The Today programme has a habit of sending its presenters off on location. Recently Martha Kearney has been in a refugee camp in Lebanon and on the edge of the Arctic Circle. This morning Blog Bellew has dipped into its meagre travel budget.
So, top of the morning to you on St Patrick’s-tide from Dublin. It’s grand to be back home. The view above is from my bedroom window; if you look closely you will see in the background cranes and then the Wicklow mountains. I’m staying at the Kildare Street and University Club. My grandfather and doubtless other forebears belonged when it was the Kildare Street Club in Kildare Street but it has moved to handsome Georgian premises on St Stephen’s Green. It is most commodious and welcoming. There is an eclectic selection of reading on the bedside table: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, The Complete Father Brown Stories by GK Chesterton and The Builders – how a small group of property developers fuelled the building boom and transformed Ireland – by Frank McDonald and Kathy Sheridan.
The purpose of my visit was to dine last night and lunch today. No doubt I will be piling on the avoirdupois.