Istiklal Caddesi, Beyoğlu, Istanbul

Thousands of people walk the length of Istanbul's famous Istiklal Caddesi, and today I was one of them, on my way to the Irish Corner Pub in Beyoğlu to watch, with four friend-colleagues, the last two matches of the Six Nations, the first game kicking off at 17.45 local time. Well done Wales, land of my (maternal) fathers, and Scotland too for an exciting second half in the game with England, got me worried there for a while....

After several hours of Rugby washed down appropriately in the pub, we then at Sean's request, moved on to the Rock Bar where we met up with Alison and others for some rather loud live music.  It's been a while since I was in a live music bar in the wee small hours on a Saturday night/Sunday morning....... I may be too old for this....

(ahem, retrospectively written on Sunday having finally surfaced to face the  day at 11.30, but feeling surprisingly chipper... maybe I'm just growing old on the outside...)