Ireland day 1024. Thursday 18 July 2024- Run and Rain

Today’s summary	Spent the morning on a video call to a friend in the UK and then doing admin and some shopping before putting the lamb in the oven for dinner. Went on walk-run-walk circuit in the rain in the afternoon. Collected Val from the airport in the afternoon.
Today’s weather	Overcast with drizzle and heavier rain in the afternoon. Moderate south easterly wind.

Today’s overview location (The green 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 – GPS fail at start): Run in the Rain and Hungry

Commentary

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

I started the day with a very enjoyable (and quite lengthy) video chat with a friend back in the UK. Then, following yesterdays pattern, I spent the rest of the morning on admin and paperwork. After my time-boxed couple of hours was complete, I packed up for the day and heading into town to do some shopping. Most importantly, I splashed out and bought a half leg of lamb for dinner tonight.

Once back, I had a quick lunch and put the lamb in the oven. It was slightly larger than I expected – though butchers have a habit of doing that – so I think it’s going to need quite a long time to cook.

With the dinner in the oven I had a couple of house free in the afternoon so I pulled my running gear on and set out to do my walk-run-walk circuit up Paddy’s Hill again.

Unfortunately, pretty much as soon as I had set off, it started to rain and I discovered that the “waterproof” running jacket I’d bought for €7 in Lidl wasn’t actually waterproof at all. Anyway, I pressed on and actually quite enjoyed the run to the top of the hill.

But once I got there, I suddenly realised that I was starving hungry. I wasn’t sure I would be able to last until the lamb was cooked mid-evening without gnawing my arm off. Luckily, just a short way further on I came to Hilltop Stores where a Crunchie bar and flapjack quickly banished the hunger pangs.

Now I’m back at the flat and putting the finishing touches to dinner (though I have realised that I forgot to get some wine to go with it, a disaster that will have to be remedied later). Dublin airport has just notified me that Val’s plane has landed so I’m going to stop writing now and get in the car for fear of leaving her standing in the rain while I battle through the traffic. Bon appetit!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


The meadow outside the Museum has been cut and presumably waiting for someone to come along now to bale it up – will need to dry a bit first though I think	Soggy in the middle – Malahide town centre this afternoon

Nobody on the beach	Ideal park for runners like me – lots of paths with wide grassy verges that don’t hurt your joints, and a decent hill

Murky view across Dublin to the mountains	Thank goodness for Hilltop Stores in my hour of need!

Lifesavers