Ireland day 1542. Thursday 18 December 2025- Admining

Today’s summary	Had a relatively quiet day and used the time to catch up on a load of admin duties and to plan for January. Fitted in a walk around the Demesne with Val at lunchtime, and some recycling in the evening. Fajitas again for dinner because they are delicious.
Today’s weather	Mostly overcast but dry in the morning. Heavy rain later in the afternoon and evening. Moderate southerly 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): Quick walk round the Demesne before the rain

Commentary

Just living seems to take up so much time! Inbetween exploring and generally having adventures, occasionally even we have to take time out to deal with the backlog of administrative tasks that accumulates, unwanted, while we’re busy doing those other more interesting things.

Today was one of those days. We knew there was a lot to be done once we got up, so we delayed the evil hour as long as possible, with numerous cups of tea and breakfast snacks in bed. And then when we did eventually rise, we put off the bureaucratic challenge a bit longer, and went out for a quick canter around the Demesne. We gave ourselves the excuse that the forecast for later in the day was poor, so if we wanted to go out, we better do it sooner rather than later. Anyway, it was a good walk, and the fresh air set us up well for the tasks ahead.

When we got back, we could put it off no longer, so we fired up the computer and printer and got down to work. We eventually made quite good progress though we did have to be sustained with boiled egg on toast (thanks to Val!) midway.

Finally, we had done as much as we could and downed tools. There’s still more to do, but it felt like we broke the back of it today, and the rest can be finished tomorrow (or the day after).

By this stage it had started pouring down, which was unfortunate as we needed to go to the shops to do some recycling and to get some dry cleaning done. We braved the elements anyway, and got everything done before beating a path back to the flat and the radiators to get everything dry again.

Although it was still early, the rain and gloom outside made it feel like the middle of the night. So we shut the blinds, fired up the central heating, and turned on the TV. We decided to watch “Maria” on Netflix, a story about the late opera singer Maria Callas and her relationship with the hallucinatory drug Mandrax in her declining years. Quite interesting although not cheerful.

To accompany our viewing Val made fajitas using Kerrigans stir fry beef and sauce, and it was excellent, as usual. On the side, we also had some baked Jerusalem Artichoke which will no doubt have its usual volcanic consequences but hopefully not until after we are asleep.

Normal business resumes tomorrow!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Looking across the hurling pitches toward the castle. Another grey day	Val characteristically unable to resist the opportunity to fit in a spot of upper-body strength training

*Sweet Box (Sarcococca hookeriana) giving the air near the tree-fern drive a heady scent*	Sarcococca berries form later in the spring, once the flowers have finished, and can persist (like these have) until the next winter. They aren’t poisonous “but are best left uneaten”

The wooden treestump elk near the castle needs a bit of antifungal medication, I fear	Stand back and light the blue touchpaper

Magic bottle eating money machine in the basement car park under SuperValu