Weekend of Debauchery...

On Friday evening Adrian, Nicky and their son Ricky arrived for the weekend. I had made homemade pizzas, it seems to be a standard issue for new visitors arriving late at night! We had a few drinks and a good catch up session until about 2 in the morning when we decided that bed might be looking rather good...

On Saturday morning we walked to the local pub for breakfast at about 11:30 after having had coffee and a slow start in the morning. After breakfast Nicky, Ricky and I went to Superquinn grocery store to buy things for dinner, more on that coming right up! When I got home I madly started making and baking as time was rapidly running out!
Our evening was fabulous, I ended up doing burgers, coleslaw, spinach salad and brownies, it has worked well in the past so I decided that it was the easy no fuss option! I went to fetch Irene and Rob so that they would not have to drink and drive, then they ordered a cab to collect them from our house after the game. The kids all wore their green and gold, as did Malcolm and Rob. Nicky and Adrian are England supporters, well Nicky was a little confused because she is from SA but has been living in England since she was 19. We were all very stressed….although quietly optimistic, I was so scared that the English would have a point to prove after the horrible whipping they got last time! At the end of the game we all whooped and cheered like idiots and Jess and Kirstin went and wrote GO BOKKE on the road with sidewalk chalk! Ricky even helped, he got over the fact that his country had lost fairly quickly, and declared that it was fun that SA had won after all!
The cab arrived to pick up Rob, Irene and kids and Adrian, Nicky, Malcolm and I set off for the Glenside, our “local” leaving the kids at home with Play station like the responsible parents we are…hmmmph.

We bumped into our neighbours, Geraldine and Martin who said there was no way we should head to the Glenside after such a victory, they told us to go to Gub Dandys in Terenure. Terenure is a town about 5 minute away. We convinced them to join us and walked to the main road and hailed a cab. Geraldine, Nicky and I jumped into the first cab, with no money so Geraldine quickly got e20 from Martin and we set off. Malcolm, Adrian and Martin ended up jumping on a bus, because one arrived just as we left so they decided it would be quick enough. We got there and Geraldine managed to get hold of 3 chairs and sat us all RIGHT in front of the guy singing! The hubby's were not far behind, thank goodness because we had no drinking money!! We had a ball, the singer sang In the Jungle in honour of SA winning the World Cup (it was the only song he knew from Africa!!!) and Geraldine asked him to play Hotel California, because seeing The Eagles in Dublin is what started the whole mad ball rolling for us moving to Dublin. It was all good fun and a great end to a fabulous win for South Africa. At around 1:45 in the morning we decided that it was home time coz the bar closed and the men were thirsty!

On Sunday we went to Dublin for a bit of sightseeing. We wondered around trying to find a pub with live Irish music and food which was difficult as we had the kids with us. In the end we had lunch without the music and after lunch Jess suggested that the kids head back home on the luas and the adults head for a pub with live music. We gladly accepted her offer and walked them back to the luas and then went in search of a pub to fill our requirements. We stopped at The Hairy Lemon to watch the Grand Prix and have a couple of drinks and once that was done we headed towards Temple Bar and found a pub with live music. A bachelor party was in progress which made for good people watching, it is not often that you see a man in a red wig with a snug fitting green dress to compliment it. At 20H30 we left because I did not want to get home too late as the kids had school in the morning and I knew we needed to be home to get them into bed!

Malcolm managed to take the day off work on Monday and after breakfast we went for a little drive around to show Adrian and Nicky some of the sights. We ended up at Johnny Fox's Pub, apparently the highest pub in Dublin and it was great, so full of character. We were going to have lunch there, but the menu is 95% fish so we opted for toasted sandwiches at home because Adrian does not like fish and I was doing a big roast leg of lamb for dinner anyway.

The kids got home from school and did their homework and then we had an early roast lamb dinner because Malcolm and Adrian wanted to go and watch the football at the local...Nicky and I were very content staying home, drinking wine and having girly conversation.

On Tuesday Malcolm had to go to work so he took the girls to school and I had a lie in, I had very cleverly made lunches the evening before! Once we were all up we all walked to the restaurant/café called Howard’s Way for breakfast. It was a beautiful morning and we sat outside and enjoyed the day and our breakfasts! Then we ordered cappuccinos and sat a little more...because we could. Once breakfast was done it was back home to do last minute packing and then the door bell rang and it was the taxi to take our visitors away, boo hoo.

I have a sneaky suspicion we will be seeing them again fairly soon....by hook or by crook.....or the pubs and the nooks!!!