I always try to see my primary school friends when home. We were an awesome (and obviously stunning) bunch of kids back in the day. Look at us, amazing!

Super great catching up with them all. I especially liked hearing about [Keith’s work](https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/biographies/keith-lambkin/] for Met Eireann (the Irish meteorological service) where he heads up their climate services division.

I had a chance to make mums tiramisu recipe and it came out really well. Probably because I nabbed most of dads golden rum. Apparently it wasn’t for cooking with. Who knew? ;)

And then all too soon it was time to leave back to NZ. It’s always hard leaving Ireland, and it doesn’t get any easier as ones parents get older.

Glendalough is a lovely spot to go for a walk. A glacial valley with a medieval monastic settlement in it. What’s not to love? My college friend Mick was keen for a bimble so off we went. It was great to stretch the legs, and the weather continued to be kind.

We attempted to re-create a photo that Mick had taken of my friends Glynn and Declan back in the day.

Probably needed the original there to really do the recreation justice! Still, a lovely walk. Pretty cool to see the deer just hanging out and not at all skittish. You’d never get that close to a deer in NZ as they’d be too worried of getting a bullet in the head.

Great to be back in Ireland – and especially great that the weather was still holding. Well, pretty great, we had a bit of fun with a smelly fridge when the milk which had been frozen (while we were away) split and then run down and out of the fridge, pooling in the evaporator tray. It was one of the more disgusting smells I’ve witnessed. No use crying over spilt milk, but, quite a lot of use in getting rid of it as quickly as you can. Gross.

Foxes were playing though, so, that was nice!

Went out for a short walk with my brothers’ family to a place a bit south of Wicklow. Just a few kms but some nice views and the seals were in town so that was fun.

I’d managed to miss this walk before, but, went for a lovely walk with my college friend Lorcan around Howth. Not sure we did it in it’s entirety, but, the bog of frogs loop was what we went for.

Just great views, nice weather, we dropped down to a couple of the beaches where there are some pools built up and some brave (foreign) souls were going for dips.

Caught up with some of my cousins for games and chats. I used to garden for my great aunt – and her place has been left to rot as it was bought at the height of the celtic tiger and seems like the owner is just sitting on it. I’m wondering if they have a plan to buy up my cousins place which is close by and then develop the entire section. They let it go so long that the council put a “notice of dereliction” or something on it. My cousins were kind enough to let them know so they cleared some of the jungle that had been let grow up. Still pretty jungley though! It’s simultaneously sad to see it in that state, and also quite impressive what mother nature can do in just a few decades.

We had a lovely few days hanging out at my Uncle’s place. They’re two of the most lovely gentle souls and they have a lovely cottage in the middle of Wiltshire, a very restful place to hang out.

I put openstreetmap to good use and found a lovely walk with so many little byways to go through. They really don’t make some of it obvious! And a really weird statue of ?hermes? bang in the middle of nowhere. No plaque, nothing. Very odd.

I was also gifted a very very warn and incomplete copy of Struwwelpeter, kinda a precursor to Cautionary Tales. Kids getting thumbs chopped off because they sucked them – that kinda thing. You can read a copy on gutenberg as it’s well out of copyright. Published in 1845!

Not sure I’ll ever read it to Anna, still gives me nightmares ;)

And with that, it was time to head back to Ireland for the final leg of the trip. Has been a wonderful holiday so far.

We had a couple of stops on the way to my Uncles in Wiltshire. Firstly we went to see Dad’s cousin David. Had a nice bimble around the village and out for a very nice lunch. David is 85 I think, and is still sailing this magnificent Thames sailing barge. These were basically the Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV’s) of the day. It’s a massive boat, but, because of its clever setup you can actually sail it with just two people. Amazing.

It’s available for hire if you want to go for a sail!

After that we headed on to see my niece who has been working as a conservator at Godinton House, a stunning house built in the 1400s? (though probably bits are older than that). Anyway, it was super cool to get a private viewing of the place and to be able to take our time. It was one of the more “fun” old houses I’ve visited, mainly because there’s so much stuff there. Basically all the old furniture and place-settings and paintings etc. are all there, so you really get a sense of what it might have been like to live there. Very cool.

After that, headed on down to Buxted to visit my maternal grandparent’s graves, and then on to have a delicious lunch with Margie – mum’s cousin. I think I got one of my (step)grandmothers old recipes for biscuits which I remember very fondly from childhood. Looking forward to trying them out.