back to work - but in Ireland

Went back to work this morning - but in the afternoon, I join Peter in a cab to the airport for the legislation trip to the Irish Parliament....it doesn't get much better than this! Meet Frances at the airport and take Ryan Air (for the first time) to Dublin. We then jump in a cab and Frances & I go to a Hotel - the Comfort Inn in Smithfield which was modern and very reasonable. Peter is staying the weekend so has gone for a cheaper hotel down the road.

We meet up with Peter for a pint in a "famous" pub - but while the Guinness was good, the atmosphere was not - they mustn't drink on a Thursday evening over here. We then headed into town and I feared that indecision would get the better of us as we looked for restaurants. To my surprise, we headed straight for a Lebanese restaurant (no, it wouldn't have been my 1st choice- but I'm the junior person here) - and it was excellent, and there was loads of food (with plenty of meat) too. I'd be happy to go back for more Lebanese food another time.

Headed off to another pub for a quick pint before heading back to hotel room.

santa came....

Christmas Day - and Grace was happy...

christmas eve - do you think they're excited?

asleep at last

finally got the little monkey to sleep

nativity

I'd always laughed at nativity plays and proud parents getting their camcorders and cameras out as soon as the performance starts - but today I was one of them. Thinking we'd arrived early, we only just managed to get a seat right at the back - the room was mobbed....but when the performance started everyone grabbed their cameras (there must have been 30 of them) and started rolling. Bless their little cotton socks - the kids were great - and had I been on my own I would been blubbing away bursting with pride - those kids certainly knew how to milk the crowd. The photo above shows Grace as one of the angels - typecast? I think not. Hats off to the children and to the staff. We even got given sparkling wine at then end - before jumping on my bike to work.

zoo

Today we went to the zoo. This is the 2nd time we've done this in Edinburgh - and today was considerably better than the first time - when it was cold and depressing (Grace's 1st birthday). This time there were lions, rhinos (well a rhino) and a few other things - including this red panda which I thought was very cute (and a damn fine photo if I don't mind saying so myself!). Needless to say both Grace & Joseph weren't as impressed as we'd hoped they might be....

cupar with martyn & amanda

Went up to Cupar in Fife to see Martyn & Amanda. On a pleasant afternoon, we went for a stroll round town - which ended up at the local bowling club. They all seemed to like of my backpack - and Joseph in particular. This is the motley crew heading bacvk home for a cuppa.