london town

Wednesday: first day back at work, except I'm up at 5.30am to get on a train to London at 6.30am! Nice.... even worse that the course/conference isn't that great; it's freezing cold and the trains get delayed so I don't get back home until 9pm... what a life

happy birthday gerry

.... and nelson road get a new front porch. klg glazing truly were amazing!

homeward bound

back to nottingham... lots of groups of men on the plane and very few women....how many girlie weekends were there whilst the men went away?

happy birthday dad!

a walk in the park

with heads not as sore as they should be, we head for some fresh air in phoenix park. its huge!

suitable refreshed we had some great food and a couple more pints of guinness in ryans.

jameson's and rugby

we had every intention of starting gently today... honest... so we take a stroll from our hotel along the banks of the liffey towards town. on the way we decide to do the jameson's whiskey tour. sadly the tour is not open at the moment... but the shop/bar/info centre is... and by way of saying sorry that the tour is not open.. they give you a free drink! excellent! so we sat down and enjoyed a whiskey and ginger (simon) and a whiskey and cranberry juice (alison). after watching the information movie and checking out the shop they ncie lady behind the bar asked us if we wanted another one... well you can;t say no really can you.

so after warming up in jameson's we head further into town and find somewhere to watch the game. we found a fab bar in an old coverted church. they had good food, a big screen, and somewhere to sit... so this was our home for the next few hours.

the scotland vs italy was a great warm-up... but the atmosphere for the ireland vs england match was electric. we had already decide to support ireland - they deserve to win the 6 nations - so with all our new friends we cheered them on. what a game! what a result.

some shocking service in pizza express meant we had a free meal to finish the day off as well.

friday in dublin

now officially on holiday in dublin, so simon and i spend the morning being tourists. we wander round the city and see the wonderful book of kells and the fantastic gothic library at trinty college.

unfortunately we've made a huge mistake by changing hotels: our new guesthouse in phoenix park turns out to be a complete dive!! possibly the worst hotel we've ever stayed in. decide to remain put (given the rugby match, there are no spare rooms in dublin) and spend our money on other nice things and try to see the bright side.... so we go out and have a slap meal in an expensive restaurant.... nice

destination dublin

i fly out to join alison in dublin... make it over there in time for a pint or two.

i am joined by our new friend zippy. he is coming along for the match and the craic! you can find out how he got on by reading his blog.

leaving on a jet plane

...to go and work at the postgrad ireland education fair, representing NTU. not a bad jolly, and spookily end up staying in a great guesthouse, not far from where Gethin lived in 2003. what a small world!

millie & richard

congratulation to millie and richard! they got married a week or so ago in the ice hotel in finland... so tonight was a bit of a party for all who didn't go out and get cold.

some very tasty canopes at norwood house.

well done both of you!

love city nottingham

we went to the opening of love city last night at the broadway.

its a game between three cities played on mobile phones. There was live music and visuals to help the launch.

why don't you sign-up? it might be fun!

hayley & wayne

my head hurts this morning... why? because hayley and wayne came round last night and we had far too much fun!

wine with some fantastic food, then a few beers down at the best pub in the world with nick and george. long time no see nick! then back home for more beer and wine, cheese and chatter.

a fantastic night and we managed not talking too much about restaurant zest!

lets not leave it so long next time.

ruddington pub crawl

a trip south of the river (trent) to go and see mark and marie in ruddington. after some darn fine food we head for the bright lights of the village. having had a fair amount of wine already we set of on our pub crawl deciding to have halfs at each venue... so off we went:

the jolly farmer
the victoria tavern
the red lion
the three crowns - so good we had a couple of rounds inclding the very fruity fruli
the red heart
the bricklayers arms
the white horse for a final pint!

a smashing evening brought to a close with a large bag of chips and two hours of buzz.

thanks mark and marie!