Margaret River Part 2

by Miss Penny Black

Our second full day in MR was a tour called ‘All About Margaret River Wine and Chocolate Tour’, which was accurate but not very catchy. The company was just two guys, Dani was our drive for the day and he was from Chile, having moved to Australia four years ago. If you’re looking for a tour in the MR region, I’d highly recommend this one. Dani was an excellent guide who was friendly, knowledgeable and passionate about the region and supporting the smaller, family-owned businesses that were resisting the big companies that are buying up smaller wineries.

We were picked up from our apartments and joined a retired couple from Sydney, two sisters from Norway, and a couple of retired ladies from England. Everyone was very friendly and it was a great group to spend the day with, even if the couple from Sydney didn’t believe me when I told them the birds we could see at the farm were peacocks, not lyrebirds. I’ll let you be the judge.

First stop was a farm experience where we fed llamas, emus and then sat down for a breakfast of scones and tea or coffee. Something to fill the stomach before the wine tasting started!

We also stopped at Cowerup, a little tourist town we had already had a quick walk around the day before, to visit a chocolate maker called Temper Temper. They did some unusual flavours, including one with cauliflower!

They actually made the chocolate on the premises from imported cocoa beans. I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else in Australia that does that on such a small scale.

We had one wine tasting before lunch, where we sat outside in the garden of Juniper Winery, where an enthusiastic Englishman told us each wine was excellent. None of them really took my fancy, but it was a beautiful place to start our day’s drinking.

We stopped briefly at a lookout where I saw a whale spout in the far distance – I got very lucky on this trip with spotting the puffs of water out near the horizon, although sadly we didn’t see any close to land.

Lunch was at an olive farm and restaurant. We had ordered our food earlier so service was quick and we got to try their range of oils and preserves. Charmaine and I shared a mushroom pasta (divine) and delicious bruschetta before heading off to the next two wineries.

Winery 2 was a small producer and the lady who talked us through their wines was one of the owners. She was very knowledgeable and I found trying their rosé interesting as she gave us two samples, produced from the same grapes in two different years. Not only was the taste very different, but the colour was striking – one was a pale warm tawny and the other was a cool pink!

The third winery of the day was extremely generous with their tasting selection and we ended up ordering a mixed case sent home. In their vineyard I saw the biggest flock of black cockatoos I’ve ever seen – at least 30. At home we get the ones with yellow stripes under their tails, but these had white stripes.

Luke, Charmaine and I said goodbye to the group at about 4pm and had a little rest before going to the weirdest building on the main street, it was a bit steam-punk/cuckoo clock style. The guy at the front desk seemed mildly perturbed that we’d arrived without a booking but the food was great.

The restaurant had lots of little spaces, not one big room. I recommend going there if you go to MR… but make a booking!

It’s two restaurants plus accommodation all in one premises.

Day 3! 22/9/25 Coffee, Art, A Beach And Chocolate

Our last full day in Margaret River. I woke up early and went for a little solo walk. I find if I don’t spend at least a bit of time by myself when I’m on holidays I go mad. Or rather, I get mad and Luke bears the brunt. So I went and had a coffee in a little cafe that was also a health food shop and I watched people coming in and out. Then I walked back to the apartments and realised Luke might like a coffee so I got one for him from a bakery on the main street that had the best looking pastries I’ve seen in a long time. I didn’t end up going back for any, which I’m a bit sad about!

Luke and I took a walk after breakfast and had a look at some street art, and at a gallery nearby. It had an exhibition by Yorkshire artist, Chris Williamson, who did illustrations for children’s books, but also had little sculptures on the wall next to each original pice and you could look in the drawing for the sculpture. His work was very intricate and beautiful.

We met up with Charmaine and our next stop was the Elephant Beach Cafe. it’s the only cafe in the area that is right on the beach and it had a magnificent view of the beach, cliffs and emerald green water. We watched the wait staff whisk all the plates away to avoid attracting the seagulls that plague every outdoors space.

We walked up to the headland and looked further along the coast. There was an interesting rock formation under the water where seaweed had filled in the cracks, making tessellating shapes. I was very glad of my sunglasses, everywhere in Margaret River is so blinding!

Astonishingly, Charmaine didn’t suffer any injuries on this trip. Maybe the curse has lifted!

In the afternoon we visited two chocolate shops. The first was the Margaret River Chocolate Company, which is big but I didn’t find their range of produce very interesting.

