Babyboom in Dublin Zoo

In recent days, there have been positive news in the papers almost daily, and I am certainly not talking about anything relating to the Lisbon Treaty Referendum. Dublin Zoo is currently experiencing a baby boom, which includes a baby rhino, a newborn californian sealion, a baby giraffe and baby elephants all toying around with their parents. As usual, we uploaded some pictures and videos to our Flickr page.

After a day at the Zoo, which we enjoyed with our neighbours, we all went to Pizza Hut in Blanchardstown. I would not usually blog about that, if it wasnt for the fact that we received the worst dinner there that I have had in a long time. The waitress was completely flustered - it wasnt busy at all mind you. It started out with us having to chase her down to take our order. Then she brought the pizza and the starters together, one pizza being the wrong pizza, the other one only carrying one of the three promised toppings and both were only luke warm. Having gone for the cheesy crust, we were now chewing on cold cheese in dough that tasted microwaved. To top it off, we had two bills at the table, neither of which was correct. We left thoroughly unsatisfied.

After this dissapointment however, I went and got myself a coffee in BB's just around the corner in the Mall. The lady behind the counter reinstated my believe in the customer service ethos. I asked for a cappucino and she told me regretfully that she was actually already closed, but she could still offer me tea or black coffee. She said it in a very nice way and I genuinely felt that she was not gonna send me away, just because she was locking up. I got the black coffee and declining her question if I wanted anything else, she gave me a free double chocolate muffin anyway, saying with an honest laugh that that was the least she could do, since cappucino was not the same than a black coffee and this was to make up for it. I walked away from that counter with a smile.

Now, in both place I didnt get what I wanted, but the difference is night and day. Mind you, this excellent service came despite the fact that the second experience brought BB's a turnover of only 2 Euro, the first one brought Pizza Hut a cash load of almost 60 quid for the 4 of us. I rest my case and have now permanently put Blanchardstown Pizza Hut on my black list. I will deffo come back for a coffee to BBs though :)

Civil Wedding

So it is done - the first step that is. We have had a lovely weekend in Germany and enjoyed the civil ceremony in Graefenthal with our family and friends in Germany.

Everything went very well and we are now officially Mr. and Mrs. Voss. The big celebration is still up ahead in Poland but for the time being, it feels good to be a ring bearer already, so the church ceremony is going to be an additional promise rather then the full thing.

On an interesting side note, the Sunday after our wedding coincided with the match Germany vs. Poland, which was the groups first match for the Euro 2008 championship. Needless to say, it was a funny conclusion of the weekend for both our dads, who watched the match while we were already on the plane back to Ireland.