Ireland day 1090. Sunday 22 September 2024- Domestic God

Today’s summary	Spent the day on domestic tasks while Val was at work.  Preparing for meeting visitors in Glendalough tomorrow then more visitors coming to stay from Tuesday to Thursday.   Busy times!
Today’s weather	Overcast and dull with some drizzle in the morning.   Light north easterly wind.   Appx 15c
Today’s overview location (The red mark shows the location of my route)			Close-up location (The red mark shows where I walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

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

Today was a sort of an in-between day,  after the dash to Yorkshire yesterday and before we head down to Glendalough tomorrow to meet friends for a walk and then host some more guests in Malahide from Tuesday to Thursday.   It’s great keeping in touch with everyone, though it’s quite a lot of work getting everything organised.

By the way, in case any readers are interested, my shingles seems to be somewhat improved.   It’s lucky, really, that it is because I don’t think I would be able to contemplate doing all these things if I still felt like I did this time last week.   In terms of symptoms, my rash has stabilised – it’s faded a lot but still quite red in parts.   The deep, endless, pain in my left arm, shoulder and chest has declined substantially – to the point now where I can sleep reasonably well without painkillers.   The skin sensitivity and general ache in the affected area hasn’t gone though.   But I am acutely aware that the whole awful thing could come galloping back at any moment so I’m trying very hard not to count my chickens too soon.

Val was putting in a shift, again, at the museum all day today, so while she was away, I took the opportunity to catch up on some preparation for the next few days.   That involved changing sheets in the spare bedroom, tidying the flat (I decided to leave the hoovering till later), shopping for all the supplies we will need, and then making a casserole to have in the fridge, ready to be called upon while our guests are staying.

Once the flat-based tasks were completed, the rest of the afternoon was spent shopping down at Dunnes in Portmarnock, and then once I got back to the flat, diligently chopping up carrots, onions, chicken thighs and celery to go in the pot with some stock and herbs to make my famous(!) chicken casserole.   I am so slow at preparing stuff that even though the recipe describes this as “easy”, it took me well over an hour just to get everything ready and the casserole in the oven.

Well, Val’s back now so there’s the day’s news to be caught up on, fish curry to be made, and television viewing choices to be made.   Looking forward to putting my feet up later, too (though in reality that might not properly happen for a week or two yet!)

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)

Huge amount of shopping.   From Dunnes, by the way, not SuperValu as the bags might lead you to believe	Chicken casserole busy casseroling
Mashed potatoes busy mashing

Interactive map

(No map today)

You can read earlier and later days’ blogs below

Previous day’s blog
Next day’s blog
Ireland home page