Ireland day 1534. Wednesday 10 December 2025- Progressing

Today’s summary	Spent the morning working on the missing document problem and assembling the Ikea armchair we bought yesterday. Val got a flu vaccination then we had poached egg for lunch and a trip into Dublin in the afternoon. I gott some waterproof trousers and Val got some musical equipment. We were successful so had refreshments at Laduree. Train back then Kerrigans stir fry and TV in the evening.
Today’s weather	Dry and bright with high cloud. Light westerly 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) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): About Town Shopping

Commentary

The saga of the missing documents continued once I got up this morning. I spent half an hour in the phone trying to sort something out. I had partial success in that the issue may be resolved in mid January next year. Very frustrating but better then than never.

Once the frustrating part of the day was out of the way, I started on the next challenge – which had the potential also to be frustrating. The job was to assemble the flat-pack armchair we bought yesterday at Ikea. As these self assembly kits are notorious for being complicated and for having key bits missing, I was a bit apprehensive.

Anyway it went surprisingly well and an hour later we proudly commissioned a fully operational brand new armchair and footstool. A fine addition to our sitting room.

While I was busy with the Allen keys, Val was at the chemist getting her flu vaccination. Having seen how I got hit last week, she wasn’t keen to go through the same, so is taking sensible precautions. Once back, she made an impromptu meal of poached egg on toast with guacamole. Fabulous.

In the afternoon, we both needed to go into Dublin to get some shopping. So we made our way down to the station and got onto the first Dart that came into the platform. Once at Tara Street, we walked across town to Temple Bar and sought out the Paul Ryan Woodwind instrument shop in Eustace Street (it’s right next door to the IFI). Val wanted to get some bits of musical infrastructure (she was successful) and I had a look round this fascinating Aladdin’s Cave of a shop.

Next, we headed to Great Outdoors in Great George’s Street Street so I could search out some waterproof overtrousers to replace my old pair which have failed so spectacularly. Like Val, I was also successful in my quest, which was a bit of a result as for some reason, overtrousers are always a bit hard to find.

To celebrate our retail triumphs, on the spur of the moment we dropped into the Laduree café on William Street where we had cups of tea and shared a croissant and brioche with bacon. Very satisfactory and will probably keep us going until late this evening.

After that, we had a quick look in some of the shops on Grafton Street, then walked over to Pearse and caught a train back to Malahide. A successful trip, all round.

Once back in the flat, we unpacked our acquisitions and prepared a Kerrigans stir fry for dinner. Although we’re still processing the croissant and brioche, so may hold off a bit before actually eating.

Now I’m going to stop. I’m still quite tired from the flu, and am coughing a bit. So we’re going to turn on the tv and find something entertaining to watch. Then flip a coin to see who gets to try out the new seat first!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Here we have it. An armchair	Classic Dublin view (the pub, that is, not us)

The Hoxton. A new semi-upmarket hotel in Exchequer Street. I think it’s this chain’s first foray into Ireland	Rather delicious afternoon tea in Laduree



Inside the musical treasure-trove of Paul Ryan Woodwind in Eustace Street