DECEMBER 23RD – JANUARY 5TH
It has been a very busy, eventful past 2 weeks with lots of ups and downs, but mainly ups. Tuesday the 23rd of December was our final day of work, so we were up early in the morning as per usual. Em headed out the door, and was back inside about 15 seconds later to say that Murphy (our car) wasn't outside. Surely enough it wasn't where we had parked it, so we rang the Garda (police) and they were here within 15 minutes of ringing them. This is totally unheard of in Ireland, particularly Limerick. They do not have a good reputation. Anyway, after asking us the standard questions, they told us that four other Toyota Corollas had been stolen from the surrounding area within the past week. Two had been recovered – one smashed up, the other burnt out. That was not good news. After we had finished filling in the forms, the Guards dropped us into town, and we took the bus to Em's work. Em spent the morning at work, and I used a computer there. I also managed to book some flights to Paris for February. We paid 20 euros to get over there, and 2 cents for return flights! Not bad at all. That afternoon we got ourselves organised for the trip away for Christmas. In the evening, we went out to the Curra Gower pub for a few pints with Marie and Joe. Yes, we managed to keep it to just two!
On Wednesday, the 24th, we made phone calls home so we could open our presents. We got spoilt – thanks for the cards and gifts from home – it was lovely. Em and I also exchanged gifts. She gave me my nice warm black wool coat, and I gave her tickets to Cirque Du Solei in Dublin. Marie dropped us off at the airport, and we flew over to London. When we arrived Em had a message from the Garda to tell us that Murphy had been found which was great news, and that it had been taken to a garage for inspection. They didn't know what condition Murphy was in.
We caught the bus into London from the airport, and we met Nicola, my friend from school, at the bus station, then caught the tube (underground train) back to her flat. As the tubes we not working on Christmas day, later that evening Nic's sister Amanda, and her boyfriend Jerry, and their friend Owen also came over. There was more phone calls home to see how everyone's christmas day was going. It was fantastic as Nic had a webcam, so we were able to see a few of Em's family which was really nice.
After a small sleep in, Christmas Day got underway. It was a day that revolved around eating, as with any Christmas day really. For breakfast Jerry had made bacon and egg bread cases. By the time we finished those, lunch was in the oven. We ate lunch at about 3pm. It was a HUGE lunch with roast chicken, lamb, potatoes, kumara, pumpkin, and broccoli and peas. After lunch, we gave each other Secret Santa gitfs. One of the secret santa present was a quiz game called “Smart Ass” (as in donkey) so we played that for the next couple of hours which was really good. By about 6pm we managed to get into dessert, which was quite hard work. It was a strange christmas day, for one it wasn't summer. There was no chance of snow either. It was nice to spend it with friends, but it was a quiet one really. Still, it was a nice day, and we ate way too much.
On boxing day, Amanda, Jerry, and Owen headed off. Em and I decided to head to London's West End to catch a muscial. We ended up going to the “We Will Rock You” matinee. It was fantastic, but I would not go to it if you are not a fan of Queen (the band, not the monarch). Afterwards we headed back to Nic and Niall's and tried to make a dent in the Christmas day leftovers.
Saturday the 27th was cold and overcast, so we decided to head into London and go to Madame Tussauds wax museum. (We had pre-purchased a package of tickets which included Madame Tussauds, The London Eye, The Tower Bridge Experience, The London Tower, a Double-decker bus tour, and a river cruise). The pre-purchased tickets meant we didn't have to queue for too long. Once inside Madame Tussauds, it was packed. The wax sculptures were amazing. Some of them were extremely life-like - you had to watch and make sure they weren't going to move. We spent about two and a half hours going through the museum. Once we had fnished, after a quick stop for lunch we headed to Hyde Park (by which time it was dark!). There we went to the Winter Wonderland. It was a massive fair with rides and stalls, and there was an open air ice-skating rink. There were one-hour sessions and we had tickets for the 6:30 session, so we wondered around the fair for a while trying to keep warm. Once we got into the ice-skating, keeping warm was no problem, but keeping our balance was another thing. It was huge novelty to be ice-skating on an open air rink. An hour was more than enough, with the ice-skates being rather uncomfortable. I am proud to say I managed not to fall over, and neither did Em. Nic also managed to avoid to ice, however Niall took a few falls. Once we were all finished on the rink we were all pretty tired so we caught the tube home for dinner and bed.
