St. Patty's Day

St. Patty's Day.
Luke and I met up with Tom and Sarah downtown by the end of Grafton Street, at 1:30pm which was quite a feat as there were tons and tons of people. In some ways I expected more people but it was FREEZING and HAILING so not everyone ventured out for the parade. The parade was... interesting. Nothing all that Irish about it. American marching bands and cheerleaders and trippy floats with mushrooms and butterflies and things. We didn't get a good look at the floats though as there were about 5 rows of people standing in front of us up and down the entire parade route so we mainly saw bits and bobs of it through people's heads. Once we got our fill of the cold and the parade the four of us found a nice, warm Irish pub to go into for a pint. The first pub we went to was lovely. It was warm and cozy and there were tons of people but somehow Sarah managed to secure us all a table and chairs. About halfway through our pints a traditional Irish band started to play (2 fiddles and one guitar), which was great fun to watch. A gentleman from the crowd entertained everyone by standing up, taking the mic and singing along to Danny Boy. Magic. Everyone cheered him on. It was fantastic. Just the kind of thing you'd hope to see on St. Patty's Day. From there we separated from Tom who had to go to work and then Luke, Sarah and I headed to the Fun Fair in the park. They had rides and hot dogs (Yum!) and bumper cars and a ferris wheel. It was good fun. The three of us started on the Bumper Cars which was just as fun as I remembered it to be. We all giggled and bumped our way around. It was fantastic. From there Sarah and I went on Drop Zone. Luke wasn't interested in going on the scary rides. After that the three of us went on the Ferris Wheel, which was one of the daftest ideas we've ever had. We thought it was freezing when we were on the ground.... it was MIGHTY freezing up there at the top of the wheel. Poor Sarah had never been that cold in her life! For real. After the Ferris Wheel we headed to a vendor and bought a hot dog. It was Yum-my! From there we went to another pub for a pint and by 6:00pm we were all ready to go home. Luke and I went home and took it easy. Hit the sack fairly early as I had to work at the Marine Show over the weekend and had an early bus to catch.
Not much to report for the balance of the weekend. I was put up in the Citywest Hotel out in the middle of no where for Saturday night. Luke was kind enough to meet me for dinner and a sleepover to keep me company. We ended up staying up late with some of my colleagues and waking up with hangovers. Not fun.