Ireland day 1172. Friday 13 December 2024- OAP

Today’s summary	It was my birthday today, meaning I am officially an Old Age Pensioner. We decided to start the celebrations by spending the morning in Dublin and having lunch at the Chester Beattie. Afterwards we returned to Malahide in the early afternoon to open my presents and then to go to dinner at “The Greenery” – a restaurant in Malahide that we haven’t been to before. Main gift today was a “Pixel 8” phone – I needed an Android phone to access a navigation app that’s not available on my iPhone.
Today’s weather	Clear and bright with sun in the morning and a little hazier in the afternoon. Light north westerly wind. Appx 6c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue mark shows where we walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

Friday the 13th – lucky for some! Well I’m going to count myself as one of the lucky ones today, as it is my sixty-sixth birthday. I can hardly believe it because this now officially makes me an Old Age Pensioner (OAP). How can that possibly be? I definitely don’t feel “old age” but maybe I should? It’s so difficult to know how you are supposed to behave as an OAP! But the UK State, in its wisdom, pays me an Old Age Pension from now on, and the Irish State, it its wisdom, gives me a free travel pass from now on. So there are some definite benefits to reaching this senior state!

Anyway – on to today. We managed to get up quite early today, as we wanted to spend the morning in Dublin, before the Christmas crowds good too busy. So we were in town in good time, and had a thorough look round the north side before finally heading back down O’Connell Street and over to the Chester Beattie gallery for lunch. It was a Middle Eastern-themed meal, and felt very healthy as well as being tasty.

After lunch and a brief look round the gallery, we walked a few blocks south and east, to get to the Stock Design shop, on King Street. I wanted to buy a new bread baking tin, as the nonstick lining was beginning to come off the old one I used to make the loaf on Wednesday. And Val wanted to pick up a couple of things, including a gravy separator. It was one of those fortunate days when everything was in stock, so we came away very pleased with our purchases.

We walked on to Pearse station from there, and caught a DART back to Malahide without too long a wait. So now we are back at the flat, and it’s time to open my presents. At last! I’m getting a new Android phone (a Pixel 8 – which is last year’s model but still pretty good and greatly reduced in price) which I want to use just for navigation. My iPhone will remain my main phone, but there’s a navigation app – LocusMap – that is only available on Android and which I think might be a decent alternative to the much-lamented ViewRanger app that I used to have.

But there’s still more to look forward to later on – Val has booked to go to a new (to us) restaurant in Malahide called The Greenery, at 8:30. I’ve no idea what it’s like, but it looks good from the outside so I’m very much looking forward to giving it a try! Right now, though, I better get on with the unwrapping and the trying out of the new toys. I’ll report back on the Android tomorrow!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Colourful street furniture on Hill Street, in North Dublin	Liffey looking languid today

At the entrance to the Dublin Castle Christmas market. We decided not to go in this time	Inside the Chester Beattie, looking down on the restaurant dining area

At the north end of the Chester Beattie building	The “Gaiety” theatre. Peter Pan (the pantomime) was in full flow this afternoon – and the buggy park outside was full!

The Dubh Linn garden and back of Dublin Castle from the Chester Beattie rooftop garden