Andrew J Dunlop

Following on from this mad train journey…

Start 21:45 30/08/2008

Berlin Hauptbahnhof (21:45) to Paris Gare du Nord (09:14) - City Night Line Nacht Zug

 

Paris Gare du Nord (12:13) to London St. Pancras (13:28) - Eurostar

 

London Paddington to Reading - First Great Western

Reading to Birmingham New Street - CrossCrountry

Birmingham New Street to Crewe - Virgin Trains

Crewe (22:20) to Holyhead (00:31) - Virgin Trains

Holyhead (02:40) to Dublin Ferry Port (05:55) - Irish Sea Ferries

Dublin Ferry Port to Dublin Bus Station - Bus Éireann - Not included in ticket

Dublin Connolly Street (07:35) to Belfast Central (09:45) - Enterprise

 

Belfast Central (10:50) to Ballymoney (12:00) - NI Railways

Arrival: 12:00 01/09/2008

Duration: 38hrs 15mins

Using: 9 Trains (inc. London Underground), 1 Ferry & Bus

…and all in time for my Mum and Dad’s wedding anniversary party.

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[My bro Matthew pointed me towards this one]

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I like Apple and Wednesday (this particular Wednesday I name “Wednesday of getting more than you paid for”). I went on to The Apple Store to check up on the progress of the 17″ iMac that I had ordered for my parents and brother and found that things had changed.. and for the better. For a start the estimated delivery date which originally had been predicting 25th Sept was now indicating the 12th. Next I noticed that the processor had been upgraded to a 2GHz Core 2 Duo from a 1.8Ghz Core Duo! The optical drive was now a Dual Layer DVD writer. And most amazing of all the price had DROPPED £130!! Yey for ordering iMac at just the right time. (Just don’t tell Matthew).

UPDATE: Delivery date has been revised again and shiny iMac should land on our door step (I hope figuratively rather than literally) by Friday.

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Anyone who lives in Ireland who live near the boarder will no doupt know the pain of their phone automatically switching over to a network on the other side. This means that any calls made or recieved or anything else done on your phone is at International rates. This is really annoying and I know of lots of people who have been caught out by this. Finally O2 Ireland have decided to cut roaming charges to N.Ireland and reduce their charges for making calls. To find out bout this click HERE.

But this isn’t enough. What about us Northern Irelanders why have o2 and others not cut international charges for us. After all we can have a British or Irish passport so why not same mobile rates. The EU are starting to look at what can be done in general to cut stupidly high roaming charges throughout Europe they should also look at the situation in Ireland.

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And hes off… Think i have packed everything (not a chance). Taking my mac mini home for the 1st time, just not too sure where I’m going to get a monitor from (and if I do get one it will be all of 14″).

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How I speak

English Hiberna-English Mid-Ulster English Ulster-Scots

Oh dear is it any wonder people thing I’m talking a load of rubbish.

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Forgot that I hadn’t posted about the week Rebecca, Benj and Mark where here opps. Will keep it brief as I am getting weary of typing so here is a summary. Mark and Benj came on the Monday morning and once they had dumped their stuff at the Leitrim we headed to the Giants Causeway. Weather was a bit dull but still fun (will post photos on Flickr) we then went to the beach and scouted out a location for recording the clips to be used in Platt’s Holiday Bible Club. We decided that the dunes at Portstewart Strand were sufficiently Desert like. On Tuesday we went to the Strand to begin filming. The highlights were Benj playing a 3/4 size out of tune guitar for ages while Mark got every angle imaginable, doing stop-frame with some plastic cups and me dressed up as a nasty soward wielding Arab. Rebecca came in the evening and we went to 55 Degrees North for Marks birthday meal. Wednesday we did more filming this time at the church hall. Involved a lot of split screen so took a while. Rebecca looked very fetching with her pink socks and sandals. That evening Youth Fellowship people came to meet the tourists (who couldn’t understand them). On the Thursday we went to Carrak-a-rede rope bridge which was fun (again photos to follow). That evening we watched “Ocean’s Twelve” and hid from Laura’s scary friends. They were all at our house celebrating their exam results (which Laura got BBC in so is off to Nottingham) On Friday we were exhausted so we just filmed some stuff at home. That evening Mums side of the family came for tea and Benj took family photo’s for us. On the Saturday we went back to the Strand to do some filming and had chinese in the evening. Boyde and the Hen popped in to day hello. Then on Sunday Me and Rebecca got flight to Liverpool (once I had released that we were going from City Airport) and Laura took Benj to Intl Airport. Mark endured my family until Monday morning before flying home.

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Well I have finished my week of revision for resits. Also in brief this week, Went to Granny D’s for BBQ Went to Belfast crazy golfing for Timmy D’s (the Mayors) birthday Went out for tea with Mum and Dad Went for walk from Whiterocks to Portrush (and back) Got Jonny P’s song samples online Looking forward to week with Rebecca, Benj and Mark. Sorry for the briefness but looks like i will be having 5hrs sleep before collecting Mark 2morrow morning!

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Since my last post I have been in Florida, USA. Had a great time. Got to see the Space Shuttle Launch (Discovery STS-114) and had a tour of Kennedy Space Center. I will put photos of the launch and the rest of my hol on my Flickr account. Also did all the Disney World Resort parks. The weather was very hot (about 36C) and we got a good few very impressive thunderstorms. Again photos will come soon In other news revamped and updates Jonny Pattons website. You can get his CD (soon hot have song samples online). This week I am trying to revise for my resits. Yesterday went to Bible study with some of the Youth Fellowship crew. It is quite cool that they have started doing this long may it continue.

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I have come home for a day and a half before I go to florida tomorrow. Better get packing…

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