First post from the water...

This is my first blog entry from our boat!!

We are on our way up to Drumshanbo for Peter Flynn's wedding tomorrow.

To get there we've to up the Lough Allen Canal and go through some pretty high locks (well high for this part of the world) - the one pictured is 17ft and you rise in it like a cork - pop!

So far the trip has been very pleasant - we're just sitting down now for some nice lunch at the Arces Lake. Tough Life :)

Welcome Jenny & Tim ...

... to the blogosphere. Jenny & Tim have started there very own blog over at knockvicar.com which should be very entertaining :)

Happy Birthday Netty

So right after Sean's party we headed back into town and made our way to the Front Door where Netty Sweeney was having her 30th birthday party.

I think this picture deserves a Caption Competition. Place your entries via the Comments below. First prize will probably involve being made fun of on this blog.


Smiley Happy People

A great night was had by all - including Laura (who fought gravity valiantly!)

Many thanks to Shelly and Jenny for all the pics from Saturday.

Happy Birthday Sean Og!

We had the pleasure of celebrating Sean's 7th birthday with him on Saturday last over in Salthill in Galway

Yours truly is responsible for painting his face (it looked much better in reality) - he chose the team though (we may have a pundit on our hands!).

Seattle, That's a wrap!

Yesterday, (Saturday) was the last day of the conference and I didn't get a chance to do any blogging so apologies if you were waiting :).

The scene from the main hall here at Gnomedex in Seattle

On Friday night we made our way over to the Museum of Flight for a 'party' which was really cool (the museum that is - not the party). There was a huge range of beautiful aircraft to see. The museum is right beside Boeing HQ (which is huge - bigger campus that MS easily). It was all very impressive. The party was very quite and it was practically over at 10.30 (bizarre really). Of course this didn't stop the lads - we did a quick tour of some of the Irish Bars in Seattle before quitting. (Tip: If you are ever in Seattle go up to Pioneer Square and get a Cream Cheese Hot Dog - they're really good!)

In my element

On Saturday the guys organising the conference got some TVs setup in another room so that we could keep an eye on the football - this went down really well but caused some delays with the main event. When the conference finished up we headed over to the Experience Music Project for another 'party'. It's a really awesome (I've been in America too long - I'm starting to talk like them now) place but we took no chances relying on the other gnomedexers (as we are all refered to as by our host) so we made some plans of our own for later on. Fergus arranged some dinner with friends he worked with before (when he lived in Seattle) up in Capitol Hill. This is the home of grunge and is sort of how I expected all of the city to be like. It had a real buzz about it with lots of stuff going on - very cool.

A couple of scenes from Pike Place including Tom at the famous fish market (the mongers throw them at you and sing - very strange but it draws a crowd).

This morning was an early one - my taxi picked me up at 5.30am, and I'm now in Toronto waiting for the last leg of my flight to Dublin (in 5 hours). I'm looking forward to getting home.

Seattle, Day 3

So today we get down to action at the conference proper and it's exactly as I expected it would be :) Full of geeks and lots of interesting discussions on stuff that means bugger all to most people (Net Neutrality anybody?). You should see the setup in the main hall - 350 odd people all with laptops sitting there intimidating the crap out of the poor speakers (or trying to in some cases). My camera battery failed yesterday and I didn't have the charger (in my missing luggage - more on that later) so I can't show you the scene - I'll make up for that tomorrow though. (You can view conference pictures on flickr here)

After my last post yesterday I went down town and bought some clothes (which was really necessary as the heat here meant that I was cookin), got back and got cleaned up - maybe the world isn't so bad afterall :) We (Tom, Fergus, and me fein) then headed off for a sail around bay here which was really cool. Afterwards we made our way to the conference centre and got registered up and did a bit of mixing. We had made plans to catch up with Fergus' friend Noel later on in Town which turned out to be a good night (sort of rough enough morning though).

When we got back to the hotel last night guess what was waiting for me???? My Bag!! Boy was I happy to see that. I still hate Air Canada though and I'm looking forward to sharing my love for them on Sunday morning.

This evening we (the entire conference) are all heading off to the Museum of Flight for a party which promises to be really cool. Transportation, Food and drinks etc. are all sponsored. Should be fun :)

Till tomorrow!