Killmore Quay with Ali

My last post was about when I was on my own - this one is about the together part of our trip to Kilmore Quay. And we enjoyed the battered cod so much we had it two nights running!

Salt and vinegar battered cod with chips and mushy peas

The quay

The ubiquitous cell-phone camera

entrenched at the easy end of Ballyteige Burrow

Lady Alison

  

Lady Alison

The quay to success

Tintin

Us dancing?

The harbour

Sea view from our bedroom window

Monkfish for Spain fishing vessel

Today

Today I ran around the (Kings River end of the) lake. I used to do this quite often several years back, but last year only once and this year only once so far. The lake has to be fairly low, and it needs a couple of hours of spare time. Implied is the swim across where the river enters the lake and, for me, this takes a bit of psyching myself up. But I managed it - I did not panic and I did not drown. The weather was interesting - there was rain about and several times it came down quite hard for 10 minutes or so. Which added interest, along with the mud and stones.

Back to a hot shower and cup of tea, and then Ali and I cooked fish and chips with supposedly petit pois (according to the packet) but they were quite hard work and certainly were not petit. For afters Ali had made me Blackcurrant Pie With Ice Cream and it was most excellent. Some folk here do not like blackcurrants, a position I find hard to credit as they are my favourite. But then the same people don't like gooseberries so I suppose there must be something wrong with them.

Thanks, Ali, for being so nice to me.

More running in the rain

It rained all day. Having determined to take the afternoon off, and having a fresh supply of Creme Eggs, I cycled to the Curragh again. Round trip 25.6 miles average speed 12mph. Having got there (a feat in itself in the rain) I enjoyed running barefoot on the wet, sheep-cropped grass. Strange - I saw no other pedestrians.

This is my track whilst running. A mere 6.37 miles, average speed 5.7mph. Starting at lower right my path went clockwise - at the furthest extent to the left (west) is the hill on which a battle is waged in Brave Heart.

New platform for viewing the Liffey at Ballymore Eustace

I took the following pictures around the top-most part of my track - they bring back happy memories of numerous sorties with a trailer carrying my son's various scrambling inventions...

Monument at Donnelly's Hollow

Curragh grave-yard

Here be where JM rode his machines!

and here

And finally back to my bike for a well-earned Creme Egg and drink of water. At this point leg cramp was setting in - on which account I had to stop several times on the return journey.

My trusty bike awaits me

Home again. Fried sliced new potatoes and cod served with peas and crusty bread, followed by brownie with ice-cream and pouring cream. And a can of cider. Thanks Ali!

Song of Albion and Sushi

When I started my Song of Albion series on music I thought I would keep posting on the subject - I have plenty more material - and perhaps I will sometime - but I have kind of run out of steam because, well let me explain the connection with sushi.

The idea of eating cold raw fish has never appealed to me so sushi would not be something I would choose. Any more than jellied eels or cold borscht. Give me fish and chips or cheese on toast or a bacon butty any day. But yesterday my daughter invited me to her home-brew sushi party and kindly assured me she had prepared sushi made with chicken to soften my experience. I had no problem with the seaweed or the special sushi rice - the taste was OK - but everything on my plate was so cold and clammy. And why spend all that time chopping stuff up small and packing it into strange cylindrical shapes? I don't get it. And yet the rest of the party apparently enjoyed their raw fish versions. And other folk across the globe apparently enjoy the sushi experience. So either they are all putting on a show or else I am weird.

And if I am weird (by which I mean having very peculiar tastes) then what is the good of me making any comment whatsoever on a subject like music which is so subjective?

When I'm 64

Technically only 59.99 but an early surprise birthday dinner this evening because we are going away tomorrow. It is both scary and very strange to contemplate "I am 60" (or almost). Do I feel different? Yes, and no. Should I be different? Probably the same answer. 

Nice touch with the train. Even nicer with the golden syrup (how DO they survive, those people in the USA, without this magical substance?).

And afterwards some people said some nice things, and thankfully left out the bad things that they could have said. And a gift to buy myself a new bicycle...

Wow - thank you, everybody! I did not expect it, I did not know how to react, did not know what to say, etc, etc.

Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four?