Ireland day 1085. Tuesday 17 September 2024- Sunshine!

Today’s summary	Woke up feeling worse again this morning and the pain persisted all day. Still, I got up, hoovered the flat in anticipation of Val’s return and sat in the sun in our lounge for a bit. In the afternoon I went out and walked along the lagoon shore to Swords and got the bus back. Made salmon salad for dinner then went to Spanish (first class of the new year) in the evening. Collected Val from the airport later on.
Today’s weather	Dry and sunny with blue sky all day. Light easterly wind. Appx 18c

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): Sunny Swords walk

Commentary

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

Today was what I feared it would be but hoped it would not. My shingles pain has come back with a vengeance, waking me at 2am this morning to announce its arrival, and ensuring that I only slept fitfully for the rest of the night. Sigh. Well at least now I know that days like yesterday, when I feel a bit more normal again, are possible. Anyway I have decided to quit the heroics and am now taking painkillers regularly through the day. Alternating ibuprofen and paracetamol every four hours. If the pain is still getting worse in a couple more weeks, I’ll go back to the doctors and get something stronger. If this is going to go on for a long time, I might as well start figuring out the best way of living with it now.

On to more cheery matters. As soon as I’d got up and had my morning cup of tea, I decided to hoover the flat in anticipation of Val’s return tonight. It hasn’t been done for a while and was beginning to look a bit grubby. Once that was out of the way, I made a light breakfast, sat in the sun in the lounge for a while, and then started a bit of Spanish revision. It’s back to Portmarnock again this evening for the first lesson of the new term. So, ¡tengo que practicar un poco de Español antes!

Ireland seems to be enjoying a spell of good weather at the moment – the best we have had practically all summer, actually – so I’m trying to get out and make the most of it while I can. Today, as a bit of a change, I decided to use the weather window to walk along the shore of the Broadmeadow lagoon and then on to Swords. There’s always plenty to see and it’s just the right length to fit into a free afternoon.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable, not too taxing, walk. Just what the doctor ordered, in fact. To round it off, I got to Swords slightly sooner than I had expected, so I checked into a local Starbucks and allowed myself a coffee and croissant as a reward for good behaviour.

A short wait at the bus-stop afterwards saw a timely 102 arrive and it sped me back to Malahide in plenty of time to allow me to make dinner for me and Val, and get my things together for Spanish. We’re having salmon and roast vegetable salad, by the way.

So now I need to head off to Spanish and then to the airport to collect her from her 10pm arrival. I’ll report back tomorrow on how my new 24×7 medication routine is going!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Grazing swans. I am still a bit perplexed how they manage to digest grass	On the bridge over the R132 – with surgical chin on display!

The curtain wall at Swords castle	Swords Pavilions shopping centre. I allowed myself a coffee and croissant from Starbucks as today’s reward



Inside the old hall at Swords Castle. This view was from the minstrel’s gallery – it’s not normally open to the public and I’d never been up there before today