Ireland day 1179. Friday 20 December 2024- Turkey

Today’s summary	Spent the morning and early afternoon packing and preparing for our forthcoming Christmas trip. After an eating-up lunch, Val went off to work and then when I’d done the hoovering I was despatched into town to pick up the turkey from the butchers. Unfortunately it wasn’t there, which was a bit heart-stopping. Eventually, though, it arrived and I went to collect it just before the butchers closed. Val back about 10-ish and some TV and whiskey to close the day
Today’s weather	Rain in the morning but quite bright later although not much sun. Light westerly wind. Appx 8c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The green 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): Kerrigans Turkey walk

Commentary

We’re going away tomorrow for a few days with the family over Christmas (although there will be some to-ing and fro-ing to the airport in the middle). So today was rather a case of making sure all the last minute preparations were completed before we set off tomorrow morning.

The first task this morning was to do the packing and also to catch up on some laundry. It’s amazing just how long all this stuff takes, because by the time we had finished, it was already lunchtime. We combed the fridge and freezer for anything edible – which also made space to accommodate the turkey – of which more below. So we had a rather eclectic mix of sandwiches, curry, soup and custard which I have to admit was a bit unorthodox but it did the job.

After lunch, Val went off to work and I was left with the Very Important Jobs of hoovering the flat and collecting the turkey from the butchers. The former was easy enough, but the latter was more problematic.

Because there is such a rush for turkey at Christmas, Val had pre-ordered one, which had to be picked up today precisely between 2pm and 3pm from Kerrigan’s, the butcher. So I duly rocked up at about 2:45 – only to discover that our turkey hadn’t been delivered! Sensing a calamity in the offing, the butcher made a few hasty phone calls as a result of which he assured me that the turkey would be forthcoming by the end of the day. I took him at his word, but just in case a Plan B was needed, I called in at SuperValu to check that they had turkeys in stock. They said they would but not until tomorrow.

So I went back to the flat and spent the afternoon reasonably productively updating my various bits of technology, but slightly anxiously chewing my fingernails and wondering if the turkey would actually turn up in time. Anyway, I am pleased to report that just after 6pm, the butcher called and – hooray! – the turkey had landed. So I hurried out and collected it, mightily relieved, and now it’s sitting in the fridge, taking pride of place on the recently- cleared out bottom shelf.

Val eventually made it back, as usual, at around 10pm and in a departure from the norm, we are settling back to enjoy a “wee dram”. Once that’s scoffed, I will be able to report back on an ultimately successful day’s proceedings. Phew!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Experimenting with the “Magic Editor” on the Pixel 6. Now you see it..	…and now you don’t

Approaching The Green, after picking up the turkey	Bridge under the Belfast-Dublin line, heading towards the lagoon

I discovered that there’s quite a good tech shop on the upper deck of the Malahide Mall (above where I get my hair cut). I never even knew it existed – but the HDMI cables there were a third the price they were in the main electrical shop on the high street	You can never have too much technology, in my view

The turkey arrived at last!