Ireland day 0910. Tuesday 26 March 2024- Celebration *

Ireland day 0910. Tuesday 26 March 2024- Celebration

Today’s summary	Spent the morning doing Spanish homework then went into Malahide to do some shopping. After lunch I started sorting out some of our paperwork but didn’t get very far. In the evening I went into Dublin to join a few of my former colleagues from my work project. I have been invited out for a “thank you” dinner, which is very nice. So the evening was spent very enjoyably in the Old Strand pub and then the Hawksmoor restaurant.
Today’s weather	Light rain most of the day until late afternoon. Moderate easterly wind. Appx 8c

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

Commentary

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

Although it’s already nearly a month since I finished work for my client, they were keen to take me out for a farewell celebratory meal. So tonight a group of us, who worked on the project together, were invited to a meal at the rather nice Hawksmoor restaurant in central Dublin, near College Green.

But before I could contemplate an evening of fun, first I had to complete my Spanish deberes – which was particularly hard today – and then try and make a start on sorting out the paperwork that I had hoped to do yesterday but somehow never got round to. I did manage to finish my Spanish, but sadly I made very little headway on the paperwork. Still, I did manage to get as far as buying a new lever-arch file from the local office shop, which I will need as and when I do eventually get around to doing my filing.

Anyway between Spanish and filing, the day seemed to pass quite quickly and before I knew it, it was time to get changed and head into town. We met up for a quick “pint of plain” (a poetic reference to a pint of Guinness) in The Old Stand pub near Molly Malone, then walked back down to the Hawksmoor restaurant on College Green for dinner.

The restaurant is built in the offices of the former National Bank and is extremely opulent. It is reminiscent of the dining room at the Merchant Hotel in Belfast, where we stayed the week before last. The Merchant is also built on the site of a former bank, so perhaps the similarities shouldn’t be too surprising. The banks, clearly, were the only institutions that could afford such grandeur.

We had a nice steak meal and a couple of decent glasses of wine, then as it was a work night, we all had to head off home. I managed to get a lift from a former colleague all the way back to Malahide, which made for a much more relaxing end to the evening than I had expected.

All in all a good day, then. And Val’s home tomorrow, so first thing in the morning I really must get on with the filing and then do a quick whizz round with the hoover. Which means I better get to bed now, ready for an early start tomorrow!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Paperwork ready to be sorted out. I didn’t get very far	Rooney’s hardware. Quite convenient for emergency DIY (I needed some glue to mend my rucksack) but a bit expensive

Paperweight on the Dublin Road – one of my favourite shops in Malahide as it stocks all sorts of interesting office essentials. I needed some extra ring-binders to hold all the paperwork we have to sort out	I also spent a few moments watching an interesting Financial Times video on carbon Capture and Storage. Lots of promise but a very very long way to go.

Heading for the train looking north from the Malahide station road bridge. If you look carefully (trust me) you can just see a bright spot of the headlights of the southbound Drogheda to Connolly service – at this point it was probably near Rush, some 10km away up the dead straight track

The Old Stand pub in Exchequer Street – location for pre-prandial drinks