Exonerated which was just superb. We had Stockard Channing, Delroy Lindo and Aidan Quinn in our cast - so I've now seen two stars from The West Wing at the theatre here recently. It was a great production - read more about it on the The Exonerated's site here. It is worth checking out the stories under 'Facts'. It very simply tells the stories of innocent people condemned to death in the USA and how they manage to avoid being murdered. Very very powerful.

Thursday: Went out with friends to celebrate our friend Nicola's new job - she was one of the many made redundant from EY last year so we were all very happy to toast her new job at The Horse Bar. Although I must learn that mixing champagne with beer doesn't work so well the next day...

Friday: Hooray - Kevin the star managed to get us Saturday day tickets for the V Festival. Great lineup and as it sold out in a record 3 hours it was a pretty cool achievement as well! So we will be off to Chelmsford in August!

Saturday: Nothing too exciting yet, but Kev and I went for a lovely walk along the towpath from Surbiton to Richmond. Beautiful day but still very cold. And in a couple of hours we are planning to watch the Hurricanes play the Cheetahs - go the 'Canes!