Dublin be done. We thought we might be hard pressed to find things to do for a 5 week stay - but by purchasing the Heritage Cards from the OPW / Office of Public Works, we've been run off our feet with new places to see. Between the weekend city-breakers, the people coming to town to do their Christmas shopping and the plethora of language schools that proliferate in the city, Dublin seems to be more and more peoply by the day. We were both looking forward to some countryside solitude! We packed, cleaned and did all the final stuff and a fond farewell to the kittens (who are now all grown up) then wheelie'd our bags down the road to the cab rank and tootled to Heuston Station. On Saturday 30 Nov - it could well have been rechristened Grand Central Dublin. It was packed! Positively Hunger Games meets Musical chairs - we finally found a spot to make camp as we are congenitally incapable of not being early for trains and planes. As the big trains pulled in from Galway and Cork and Waterford, the crowds would swell then ever so slightly decrease as the waiting passengers loaded in and headed off. We were joining the train to Galway, found our seats (very techo trains - actually had our names in the LED readout at our seats!) It was scheduled to take 1 hour 30 minutes, so we dived right in to our Thermos lunch (chicken curry, rice, veges - mega-yum). Had a chocolate and then read for the rest of the trip - only ran 10 minutes behind schedule - which was enough for our pre-booked station taxi to go back to town. Fortunately he was back within another 5 minutes. It was a well-oiled military operation actually. We had a night booked at a family run hotel that's been in business for 80 odd years - speaking of well oiled! Lovely big and warm room. Pottered around town, hard to believe it's dark by 4.30 pm - always seems to be later than it is. We had a table pre-booked for dinner as we'd paid for the dinner/bed/breakfast package. A truly ridiculous amount of food as it turns out. Even had to have a doggy bag from my main course popped in the fridge - so I could fit in dessert. Can't believe how people can actually eat these massive servings and still get up from the table. Not a great night's sleep but still it was nice to decompress from the Dublin stay and refresh for the next one.

We were picked up on the 1st of Dec and introduced to our new house, our little dog and the countryside - one of the largest and nicest homes we've looked after over the years. The family finally left for the airport the following morning. We want to avoid having to grocery shop every five minutes (it's a 20 minute drive to town) so did a truly epic visit to Lidl on the Tuesday. Took forever to shop and unload. The week was spent on a bit of sightseeing (the Clonmacnoise monastic centre - €8 each - but free with our Heritage Cards, Shannonbridge fortifications, a stroll around the town of Athlone). We also cooked up a storm with our supplies so that we had easy to reheat dinners and easy to 'Thermos' lunch food for outing days.

Speaking of storms - We were in Ireland years ago for Storm Ophelia (which was originally a Hurricane but got downgraded when it made landfall). It was a whopper and we had no mains power for 10 odd days - but a small generator - so all was well). 'Lo and behold, Storm Darragh came in hard and fast after a week in our new place. I thought it was going to be a bit of a fizzer to be honest. What do I know! The house lost power at about 11 pm on the Friday night, so it was vewy, vewy quiet indeed on the Saturday morning. Thankfully we have an excellent stove and tonnes of turf for burning in the kitchen - and a wetback or as they say here, a back boiler - so there'll be hot water in due course. The dog's not bothered - he's in his usual spot in front of the fire, the chooks aren't bothered - their door operates by battery and they're happily scratching in their run. We have a kettle on the stove and pre-made lasagne and veges in an oven dish sitting on the stove and heating up for lunch. Dinner is Chicken, Mushroom and White wine casserole/pasta and is defrosting in the sun on the windowsill. All is well here at the Big(little) House on the Prairie.

Blessings! The lights all flashed on at about 3 pm on the Saturday - then went out after a few seconds… At 4.15 pm - just prior to the sun setting we had the power back on - so off altogether for less than 24 hours. We have instructions on the generator now… just in case we have another big storm in the next 6 weeks (there's been 2 in the space of one week… Storms Bert and Darragh - so it's not without precedent). As I write this on Tuesday there are still households throughout Ireland without power - so we were very, very lucky indeed.

