Yep, after an utterly fruitless wireless hunt in Dublin I'm now back in London. Oh joy. The one plus side is that I have internet access again.

The moral of story for all wireless hunters: get wireless card for PDA and trawl with that rather than a laptop. Getting a laptop out on the top deck of a bus gets you some funny looks. And lugging round a laptop is a pain in the arse. (Or so my other half says. I'm a great believer in the old "I wear short skirts and spend time learning advanced oral techniques. He carries stuff." ideology. It's not sexism. He's stronger than I am. If he was a puny bloke, I'd carry the heavy things. And anyway, he seems happy enough.)

Am gutted because my week in Dublin reinforced the though that I had the first time I went there. Namely, I want to live in Dublin. Actually, I'm not gutted, I love it. I've been in London for nearly eight years. That's long enough to spend anywhere. Samuel Johnson can feck off with his 'If you're tired of London, you're tired of life' thing. And Dublin is ace. Why? Here are a few things I loved (in no particular order).

• Almost every road in the centre of town has a crossing. I'm crap on roads. Crossings are good (I'm crap on roads cos I've been hit by a car and a motorbike and know how much it hurts. Thus, I tend to dither for a billion years - approx - before crossing a road)


• Better than that, the crossings have got added features to your standard boring London green men. In addition to lighty-uppy red or green men, there are also amber men (the cue to run like hell. Or at least, they would be if they were in London. There seem to be less homicidal maniac drivers in Dublin). Then there's the countdown. You press the button to cross the road (and it's way bigger than the UK buttons are. Size matters when it comes to pushing buttons. My inner 3 year old was utterly satisfied by pressing a really big button) Lots of the crossings then give you a displayed count-down - "12 seconds, 11 seconds, 10 seconds" etc until you can cross the road. This is useful. But that's not the best bit. By far the ultimate bit is the noise they make. When you're allowed to cross the road, there's a sound a bit like a high pitched fart, followed by the sound that Space Invaders make so that you can hear the lights change as well as see them. OK, it's there for good and sensible reasons of helping blind people (I guess) but the amusement value is ace.


• Baileys' Coffee. OK, it rains in Dublin. A lot. But I've never been that bothered by rain. And going into a pub after you've been walking in the rain to drink alcoholic coffee is a pleasure not to be missed. It rains in London too. There should be alcoholic coffee as standard here (best Baileys' Coffee was probably at The Clarence - the place which should sell T-shirts saying 'I failed to see U2 hanging out at the Clarence' for all the disappointed tourists who only went there for that reason. Is actually very good there. The drink is no more expensive than anywhere else in Temple Bar and it's nice to be somewhere trendy where there's no arsey attitude.)


• Whelans. It's a fantastic indie nightclub. The people are lovely (and as gorgeous as everyone else in Dublin is. Namely, very.) The music rocks. There's a pub opposite that I can't remember the name of that plays ace cheese music to get you in the mood for clubbing beforehand. And we met some lovely people there ('Well if you're planning to move to Dublin, you'll be wanting some friends here so take my number.' You don't get that in London. And they were a top bunch of people - hello Cliona and her mate whose birthday it was whose name I forget. Kate? Anyway, hope you weren't too ill after the tequila.)


• Clothes. I'm not usually into clothes but I managed to get a great pair of classic black trousers - really well made and classy - for £20 and an ace PVC jacket for £18. Plus, having a pale skin, green eyes, dark hair combo that is kind of traditionally Irish (that'll be my Cork grandmother's influence, I guess) there are *way* more clothes in colours that suit me in Ireland.

There's loads more I could mention (and no doubt will but I'm tired after travelling all day). Basically, I'm in love. Want to move there. Now. Don't care about the rain. Dublin rocks.

That said, today was insane. It was a day of buses taking far too long, phones sulking and then, after running to catch the damn thing, the plane getting delayed (I don't *do* running). The first two conspired against me to mean that I couldn't do the video blog I was planning (sorry Bernie and Tim - but I'll be back, promise, and will do one then if you'll still have me)