Ireland day 1506. Wednesday 12 November 2025- Liquorice

Today’s summary	A busy day. Had a meeting in south Dublin first thing then on return had to get my iPhone fixed in a repair shop in Malahide. In the afternoon took the DART to Clontarf to collect some special Liquorice Allsorts from Lotts. Then went to the Westwood club next to the station for a guided tour. Kerrigans chicken and rice for dinner, and call with family in Vancouver.
Today’s weather	Overcast but dry in the morning. Heavy rain most of the afternoon and evening. Very light north easterly wind. Appx 10c

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 has been a day of many parts. When I woke up, I discovered that my iPhone, which I normally charge up overnight, had drained its battery completely. Try as I might, I couldn’t get it to charge at all. I even poked a needle into the charging socket to get the gunk out, but it still didn’t work. Fortunately I managed to charge it up using my Pixel phone battery-share function as a wireless charger, but that was only a temporary fix.

A more permanent resolution had a wait a bit though, as first I had to drive across Dublin for a meeting on the south side of the city. Despite heavy traffic both there and back, I had the meeting and was back by 11:30pm.

As I was driving round the M50, I got a very urgent call from Lott’s delicatessen in Clontarf. Last Sunday when we had visited before the Club walk, I had been unable to find any of my favourite (and ridiculously expensive) liquorice allsorts which they normally sell but which were out of stock. They took my details on Sunday and undertook to call me back if they got some in. Anyway the call today was to confirm that they had managed to find four packets and would I like them? Daft question. Of course I would!

But before we could embark on a collection trip to Clontarf, I first needed to get my phone fixed. Luckily I knew there was a good phone repairer just down the road here in Malahide. So I headed down to Ace Tech eStore and to my surprise and delight the repair man was able to fix it for €50. Quite expensive – but a lot less than a new phone. Brilliant service.

Once that was sorted there was just time to enjoy a Kerrigans chicken pie for lunch before dashing over to the station. We caught a convenient DART and were in Clontarf Road station before we knew it. By this time it was pouring down (and it still is six hours later) so we made our way over to Lott’s as quickly as we could to avoid getting soaked. The liquorice allsorts were collected (€6.25 a packet!!) and we dashed back towards the station

But before catching the train back, we thought we would drop in to the Westwood gym. It’s a huge sports facility right next door to the station and we thought we would go and have a look around. Once inside, we got a coffee and then one of the sales staff showed us round the extensive facilities (which includes one of Ireland’s only 50 metre swimming pools). We might even take up the offer of a free four day trial at some point.

Eventually we were finished so went back onto the station where we huddled in a tiny shelter with thousands of others who were all tying to escape the rain. The DART duly arrived and carried us back Malahide for about 5pm.

For dinner, Val had wisely stocked up on Kerrigan’s ready meals so we had stir fry chicken and delicious brown rice with cashew nuts that Val conjured up. A delicious and nutritious combination!

I also slotted in a 2 hour call to family in Vancouver, Canada. It was lovely to catch up. And now – yes we’re going to relax with a couple of episodes of “The Windsors”. What an eventful day!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


A sneak view into the cab of a DART train which was stopped in an adjoining siding as we took our own DART south. Lots to see and analyse if you are an aficionado of electric commuter trains (compare and contrast with the Japanese commuter train in Kyoto!)	The glamorous surroundings of Clontarf Road DART station in the cold November rain (cue the song)

Malahide’s resident iPhone repairer and generally excellent shop.



In the coffee lounge at the Westwood gym. I was especially fascinated by the giant 100inch 8K TV. We definitely need one.