Sunday was a calm day and we took the little fellow for a walk at Clonbrock Desmesne. Which is essentially pronounced Domain. Of course it is. That was a nice leg stretch - but Monday 9 December brought about the big Kahuna - We planned ahead the night before, got up at 6.30 am (remember sun rise is 8.17 am… seriously darkie-dark at 6.30 am!) and packed up a hot thermos lunch, coffee, cookies and hit the road in a hard, hard frost to visit the Cliffs of Moher (pronounced More. Of course they are.) Fantastic drive as the sun rose over the loughs (lochs = lakes), hills and fields and arriving at 10.20 am we had a peaceful experience before the hordes of coaches pulled in - 5 coaches at 50 per coach = 250 odd people! We had seen some nifty things on the drive through, sticking to the Rural roads or 'R' roads to enjoy the scenery. We returned to Kilmacduagh Abbey and monastic settlement for lunch - amazing to have historic remnants from the 600s just there and able to be explored. We were definitely keen for our beef, red wine, mushroom hot lunch and a coffee by then. We explored the town of Gort on the way back and had our thermos refilled so we were able to stop by the lake in Loughrae for coffee and the sunset on the return drive - just gorgeous. The remnants of the morning frost were regenerating by then and we made it home shortly after dark and got the fire lit. The water was already gorgeously hot due to the solar panels being fed blazing sunshine all day. This is a fabulous house for contingencies that is for certain.

Tuesday was, not surprisingly, a rest day. In hindsight, the Cliffs was too much in one day.

Wednesday 11 December - We ticked Galway City off our 'to do' list visiting Shop Street, the Christmas Market in Eyre Square, strolling down to the waterfront, lots of op shops. Very festive city. But the traffic. OMG, the traffic. Everyone likes to bleat about traffic but it actually was a nightmare driving in and a hellscape on the way out. Nice to visit - once. It was a very late lunch by the time we got out and we ate in the shadow (if the sun had been shining) of the church ruins in Monivea.

Thursday 12 December - We are staying at a friend's place in Galway while they're in Australia and after our trip to the Cliffs of Moher we figured that it was just too far to head to Newgrange (minimum 2 'Google' Hours drive) spend 2-3 hours there and then another 2 google hours drive back. But we really wanted to visit Newgrange, especially with our Heritage Cards for free entry, so googled 'Hotels close to Newgrange who take Dogs' - WOW! Best of fortune that saw us find Bellinter House - that not only took our booking with a chihuahua/Jack Russell for a fee of €20 - but was also OUTSTANDING! Locked and loaded we left home around 9 am and made it to Newgrange at 12 noon - we had a look at the fascinating exhibition and then headed to the Newgrange monument in the little shuttle bus - wow. Stunned. Have seen this in documentaries and pictures and heard about the sunrise on the winter solstice - but nothing actually prepared us for stepping through the passage tomb entrance for the first time. The thought these days is that it is more of a neolithic cathedral than a tomb. Quite astounding. We had another look at the exhibition, bought postcards, had lunch in the picnic area, then strolled through the town of Slane, drove onwards to the Hill of Tara then, finally, off to our lodgings for the night. We were in the stables (AKA the dog friendly suites) - which was significantly nicer than it sounds. Before dinner we nipped over to the Spa area to use the hot tub under the stars - we soaked for a good while, well past prune state. We ordered the fish and chips with chunky chips and the burger with chunky chips. Also loved the vintage Art Deco furnishings in the room - glorious, big, stylish furniture and crisp white linens and soft, fluffy pillows (again a bugbear - so often hotels just keep using pillows long after they've died and gone to pillow purgatory). If it was possible to nick furniture, I probably would have liberated the entire room. Dinner, drinks, bed. Slightly tiddly.

Friday 13th December - Would I normally plan a roadtrip on a Black Friday? Probably not, but these things happen. Up and at at 'em. With the midweek deal, the room, dinner and drink were all included as well as breakfast. We could have had the full irish - but decided on the poached eggs, smoked salmon and avocado option. Incredible value. It was a massive serving and gave us enough for lunch sandwiches of brown bread, poached egg and salmon and of course, the thermos full of coffee from our Nespresso machine in the room. We finally left at 12 noon and headed to the town of Trim for a look at the exterior of the castle and walk around the high street shops. Braveheart was filmed here - who knew? From Trim it was a long, long drive home and we finally made it to Roscommon Castle - ended up eating our posh poached sandwich 'lunch' at about 4 pm - and made it home by 5 pm or so. The chickens had already put themselves to bed safely. All was well. Big couple of days. Huge.

