Zero At Last! Back In Dublin City

So here I am once more.... in my second favourite city in the world. It's strange that I say it's my second, because I have been here so many times and had some fantastic experiences here. I love it very much, but New York kind of edges it out these days for reasons I will talk about another time. I guess they are different, and both unique - and you shouldn't really have favourites (like with your kids!) but there you go....

Arriving here today is strange, because for the first time in over two and a half years, I don't have a countdown to do, and that feels weird. From the conception of this trip, through the arranging of it, Sue and I have been counting down to it like two little girls waiting for Santa Claus to come down the chimney! First the years, then the months and finally, when New Year was out of the way this year, the days! Most days we texted the count, and our email subject lines kept it up! Madness. But such fun.

It's not like we haven't been here a million times before (and even came a few times while "the countdown" was going on), but this time is special. Special because next Thursday we are going to stay in the penthouse suite of The Clarence Hotel. It's kind of Bono's home away from (or, rather, pretty close to) home, and we want to see the suite that has hosted a few A-List parties and given hospitality to the likes of Clinton and Blair. And we want to see how the other half live, so to speak. To experience the high life in one of the most expensive rooms in Dublin.

So I get here, and we all meet up in the arrivals hall of Dublin airport (me, Sue, Dianne and Julie) and we pick up our car and we venture out into a Dublin that feels sort of different to me this time. More charged with something: expectation, electricity, a vague promise of adventure.

And the flat is lovely. Small but functional and in a pretty yellow house that looks over the Sandymount Strand where the Irish Sea laps at cool-looking flat sand. The Poolbeg Chimneys - lanky, red and white sentinels - stand tall and flash regularly and unceasingly, and bring to me a very real sense of Dublin. They are the markers for me, that tell me I am back. Seen from the air as you come in to land, and seen from many parts of the city.

And now seen from our house.

We settle in quickly and I feel as though I have never been away. That's the thing about Dublin. It is so familiar now after many years of coming here, that I feel at home right away.

This trip is going to be one of the most exciting ever to this green isle. I can feel it. I know it. And I guess the others know it too.

But for now, we have unpacking to do. I film the house and the small, private garden. And we have a quiet, easy first night. Dianne is jet-lagged after her long flight from Arizona, and the rest of us are tired too. We need to preserve our energy!