Dec 7th - Dec 22nd

Hello!
It's been about two and a half weeks or so since the last entry and sadly not much has happened. Last week went as usual... Work, work, work. Busy, busy, busy. The weekend, however, was unexpectedly fun. Friday after work Luke and I went to O'Connell Street & Temple Bar to do the last of the Christmas shopping for our families and were pleasantly surprised to get a call from Sarah & Tom inviting us to meet them for a drink at Mojo's (That's the €3/pint joint on the north side of the Liffey). We picked up a few things and headed to meet them. Two drinks later we were all raring to continue the evening. It was early still at this point, about 7:30 and the pubs were packed with the after-work crowd. Luke took us to a pub/restaurant he had seen that looked like a good place but when we got there is was PACKED with office Christmas parties so we walked in, walked out and headed somewhere else. We happened upon a pub in the Grafton Street area called Stag's Head where we managed to find a table in the crowd. We sat down and ordered drinks. All of a sudden it was 12:30 and Tom was locked so we said our good-bye's and headed home.
Saturday I woke up with a sore throat and a nasty cough. No fun. Especially cause I had to go to work for an hour (Yes, on a Saturday, again). I got up, felt like s~*t, got on the DART for 35 minutes, bought myself some cough syrup and headache stuff and walked to the office where my boss was supposed to met me at 10:30. By 10:55 I was pretty ticked off as there was no sign of him. I called his mobile and he said he was on his way (Which was NOT true as I could hear toast popping in the background!). He arrived at 11:00 - he lives near the office - and proceeded to ask me to book him a hotel room. That was it. The man made me spend €3.40, wait half an hour for him to show up, and then all he did was have me book him a hotel room. Unreal. I won't EVER come in on a weekend again. What a joke.
Luke and I were supposed to go to Joyce & Paddy's for dinner and a sleep over but as I mentioned previously, I was sick, sick, sick. Instead I took the DART back home, put on my cozies and sat in front of the telly. Later in the afternoon Luke and I grabbed the backpack to go grocery shopping. I really didn't feel all that hot but it was a necessity and I figured that a little exercise would be good for me. We walked up to the grocery store, packed the bag full and more and then started walking home. On the way we noticed that there was black smoke coming from a building on the street we were walking down. Concerned, I went into the restaurant to calmly tell them 'Um, excuse me, I think the building is on fire'. And we were right. The fire trucks started to arrive as I left the restaurant. Apparently it was a chimney fire, nothing all that serious. No one was hurt.
Sunday Luke and I went to the Wool Shed to watch the Sens game on the big screen. The website said that the game was being broadcast at 2:00 but when we arrived there at 1:45, the end of the game was playing. We missed it! It was very disappointing as it is only the second time an Ottawa game has been broadcast since we got here. AND we had invited Sarah to watch the game with us as she has never seen a full hockey game. Disappointed, we ate our wings and salad, watched the overtime and then headed out to attempt to finish-finish our Christmas shopping. I was feeling a little better at this point so I was up for shoving my way through the throngs of people in the stores and on the streets - barely. Luke and I ended up buying him a great t-shirt but didn't end up finding anything else that we were looking for. We headed home and I put my cozies on again and while I wrapped the presents Luke took a walk with the camera, got some nice shots and hit the local pub for a pint of Guinness. When he got back a few hours later I was still relaxing after having wrapped the presents. Lazy of me, I know, but I really didn't feel up to much more than that.
This week has been good so far. Well, it's been pretty good for me as I have been feeling better but Luke is now sick so he's not thrilled. Last night the two of us went to see Stars at a club called The Village on Wexford Street. Great show. GREAT venue. Small club with a bar and a stage. Only a couple hundred people. Similar size to Zaphod's but with a better set-up. It was a grand gig. Afterwards we headed home, exhausted, had a cup of tea and hit the sack.
This morning there were major delays on the DART. Fortunately for me I just missed these delays but a few people here in my office weren't so lucky and had to wait an hour for it to come. The REALLY unfortunate thing is that apparently someone threw themselves in front of the train. Not a nice way for the other people at the station to start their day...... (Or for the poor bloke that died, of course).

