Ireland day 1434. Monday 01 September 2025- Finishing Cervantes

Today’s summary	A very quiet day. I spent the morning trying to sort out some iPhone app issues and Val did some sewing and cooking. In the afternoon, we went on a short leg stretch to get some fresh air, then we both went into Dublin around 4:30. I had my last Spanish lesson at Cervantes, while Val wanted to have a look round some of the shops. DART to Malahide afterwards and back in the flat by 10pm
Today’s weather	Overcast and windy but dry. Strong south westerly wind. Appx 17c

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

Commentary

Today was fairly quiet although it did have quite a technological bias. It was all to do with importing workout data from Apple Health (an app on my iPhone) into the “Locus Lite” app I am beta-testing for the developer at the moment. In a nutshell, it doesn’t work and the reason why and the cause of – or solution to – the problem isn’t obvious.

One clue however was that my Apple Watch broke over a year ago (the screen doesn’t work) and part of the problem I have been having could be related to the fact that my iPhone still thinks it is linked to my watch and as a result won’t allow other apps or devices to link until the watch link is disabled. The problem is I can’t un-link the watch because I can’t access the screen.

So I will need to get it repaired but in order to get it repaired I needed the device ID. Which you get from one of the options – yes you guessed it: from the watch screen. Fortunately I discover that the device ID is also printed on the watch itself – but it’s in microscopic print hidden underneath the watch strap. Once I had googled how to remove the strap, I at last found it (though it was so small I had to used the macro camera function on my Pixel phone to photograph and read it). So some progress, at least.

That, however, was as far as I took the troubleshooting for today. I always find technology very frustrating and I knew that there was no immediate solution in sight and I would just get cross if I kept on trying. So I sent what I had managed to find back to the Locus Lite developer, and resolved to get the watch repaired next time I am close to a suitable Apple reseller.

Meanwhile – Val had been keeping altogether more productively occupied. She had been doing some sewing and cooking while I was fiddling about with my electronics. We enjoyed one of the fruits of her labours – pusilli y pancetta – for lunch and of course it was lovely.

After lunch, we just had time for a short stroll then it was time to head into Dublin for my final Spanish lesson at Cervantes. Val came in with me to get some shopping in Grafton Street then I trotted off to my class. As per all the other nights, I found three hours solid of speaking and listening in Spanish pretty hard going and I was glad when the class – and the whole course – eventually finished at 9pm. I have enjoyed it and I think my Spanish has improved a bit, but it’s been extremely hard work – especially the deberes. I also don’t really like the 6-9pm time slot as it plays havoc with the earlier part of the day. So, it’s definitely been worthwhile but I’m not sure I will be rushing to do another in the near future.

Afterwards, I caught a DART back to Malahide and I was back in the flat by 10pm. I had an absolutely superb lamb shank which Val had prepared over the weekend, for a late dinner. So now I’m feeling suitably replete and looking forward to sitting back, switching off my brain, and relaxing to a short spell of low-energy TV.

¡Qué día!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


The elusive Apple Watch device ID – cunningly concealed under the strap and just visible on this photo in microscopic print	An amazing parking manoeuvre – the truck delivering infrastructure for the cricket has managed to reverse the trailer into the grounds at an angle of more than 90 degrees. Goodness knows how the driver did it

Looking downriver to the Samuel Beckett bridge from the Talbot Memorial bridge as we walked across from Connolly station to Cervantes and Grafton Street	The Cervantes Institute in Lincoln Place – final visit tonight



Late summer colour on the shores of the Broadmeadow lagoon (as a southbound express train rumbles over the rail embankment behind)