Ireland day 0024. Friday 22 October 2021- Keys!

Today’s summary	Drove down to Malahide at lunchtime to pick up keys for the new apartment.  Once contracts were signed, meters read and utilities organised, we had lunch in flat then went to Lidl on return to Ardcath
Today’s weather	Dry and overcast all day.   No wind.   About 13C
Today’s overview location (the red cross in a circle shows where Val and I are at the moment)			Close-up location

Commentary

We have fallen into a pretty comfortable routine here in Ireland over the last few weeks.  Chores and admin in the morning, a walk or a visit in the afternoon, then firelighting, dinner, maybe a visit to the pub and certainly a glass or red wine or two, and a couple of books in the evening.   But today it was different.   Our main – in fact only – objective was to sign contracts and become the new tenants of a flat in Malahide.   We won’t be moving in immediately as we still have a few days left on the AirBnB we are in here at Ardcath, but expect to be fully relocated by next Wednesday.

So we duly arrived at the block of flats (called the Casino, by the way, in case you were wondering – though I have no idea why) early this afternoon, signed contracts and were handed the keys.   After mundanities like reading the meters and agreeing the inventory, suddenly, for the first time since Summerhall Square in Edinburgh 41 years ago, we became tenants.   It’s quite liberating, actually, not being responsible for anything.   If something breaks, you don’t have to get the toolkit out, you just call the landlord.   And as we are only on a 30 day rolling contract, if we don’t like it we can always just give in our notice.

The rest of the afternoon was spent sorting out essential utilities – gas, electricity and broadband – and unloading the first batch of our possessions.

The flat itself seems huge compared to the cottage at Ardcath.   It’s clean and modern, and has the luxury of a spare bedroom.   It’s right above Malahide station which is great for rail enthusiasts and it will certainly make getting out and about – particularly into Dublin a lot easier.   Out here in Ardcath, it’s utterly quiet and very rural, so it will take some getting used to living cheek-by-jowl with people again, in a buzzy spot like Malahide.   But we are really looking forward to it – more space, time to settle down somewhere and to properly unpack.

We didn’t really have time or inclination to go sightseeing or hiking afterwards, so we consoled ourselves with a trip to Lidl then returned to Ardcath after dark.   Tomorrow we join the Boyne Valley Walking Group for a hike round Beaulieu House, which promises to be interesting but does require a much earlier start than we have been used to recently.   Off to make the sandwiches now!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)

This is another shot of the the interior of our cottage at Ardcath.   It’s lovely, but tiny.	This is the view from our new flat at the Casino (not a real casino, I hasten to add – just the name of a block of flats) in Malahide.   The railway station is the sloped roof in the background.  About 50 metres away!
Here we are, admiring the view	Essential shopping in Lidl on the way back to Ardcath this evening
Proud new tenants.   I don’t know what we will do with all this space!

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