Well, it’s been 2 weeks since I was across in Dublin seeing U2 with 3 of my Pals, (2 of them being my bosses) (and 1 of them being my better half).  We flew in to Dublin on the Friday, and got to the digs about 12noon, 1pm ish,… I can’t actually remember to be honest…!

Can you guess what we did first of all after dumping our gear (and a quick unpack and change of clothes)?
No?
Well, where are we? Dublin… What happens in Dublin? Guinness…..

So – there you go – straight out to the Temple Bar area of town, (which luckily was a stone throw away)..
Now this wasn’t the only reason we were in Dublin, it was obviously to go and see U2 on their 360° tour – however – that was on the Saturday night..
Friday therefore was Guinness and Cider..
And then we realised we hadn’t had any tea – so there was Pizza at the end of it..!

Anyways – back to Temple Bar… I actually lost count of how many bands we actually saw over the course of the day..
but I do remember a few songs – The Irish Rover, The Wild Rover (No Nay Never), and of course – they played many many U2 songs – such as one which you can see in the YouTube Video!

There are a few dodgy pictures too, including me, the Mrs, and Fiona (@geeketteFi ) +hubby (Ed)

Fiona and Me...!

Fi and Ed on the Way Out - literally

Temple Bar welcomes U2 Fans..!

THE Temple Bar

All the Gang

This singer was absolutely amazing

the Mrs and @geeketteFi (Fi)

Temple Bar at night

So I guess after all that, there’s really only Saturday to go – and that means one thing – U2, Live, Dublin, Croke Park… and as I’m a die hard fan… it means Queuing from 9am, however – by the time the girls get up and dressed we get to the stadium at 10.15am, with a brief stop at the cash machine after spending 200Euros the night before.

So – Taxi driver calling us mental for going so early, however we want a good spot in the Inner Circle. we get there and there’s 600 peeps in front of us! – eek! – my number is 613, so, we get to the queue… more photos:

Queue Dublin II

Prawn Cocktail Crisps

Herded into the Inner Circle

My View look Up

Soooo after the queue around about 3.30pm – we were herded into the Stadium, and yes – straight into the Inner Circle – how tremendous! – we didn’t get a great spot – however – after looking at videos on YouTube etc, I’m glad we weren’t half a stadium away in the middle of the crowd…

now as for the gig itself, it really started around 6.30, when some band called The Republic of Loose arrived on stage, and I have to say – the lead vocals looked drugged up to the eyeballs… After them it was Kaiser Chiefs, I’d heard from the night before the main Support act comes on stage at 8pm… so I thought – (at 10 to) time for a Pee… So – off out the Inner Circle, and as I’m walking out – I happen to notice Kaiser Chiefs coming on Stage…. aarrgh – run!!!!
Managed to get back half way through their first song… and what a show they put on, very pleased they were supporting, Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby! I predict a Riot, lead singer even managed to do a bit of Crowd Surfing around the inner Circle – tremendous!! – I was jumping everywhere – indeed there is a YouTube video where you can see me jumping up and down!

So of course – after that – It was the main event, and oh my god what an event it was.
U2 360° Tour – In Dublin – Croke Park – Brilliant.

There’s nothing really much else that can detract from the fact that it was a truly stupendous concert.

the Videos on YouTube are amazing.

Especially this one of I still haven’t found what I’m looking for – I totally remember singing this to the Top of my voice!!!.

I’ve also got more pictures…

Kaiser Chiefs

The Crowd

The main man - Bono

Larry Mullen Jr

and yes – unfortunately at that point was when my battery started to decline – aaaaargh – blackberry madness, it was probably because I was twittering as well, darned battery – next time – note – buy another battery too…

U2 played 23 songs, only themselves on stage – no sexy dancers, only the backdrop of their massive – no – ENORMOUS stage… it was truly amazing – and to be sooo close in the Inner Circle – at their home town gig was just truly brilliant…

Sunday – bloody Sunday – in Dublin – we were going to do a bit of the touristy thing… however – that kinda got blown out the water once we got near the bars!
Guinness was the order of the day! As you can so blatantly see below:

Guinness

Guinness and Friends

Giunness

We love each other really

So – that was pretty much the weekend… Digs were good, food was good (apart from the Saturday) when all we ate was shite, Friday was Guinness and Magners Cider, Sunday was the touristy bit, (with a little drink thrown in) and then of course we had a superb Chinese as well – all in all a great weekend – it was a pity we had to get up early on the Monday to come home..

