Ireland day 1527. Wednesday 03 December 2025- Ill and Grumpy

Today’s summary	Woke up after a poor nights sleep feeling ill, tired and grumpy. Spent much of the morning dashing around trying to sort out a Government mistake with some of my paperwork. But had a good video catch up later with a friend in Lancaster, UK, which cheered me up. Then went on a walk round the Demesne to get some fresh air. Had some soup for dinner and a quiet evening.
Today’s weather	Cool sunny and dry. Light south westerly wind. Appx 8c.

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): Ill and Grumpy

Commentary

Ugh! That was what I thought when I woke up this morning. I seem to have picked up some sort of a bug, which kept me awake most of the night with a sore throat, so as well as feeling sub-par, I was also very tired. Still I did put the lengthy hours of wakefulness to good use and finished reading my book. It was quite interesting but not perhaps as insightful as I’d hoped.

My mood wasn’t helped by the fact that yesterday evening I found out that the Government had mucked up some important paperwork that they are working on for me. So I spent the first couple of hours this morning on the phone trying to sort it out and then going to the An Post. Very frustrating.

Once that irritation was dealt with, I dialled in to a video call with a friend in Lancaster, UK. We had a good chat about the rights and wrongs of the 21st century, and I felt a bit better for having got that out of my system. I’m not sure my friend did, though!

After that, I was gasping for some fresh air. So I got my jacket and trainers on, and made a bee-line for the Demesne. I had a very gentle clockwise saunter round the perimeter, which was both relaxing and refreshing. It was good at the time, though I must admit I didn’t feel any different afterwards. After the circuit, I tacked on an extra bit to go down to Tesco. I needed some soup (that and a packet of crisps are all I feel like eating today) and some milk.

Back once more in the flat, I had an electrolyte drink – I believe it’s important to stay hydrated and isotonic when you’re blowing your nose the whole time. Then I started work on Christmas cards.

That took me about an hour by which time it was getting dark outside. And that brings us more or less bang up to date. I’m going to sign out now, and think about heating up the soup. I expect to spend the evening indoors taking it easy, and perhaps also I’ll use the time to identify something to read, in the event that I’m awake all night again. Hopefully I’ll be a bit better tomorrow.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Airport terminals and control tower just visible on the western horizon, above the boules pitches	Malahide Castle – serene as ever, basking in the autumn sunshine

Tree-fern Avenue. I’m surprised that the gardeners haven’t winterised their crowns with fleece, yet. Perhaps no sufficiently cold nights are in store	A tanker lorry arrived at the Casino Museum just as I walked past. Fuel for the heating, perhaps (though I had thought it was all-electric heat pumps)



A little early glimpse of Christmas