Ireland day 0892. Friday 08 March 2024- Voting Val *

Ireland day 0892. Friday 08 March 2024- Voting Val

Today’s summary	I went to the gym in the morning while Val spoke to friends and then went to vote in the two referenda, on Families and Care amendments to the Irish Constitution, at the Pope John Paul II National Catholic School in Inbhir Ide Drive. In the evening we went to Swords to see the film “Wicked Little Letters”, a film starring Olivia Coleman, at Swords. Very enjoyable.
Today’s weather	Overcast and cool. Moderate easterly wind. Appx 8c

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).

We didn’t have anything major planned today so used the day to work on our self improvement (after the shock in the mirror yesterday!). So after breakfast, Val went on a run and I headed off to the gym. An enjoyable session and I felt a bit less blobby afterwards.

While I was away, after her run, Val also went to the Pope John Paul II National Catholic School in Inbhir Ide Drive to vote. We’re having a referendum (well two actually) in Ireland today and as an Irish Citizen, Val is entitled to vote (I’m not). It’s about making two amendments to the Constitution, related to the role of the family and the role of women in the home. There’s quite a lot of controversy about the wording of the amendments so it wasn’t entirely clear cut what the best way to vote should be. We will find out the results tomorrow.

After discharging our fitness and electoral duties, we had a late lunch and I tried to sort out a problem with my Apple Pay (it has started rejecting all my payments as “suspected fraud”). The Bank couldn’t help, saying it was an Apple problem, but the Apple website says that in these circumstances you have to refer to the bank. So I seem to be stuck in a doom-loop and right now I don’t know how to resolve it. Perhaps if I wait long enough, the problem will just go away.

By this stage it was about 4pm and too late to go out on a major expedition and too early to start watching the Sopranos. So we made a split-second spontaneous decision to go to to the “Movies @ Swords” cinema to see the film “Wicked Little Letters”, starring Olivia Coleman. Although it’s had lacklustre reviews, we both really enjoyed it, especially as it actually seems to be based on a true story. But had an easy-to-follow plotline and was definitely at the feel-good end of the spectrum, so it was a cheerful note to round off the day.

Just time to make a couple of calls to family and friends now then a couple more episodes of the Sopranos. A good day.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Alexanders in full bloom along the coast on a chilly March lunchtime	Escalator heaven in the Pavilions multi-storey car park

In the Pavilions shopping centre at Swords, home of the cinema	Val on the red carpet getting in the movie mode. Well it is the Oscars on Sunday!



The details of today’s referendum. All the main political parties are campaigning for a “yes”-“yes” vote but we won’t know until tomorrow. Turnout seems to be very low though – down at about 20% as at lunchtime today