Saturday 14 December - Christmas is just around the corner - like 10 days around the corner - so it was definitely time to visit a small, local Christmas market. We picked Aughrim's Christmas Fair & Craft - wow - what did we not buy? Not much. What did we actually get - A bottle of fresh pressed apple juice from the Rectory's apple trees - some Spelt bread, some Black Treacle bread, a massive porter cake, a book and a Yankee Candle (we love them, but never buy them - obviously someone had received one and not liked the scent - good for us). Happy Days! That's our bit for the local economy and a nice, relatively short drive - only 20 minutes. Like 'next door' in terms of living out in the countryside. Leaving the chickens for 2 days to visit Newgrange meant 8 eggs for us. We have 4 girls working hard and 2 freeloaders. Or everybody laying eggs but taking it in turns. Nobody knows. We enjoyed the market at Aughrim so much so that we visited another Christmas market on the Sunday - but these things are starting to price themselves out of our market - €5 for a raffle? I'd rather chuck money at the Euromillions! Speaking of - €75 million on Tuesday night - surely, surely it has our name on it this week.

Monday 16 December - Dawned fine enough. Fine is actually pretty rare - so far the only blue sky and sunshine day was when we visited the Cliffs of Moher - but 'fine enough' was sufficient for a drive to the town of Roscommon. We parked at the castle and walked up and down Main Street - bit of a hunt at the local charity shops, a few bits of fruit and vege at the local Supervalu. It all ended up being too peoply and we eventually trundled back to the castle parking lot and had our hot thermos lunches and a stroll around the pond, park and castle. A couple of rainy days are on the agenda now and it will be good to do some home catch ups - load the turf into the ready use basket, do some laundry, some cooking, some mending and so forth.

Tuesday-Wednesday 17-18 December - We had a couple of easy days and on the Wednesday we went into 'town', Ballinasloe for a trot around the shops. We bought a Christmas raffle ticket from the SPCA and went to Tesco for a Christmas booze stock up and some groceries.

Thursday 19 December - We only knew of the town of Tuam in the context of the Mothers and Babies home scandal - which is a pretty sad thing for a town to be known for. We had a short visit, found the public loos (vital in Ireland - seriously - the last easy to find loos are at Dublin Airport when you arrive). We continued on to Cong and had a long walk in the woods, climbed the tower, enjoyed our picnic lunch, walked around town, checked out the abbey and the ruins and then returned home, via Tuam. We all had a great day out - including Don - who is perpetually surprised a the distances we go exploring and is now focussed on piddling all over Ireland.

Friday 20 December - It was Turkey day here in Ireland (the fresh turkeys were all in the shops) so we devoted the morning to our Christmas food shopping. When we were at the Aughrim market James picked up a postcard for the Ballinasloe area which had a picture of Kilconnell Abbey. This of course meant we had to go and visit the abbey - it was surprisingly well maintained for a ruin and people are still being buried as they go into the family plots. Quite lovely to see the abbey as the sun was setting. We continued on to Loughrea for a proper look around town (we were on our way home from the Cliffs of Moher last time and it was a very brief look). Friday night is a big night in Loughrea as it turned out - all the shops were still open, the Christmas lights were twinkling and we discovered the town moat. We never made it to the thrift store at the far end of town, but started there this time and finally broke the hoodoo and found some gold earrings - along with some silver and signed vintage earrings - 7 nice pairs in total to add to my collection - quite the record.

Saturday 21 December - Loughrea once more - it has a lovely feel about it next to the water and we have done some more research into the town moat. Great that it has been preserved. We visited the Cathedral to see their stunning stained glass windows, the medieval town gate and the potato market - fascinating. We took daytime pictures by the truckloads. Our second town today was Athenry. We figured possibly pronounced like Athens. At worst 'Aten-ree' but no - luckily we didn't say it out loud to anyone - Aten-Rye is the correct pronunciation. Hmmm. The castle was closed for the season but we had a walk around it and the old abbey and a section of the old town walls. We ate our lunch at the castle with a nice outlook and had a walk up and back along the main street.

Sunday 22 December - Today's excursion was to Mountbellew Walled Garden/Forest walk. It was a stunningly nice day but the wind was coming off snow and ice somewhere. We enjoyed a good walk - 8000 steps all up but felt like further in the icy wind. We were certainly happy to get back to the car. We stopped in at our neighbours to drop off some eggs (the ladies are outdoing themselves) and ended up having a whiskey and natter for a while - not as though we're pressed for time.

