Sunrise, 5.38 am

Despite best intentions of knuckling down yesterday to preparations for today's hosting of the Music Group session, I didn't actually lift a finger, which meant all the tidying and cleaning and dusting and hoovering had to be done today. That's how I happened to be awake at 5.38 am to see this sunrise out the back window. Just as it's been a while since I blipped macro-ish raindrops on leaves it's also been quite a while since I blipped a sunrise. Mostly, this is because I'm not usually awake early enough.

It was just as well that I was up and about as early as I was, since preparations were more intensive than usual because of the general laziness I've been guilty of since we got back from the holiday. Tidying and cleaning and dusting and hoovering and so on went on and on and on and ... but I was ready and waiting in good time for the first arrival, which turned out to be the first of many - the biggest turnout at one of our sessions in a very long time. I coped. We had a super session.

A quick trip to the local for one bottle of cider, then back home, change, hop in the car, and over to Carl's place with the headphone gear I'd borrowed for him on Wednesday night while out with D & R in Ashbourne, and then barely time to catch our breath before it was time for the DART and our meet-up with a mutual friend of Alan, whose birthday it was on Wednesday and for whom a surprise meal had been arranged to celebrate.

We ate in Diwali in George's Street, an Indian restaurant I haven't been to previously. First impressions were excellent, and my starter was really good. I don't know if the main course was less good or if it was just a case of eyes being bigger than stomach. Whatever the reason, I didn't do justice to it. Still, we had a brilliant time, and the birthday boy swore that it had all taken him completely by surprise. The others went clubbing afterwards, but Carl and I didn't fancy that. We tried the usually reliable Japanese Ukiyo Bar on Exchequer Street, but it was packed and the crowd had spilled out onto the street. A couple of winebar places were just closing by the time we got to them, and we missed a NiteLink bus. So there was nothing for it but to pass some time in Doyle's late-night pub on College Green.

We made friends with a guy at the bar and had a grand old chat with him which went on for rather a long while and saw us miss a few more NiteLinks. It was a great encounter, but eventually we called it quits and got the 3.30 NiteLink to Glasthule. A long, long, day, from 5.15 am to 4.15 am or so (only 23 hours - what a shame I didn't manage the full 24!).