A visit to Molly and Oscar

Last weekend we ventured slightly further afield than usual and went to Dublin. Once again the weather was favourable and once again Hilton's sale did a reasonable deal. That was about all that was reasonable, one Euro = 99p! On our first night there 6 tapas and a bottle of wine came to £87, on our second night it was higher at £101. It is the only weekend break I have ever had where I didn't do any shopping, I couldn't afford to. I did visit the statue of Molly Malone, as she wheeled her wheelbarrow through streets broad and narrow...... We also went to visit Oscar Wilde see piccys below because they were both free.

Then we visited the local gaol, (the name of which will be the subject of today's quiz) which is now a museum. We were shown round by a very well informed young lady who really knew her stuff. As Himself pointed out, it is the only tour he has ever been on where we had to run. She may have known here stuff but the speed at which she showed us round was such that running gear was really needed. Anyway, gasping for breath we just managed to keep up and take in everything she told us.

For those of you who have nothing better to do, what is the name of the gaol in the picture and which famous movie was filmed there (a clue: cars). For an extra point, which actor famously walked down the steps in the picture? (no that's not the actor, that's Himself, although he does have a rather thespian stance about him).

Himself then did a bit of field testing to ensure that the quality of the Guinness in southern Ireland was as good as in northern Ireland. We also went on the bus tour and braved the open top once again.

Our ambition to explore the whole of Ireland is going quite well. As the weather is improving we will carry on venturing further afield and of course keep you posted.

The Joy of Spectating

On Friday night we booked into the Hilton again courtesy of their sale. We went to The Merchants for cocktails as we always do when in town and then off to Darcy's, a little bistro which was very nice indeed. On Saturday we woke to bright winter sunshine, so went into Belfast for a walk. We also went to a really weird photographic exhibition in one of the galleries in Belfast which I still have no idea about. I was a bit miffed as the Sunday Telegraph had highlighted it as an exhibition not to be missed and in fact they put it in the top 10 for the whole of the UK. Himself didn't get it either so we went for coffee and then made our way to the rugby ground to see Ulster play the Harlequins. As we arrived at the ground the heavens opened, and stayed open. We couldn't get tickets sitting down in the sheltered bit of the ground so had to stand in the rain. We got soaked, at one point it was such driving rain that they evacuated a whole seated stand as it was swaying in the wind! Even my coat gave up and let in the rain. Anyway, a cup of tea and a bath later we were nearly warm again.


Saturday night was the usual, more eating out.

Sunday however was a morning at the gym which was very quiet, Himself worked up a slight sweat which was very encouraging, and, he didn't mention his age once.

Another night at the pictures

Last night we went off to Lisburn to see Slumdog Millionaire which was very good and has a happy ending, but I think it has been wrongly described in some papers as a feel good film.

Next weekend we are off to Dublin for a couple of nights courtesy of Hilton Hotels ongoing sale.

Healthy Living

Yesterday we drove to our new gym, this morning I am feeling very fit, I have missed the gym quite a lot. Also I now have somewhere to go in the week other than shopping in Belfast, although this week I am managing to fit in both! Anyway, I can still do 100 sit ups on a ball after non attendance for 4 months, phew. I can also still run, cycle and row which is a great relief. Himself got changed, had a chat with a few people, mentioned that he is 52 years old a couple of times, and then had a shower. He doesn't want to be overdoing things, he is after all 52.......... have I mentioned that?

The Joys of Broadband via a plug in dongly thing

For Chrissy, Santa brought himself an all singing all dancing iPod. This iPod needs version8 of iTunes to function so I opened iTunes on our laptop and started the download, not. Our little plug in remote dongly broadband thingy just wasn't up to the job here in the outback. I will explain. When you plug this thingy in you get different levels of strength. Flashing green light means forget it you won't get the internet this side of Easter. Solid green light means it's ok but won't be powerful enough to download big stuff. (that's what we get, solid green) blue means we are cooking on gas, which is what we aspire to. So, as our solid green light wasn't strong enough to download from iTunes I came up the the brilliant idea of driving round the streets until the signal turned blue and then sit in the car until iTunes downloads, and it worked. Tonight we have to drive round again because himself has a particularly large email that he needs to send and solid green isn't strong enough to send it. At least we know which direction to drive in now to get blue! Can I make it clear for those of you that have no idea what I am talking about, this isn't the same as driving round trying to log onto to someone elses wireless broadband! This is legal.


