Post Christmas Blues for Ulster Leinster 29 Ulster 0

Jamie's Try, Uploaded by M+MD.

On St Stephens day Senan and I went to the RDS for the Leinster Ulster magners league game. It was a pretty dull first half with Leinster getting a commanding lead through the trusted boot of Felipe Contepomi. Second half produced a more confident display by Leinster. They managed a couple of trys. Ulster it must be said were pretty poor - the result 29-0 was a pretty good indication of that.
Match report from the Leinster website is here.

Leinster V Ulster
Uploaded by M+MD

Jamie runs in an easy try
Uploaded by M+MD

See the rest of my photos here

Christmas Eve

Singers
Uploaded by M+MD

This year the Christmas carols were in our house, we have travelled full circle since Joan passed away and teh Christmas Eve tradition lives on. We have been to Newbridge twice and now are in Dublin for the third time. I don't think we'll ever get the whole crew to Galway or London!
The house was Full with Mel and Kevin, Laura and Caoimhe, Niamh and Lisa, Katy and Sarah, Senan and Conor, Colette and Paul, Greg and Ger, Christopher and Peter, Hanna and Rebecca, Simon and Matthew and of course Martin and Mags. We also had Heather and Michael from next door.

Katy & Conor
Uploaded by M+MD

more Singers
Uploaded by M+MD

Kevin & Niamh
Uploaded by M+MD

Laura & Hanna
Uploaded by M+MD

"Sweet singing in the Choir"
Uploaded by M+MD

Conor says we got through the book in record time - Greg kept us moving and cut the verses short when ever we were lagging.
We had Christmas cake and tea and scattered at twenty to nine to get to "midnight" mass in Rathmines.
To Sheila and Phl, Louie and Rosha; Barney and Mairead, Ronan and Roisin, Eoin and Colm who culdn't be with us - Happy Christmas.

Germany - Three Nights Three Markets

DSC_3268
Uploaded by M+MD

Earlier this month - the first week-end in December, we headed off to Germany. We stayed with our old friends Ingrid and Eckhardt in Gross Gerau just south of Frankfurt. We flew with Ryanair into Frankfurt(!?) Hahn, which is only(?) 120km from Frankfurt - though just 85km from Gross Gerau! We hired a car and were in Ingrid's by noon on Friday. On Friday afternoon we chilled out - myself and Katy took a walk around the Fasenarie and visited her old primary school. We passed by our old house and met with our neighbour Herr Baltzhauser.

All Together, Darmstadt
Uploaded by M+MD

After dinner we headed into Darmstadt. This was Christmas Market Number One. Darmstadt was lively and after walking around for a while we had some Bratwurst and Gluhwein - isn't that why we travelled! Senan had a slightly different agenda - his aim was to eat more Pretzels this week-end than the last time he visited - I think the number he was chasing was eleven. We also went up the white tower which is in the middle of Darmstadt - but which we had never seen open before. The views and the bell tower were interesting.

Ring my Bell
Uploaded by M+MD

Darmstadt
Uploaded by M+MD

Saturday morning Katy got up early to meet her school friends Sylvia and Simone for breakfast.

Mainz
Uploaded by M+MD

When she got back we all got the train to Mainz - Christmas Market Number Two Mainz is always a busy market on Saturday morning, but was now even busier. As well as the usual market activities we also spent some time in the Cathedral - surprisingly, we had never visited before. I took a lot of photos of stained glass windows. There is a panel for every Archbishop of Mainz since 800! That's a lot of pictures; a lot of Archbishops and even the odd Cardinal.

Mainz
Uploaded by M+MD

Senan worked on his Pretzel count and we had some - yes you guessed it Gluhwein and Bratwurst! We were out to dinner with Kay and Karl-Heinz that evening so we had to head back around 5 pm - not really enough time to do justice to Mainz - but we will be back. Dinner in the Spindlers was very nice. The boys have grown and Senan hit it off with them both.

Stork
Uploaded by M+MD

Sunday morning Mags and Ingrid and I went for a walk around Auf Esch - we were Stork hunting! We were successful. The storks were intermittent visitor when we lived in Germany but now are well established. Eckhardt was cooking dinner - we had a wonderful traditional Sunday lunch with roast beef and Knudel.

Rhine Gorge
Uploaded by M+MD

Rudesheim
Uploaded by M+MD

Vineyards
Uploaded by M+MD

Bingen
Uploaded by M+MD

After lunch we headed for Christmas Market Number Three in Rudesheim. There are two Rudesheims as we discovered - GPS is not always helpful - but we found the right one - and approached it from Bingen on the other side of the Rhine. We crossed in a ferry and got a great view up the Rhine gorge just as evening was setting in. Rudesheim is a wine town with the vines growing up the side of the hills that form then southern end of the Rhine Gorge. It is very popular with tourists in the summer. The town is build on the side of a hill and the market wound up the narrow streets as well as along the quayside. It was busy being Sunday - and as well as the usual Christmas market activity there were pony rides and train rides.

Pony Rides
Uploaded by M+MD

Who's that with St Nick
Uploaded by M+MD

Rudesheim
Uploaded by M+MD

Back to Back
Uploaded by M+MD

We even met St Nickolaus himself - a giant of a man giving out goodies to the kids of all ages. After Bratwurst Gluhwein and Pretzels it was time to go back to base.

Bratwurst?
Uploaded by M+MD

Pretzelled out!
Uploaded by M+MD

We spent a hilarious evening playing Popstar on the Playstation. Our flight left at 10.15, Monday morning, so we had an early start but made it in plenty of time. By midday I was back in the office - but the Christmas Season had truly started.

Cathy Davey in Concert

Cathy Davey
Uploaded by M+MD

Cathy Davey played in the Temple Bar Music Centre (now known as the Button Factory) last night. Excellent concert and excellent venue - she doesn't talk a lot - but she sure can sing. We got there early and had a spot right by the stage.
Took loads of pictures - only uploaded a few so far.

Live in Concert

Because we were up at the front I was able to grab the set list at the end of the night. It ran as follows: No Heart; The Collector; Clean and Neat; Hoochie; Cannonball; Mr Kill; Long Time Gone; Come Over; Moving; I Feel Love; Reuben; Sing 4 Supper. And for the encore: All of You; End of end; Rubbish Ocean.

Her latest album is Tales of Silversleeve available on Amazon.

More of my photographs are available on Flickr at THIS LINK

Button Factory Dublin

If you don't know her work try out this from YouTube.

Weather forecast

storm
Originally uploaded by marcuna

The weather forecast today is for serious windy wild weather coming in from the west. They are talking about 20 metre high waves out in the Atlantic. This photograph taken by a Flickr photographer in Kerry this morning is all the proof we need! Batten down the hatches and light the fire.