Ok, to recap quickly.

On Friday I went up to Dublin for a seminar in the CITO in UCD, it was interesting and I'll be trying to stay in touch with the person who gave it. But 4-6pm on a Friday is a bloody awkward time for anyone to go to such as thing from outside of Dublin. I was lucky that it finished pretty promptly after 5.30pm and I got to talk to a number of people there and then I did my not very good impression of a student heading down the country to get his washing done by Mammy.

I got to the Heuston in reasonable time for the train which I thought erroneously was due to leave at 7pm; however it was really leaving at 7.15pm. In actual fact it didn't leave until almost 7.30pm. It was one of the old style CIE trains that I’ve experienced from Mallow to Kerry a good few things. It ran on time which was good. There was lot noise from the undercarriage as if it was getting pelted with stones which is normal enough but from time to time it would sounds as if the wheels were running over crowbars that were bouncing up to hit the undercarriage. It must have done some damage to the electrics because 20 minutes out from Limerick the carriages were plunged into darkness. It was a nervy moment for most people, which I didn’t assist with by ringing Mgb and leaving a voicemail asking if he knew if the electrics and the brakes on trains were connected. I also mentioned during the call that we should be in the station in 10/15 minutes and potentially in the back of Tom Collins 20 secs later. I donned my black gloves and pulled my warm thinsulate hat down almost to my eyes and I think at that point some people began to shuffle in their seats. Probably wondering if I wasn’t about to start stealing jewellery at gunpoint. “Oh, I’m the dandy highwayman”

Happy to say, the train did actually slow down as we entered the station. Oddly, there was no clapping of the type you sometimes get on planes when they touchdown safely. I headed to IRI HQ is it sometimes known. From there we went to Mike M 29+1 drinks in Nancy’s, I had 3 pints and that was it for the night! Saturday involved me traveling home to Kerry and Sunday saw me return again to Limerick very much in the nature of a flying visit, only I used the bus.