Right, I suppose we'd better start at the beginning.
On Friday the 10th of March our plane touched down in Dublin airport at about 17:30. We were met at the arrivals gate by one Mr. Pádraig ÓMéalóid and a very nice man called Peter. The latter drove us to the Ashling hotel whilst the former pointed out landmarks and places of note and interest.
Arriving in the Ashling hotel (the venue for Phoenix Convention) we soon found ourselves sitting in the venue's very pleasant bar area. In between seemingly endless pints of Guinness we were introduced to myriads of fantastically nice and interesting people including (but by no means restricted to) Paul Cornell, Caroline Symcox, Susanna Clarke, Colin Greenland, Bob Byrne, Juliet E. McKenna, John W. Sexton and Bob Neilson.
Pádraig and his lovely wife Deirdre had to leave reasonably early as they (understandably) had a lot to sort out before the next day. However, before retiring to bed Mr. ÓMéalóid made this entry in his live journal.
It seems fair to say that we were slightly the worse for drink by the time Ian Whelan and Al Nolan arrived (both of whom stuck to diet coke). Ian and his bride to be Nicola had very kindly offered to put us up in their home so, after prising us away from the bar, he drove us off to Wicklow where we fell sound asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.
It may very well prove to be a blessing that we forgot to take any photographs on Friday night.
J.
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