Ireland day 1533. Tuesday 09 December 2025- Poang

Today’s summary	Spent the morning on a phone call to a friend in Scotland and continuing to chase down the documents that An Post has lost. Hard to tell if I made any headway. Then went to Tesco Clare Hall to get some provisions and drove on to Ikea at Ballymun to buy a flat-pack “Poang” easy chair. Had lunch there and afterwards spent the evening watching TV in the flat while storm Bram rattled around outside
Today’s weather	Mostly overcast and showery, with some brighter intervals. Gale force southerly wind.
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

It’s been quite a busy day today, and a lot more productive than the last few. There were a few reasons for that. Firstly, I am continuing to recover from flu, although some way off being 100% still. Second because Val was home so I couldn’t just blob about feeling sorry for myself. Third simply because there were a lot of things that needed doing and couldn’t be put off. And fourth because I took the mental decision to stop fretting so much about missing documents, and to spend some time doing other, more enjoyable, things as well.

Starting the day, at 9:30, Val had a voice conference organised, se we had a quick cup of tea first then she headed into the sitting room to do that. I used the time while she was otherwise occupied to have a phone chat with a friend in Scotland. It was very enjoyable, as these things usually are, although we did seems to spend a large part of the conversation trying to decide where the weather was the more awful at the moment – Scotland or Ireland. I think we declared it a draw.

After Val and I had both finished our calls, I spent a bit longer working on the documents that AnPost had lost, and as part of that made a brief trip into Malahide.  Then we jumped in the Yaris and drove down to Tesco Clare Hall to get some provisions for the week to come. We did our chores fairly quickly – it’s not really a place to linger – then drove on a bit further, round the M50 to visit Ikea at Ballymun.

For the last four-plus years in our flat in Malahide, we have been making do with the furniture provided as part of our tenancy. But we have at last decided that enough is enough.   The seats – particularly in the sitting room – are super uncomfortable and life really is too short to put up with them any longer. So we went to IKEA to see if we could find something a bit better.

I was a bit worried that the store might have been mobbed by families out Christmas shopping, but that wasn’t the case today. The kids were all at school, I guess, and parents at work, and in any case it’s probably still too early for the main festive shopping rush to have started.

We had a good look round and finally decided on a “Poang” easy chair in white birch, with a matching footstool. It looked quite nice in the shop but to my horror, it came flat packed. Which means I now know exactly how my next few evenings are going to be filled. Anyway, we only bought one today, as it was quite expensive (€325). We thought we would try it out first and then buy its pair at a later date if we liked it.

Flush with the success of our purchase, we treated ourselves to a salad lunch in the in-store café. We like it in there, especially when it’s quiet. It’s light and airy, the food is good value, and there are good views across Dublin to the mountains.

By the time we had eaten and loaded our stuff into the car, evening was falling. So we drove home mostly in the dark, with the car being battered this way and that by the gusts of storm Bram. It also took us quite a long time to drive all the way back. The traffic jam was solid pretty much all the way from Tesco Swords as far as the entrance to the Casino and just that last stretch took us about 40 minutes.

Now we are back, we are starting to think about getting dinner. But given that we have only just eaten, I think it will probably be something unchallenging like beans on toast. And then – yes – it’s time to look out my screwdrivers!

Wish me luck!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)

Clare Hall Shopping Centre.   Tesco is upstairs, up a long inclined trolley-friendly travelator.   It’s OK and has most of the things you might need, but there is nothing there that might encourage you to stay any longer than absolutely necessary	Ready to do battle with Ikea (though in my case I do admit it looks as if it will be more like germ warfare)
Hmmm.   What happens now?

Interactive map

(No map today)

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