Ireland day 0624. Wednesday 14 June 2023- Tax and Depeche Mode *

Ireland day 0624. Wednesday 14 June 2023- Tax and Depeche Mode

Today’s summary	Spent the morning on tax. Went to Depeche Mode concert at the castle demesne in the evening.
Today’s weather	Dry sunny and warm all day. Light to moderate easterly wind. Appx 21C

Today’s overview location (The grey mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Warm evening walk castle and shore

Commentary

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

I spent the morning finishing off our Irish tax submission. The details are all with our accountant now, so we just have to wait now to see what the bill is going to be. Anyway I don’t think there’s anything more we can do at this moment.

The rest of the day was much more cheerful. After a quick lunch, Val and I went on a short afternoon walk through the castle demesne and down to the lagoon shore.

Once back at the flat at the end, we had a home-made fish and chip lunch (delicious) and then headed back to the castle for a second time, at around 8pm. Our destination this time was a bit different to normal – we were going to a concert. Actually, Val had managed to secure some free tickets for the Depeche Mode gig tonight – they are offered on a ballot basis to people who live within earshot of the stage and she had successfully put our names down for a pair.

I could just about remember Depeche Mode from my student days in the 1980s though I would probably have struggled to name any of their songs. So I didn’t really know what to expect tonight. Anyway, whatever expectations I might have had I think I can say were exceeded. The weather was perfect for an outdoor evening concert – a bit of a miracle for this part of the world. And the atmosphere was great and it was well attended. The band themselves played really well, I thought. Lots of energy and they were in good voice (despite being almost exactly the same age as me and Val!).

I thought the first half of the concert was a bit underwhelming, with some of their newer songs that I’d never heard of and didn’t particularly like. But in the second half, the pace really picked up and the energy increased, and some of their bigger hits – including “Everything counts in large amounts” and “Personal Jesus” put in an appearance – much to the crowd’s delight. They played for a full two hours and finished at about 10:45pm.

At the end, we both concluded that we had thoroughly enjoyed the event, and thought the band put on a really good show. We would even have paid money to get in!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Afternoon walk down Killeen Park to the estuary	It’s concert season at the castle during June

The weather was absolutely perfect. No wind, no rain and still quite warm even at the end of the evening	We weren’t the oldest there – honest!

A good excuse to meet up for a drink and a chat – even if you weren’t a major fan of the music	Lead singer Dave Gahan in top form

Sea of selfies!