Ireland day 1557. Friday 02 January 2026- Tax and Chill

Today’s summary	Another cold sunny day but spent the morning inside doing tax while Val went on a run. When she was back, we jointly finished it off then Val made an excellent lunch of serrano ham and salad with prunes and custard to follow. Went on a walk over the hill in the afternoon but too cold even to enjoy refreshments on the coast on the way back. In the evening we had an Indian takeaway from “Kajjal” and finished off watching “The Night Manager” on the TV
Today’s weather	Sunny and dry with bright blue skies. Moderate north westerly wind. Appx 3c

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): Chill on the Hill

Commentary

I was going to start this blog by observing that today has definitely been the coldest of the year so far. But I realised that would be pretty unremarkable as it’s only the second of January. But nevertheless, however you gauge it, today was pretty chilly.

So we had our breakfast as usual and then, undeterred by the cold (but perhaps deterred by the alternative of doing the tax return), Val pulled on her sports gear and trotted off to the Demesne for a run. I, meanwhile, fired up the dreaded tax spreadsheet and set about filling in some of the gaps that I’d left yesterday.

By the time Val got back, I’d filled in all but the most intractable ones so I enlisted Val’s help in tying up the final loose ends. She being somewhat better organised than me, soon found the missing figures. So we were able to complete the spreadsheet and send it off to our accountant. He will check it then submit it to our friends the Revenue Commissioners who will in turn scrutinise it and send us the bill. It seems so illogical that you should do all this work and then have to pay the Government for the privilege of having done it. Still, it’s exactly the same pretty much the world over I guess.

With the nightmare that is tax put to bed for the time being, we sat down to lunch. Val pulled together a Serrano ham salad with prunes and custard to follow (yes we’re still eating up from Christmas) which was delicious.

After a quick interlude for coffee, we donned our warmest jackets hats and scarves and set out to go on a short walk. Displaying a distinct lack of imagination, we just went up to the top of Paddy’s Hill and then down to the coast at Portmarnock. But in what was a definite departure from the norm, we didn’t stop to enjoy Spar-bought refreshments on the beach, because it was just too cold and windy.

Instead we just ploughed on back to Malahide and tried to get back as quickly as we could. It’s a curious feature of the Irish east coast that no matter which way you walk along it, there is always a headwind. That was of course true today and because the temperature was relatively low, it actually felt quite unpleasant. So much so that when we arrived at Malahide I called in at Tesco as much to seek temporary refuge from the weather as to do any actual shopping.

Eventually we were both safely back in the flat, the central heating was on, and the takeaway menus were on the table. So, once we’d had the cup of tea that the weather in Portmarnock had denied us, and spent a few moments planning some more of this month’s comings and goings, we selected our dishes – it’s curry tonight – then Val puttered off to get them while I got back on the computer to do a post-hoc review of our tax calculation just to make sure we hadn’t got anything wrong. It all looks OK for the time being, at any rate.

The curry (a “Kajjal” restaurant special) duly arrived so we tucked in while watching another episode of “Chef’s Table”. I’m finding it surprisingly interested and am glad that we came across it. Finally, as we are getting towards the closing drama of “Night Manager”, I think we will fire up Amazon so we can watch the final couple of episodes and see how it ends.

Actually we know how it ends because we have seen it so many times before. But there’s always that hope that this time you will spot something, a nuance or a clue, that you’d never noticed before and which will change the whole tenor of the final episode. Well there’s only one way to find out.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Last day of “Wonderlights” at the castle today – and the last day of the old “Grease” Ferris Wheel	The Gate Lodge on Seamount Road is still for sale according to the sign outside, but the O’Farrell Cleere website says it’s sold. I suspect they will have had to drop the price quite a lot, as much of the woodwork is rotten, and it needs a lot of work. Looks nice, though.

The sun barely rolls along the horizon at this time of year. but it’s getting higher in the sky every day now	Making the best of the view, despite the chill, on the top of Paddy’s Hill

*Low tide on Lithostrotion* beach – with Ireland’s Eye in the background on the horizon**	Our fifth season of Alexanders is just beginning to show its face to the winter sun

I’d never noticed these composting bins before, in the park alongside Ashley Rise. Perhaps they’re new. Anyway, it’s good to see the composting process in action and being well organised.