So, I suppose you want to hear about my
holiday in Ireland, don’t you? Well, we’ll start on the Friday before I went:
Friday: Had a day off work. Got up early and went off to Rob’s for the last day of 3-day gaming and played Matt’s game. What I saw of it went very well. Mum and Dad arrived about 3 and we left Nottingham about 8ish.
Saturday: Went to Chelmsford for supplies and packed.
Sunday: Went to see Nan in the morning before picking Hazel up at 12:30 and jetting off from Stansted. Flight was OK but the landing was very much a Spitfire one (bouncy), apparently due to the short runway… Got picked up by Declan McGarry (former Olympic silver medallist showjumper) and went to the very nice guesthouse 5mins walk from the riding school, owned by a lady called Breege. Had very nice 3-course meal and met German girl Sybil, from Munich.
Monday: Met Kim (from Minnesota but studying MA Creative Writing in Middlesex) in morning at HUGE buffet-esque breakfast. She should have been picked up by Declan but got a taxi instead. Me, Hazel and Kim went for a walk in the fields (not with the cows, though) before wandering off to the Riding Centre to get horsed-up. My horse was Popper, a big Irish Hunter with the perfect temperament: docile but not lazy. Michael, our guide, was very much into talking to all the animals and singing to the horses, which was really good :D First, though, we did some trotting round the ménage before lunch and then some road walking. We ended up at the beach and did some trotting through the water, which was excellent! It was quite warm but not too hot, though my hips seized up causing me hideous pain and my hat was a little too tight so the heat got to me more than it should have. Of course, though my hips seized up while I was on the horse, once off I was fine, so I think I got the best deal :D In the evening we went to a traditional pub in Sligo and listened to folk songs.
Tuesday: I was sick: Guinness doesn’t like me. The Irish stuff is much more drinkable than the export, but the combination of phlegm-causing gloop and alcohol made me very sick and I couldn’t keep anything down. Still, I was fine on the horse and that was the point. We went down to the beach again (another one on the other side of Strandhill Spit) and did some trotting, but me and Kim decided we couldn’t manage the cantering (her knees weren’t up to it and I decided, while it might be good for my seized hips, it might also break them). I saw a crab though, which made up for it. Went home and slept and them bummed around watching TV (Springwatch) in the evening.
Wednesday: In the morning we climbed Knocknarea (on horseback) and poor Kim fell off onto her knee. At the top is supposedly Queen Maeve’s tomb. Popper decided to have a bit of a canter up the side of the mountain, but since Mich Star (Elizabeth from Dallas’ horse) had just done the same thing in front of him, I was ready for it. It was much more comfortable than walking up, as it was less jolting! Once at the top it was time for pictures, then we came down. Now, going up was worrying, especially after Wonderwall (Kim’s horse) had slipped, but coming back down was downright terrifying! So much so Wonder wouldn’t move and because Kim’s knees wouldn’t work, she couldn’t force him down so Michael had to lead him. Still, we all got down without further incident, and it was back for a quick toilet break (and to drop Kim off because her knee was swollen) and then back on the road.
And then the heavens opened. All that talk about Irish rain being soft is a lie. There was hail, thunder, lightning (which the horses handled very well, except Star who just played up), and when we got back me and Hazel tipped an inch (no really) of water out of each of our boots. This trip was through a forest to Markree Castle, and was really nice except for the excrutiating pain of seized hips and being soaked to the skin… Popper also decided to follow Rebel (Hazel’s mount) into the lorry with me on him, which drew some sarcastic comments :) In the evening we finally met Chris (Elizabeth’s husband: he only found out his passport had expired at the airport, so had to run around the US getting it sorted) and had some drinks in a very hot, crowded bar.
Thursday: Day off, which was good, as it meant our clothes and boots could dry out. We went to see the sights: Parkes Castle, Drumcliffe (Yeats’ grave), Glencar Waterfall and Sligo town centre, where we did some shopping. Then it was off to Strandhill for seaweed baths: so goooood! In the evening me, Hazel and Kim played cards.
Friday: Back on horseback for us all except Kim, whose knees weren’t up to it. We had to be in complete control of our mounts for this one because one wrong move and we’d kill ourselves… We soon found out why. We got driven to where we’d finished, at Markree Castle, and now in a significantly drier state journeyed towards Ballygawley Mountain and, at its top, Loch Lomond (the Irish one is much smaller). As we set out we saw a deer stag too! The paths up the mountain were treacherous: one wrong move and the horse would have stepped into a 2-foot-deep ditch-stream or peat sinking peat bog. It was good fun :D Declan brought lunch up in the van and we had cider and rolls before trekking back. Overall, it was a damn good 4-hour ride.