Monday 23 December - Ho Ho Ho - Christmas week is upon us and seems to have come along quickly - hard to believe we've been out in the country, trotting about on day trips, overnight adventures and even had a power cut in the space of just over 3 weeks. Today's adventure and car-nic (picnic in the car) was a drive to the town of Portumna (apparently from Port Omna - which gives a hint to pronunciation at least). Sweet little town at the top of Lough Derg and a huge draw for watersport enthusiasts in the warmer months (apparently). We parked at Castle Harbour, walked into the main street via an exploration of the the Friary ruins, had a treasure hunt at a couple of thrift stores and pottered back to the car for our hot lunch, our coffee and a couple of chocolates. It was pouring when we left the car so Don had no interest in coming out of his crate (in fact, refused point blank) but it was fine when we returned so he had a stretch, scared the ducks and kept us company for lunch. Next stop was the town of Birr with a very impressive, very private and very expensive to visit Castle. Birr Castle - obviously. An almost perfectly preserved Georgian town apparantely and it was certainly bustling in the lead up to Christmas. We don't know if the cafes, butchers and shops are usually this busy - but wow - can barely hear the sound of the Christmas spirit for the ringing of the tills. A lovely day out, home shortly after sunset and the fire lit. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and the veges and turkey are looking nervously at each other - Into the oven with you! (as the witch in Hansel and Gretel would cackle).

Tuesday 24 December - Christmas Eve - It's not that we've gone all European or anything, but since we're here and used to it, we usually have our big Christmas meal on Christmas Eve (and even with the smallest fresh turkey available - also on Christmas Day evening and on Boxing Day evening - we get our money's worth). We spent the day prepping, cleaning etc, turkey and veges and mince pies. Lit the candles, decorated the table - all just yummo. It's an annual challenge to have a snazzy Christmas table using OPD (other people's decorations).

Wednesday 25 December - Christmas Day - We made wholemeal and buttermilk pancakes with mixed berries and maple syrup, chilled out and then in the evening had Christmas Dinner #2. Not a lot happening in Ireland on Christmas day that is for sure.

Thursday 26 December - Boxing Day (or St Stephen's Day) as it's known here in Ireland. We went to Mountbellew forest for a bracing walk and rather conveniently got in and done without getting caught up in a 5 km fun run/walk caper. We were home for lunch (buttermilk pancakes and a poached egg - followed by berries, #2).

Friday 27 December. Yay - Thank heavens - shops are open again. Woo hoo! Needing milk if nothing else due to the difficulty of buying powdered milk in Ireland (we saw some in Tesco in Dublin and foolishly assumed the Tesco in the boonies would stock it too. Silly.) We went to Mountbellew for a jaunt to Aldi and a few bits. There was masses of shopping going on - not sure how anyone could have run out of food after all the shopping we saw before Christmas - but now the great consumer machine ploughs on regardless as people are stocking up for New Year parties.

Saturday 28 December - ? Nobody knows. Obviously it came and went - but can't have been too interesting.

Sunday 29 December - Headed for one destination but tripped over another on the way there - Glinsk (pictured above). We strolled through the community park, clambered around the castle, channelling our inner Famous 5 vibe, then drove onwards to the Glenamaddy Turlough for lunch. We learned all about turloughs (tur-locks) AKA Dry lake - fascinating. Fabulous day.

Monday 30 December - Slowly but surely Ireland is waking up again after Christmas. We headed to Roscrea for a look about - nice little town actually, had a buzz to it even with half the shops shut between Christmas and New Year. We picked up a tonne of glorious marked down fruit at the Supervalu (seemed only right since we'd parked there), we had a stroll around, checked out the castle and the abbey (as you do) and not finding anywhere scenic for our car-nic/picnic lunch, proceeded back to historic Banagher which had a great little riverside park, a small castle, a martello tower and all sorts of historic stuff with a river view. What more could we want? Well toilets would be nice, but this is Ireland - cross your legs when you land in Dublin.

Tuesday 31 December - NYE - Today was an honest to goodness home day. The car insurance needed to be renewed so we planned around having no insurance and thus no driving all day. Gave us a chance to have a bit of a sort out and a pre-pre-pack of sorts. Packing is the bane of our existence - but we do love having more or less everything we want and need with us - especially when travelling through different climates. In fairness, this time, we probably have too much summer gear with us - even though it was only a couple of days in Colombo, Sri Lanka at the beginning and likely to be only a week or so of spring in Paris at the end of the April. But - preparedness is second nature these days, as is over packing. So pre-pre-pack it is.