Moving on, the weekend was fairly interesting. On Friday I went shopping in Belfast and had a lovely time. Then I met up with himself at the Hilton Hotel, allow me to explain. The Hilton is having a sale and I noticed that for two Fridays that we are in Belfast anyway, the room rate for bed and breakfast was £54. So as we were at the pictures on Friday night in Belfast I booked us in. We went to the Queens Film Theatre which is an art house theatre. It is housed in a terraced house in the centre of Belfast and is very trendy. Firstly we went for pasta round the corner to an Italian, Scalinis, recommended by a taxi driver, I have to say he was right , it was very good. The film we went to see was Dean Spanley http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1135968 it was excellent and we can highly recommend it. We shall become members of the Queens Film Theatre as we have quite a few films we want to see there and of course it's very trendy, it means we are very 'hip'.


On Saturday morning after a divine Hilton breakfast we went and looked at a flat in Malone, a posh area of Belfast that we quite fancy living in. Wow, ...........£800 a month and it was crummy. On the mantlepiece was one of those Greek busts with the head broken off, so the shoulders were arranged at a jaunty angle with the head lying artistically on it's side next to it??? We did find out the owner lives in Paris which also explained the artwork on the walls, which could only be described as scary. (Bec and Si, your monkey had nothing on this bust!)


On Sunday morning we went up the road to the aforementioned coffee shop that opens on a Sunday. (please see previous post) I had a butty made up of a soda bread bottom, bacon and egg inside and a potato bread top with lashings of tomato sauce, oh yes and coffee. Himself had a bagel with cream cheese which was obviously much nicer than my butty, (apparently).

Anyway, I have just received a text from himself to inform me that we are now members of a gym, happy days.

More Excitement!

Sunday Morning. We were still experiencing the deep joy of having wheels and so began making plans as to where we could go. Himself went up the road to buy the Sunday papers whilst I filled our newly acquired flasks (thanks to Santa, in the form of Bec and Si) and made butties. I may have mentioned previously that Sundays in our neck of the woods ie out in the sticks, are for church and pub in that order. When I received a phone call from himself I was a tad bemused. I was actually thinking as I picked the phone up that he must have slipped on the ice and was prostate in the gutter again (he fell on the ice a couple of weeks ago and had to receive the ministrations of Nurse Nancy ). No, he was fine, he was hyperventilating slightly but not so much that I couldn't understand his ramblings of " quick, get your coat on, bring some money, the coffee shop is open". For those of you that don't enjoy a nice latte you may now be slightly puzzled but for those that do you will understand. We have spent a few Sundays scouring our hometown trying to find a coffee shop open and had all but given up. So, we now have a coffee shop 100yards from our front door that opens on a Sunday, Yaaay.









After the excitement of a hot drink wore off we planned the rest of the day. First we went to the Belfast Botanic Gardens in the south of the city. We visited the Palm House where we experienced the truly intoxicating contrasts of colour and form. We then moved on to the Tropical Ravine where, from the perimeter walkway we peered down into the plant filled sunken glen and of course both houses were lovely and warm. We then took a turn round the park to work up an appetite and proceeded to Maggie Mays for a mean beans on toast which was enhanced by the addition of Irish cheese melted on the top.



Last night we drove to Sainsburys, just because we could.

The Return

We left chilly Wesham on Saturday 4th to drive to Stranraer to catch the ferry. We had been weather watching all week and I had ordered that the north sea be like a mill pond. I am a lot more influential than I thought with Poseidon as he granted us our wish. The drive to Stranraer was lovely, I was moving to Dumfries and Galloway every 500 yards (you will be pleased to know that won't you, Bec and Si). Stranraer itself was a pretty town, the bit we saw anyway. We drove to the ferry terminal and handed over our Premium ticket (once again himself had done the right thing and got us first class). Our Premium ticket meant that we drove on first, drove off first and didnt have to sit with common people. The boat, ship or whatever was very like a 5 star hotel, I was much impressed. As we bobbed ever so gently along I read my papers, drank tea, ate mince pies, took a little stroll and then fell asleep. Never good falling asleep next to someone with a mobile phone, the photo will not be reproduced on this site. Ten minutes to landing and we were advised that we could return to our vehicles, which we did. Landing came in the shape of a gentle bump against the side of Belfast City and within minutes we were off!! I was sooo impressed, the organisation by both the Scots and the Irish was outstanding. Simon, once Bec has experienced the joy of Premium travel on a a floating vehicle, air travel could be a thing of the past in the Turner/Edsforth home, you have been warned. Within 30minutes we were back in our freezing house which hadn't experienced the warming effect of a radiator for the 3 weeks we had been away. I put the heating on, got back in the car and went to the pub. As we had the car we were very excited so we went to a pub in the next village, instead of our usual. Someone had to drive obviously, but the excitement off having wheels overcame my desire for alcohol.