We are going to see U2 again at Hampden on the 18th of August, however – I feel that won’t live up to Dublin for some reason… and we won’t be queuing from 9am, we’ll be somewhere on the outer reaches… It will still be good though – seeing it from a different angle…

Still can’t get over how good u2 are live – especially after 30-odd years together… wow…

One Love, one Band, One Stadium, U2 / U2 / Croke Park 25th July 2009 – will be in my memory forever. brilliant.

So… Twitter has some Games, this is the first one I’ve joined, It’s called Spymaster an off-shoot website by the tweeple that bring you iList, inc.

Spymaster on Twitter

The First thing you need to do when you get signed up is choose an organisation for your Spymaster Game, is it going to be: CIA? MI6? or the FSB? Let’s look at them in more detail:

• CIA:  The Americans use their money and prestige to win over defectors, so therefore you obtain 10% more money than other starting groups.
• MI6: The British rest between the superpowers, giving them unmatched speed, so therefore you obtain 10% more energy than the others
• FSB: Russian Cold War projects and extreme physical training make the FSB strong, so therefore you get 10% more health.

Right, so that sounds reasonable…  (I choose MI6) next up is choosing your notifications… if you choose ALL the notifications:

Spymaster Notifications

• Assassinating a user
• Wiring money to another spymaster (reply)
• Securing a new Safe House
• Spymaster level increase
• Performing a task
• Failing to assassinate a user
• Depositing money in my Swiss Bank account
• Buying new items from the Black Market

if you choose them all, then you get 8% of your Total Money increased.

Then it’s Continue and Game starts….
During this process for me – someone tried to assassinate me, but failed! #spymaster – denied !! haha! (@sjalan on twitter)

Well – where to now I think….. hmm, it turns out that all of your followers are now Spies.
and it would seem that 10 of them are already playing Spymaster Game on Twitter, superb… these 10 people are called Spymasters, and my current aim is to gain more of these.
I seem to be starting on £2156.82 – Hey, at least it’s in ££’s…! (good start in my opinion)!

Anyways, my tasks : While they’ve started you with enough money to buy a knife or a vest from the Black Market, you’ll need to perform tasks to make money and progress through the levels. With the money, you can buy items on the black market for tasks or for assassination plots.. woohooo… AND: Once you have weapons, you can plot assassinations against other real spymasters in your own spy ring or in others. Attacking them will set them back and you may even have the chance to steal their assets

It of course dangles a wee carrot, – you can be “perhaps” the greatest spymaster of them all…. I wonder…

So – I need to invite people… – Join me now if you want: http://twitter.com/the_assassin
Then you need to buy stuff, of course… I bought Makarov PM, 9x18mm (as you do…) then I done my first 2 tasks..
Coerce a Mafia Boss and collected a Dead Drop… then eek……

My status gets updated on twitter… now to find out how to lose that…
Dashboard | Tasks | Assassinations | Convert Spies | Black Market | Safe Houses | Swiss Bank
Hmm, nothing strikes me as – remove status updates… aarghh.. what have I done… I’m starting to worry – as I don’t want my twitter stream to be an endless cascade of #spymaster this and #spymaster that…. however, I’ve found it – it’s down the bottom of the screen! phew – panic over…

Now… the Assassination of someone on twitter – result – congratulations, however – you only wounded them
When you click Start Assassination, you are presented with a rather funky flash type screen when you are attempting your plot, then it automatically refreshes you to your result..
In my case here it was good: – You were also able to take some of your opponent’s assets; see the overall gains and itemized gains in the rightmost column.

What next, well, it’s really just there to have a wee bit of fun…
Keep doing your tasks and your energy levels go down….
I currently only have 15 for my energy level..

And now I’ve just realised that your energy level is increased every 5 minutes…!
It looks like it’s 25 energy each 5 minutes… upto a total of 120…

To get to the next level you must gain:

• Current Experience: 74
• 46 to Next Level

So what next….

Safehouses in Spymaster

Safe Houses… superb, you can buy Safe Houses in Spymaster as well…
Ultimately they bring in funds on a regular interval, of course – associated with that is RISKS, as you can see – the lower you pay, the higher the risk of losing the income stream, the more you pay, the higher the income and the lower the risk…

Decisions Decisions Decisions

Wow – then there’s banks too, and not just any banks, SWISS Banks! – you can store your hard earned cash in these institutions, just like you would any bank, AND withdraw at any time too – which is a really cool feature.  Another feature is that you can transfer funds to someone else, and they can do the same to you – nifty…

2 Hours of playing, and I’m on level 2 now, (that was around the point when I started to realise how to play it)!

Hopefully with the help of this guide you can start playing it.
If you want to add any comments – with tips, hints, etc etc then please do so – just leave a comment, remember to put in the comment your @ twitter name so I can add you to my follows… and ring of Spies!!!

Comment below remember!