Beckett lightshow

Today's music session was in Ranelagh. A smaller turnout than the previous two weeks, but still a hugely enjoyable session.

The others were hanging on for a bit for a few glasses of wine, but I had to leave immediately after the music and head over to Carl's police. It's his birthday tomorrow, and we had a 6.15 meal reservation. I left the car at his place, we got the DART to Pearse Station and began the evening with a pre-meal cocktail in the Shelbourne hotel. The meal was booked in Town Bar & Grill for what they call their 'pre-theatre' menu (aka Early Bird). I'd tried for an 8.00 pm booking but they didn't have a table free at that time and we preferred eating earlier and having to vacate the table for 8.15 rather than being seated at what they call a 'bar table' at any time we liked.

Unusually for us, we both ordered exactly the same three courses: Clam Chowder, Grilled Hake, Raspberry Pannacotta. The food was okay but not great (the chowder was more like minestrone with added fish, while the pannacotta would have been better left plain with raspberry compote rather than be raspberry flavored with blueberry compote), but the surroundings are very pleasant and the service was friendly and efficient.

So the question when we left there was what to do with the rest of the night. I had a plan for somewhere to go, but it involved quite a walk to get there. That meant that there was nothing for it but to take a number of pit stops on the way. We did really well with the places we chose, and had a really good time making our way across town to the final destination which I had in mind. Our final stop on the way there was at Ely in the IFSC, which Carl hadn't been to previously and was very impressed with. But the best turned out to be last - the Cill Áirne floating bar & restaurant. Carl hadn't experienced this before either (I've been 'on board' a few times), and was suitably impressed and delighted with it as the final stop of the night. The weather was balmy enough for us to spend our entire stay there out on the open deck. The boat is moored down-river from the Samuel Beckett Bridge. We hadn't until now been aware that the underside of the bridge is set up as an animated light show, and that's what this blip is intended to show (though not as well as I would have liked).

We got a taxi from the quayside to Carl's place at 1.30 am or so after a really enjoyable night out.