THE WOMBLES go to Dublin to party ............. and boy did we party ........... we started drinking at 9am while waiting for our "delayed" Ryanair flight (we reckon the pilot had been drinking by the way he bumped us down on the landing straight). We stayed in Temple Bar at Blooms Hotel, fantastic location had a pub downstairs and also a nightclub. Kim and Dave had been out the night before and were quite hungover so decided to have a short lay down before meeting up with us later. We decided to have a quick bite at the pub downstairs and then start our pub crawl ...... there were heaps of hens and stags do's all with crazy outfits on. One guy who we saw at the start and kept bumping into was wearing the most hideous dress and hat, was quality. I bumped into a few Kiwis in one pub who had been watching the rugby game that morning, one of them lived in West Harbour back home (about 20mins away from where I lived) and knew someone I knew back home... he had been living in Dublin for the past 10 months and was thinking about moving to London when his visa ran out. As the day went on Temple Bar grew more and more packed and madder and madder. Kim and Dave joined us late afternoon - by this stage we were well on our way !!! Heidi and I lost the gang for a bit, too many lovely men to chat too but finally caught up with them later on. The hangovers the next day we all had were awful ... will never learn aye :0))

ONLY 5 working days left of ticketing ... yeeeehhhhh ... Dublin next weekend with my team .... back for one day of work ..... then off to Majorca to lay in the sun for a week - ahhh life is GRAND !!! This email came around at work this week and its so on the nail in some points about being a "Londoner"......

1. You say "the City" and expect everyone to know which one.

2. You have never been to The Tower of London or Madame Tussauds but love Brighton.

3. Hookers, drunks and the homeless are invisible to you.

4. You step over people who collapse on the Tube.

5. You've considered stabbing someone.

6. Your door has more than three locks.

7. You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.

8. You call an 8' x 10' plot of patchy grass a garden.

9. You're paying 1,200 a month for a studio the size of a walk-in wardrobe and you think it's a "bargain".

10. Shopping in suburban supermarkets and shopping malls gives you a severe attack of agoraphobia.

11. You pay more each month to park your car than most people in the UK pay in rent.

12. You pay 3 quid without blinking for a beer that cost the bar 28p.

13. You actually take fashion seriously.

14. You have 27 different take-away menus next to your telephone.

15. The UK west of Heathrow is still theoretical to you.

16. You're suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to you.

17. Your idea of personal space is no one actually physically standing on you.

18. 50 quid worth of groceries fit in one plastic bag.

19. You have a minimum of five "worst cab ride ever" stories.

20. You don't hear sirens anymore.

21. You've mentally blocked out all thoughts of the city's air/water quality and what it's doing to your insides.

22. You live in a building with a larger population than most towns.

23. Your cleaner is Portuguese, your grocer is Somali, your butcher is Halal, your deli man is Israeli, your landlord is Italian, your laundry guy is Filipino, your bartender is Australian, your favourite restaurateur is Greek, the watch seller on your corneris Senegalese, your last cabbie was African, your newsagent is Indian and your local English chippie owner is Turkish....and your local bobby came fresh of the boat from South America.

24. You wouldn't want to live anywhere else until you get married.

25. You roll your eyes and mumble 'for f**k's sake...' at the news that someone has thrown themselves under a tube train.

OUR annual ball was just as wicked as always. Was at Billingsgate Market same venue as last year - such a wicked place, right on the Thames overlooking Tower Bridge. The theme was Arabian nights and Kerryn (the organiser) did an outstanding job again with belly dancers everwhere strutting their stuff. We had pre dinner drinks outside and then moved inside for the dinner and awards. Distribution got and award for Top Globally which was fantastic as I finally got to go up on stage yahooooo. Heidi got the Top Ticketer award this year and was so excited. I was quite shocked to see a huge picture of me up by the stage .. seems I am the face of Flightcentre !!! Marketing asked a few weeks back if they could take a few photos of a couple of us and well they didnt say they were gonna be blown up that large for all to see. So, finally I am famous haahaa.

