Bites and Fine Dining!

Tuesday night Sharon Poo and I went for a small farewell dinner (for Poo) to an Argentinian steak house, mostly as Sharon is on a no carbs diet so Steak it was. There was no denying we ended up in one of the tourist traps, and I really hate the way the have these really good value meals advertised outside but yet upon sitting down they offer you a menu that has none of the "tourist enticing" menus on. Anyway... we got what we wanted... with surly service and left.

Wednesday at 2pm Poo went home to Ireland, think he's glad to be going home. I think he liked the time to relax in Amsterdam, I'm not sure it was what he expected but I hope he was happy.
I really liked him being around, I know I'll miss him but I have lots of visitors over the next few weeks and the trip to New York to look forward to so its all ok.

Got a HUGE mosquito bite on my neck tuesday night...... I look deformed, no really I do.
Actually the one on my arm is more worrying... looks like a second elbow and there's a nasty red line running from it to almost my armpit.... I'm not a doctor but it doesn't look great

Went home last weekend, didn't think Poo was leaving so quickly after or I'd have stayed but I had it booked ages ago and I hadn't been home for 7 weeks so it was due! Saw all the work mums had done in the house, stuff she's wanted to do for ages and I'm glad for her that she's getting her house a little more the way she wants it, she deserves it.

I've been waking up every morning wrecked, it began when I moved here first and abated slightly after 3 months to return with a vengeance in the past month. I have to say I chickened out of cycling to work for the last three days on the basis that I wasn't awake enough to competently make it to work in one piece. Really I was just too lazy and preferred the idea of veging on the tram/train/metro/stroll listening to morning Ireland/rick o shea/2xm streaming on my mobile (yes i found a way around the olympic ban - more on that in a bit) I could be forgiven for one morning as it was excessively wet, however Thursday and friday have been lovely so I am just a useless lazy sod to be honest!

The restrictions on RTE broadcasts for the Olympics bug me, even if working in the industry I understand them. RTE paid money for the rights to broadcast exclusive coverage of the Olympics and as such have to keep that coverage within their territories. This allows the IOC to sell similar rights packages to other territories on an exclusive and therefor more expensive basis. But really, could RTE not just delay transmission by 15 seconds and edit out/ block any news bulletins or coverage of Olympics? Anyway .... as I must circumvent every rule relating to my aquisition of entertainment I spent an hour trying to find another way to satiate my aural needs of morning ireland/ rick o shea / decent music. I happened across a site called moodio (m.moodio.com) and within mins was streaming my daily fix through the wonder that is my mobile!! I hope the usage is within the limits of my 9.99 "endless" data package, but I am restricting myself to just those two shows and then switching to the internet to listen to 2xm which is unaffected by the blanket ban.

I spent a couple of hours watching the Olympic Opening ceremony last Friday, wow it was amazing. Sorry I had more to say on this .... but it took the last train out of my head! :P

Lots of visitors this weather, which is good, and bad. Mostly good.... all the visitors that have stayed in my house so far have been pretty excellent. Beginning to wonder about certain requests for lodging tho. Ever wonder when to draw the line under a friendship, when its run its course and now its just a vestige of something that was..... I do!

Been doing some great night time blog searching these days, and found some treasures... hope they dont mind me listing them here; most are in my sidebar anyway....
Travelvice - the blog of a guy who has been traveling the world since Dec 2005, first solo, then with his girlfriend and since Jan of this year, with their son! :)
Conortje - the blog of an Irish guy in Netherlands for ten years, I love his writing, very witty and intelligent.
Textsecrets /Post Secret - two sites really but similar idea, people write anonymous confessions to absolve, incite, inspire, entertain the public....

Ok enough from me.... suspiciously photo free post! :)