Ireland day 0225. Wednesday 11 May 2022- Pool

Today’s summary	Originally intended to go up to the Cooleys to recce Saturday’s walk but ended up faffing around to get credit card sorted out. Eventually managed it and congratulated myself with a swim (pool). Val at work
Today’s weather	Mostly sunny and dry with blue skies and billowy white clouds. Light shower in the afternoon. Moderate westerly wind. Appx 16C

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The orange 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): Portmarnock pool circular walk

Commentary

Val was back at work bright and early this morning so I started the day with a video call to a friend back in London – very enjoyable, as always. I always look forward to these catch-ups; they make me feel less distant from my friends. As we go through the process of settling in here in Ireland, it’s reassuring to have some familiar links to hold on to.

My plan once the call was finished had been to head up north to the hills to do a final recce for the walk I’m leading on Saturday. But I remembered that yesterday my joy at getting a credit card had been a bit tempered by the fact that it didn’t work, and I knew that it would be a source of continued irritation until I got it sorted out. So I put the recce aside for a day and debated picking up the phone to the bank to start the process of fixing the card. But at that point, the sun, which had up till then been hiding behind a bank of cloud, came out and the whole emerald day was flooded with sunlight.

It was altogether too dispiriting to contemplate hanging around inside for ages with my phone on hold to the bank, so I postponed that delight until the afternoon and decided to walk down to the swimming pool in Portmarnock instead. It was a real delight to be out on day like today. Bright and breezy, not too cold, and with limpid clear sky meaning that from up at the top of the hill, you could see for huge distances in every direction. The Sugarloaf looked as it was practically within touching distance.

The pool itself was good – although it’s always a bit of an expensive day out as I usually feel the need to undo all the good work from ploughing up and down the pool, by having an unnecessary and pricey, but enjoyable, coffee and croissant from the café afterwards. I took the refreshments outside, and supplemented them with my packed lunch, then moved off east together with my self-satisfied glow of achievement, to the coast at the Velvet Strand. Once again, the beach was looking amazing, shimmering over its vast intertidal zones, and almost beckoning swimmers. But I wasn’t tempted.

After admiring the view for a few moments, I made my way back up the coast to the flat and the awaiting credit card. Eventually I did manage to sort it out, you will be relieved to learn, but only after an hour or so on hold and after speaking to three different operators. Nobody was able to explain to me exactly why it hadn’t worked earlier – one person I spoke to told me there had been a “fraudulent transaction” which was a bit odd as the card was still locked at the time and there were no transactions at all on it. Anyway, it did all get sorted out, eventually, so I whizzed off to the shops to try it out – returning triumphantly with a box of staples and two packets of crisps to show for my efforts. Hurrah for technology.

Well that’s it for today, I think. A bit of a low-key day but with a major success on the credit card to notch up, as well as a 1000 metre swim successfully survived, I actually feel quite good about it. Now it’s time to make dinner. I think we will have bacon, poached eggs, a side salad and maybe some baked beans. Mmmm

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Val’s office this morning – the model railway museum. It would be hard to imagine a more perfect place to work	The Velvet Strand – looking perfect today. The sea almost looked inviting though for the time being I will definitely stick to the pool

*Down on the coast path back to Malahide, by the Martello tower. Brilliant yellow birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) in the foreground*	A garden escape – pink sorrel (Oxalis articulata) – growing in abundance almost on the shoreline. Apparently it was originally introduced to Europe from South America but since then it appears to have gone native

Vast sand-flats at low tide this afternoon. Ever-present Lambay Island making itself visible on the horizon	The heavens opened on Malahide just before I got there. Fortunately it had passed by the time I passed through, but in the meantime the curtains of rain made for an effective backdrop to the photo.

At the Portmarnock Sports and Leisure Centre. Sadly the café upstairs is closed but fortunately the stand in the reception does takeaway coffee and croissants which just have to be enjoyed on the sunny patio at the front instead. Shame.