This weekend was a 'Cheeky Boys' trip, the chance to catch up, have a chat, laugh at some jokes (most of which we will have heard before), drink plenty and hopefully enjoy some fine food. The format is quite simple really, so with a Friday afternoon rendezvous at Birmingham Airport there was a chance for some food and drink(s) before boarding our Flybe service to Belfast City Airport, a short hop of around 45 minutes across the Irish Sea.

A rapid taxi into the centre of Belfast soon had us at The Botanic Rest, a bed & breakfast a short walk from the central area of the city, but in an area with plenty of places to have a drink, grab some food or even catch a train from the nearby Botanic railway station.

It was a late night, or more accurately an early morning before we turned in having visited a couple of local pubs including The Empire that had a live band playing . . . . . and it didn't seem like too long before the alarm was going off to wake us from our slumber to head out to watch the Rugby World Cup Final between England and South Africa. As you will probably know England lost!

After the game we headed out to Bangor by train which was a thirty minute journey from Botanic with much of it giving us glimpses of the sea. Wandering through the town and to the waterfront looking for a suitable lunch stop we ended up at The Jamaica Inn - it had decent reviews and seemed to serve up a wide menu range. What a great place it was to lose the afternoon at! The food was fabulous, the Guinness was fresh and the Portugeuse wine chosen by Gavin was also very good.

Heading back into Belfast we hopped off the train at Titanic Quarter and walked to the SSE Arena to watch the evening ice hockey game between Belfast Giants and the Coventry Blaze. Belfast were the winning team on the night and put the puck into the back of the net four times with Coventry managing just a single goal. "Let's go Giants!" as they say in Belfast.

After the game it was time to head into the centre of Belfast and enjoy a couple of Irish pubs, our first stop was Kelly's Cellars, one of the oldest pubs in Belfast. It was a bit rough around the edges but service was swift and, yet again, the Guinness was good as you should expect when on the island of Ireland. The next port of call was Robinson's Bar (or maybe it was Fibber Magee's, as it seemed to have a couple of names) where there was a live group playing traditional Irish music. The place was certainly buzzing.

On the Sunday morning we headed to West Belfast and started to walk up the Falls Road. This area and the Shankhill Road were at the centre of lots of troubles in the past, but you can now see the famous murals and the Peace Wall. The wall, which divided the Catholic (Falls Road) area and the Protesant Shankhill Road area is still very much in situ. The tops of it are still decked out with barbed wire and there are still gates in place - we thought these had been left in place to remind people of the past, but we were wrong. We later learned that every night the gates are still closed between the two areas of Belfast in order to 'keep the peace' and divide the two communities. The Good Friday Agreement came into effect nearly 20 years ago but it was a sobering lesson that I think left us all a bit saddened that this is still happening every day and not one of us was aware of it.

It was soon time to grab some lunch, return back to the accommodation to collect our bags and then head out to Belfast City Airport for our short flight back to Birmingham. There was of course enough time for a drink at the airport before boarding the Flybe service . . . . this was a 'Cheeky Boys' trip after all.