Ireland day 0583. Thursday 04 May 2023- Anniversary Play *

Ireland day 0583. Thursday 04 May 2023- Anniversary Play

Today’s summary	It was our 38th wedding anniversary today. We took the H2 bus into Dublin to see the play “An Old Song Half Forgotten” at the Peacock Theatre. Excellent. caught the bus back and had dinner in the flat
Today’s weather	Light cloud and grey in the morning. Rain by evening. Strong easterly wind. Appx 14C but feeling colder in the wind

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

Commentary

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

It was our 38th wedding anniversary today! We had a cup of tea in bed to start the day’s celebrations, then Val had to go into work for a meeting, which took most of the morning.

While she was away, I had quite a productive couple of hours making a start on my Spanish homework, and completing the first draft of my Geol Soc paper (at last!). Once she was back, we had a rather delicious lunch of baked cod with orange sauce (courtesy I have to admit of SuperValu) then started planning our afternoon.

Actually, we first spent a few moments catching up on the news online, then took a leisurely journey into Dublin on the H2 bus. We were scheduled to see a play – “An Old Song Half Forgotten” at the Peacock Theatre (a sister venue to the Abbey) in the evening but wanted to get there early as it was free seating and we didn’t want to arrive late and be relegated to the worst seats at the back (plus the fact we wanted to get a drink in the bar first!).

Actually we arrived so early that the theatre was still closed, so we walked over the river and had a good look round the charming Books Upstairs bookshop, in D’Olier street while we waited. Eventually though we were suitably refreshed and managed to find decent seats in the theatre.

The play itself is quite short – only 60 minutes – but absolutely excellent. It’s a slightly difficult story about an actor who is living with dementia, and it is brilliantly portrayed. Despite the potentially challenging theme, we both thoroughly enjoyed the play and in our internal scoring system gave it 4 or 5 stars out of 5. I would recommend readers go and see it, but it closes on Saturday so I think it is probably too late by now.

After the play we managed to jump on a convenient H2 that was waiting at the bus stop right opposite the theatre entrance, and seemed to be back in the flat in Malahide in next to no time. A tasty salad of cold beef, focaccia, blue cheese and salad rounded off a perfectly-celebrated anniversary day.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


The east wind was bringing stormy conditions to the coast between Malahide and Portmarnock	The Spire of Dublin in O’Connell Street, from the top deck of the bus

Enthusiastic canoeists practicing in the Liffey this afternoon. It looked totally uninviting to me	We had a few moments to spare before the play started so we went down D’Olier Street to drop into the Books Upstairs bookshop. This fascinating offer is by the front door – what an interesting idea!

The entrance to the Peacock Theatre on Abbey Street Lower. Right opposite the terminus of the H2 bus, so it’s incredibly convenient (we caught the H2 back home too, as there was only a 2 minute wait after we came out until the waiting bus departed)	The Peacock is actually underground – I think it’s probably directly below the main Abbey Street Theatre itself. It was completely full by the time the performance started.

The anniversary couple! In our favourite spot on the front seats upstairs on the H2 bus to Dublin. It’s great just sitting up there relaxing as you watch the world go by. Sometimes you even think the end of the journey comes too soon!