All Blacks, MacKay and O'Driscoll

So then came Saturday, Test day. We had hoped to maybe get tickets for this huge game, but in lieu of the Fire, we really had no hope. Because of the location of Lansdowne Rd being very close to town, Test match days seem to turn into one big Pub crawl down to the game. So when in Dublin...
We had a few more visitors as well, Emma and her two friends, Naomi and Ali were all down from Belfast, so we thought being the locals we would show them around. Off to Searsons on Baggott st. This place is located only down the rd, so as you can imagine it was packed tighter than the North Stand would have been...but wasn't because they were all in this bar!!! Even managed to meet up with Buzz and a few others from back home before the match. So it all made for a great atmosphere, plenty of Kiwis and Irish all loving it. Every time Umaga was on screen the Irish booed, and we cheered, all in good fun though.

Little did I know that a tour highlight was just around the corner, in Burger King of all places. Celebrity stalking has become our game people, not A celebs, or even B, but our very own class of them. So after the Jordan Luck incident, I was happy and a little shocked to see my old Nemesis Hamish MacKay (TV3) right in the queue behind us. It was all Bad Mews for MacKay, as duChats lined him up from 20 out, bumping punters off left, right and center. Whopper firmly in hand, and managed to not spill a drop of drink, sensational. Camera please. He even managed to do a runing commentry while the photos was being snapped, classic.

After this we went into town, and headed to a few more hotspots, ending up at a bar which the name of escapes me, or I never knew...no matter. Was a fav of Emma's, Great place. We also happened to run into another local, Mr Brian O'Driscoll. Who was at the bar having a few drinks, so after a quick breakdown of the game I whipped out the trusty camera and got a photo of him with Steveo, lovely shot, right before I Speared him into his pint of Guinness....Priceless...send that to MasterCard! The bar security camera was inconclusive, but Mr Campbell said members of the public are welcome to come forward with incriminating footage...dam camera phones!!

This bar had a split personality, downstairs to the right a really cool dance bar and to the left Goth bar...guess which one we ended up in for a few painful minutes. Now at 2am it takes time to know ones surroundings, and this was no different. After making friends with Marilyn and his pin cushion girlfriend, it must have been due to my Black garb or just being a really nice guy. I'm sure the pin Cushion was eying my metal free face up, like an unplowed field to a farmer. It was exit stage right.

After watching an especially drunk Irishman (See Photo) try to dance on the bar stools once to often, the bouncer asked him to cut it out, but as a drunk man so often does he just kept on trying to dance on that stool, shirt off..the little Irishman that could. With the crowd anticipating some kind of stage dive, it was heading for disaster, now back home this guy would have been knuckled and turfed out quicker than a Samoan in Christchurch. But no, not in Dublin, the solution for the bouncer was to Remove the Chair, problem solved.

Kinda sums up the place for mine, brilliant end to the night. Off home for some Veda and Cheese!!

duChats