Wednesday 1 January - New Year's Day 2025 - What to do? While the sun is shining, we explore! We decided to head down the left hand side of Lough Derg today, generally heading in the direction of Killaloe at the base of the lough, but with no urgent need to be anywhere in particular. It was a gloriously fine and sunny day - a bit too fine sometimes as the glare makes it feel like one's brain is being scrambled. We took backroads and cut throughs and popped out on Lough Derg at Dromaan Harbour - which makes it sound bigger and more impressive than it was. There was one boat in residence, one other car and one possibly deranged wild swimming type who stripped down to his shorts and slithered in for a freezing New Year's dip. A beautiful and serene spot. We left the swimmer to his devices - the swans would probably pull him out if they had to. Next stop along was Mount Shannon - a large and buzzing harbour by comparison. The most popular spot was a mobile birch sauna where people were going for €20 an hour presumably for heart-starting purposes after going for a swim. Brrrr. Felt cold just thinking about it. It was so beautiful, there were picnic tables next to the lake and a park and maze to wander about it so we called it a day at this point and settled in for our hot lunch, coffee and cookie. There was simply no way any destination further down the road could beat this spot. We moseyed home after lunch - had a look a the Sydney fireworks online and, I reiterate, it's one of the few times I feel homesick in the slightest.

Thursday 2 January - Loughrea - Shops still not all open. Sigh… Roads are very icy as we head into the forthcoming cold snap (ice age?). We didn't leave home until almost 11 am - and everything was just thinking about defrosting in the bright sunlight. It was simply too nice a day to sit about. We went super slow and proceeded to Loughrea. Some shops open, but the one I bought some great earrings at prior to Christmas was not - and that's where I wanted to donate a bag of treasures I'm ready to move on. I spotted a tower, a gate and a gate lodge as we drove to Loughrea and the highlight of the outing was pulling over on the way back and having a bit of a Marco Polo moment, walking around and exploring these ruins. With a bit of research we found they belong to Woodlawn House, a huge family pile that went to rack and ruin from the mid 20th century. The Trench family who owned it eventually died out and they were never popular in the area so were not missed. We're not sure if it's been sold yet, but it was put on the market in the middle of 2024. Good size land, ginormous house…very haunted apparently. It would take a brave soul to spend the money required to bring this back - and from our reading of the local history, there's still a feeling of hatred for the original owners. Bringing a tonne of jobs to the area probably wouldn't be enough to dilute the animosity - grudges are held for a very long time in these parts.

Friday 3 January - Yay! After far too long a break in my thrifting pastime, the shops are now open once more. We visited one of our favourite spots locally ('only' 45 minutes driving), Loughrea. This is a great wee town with a bustling high street, three thrift shops, a lake (with swans and ducks), a moat, easy parking, picnic tables and a lakeside walking track to take Don for a walk. Ticks all the boxes really. We dropped off a zip-lock of bits and pieces I can do without, bought a pretty silver ring (in fairness… walked out with significantly less than I walked in with) and a dry pair of socks. Hmmm? Turns out my whizz bang shearling lined UGG street books are definitely warm and cosy, but waterproof… not so much. Was well worth a euro to buy some brand new, dry socks - which got me home with warm and dry tootsies. We had our usual 'outing day' lunch sitting in the sun, next to the lake, basking.

Saturday 4 January - Rest Day. Chooks have been restrawed and can snuggle down whenever they please, the fire box has been overloaded with turf, the campervan has been run to ensure its battery stays charged and we are as ready as we can be for the cold snap, the 'multi-hazard weather event', the three days of snow. So now it probably won't happen (or will be even worse than expected and be seen in the future as the beginning of the next ice age). We made wholemeal buttermilk pancakes with very fresh poached eggs for lunch and pretty much had a rest day. Que sera, sera. Worth noting that the heavy frost this morning never completely defrosted - snow due from 5 pm. Apparently.

Sunday 5 January - Another damn 'rest day'. That's what we're calling it when it's too icy and dangerous to leave the house in a car. Very cold and the weather app is insisting it's snowing, but where we are it's incessant freezing drizzle. No fun whatsoever. Thank god for Netflix.

Monday 6 January - Had two attempts at going out. Sun was blazing (still no snow) and no frost - so figured we'd drive to our closest town and see if they had the snow we'd seen in the Irish news. Lucky to get a kilometre along the road and stopped to drop off some of our prolific chickens eggs to our neighbour / housesit mother-in-law - lovely natter, had a coffee with a splash of Baileys and a choccie bickie… Sun turned to rain turned to sleet turned to big fluffy snowflakes… so we trundled home and had lunch. And the sun came out. After lunch had another crack at leaving the house and made it to town. Very cold indeed. Had a leg stretch and came home - we were actually watching the puddles on the road start to freeze. We rescheduled the cross country birthday outing until next week as there is just no telling what the conditions would be be like during a 2-3 hour drive to Bellinter House. Tuckled in, glass of wine, Netflix. Live is not only not bad, it's pretty dang good.