Sunday 28th was a sunny day, so we thought we should take advantage of this and go on the London Eye (a giant enclosed ferris-wheel). After a sleep in and getting things organised, it was lunchtime before we even left home unfortunately. Once we got to the Eye, there was a massive line, and it took about an hour to get onto Eye itself. The full flight as it was called, took just over 30 mins. Despite being sunny, it was still quite hazy. I think this was as good a winters day as you can get though. After we had finally landed we thought we should he down towards the Tower of London, but arrived at 4pm, and saw that it closed soon after that, so we headed back home, via the new London Westfield shopping centre (Shepherd's Bush). It was massive, and as you can imagine I was not particularly interested. Thankfully Em and Nic were not browsing so it was only a quick visit.
On Monday 29th , as we still had a number of things to get through, it was a fairly early start, by holiday standards. Our first stop was the bus station to get onto a roofless double-decker bus. Although it was quite nice day, it was the coldest day in London so far this winter, as I don't think it actually got higher than 1°c. Nevertheless we really enjoyed what we saw, which included Trafalgar Square, Downing St, the memorial monument to the Great Fire, among others. We also passed Madame Tussauds and quickly learnt that we had been very lucky the day we went, as we saw lines of over 100m in both directions up the road, and this was at 10am! We hopped off the bus tour at the Tower of London and went in there. The lines for tickets were massive, however we had pre-bought ours and had no wait at all! Pre-buying tickets seems to save a lot of time. So we went into the Tower, and as it was so cold, decided to head to the warmth of the Crown Jewels. After another wait of probably about 40 minutes, we were finally in the warmth, and we had a look at the Crown Jewels. They were very spectacular, particularly a 530 carat diamond in a sceptre! The Crown Jewels were Em's favourite part of London. Once we had finished there we decided to head outside, near the Tower Bridge, and then to go on a river cruise. Our plan was to catch the boat up to Greenwich (as in Greenwich Meridian Time / Date Line), but we were directed to the wrong line, so ended up going the wrong way on the river, to Wesminster Abbey and the house of Commons. We were probably lucky, as it had not warmed up all day. That evening Nic and Niall went home, and Em and I met my cousin Pramila for dinner. We met on Oxford St at 6pm on a Monday night, I have never been on such a crazy street before – absolutely seething with people, like at a big concert. Anyway we had a really nice dinner and a great evening out with Pram.
Tuesday the 30th was the day to set foot in another country. After getting up and being organised Em, Nic, Niall, and I caught the tube to where we thought we had to pick up the rental car. Unfortunately we got it wrong, so had to get on the tube again, and we finally reached our car rental place just after midday. After paper work was sorted and things we were not on the road until just before 1pm (as the guy went to get the car - “I'll be back in about 5 minutes” - but washed the car while he was gone). Anyway we had an easy time getting out of London with the GPS, and were soon into the good motorway driving. It was a bit of a scary experience really, the speed limit is 70mph, with most people doing 80mph or faster! The trip up to Edinburgh took just under 7 hours with a few stops which was not bad. We didn't see much scenery as was the plan – it was foggy, and got dark about 3.45pm. We managed to see the “Welcome to Scotland” sign on the way up. It was a novelty to be able to drive from one country to another. Hopefully something we will be doing plenty of times this year. Our rental car had a thermometer and on the drive up the temperature got to as low as -5.5°c. Quite fresh! Once we arrived we went to Dougie's house, who is a family friend of Niall, and was generous enough to have us to stay. We were all pretty shattered from the long day of travel, so after dinner we headed to bed.
