At Stormont, the past week has felt unmistakably like the morning after the party the night before.
The excitement and the packed benches which were a feature of the on-again off-again election of David Trimble and Mark Durkan gave way to a more sober reality.
When I sat in the assembly gallery to watch part of a debate on the executive's programme for government, only about a dozen of the 108 assembly members were bothering to attend.
Budgets and targets are the stuff of bread and butter politics, but they do not stir the soul.
Still, like the crisps ground into the sitting room carpet after your party is over, there were unmistakable memories of more boisterous times.
When Women's Coalition member Jane Morrice suggested to the assembly speaker that he could devise some kind of recreational play activities for the legislators, Lord Alderdice quickly interjected that this might not be wise given the antics which Stormont had so recently witnessed.
Away from the Stormont Chamber and Great Hall, meetings redolent with symbolism took place.
With the cross-border ban banished, Sinn Fein's Bairbre de Brun, the health minister, met her southern counterpart Micheal Martin.
The Deputy First Minister, Mark Durkan, met Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern.
Mr Trimble and Mr Durkan met the Queen, with Mr Durkan predicting that Sinn Fein would follow suit whenever a royal visit to Dublin could be arranged.
Meanwhile, the Ulster Unionists met to discuss, oh yes, the old chestnut which still will not fall off the tree, IRA decommissioning.
'Tougher conditions'
The unionist annual conference at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast was - in comparison to the SDLP's gathering - a flat, sparsely attended occasion.
Perhaps that was because Ulster Unionist members are biding their time for a more crucial council meeting which is due to be convened on 1 December.
The council will once again debate the disarmament issue with sceptics demanding tougher conditions for unionists staying in government with Sinn Fein.
At the party conference, a degree of unity was achieved around the call for the new emergency laws introduced by the home secretary to deal with international terrorism to be extended to cover Northern Ireland's paramilitaries.
But aside from that, the Ulster Unionist conference looked like two separate meetings - one of Trimble loyalists, the other of the sceptical ginger group within the party.
Mr Trimble's supporters say they do not fear a meeting of the 900-strong council, as the leader will enjoy an increased level of support after the start of IRA decommissioning.
The sceptics ask why, if the Trimble camp is not scared, have they worked so hard to prevent a council meeting, representative of the party's grassroots, taking place?
So the annual conference was just a warm up - the real battle over guns and government will be on 1 December.