Ireland day 1176. Tuesday 17 December 2024- Xmas Again

Today’s summary	Yet another day spent preparing for Christmas and it’s fun! This time, wrapped some presents in the morning then after a light lunch went to Tesco Swords to get some of the perishables. Spending the evening eating everything we could in the fridge, to make room for the Xmas stuff
Today’s weather	Wet in the morning then showery most of the rest of the day. Strong southerly wind. Appx 12c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) Evening stroll round the Marina

Commentary

We are taking Christmas seriously this year. We have family coming over from the UK and Canada to join us in Ireland and we want to make it a fun and restful period for everyone. So, given that prior planning and proper preparation prevents p*ss poor performance, we have been doing as much advance work as we can, to reduce stress over the Christmas period itself.

Most of the time up to now has been spent getting the presents sorted but as that is all more or less under control now, our attention today switched to the wining and dining arrangements. We have already bought some of the long-lasting stuff, but now it was time to start stocking up on the things that need refrigeration.

So after a morning spent wrapping up the presents we have been slowly gathering over the last few weeks of travel into Dublin, this afternoon, after a light sandwich lunch, we started drawing up our shopping list for all the things we will want to eat over the holiday period. Needless to say, it was quite a long (and expensive) list and as it’s likely to take more than one visit to the supermarket to get everything on it, we thought we better make a start today.

Armed with our list, we boarded the trusty Yaris and drove the short distance over to Tesco Swords to make a start on creating our very own Christmas mountain. We had a mostly successful expedition though curiously, a few “essentials”, including cumin, cherry jam and semolina, were conspicuously absent from the shelves. It’s a good job we started the process early, so there is still time to take corrective action.

Once back at the flat, and the Yaris unburdened, we set about clearing anything edible from the freezer, in order to make space for the latest influx of perishables. So tonight for dinner, we are enjoying a rather eclectic meal of Thai green curry, broccoli, haddock fillets, and roast potatoes. It’s OK, actually.

Now, while our digestive systems are doing battle with this gastronomic nightmare. we’re going to sit back and finish off “Fat Friends” on Netflix, our current go-to favourite. Then we need to get a reasonably early night as tomorrow’s challenge – Christmas Cooking – is already beginning to loom an the horizon. It’s all go here in Malahide Mission Control!

(PS I managed to fit in a quick walk round the Marina before bed-time, too!)

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Heading off to Dublin. For once, we weren’t on it	Shockingly – I have spent so much in SuperValu in the last few months that I qualify for a half price Christmas turkey. Sadly, we have one already on order from the butcher, so this year we aren’t going to be able to take advantage of the deal. Still, maybe next year, if I am similarly profligate.

Dropped into Centra on the way back from Tesco – trying to get some of the synthetic Scampi fries thingies. Sadly they had sold out	Mission control in Malahide this afternoon

Malahide green from outside Tesco (minus jam)	Illuminated Marina boats in the moonlight

My contribution to the Christmas effort!