WHEN on your big OE one of the top 10 things to do is go to Wimbledon Tennis .... and finally I got there this week with Kelly. As you probably know I've never followed tennis let alone know the rules of it but wow .... the atmosphere, the prospect of seeing someone famous and the look of excitement that crossed Kellys face walked as we walked through the gate was priceless - it would also be a crime not to go when we only live across the park!! We were told that going the second week it would be easier to get in and lucky enough that bit of information was correct. The street was lined with baracades and officials pointing you in the right direction,"with ticket or without ticket?" The traffic was crawling up the road and there were loads of people but we walked straight in with no queuing and were offered tickets for No 2. court which were £26 and Venus Williams was playing doubles on it later that day. As we arrived it started to rain a bit which continued on and off during the day which delayed a lot of the play during the day but it didn't our spirits one little bit. The ticket allowed you to walk anywhere in the grounds and of course sit on Henman hill - which is wickedly designed. Has a wee river flowing down the side of the stairs leading up the hill. Unfortunately it rained quite a bit in the morning, not heavily but enough to dampen the courts and get played delayed for a number of hours. There are food courts, drink stands and ice cream stands, its all well over priced but the food tastes quite good - especially the roast pork bap with apple sauce. A bottle of bubbles is £50 (when a few years ago it was apparently £25) and it was pretty cheap stuff too. We watched a game on No 2. court but sat mainly on Henman Hill as was so much fun. A lot of people dress up for the day, either in posh clothes or costumes clothes - the pirates - then there was the Aussies they were over taking the place with their Green and Yellow shirts all because an Aussie was playing and damn where they loud mouthed esp those pirates. As the rain delayed a lot of play when we went to watch Venus play they had moved her game to another court as the doubles game on No 2. had not finished and we were unable to get close to watch due the crowds of people. Oh well at leas we got to see John McEnro walk past us haahaa.

JUNE was one of the quietest months in a long time at work, considering it is usually our best month and last year I did a personal best. Has a lot to do with the Football World Cup on. Its a huge thing here, cars / windows with England flags there is a great feel to the place a real buzz of excitement. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday turned out to be really busy for my team as we were one down but we had fun at the same time and didn't let the stress and pressure get to us... we are great at that now, lifting each other up if you see them not coping. Work hired a bar out down by Kingston river and when we finally finished work we all caught the train down there for awards, drinks and dinner. Was quite a fun night as all of Head Office was there - the big celebrations are in 2 weeks at the Ball so really looking forward to that. As a few of us were working the next day we didnt really have a big night. I phoned Mum to wish her a Happy Birthday, Dad had organised a surprise lunch for her which was lovely. Unfortunately my present for her hasnt turned up - :(( stinky person on Ebay has done a runner with the money I think.

Saturday was Kelly, Kat, Sarah and myself. Kat and Sarah were rather hungover poor things and as it wasnt that busy we put Big Brother eviction rerun on and watched it. Then at 4pm the England vs Portugal game was on. When Kelly and I were leaving the game had not finished so we went over to the overflowing with red and white covered people to watch the last 10mins. Turned out to be a lot longer than that as went into over time then onto penalties. Unfortunately England failed to come to the party and Portugal won. The outrage of the people was unbelievable and Kelly and I decided to quickly leave and head for the station. We saw one guy balling his eyes out !!!

On the way home we went into the pub up the road for a quick drink with a friend and ended up staying there all night was great.... Kelly and I were fozzball champions - got better the drunker we got. We got a bit of sad news when we got home our flatmates mum passed away suddenly, so today we phoned one of the shops and got her and Jim on a flight home to NZ. Was a bit of a shock and not something that you would want to wish on anyway esp when on other side of the world. Lucky we are in the right industry to be able to help her.

The weather has gotten really hot again and is just gorgeous - 32 deg today. Meant to hang around for a bit which is nice. Kelly and I have Wednesday off and are going to try and get tickets for Wimbledon wahoooo.