Our trip to Dublin went really well. We had a relaxing time and the flight was onl 35 minutes, much to Victoria's pleasure. The hotel we stayed in (a Comfort Inn) was brand new, but we still got a good deal on it. We didn't do many things in Dublin, as far as touristy stuff. Mostly we walked around and saw the different parts of the city center. We did go to the Dublin Writer's Museum, which made me realise just how many famous writers Ireland has. It is a nice city to look at and easy to get around. We met up with Jo, the other teacher at Horikawa, the school I taught at in Japan. She was there for my second year, and came to Horikawa two days out of the week. She took us to a Japanese restaurant downtown that had great food. I'll try to put up some pictures soon.

We went to see a play this weekend. It was called The Unexpected Guest and was an adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel. Victoria like murder mysteries on TV, so we thought we might go see one acted out. It was interesting, but a bit too easy for Victoria, who guessed the big twist before the intermission. Our seats were the front row of the balcony, which is quite high up. There was only a little bar separating us from the edge of the balcony, so it was a bit scary. I don't think Paul would've liked it, as it seemed even higher than it was as you could not see the circle/lower balcony below us, so it looked like a 50 foot+ drop to the ground floor.

We also went out to a new restaurant that just opened not far from our house. The last two years they have been renovating a small square that is surrounded by a huge old building. This building is now a hotel and the restaurant is in part of it. They have done a great job and I think it will be pretty popular.

There's another postal strike which starts today and ends next Wednesday, so if you sent me anything in the post, I am unlikely to get it for awhile (Dad). This is about the fourth or fifth postal strike in the last few months, and it's getting pretty annoying. Basically the government has opened the postal service up to privatisation, and the postal service is losing business as a result, which will mean job cuts inevitably, which the workers are obviously not happy about. It seems like one of those things that wasn't really broken, but reforms seems to have messed up (at least in the short term). Not quite sure how competition is supposed to work in a postal sector though. Will we have lots of different people delivering our post to our door?

New York, New York. Guess where we are going for Easter? That's right, New York. We are going for 6 nights, and it should be lots of fun. We're even staying at the Waldorf Astoria, as it was not much more expensive than some hotels that looked really tiny on the inside. Plus how often does one get to stay at a nice hotel that is a piece of history? Nothing like favorable exchange rates as well. I would hate to be an American wanting to travel abroad right now, but travelling to America has its benefits.

It seems like it might well be another year of trips. Dublin in a few weeks, USA for Keith's wedding, and New York for Easter. We'll go somewhere for the summer too, though this will probably be somewhere in Europe as it is not so far to go. At least we don't have a car and generally do all the other good stuff for the environment, but flying so much is not so great for the environment. In the UK they have green taxes on flights, which are in theory supposed to be used to help offset carbon in the UK, though I reckon it just goes in a big government pot somewhere. It's too bad because if the UK took all the money from fuel duty (<50% of the gas price) and flight taxes and put it to work in making renewable energy sources, I think they would be able to phase out all the coal power plants, or upgrade the trains to be more efficient.

As it is, they won't even waive VAT (value-added tax, essentially a sales tax) on the sale of energy efficient lightbulbs to encourage people to buy them. As a note, if you don't have them already, get some. They are great, in that you get about 100 watts of light for about 8 watts of power. Costs more in the store, but also lasts longer and saves electricity.

I still keep wondering when Sheffield will start having recycling at your door besides paper. I have to cart the glass, metal, and plastic to the supermarket every Sunday, as they are the only place with bins for it. We had door-to-door pick-up in London but not here in Sheffield.