Congestion standstill

Met friends from Wicklow this evening for Cheap & Cheeful food and chat and pints. (These guys live in The Old Russian Village down in Kilquade, so there was a nice touch of serendipity in meeting them so soon to our Russia-included holiday.) They'd suggested meeting between 6.30 and 6.45 in Conway's in Blackrock for pub grub, and I was due to meet Carl before that, in The Breffni, across the road from Conway's. After a day of hard graft working away on my annual report project, I decided to finish a bit early and have some spare time for blipping in and around Blackrock. Naturally, that's the very time the DART service through a hissy fit. We came to a standstill between Clontarf Road and Connolly station, and it was quite a while before the driver came over the intercom to explain that the delay was due to 'congestion at Connolly Station'. This meant I didn't have much time to spare in and around Blackrock, so it was just as well I blipped the skyline as we waited for Connolly to become uncongested.

We got to Conway's just before the others and had already ordered pints when they decided they didn't like the place after all and would prefer to go elsewhere. If the owner/manager hadn't been so pleasant when he came over to us, we probably would have moved on, but his demeanour persuaded us to give the food a try. It was definitely cheap and cheerful. We retraced our steps across the road to the Breffni and spent a pleasant while there chatting and joking and boasting about our holiday plans -- and then suddenly it was time to make a dash for the DART and the bus, with Carl DARTing southward, me DARTing northward, and the others bussing it to Wicklow. A pleasdant evening, and a nice way to unwind after the day's work.