London to Ireland 09/04

I can remember when I was in year five at Prairievale Public School we had an old brass hand held bell that was rung for lunch time, home time etc. The bell was passed from class to class and each student would have their turn at walking through the school and ringing it. So much fun! When I came back from Christmas holidays to start year six I was horrified to find the school bell, that we all looked forward to ringing, had been replaced by an electric system on a timer.

I had always wondered what happened to that great school bell, so imagine my surprise when I heard it being rung at 11pm in a London pub. Well I admit that it might not have been the exact same bell, but it sure sounded the same. And I wouldn't put it past the New South Wales Department of Education trying to make a few bucks by selling off old equipment. However, my surprise was no where near complete, as I soon discovered that much like at school, the ringing of the bell signified home time. Apparently 11pm is last drinks in England, no wonder we have so many bloody Poms in Australia :)

This all said our 11pm cut off meant we were home and in bed not long after midnight. Which in turn meant we didn't have too much trouble making our 9am train from Euston to Holyhead. The four hour train ride was actually quite nice and the English country side was really beautiful. From Holyhead we caught a ferry to Dublin, which was another 4 hours, but I can't say the scenery was quite as good. The seas were quite rough and although it was interesting at first, after a while one bit of ocean looked much the same as the next.

Yvonne's father, Andy, met us at the port which was great. And it wasn't very long at all before we were back at Yvonne's parents house in Cabinteely sipping a nice warm hot whiskey. Yvonne's mum, Olive, then dished up a delicious dinner and we drank wine and talked into the night. It was great to be in Ireland and to be welcomed so warmly.