Ireland day 1000. Monday 24 June 2024- Thousand!

Today’s summary	We celebrated our thousandth day in Ireland today! A fairly low profile day, though, catching our collective breaths after our various recent expeditions. I had a video call with a friend in the morning and Val did some baking. In the afternoon, we tried unsuccessfully to sort out a financial matter then went off to Swords to do some shopping. TV dinner in evening with Lusk Irish perry to wash it down
Today’s weather	Overcast but dry and mild. Light southerly wind. Appx 20c

Today’s overview location (The greymark 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): Thousand Day Commemoration Walk

Commentary

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

A thousand days? Really?? On the one hand, it seems like the blink of an eye since we first stepped out onto Irish soil at Tesco, Swords, on the evening of Wednesday 29 September 2021. But on the other, when I think about everything that’s happened in these thousand days, it seems like a lifetime. Back then, it was the tail-end of a global pandemic, and Ireland was only just coming back to life. Restaurants and museums were closed, and facemasks were mandatory. An episode that everyone, I am sure, will be very happy to forget.

But, Covid aside, there’s been making new friends; exploring all but three of Ireland’s beautiful counties; jobs for Val and even for me, too; lots of hiking; finding a new home; selling our house in the UK; a big family wedding; various hospitalisations; and, of course, tax! Wow. I do actually feel quietly impressed by what we’ve achieved, and it has certainly given both of us a much better insight into what anyone who ups-sticks and moves abroad has to go through. Being able to speak English has certainly been a massive advantage!

Who knows what the next thousand days will bring. A bit of domestic and political stability would be nice – but change is always exciting so we’re looking forward to whatever comes next. And we’re planning to be in Ireland for a good while yet, too. We’re really enjoying it and don’t feel in any great hurry to move on.

Anyway, turning to the present – it’s actually been a pretty quiet day for us, today. I think we’re both still quite keen to have some slightly quieter time, to cool off a bit after the recent global travelling and our various trips and exertions since returning. So I started the day with a video call to a friend back in the UK, while Val did some baking. I very much enjoyed my virtual catch-up, and Val’s cakes were delicious!

Then we both spent the afternoon frustratingly and largely unsuccessfully trying to deal with a financial matter, but after half an hour on hold to an automated helpline, we gave up and went off to Swords for a couple of hours instead. After we’d done all the shopping we needed (a few groceries and some shoes for Val) we returned to Malahide and headed out on a short walk up the “Secret” Malahide Hill before dinner.

And as it was a special, celebratory day, we had a TV dinner of a Spanish tortilla that Val miraculously pulled together, washed down with some genuine Irish perry, from my friendly vineyard in Lusk. What a day! What a kiloversary!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)

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Swords – the shoe shop in all its loveliness	Cheery festival flags for the castle demesne concerts

Heading up to the top of the “Secret Hill”	From the top, looking south. The Little Sugarloaf to the left of the tree in the middle, the Great Sugarloaf to the right

Looking north over the Malahide Estuary to Corballis beach and Portrane	Outputs from Val’s fantastic baking. They were delicious and didn’t last long!

On the top of the “Secret Hill”, enjoying some warm evening sunshine – a relatively uncommon event over the last thousand days, it has to be said