Stardate: 12 May 2019 - "Whale oil beef hooked!" said Paddy...

...our Dublin taxi driver, as he drove us from the airport to our hotel.  And what a wag he was.

Our day started very early in Buxton  and we were on the road to Manchester airport at 6.30am.  And a good thing too as it gave us plenty of time to twice circumnavigate Manchester airport via the handy ring-road, as we searched in vain for the airport rental car drop-off place.  Done and dusted, we then amused ourselves for three hours in the departure lounge, breathing sighs of relief that we'd just got there in the nick of time, as always.

Our Aer Lingus flight was fine, about 55 minutes, and a food and drink service was offered but we declined paying the equivalent of A$10 each for a kit-kat and a cup of coffee.  So we were starving when we got to our slightly quaint hotel - the Amberley in Dublin's Lower Gardiner Street around 2.30pm.

After dumping our bags (as well as Geoff's skis, hatbox and piano accordion) we headed round the corner to The Celt, a traditional Irish pub recommended by the receptionist.  Here's Mr Pants and a half-pint of Guinness. 

And here's our very late lunch - a haddock and veg chowder and sweet Mary, Jesus and Joseph, it was delicious.  The accompanying Guinness bread was curious though - incredibly sweet and it tasted like banana bread to me.  Not to worry, we still ate it.

We quite liked The Celt and may well return there for a refreshing ale tomorrow.

We then did a 1000 kilometre trek around the Dublin CBD getting our bearings.  As some may know, there are European Union elections coming up, and the Irish take them very seriously, as indeed they should.  I liked the sound of this candidate, Rita Harrold, and if I was Irish I might well vote for her.  Behind her poster (or should I call it a corflute?) and down the street a bit you can see several other posters spruiking the credentials of different candidates for election to the European Parliament.  Mr Pants will shortly share an encounter we had yesterday in Buxton with a charming gentleman seeking a people's vote on the Theresa May Brexit deal.  We completely forgot to report on it yesterday, instead virtually rewriting Day 2 of our Buxton sojourn.  As I have done before, I blame Scott Morrison for this lapse.  He has much to answer for.

And (almost) finally from me today, about 750 kilometres into our trek, we came across the birthplace of Oscar Wilde.  Just a pic of the plaque and not the actual building as it was a busy street and we would have needed to cross the road to get a decent pic.  But anyway, cheers to Oscar.

And definitely finally, Newspoll - no change.  Pfffft!  You're wrong, Murdoch lackeys!  And this will be proved beyond any shadow of a doubt next Saturday night when Antony Green calls it for a landslide Labor win by 7.15pm.

Over now to Mr Shamrockpants.

***

In chronological order ... yes, on our last stroll through Buxton yesterday we were accosted (very politely) by a proper English gentleman exhorting another people's vote on Brexit.  Even though we told him up front we were bloody colonials and so were more interested in the chances of Dutton losing his seat (please, is there a god?), he insisted on advocating his cause, which is:  a new vote, where the options are 1. Accept the Government's preferred deal, or 2. If this isn't acceptable, vote to remain in the EU.  Makes sense to me.  Of course, not acceptable to hard core Brexiteers, who'd be happy to leave with no deal at all..  Yeah, great idea.

OK, on to Dublin.  Our taxi driver from the airport was indeed a great source of entertainment.  You could have just sat in his cab by the kerb for an hour and not moved anywhere and happily paid his fare.  His favourite words were Jaysus and feckin'.  We're fast learners, and will be sure to use them liberally while we're here:  'Jaysus, whaddayer mean 25 Euros; you're feckin' kiddin'!'

We didn't have time for a proper outing this arvo, particularly after our sojourn to The Celt, which we thought was quite excellent,and well within staggering distance.  But we did find Trinity College (hard to miss really).  We'll be going back tomorrow, but here's an early photo.  The monument's called the Campanile and the figure on the left is Samuel Beckett.  On the right is a recent PhD candidate whose thesis was on Beckett.  Some might say that giving her equal billing with the great man is a bit generous, but who would be so uncharitable?

On our way home from Hortense's 1000 kilometre trek we crossed the River Liffey (actually re-crossed it) and captured this view heading east.  You can just see a new building that seems to be an attempt to recreate the leaning tower of Pisa in Dublin, except theirs leans more.

The day ended much better than it began, and tomorrow promises to be better still.  Specially if we get to go back to The Celt.