Dublin...Brought to you by Bulmer's Original Cider

Over the weekend my husband and I had a chance to use up some vouchers we received as compensation from BA for a cock-up over a ticket exchange.

To use the vouchers we needed to come to the exact amount or more. So we decided that we would fly out to Dublin first class and back cattle. We also managed to pay for the accommodation out of the money - so ideal really after an expensive summer holiday.

First Class Lounge at Gatwick Airport

We are old enough, my husband and I, that we have lots of travel under our belts - but young enough that we are not jaded about the prospect of free stuff. Enter the BA first class lounge...Ah swanky loveliness which included a place for me to go and send a quick (free I might add) note to boast to friends and loved ones, expensive wine in hand.

In the lounge itself we crossed paths with Academy Award winner (Best Actor) Adrien Brody - had a little joke with him over some mineral water...All very, very! ;o)

Sadly, my husband had been out the evening before so was not feeling as well as he might...So I was drinking for two. While he napped in the comfy chairs I read every newspaper I could lay my hands on and drank 4 glasses of Pouilly something or other! Yum!

Dublin...It's very green

They aren't kidding...Emerald isle!

Bulmer's to Magner's Taste Test

So there we are in a pub...In Dublin..."Imagine ca!"...And it was really warm...So the thought of having a meal in a glass didn't quite appeal...What to do? Well kiddies...In the United Kingdom there is currently a rather aggressive marketing campaign for an Irish cider called Magner's. Magner's on ice to be precise...So there we are thinking...I could murder one of them!...And fancy that we're in Ireland. So get up to the bar and ask for a Magner's and the bloke behind says "From London?" this with my accent and all...So then he told me "Its Bulmer's over here"...Now the only difference is that the Magner's is twice the price in Ireland (and the UK for that matter) and they don't have a posh bit of foil round the top...That being said...Yummy same stuff on the inside!

Jameison's Whisky is quite nice...But not as nice as single malt

The Jameison's Whisky factory tour is quite naff really. They show you a video and then take you through a mock factory set up in a traditional setting...They also have dummies in the displays who need better wigs...And I mean big time!

The best bit was that during the movie you get to put up your hand as a volunteer...Which I did...And then yippee at the end they let you sample about 6 ounces of various types of whiskey...still liked the single malts best...but what a journey...and then it was back to the Hotel for some well deserved rest (i.e.: Marjorie was a bit legless and needed to put her head on the pillow in order to be sure that she was in a fit state to fly the next day).

Over all Dublin is a lovely city...and must say would like to explore Ireland more (particularily the North)...but the fact is that it is a very posh city that costs a lot and has loads of the same shops on the High Street as does London and can wind up costing the earth! I think that going there on a Blooms day (James Joyce's Ulysseys novel is set on that day) and it would be excellent to follow the footsteps of its lead character would be really cool as well. So potential for more exploring.

UK Terrorist Plot Disrupted

Sitting here in my office off Trafalgar Square - a block or so away from the Houses of Parliament in Westminster - I am very well placed to say that the British spirit of soldiering on in the face of adversity is alive and well (there is a performance of some kind being sound tested outside as I type and I can hear the tour buses giving guided tours).

MI5 have pronounced the threat to be "critical" meaning although "an attack is expected imminently and indicates an extremely high level of threat to the UK" we should - as our Minister Reid says go about our daily business uninterupted.

July 7, 2005 was a horrible day - walking to Victoria station as a member of the subdued but still spirited British public - was one of the most emotional days of my life. No one I know directly was affected by those bombings, beyond mild inconvenience in transport. Everyone I know made it home from work and was back at it the next day - with two fingers pointed straight up and in the faces of the terrorists trying to subdue them.

Here is another day of that kind of threat - British families will be at the airport - ready to travel to their beer and sun loungers in Spain, Portugal and Florida. They will be cranky - they will be whinging - but they will mostly be going. "We've seen it all before, innit?"

So while the Met has day two of good news (big murder trial result yesterday) I am looking forward to my girls night out in Clapham and will be lifting both two fingers and a few glasses of wine...I am after all working towards my British citizenship!

Problem with being a Renaissance Woman

Ok..so I admit it...I am a news junkie. I love to read as many news sources as possible on a huge variety of topics...this, however poses me one big problem - I cannot be a single issue blogger so my posts are absolutely random and if not random then well written TV obsessed sadness.

I only say this because the other thing - apart from news and entertainment gossip - that I like to read are of course other blogs. I marvel at the coherent entries of some of my fellow bloggers. They are all about the politics and seem to know things that only Superman or God could...it makes me feel tired just thinking about how many hours they must devote to their writing. I am a fickle blogger at best - managing bursts of inspiration when there is not a lot on at work. Normally, every six months or so it gets "tumbleweed quiet" and I have a moment to reflect...

I have, for a while, been interested in finding a subject to write on, but being married means that the only sex I have is the kind that I don't wish to share with all and sundry - ie. Intimacy stays intimate - and the fact that I am so overwhelmed by information in my work life (need to keep up on international news, think tanks, policy for work) that I tend to shy away from writing about politics...so I guess I will have to stick to random rants about strange subjects and comments on the weather in London!

Baby Rant

All the stories in the paper about the conflict between Lebanon and Israel are freaking me out. It is a very scary thing to see pictures of children and mums walking beside their former houses, or inside make-shift body bags.

I spend a lot of my time as a newly married person fending off questions about having children. I never thought I would get married - I never imagined that I would meet a guy I liked enough or who liked me enough to stay...so shock number one is still sending me realing...so asking me about babies is so beyond anything...I am still working my way up to the idea that I might actually own a house!!!

So here is a shout-out to all the people who ask about the parenting plans of their married or coupled friends:

"None of your damn business...n'k?"

When you look at the situation in the world and you realise that while we are not all having bombs dropped on us - the birthing and raising of children is a perilous thing...so much can go wrong.

In our highly mythologised "perfect" western world we are rarely confronted by this fact. We are very lucky at what is available to us. We don't tend to see polio victims, or conjoined children anywhere but on telly, and we don't have to live with the fact that a house fell on our family. We see sentimentalised, perfectly formed-and-casted über babies who never cry, and only have the kind of defect that is a cute one. But things can still go wrong.

Spare a thought - I may be thinking about having kids but is that anyone's business?...I may also be in my little head thinking of all of the above and freaking out, worried about medical conditions, miscariages and wondering if I should have children at all - so before you ask: do you really want to know?