Ireland day 1078. Tuesday 10 September 2024- Hill and Rain

Today’s summary	Spent the morning on admin while Val did some cooking. After reheated casserole for lunch, walked over the hill to Portmarnock for a cup of the tea on the beach. Hit bit an icy shower on the walk back. Video call with friends in the UK in the evening. Shingles spots fading fast but pain showing no sign of decline.
Today’s weather	Plenty of sun but occasional cold showers. Strong north westerly wind. Appx 15c.

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue 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): Hill Ice Cream and Beach

Commentary

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

First, the daily shingles update. Actually, there still isn’t a lot to report. The spots started itching last night but I took some antihistamine and ibuprofen and eventually fell asleep. Overall the rash is fading quite fast but the pain is still there or slightly worse. So I’ve decided to give up on the heroics and am taking painkillers again. Feels like one step forward and one step back, but there’s not a lot I can do except take it easy and be patient.

The rest of the day was similar to the previous few. After breakfast Val decided to do some cooking, and I worked away on my admin. Hopefully most of the outstanding tasks have been finished now so there should be less time spent on this from now on.

By this stage it was lunchtime, so for lunch, we finished off some beef casserole that was lurking in the fridge then headed out to get a bit of fresh air. We followed our well-worn path over the hill and down to Portmarnock beach, enjoying the extensive views in the clear air from the top.

Of course, on the beach we had to have refreshments and I actually treated myself to an ice cream – I just felt like it today and I must say it was very enjoyable.

Most of the day, it had been sunny albeit feeling chilly in the strong wind. But as we walked back along the coast, the sky darkened and we were hit by a sharp cold shower. At least it didn’t last long and we were rewarded with a spectacular rainbow afterwards.

Once back, we enjoyed chili con carne that Val made this morning, then spent a good hour putting the world to rights in a video call with friends back in the UK.

So overall, a pretty good day apart from the nagging ache in my left side. Hopefully tomorrow might show a slight improvement in that regard!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Today’s instalment of the disease blog. Spots fading quite well although a bit itchy. Hoping that the pain will start to fade soon, too	In the leafy demesne

Nice view of Lambay from the hill	New development at Robswall nearing completion. they seem to have popped up out of nowhere. Would be interested to know how much they are selling for. Must do some research..



Reward after the rain!