We visited a smaller business nearby that had a smaller selection but talked us through a tasting of chocolate from different regions around the world. We could taste the difference between African and South American chocolate and bought some to take to Rottnest Island for our friends to try.

Our last stop of the day was back to Cowaramup (again) and we managed to find, in the tiny strip of shops, two shops we hadn’t previously visited. We bought some cheese and ended up having a lovely evening on our balcony drinking some of the wine we’d bought and eating the cheese with some relish and crackers. This always reminds me of Luke’s parents, Lea and Pete, and their long evenings of cheese and chatting!

Busselton Jetty, Thursday September 25/9/25

We left Margaret River before 8am, still being on Melbourne time. Poor Charmaine was still waking up at 2am!

As always, we turned up quite early, and had time for breakfast at The Goose, a cafe right by the tourist office in Busselton. Another restaurant with a beautiful view and the weather was perfect.

Always Luke chooses dessert for breakfast!

We boarded the little train that ran along the pier and had a chat to a nice family who recommended a place with sunset views in Fremantle the following night. I booked a table straight away.

The trip along the jetty was nice but the underwater observatory at the end was really my cup of tea! A circular cement structure with windows along a the way that circled down, and you could look through at the ecosystem that had built a reef on the jetty pylons.

Going scuba diving out here would be amazing! There’s an underwater sculpture garden too, although we couldn’t see it. Several days previously two young blue whales had been swimming around the jetty – sadly not on our day!

The reef has only been growing for a few years but there’s so much to see.

We decided to walk back and were glad or our hats and long sleeves, the sun felt quite spicy.

Feeling like we’d done everything we needed to do, we got in the car and headed for Fremantle.

We had booked rooms at a Rydges hotel that had once been an old pub. It had a beautiful veranda around the outside but the inside was more modern and cavernous.

Kelvin has flown in that afternoon so Charmaine went to meet him. Luke and I had a couple of drinks in the bar then walked through the park to the Bathers Beach restaurant. There were some very photogenic tugboats in the harbour next door and an octopus sculpture too.

One of my favourite photos from the trip

Bathers Beach itself isn’t large but a few people were gathered for the sunset. Inside the restaurant it was a bit blinding, but the food was good and we shared a bunch of small plates.

Apart from a huge, empty Ferris wheel, there wasn’t much going on around our hotel at night so after a couple of drinks in the bar we headed to bed, still somewhat on Victorian time.

Next stop: Rottnest Island!

1Jul2025

Goodbye Khao Lak, Hello Phuket

by Miss Penny Black

While I was only staying in Thailand for eight days, Jess was moving digs to Phuket, for a change of pace and scenery.

We enjoyed our last breakfast at The Sands, I had a last swim in the pool and we finally bought one of the tiny cute ice creams they sold in front of the gym.

I forgot to take the photo before I bit off the ear.

It takes about two hours to get to Phuket’s Old Town from Khao Lak, so we left The Sands at about midday. Jess has been the organiser of the trip, and for once I get to play the travel princess, which has been very enjoyable! Although knowing someone else has all the info meant I asked her the same questions repeatedly and my brain did not retain anything. What a strange phenomenon!

Jess booked us a taxi through Grab, which is like Uber. The fancy Grab car cost the same as a regular car and it was amazing!

The interior had lights all over and even fancy tassels for the curtains

There was a bit of traffic on the way so we got to Jess’ hotel, the Mid Town Hotel, a bit later than expected. Rather unusually, it used to be a shopping mall, so the layout was kind of interesting.

After dumping our bags and turning on the aircon, we headed out into Old Phuket, which has Portuguese history and beautiful architecture. It was a little New Orleans, Nottingham Hill and Bangkok all rolled into one.

Our first stop, for something fun to do, was a Japanese icecream place that did a weird noodle-shaped topping on icecream in a cone.

We got to watch the guy do the noodles and wondered what on earth they were made from before Jess googled it. Turns out they’re a ‘Mount Blanc’ dessert, invented in Paris 100 years ago and loved by the Japanese. The strands are made of flavoured chestnut paste!

We must, must remember to save our energy for the evenings next time! The afternoon was so hot and humid, I couldn’t stand being in the sun. We walked through some cooler market alleys and then Jess navigated us to an air conditioned coffee shop for a drink while we worked out somewhere to go for dinner.

Markets getting started. Not too busy at 5pm

Jess found a restaurant that was almost in view of the coffee shop and we went to see if it was a decent temperature.

