Mobile Librarians

Well, hardly time to unpack and wash the smalls and its off again, with friends from work, to Stratford-upon-Avon for three days. I have been to Stratford before, but the memory was quite hazy, so everything came as a nice surprise. I knew to expect the old half-timbered houses and lots of Shakespeare, but it exceeded expectations. It really is a beautiful, well preserved, picturesque town. Lots of our American cousins there of course, thats OK, but why are they so loud? They seem to have no idea of how they come across, the image that they convey. Don't get me wrong, the Americans I have met have been lovely individuals, but abroad they often seem like demanding children. Anyway, enough. If you plan to visit several of the Shakepeare houses its best to buy a ticket that give you entry to them all, it works out much cheaper. If you don't manage to visit them all, save the ticket for your next visit (or give it to a friend) because it lasts for ever. We loved Shakespeare's ...

Well, another wonderful trip to Dublin . We had the luck of the Irish, good weather, not a drop of rain. The Gresham hotel is still a grand old lady, friendly staff,a good breakfast, comfy beds. http://www.gresham-hotels.com/ . (A horrible view of the inner courtyard, pretty dire, but, as it turned out, a blessing in disguise. It meant that the room was very quiet, thank goodness, if we had been at the front of the hotel the traffic in O'Connell street would have kept us awake for sure.) We had a very busy four days. Apart from the usual trips to the shops, lunch on the green at Trinity , coffee at Bewleys etc. we went to the Gaiety theatre to see a performance of The Rat Pack. http://www.gaietytheatre.ie/ . They were all brilliant, especially "Frank Sinatra", he looked like him, had the mannerisms, and sang like him, great! Some of the women in the audience, who were old enough to know better, were in ecstasy, practically throwing their knickers, (personally, we ...