Ireland day 1123. Friday 25 October 2024- Very Low Key

Today’s summary	Another rather low key day. In the morning, I had a video catch up with a friend in London and Val finished off her packing. We went to the Grand Hotel for lunch then in the afternoon did some work on this website. A short walk in the evening to see if I could spot the comet (I couldn’t) while Val went running. Video catch up with family in the evening then soup and TV for dinner
Today’s weather	Wet overnight and in the morning. Slowly cleared to become overcast then fully clear by evening. Light south easterly wind. Appx 14c

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): No comets in the Marina

Commentary

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

We continued our recent run of relatively low key – what many people might call “normal” – days today. We didn’t have any major excursions planned so used the time to catch up on domestic tasks and on getting a little exercise. Well actually Val got quite a lot, though I didn’t.

Once we were up and about, I started the day by having a very enjoyable video catch up with one of my friends in London. There was, as always, lots to discuss – especially as they visited us last month so had a better mental picture of what we were up to over here on this side of the Irish Sea. Whilst I was doing that, Val finished off her packing then we reflected on what to do next.

I was about to make some coffee when I suddenly had a better idea – I suggested that instead of coffee in the flat, we could walk down to the Grand Hotel for for an early lunch instead. Val gave it about a millisecond’s thought before agreeing and about two milliseconds later we were out of the door an on our way.

I quite like the Grand for lunch – there’s always lots going on, the staff are pleasant and the food is OK. There tend to be rather a lot of elderly retired people (pot and kettle black, etc.) but it’s generally not too decrepit. We lingered over lunch and didn’t leave the bar area until going up to 3pm.

We slowly made our way back to the flat, via the shops for some essentials, then I settled down in front of the PC and did some work on this website. By the time I had finished that, it was just started to get dark and Val was out on her run. I thought I should similarly get some fresh air and exercise, though I limited myself to something more modest – just a short saunter down Hanlon’s Lane and round the Marina.

Actually, one of my motivations for heading out into the twilight was to see if I could spot earth’s recent celestial visitor. Comet A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) has been circling the sun and is currently skirting past Earth on its way back to the outer reaches of the solar system. On clear dark nights recently has been visible shortly after sunset. The problem is that we haven’t had many clear dark nights lately so my efforts to spot it have been thwarted. As it was clear by this evening, after this morning’s rain, I thought I might be in with a chance.

So I set off down Hanlon’s Lane with high hopes. But – nothing. I searched the sky carefully and couldn’t see anything. On return, I learned that it has now faded quite a lot from its peak, so really is only visible in complete darkness, and then only with binoculars. Still, I enjoyed the walk and it was nice to see the clear sky. And anyway it will be back in 80,000 years so there’s always a second chance (!).

We’re both back in the flat now and have a video call with family coming up in a few minutes. Then I think we will round off the evening with some TV and home-made soup to go with it. Not bad, altogether, for a day when we didn’t actually have anything planned at all.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


The Grand Hotel. The main entrance nowadays is actually round the back, which I think is a bit of a pity as it looks much more imposing from this side	“Cloud Pruning” has obviously become a thing amongst landscape gardeners. These ones have just appeared outside Tesco

Lots of building activity still going on to construct the southern access track to the new Broadmeadow Greenway viaduct	Evening train but no comet



Looking towards the MLTCC (Malahide Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club – though I have no idea if the actually play croquet) from James Terrace. The H2 bus is waiting in the foreground to head into Dublin on the hour