The wait staff kindly put on the aircon for us and we gladly sat in the gorgeous decor: the place had been described online as having a French influence. It had a cement floor but the decor was all teal velvet drapes and cushions, marble tabletops and purple walls with giant disco balls revolving slowly. I loved it!

We had some simple but delicious Thai food and then walked back to the hotel and lay in the aircon. Jess has definitely not suffered anywhere near as badly as I have with the temperature and humidity, which I think is exacerbated by the city environment (and not having a pool handy) and possibly perimenopause.

Despite the discomfort, I really liked what I saw of Phuket. I don’t know why I’d previously imagined it as a soulless tourist trap. The markets did have stalls selling lots of the same things over and over, but I could imagine coming here with a group of friends and having an amazing time just visiting all the fun and unusual bars and restaurants. Being a pride month, this really is a good time to come. I think we missed the initial celebrations by one day, I’m not sure if they have a parade to kick it off.

I took a Grab car to the airport and arrived in plenty of time. After throwing away my water bottle at security, I bought some water for the plane then they had a second security set up as we boarded and I had to throw away the new bottle, which I wasn’t happy about. I read later there had been some bomb threats in Phuket in the previous two days. I don’t know how a clear bottle of water bought in the cafe inside the airport was a threat but there you go.

Jess hadn’t cancelled her return flight as it was part of a package so I had an empty seat next to me – what a luxury! I slept most of the at home, caught the Skybus then a train and was home around lunchtime. Luke was working from home so he picked me up, made me a sandwich and then I went to bed and slept for another five hours.

A rare gang of yellow-tailed black cockatoos were destroying a pine tree when I got off the train at Heathmont. So cute but so violent!

Corch and Leah’s favourite restaurant, the Afghan Kitchen, was closing down so they brought over a feast for dinner and it was lovely to catch up with them. Kat and Luke had saved two weeks of the Saturday quiz and we did them while we had dessert. Trivia with friends – one of my favourite things!

I slept for another six or so hours then it was time to get up, go back to the airport and fly to Queensland! More about that in the next post 🙂 .

14Oct2024

PAX 2024

by Miss Penny Black

Two of the most fun cosplayers of the event, these guys walked around with a boombox, dancing and handing out stuff.

What is PAX? It stands for Penny Arcade Expo, Penny Arcade is a web comic but the two guys who started it, plus some other guys, created this convention about all things game and comic/manga related. This means video games, board games, cards games, Dungeons and Dragons, model making, merchandise, hardware, software and more.

Trialing games and competing in tournaments

More than 80,000 people attended over three days in Melbourne’s massive convention centre at Southbank. I had never been before but some of my friends go every year, some work there too.

Izaac (my nephew), Nikki and Tim came down from Orange for the three days. Tim got a one day pass but Izaac and Nikki came to all three days. Kat kindly let us use her apartment in Fitzroy so we got to stay pretty close by.

This guy had made the entire outfit by hand and it contained a water cooling system for hot days

They arrived Thursday night and stayed at our place then I had a day of leave on Friday so we went into the city, dropped our stuff at Kat’s and then caught the tram to the event.

The event space was two aircraft-hanger sized rooms plus three big theatres and a bunch of smaller rooms. The first talk/panel we attended was called ‘Creating Games’ but it was more about creating interactive experiences and the people talking about how simple games can be and how they personally got into making games. It was ok, I think I found it more interesting because it was the first one.

Next up, Izaac entered a Fortnite tournament. It took a while to get started.

While we waited, I managed to have a chat to the guy in the armour who was with friends who were also in the tournament. Having previously made costumes, I was blown away by his efforts and the amazing array of costumes on display everywhere. His name was Lance and he showed us photos of other things he’d made. A great chat!

His gun had a secret compartment for holding his phone.

Izaac was hoping to come in the top 20 and ended up placing 9th in the tournament out of 66 people.

There were video game, board game, card game and DnD tournaments going on continuously throughout the weekend. Also Dodgeball in a big netted area with a touch sensitive floor. Very futuristic!

We ran into Twigz and Ash soon after, friends of ours who were in the play testing area. This is where people with new games can get people to have a go and get feedback.

We had a look around some of the stands. So many things for sale!

We bought a mystery box and so did Nikki and Izaac. Each box came with three games, one big, one medium and a card/tin-sized game. Our two boxes had completely different games in them. I didn’t take photos of many of the stall but they sold everything from dice to weapons, wigs to Pokémon terrariums.

