Category: Travel

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.

Which way is the sea?
Which way is the sea?

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

Our Terrace at the Fitzwilliam
Our Terrace at the Fitzwilliam

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:

001 The Quay, near Conwy, North Wales P1020924

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.

Trying to look a bit James Joyce?
Trying to look a bit James Joyce?

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.

All aboard!
All aboard!

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.

The view from our terrace
The view from our terrace

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.

IMG_0159

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.

A Short Break in Oman, Zighy Bay, 1 to 12 March 2014

We needed 10 days of complete rest and relaxation, so opted for Zighy Bay at the North-West tip of Oman. So “tippy”, it is actually much closer to Dubai than to Muscat, hence flying in to the Emirates and driving across to Zighy Bay.

Mike Smith had persuaded me to try playing the baritone ukulele a few weeks before and lent me such an instrument. I said I would get no chance to start before my holiday and was reluctant to take his instrument with me, but Mike assured me that he would not be fazed if anything happened to it. So I basically took up the instrument out there. Baby steps.

I didn’t keep any kind of written log, so spaced out were we with the pampering luxury of it all, but there are about 50 photos to be seen here or below…

01 Ged Swimming In Our Villa Pool P1010023

…and Janie (Daisy) was on a bit of a moving picture fix at that time, so some pretty weird vids:

In case you remain unaware, I am Ged and Janie is Daisy – these have been our pet names for each other since 1993.

The Origins Of Ged & Daisy, Bali, c10 December 1993

Itinerary and info on Zighy Bay downloadable below.

Wormleighton – 01 Mar 14 – Itinerary

Six Senses Zighy Bay – Fact Sheet

I’m not too sure what else I can say about this blissfully restful break.

We loved the place.

We played tennis pretty much every day. We swam in that little pool of ours. We took strolls.

We read quite a lot. I especially remember reading Joe Boyd’s book White Bicycles, but I read several others too. Perhaps you can spot the book pile in one of the videos.

I played around with that musical instrument, very early steps down that road.

We ate wonderful food. We locked away our mobile phones and pretty much didn’t look at them for 10 days.

We rested well.

Malawi, 27 September to 15 October 2013, placeholder/links

We had a wonderful trip to Malawi in the early autumn of 2013.

As usual, we took loads of pictures and my log runs to 28 pages of notes.

The best of the pictures, about 250 of them, are gathered into two Flickr albums:

Just outside Balaka we see Chewa Gulu Wamkulu folk on their way to a funeral
Just outside Balaka we see Chewa Gulu Wamkulu folk on their way to a funeral

I have now turned the notes into legible, structured blog stories and postings, starting with this one:

Malawi Journey Day Zero: Slipping Up & Leaving Home, 27 September 2013

But if anyone is really so interested they want to try and decipher my scrawl and check that I have really typed up what I might have really be trying to say, here are scans of the hand-written logs; Part One covers the period of the first photo album, Part Two…:

Malawi Write Up Part One of Two pp1-15 at 200dpib&w

Malawi Write Up Part Two of Two pp15-28 at 200dpib&w

…or perhaps a more legible source; the itinerary from our agent, Ultimate Travel, which describes the planned trip, rather than the actuality of it:

Harris and Wormleighton – Malawi Final Itinerary

I did review also the places we stayed on Trip Advisor:

Malawi FactsHuntington To Tea TastingHuntington Walk RouteLikoma Island Map

Homeward Bound From Likoma Island, Malawi, 14 October 2013


Click here or below for a placeholder with links to the photographs, itineraries and even (if you dare) scans of the hand-written journals from our amazing journey to Malawi.

Malawi, 27 September to 15 October 2013, placeholder/links
If you prefer to read the typed up journals illustrated with pictures, these are going up during November & December 2020

Rose early. Read, packed, took tea/coffee, showered and took breakfast.

Finish packing – said our fond farewells to all at Kaya Mawa.

McDonald took us to the airport where Cameron awaited us with just one other couple & the small plane, a Cessna Six (just about) seater. Nice couple Tom and Nicole have been in Zambia Mozambique. We should be travelling with them all the way to London I suspect but fortunately they are not like the Taylors.

Nicole scrunches into the back after long-legged Tom takes the front seat and we take the pair. We fly low and smoothly – Daisy takes pictures as does Tom.

It’s a bit bumpy on final descent (we had been warned) .

We have no formalities at the other end, as we’ve already cleared into Malawi, while the other two need to go through customs and border control. Meanwhile we collect our bags and are ably assisted through to immigration by our eager Wilderness rep, for whom a $5 tip seem to be transformative.

Security formalities at Lilongwe was a sticky affair but this time our SAA flight seems to be an on-time thing.

That’s all he wrote, folks.

Our Final Full Day At Kaya Mawa, Likoma Island, Malawi, 13 October 2013


Click here or below for a placeholder with links to the photographs, itineraries and even (if you dare) scans of the hand-written journals from our amazing journey to Malawi.

Malawi, 27 September to 15 October 2013, placeholder/links
If you prefer to read the typed up journals illustrated with pictures, these are going up during November & December 2020

Rose early – Martin brought his coffee at 6:15 and said goodbye to us.

Daisy watershed at seven under the very patient tutelage of Josh. She tried many many times (I didn’t count but guess 15 times) the antepenultimate go nearly worked, the penultimate one was yet another epic fail but the last go, albeit just a few seconds much of the pleasure of the English (Cornish) couple I was chatting with by that time…and it transpired most of the other Kaya Mawa guests who was spectating from the comfort of their rooms. Daisy reckons she’s got the idea of waterskiing out of her system now.

Back to the room for shower and then down to breakfast. After breakfast we read a while, observing that the water remain calm and the day quite cloudy – so we went down to snorkel c11:15 and snorkelled from the other beach to the main beach via the small island the latter of which seem to be the best source of diverse fish colours and species.

Time to make tea and read some more before lunch.

Then lunch comprising a butternut squash and was with soda bread and seed bun (of which we ate little) followed by a very tasty chicken salad with honey coconut pesto thing.

Michelle presented Daisy with her headbands, which pleased her a lot, plus some small gift bags.

Plenty of time for more reading and enjoying the hazy afternoon on our decks before a sundowner and get ready for the evening.

Then down for an early evening drink – Michelle and Richard join us for quite a while.

Then dinner of poached pear, parmesan & bacon. Then a chicken curry kebab style (I’m sure Richard had promised fish) followed by the bread-and-butter pudding slightly different style but especially good with coconut ice cream. We drank the delightful Chardonnay/ Pinot Noir blend we have enjoyed a few times.

Early night.

Our guard frog was too upset that we are leaving even to come and see us that night.