The candle in the window

At last, the saga of the visas came to an end -- and did so quite smoothly after all the earlier hassle. The improvement in things began early on, with the perfectly timed arrival of a bus which took me right across to Stephen's Green and left me with just a short walk to get to the Luas stop. I'd been over last night with the lads I'd originally farmed out the visa-collection responsibility onto, and reclaimed from them the collection receipt. They advised that the most convenient tram stop for the Russian embassy would be Windy Arbour, and so it proved to be. The Luas people actually "have an app for that" when it comes to finding you way from a tram stop to your actual destination and I used that to great effect as I walked along Orwell Road. I got to the embassy at 8.20 and quickly found that there was only on person ahead of me in the collection queue. I made sure not to let anyone else muscle in on me as 9.0 am came round and The Lord of the Hatch made his appearance. Getting our passports, complete with their shiny new Ruddian visas couldn't have been quicker: just a matter of handing over the receipt and being handed the passports in return.

A quick walk back to the Luas stop, a ten-minute wait for the tram, and before I knew it I was back at Stephen's Green. The weather was glorious as I walked to the Registry Office, where I arrived even before the pair themselves did and before the gates opened. The ceremony was at 10.30, and we were in The Schoolhouse within an hour of that, ready for our welcoming glasses of champagne and a pleasant time outside in the sun before being called in to lunch. We'd thought that, being such an early start, we'd be finished and back home by early evening, with plenty of time to finish packing and get some much needed sleep before the morning's trip to the airport, but things just went on and on and on after the meal, and it was actually quite late by the time Carl got on the DART to his place and I got a taxi home.

Next thing I knew was when I was wakened by loud tapping on the window. I'd fallen asleep, exhausted, without having tackled my packing, and sudden;t, after 1.00 am, it was a mad rush to sort things out and get the case ready for departure. The taxi was due at 5.30, so there was only time for about three hours sleep by the time packing was finished.

Oh yes, the blip: this is just a well worn candle which the sun was shining through as we sat in the Schoolhouse lounge before retiring outside before lunch. There's many many more shots int he bag, both from camera and iPhone, but the quality was disappointing. I'd liked this at the time, and I'm not unhappy that its turned out to be today's blip.