Ireland day 1417. Friday 15 August 2025- Spanimarnock

Today’s summary	Today followed a familiar pattern. Spanish homework and video calls in the morning, lunch on the balcony (hooray!) a walk over the hill to Portmarnock in the afternoon. Finally, a Thai takeaway with Aperol Spritz in the evening.
Today’s weather	Warm and dry with sun in the afternoon. Light easterly wind. Appx 20c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Spanimarnock Hill and Coast loop

Commentary

I think that for the last few days I have been finding out what being “retired” is supposed to be like. Principally, I think, the defining characteristic is that you mostly do things that you want to do, rather than what other people want you to do. It’s quite nice, actually.

So in this vein, after statutory cups of tea, I got up and had a long video call with a friend in Lancaster, UK. There was lots to discuss as he had recently been travelling in the Far East, so we could his impressions with those from our own recent Japanese adventure.

After that I phoned another friend up in Scotland, and we had a good chat about recent developments in the Highlands. I rounded off the morning with a bit more of my Spanish deberes.

By this time it was lunchtime, so once again we enjoyed the surprising combination of porridge, oatcakes and hummus, with a cup of Nespresso coffee to go with it.

After lunch – which we were lucky enough to be able to enjoy on the balcony, once again, – I did a bit more Spanish then we contemplated the afternoon.

Again, with no pressure of expectations to burden us, we chose just to do our favourite walk over the hill and down to the coast at Portmarnock. It was delightful, for once, to be in the warm sunshine and we thoroughly enjoyed the excursion. Of course, once at the shore, we had to go to the shop to get coffee and refreshments. All very lovely. It made me realise just how important warm weather and sunshine are to me.

A quick walk back up the coast rode saw us swiftly back in Malahide. I did a metaphorical back-flip out of the flat once we got there, and left almost as soon as we arrived, to go down to the Siam Thai takeaway to collect dinner.

So now we’re enjoying our green curry, with rather nice Aperol Spritz’ to go with it. I think later we will catch up with some light comedy on Netflix (we’ve been watching “The Windsors” lately and really enjoying it) before retiring to bed.

A delightful day. I am curious to see how long this enchantment with a low pressure lifestyle will actually last. I doubt it will be a lifetime, but I don’t feel any sense of urgency to bring it to a halt just yet.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


*I think this maybe African Iris (or fortnight lily) (Dietes bicolor) growing in a herbaceous border near the top of the access road leading to Avoca*	Toot(s)-toot(s)!

The famous (to me) polystyrene houses on Seamount Road are taking shape quickly. Which is perhaps not surprising as they are mostly constructed of air	Tempting crab apples in the avenues – heralding, perhaps, the imminent onset of the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Looming Lambay lingering on the horizon	The beautiful petunias in the window boxes on the station bridge railings are looking stunning at the moment. Especially after Val’s tender ministrations!

Super healthy snacks for our super healthy walk!