Jude Marguerite & Ben's blog: A wee trip home

Recently Jude flew across the big pond to the land of green to do some work for the Irish International Immigrant Center. So this was actually a working trip, but of course it was also a great opportunity to visit home and meet up with some friends and family. Just like in this pic for instance. Here enjoying the craic in Denvir's pub in Downpatrick are (L-R) Gary, Paul, Jude, Denis, Barry and Marty.

So Jude arrived in Dublin and drove straight to Newry were he pulled into his base at the Canal Court Hotel at 7.00am. This was a nifty wee spot indeed and Jude was quite content to stay for a few days......the class Irish breakfasts might have had something to do with that!!!

Jude managed to bring a special delivery all the way from America. He bought it at lunchtime on the day he traveled, then cooled it, packed it and brought it home with him. But what was it that he brought home?

A pizza delivery all the way from America to Paul's house....that's what. Jude's brother Paul is always rambling on about how great American pizza is, so Marguerite and Jude thought it would be a great surprise to land home with one. And a surprise is exactly what it was when Jude knocked on the door and Paul answered to this scene and with Jude saying, 'Did someone here order a pizza from Boston?

Paul couldn't believe his eyes......and before you could say 'stick the kettle on mucker', he had the pizza reheated in the oven and sliced up goodo.

Paul was delighted to get the pizza and he scoffed it in record time (with help from Jude of course).

This was the first American pizza Paul had eaten since he was last in Boston himself, a good few years ago, too many years ago to mention actually......but maybe this year he'll make it out again to sample another pizza, only it'll be fresh out of the oven this time!!!

Jude began his working week by travelling the short distance from his hotel to the Clanrye offices (also in Newry). There he met the next Wider Horizon's group due to travel to Boston in March. The Wider Horizons group would again be hosted by Jude's work, the Irish International Immigrant Center, and would be living in Boston in host families and working in host organisations doing youth and community work. The Wider Horizons programs bring young unemployed people (7 Catholics from NI, 7 Protestants from NI and 7 of any denomination from ROI) to live, work and play together for 4 months and gain valuable skills to enhance their employment prospects and social development.

And here are some of the Wider horizons group listening intently to their tutor Rachel (wearing purple scarf). Rachel of course has appeared on the blog before on many of her trips to Boston, most recently in Oct 2011.

It was not 'all work and no play' for Jude though as he found time for an after-work game of high quality football with the Clanrye crew. The game was held in the Newry Leisure Centre and turned out to be great craic altogether as Jude's team beat Kieran's team 15-14.......or something like that!

And here's Jude working like a dog as usual............this time in the office at Clanrye in Newry.

While in Newry Jude had a nice time at the Canal Court Hotel especially when the Clanrye crew came along too. The Clanrye crew were.......

.......Rachel, Richard (based in Toronto, Canada) Kieran and Gary. A cool looking bunch I think you'll agree.

And don't forget Marion.........

.....and Tony too.

So after finishing up his work at the office Jude made his way to Belfast to hook up with the number one golfer........

........in Michael's house (that would be Michael of course). Here he is trying to swing a golf club.......look at that for technique!!

Now there's a graceful swing if ever I saw one. Jude's from County Down, just like newly crowned World number one Rory McIlroy, so maybe that has something to do with it. Something to do with what? The graceful swing, maybe it's a County Down thing. Wha?

This pic captures Kevin as he makes contact with the ball and is about to send it trickling down the green grass in front of him there........like just in front of him.......ehhhh....like just over the yellow line there. Don't underestimate Kevin though, he's also the best golf player.............in his house!!

After the golf Michael, Kevin and Jude made their way to the Roddies for a shot or two of snooker. This pic here is like the one that gets taken of the World Snooker finalists just before they start the final.

After staying with Michael, Marguerite Snr, Emma and Max for a few days Jude met..........

........his neice Megan for lunch in Belfast. Jude's been having withdrawal symtoms for some proper fish and chips so he took Megan to Bright's fish and chip shop in Belfast for lunch. Today was Megan's 18th birthday so when they were entering the restauant Jude pretended to be passing a bag of rubbish to the waitress. He had in fact passed the waitress a super cool 18th Birthday mug so she could deliver Megan's tea in it. So when it was delivered poor Megan nearly fell off her seat. Here is Megan, all smiles, with her mug. Happy 18th Megan.

So outside the shop Jude got some edjit to take this pic......for a momento like. Anyway......Jude told him, 'ye need to stand out in the middle of the road mucker to get the 'Brights' sign in'. He told him this twice but as you can see Jude may as well have been talking to the lampost as yer man only managed to get in part of the 'Brights' sign. But at least he got Megan and Jude in.....I suppose that's something.

On his way out of Belfast Jude made a quick trip to his old university, Queens, to pick up a gift or two from the shop.

Then after driving to Downpatrick Jude sat in on the Friday night and had a few beers with Paul and Jude's mate Barry Smyth (but forgot to take a pic). A good few tales were told over what was a great night's craic indeed.

The next day started off with a visit to Bright golf course and a big game against.......

.....these two dodgy players.......Marty and Paul. In this pic you can clearly see that Marty is at the end of a swing (he's right handed)......so let's hope for his sake that it was a practice swing because the ball is still sitting there!

That's more like it.

Paul tried........

.....and tried again. But ultimately neither he nor Marty could prevent............

.......Jude from winning today's big match and claiming the slagging rights for another few months.

So after the game the lads made their way out for the evening, to Denvir's pub in Dowpatrick. Here are: (L-R) Gary, Paul, Jude, Denis, Barry and Martin.

'Here Marty, don't worry about today's golf match, sure you'll have another go at beating me some other time', said Jude to his big brother.

'Bloody hell, I'll never hear the end of this', replied Marty.

'I'd beat the lot of ye no bother, ye's are all crap', says Barry as he and Marty enjoying the craic in Denvir's later on that evening.

Having a laugh are: Gary, Paul and Jude.

It's a small world folks. So this girl happened to be sitting at the next table when Gary got talking to her. After a quick 'hello, how are ye' Gary quickly sussed that she was from America (the accent, it was the accent that gave it away folks) so he asked where was she from exactly. Her response was, 'Boston'. To which Gary replied, 'sure that's great, that's where my mate Jude lives too'. It turned out that she is actually from Coolidge Corner in Brookline (which is exactly where Jude and Marguerite live) and she was in Downpatrick visiting her husband's family. Unbelievable really.

'Cheers lads'.

'Damn, I'm in a tight spot', says Paul as Gary and Denis squash him in this pic.

Soon enough Kieran has arrived (Kieran lives in Downpatrick and as you've already seen he works at Clanrye in Newry - where Jude was working this week).

Marty spent the next 20 minutes trying to explain how he managed to lose today's golf match by 20 shots. 'I might have lost the match but I went all the way around the course without losing a ball', said Marty.