Well, we're out of it!!!! We fought hard, but just weren't good enough on the night. The game ended 0-0, meaning Switzerland are through to the play-offs, while Ireland's World Cup campaign is OVER!!! I'm not too depressed -- I didn't believe we would win last night, and guessed that the game would end in a draw. In fact, in the end, we were lucky not to lose, as the Swiss had the best chances!!! We blew our hopes in the two draws with Israel -- we should have won both of those games, but didn't. C'est la vie!!!!

Apart from the result, it was a nice little trip to Dublin. The train went smoothly, the weather was perfect, I had a few drinks with one of my cousins (Little John) and a friend of his, the hotel I stayed at was nice (Bewleys) and I got back home on time this morning.

Started to read "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown. It's not quite as catchy as "The Da Vinci Code", but I'm enjoying it so far. His style is similar to mine in many ways -- we both like to make a story move forward as fast as possible, and to end chapters on catchy little (and sometimes big) cliffhangers!!! I know critics often turn up their noses as writers who focus on "insubstantial" matters like pace and plot devices, but I'll take a hot-as-hell story-line over a beutifully-written-but-dry-as-dust character study any day!!!! The best writers, of course, merge the two -- Shakespeare and Dickens spring to mind -- and it's good, as a reader, to vary the type of books you read. But if I could only choose one type, page-turner or "classic", to read for the rest of my life, I'd definitely go for the former!!! For me, above all else, reading should be FUN!!!!!!!