Wednesday the 31st of December, the day of Hogmanay - the day we had made the trip up for. After a sleep in, we headed over to some friends of Nic and Nialls for breakfast, and then Em and I headed into town, to have a quick look around Edinburgh's city centre. This was something I was quite excited about as it is said Dunedin's street plan was based on Edinburgh's. It probably was, but knowing your way around Dunedin doesnt mean you know your way around Edinburgh. After a quick look we decided to pick up the tickets for the street party for Hogmanay. We had pre-booked them, and we happy with ourselves until we saw the line to collect tickets. It was probably over 500m long, and it took almost three hours! Em and I were freezing – it was minus 3 degrees. Our pre-buying ticket strategy had backfired, as you could go and buy tickets that day with no wait at all (we were tempted!). Anyway, all part of the experience I guess. By the time we had finally picked the tickets up it was 5pm so we headed back to Nic and Niall's friends' place for dinner and a few drinks, and then we all headed back into town for the street party at about 8pm. We were earlish, but things started at 9pm and the crowd grew quickly. By about 11pm there would have been over 100,000 people there, which made it an amazing atmosphere. It was still minus 3 degrees, although we had dressed for the cold, and thankfully it didn't rain. There were five different stages with live music. At 11pm we thought we should move into a good place for the fireworks. When midnight came, the fireworks from the hilltop of the Edinburgh castle were sensational. There were actually fireworks from the seven hills around Edinburgh, unfortunately we couldn't see the others. Once they had all finished, “Auld Lang Syne” began. After this we thought we would get ahead of the crowd and slowly made our way home. It was a great night, but a bit disappointing in that it was not Scottish at all. No bag-pipes all night! Luckily we met a guy with bag-pipes on the way home who played us a tune which was great (Scotland the Brave).
Thursday the 1st of Janury 2009. After s small sleep in we headed back to Dougie's place for a rest, showers, and a snack. Then we headed back into Edinburgh and had a walk around Old Town. Here we sampled on of Scotland's modern cuisines: Deep Fried Pizza. It wasn't too bad, but obviously was quite oily. There were quite a few buskers along the Royal Mile, including a tight-rope walker playing the violin, which was something else! He was really working for his money.
That evening we had a quiet night as we were all pretty tired by this stage. Unfortunately Em and I had both started to get colds, and on Friday morning when we woke Em had a fever, chills, and headache as well. As this was our last day in Edinburgh, we still headed into the city ('must... do.... sightseeing!'). Our first stop was the double-decker bus tour which was a good way to have a look around the city. After we had finished this, and we had got Em some medicine from the chemist, we went up to the Castle. It was really cool. The view was spectacular, the Scotland Memorial Monument to WWII was amazing, and we also saw the Scottish Crown jewels which had had an interesting life (hidden away in a chest for 100 years). We were also there for the 1 O'Clock Gun (canon) being fired, which has happened every day for 86 years. We were both pretty tired, so thought we should get some lunch and have a rest. We managed to find a nice little pub, which did good food, and Em had haggis, done in filo pastry with a creamy leek sauce. It was really good! The waitress tried to sell Em a 'Hot Toddy' (hot whiskey) for her cold, but Em couldn't face it. After taking a bit longer to have a wander around we called it a day.
That evening we went out for dinner with Nic and Niall's friends and then headed back to Dougie's place. That night was another earlish one.
Saturday morning, the 3rd, we were up early, (4am early) so we could get to the airport and catch flights home. Nic and Nialls flight was at 7am and Em and I flew out at 8am. Edinburgh was a very nice city, but cold, and extremely short days as well. We enjoyed Hogmanay, but were a little disappointed by the lack of Scottishness.
After a short flight of just under an hour, we were back in Dublin, and from there we caught the bus back to Limerick. It was not a nice day of travel as my cold was getting worse, and Em's had not really improved. We were glad to be home in the end. After an easy dinner, it was nice to hop into our own bed, and have pillows!
Sunday was a lazy day. However we did have to drag ourselves out to do grocery shopping. As we still had not got the car back, this was a chore to do.
On Monday, the 5th, I still was not feeling too great, so took the day off work, and Em headed back to work for the start of a new year. She also managed to find out more information about Murphy (the car) and arrived home with Murphy which was great! Amazingly the theives had only used him to do burn-outs in a paddock, and then left it there. It had only done about 30km, and had no damage done to it. They had used a worn-out key to open the door and start the car. Amazing, as this is unheard of, particularly in Limerick. He was just covered in big chunks of mud and grass.
That's it for now – back to work and reality for the moment.
