Thursday, November 29, 2007

Grand!

Pass me a shilelagh, pour me a Guinness and tell me I'll be bumping into Bono, for tomorrow I'm off to the Emerald Isle - Dublin, to be specific - for a craic-filled weekend (and no, that's most certainly not a reference to any kind of drugs). My brother in law turned 50 at the end of October; as our joint gift to him, my mum, my sister, Mike and I clubbed together to treat him to a two-night party in one of his favourite cities. Mum isn't actually coming with us (more's the pity), but I'm sure her lively daughters will look after our menfolk in fine style - after all, it's impossible not to have fun in Dublin.

I haven't been to Ireland for over a decade, which is a pretty silly thing to admit considering it's a bargain-priced ticket and a 30-minute flight away from Bristol airport. Moreover, I haven't been on holiday with my fab sister and her equally fab spouse since - gosh, a caravan site holiday in Filey way back at the end of the 80s, when my nieces were still at the prams'n'nappies stage. But you know how it goes; we rarely take advantage of the gifts on our doorstep.

As well as giving my B-i-L the celebratory weekend he deserves, I was also hoping to take the Dublin opportunity to hook up with a friend of mine who I haven't seen for 25 years. 25 years! My goodness, the friend in question (let's call him Joe, for the purposes of this post) and I were just kids when we initially hooked up against a backdrop of o-levels (we met at what used to be called a 'Further Education' college), domestic dramas (for me, at least) and New Romantic haircuts (both of us). The year was 1980; I was 16 when I met him, and around 18 when I last saw him. Then suddenly, all these years later, another mutual friend reunited us (by email and telephone at least). But although Joe now lives in Dublin for part of the year, the time is still not yet right for him and I to pick up where we left off a quarter of a century ago. Christmas is on the near horizon, though, at which time both him and I will be in Liverpool visiting our families. Now there's a diary entry I'm already relishing putting together! But before all that, I'm booked on a flight at 7am tomorrow morning, and a whole new raft of experiences and memories-to-be are just waiting to be claimed.

So forgive me for temporarily swapping my regular spot at the turntables at The Animal Disco for a seat at the bar in one of Dublin's legendary watering holes, but rest assured that I'll be back soon with plenty of Tales of the (fair) City. Until then, beagán agus a rá go maith (if that was the dictum I really lived by, I wouldn't be blogging at all ...).

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