There and back again. 5 days.

Good mother of Jesus. I think I have discovered the definition of 'whirlwind trip'. Not sure if I actually 'landed' in Dublin as opposed to ghosted through it. To everyone who pulled out the stops to catch up, thank you. Special mention for Mr Moore even though the beer and whiskey till 5am caused a great degree of hurt the day after. As for Ken and Gavs respectable dinner evening in Siam Thai? The 'see the friends' batteries that lurk deep beneath the skin have now been charged with Guinness fuelled conversations. And being with my family again so soon after their visit here was lovely - a special mention for the smiley sleepy nephew Eoin. To all those pregnant bellies that were around - just beautiful to see. To have squeezed in all I did in 5 days was quite a gargantuan achievement and one which necessitated minimum levels of sleep. Just aswell given the jet lag. Visiting the graves of my sister and then Jen was a sobering and surreal experience. It's just impossibly difficult to accept that those names are written where they are. And always will be. Left on a cold Tuesday afternoon choking back the tears.

How cold was it though? Christ.

By the time I finally got to Istanbul for the work part of the trip, all I was fit for was the very comfortable king sized bed in the Ritz-Carlton.

As for Istanbul. A 17 million person dense concrete mass straddling the turbulent and "mighty Bosphorous" (as Cake would say). The old town area was pretty impressive, the blended history of the epicentre where east meets west coming out of every ancient pore. The romantic skyline of a multitude of domes and minarets at night. The intimidating shopping bazaar (imitation crap, gold and haggling never my cup of tea so not really somewhere that attracted me). The constant gridlock. People actually get into ferry boats with their cars to get across the strait rather than funnel through the few bridges.

But it's quite hard to get past the utter lunacy and complete ignorance of the taxi drivers. In the few days (hours?) I spent in the Turkish melting pot,

• I was in a cab travelling at 140kmph in a 2 lane 90k zone, overtaking a cop car (the same one - twice)
• I was in a cab that got into a running battle with another car to the point where we were being run off the road
• I was in a cab that travelled between the lanes in which there were other cars for about half a km
• a cab had no change to give me
• a cab had no receipt to give me

The beeping of horns is constant, Lord help you if you dont get going at a set of lights within a milli second of them turning green. Its unfortunate that these tossers represent the principle part of my memory of what is one of the most historic cities in the world. Maybe am a bit over the whole over crowded city thing? Maybe I have developed a touch of claustraphobia? Maybe I'm getting too old to appreciate the danger factor of a place like this? Brisbane feels like a wonderfully peaceful open expanse of Serengeti proportions after that.

Oh yes. The conference, the raison d'etre for the entire trip. Average. And thanks to some shit organising by Boeing and Friday afternoon traffic mayhem in the city adding 50% on to airport trip times, I did not get to present. Typically, my flight was delayed, and in Dubai I had another 17 hour stopover, 10 hours of it delay time. Airports are really not pleasant places to spend ones time. But, at the end of it all, I could not wait to get home to my girls. All over their illnesses and ready for Dad.

And of course our next little one is now due in May '08.