h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...but no-body asked me to drink

Arranged to meet Winnoch and Bomba at a beer festival on Friday night.

Had taken the day off work to concentrate on packing things, and so had been a wee bit annoyed at Dai for spending time in a travel agents (OK a diving holiday in Egypt sounds lovely, but I'm focussing my energy on what MUST be done this week!)

So was a bit narked when it got to the 5ish that was the agreed meeting time, and we were still chez moi, taking wardrobes apart.

Of course, once we were on the train, Winnoch texted to say they'd be late, and Bomba did his habitual last minute chickening out (B, the guys are beginning to think that you're a figment of my imagination! )

Once there, having paid our £3 entrance, and sussed out the glass deposti and beer token system...we realised it was totally populated by beardy wierdy CAMRA types, and that they didn't have all the beers that they were advertising... Dai (Wot? No vodka? Wot? No smoking?) went into grumpy bugger mode, and had to be placated by being dragged to the pub across the road. Having surveyed the residents (If your girlfriend took you to a beer festival, would you complain?) Winnoch and Hayley soon joined us for a few whiskies, before we decided to hit the Kremiln, Belfast's hottest gay nightclub.

Before we knew it, it was midnight, and I had to escape before I turned into a pumpkin ( although I did manage to fall down the stairs on the way out )

Hey, it was a fun evening! Good luck to Winnoch amnd Hayley on their trip round bonnie Oireland, and Bomba, ya better make the next one mate!

The mythical Bomba... A creature often imagined, never seen. Let's not talk to 2legs about this, shall we?

Are winnoch and Hayley going to travel to the south of this island, I wonder?

Beer festabil Making them non-smoking is a tadge annoying... as I found out at the two I've thus far been too (not including mini beer fests at pubs ) We had a bit of a mammoth JD experiance in London this weekend

I always have the best of intentions though! Has it ever struck you that they could be right? Maybe I don't really exist and you're losing it! (Harvey )

Did you see the Telegraph on Friday? There was a photo about the beer festival, showing two old greybeards with magnificent sideburns! I'm sure I recognised one of them from an old school book showing one of the Irish regiments at Waterloo...

Did you get to see the Maiden City Stompers? That name has me intrigued. Google gives 3 results, all of them for that thing last Friday. Maybe they don't really exist either. This is getting odd. Thank Bod 2legs is here.

No, didn't get to see any music, Winnoch and Hayley may be able to tell you more.

And yes, they're off down south - we were encouraging them to spend longer than they'd planned in Achill/ Westport

Hellloo!

I'm back. It's late and M$ corporation has decided to give me Internet Explorer 7 which is making the most basic things i normally do with this machine, unfamiliar and annoying. Oh, and the heating appears to be caput, so i'll make this brief so i can go to a warm bed!

Oirland was good.. but we tried to cover far too much ground in the time we had, so we ended up spending most of the week driving. We should've chosen one county to explore in detail, rather than try to see most of Ireland in one week! Ah well, it's been a useful exercise to pinpoint which areas i would want to see more of and those that i'll give a lower priority to on future visits.. It looks like County Kerry and Clare were my favorites from what i saw, but what i saw was limited to the main roads and a few hours of daylight so perhaps my impressions aren't accurate.

Weather was wild with torrential rain and gusts of up to 100km/h ! This made simple things like getting out of the car to take a photo a real challenge... I had to literally pull Hayley back into the car by her clothing at one stage - she's only wee, and was in danger of being blown away! But we found the weather funny rather than depressing.. we did wish it would just stop raining for one day though. Oh, and talking of funny- we found, not one, but two Mrs Doyles (from father Ted) who owned bed and breakfasts. These were seriously crazy, manic, stereotypically irish, old women. We were even force fed a cup of tea by one of them!! Go-wan, go-wan, go-wan, you WILL!!

We travelled across and stayed at, or at least got out of the car at.. Countys Mayo, Galway, Clare, Kerry, before a fast drive without stopping across Cork, Waterford, and Wexford then a day in Wicklow (we went to Avoca to see the Ballykissangel locations of course!**)and Dublin to round off the week. We did a Dublin bus tour, but an open topped bus in winter with a dodgy earpiece made it a rather forgettable experience unfortunately. Oh and of course we drank lots of Guinness

I'm afraid we both used 1gb cards, so as a consequence i'm currently transferring across 400 odd photos.

** Hayley photographed the reason why Asumpta got electrocuted in the last BallyK episide.. yes the exact location in the pub where she reached into and got her fatal shock, is, in real life... jam packed with extension leads and 6-way plug sockets plugged into each other I wonder if that's where the writers got the idea...

Oh, Beatrice.. we missed Westport for some reason, but we loved Achill island.. especially with those massive waves all around.

The music was quite good at the festival. It did only comprise of one band with a female singer doing cover versions. Unoriginal but pretty groovy when you've had a few real ales

We left our bag of maps and tourist stuff in Morrisons pub, bye the way! But it's OK- we popped in the next morning before leaving and the kindly barman still had it behind the bar

What a mini-meet!

Hope your is all better...

It was a good night out!

Glad you and Hayley enjoyed your trip. Rain and winds are pretty much a given! And it is unrealistic to do it all in a week - we spent a week in Kerry in July and didn't see the half of it. It is fabulous though - specially for those Kodak moments - so make that your first return trip.

My ankle's still a bit weak - not helped by humping boxes all round the place. Monday is moving day

Whew - what a trip! There's a lot to see, so hopefully you'll come down south to see a bit more of the Southern coast. West Cork is one of my favourite places in the world..

Hiya,
glad you enjoyd the beer festival!!! Morrisons drink was much much better........... southern comfort the whole way....... not to mention why durex are more expensive in one toilet than the other, although i can't remember whether it was the mens or womens was more expensive.

Hows the house moving goin i hope not too stressful.

xox

Ach philistines, the lot of ya I must say though, i've tasted better beers.. i think they only had the dregs left....

Oh my gawd- i forgot about the durex debate

A 'small' selection of photos are up now

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/abmscopes/album?.dir=be72re2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/abmscopes/my_photos