Irish Tour '08: Wisdom & Virtue Inc

It is with a heavy heart and the deepest regret that due to circumstances beyond my control, I never got to visit the Beamish Brewery. It was pissing down again and I didn't feel like going out. I'm sure it will be there for next time.

Crap weather or not, I took the bus to Crosshaven Thursday and stayed with Brendan for a couple a days. The variability of the weather here is outstanding. It is either really nice or truly appalling with no in-betweens. Thursday was appalling; Friday was spectacular. Saturday was miserable; Sunday was glorious.

Notwithstanding the abundance of blue sky on Friday, I managed to have a few pints with Bruno at Johnny's in the afternoon before having some really good fish and chips with Rosemary, Frank, Kim, Brendan and Bruno. Seeing that Saturday was Bruno's birthday, Brendan and I caught up with him at Johnny's before I headed off to Wexford. Crosshaven is fab - I never want to leave.

After getting one bus back into Cork, I had about a half hour wait for the Wexford bus. I don't care how cheap bus travel is, it sucks. It was pissing down and bloody cold, so in the true spirit of customer service, the bus driver kept us waiting while he faffed about seemingly doing nothing. The bus was packed with the added bonus of a noisy family of bogans spread across the back street. One of the highlights of the trip was when mum walked towards the front of bus.

"Where you going, mum?" screamed her youngest.

"Mind your own fucking business," was the hollered reply. Nice! Fortunately they disembarked in Youghal.

I was going to Wexford for the 2008 Wisdom - Virtue summit, a high profile meeting of people with the coolest names. I met Jane Wisdom in an Indian restaurant in Vientiane nearly six years ago. It was all about dosas and I caught up with her and her then partner over the next few days before they headed north and I went south. I was a tad nervous. What if we didn't like each other? What if we had nothing in common? Of course I had nothing to fear and we're having lots of fun. What else would I have expected from the late, great Marvin's godmother? We had a flashback to one of our conversations.

One of us, it might have been me, said, "You won't believe my surname."

"Mine's better," was the reply. I think it was a draw.

Wexford is really pretty and it's Opera Festival time and there's lots of art in the town, some of it really good. Saturday night we checked out "Singing in the Pubs" which was a lot of fun.

Sunday I was taken to lots of exhibitions, including one in magnificent Johnstown Castle and yesterday we went to some more before going for a walk around Kilmore Quay, a fishing village about 20 km from Wexford town. I'm not sure what she has planned for today, but I'm looking forward to whatever it is.

This is probably the last post (put that bugle down) as I'm flying out of Dublin at 06:40 tomorrow morning. That entails getting the airport bus from Wexford at 01:30. Yikes! After changing aeroplanes in Frankfurt and Singapore, I get back to the unreality of Sydney on Thursday night.

Thanks to everyone who looked after me. I had a ball!