As Thursday eases into Friday, though it is cold outside, we are feeling no pain! Throughout the day we have consumed - between us - 3 bottles of Champagne (one of them the Spanish variety!), 4 Cosmopolitans and a bottle of wine at dinner. Now, back in our room and out of our posh frocks, we let our hair down in great style and decide to open another bottle of wine from the bar. The choice of booze is bewildering: there are Champagnes of various value, several wines, beers, and loads of bottles of spirits. We opt for a French red, which frankly is not the best but comparatively cheap.
We put on a U2 DVD and have a moment of contemplation and a sense of the surreal as we try to equate the man on the screen with the champagne we received at dinner. Could it really have been from him? Impossible to believe, and yet also very believable.
We spend the night talking, revelling in our surroundings..... and being very silly. All the alcohol and excitement is getting to us as we act the goat and make silly vidoes. At 4am, Sue decides to avail herself of the hot tub again, and I take a picture of her in there. The picture is wonderful and captures the moment; there is steam billowing all around her and she is there, basking in the bubbles. A great image!
All too soon, the sun comes up, and we have seen the vista outside in every stage of light, every hue and colour. The time is approaching when we will have to pack, and eventually we do, and dress ready for breakfast.
More outfits, more pictures... then we are fed and the time comes to leave. At reception as we check out, the staff again are flapping around us, and asking questions and we feel like celebrities.
Then we leave (in a lot less style than we arrived, in a normal taxi!!) and are driven back to Sandymount. Back to our flat which seems very small and poky and strangely bland after the grandeur of the penthouse.
A few hours kip, and then we decide that we must send a note to Bono, to thank him for everything and for making our trip so memorable and special. Dianne, who has the best handwriting, pens a note on Clarence paper, and we make the drive down to HQ, where it falls to me to ring the bell on the intercom.
A familiar voice comes on the speaker, and I say that I have a note for Bono. A few seconds later, Dallas, our old Kentuckian friend, appears at the door. I tell him that the note is a thank you for Bono. He asks: "And you are?" and I tell him we are the girls who stayed at the penthouse at the Clarence last night. He tells me he will make sure he gets it and as I make to leave, he adds: "I like the tint in your hair, by the way." I smile and make a mental note to tell my colourist that her red streaks are a winner! Dallas's words make me go all girly and I thank him before jumping back in the car!!
And so our adventure - 3 years in the planning - is all but over. But what memories we will take home with us. We go to dinner at Bewleys in Ballsbridge and reflect on everything.
This visit to Dublin will take some beating but, if we know Bono, he will surprise and delight us again some day.
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