May 2015 – Page 2 – Ian Louis Harris

Ireland With Dumbo Day Seven – 13 May 2015

The sun shone on us again. Breakfast this morning was seabass, which was delightful. After making the most of that and pottering about, we didn’t set off on our circuit of the island walk to well after 12:00, which landed us on the tricky east side around 13:30. Tricky only at high tide, which the chart said was 13:42.

The guidebook suggested that it was a stroll at low tide and bit of a scramble on the rocks at high tide. But we really aren’t cut out for scrambling on slippery moss-covered rocks. Only thing for it was to wait for the tide to pull back enough for us to walk it on wet pebble/sand. I estimated a wait until 15:00/15:30, which was pretty much spot on. So for about 90 minutes it would have been possible to observe a pair of lesser spotted eejits on the east side of Inchydoney Island.

Once we got moving again it was all quite straightforward. Daisy loved looking at the herons once we got to the bay and lagoon. Rewarded ourselves with some R&R and a fine meal in the main restaurant. We shared a pulled pork salad starter, then Daisy had lamb and I had beef, both done very nicely. Daisy rounded off with an Irish coffee while I polished off the lovely Malbec wine. Super evening again.

Photographs from the whole of our trip to Ireland are gathered in an album on Flickr, click here.

Ireland With Dumbo Day Six – 12 May 2015

Another sunny day. Breakfast of Pollack – lovely.

Decided to go to Shannonvale for walk this morning, as it is very breezy on the coast. A lovely walk – then out to Roaringwater river for a long walk and sight of Jeremy Iron’s Castle, Kilcoe. Another super walk, then back just in time for Rasul Therapy, two types of Dead Sea mud, very nice. I sunbathe in the solarium after and Daisy swam.

Took dinner in the pub again. Daisy had Caesar salad and chips, I had a wonderful baked salmon and mussel sauce with smoke salmon potatoes – very pleasant evening.

Photographs from the whole of our trip to Ireland are gathered in an album on Flickr, click here.

Ireland With Dumbo Day Five – 11 May 2015

Woke up to better looking weather. Wonderful breakfast of monkfish. Following yesterday’s rain – proper wet stuff – I choose a higher head walk for the morning. Moloney’s Strands and Dunwerley. We need a mixture of satnav and Ged nav to find the place.

That combo works- it’s a lovely walk – then back to Inchydoney Island for tea and then a beach walk on the strands and dunes. It’s very windy and Daisy nearly gives up but perseveres.

Then back ready for dinner quite early – we eat in the main restaurant tonight. I have prawn bisque, Daisy has a starter of pork belly with quinoa, followed by three fishes main. I had a chicken main. Daisy had almond and Seville orange desert, I had a hazelnut desert which had walnut in the ice cream rather than the advertised hazelnut. A quick swap with many apologies. Very good meal despite Helga’s warnings.

Photographs from the whole of our trip to Ireland are gathered in an album on Flickr, click here.

Ireland With Dumbo Day Four – 10 May 2015

Not too early a start, headed off circa 10:45 after hearty breakfast. An iffy weather day. Daisy insists on continuing to do the driving so I can navigate. Good roads down to Cork/West Cork. Get some petrol at the last chance saloon on the motorway.

Get to Enniskeane and call Helga (Auberjonois), who explains that Enniskeane is her postal town, not really where she lives – perhaps she should have explained that to us earlier – but between her attempts at navigation (the hamlet name, Kilcolman, was no help for the satnav) and some common sense, we found her place soon enough.

The four photos that follow are from Janie’s iPhone while we were at Helga’s lovely place.

We spent a few hours enjoying a lovely smoked salmon lunch and then onto Inchydoney Island only 20 minutes or so further on from Kilcolman. It looks like a super place with very friendly staff. Plugged for a lighter meal in the pub of the hotel/spa, although the portion sizes were large. Daisy had an open sandwich of tiger prawns. I had “Singapore noodles” with duck confit legs and we shared a profiterole desert.

Early night.

Photographs from the whole of our trip to Ireland are gathered in an album on Flickr, click here or below:

Ireland With Dumbo Day Three – 9 May 2015

Hearty breakfast at Fitzwilliam, then off to do our own walking tour of Dublin.

First stop, the camera shop, where we got Daisy a pair of binoculars and soft case for her camera. Then on to the recommended gent shop, Louis Copeland, where Ged got himself properly togged out with trews and belts. While they were being altered, we did the rest of Grafton Street, O’Connell Street and looked at The Abbey and The Gate theatres, the cathedral and then back taking a short detour to McDaid’s for a quick drink.

We grabbed the swag and dumped it at the hotel and then out again to look at the pictures around St Stephen’s Green – Janie took to Liz Leavey’s work and indeed Liz herself. Walked to Merrion Square and then back round the other side of Trinity supping coffee outdoors in a nice place and then buying a cardy for Daisy and a scarf for Ged. We visited at the Sheridan’s cheesemongers before returning to get dressed up for the evening.

Then off to walk to Bernard & Siobhan’s house, which is in the shadow of Lansdowne Road Aviva Stadium, Vavasour Square, southeast of town out towards Sandybanks. It took about 30 minutes to walk and they seem surprised we’d walked it despite the lovely weather.

We met the little ones and then headed off in a cab for a quick pub stop almost by the Merrion, O’Donoghue’s, and then on to L’Ecrivain restaurant for a fine meal. Lobster starter (apart from Daisy who had foie gras) then main course of turbot for Ged, pork for Daisy, some other fish for Bernard, chicken for Siobhan – who also had a chocolate desert but the rest of us felt full and just finished our wine. Cabs from Baggot Street home a full but very enjoyable day.

