It's been a rather hectic and emotional few days. Last week was all good, on Wednesday after work we all headed down to Blues Kitchen for AJ and Hais' farewell who were both finishing up on Friday and decided to have their going away drinks midweek. I didn't stay too long, figured I should rather head home and pack and not have a late one.

On Thursday after work I headed out to Heathrow, met Uns there and after grabbing a bite to eat at The Perfectionists' Cafe, we flew out to Cork. We decided not to stay overnight at the airport and instead picked up our car then and headed down west, getting in just after 1, but at least it saved us the drive down early on Friday morning.

On Friday morning we briefly stopped by Noel's place to drop off the cufflinks he'd left in London, then over to Skibb for a quick stop in at the HairPort Barbers followed by breakfast at Benedicts with Claire, Michael and Jack. After a decent feed we headed home to get ready and all make our way over to Castlehaven Church for Noel and Megan's wedding. After the service we all met up down in Mary Anne's for a couple of quick beers before the bus left to take a crowd of us over to Bantry House where the reception was held.

The wedding was fantastic - they really put so much effort into all the tiny details and the speeches were amazing, had everyone in both tears as well as fits of laughter. But such a great day and good fun. We had the bus organised for 2am and almost landed up missing it but got back home without any hassle.

Then Saturday morning I got a awful call from the folks about news on grandpa's passing, which was so difficult to believe and actually take in. I always knew that one day it'll happen and just didn't seem real. So Saturday was a really difficult day, but between Uns, her family, Skype calls back home and entertaining the nephews - the day was slightly more manageable and bearable. We did pop out briefly to watch Donnacha play his match followed by an ice-scream in town with Kevin and Eamonn, but other than that it was just at home with chats back and forth with everyone.

That evening, after a rather long day, decided to head down to Lil's for a barbecue which Noel and Megan had put on for the day after. Wasn't that easy going out at first but between that group of friends and the impressive Maritime Parade down Main Street, it made it a bit easier. The parade consisted of a small marching band followed by a few tractors, one carrying a trailer full of kids and finally followed by a vintage car. Yip, the local Maritime Parade :)

Sunday's weather was awful - cold, wet and rainy, certainly no summer so had no plans to do anything except chill around the house. The lads came down in the afternoon and landed up entertaining them with a general knowledge quiz followed by the even more challenging balance-on-one-leg competition. That evening, once the weather subsided slightly, we headed into Skibb to Ocean Wild for dinner with the three lads, which was originally meant to be pizza but weren't too keen on waiting the 45 minutes. That night it was back to Lil's for the night again, and like Saturday night, there was also live music and a good entertaining night out.

Yesterday morning myself and Uns headed down to Baltimore and stopped in at Glebe Gardens and Cafe where Claire was along with Brian, Lorraine and Anna as well as Ca and Shane and their little one. After a catch up with them and a coffee we headed back into Skibb and stopped in to visit Donal who was in Skibb hospital. I found it quite difficult to visit him there with the recent news from home, but glad we did stop in to see him. That afternoon we popped down to Castletownsend beach with Claire, Michael and Jack and chilled out there for a while for Jack to play a bit in the water.

That afternoon, after our farewells, we drove back up to Cork and back to London and got home around midnight. I then had to do a super quick re-pack for South Africa, so who knows what I've got and what I haven't... guess we'll find out tomorrow morning over on that side :)