It’s been a really busy couple of weeks, with a trip to Dublin with Margaret for shoots there, then a week of driving 3-4 hours per day for meetings and then I travelled to Brighton for one of my friend’s (Diarmuid) stag dos. I’ve never been to Brighton before and to be honest the weather was shocking, so I didn’t experience too much of the city in the day time.

We arrived late into Brighton and as most of the rest of the people had been there since earlier in the day they were a little tipsy, lets say. We enjoyed a lovely Italian meal before hitting the pub where we had the best of craic. The night was topped off by witnessing X-Factor’s, Frankie Cocozza fighting in the street outside of the bar (in fairness I think someone came up and decked him or his friend for no reason).

The next morning some of the guys braved the weather in their funkiest golf gear, while feeling a little ‘tired’ I caught some more zzzz’s. That night we got together for a really nice meal at Brown’s Restaurant before hitting a pub where dancing was halted when someone who had been chucked out thought it would be a good idea to punch the window, breaking it and showering everyone on the dance floor with glass in the process. From there we visited a club called Komedia for a night called ‘Mod for It’ which had a really cool selection of music, lots of funky mods and a few hen and stag parties bopping away to Van Morrison and The Who.

I love the cool, laid back vibe in Brighton and I’d love to return and see more of the city next time.

Hanging out with the guys is always a blast and getting to know some of Diarmuid’s other friend’s he went to Cambridge with and the fellas he worked at Ernest and Young with was great. For the guys that I’ve known since we were 11 years old and began partying with at 16 as we ventured to the Gweedore Bar on Waterloo Street, when we’re together in a bar, music blasting and we’re dancing like we did back then, it’s just the best of times!

I was instructed to leave the camera at home on the stag do, so I thought I’d share a few photos from 2004 when Gary, Sara, Diarmuid and I travelled around Italy for a couple of weeks!

This image was taken on our day tour of Venice.

Diarmuid wasn’t much help as Sara almost beheaded me outside the colosseum in Rome!