Photographs from the whole of our trip to Ireland are gathered in an album on Flickr, click here.

Ireland With Dumbo Day Two – 8 May 2015

I’d booked the 11:50 ferry so there was no real rush to leave The Quay. We aimed for a 10:15 departure, managed 10:30 after a hearty smoked fishy breakfast.

Easy run to Holyhead though and enjoy the benefits of “club class”, being waved through onto the ferry ahead of the rest. It all seemed very well organised.

Club class threw food and drink at you, not that we needed it – note for our early morning return leg. A very gentle ride – less sway than a Palladino train – even though it was heaving with rain.

Arrived in very wet Dublin – trusty satnav taking us to the Fitzwilliam quite quickly. Surprisingly pokey room for the superior price, following a long wait for the room to be made ready – spent 1430 to 1530 chatting with Patrick the concierge. Also freezing cold room and this was explained as eco-policy to keep the heating off until 20:00 – agreed to turn it on at 18:00 and provide us with an oil radiator rather than the poxy fan heater they originally offered.

Feeling quite miserable, we ventured off in the rain to catch the Book of Kells before closing time. We wandered back via shops, Brown Thomas for example.

The radiator still hadn’t arrived by the time we got back, so I got onto the guest relations manager, Jaarko, who ran around sorting some stuff out for us and apologising profusely.

We took dinner in Citroen, the mezzanine restaurant, where the food was very good. Daisy had beef (steak-like) with the marrowbone and I had gigantic prawn skewers – no starter or desert – but Daisy had Irish coffee in the bar, while I finished off the wine. The Fitz insisted on picking up wine bill for our trouble earlier which was nice but we prefer to buy our own wine and have no trouble.

Photographs from the whole of our trip to Ireland are gathered in an album on Flickr, click here.

Ireland With Dumbo Day One – 7 May 2015

Voted this morning running into Michael Liebreich on the way (canvassing for the Tories outside the tube station) then on to the gym. Loaded up Dumbo with my things and set off to the house. Pottered about while Daisy got ready.

We set off just before 11.00 which wasn’t too bad. Straightforward drive to North Wales with pitstop and driver change over at the M6 toll service station. Daisy got the easier leg as it was heaving down with rain on the first leg.

The Quay, in Deganwy, near Conwy, is a lovely hotel and spa – by the time we settled in the sun was well and truly out so we sat on our lovely terrace. I even played my ukulele a little out there.

Took a suite so we had bags of room. Superb dinner the Quay too with a crab starter (which we shared) and both had a trio of porks (which we didn’t share) and shared a death by chocolate desert – surplus to requirements but very nice.

Photographs from the whole of our trip to Ireland are gathered in an album on Flickr, click here.

Ireland With Dumbo – 7 May to 19 May 2015 – Preamble

With my mother’s condition worsening over the autumn of 2014, we made no plans for a holiday proper but did plan at least to go walking in Ireland. After mum’s passing in early 2015, we briefly considered more ambitious plans but then thought better of it; I/we had been through enough and had lots still to sort out. The plan to walk in Ireland come springtime was still a sensible one.

Glossary for less-informed readers: Ged and Daisy are long-standing nicknames for me and Janie. Dumbo is my little Suzuki Jimny. He joined the family in September 2014; this trip to Ireland was his first serious journey with us.

Dumbo even embarked on his own writing career on this Ireland trip, guest writing for King Cricket, click here.

Photographs from the whole of our trip to Ireland are gathered in an album on Flickr, click here.

The Rump Ire Strikes Back, King Cricket Match report, Middlesex v Durham Day 3 at Lord’s, 4 May 2015

This King Cricket report was published in August 2015 – you can read it here.

It is a pretty self-explanatory piece about a bank holiday weekend visit to Lord’s by me and Janie – or should I say Ged and Daisy?

If anything ever goes awry with that King Cricket link, I have scraped the piece to here.

Of course, King Cricket match reports have strict rules: “If it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. If it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.”

As this was a quite extraordinary afternoon of cricket, you might like to look at the scorecard here. The match had ambled to lunch on the third day with only 14-15 wickets down and seemed to be heading the way of a bore draw. Then the weather turned from sunny spring sunshine to wintry gloom, the threat of rain and an early close, but not before another 14-15 wickets fell in not much more than a couple of hours. That’s cricket for you. Middlesex came out the right side of this one the next morning.

Addendum (written 8 December 2016)

I had the pleasure to witness, on the TV this morning, Keaton Jennings score a test match hundred on debut for England. A rare and happy event. That made me wonder whether I had yet seen Keaton Jennings bat live, so my thoughts turned to the day reported in this posting.

Daisy and I arrived at Lord’s soon after play resumed in the afternoon, after the lunch interval. I had the internet radio on. While Daisy was parking up on the St John’s Wood Road, just outside the ground, we heard a cheer, then a few seconds later heard the commentary describe Keaton Jennings first innings dismissal for 98.

After tea, before the rain came, we got to see all of Keaton Jennings’s second innings, including his dismissal for a sixth ball blob. Very unusual for an opening batsman to be dismissed twice in one afternoon.

Exam question for students of linguistic philosophy and amateur lovers of semantics: could/should Daisy and I claim to have witnessed both dismissals in those circumstances?

With a bit of luck, I/we will get to see Keaton Jennings score runs live soon enough.

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