Dublin

I popped over to Dublin for two days to do some preparation work for an upcoming mission. I had sworn that I would never use Ryanair again, but there was no alternative. The night before I left, I spent about half an hour trying to pack my bag so that it would weigh less than 10kg. They are ruthless about the luggage restrictions, so I had to be precise. Ryanair are the only airline that I know of that only allow you to bring one carry-on bag.  All the others allow one bag plus a handbag or laptop.  So I had to put absolutely everything into one bag. This isn't easy because my laptop weighs 5kg and my suitcase weighs 3kg, so I only had 2kg for clothes and stuff. I ended up using a backpack instead, which didn't weigh as much.

As a side note, while on the trip I came up with the idea of sewing some really large pockets on the inside of a coat. I will call it my 'cheap flight jacket' and put all the bulky items in the pockets when I travel: books, camera, laptop charger, bible, etc. Then I can walk onto the plane wearing the jacket and carrying ONE bag with me. I can't wait to make it.  Then I will win....mu ha ha ha......

Back to my story, I left Rome on Monday morning, and returned on Wednesday morning - so it was a quick trip. I got to catch up with several members of the Emmanuel Community -luckily they will be able to do a lot of the ground-work for the mission. After having a nice pub lunch and several cups of tea (we can't get good tea in Italy) I went for a drive with Linda, Paul and Conlith. We drove north for about two hours to a hotel for a meeting with Ed and Fiona who live in Belfast - it was the half-way point.

The next day we had a few more meetings about different aspects of the mission. We checked out the area around the church where we will have one of the missions. Here is the local pub - very religious.....!

Helen and Linda

The meetings all went really well - much better than expected. The Irish are such a good bunch, so it was an enjoyable trip. I had to get up at 4:30am on Wednesday, in order to get to the airport in time for my cheap flight. I was pretty tired when I got back, but pleased that it had been a successful trip.