Ireland day 0838. Sunday 14 January 2024- Progress *

Ireland day 0838. Sunday 14 January 2024- Progress

Today’s summary	Val was at work and as soon as she was gone, I settled down and did 4 hours of solid productive work. Felt like I made progress at last and was greatly cheered up by that. Celebrated by going on a short walk out to the Centra shop in Seabury in the afternoon then when Val got back we have an excellent dinner of baked haddock which Val pulled together. A good day.
Today’s weather	Dry bright and chilly. Blustery north westerly wind. Appx 5c

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): Afternoon leg stretch to Centra

Commentary

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

After yesterday’s less-than-successful effort to knuckle down to some work, I felt it was make or break time today. If I didn’t make some progress today, I would risk serious embarrassment when the time came to do my presentation to the CEO tomorrow.

So as soon as Val had headed off to the Casino to do her own stint at work, I got up, had a shower, and sat down to start thinking and writing. I was pleased that, thank goodness, I was actually able to get some coherent thoughts down today. I worked for four hours solid and didn’t allow myself a break until I had finished. I was quite please with what I came up with though the acid test will of course come tomorrow with the CEO. I’m sincerely hoping that nothing more than a mid-course correction will be needed, but I feel I’m ready to cope if something more radical is called for.

I don’t know why today was so much more productive than yesterday. I have a suspicion that a good night’s sleep the night before helped, plus the fact that I had literally no time after today to get ready – which certainly gave me a sense of focus.

Anyway eventually I had finished so I decided to stop writing and to quit while I was ahead. I had lunch (a Tesco meal-deal I have to confess) then headed out to get some fresh air. I only had time for a short walk today – west along the northern edge of the demesne, then along the Swords road, down through the Seabury estate to the Centra shop, and back along the coast. A thoroughly enjoyable outing, and I particularly enjoyed checking out the swans and Brent geese that were making themselves at home in the Broadmeadow estuary this afternoon. There appeared to be a healthy number of them (though I don’t really know) and they seemed to be in good condition.

I got back to the flat about 5 and Val was home soon after. Tonight she made us a delicious dinner of baked haddock with cauliflower croquettes, kale, and parsley sauce. I could almost feel the goodness coursing through my veins.

Well that’s enough for now. I need to get a bit of down time before winding up again for the presentation tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Looking north from the Swords Road down the Gaybrook Stream “Valley”. It leads all the way from here to the coast where the stream enters the Broadmeadow Lagoon and it the moment it’s just overgrown wasteland. A shame, really, as it would make an excellent park	The Gaybrook Stream where it disappears under the Swords road by the entrance to Killeen Park. It’s not entirely clear from any map where it goes next so I will have to do a bit of detective work to follow it to its source. A project for the warmer weather, perhaps

Entrance to Killeen Park and the Seabury Estate. I like the brightly coloured boat by the gateway – and it’s usually planted up with cheerful flowering plants. Looks like it is having a bit of a furlough at the moment though. The Gaybrook “valley” in the earlier photo is just to the right of here.	Miniature rose still happily flowering away at the end of Seabury Downs. Normally such roses as there are still flowering at this time of year look a bit battered, but this one doesn’t seem to have noticed the onset of winter and is flowering seemingly as enthusiastically as it did in the summer

I stood looking at these swans for a few moments and they immediately assumed I was going to give them something to eat. They looked pretty determined to get as close as they possibly could but, ever mindful of the legend that a swan could break your arm, I hastily backed off and they quickly lost interest. Last years cygnets are losing the last of their grey feathering now, and doubtless will be introducing the next batch of new swans to the world themselves shortly.	Seafield House, directly across the Broadmeadow Estuary. It was sold a couple of years ago for €10.5mln and more or less ever since there it has been shrouded in scaffolding and plastic sheeting. Over the last few weeks, the covers have been removed so you can (just about) see what splendours lay beneath

Brent geese out for an evening spin. It must be chilly up there, though I have to keep reminding myself that these are “warm” climes for them, having just migrated here from Greenland and Northern Canada