Later that afternoon, Luke and I watched a TTRPG (table top role playing game) called ‘Call of Cthulhu Live’.

The story was about a mad scientist who had cut a body into pieces then brought it back to life, whereupon it had tried to kill him and the goal of the players (four others with their own back stories) was to capture the runaway body parts and try to destroy them or save them, depending on their own motivations. The person running the game did a great job of describing the gross aspects and the players were very humorous.

Most of the rest of the day was spent walking around taking photos of people.

I was so excited to see someone dressed as a video game character I actually recognised (from Luke’s gaming)

That evening we went out for ice cream on Brunswick St before heading to bed.

The next morning Luke caught the train home because I forgot to pack his bag… he had caught the train in early with Izaac and Nikki because I’d woken up with a migraine and threw up (which made me glad I already had the day off but also annoyed because I had fun plans) so Tim offered to wait for me to sleep some more then drove us both in. Somehow I managed to forget Luke’s bag in all the hurry, so he went home for it the next morning super early. I ended up heading into PAX by myself to let the others take their time getting ready, so I walked around alone for quite a bit of the day. I spent most of the time asking for photos of people and writing down ideas for future storylines.

On my way to PAX, having taken the wrong tram

The first talk I went to on Saturday ended up being the highlight of my festival. It was an introduction to Dungeons and Dragons for beginners. The speaker was fantastic – everyone in the room played along and he explained it all so well. I run games for my friend’s young daughter but I really have no idea about some of the key aspects of the game and this taught me how to run the fighting part of adventures. I’m pretty good at making up stories and including interactive elements like puzzles and challenges, but all the technical dice-rolling that is intrinsic to real D&D is a bit of a mystery to me.

I came away from the session buzzing with ideas and went to a nearby cafe to start writing them out.

After some more photo-taking I met up with Luke and we walked around some more.

Sorry about the blur! Pin collecting is a big thing at these events

We looked at lots of stuff, ate more food, then went to a panel called ‘Yes And – Why TTRPGs Should Take Improv Classes’, which really should’ve been called ‘why developing good social skills and confidence helps you be a good role player‘. It was ok.

After this panel we went to see ‘Trope RPG’, where a panel played a superhero based story. One of the people on the panel was a member of Aunty Donna, the comedy group. It was kind of funny but I don’t think watching people role play is generally that entertaining.

Well, unless it’s everyone in a huge auditorium playing ‘The Dark Room’

We had this show recommended to us earlier in the day and it was on very late – from 9pm to 11. Nikki and Izaac had gone back to the apartment for a rest but came back in for this and were very glad they did.

The host was a manic rock-god type personality and the crowd seemed to be mostly made up of people who had been there before. The host pulled people from the crowd and made them choose options from a screen with the premise that they had awoken in a dark room. Every time the crowd chanted ‘YOU AWAKE TO FIND YOURSELF IN A DARK ROOM’ and the choices inevitably led to the character dying and everyone chanting ‘YA DIE, YA DIE, YA DIE, YA DIE’ while violent red lights flashed. It sounds weird but it was really funny and madly energetic. Even the very laconic Izaac was waving his arms in the air, hoping to be chosen.

Needless to say, the room was dark so apart from the first photo I don’t have any others.

On the walk home Izaac wanted his photo taken. But not his face!

Sunday was a bit more laid back. Luke and I went in a bit earlier, grabbing crepes on Brunswick St.

The weather had been lovely throughout and Sunday was warmer still. We had a wander and tried out a new game from an Australian designer.

Despite looking like a game for little kids, it was quite strategic and challenging. Simple rules but an interesting depth of play was available. When it comes out we might buy it.

Nikki and Izaac also did some play testing.

One of the last things we saw was a live role playing game where there was no dice rolling, the people playing the game had to do a physical challenge instead.

Luke and I headed home mid afternoon, leaving Tim to drive Nikki and Izaac when they were done and bring the box of games we’d bought. Despite the weekend being kind of hectic I felt really energetic when I got home. Being surrounded by people with such positive vibes and enthusiasm for the things they loved was really uplifting.

Part of the enjoyment of the event was seeing how well it was run. Queues were kept out of everyone’s way, crowds weren’t too noisy and there were lots of food vans and everything was open really late. Even getting in was super quick, I don’t think I queued for more than 30 minutes for anything.

We loved it so much we’re already planning our trip back next year!