Ok.... I know I've been slacking. Some other things have happened since this stuff (I started the blog and saved it as a draft and then forgot about it!) so Luke has put together a write up for you guys... It should get you up to speed. He also spend a few hours at the internet place last night putting all of the photos up - none of which I've seen so I'm just as excited as you. I haven't been taking many photos lately as Luke is enjoying himself. He often takes photos when I have no idea that he's doing it so I am surprised by them half the time. They'd better be good this time because they haven't gotten my approval! LOL.


**Some of the random pictures are just from my walk. I felt like going for a walk one day. Jess was still feeling sick, so she stayed in and I went out for a good 2-hour walk.
I took some pictures of pubs. They are really pretty here… maybe not in the pictures cause our camera sucks for night shots, but when you see it “live” they are very nice.**

I walked along the Grand Canal towards Georgian Dublin, which is actually 15 min from our flat. We live in a great location…we’ve got the sea, canal, docks, river, downtown, Temple Bar, Georgian Dublin all within a 20 min walk. Anyway…I walked along the Grand Canal taking pictures for the fun of it. The picture of the brick wall is actually a wall which goes around a block of apartments. Pretty darn nice apartments. You can’t really go onto the property - it’s guarded. There are also pictures of some pubs I walked by. It is honestly impossible to NOT walk by a pub in Dublin. I like the local pubs, the ones that I just stumble upon. Good pints (most of the time) quiet, filled with locals and good atmosphere.

Well, I walked and walked, until it started to rain a little so I decided I had gotten good exercise and enough fresh air walking for 2 hrs that I might as well have a Guinness. I downed a pint and headed home.

Friday I really wanted to find the old U2 “hangouts” and see the Christmas market in IFSC (near Sean and Aubrey’s house). Jess wasn’t feeling up to doing much, but since she dragged me around Europe for 3 months I figured I would drag her this time.
We started with the Christmas Market. Pretty weak actually, but Jess managed to get a good hot chocolate and I got a crepe with apples. We walked around it for about 20 minutes and then I wanted to find the U2 stuff. After walking and walking, we realized that the pub and the studio are no longer there. Everything on our side of the river, and right by the river is just booming. Apartments and offices – it’s nuts. The area where we live is going to be the place to live in couple of years. It’s becoming pretty posh. Therefore, all the land there is getting bought and rebuild. There was a pub on the way, so as you can guess we stopped for a pint. After that one, Jess got in the mood for another one (my plan worked). We walked towards downtown and stopped at a really packed pub (I had to pee). After that we went to a bar, which we always walk by, but had never gone into. They usually have live jazz there, but that night they had a DJ. We met a Polish girl who had arrived 2 weeks ago and we started talking and they decided that Jess would talk to her in English (she is learning, so Jess figured the more we talk in English the better for her) so we chatted and planned to stay in touch and have a nice Polish party after Christmas. She lives with 5 other Polaks. Then Jess met a guy, and he joined us. And that’s pretty much the rest of the night. Talking with new people. By the way, the Guinness at this place was crap!
On the way home, we stopped at our local “fast food” place. It’s a Chicken/Fish and Chips joint. It’s always busy with the locals. We had curry chips (fries) and went home. We have WAY too much fast food near our house. They just opened a Thai take out, which is above the Pizza place. Next door, a brand new Centra (7/11 type), across the street the Chicken/Fish and Chip place. We do eat well, and don’t often eat junk but what are you going to do at 2 am after being out on the piss. Cook? Or fast food it? I thought so…

Saturday we woke up and waited for Joyce to call us. We wanted to see Joyce and Paddy before Christmas. Joyce eventually called and invited us over for dinner that night. Paddy was the previous night for a work Christmas party and was in rough shape, but she wanted us to come over anyway. Well if you know Paddy, for that man to be in rough shape he must have really had fun. We really didn’t do much till then. We ate, cleaned the house and got ready. We got to their house around 4pm or so and started to make fun of Paddy as soon as we could. No way you can pass that up!
He was in rough shape. And what made it rougher for him was Joyce blowing the tire on her car pulling into the driveway. She went up the curb and the tire blew so Paddy had to go out and put on the spare. I was surprised he could even get off the couch.
We chatted for a bit, ate good homemade stew with mashed potatoes (I had 2 helpings - even Jess was shocked) then Sarah Jane popped in (she was off to a party) and dropped of Lorna. We all watched the X Factor (Canadian Idol type show, just British). Had some pints with Paddy…yes the man felt better after the stew and had a pint. He is a machine…from the future.
Then they drove us home…all the way to Dublin.

