{"id":151,"date":"2004-11-06T15:12:05","date_gmt":"2004-11-06T15:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/?p=151"},"modified":"2004-11-06T15:12:05","modified_gmt":"2004-11-06T15:12:05","slug":"dublin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/?p=151","title":{"rendered":"Dublin"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bignoseduglyguy.com\/DCP_0675.JPG\" align=\"baseline\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><font size=\"1\">Halloween in Temple Bar<\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\">&#8220;The public museums are closed on a Monday.&nbsp; All of Dublin&#8217;s museums are public.&nbsp; Except for the private ones.&nbsp; Which are often open on Mondays&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&#8220;On the left, you will see the main entrance of Dublin&#8217;s Trinity College, which was established under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth the Second. No, that&#8217;s not right,&nbsp;it wasn&#8217;t; it was Queen Elizabeth the First.&nbsp; Ah well, no matter, they were both from the same family.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&#8220;Would those who have just boarded please stop talking?&nbsp; I am the only one who should be talking &#8211; otherwise, others cannot hear me!&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\">And who, in their right mind, would want to miss such a tour bus commentary?&nbsp; The characterful and impassioned <em>bon mots<\/em>&nbsp;of&nbsp;Ursula, our truly unique tour guide&nbsp;had me folded double, gasping for air at the back of the open-topped double-decker bus for a good part of an hour and a half.&nbsp; I hadn&#8217;t laughed this much since I saw Eddie Izzard at the Albury.&nbsp; The idea&nbsp;had been&nbsp;simple &#8211; take advantage of Ryanair&#8217;s \u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a39 flights to take the sprogs on their first airplane trip and have a couple of days and a night&nbsp;to explore the delights&nbsp;of Dublin.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Cheers&nbsp;of the trip included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">justifiably world famous fish and chips from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wcities.com\/en\/record\/34,17525\/5\/record.html\">Burdock&#8217;s<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">several slow wanders through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.temple-bar.ie\/index.asp\">Temple Bar<\/a>. <\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">breakfasting on crepe and bagels&nbsp;at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dublinks.com\/index.cfm\/loc\/8\/pt\/0\/spid\/396AD65A-3E0A-4E46-9EB3A6DEA7BF432B.htm\">Lemon Jelly<\/a>&nbsp;one day and a fry up at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dublinks.com\/index.cfm\/loc\/8-2\/pt\/0\/spid\/69AD32CF-702F-490D-9C0977DCEF94EFDA.htm\">Bewleys<\/a> the next.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">and a very pleasant birthday meal for sprog no.3 at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.badasscafe.com\/index2.htm\">The Bad Ass Cafe<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"left\">Tears of the trip included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jurys Inn Christchurch &#8211; supposedly a 3 star hotel but one which, despite careful research and booking, provided us with:<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>two attempts to provide us with neighbouring rooms, the original rooms leaving&nbsp;the kids being on their own, two rooms away and out of shouting distance.<\/li>\n<li>a bathroom with a soap dish pulled from the wall and a shower that turned scalding hot without warning when showering our youngest.<\/li>\n<li>an unusable, disconnected telephone that might have been essential had sprog no.4 been scalded before we could grab her.<\/li>\n<li>sharp broken furniture in the sprogs&#8217; room.<\/li>\n<li>a cursory shrug and a wan smile when I pointed out the above problems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li>Bank Of Ireland &#8211; for shutting down a cash point without checking if anyone was using it!<\/li>\n<li>A delayed return flight and the absence of any seating at the departure gate &#8211; not fun with tired kids.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The trip was great fun even if it did drain the bank account at an alarming rate (there is no such thing as a&nbsp;cheap weekend break with four kids!) and the folks we met on our travels, from cabbies to passers-by, were very friendly.&nbsp; Talking of friendly folks, I must make special mention of one person.&nbsp; As I stood by the Bank Of Ireland cash point that had swallowed my card,&nbsp;not wanting to move in case it spat it out again, I became aware of someone beside me.&nbsp; I turned to face a strikingly lovely woman with pale skin and cascades of red hair. &#8220;Would you be after me watching the machine while you pop round and ring on the bank&#8217;s bell? They&#8217;ll still be there if you&#8217;re quick.&#8221;&nbsp; Before I could draw breath,&nbsp;she went on. &#8220;Why would you?&nbsp; Leaving a complete stranger to grab your card.&nbsp; I&#8217;ll pop round, explain and have someone come out to you.&#8221;&nbsp; With that, she turned on her heel and disappeared round the corner, re-emerging five minutes later with a smile and a &#8220;I&#8217;ve told them what&#8217;s what and they be with you shortly.&nbsp; I&#8217;ll be on my way now &#8211; have a smashing time &#8211; bye now.&#8221;&nbsp; Blurting a &#8216;Thank you&nbsp;so much&#8217;, I waited for the chap that eventually returned my bank card whilst watching her&nbsp;walk&nbsp;away, slowly merge into the evening crowd.&nbsp; This&nbsp;beautiful and utterly charming woman was in my life for about 45 seconds but saved me from hours&nbsp;of hassle with one kind act.&nbsp; Don&#8217;t tell SWMBO but I think I&#8217;m in love with my very own Dublin angel.<\/p>\n<p><font size=\"1\">my lo-fi ears are listening to <a href=\"http:\/\/phobos.apple.com\/WebObjects\/MZSearch.woa\/wa\/advancedSearchResults?songTerm=Life For Rent&amp;artistTerm=Dido\">Life For Rent<\/a>\/<a href=\"http:\/\/phobos.apple.com\/WebObjects\/MZSearch.woa\/wa\/advancedSearchResults?artistTerm=Dido\">Dido<\/a><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Halloween in Temple Bar &#8220;The public museums are closed on a Monday.&nbsp; All of Dublin&#8217;s museums are public.&nbsp; Except for the private ones.&nbsp; Which are often open on Mondays&#8221;. &#8220;On the left, you will see the main entrance of Dublin&#8217;s Trinity College, which was established under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth the Second. No, that&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}