Well, apart from, as we came down back through the forest, we had to pass a bar-gate across the road. There was a little precipitous path beside it, so the horses stuck right over to the pole. Michael and Hazel missed it, Elizabeth caught it very lightly, I got whacked in the shin quite hard and so did Chris. This led to the following day’s events.
Saturday: With my shin in such a condition that I couldn’t even stand trousers on it, let alone tight jodhpurs and chaps, it was No Riding for me. Kim wasn’t up to anything either and Hazel decided the 5-hour beach ride would kill her already-on-the-edge ankles. Instead, we caught a lift with Declan into Sligo and did some more shopping, specifically going back to
Michael Quirke’s workshop, where we each received a free wooden gift :) We ate lunch in front of the abbey ruins, bought a few more presents and things and got a taxi back to the guesthouse, where I had a bath and packed some stuff. In the evening we went out to a very nice Italian restaurant where I had a strange starter (a pastry parcel filled with goat’s cheese, sundried tomatoes and basil), a gorgeous seafood pizza (no tuna, but lots of yummy shellfish) and a fantastic dessert (mint and chocolate icecream with something I can’t now remember!). There was some very nice white wine and a very good mocha in there too. We discovered that the day’s riding hadn’t gone too well: Wonder had done a runner with Chris and Elizabeth had been bucked off by Star, so we were glad we didn’t fall off in any water. Me and Hazel went home straight after because we were both knackered, and I fell asleep almost as soon as I got into bed!
Sunday: Hometime! We spent the morning packing and lazing around. We handed over gifts and cards to Declan and Breege before we all (including the Polish-Canadian Magda who had arrived Thursday evening) headed off to Knock airport. Magda was going on to Belfast, so we said our goodbyes and me, Kim and Hazel waited around for hours, perusing the airport gifts and generally being bored. Having followed the airport’s very dodgy systems for doing a lot of things, we successfully got on the plane and had a pleasant flight (and landing!) back to Stansted. Me and Hazel wished Kim good luck with her writing career and having collected our luggage, went to discover they’ve changed the parking fees (it’s no longer free for 15mins, but £1). I went back to Hazel’s house for a while as I had some of her stuff in my suitcase, had a gorgeous dinner of pie, chips and beans and drank tea before Daniel dropped me home. I then phoned Matt and discovered he’d been made redundant ::facepalm::
After coming back to Nottingham on the Monday it was back to work on the Tuesday. It’s not been so bad; provided people tell me exactly what they want I can get it done for them, but there’s been an awful lot of assumption in the office (or, rather, telling me what they want and expecting me to guess they actually want 3x as much done as they say and expect me to merely understand that). Still, it’s not been so bad and I’ve only got another 2 months or so before I move over to QS.
With Matt no longer at work things are a bit tighter. We’re OK for now, but we received our first electricity bill (for June ‘06 - September ‘06…) this weekend so I’m down to approx. £150 disposable cash per month, after essentials (food, Council Tax, etc.). I should also change all the Direct Debits and things over to my account so he doesn’t have to pay anything out. And I must make sure he stops the Standing Order to Just Lets after this month’s payment. Still, I’ve got a while to get it sorted.
There’s an awful lot of gaming and related stuff going on. I’m often gaming 5 nights a week (as of this week), leaving me Friday evenings and Saturdays to pack all my stuff up before we move house between the 1st and 6th August. I have to help people sort LARP stuff for next year (it’s turned into a committee-run thing, it seems, with me, Matt, Neil, Jason, Tabi and Matt Guthrie all chipping in). Having asked if they needed/wanted me anymore, Neil also said I could continue to go to committee meetings if I wanted to: not being an official committee member, I’m not sure if that’s technically allowed, but I’m going to carry on while I can, as I’m nosy.
Went to see Shrek the Third on Sunday, and I have to say, it’s very enjoyable.
Saturday I made my first mostly-successful roast dinner. Only the Yorkshires didn’t work out quite right and we’ve decided that, since the smallest amount of batter we can make is far too much for just Matt (I don’t eat them) and I won’t want 2-3 pancakes EVERY time, it’ll be easier just to buy the pre-made ones, heresy as it is.
Today I made an appointment at the doctors to get my shin looked at: more than two weeks on, it hasn’t really got any better since it stopped being so swollen and painful about a week after it happened. I emailed the NHS people and they sent me some very useful information on haematomae so I’ve made an appointment for just before Hazel’s do. Let’s hope it’s nothing too serious!
Sahha ohrain.