Dublin Trip

Well, well what a lovely bunch of people and what a lovely thing irish stew is! Yep, thats right, from the moment we arrived the people were so friendly. The taxi driver told us that he was enjoying the crack at the pub with guys whilst his wife and daughter were shopping in London and that he had the stew, that his wife cooked before she left, not for his tea, but for his breakfast as he was too drunk the night before. He asked us all if we had been to Ireland before and none of us, apart from Jen, had been. Jen told him she had visited Limerick and he immediately said "oh! stab city" we chuckled and he said "no really, thats what they call it" just at that he he reached into his car door side pocket and pulled out a 'doctored' home made sharp kitchen knife and said "this is what they carry in stab city". Needless to say we all laughed nervously and he returned to telling us about the city and the lovely hotel we were going to be staying at whilst we tried to stiffle our shreeks of fear! Anyway we arrived in one piece and paid him his euros.

At the hotel's reception the lady greeted us and first impressions were that we were in a boutique style hotel in a glorious old georgian building. Original photos of state type buildings hung everywhere and the receptionist lady was behind a very old desk, after booking us in, she then took us to our rooms. We walked two flights of a grand staircase and arrived at our room "this is your's" she said "the lord shelborne". She did not show us in but simply let us help ourselves. Flippin heck it was like ball room! and then our stay in this hotel went down hill. We turned the light on in the ensuite and the fan proceeded to rattle like ... well ... a rattley thing ... a loud rattely thing! The tiles in the bathroom were broken and the shower was so powerfull that it created a wind tunnel and hurricane effect all in one. It was so powerful it was too painful to stand under without fear of getting cut in half and not fit for the purpose it was created for! To avoid this shocking service but generally nice rooms see Brownes. Personally I wouldnt stay their again and would actually prefer crap room and great service rather than vice versa.

Moving on we went to cafe en siene on monday evening as our chosen watering hole and eatery. It was just one of those evenings, you know, the type where you settle in at 1930 ish and dont leave till well almost 0100! yes! A trully great night with really great friends; Andy 'master joiner' and Helen 'Physio' Jowett. Helen Physio was very helpful as she was encouraging jen with neck exercises (further to the car accident). In fact whilst I think about it Helen was also helpful with pieces of paper. Yep thats right pieces of paper ... Everytime (almost) any of us had a question, she would bring out a pile of A4 paper instructions with the answer on; I reckon if I had said Helen do you know anywhere I could eat guinea pig tonight, followed by a giraffe chaser, she would have got another piece of paper out with instructions, brief synopsis and prices of the exact request! Only joking Mrs J! You and Andy were prepared and jen and I were not!

Without boring the pants off of ya' we got up late tuesday morning and decided to go to the queen of tarts cafe as it had rave reviews and wow did it deserve it! lovely food and lovely service ... you know the type of service that has a couple of minutes to talk to their customers and the type of food that is clean and fresh looking! Sounds silly but im sure you know its unusual these days. I started my detox again after a serious night off and had a orange, apple and grapes oooo and 2 pots of earl grey! Yum!

We then flew home after buying me a new Ralph Lauren scarf. There were one or two other things that happened, and I have threatened my other travellers with posting a photo or two (or tree' as they say in dublin) but I have managed to refrain from boring you or embarrassing them.

Ps. One of the bar men took the mickey out of me big time as I ordered a dash of blackcurrant in my guiness. He even gave me a glass with 'half strength' written on it and told me I was big jessie! I went to the toilet in that pub and when I returned to my seat he shouted over "did you manage to find the ladies?!"

Laters!