4Oct2024

Raymond Island

by Miss Penny Black

Every year we catch up with Luke’s family (parents Lea and Pete, sister Erin and her partner Brendan and their three girls) and all go on holiday together somewhere in Victoria. This year our trip was to Raymond Island, which sits just off the coast of Paynesville in south-eastern Victoria. It’s about 3 hour’s drive from Melbourne through the very green Gippsland countryside. Luke’s family all came from Albury, so they drove over the mountains and Brendan got car sick. I’m sure he’ll appreciate me mentioning this in the first paragraph.

Raymond Island is in the Gippsland Lake system. Ninety Mile beach runs along a strip of land on the ocean front, which keeps the waters of the lakes much calmer.

Unusually, despite it being only about 200 metres from the mainland, Raymond Island is accessible only by ferry. The ferry only takes five minutes but if you’re outside the continuous service hours, sometimes you have to wait about half an hour for it to return. Foot traffic is free on the ferry but cars are $14 return.

We are staying about 2km from the ferry port on Western Boulevard.

The ferry crosses where it says ‘Raymond Island’ on the map.

Our house sits right next to the power pole which brings all the power to every house on the island. I probably wouldn’t have even been aware of this fact if we hadn’t arrived to discover the whole island was out of power thanks to a large catamaran catching the power line and breaking the connection.

The power pole was slightly bent by the accident and now has to be removed.

For the first day we avidly watched all the workmen come and go and talked to locals about the progress. The power came back about 7pm on the second day. Luckily we had a bbq, the hot water was heated by gas, we had a log fire and the caretaker brought us a bag of candles. As Lea said, it only makes the holiday more memorable!

Luke and I drove down on Monday and stopped at the Morwell Top Pub for lunch. I mainly wanted to write this down because the lunch was really good and if we come this way again we would definitely break the trip there.

We made it to the island by 4pm and caught the ferry over. The island has no shops or really much to do, but it is well-known for its resident koalas!

There are supposed to be over 200 but we didn’t see any on our arrival.

The house we are staying in was booked by me through Stayz. It is two storeys and has all the kitchen and lounge etc on the top floor to make the most of the views.

Erin, Brendan and the girls are in the downstairs space where there is a queen sized bed and a room with three sets of bunks. Lea, Pete, Luke and myself are sleeping upstairs, which has worked out well with the girls waking at the crack of dawn each day. I spent last week in Orange while Mum was in the Base Hospital recovering from her hip replacement, so this has been a good chance to catch up on some sleep after staying in her hospital room for three nights.

The weather the first full day we were here was very windy but it was pretty still from then on and we’ve been out walking lots and gone over to Paynesville on the ferry for coffee.

We also walked the koala trail and saw lots of koalas!

Along the koala walk was a kookaburra sitting very still and watching all the people go by.

If you’ve never heard a kookaburra’s call, search for it online and have a listen, they are very unusual!

There is a house that hires Surrey bikes to travel along the koala trail. Erin, Brendan and the girls tried them out.

Rather than slog around on heavy bikes, Lea, Pete, Luke and I went to the Metung Hot Springs, with lunch at the Metung Pub on our way there.

I hadn’t even heard of Metung before, but it’s a very posh little hamlet on the water and the pub had a lovely view over all the yachts. We arrived to find the place pretty booked out, but the waiter said a party of four was very late so he gave us their table right by the window.

I couldn’t say no to fish and chips with a view like this.

Next were the hot springs. The Metung ones are part of the same chain as the more established Mornington Peninsula Hot Springs. The ones in Metung are only two years old so they don’t have as many pools. We were lucky in our timing as there weren’t many people there so we got to sit in the hottest pools – individual barrels – that overlooked the lakes.

The barrels sit half under the decking, there’s actually lots of leg room.

The time limit for the barrels was ten minutes, so we got in and out a few times and moved to a larger and cooler barrel pool and a shallow ‘stargazing’ pool, which was sloped so you could lie back and look up.

We spoke to a staff member who said many more pools were planned and it certainly felt like they needed more, the capacity of the place wouldn’t be huge right now. I’d like to come back in a few years and see it when it has expanded.

My main tip would be to wear sandals in, don’t leave them at the lockers. I left mine and some of the paths were pretty sharp gravel.

The springs are about 50 minutes from Raymond Island by road.

One morning Luke and I took a drive across to the back of the island to Gravelly Beach, which is much more pebbly than gravelly. It was pretty much empty and the water was almost completely still. We could see tiny fish swimming about and the beach was covered in tiny shells.

