Ireland day 0837. Saturday 13 January 2024- Day Off *

Ireland day 0837. Saturday 13 January 2024- Day Off

Today’s summary	Val was at work and I had intended to spend the day preparing the presentation I have to give to the CEO on Monday. But I found a thousand distractions so didn’t get much done. Instead I fitted in a good walk to Portmarnock then made pulled pork for dinner. Video calls to family in the evening
Today’s weather	Cool, dry and bright. Light westerly wind. Appx 6c

Today’s overview location (The grey 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 hill and beach

Commentary

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

Our non-working days didn’t coincide today so while Val was plugging away in the Casino, I had intended to use the spare few hours to do some preparation for a major presentation I’ve got to give to the CEO on Monday. But I already know that I am bad at working from home and with it being the weekend, the temptations of distraction redoubled.

So – I hoovered the flat, did two loads of laundry, put last week’s washing away, tidied the balcony, went on a walk, did some shopping, made dinner and had a short rest (of the eyes involuntarily shut variety). Consequently I hardly got any work done. Which is annoying as it means I will have to miss tomorrow’s Club walk so I can do the work I missed today.

Anyway there’s no use crying over spilt milk – it’s nice to have a clean tidy flat (we had neglected it rather while we were both full-on at work) and the pulled pork dinner was delicious. Moreover the walk was great – my first proper leg stretch for a week and I felt a lot better for it. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and all that.

The weather was more or less kind for my excursion – there was a thick misty drizzle when I set off but it soon cleared up. There was even a glimmer of sun by the time I got back. I had a snack lunch (croissant and coffee from the Spar shop on Portmarnock beach) and watched the hardy (or perhaps foolhardy) enjoying an afternoon swim in the icy depths of the Irish Sea.

Evening was drawing in by the time I got back to the flat, so I pulled down the blinds, cranked up the heating, and put some music on. I did actually manage to do a a few minutes work before I inadvertently fell asleep and then Val came home.

Once we had eaten, we had video calls with family and then watched another episode of the Sopranos. It’s excellent, if nothing else for the intro, which is great.

Here’s hoping I can make a bit more progress tomorrow 🙂

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


A brief quiet interlude in the demesne. Lots of people out and about today probably make the most of a dry weekend, just like me	You could almost convince yourself that the sky was blue up on the Robswall hill

Rather fine hooded crow hanging around by the golf club car park near Portmarnock beach. Doubtless on the look out for tasty scraps for lunch	On the pathway through the dunes

Everyone and their dog out on the beach this lunchtime	Interesting to see how dramatically the cold sea wind and salt has burned the heliotrops on the seaward side of the bank, along the coast road

Your eyes don’t deceive you. “Jus de Vin” must clearly have some wealthy clientele in Portmarnock