In that pub, there was a tiny duck. A plastic rendition of a rubber ducky, sitting proudly atop the tap for Guinness, guarding that magically Irish elixir.
From the first time I saw the ducky, I wanted the ducky.
Interestingly, I’d acquired a few neat things during my adventure across Europe – two of those things were small porcelain statuettes of Lipizzaner horses from Vienna. They were a bit bigger, and a bit fancier, than the Ducky… but you know what? They’d make a good trade.
Brian and I headed down, grabbed a pint, and negotiated the trade. A horse statuette left the apartment with me, and a small plastic ducky came home. My MBA is already paying dividends; I am a successful negotiator.
Out across the river in Dublin, there’s a spot called the Gin Palace. I’d heard of it a few times, but hadn’t had an opportunity to go… until now, that is!
All of my classmates are impressive, and I’m having an absolute blast getting to know them all – either working together in teams, grabbing lunches before or after lectures, or heading out to dinner / drinks after we’ve made our escape from the business school. Gin Palace had been up on my list, and so made for a rather lovely opportunity to chat with our class representative, get some feedback from her, and pick her brain for a bit of insight into her leadership journey.
It was absolutely lovely – they had solid food, and teapots full of gin drinks for us to try. We sampled a flight of various uniquely named offerings, realized that the teapot was made a bit stronger than I’d expected, and shared some excellent stories and memories.
Another small step forward in the whole MBA process – building lovely connections, strengthening the social battery, and having a good time while doing all the above.
It all started at the distillery. One of the best places for things to start.
I’d been building my social battery back up over the last few weeks, as orientation had given way to classes, and the MBA cohort had been there throughout. Friday evenings had become our de-facto pub evening, and interspersed with a few other social evenings in the week had seen my social stamina steadily increasing.
One of my classmates had been talking about doing a “full send” evening; we didn’t have any major assignments due on Monday, we’d been fairly tame during the week so far, and… it felt right. It felt like the kind of evening where one goes hard, hits a few adventures, and makes some solid memories. I was excited, ready to go, and still had no idea how fun it would end up being.
We started at Roe and Co distillery – a fairly new distillery with a fairly old name, with a fairly new take on the old tasting. They did a whiskey pairing – Some of their whiskeys, a chocolate, a jelly candy… it was a bit strange, a lot delicious, and absolutely worth it!
From Roe and Co, we headed off to meet the rest of the class – from pub to pub, from pint to pint, we adventured and explored Dublin!
I… I don’t really know what to write about, here. I mainly like the photos, and mainly then for the memories, but they’re not really my usual fare… so… I guess I’ll just post this one piece of cool art, keep the memories and tomfoolery to myself, and leave it similar to the hiking posts that I do?
