Bull Wall

I hadn't been out in the car since Monday, but each day since I've made a point of starting it up and leaving the engine running until the widows cleared of ice. That didn't work yesterday afternoon, though, when all I got out of my little Andy were a couple of hoarse coughs and then some ticking noises as the electrics went a bit bonkers. It was 2.15 at that stage, and I didn't see much point in calling in the cavalry to do their jump-start business, so I did my walk-to-station-and-DART-in-to-town thing]. I called the insurance company first thing this morning, though, and the Customer Service van duly arrived at 11.00-ish. A quick umbilical connection to Andy's innards and all was well again. My saviour told me to leave the engine running for half an hour or so (my own recent efforts have probably been too short to do any good), so I did that.

As I stood chatting with my next-door neighbour and kept an eye on the car to make sure nobody ran away with it, I quickly realised what a really lovely morning it was. True enough, there was a bit of a snow shower earlier on, but that only lasted about ten minutes and now the sun was shining, there was actually some heat in it, and the driveway between our houses was thawing even as the neighbour cleared the snow and ice away. So I decided to give the car and its battery a treat and go for a drive to a spot where I could get in a decent bit of a walk. I still needed to drive cagily along the roads in our estate, but things were fine once I got to a main road and I was able to drive without any problems down the Malahide Road and along Fairview to the Clontarf seafront. I parked beside the Clontarf Bus Station and went a-walking. It was a bit misty this close to the sea, but it was still very, very pleasant.

My first encounter was with a couple of swans, who seemed quite content dipping their heads into the icy water and scooping up the not-so-nice-looking water. After meeting them, I walked as far as the Bull Wall, and immediately decided to continue along the entire length of the Wall and back again. It was glorious! The temperature was noticeably higher than yesterday or the day before, and, just as I'd felt at home, there was actually some heat in the sun. I stopped to examine an abandoned tissue, took several photographs of the old familiar stacks of the Pigeon House, and finally made it to the end of the Bull Wall. I was far from alone, encountering on the way other strollers and cyclists and joggers and runners, and here under the watchful eye of the Star of the Sea monument I met two elderly gentlemen as they stopped for a bit of a stroll interlude.

The walk back to the car was equally pleasant, and the improvement in the road conditions was very evident. I was walking for an hour and a half (one of the best and most satisfying walks in a long time, and one which is bound to do medical good), and in that time things had changed at the end of the wooden bridge from this to this. After the long walk I felt like treating myself a little bit, so stopped off at The Yacht. This used be one of the Northside pubs, but it seemed to fall on hard times over the last few years and became run-down and much less frequented. It's now been renovated and re-opened (presumably under new management), so I was intrigued to see what it's like. I'm glad I stopped. The Yacht it very pleasant inside, and the soup and sandwich which I had was very good indeed. They were busy too, perhaps with people who, like me, were interested in seeing what's been done with the place. I'd say they, like me, will be back again.

So, a really great day, highly enjoyable and invigorating. It wasn't easy decided which of the many blip-possibles to promote into a blip-actual, but this one finally won out because it best sums up the flavor of the day.