Guinness Brewery.
Sunday (Dec 18th) Jess and I went to the Woolshed to watch the Ottawa vs. Toronto game. Once again, Leafs sucked…hard! I think it’s time Jay and Cory switch teams. (Just bugging guys. Ottawa Toronto games are just not the same with out the LeBlanc household). So Toronto lost 8-2 and I was happy. I was also happy cause Tom and Sarah met us for the game. They had never seen a hockey game and this was a good one. Lots of goals, me yelling, fights (in the game, not me this time). Good experience for them.

After that we had planned on going to the Guinness Brewery, or Church, as I would like to start calling it. It was Sunday after all.
We got to the Brewery at about 3 pm (It took us a while to find the main entrance. It’s actually hidden in the back). We paid the 14€ which includes a pint (but we noticed when we were leaving we really didn’t have to pay, you can just walk right in if you are slick), but we paid and walked around. It was pretty neat…actually it bored the hell out of me. I wanted to see the actually see the beer being made. The workers, the smell, the heat…but I got nothing. It was more like a museum and I am sick of museums. So I was pretty annoyed and couldn’t wait to actually have a Guinness from the factory.
The whole Guinness Storehouse (as it is actually called) is shaped like a giant pint glass. It is all glass and, well, it looks like a pint glass. There are 7 floors. On the 7th floor there is the bar which is all glass and round and overlooks Dublin. Good thing about Dublin is that there are not very many tall buildings so you can actually see a lot from 7 floors up!
We had our free pints and somehow managed to get another pint. When we left the Brewery it was raining hard, and well, I still refuse to get an umbrella, and Jess didn’t have hers so she got Sarah’s old and half broken one, and Tom and Sarah shared another one. I took it like a man and just got soaked. But at least it’s not minus 20 so the rain really does not bother me! On the way back towards downtown we stopped at a pub we noticed on the way to the Brewery. It is the oldest pub in Dublin…that’s pretty old; I think it was about 810 years old. It’s really nice inside and outside.
We had a few pints and went our separate ways.

On the way home we decided it was too late to cook dinner and really we didn’t feel like it. Jess wanted to try this new Thai place next to our house. So 45€ later we had Thai and I finally got Duck! Good food, for take away. And that completed Sunday night.

Now it is Thursday the 22nd.
I spent yesterday after work at the Internet café uploading photos while Jess was at her Christmas party. And around 8pm I went to meet Aubrey, her sister and Sean showed up eventually, at Café en Seine. It’s a pretty fancy bar with a dress code. But did anyone bother telling me there was a dress code? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! So I get there, and they guy wouldn’t let me in cause I had running shoes on. I was ready to snap. But I figured I could talk my way in…and I did. After about 10 minutes the guy let me in. I told him I was from out of town (the “American” accent helps) and I was meeting people for a Christmas party, and no one told meabout the dress code.
Once I got inside I was blown away. The bars/pubs here are incredible. Especially the ones which look small but once you walk in, it’s like 4 floors or something like that. This one was very classy, more like a fancy hotel bar. Anyway, we had some drinks; Sean was loaded (he’s been having to take clients out for lunch for the last 3 days and all the clients just drink and drink…and, well, deals get made) so Sean was well in the bag by the time he got there. (Or as Aubrey would say he was well in and out the other end of the bag).
Jess finally showed up at about 10:30 pm, and we stayed there till about 11:30 pm. Good time, good, really good Guinness.

So Thursday it is. I am at work typing this. Tonight is my Christmas party. And thank God we only work from 8-11 tomorrow. I have a feeling it might be a late one. And then it’s Friday and Saturday we FLY HOME!
So see some of you in couple of days!
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays. Health and Wealth!
Thanks for reading this for the last 6 months.

P.S. - Dad I hurt my back…I can’t do any snow shovelling. Ha-ha.