There was quite a bit of seaweed but also some patches that were clearer. Everyone else went to the beach later than us when the wind had picked up some more. That’s the problem with the seaside – so often the lovely weather is chilled by the winds. The water temperature was around 13 degrees, so far too cold to be getting in anyway, although the girls have wetsuits so they have managed it.

On our last afternoon on the island we all went down to the little beach on the far end of Western Boulevard, about 500 metres from our house. Brendan played beach cricket with Evie and Lola, while Thea hid from the curious black swans.

Looks tropical until you feel the water temperature

All the animals on the island were very friendly… too friendly for some!

On the final morning Luke and I packed the car and then met everyone else at the ferry to go over to Ginny’s Cafe, which we’d all been to multiple times by then.

I like being in a place long enough to go back to the good places repeatedly. We also had dinner at the Old Pub one night, which wasn’t fancy but the food was fine.

Last thing to do was get a stranger to take a photo of us in front of the ferry before heading home.

Hopefully we’ll be back one day and when we do the weather will be just as good! As we drove out of Paynesville the first few drops of rain started falling, as if to emphasise our return to everyday life. From here Lea and Pete are visiting family, Erin and Brendan et al are heading to Wilson’s Prom then back to Lakes Entrance to spend time with Brendan’s family.

The duck family we watched from the balcony

A family of magpies kept an eye on the food situation on our balcony.

Altogether a very successful holiday!

26Jun2023

Belfast: Day 2: Family, Murals, Muddler’s Club, Hardy Bucks!

by Miss Penny Black

When Danny and I were doing the Camino he would have a quick chat to his mum every day and I would be sure to yell hello from the background as I’d met Danny’s mother, Kathryn, years ago… decades ago, actually! So we all met up for brunch at an art gallery in the middle of the city. Somewhat embarrassingly for the rest of us, Kathy was much more fashionably dressed and had also been out filming interviews for a community project while we’d been dragging ourselves out of bed.

Brunch was lovely and the cafe was quiet despite the city being very busy when we got outside.

While in the gallery we went to look at an exhibition of teapots, which I thought I’d send photos of to Charmaine since we’d been to a tea cosy festival last year.

We did not manage to find the teapots but did spend a surprising amount of time in the lift going up and down looking for them. Oh well!

The exhibitions we did find were a bit sparse.

Much better to be out on the streets where Belfast really shines.

Excellent!

Such fantastic diversity in themes and styles and so huge! Many were commissioned as part of a festival.

Being a Saturday afternoon, all of Belfast’s demographics were out in the cathedral quarter.

We walked through a covered market and I bought some hand-painted cards.

I’m very curious about this cheese.

This one reminded me of Lea, who loved sticky toffee pudding but maybe not enough to try it as a cheese flavour.

Peter always describes people who behave wildly as ‘wee hallions’.

More art.

It’s almost everywhere you look and really contributes to the vibrant character of the city.

We popped into The Sunflower for a drink. It has one of the last remaining entry cages from The Troubles.

Nowadays they do pizzas and music and it’s very relaxed.

Yet more art, this one is one of my favourites.

Before going back home, a visit to a fancy cheese shop.

I didn’t mention Freddie yesterday, he is Peter and Danny’s dog and a cockapoo. He is very cuddly and spends almost all his time doing this.

It makes me miss Bonnie even more!

We had a very fancy dinner booked at restaurant called The Muddler’s Club so we got changed then headed back into the city. I had been feeling the hay fever again so I took some tablets, not thinking that one of them acted like a sedative and I was drowsy all evening.

Despite my sleepiness the food was amazing; two entrees, two mains and two desserts with bread and a plate of tiny appetisers.

We had matched wines and they were really well matched, especially the entree that was a scallop with iberico ham in a butter and pea sauce. I think of all the courses, that’s the one I won’t forget.

After dinner we went for a drink in this fancy building.

The drinks were absolutely delicious but they were at the top of the scale, price-wise too. Worth it for the very luxurious atmosphere and they did come with some snacks.

Slightly worried about the end of public transport time, we caught the glider (a bus/tram hybrid) back to Ballyhackamore and had a last couple of drinks at a very buzzing brewery (Bullhouse East) that we had visited the night before.

On returning home we watched a few episodes of a very Trailer Park Boys style show called Hardy Bucks, a show about some complete drop kicks, set in small town Ireland. As you could probably predict, Luke and I understood about one word in ten and none of the Irish in-jokes but found it amusing anyhow.