Domhnall’s Stag (and the most impressive thing I have ever done in my life)

How’s that for the title to a blog post. The most impressive thing I have ever done in my life.. Still, won’t start with that, will leave you in suspense for just a little while longer.

So, there was a slight mishap on the Walls of Jerusalem trip. I was innocently eating into a jelly jet-plane… when one of my two (yes, I drank too much Jolt Cola as a kid) crowns came off. Not at all a pleasant sensation.. and not something I was expecting to go through for at least 10 years. This necessitated getting to a dentist ASAP.. so off to Launceston we went.

Checking email on my nifty smartphone was a delight I admit, made even better when I got an utterly random (kinda) email from my friend Mike Carrigan saying “If you happen to pass through Launceston then you must visit my cousin Alan). So we did. I’d met Alan before at Mike’s wedding.. and it was funny to walk into his hotel and see the “Where have I seen that guy before” face register.

He was an excellent host and showed us around his place, and we had a very nice dinner and a couple of well deserved pints there. One of the themed bars was entirely made up from all of his racing equipment. Very cool.

After that it was off to the coast where I was leaving Maaike to head back to Hobart to catch up with Domhnall for his stag night. It was in, I think, the coastal town of Swansea that the most impressive thing I’ve ever done happened. Out for a quite yum seafood takeaway and then back to our oh-so-unlovely camping site (I had to get a bus the next day, and there was little choice). Decided to see whether the table tennis room was still open. It was. Unfortunately, while the bats had no rubber on them (to be expected), there was also no ball (slightly less to be expected). There was, however, one of those grabber game thingys. Best described by a picture.

Feeling lucky, and pooling our coin resources (a single dollar coin) I had a go at the game. Maaike chose Ernie as the toy she wanted (there was only one accessibly Ernie, and that was in the back right hand corner). Anyway, you can see where this is going, one coin, one shot, one MONUMENTAL VICTORY AGAINST THE MACHINE.

Perfect.

Right – so after that it was off to Hobart on an early bus and met up with Domhnall for the stag night. Some of the Irish posse (Carole & Andrew, Eoin) had arrived, and we met up with some more of Domhnalls friends and had an entirely excellent stag. It was far too enjoyable for Domhnall ;) There was climbing…

Some coffee’s (Domhnall is _seriously_ into his coffee now.. the coffee machine costs more than the entire rent on my flat for about 3 years combined.. but it does make excellent coffee (when used well)).

Then it was off to an unmarked hut for the evening – which I’d been to before (but not stayed at) the last time I was in Tassie. Unfortunately I was having too much fun chatting to actually take many pictures, so I’d highly recommend looking at Domhnall’s pictures and Carole’s post on Australia

Lots and lots of fun, a really great night.