I spent the last week in my hometown of Dublin. Actually as im writing this I am sitting on the Johnny Swift to Holyhead, its funny you'd swear im on Polish Ferries, not sure if there is any Irish working on board...anyway, she's flying along and as I look back, Dublin is now a little dot!

Its always a bit hard to leave home, I could always spend longer. The week has gone quick, I try to pack in as much as I can, meeting friends, family and also catching up with sponsors.... and of course throw in a few nights out, a few hangovers too!!

Times are changing though and the nights out are getting less and less when I get home. Im always raring to go, but there is a baby boom, and the lads are all settling down with the sound of little feet! The other half of the gang is down in Australia having a laugh. So this years trip home on my off-season was a little less manic then years before, but it was great to see everyone in good spirits.

I also did two TV appearances with Setanta during the week, always good to try keep the profile up. I did a live sports talk show on Friday night along side PJ Gallagher and Neil Francis. I will admit, I was a bit nervous, usually im ok due to the fact that its all about athletics but this show was about all sport and it was a relaxed approach. Also was the fact that I was sitting beside a comedian, he was going to be funny and I was going to try to be funny, but thought id end up looking like a tit!!

All in all, I think it went well, once I got talking I felt at ease and really enjoyed it.

The following night I was out and a lad came up to me and "saw ya on the tele last night, you were good, but you wearing the same shirt, ya smelly shite!" All I could do was laugh, he was right, my thinking was I only wore the shirt for an hour sure it'll be grand, ill get another night out of it...think I need a new wardrobe.

The other interview I did was just about my athletic career; how I got into athletics and of course the highs and low of it all. Sometimes its good to look back at everything, you can easily forget about the good times over the year and indeed why you love what you do!

As I said I met with my sponsors, Adidas, Sean White (FESP), Openet Technologies and of course The Irish sports council. With the disappointment of not medaling in the Europeans, you can easily feel that you have let down people and of course the media can be harsh, it doesn't help, but all the people I met over the week were so proud of me and still believe in me. You realize that the people who are negative are just a small minority!!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Padraig O'Ceidigh, who is a very inspirational person and someone who is always good company putting the world to rights!!

So that was my week back in the fair city, not sure when Ill be back again probably Christmas, but even with all the negativity about the economy etc, there is still a great buzz in the city, and that is hard find anywhere else.