Ireland day 0309. Wednesday 03 August 2022- UKSummer2207

Today’s summary	Met up with a friend for coffee in Bucks in the morning then travelled to Gatwick for evening flight back to Dublin. Arrived at the airport three hours early!
Today’s weather	Dry and bright with some sun. Light southwesterly breeze. Appx 26C

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (No GPX today)

Commentary

The main purpose of our trip to the UK was the family event on Saturday, but a slightly unexpected spin off has been the opportunity to catch up with friends here on the other side of the Irish Sea. So as well as Saturday’s party, I’ve been able to meet another seven groups of friends who I haven’t seen for a while. The last piece in the jigsaw was today, when I met a longstanding friend from out in Buckinghamshire for coffee. So much news to catch up on and reflections on the year to be shared. Very enjoyable, and the time just flew by.

Anyway, after an improvised lunch I thought, having been exposed to continuous dire warnings about train, airport and flight chaos, I had better make an early start to Gatwick. But just as on the way out last week, all went smoothly so I arrived way too early (three hours to be precise) at Gatwick. There’s only so much enjoyment to be had in a departure hall surrounded by screaming children and people talking endlessly on their phones, and such enjoyment as there is I think I had had within five minutes.

So its so far so good – the flight at the moment appears to be on time but there’s still two hours to go, so plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong! (As a footnote – the flight was eventually an hour and a half late – so I had a full four and a half hours to enjoy the delights of Gatwick Airport. Still, at least I got to finish off my book on the curious demise of Maria Kirwan on Ireland’s Eye in 1852. A fascinating tale). And it was raining when I arrived back in Dublin. That’s why it’s the Emerald Isle!

Back into the swing of things again tomorrow, when normal service will be resumed.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


These vans turned up this morning	I asked – and they are installing full fibre broadband. Should be available in this part of Bucks later in 2022.

Quick flit across London via various tube lines. Part 3 of the journey involved the Victoria Line	These places always greet you at the airport with an overpowering smell of perfume mixed with alcohol. Generally horrible, but it does at least make you think that you that you might be going on holiday

Yep. Three hours early. So much for transport delays and never ending queues at security. I was through in less than ten minutes.	Trusty Airbus to bring me back to the Emerald Isle this evening.

Slowly getting used to my haircut. But just spotted that I need to chuck the t-shirt away! Those holes in the collar weren’t there last time I looked!