Ireland day 1519. Tuesday 25 November 2025- Backup

Today’s summary	Had a quick videocall with Val in London first thing, then took delivery of a new memory card and started backing up the old PC. Made sandwiches and walked out to Portmarnock in the afternoon. Had packed lunch on the beach. On return, finished off PC backup, had spaghetti pop-pop dinner, and watched half of a James Bond film.
Today’s weather	Bright cool dry and sunny. Light north easterly breeze. Appx 7c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where I walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Hill Coast and Lunch

Commentary

I had a very low key day today. It started with a quick video call with Val, who was in London this morning, prior to her Vancouver flight later this afternoon. It was good to catch up – even though it’s only 24 hours since she left!

I was just starting to get ready to go out when the doorbell rang. It was the Amazon man with my new memory card, ready for backing up my old PC. I only ordered it yesterday so it arrived remarkably fast. I was also fascinated by how small it was. About a quarter the size of a postage stamp, and not much thicker. Yet it had a capacity of 2 terabytes- an almost unimaginably huge amount of data. About enough to hold a million iPhone photos.

So I altered my plans slightly, and set the computer off copying data from its hard drive and onto the new memory card. The main problem with the new memory card being so small will be in making sure I don’t lose it. I’ll probably just tape it to the back of my laptop until I can come up with a more permanent solution.

While I was on a roll, I thought I might as well tackle another file of paperwork, to see if there was anything I could get rid of. Unfortunately though it was the tax folder and my eyes started to glaze over as soon as I opened it. So I abandoned that effort for the time being.

By this stage I couldn’t bear being inside any longer. It was a beautiful sunny day outdoors so I thought I better go out and enjoy it before I turned into a pallid mushroom from lack of sunshine. Being a bit devoid of imagination today, I thought I’d do our favourite “Hill and Coast” walk. First though I made a couple of sandwiches (smoked salmon, no less!) and grabbed a Kit Kat, all of which I crammed into my day-sack.

I found some shoes from my extensive collection – but as they aren’t a very comfortable pair, I put in extra sorbothane insoles that I happened to have lying round spare, to see if that would make them easier on the feet. Then I set off across the road and into the Demesne for the first part of my walk. Over Paddy’s Hill and then down to Portmarnock.

Once at the coast, I dropped into the Spar shop to get a cup of tea, before making my way across to the beach. I found a sunny spot out of the wind and enjoyed my posh sandwiches and tea. Very civilised. There were quite a few people out in the sea, which looked very cold and not at all civilised. Sooner them than me.

After lunch, I walked back along the coast to Malahide – feeling a bit smug that the new insoles had indeed made the shoes a lot pleasanter to walk in. When you’ve got metal hips like I have, these things really do matter.

I dropped into the shops as I passed through the town – but sadly no bargains were in evidence. Which is a shame as I think I shall be in need of a few pop pop meals to sustain me while Val is away! Maybe I’ll take a walk down to Tesco later in the evening to see if anything has appeared in the discounted section of the fridge.

Meanwhile, back in the flat, I continued with the data backup – which I suspect may take some time as there is such a lot of it. Then I defrosted a pop-pop spag bol which I plan to have with a glass of red wine later on while watching TV. After all, we all need an occasional treat.

Talking of the TV, last night I started watching an old James Bond film (no surprise there!) but gave up half way through. Amazon seem to have edited some of these free films so heavily they no longer make sense. I was trying to watch “You Only Live Twice” but it was so full of non sequiturs that I struggled to follow what was going on. The same happened with “Diamonds are Forever” which I watched with similar disappointment a few weeks ago. Anyway, I will plough on with it tonight and see how I get on.

But for now, the microwave beckons!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


The “polystyrene” houses on Seamount Road are slowly taking shape. I still don’t really know how robust they will actually be	*Professor Google tells me these are probably Viburnum × bodnantense* ‘Dawn’ flowers. I really like them for their strong scent, which seems to last even through the coldest winter months**

Looking back onto Portmarnock beach, with Howth to the left	Huge piles of dead marine debris – seaweed, shellfish and miscellaneous rubbish – still accumulating on Malahide beach two weeks after Claudia wreaked havoc. Her evidence is going to take a long time to disappear

Portmarnock Martello – the renovations must be nearing completion now as the scaffolding is slowly being dismantled. It doesn’t look much changed from the outside – maybe all the building works are internal	Malahide Martello – converted into a house many decades ago. The jury’s out in my mind as to whether it was a success

Sylvan serenity in the Demesne