I haven’t been to Donegal in a long long while.  Probably the last time I was there when I was just out of college (but still hanging around the climbing club) and went to Gola which has some truly incredible rock climbing.  Just sharp granite which doesn’t get climbed on much, sheer into the water.  I used to have some pics somewhere, but, can’t find them any more.  Hey ho.  I lost my trangia (cooking pot) there, because I thought that the waves were doing a pretty good impression of a dishwasher, and that if I left them there I wouldn’t have to do any dishes.  They never came back.  Drink may have been taken.

Anyway, I had an absolutely lovely week there with my family, including all my siblings, which is a rare occurrence and super lovely (as I’ve grown older, I realise how rare and special it is to be able to spend (and want to spend) an entire week with your family)…

Walks were walked, swims were had, Guinness was drunk, games were played, sights were seen.  It was super super lovely.  Pain in the arse that life is so fleeting, but, it does make these times all the more special.

There’s something about the friends you go through college (and school) with.  Those friendships seem to stick around, and it doesn’t really matter how often you see them, or how long the times between, for some friends it’s just straight back to where you were and you can just chat about whatever.  It’s the one of the main downsides of living so far away from where you grew up – not being able to see some of these friends more often.  Hey ho, makes it all the more fun when you are back :)

Anyway, had a nice brunch with Myra at Kilruddery which was a frankly awesome little spot I’d never visited before.  I would totally get a pass if I was living in Dublin (well, South Dublin anyway).  Really nice place to just be in.

Then in the afternoon, I walked to Dun Laoghaire along the metals with Lorcan. Really nice walk, brought us through Dalkey quarry which was where I first learned to climb outdoors many many moons ago. Pretty cool having a crag like only ~30 mins from the city centre.

It was a great day for a walk, not too hot, not too cold. Lorcan was showing me how many petawatts of power he was getting from his solar panels, good times. And of course, an obligatory 99 (soft vanilla ice-cream with a flake) at Teddys once we got to Dun Laoghaire.

The Bray air display is … wait for it… a display, of airplanes (and heliboppers). About a bazillion people go there to view it (free day out), but, the roads and trains are pretty chocca. Matt and Róisín and I walked in from Shankill, not too far and quite a nice way to stretch the legs.

The air show was pretty cool. There were …. planes. Big ones, small ones. They went zoom, and nnneeeeooouuuummmmm and had smoke coming out the backs (apparently they weren’t on fire, it’s ok).

No, it was pretty incredible the stuff they could do… the speeds and the closeness of the aircraft – just amazingly skilful

I’m probably repeating myself, but, it’s funny how distances get so much smaller as you age, at least things which were unimaginably long distances become just a decent walk.

This walk for example, probably a couple of hours, maybe less, would have seemed so so far when I was growing up, and now it’s just a nice way to stretch the legs.  This chimney used to be used for smelting lead, we used to have “wide games” (things like capture the flag etc.) as kids in scouts.  Running around in the forest up by the chimney, ripping wool (lives) off people’s arms and trying to capture a flag.  So much fun, no idea if these kinds of things are even allowed any more.  Hopefully they are! (probably they are?)

Maaike very kindly offered to let me take full advantage of being remote and to stay on in Europe for a few weeks.  She headed back to NZ with Anna (and Anna got the most gigantic ice-cream from the local shop when we said we were heading back… she was utterly stoked).

Anna travels pretty well now (all screen time restrictions are lifted on planes..), but, it’s still a massive effort for Maaike to look after Anna for a few weeks on her own.  I have no idea how single parents do it.

I packed up a box of goodies to take back to Ireland… (NL does nibbly things very well, and of course cheeses).  We flew out of Schiphol airport at the same time.  We said our goodbyes and went to our separate checkin areas.  Very very fortunately they all led back to the same area ultimately, and, by complete chance we went through the scanners + departure at the same time.  Good thing we did too, because otherwise Maaike might not have been allowed to travel with Anna!  Schiphol has a policy for children and if it’s just one parent travelling on their own you have to fill this in (we didn’t know, so, hadn’t).  If I’d got an earlier flight and was non-contactable, well, I just don’t know what would have happened!

Anyway, all’s well as ends well, and we all travelled safely home and Michelle had a lovely welcoming sign for them!