News with Pictures in Day to Day

Much has been happening in my life since I last wrote. Firstly, we spent a week in Ireland. I have never been to Ireland before. We had good weather and packed a lot in to just 5 days. Well actually 6 days in the end, but more about that in a minute. We rented a little thatched cottage in County Wexford, which is in the bottom right-hand corner of Ireland. It was just a few hundred meters from the beach and it was in the middle of nowhere, which was nice.

I decided to take the car on the ferry which meant we could bring as much crap as we wanted, and we have quite a big car so we could also fit my father in law and sister in law in too. It was a good idea because it meant we could travel around and see all sorts of things. We visited two castles, a museum of Irish agriculture, the oldest working lighthouse in Ireland, and we even drove up the coast and spent a day in Dublin.

Dublin was really good actually because we got to tour the Guinness factory and Trinity College Library, where we saw the Book of Kells.

The weather was good enough to go in the sea a couple of times, but by the end of the week it was not so good and our ferry crossing was cancelled. Now I know things like this can’t be helped, but it turns out Direct Ferries were about as unfriendly and unhelpful as they possibly could have been over the affair.

We got a text message saying the boat was cancelled about 10 hours before we were due to leave. No apology, no compensation, no offer of help. Just a phone number that wouldn’t connect. The house was not available to rent for the extra day, so we had to find a hotel for the night. It all turned out OK in the end, but I for one won’t be using Direct Ferries again.

On a positive note, we did have a wonderful few days in Ireland and the Irish people are honestly the nicest people in the whole wide world.

Now, what else, I am currently building a ukulele. This is quite a big project. I bought a kit of parts thinking I just needed to bold them together, but in fact it requires quite a bit of research and woodwork skill. I will be proud of myself if it works out well.

I know, bad picture, I will make a better picture sometime when it’s not the middle of the night. You get the idea.

The boy goes back to school next week. I spent all yesterday chasing round shops buying clothes and shoes for him. Also bought him football boots which somehow we managed to lose somewhere in the town centre. I did feel sorry for him. And indeed sorry for myself since I am going to have to fork out for a replacement pair.

We also went to Devon on Friday night to see mother. I thought the traffic would be awful but in fact it wasn’t. I think I’ve fixed her internet connection problem, and we had a good BBQ there before leaving on Sunday. She finally has a date for her eye operation - Yay!

Nudie night at the swimming pool was cancelled on Saturday so I didn’t even miss that when I was in Devon, Yay again!

I’m writing this at work. The new regime has tied down internet access and we can’t use anything even vaguely entertaining. It’s quite horrendous. I don’t know what to do with myself. Thus I am writing this well overdue diary entry. I will add pictures and publish this evening.

See you in Valhalla mortals!

Last updated September 01, 2016