Back home

Just back from the trip to the Old Country, where we had a very pleasant and relatively stress-free Christmas.

The most stressful part of the whole exercise was the travelling, and the Security Nonsense at LHR was at least handled well, even though almost every single thing they ask to check is pointless. A child's shoes need to be x-rayed? As far as I can see, the only purpose of the Security Stupidity at LHR is to provide a tempting target for a suicide bomber (thousands of people shuffling in intertwined queues), which will then allow BAA to make it all but impossible to fly at all. However, all our shoes, laptops, iphones and cameras have been x-rayed, which will probably have dealt with all the bird-flu laden goose and kangaroo faeces we traipsed from Fota Wildlife Park into London.

Ireland was quite strange to me: the beginnings of a multi-cultural society appear to be strongly taking root, and there's a very noticeable increase in the number of overseas accents and faces you encounter.

This has had the usual benefits when it comes to the variety of foods on offer, and the usual disbenefits in giving grumpy uncles something new to complain about. It's a net benefit, as far as I'm concerned, with probably the best smoked salmon, olives and cheese available anywhere in the world all in the Olde English Market right in the centre of Cork.