Raising a glass to St Patrick

I'm not a great one for the Patrick's Day Parade as a general rule, and I didn't break that rule today either. But the weather was unusually nice for the national holiday and I decided to stop off in town on the way home from Carl's to soak up some of the festive atmosphere. To my shame I have to admit that I didn't even know what time the Parade was on, or what route it took or even where the participants assembled. One pleasant surprise when I got to the start of where streets were blocked off was to find that Pay & Display parking fees had been waived 'because of the day that's in it'. So I abandoned the car off Fitzwilliam Square and walked over to Merrion Square where the funfair business had been set up as part of the Patrick's Festival.

I have to admit there was a great buzz around, and people were having a rare old time, walking around with silly hats on and enjoying the rides and so on. Good as it was, though, I wasn't sufficiently imbued with the festive atmosphere to feel like investigating the actual Parade, so I stopped off and caught some of it on TV in the recently re-opened Baggot Inn. It was reassuring to see that I wasn't the only one taking a break, so I decided to get away from it all some more, and stopped off first near the Canal and then spotted the Schoolhouse Hotel, a favourite spot from some time ago which I haven't been to for a while.

I had a very pleasant bite to eat (Eggs Benedict -- yummy), and sneaked a couple of shots of some of the equally-getting-away-from-it-all clientele, including this one, which I spotted as soon as I walked in. I have these reactalight lenses, which I'd suspect had turned quite dark when I came in from the bright sunlight, so perhaps this scene with the sun streaming in through the windows registered more strongly than it might have otherwise.

Back home later on I made my choice for my 300th blip and uploaded it -- and that brings me to the point where I want to thank everyone who commented on my 300th. All the comments are very welcome indeed, and much appreciated. I'm still stuck in a bit of a back posting time warp. This Patrick's Day post is going up on Tuesday, as is Sunday's blip. Confused? Not as much as I am.