The Irish Times

Must be time for an update! Well since travelling around Spain and Morocco, I was back working at the gym… for nearly three weeks. It was only a matter of time before the next set of tickets were bought for overseas. In this case, two sets! Firstly I had to visit Rick in Jolly Old England, and make sure that he is behaving himself. To do so, I had to recruit the help of four others, two Belgains – Jess and Sophie, and two kiwi’s – Sharon and Wendy. What a great weekend! We saw some of the many sights of London: Westminster + Abbey, London Eye, Big Ben, Many famous streets from the Monopoly board game, and of course Harrods and the large alternative markets. We spent our time eating, drinking, ice-skating, and more. It was fantastic to see our Belgian friends again, and totally awesome to see Sharon again. It was weird us just hanging out over in London… kinda made you think that the world is a smaller place than you think, and that water and distance are only imagined obstacles that can disappear so quickly.

So that was an incredible time, but a very brief visit over there. Back in Ireland there was much happening also. It was the silly season, and at any and every excuse there would be a xmas party or event to attend. Firstly it was Susie (a gym instructor at work), she was leaving for bigger and better things so we needed to celebrate that. It was also Derek’s (also in the gym) 30th birthday party, so it was a double-whammy, and it was a great night out in Galway. Various photos were splayed about the workplace over the following week depicting all sorts of interesting and funny moments. Some editing of course… but all fun and games. It also signalled Cat moving back to NZ too, so now it's just me and Janto in the house. Sniff sniff. Goodbye Cat!!!

Next it was a Christmas party for my Sports Nutrition Ireland company down in the town of Carlow. While reputed as being a bit of a rough area, it was well worth the trip down there to stay in an incredibly flash hotel, have all drinks, dinner at an Italian restaurant and be shown the night-life of the interesting or not-so-interesting Carlow. We had a great night though! Too much drinking (its’ free!!) and not enough sleep… but a great chance to meet more people. They seem to fancy hiring a number of beautiful girls from countries such as Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, and not to mention even Ireland itself. The only thing missing was guys… me and Patrick making up the guy influence minus Jack (the boss). Damn shame…

Next weekend afterwards was our Leisureland Christmas work do. With a much larger number of staff, it was good times. Unfortunately I was working the next day, but it didn’t stop me at all. We drank and danced the night away in a pub and a club. Again many photos – mostly attempts at getting my workmate JP to do something stupid so I could post it up all over the boards the next day. Here’s a few of us who lasted to the very end: Susan, JP, and Nicola.

So it has all been a very social time in Ireland of late, and expensive to boot. Not ideal for saving for my two-week trip to France the following week! But I had some amazing times that I won’t forget in a hurry.