Drapier: So the boys (and the girls) are back in town after the September frolics of think-ins, photo opportunities and big dinners (each course minutely written about by the media and equally minutely enjoyed).
The choice of towns and hotels accurately showed up the particular dispositions of each political party.
Fianna Fáil chose the Slieve Russell, a de luxe hostelry in deepest Cavan, so you had the flash ambience and the bucolic landscape.
Fine Gael chose Portlaoise and the Heritage Hotel, a solid town with a modern upmarket hotel, very befitting for a solid party.
Labour chose Clonmel with its Hotel Minella, again a prosperous southern town against a background of a hotel providing its traditional hospitality.
What of the PDs? They chose minimalist chic in the Merrion Hotel in Dublin, showing their traditional common sense by just crossing the road from Leinster House, but ensuring that in the Merrion they had everything they wanted to pamper the senses.
Of course, Mullingar is the chosen spot, visited twice now by Labour and Fine Gael combined. I don't know what this robust town did to ever deserve such an accolade, and whether it still regards it as an accolade is another matter.
Be that as it may, it has become the Gretna Green of a partnership in waiting.
But all the posturing and partying and parades are over and it is heads down and back to work. Drapier can tell readers that politicians of all hues are totally fed up with the depiction of them as having had three months' holidays.
Not so. The cruel proportional representation system of election means that every Oireachtas member works for his/her constituents on a daily and nightly basis all the time, whether Leinster House is sitting or not.
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The big news of the new season is of course the IRA decommissioning. A big, big story in all its ramifications. The Taoiseach is not getting the full recognition he deserves for this culmination of so many years of persistence. Indeed, years peopled by names such as Charlie Haughey, Garret FitzGerald, Albert Reynolds, John Bruton and Bertie Ahern, Martin Mansergh and the doyens of the North, such as John Hume, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Austin Currie, Peter Brooke, Paul Murphy and so many, many others.
But what about the heroes and heroines who are no longer with us? Mo Mowlam's name bestrides the political scene and always will for the fresh approach she brought to the Northern scene and her role in it as peace broker.
Her appeal faded in the eyes of Tony Blair, but she was the right person at the right time, in the right job and she worked in her own inimitable way at it. What a woman! What style and panache! She truly gave her life for Ireland because there is no doubt that the frantic pace of her work and its demands on her, physically and mentally, tore away at her already frail health.
And then the hundreds and thousands of people aimlessly killed and maimed over so many years by gunmen right across the political divide. You can fully understand the wariness of the reaction to the decommissioning - wariness born out of weariness over so many years, so many false dawns, so many tragedies, so much heartbreak.
Much credit is due to Gen John de Chastelain, to Fr Alec Reid, and to the Rev Harold Good, whose clarity of voice and opinions shone through the fog of doubt and gave so much optimism to so many.
The dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone will shine with hope this winter and onwards.
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Frenzied plans and anticipation mark the internal workings of all the political parties, as we embark on what is surely the longest run-in to any general election ever known. Each party is holding its conventions. In Fianna Fáil, well over half the constituency conventions have been held. We only read about the more interesting ones.
Health remains the burning issue for the electorate, and it will take all of Mary Harney's hard work and determination to make inroads into what is besetting our health service.
Drapier remains convinced that it is all down to numbers, which will emerge after the general election, and all the high sentiments of policymaking etc will make not a whit when the numbers roll in.
By the way, one putative likely political partnership after the next general election has not been written about much, and that is the possible alignment of Fianna Fáil and Labour.
Yes, Drapier knows that Pat Rabbitte has set his face firmly against it, but it worked before and could well work again. Watch this space.
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Political books abound and the attendant gathering of political aficionados provides great side amusement for many. We've had Ruairí Quinn's political opus Straight Left, selling well, I believe.
Padraig Faulkner's epic, As I Saw It is a good read from a solid brain. We also had Paddy Harte's rendition of his political times, and Garret's admission that he was sorry he didn't appoint him to cabinet 23 years ago. We've had Mary Minihan's Dáil Spats and more to come.
Apropos Quinn's book, there was an interesting little episode in Lombard Street recently where the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Séamus Brennan, was launching a new MABS service deep in Ruairí's constituency.
There was a civil but frosty interchange of greetings between Ruairí and Séamus. Could this have anything to do with Quinn's comments about Séamus in his book?