bathtime

our jolly at the Dail, Dublin

Hearty breakfast in our hotel with Frances (where I discovered that there's a reason that she doesn't come to work before 10.30am- no chat).

Peter arrives in taxi to pick us up to take us to the Dail (pronounced Doyle) where we are met and given a tour of the building - which while long is only slightly interesting....

We meet up with the equivalent staff in the Bills Office- and it's interesting to meet someone who pretty much does exactly the same job as me - and who has the same problems which I'm not going to bore you with on a blog. The meeting shows that the system that we have is just as good as their brand spanking expensive one (which was the sole purpose of our trip).

We have a pleasant lunch in their members restaurant and then a very tedious meeting in the afternoon - which has nothing whatsoever to do with the purpose of our visit. Finally let go to hit the shops - but sample a final pint of the black gold before leaving for the airport.

Discover why Ryan Air is hailed as one of the worst air;lines as we get delayed for over an hour for a 35 minute flight - but am grateful to my shiny new ipod. Finally get home late.

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.