| Mark Boyd's Family Web Pages. |
Ireland VacationOur flight on Monday, Oct 24, from Columbus to Phillidelphia was delayed over an hour and so we weren't going to be able to make the connection to the flight to Dublin. So the gate agent in Columbus rerouted us through Charlotte. The flight from Charlotte to Dublin was a couple of hours later and so we had a little more lay over in Charlotte - enough time to use the two $12 meal vouchers that the airline gave us. American also moved us up to row 9 in the plane which I figured was business class. Also, we had the row to ourselves. So we had dinner in Charlotte and boarded the plane and found out that the plane was an older Boeing 757 which did not have a video display in the back of each seat and it did not have electrical outlets available. I was disappointed, but it turned out that my iPad had enough juice that I could read books when I wanted to and still had 50% battery life left when we landed. |
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| Connie got to check out
Belfast Castle while I was working. |
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| A view from inside the castle
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We didn't go to sleep until after 3AM, and I got up at 6:30 AM. So it was a second night very short on sleep. I was meeting all day with the customer until 5:30, then I had a conference call with another customer from 6 until 7 PM. We walked a few blocks and ate dinner at Granny Annie's. The food wasn't bad but the service was almost a parody it was so bad. Then send someone different to the table each time so that no one is accountable for anything.
We went to bed around 11 PM. At 2:30 Connie asked, "Do you want to turn the lights on and read I've been trying to be quiet so that you can sleep, but you're not sleeping either." So we got up until a little after 3AM. I was up again at 6:30 to get ready for work. The third night of very short sleep.
On Thursday my colleagues & I met with the customer until about 12:30. I went back to the room and attempted to sleep until about 2:30. Connie had been able to nap on and off during the day and half that I was meeting with the customer, but of course I had not. I had been doing the presentations. So needless to say, I wasn't feeling so great.
After my attempt at a nap, we went for a walk and got a pizza about 4:30 (it was the thinnest crust I've ever seen on a pizza. Not much thicker than a corn chip) and the toppings are added after it's cooked. In our case it was some kind of creamy cheese and some green leafs and some tomatoes.
We also walked into the Duke of York pub but they don't serve food and Connie doesn't embibe, and they didn't take a credit card, so it was just a look around. But it was an a quainte old pub.
We went back to the hotel, and then walked about 7 blocks to Acton & Sons for dinner. This place bills their fare as having a "strong American influence." We had the Ribs and Rump dinner for two - a full slab of ribs and two 6 ounce sirloin steaks. The ribs were very good. The steaks were only fair.
That night we went to bed about midnight. I'm not sure exactly when I went to sleep, which is a good thing I guess. I woke up at 7:30.
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