The surveyor

A great day. Lunch in Alexis in Dün Laoghaire. So much better than last night's meal in Kinara. I enjoyed the ham terrine starter more than Carl did. My intriguing main course of haddock in fillo pastry was utterly delicious, and I was glad I went for that and not the slow roasted pork which Carl had and which turned out to be pork bely (too fatty for my diet). Carl enjoyed it, though. We both had Cinnamon bavarois on a stewed apple base (okay, but not up to the other two courses). excellent value at 22 euro for the three courses. Of course we had cocktails to start, a bottle of Pinot Grigio, and a couple of (not all that good) Irish Coffees. All in all, a hugely enjoyable experience.

From there we went to the Forty Foot bar to enjoy the afternoon sun on the terrace. Before that, I just had to blip the pet shop across the road from the restaurant. The Forty Foot terrace turned out to be the perfect spot to watch the goings-on down below, and to bemoan the dreadful mess the local council has made of covering in the railway track. No doubt this is intended to be an amenity, but it's turned out to be nothing more than an eyesore of a concrete wasteland.

Lunch had been too nice to turn grumpy, though. We thoroughly enjoyed the pleasant weather and our pints, our whole pints, and nothing but our pints in the company of this remarkably unflappable pigeon and this young man who was quite intrigued by all the blipping that was going on beside him.

Back at Carl's place afterwards we tested Google's instant messaging and Skype video chatting in readiness for keeping in touch when Carl goes to the US on business. I was back home around 8.30 pm, utterly content after a really good day.

Big pigeon