Ireland day 0133. Tuesday 08 February 2022- Integration

Ireland day 0133. Tuesday 08 February 2022- Integration
Today’s summary Arranged private healthcare insurance and flat contents insurance in the morning.   Dodged the damp weather in the greenhouses at Malahide Castle Gardens in the afternoon.   Spanish in the evening
Today’s weather Heavy cloud and drizzle all day.   No wind and no sun.  About 11C
Today’s overview location
(the red cross in a circle shows where Val and I are at the moment)
Close-up location
(Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected):
Rain demesne and butterflies
Commentary

From time to time, ever since we arrived in Ireland, people have been asking us “have you arranged private health insurance yet?”.   Our answer so far has always been “no” – partly because we just never got round to it, partly because I am hoping we don’t need it (and didn’t want to tempt fate) and partly because you do get emergency treatment here anyway if something drastic happens to you.   Anyway after a bit of discussion, finally we decided today that we better bite the bullet and get something sorted out.

After a bit of googling, I managed to find a website that compared the various options and eventually selected one that covers the basics like X-rays and simple hospital costs and which didn’t cost the earth (in case you were wondering, it came to €1100 p.a. for the two of us which, considering how much friends in Australia and the US are paying, seemed reasonable value).   Hopefully we will never need it but its better to be safe than sorry, as they say.

By that stage I was on a bit of a roll and decided that I had better also arrange insurance for the contents of our flat.   In all honesty we haven’t got very much here but if we had to cough up for new laptops or something in the event of a flood, it would be a bit painful.   So that was duly fixed as well.   So now we are a bit better “integrated” into Irish living, and don’t have to worry so much about getting ill in a foreign country, or dealing with the consequences of a mishap in the flat.

That took all morning, which seemed like a good use of time as Val had a couple of phone calls to make and it was raining outside, so there weren’t any competing demands on the time.  But by the afternoon, we were both feeling a bit cooped-up, so we decided to don waterproofs and make use of our Castle membership, and go and pretend we were in the Mediterranean for a few minutes, by retreating to the greenhouses in the Castle gardens, across the road.

In a way, the weather worked to our advantage.   The dreary conditions had successfully deterred all other visitors so, apart from one rather bedraggled gardener, we had the whole of the grounds completely to ourselves.   That meant we could linger in the greenhouses as long as we liked without bothering everyone.   Though -tempting as it seemed – I did draw the line at getting the trusty Thermos out and having an impromptu tea party in the temperate house.

So it was a relatively quiet – though satisfyingly productive – day today.   But I’m going to pull this to a close now as I have to leave for Spanish in ten minutes and I am still not completely certain I properly understand the two forms of “to be” in Spanish.   Still, at least it’s not as hard as the language Val is learning – I am sure that there are five or six different forms in Irish, which would be well beyond my capabilities.

Hasta mañana!

 

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)

I really liked the sunny Mediterranean red of this bright sage flower in the butterfly house One of the (ex) residents of the Butterfly house – this one had died and dried out in a perfect facsimile of life (but the ones in the featured mage at the top are real, and alive!)
Chrysalises presumably ready to pop out fully formed butterflies in the near future
(By the way I learned that a “pupa” is a general name which can be applied to the transformation stage between the larva and the adult in either a moth or a butterfly, whereas “chrysalis” can only be applied to the transformation stage of a butterfly|).
Well if only I’d know.  An orange bush fruiting in the temperate house!   I am sure they would make delicious marmalade, the only problem being that there is only one of it
Thunbergia mysorensis vine in spectacular full bloom in one of the greenhouses.   It’s also sometimes known as Lady Shoe flower I think this is an unusual example of a red Lantana (they are usually yellow).   You can easily identify them because they smell of cat’s pee
Here we are again, foraging our way through the castle gardens
Interactive map

(Elevations corrected at  GPS Visualizer: Assign DEM elevation data to coordinates )

Total distance: 5361 m
Max elevation: 28 m
Min elevation: 9 m
Total climbing: 89 m
Total descent: -88 m
Total time: 01:53:00
Download file: Potter Round The Castle Gardens corrected.gpx

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