The Randy Leprechaun

This is one of three hostels that Paddywagon owns. The hostel in Kilkenny is a shithole to be honest and they have a very small hotwater tank to service the whole hostel which means frequent cold showers. However, Kilkenny is lovely and so is their cocktail bar - Cube - [good on ya Jan for nicking off with their menu so we can recreate the drinks!]. The Randy is in pretty good condition. They've got a gorgeous big clean kitchen and their own bar built onto the pub. It's well worth staying at but does have a few locational issues - namely that it's in the hamlet of Annaschull is the middle of nowhere. The hamlet has a surrounding population of 500 and a total of eight pubs lining it's street (not all currently operate).

I did get offered a job working at the Randy by Gabe and was quite excited. Until we reached Annaschull which has no supermarket, no internet, and an infrequent bus service to get a nearby town (about 45 mins by bus). Tom informed me that he runs the hostel by himself and is about to leave. The job is seven days a week from breakfast to close (they close early, about 1 am). The weekly pay is in actuality paid monthly and ends up being a weekly rate of 250 euro. Really not worth it. Hence a change of plans. I've decided to cut my losses, cancel contiki (since there's no way you can see a country in a single day, especially when most of that will be on a coach), and turn this into a holiday that I can hopefully pay off in a decent job back home. So a fortnight in Ireland, a week in Scotland, hopefully a week with the family, and maybe a week in South England.

Anyway, back to the story at hand. At the monastery on Day One the bus broke down. The call out mechanic could'nt fix it out there but was able to help and finally they hotwired the bus so that it could start with a spanner. Gabe therefore left us in Kilkenny and Phil skipped his time off to come be our new driver. Phil is grand, a pony tailed hippy who seems to have a female friend in every port, whose has beautiful nieces and has friends who announced one night they were engaged and a day or two later that they'd just discovered she was pregnant! *g* Phil was chatty and in return we attempted to help him with the crossword puzzle (what better use to put a captive bus load to!).

Phil kept us entertained on the mike at the Randy as we whiled away an evening at karoke. Sonia and I even got our lucky Irish kiss! ~ a hug and a kiss on the cheek from Phil to end our three way Grease duet for Summer Lovin' :P Catherine was fantastic on the Tina Turner song; Sonia and I couldn't remember the name for the "rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river" but Catherine did and was bought the house down!