Ireland day 0561. Wednesday 12 April 2023- Tadg Riordan *

Ireland day 0561. Wednesday 12 April 2023- Tadg Riordan

Today’s summary	Got the car serviced and a rear wheel bearing fixed at Tadg Riordan in Ashbourne. The n drove over to the airport in the evening to pick up family who are coming to stay with us for a few days
Today’s weather	Cold grey and windy, mostly dry in the morning but heavy rain from mid afternoon onwards. Strong to gale force north westerly wind. Appx 6C

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

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

Val was back to work again today and most of my day was taken up with dealing with the car. We have done 16,000km since we bought it in February last year, and so I’d booked it in for a full service. Also, recently there’s been a bit of noise from the rear axle so I suspect a wheel bearing was on the way out.

So this morning, I celebrated six weeks from my operation – and being allowed to drive again – by taking the car over to the Tadg Riordan Toyota garage in Ashbourne, where we had originally bought it, for its service. A test drive with an engineer confirmed my worst fear – a rear bearing had failed and had to be replaced at a cost of €450. Gulp. Anyway, as it was going to take quite a time to fix, I elected to come back to Malahide for lunch and to do a bit of shopping – a journey which isn’t as simple as it sounds as it involved taking a bus to the centre of Dublin then a train back.

Anyway, I got back to Malahide OK and did the shopping – the main development on that front being that I decided to leave my crutches and sticks behind and do it all unaided. I survived! Hooray – another step (literally) forward. Then at about 2pm had to reverse the journey – though this time via the 102 bus to Swords and then the 197 onwards from there to Ashbourne from there – to get me to Ashbourne for about 4pm.

The car had been serviced and the wheel bearing replaced, as well as oil changes and new wiper blades. And most remarkably of all, a new gasket had been fitted to the exhaust which, finally, cured the rattle which had been annoying me ever since we bought the car over a year ago. So now it’s running well (fingers crossed) but my bank account is €780 smaller.

To finish off the day, I’ve got a six-week check-up consultation (by phone) with my hip surgeon, and then it’s a quick trip to the airport to pick up some family who are staying with us for a few days. It’s all go!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Car safely to delivered to Tadg Riordan garage in Ashbourne, now waiting for the bus to Dublin and then the DART from Tara St back to Malahide	Tara St station – it vies with Connolly platform six as being the coldest railway station in the world

Tadg Riordan garage in Ashbourne – birthplace of the trusty Yaris. It’s been quite good so far, actually



On the 103 to Dublin