Tuesday 7 January - Friday 10 Jan - The Big Freeze. Not quite as catchy as 'The Beast from the East' - but not bad as extreme winter weather goes. We left the house precisely once all week - we went for a drive to the Mountbellew woods for a walk - but the ice was so bad on the roads we just nipped into the Aldi and pootled home again before it could freeze again. Every day was very cold. Some days it was colder. Some days it was freezing and sunny. Or freezing and overcast. On a positive note, only a couple of snow flurries, nothing settled - but even just 40 minutes away had snow on the ground. Drivers who fling themselves around the roads at speed, continue to do so when roads are worse than skating rinks. We had a quiet birthday and drinks with neighbours for James's birthday, baked a cake, made nibbles etc. We did a few laps of the paddock next door to get some steps in, looked at options for our next adventure and, biggest news of the week - are now heading back to Paris and 'our' dog near the end of March for a last hurrah before flying home to Sydney at the end of April. And it will be peak garage sale season again - woo hoo! Can't wait to go shopping and know we can fill our bags up with gay abandon! On the very top of the shopping list is a 'new to me' vintage fur hat with the flaps - the last one I bought (from Paris) has sadly been lost - but happily we'll be in vintage-land and I will undoubtedly find another one.

Saturday 11 January - The cabin fever was beyond a joke. We headed to Loughrea and took a nice walk around in the sunshine. It was nice to be in the car again after not being out for days (and days and days).

Sunday 12 January - It never seems to matter how many 'last' grocery shops we do as we try to wind down our resources prior to departure. It turns out we can always spend more on a top up of fruit and veges, juice, milk and what not.

Monday 13 January - It's great to be out and about in the car again and we headed to Roscrea to start with. Unlike our first visit in the week between Christmas and NYE, this time the grounds of the castle were open so we had a wonderful nosey around in there. Visited a couple of thrift stores and found a little brown leather handbag and a silver necklace/pendant. It had a signature tag on it and I just learned that one of Ireland's most well known designers is called John Rocha - so a great find. We trundled on to Portumna as it was a nice driving day. The Castle Harbour is an amazing spot for our car-nic picnics. We took a walk into town for a flit up and down the main street then returned for our coffee and cookie then headed towards home. Big day out.

Tuesday14 January - We made it a bit of a packing day, selected seats for the flights we've booked, contacted hotels in advance to let them know we're en route and to spoil us rotten upon arrival. And not just 'big packing' but also little packing for our 1 week delayed return to Bellinter House for a celebratory stay.

Wednesday 15 January - Once more we headed off to Bellinter House and en route, a visit to the town of Mullinger. This was an 'almost' visit that we were supposed to make back in May 2020… but we high tailed it from Sarajevo on 17 March 2020 and went back to Australia as borders slammed shut all around Europe and Covid became a world wide phenomenon. So - given the chance now - we're going to take a look-see before we continue on to Bellinter House. It was nothing flash as it turns out. Also very poky parking - which is an issue with the massive estate car/station wagon we're driving - it's less driving and more 'piloting' most of the time.

Thursday 16 January - Well that was another awesome stay at Bellinter House - essentially same again - jacuzzi, dinner and drinks, awesome breakfast and they even popped a bottle of wine and some chocs in our room for James's birthday. We slept well for sure. The two hour drive back took 5 hours - that's a skill. Went via Kells on the trip back but the round tower was under wraps for conservation - nice to take the opportunity for a look though. We were happy to be home. We have so much travel coming up, it was chill out time.

Friday 17 - Sunday 19 January - Well, the time has come, the walrus said (as he has said many times over the years). We washed the car and started serious packing consolidation. We were really into the 'Big Bang in Reverse' period.

Monday 20 January - We very briefly considered taking a 3 hour coach trip to Dublin, directly to the airport (then taking the hotel shuttle to the hotel). Very briefly. We thought of the previous time we did a long coach ride from Waterford to Dublin - and then booked the train instead. Decided on the 1 hour 40 minute train ride to the city followed by a nice, comfy taxi to the airport hotel. That worked well. We settled in to the Crowne Plaza Dublin which is our second home for our traditional one night 'decompression' after a housesit. The big news is of course where we're going next. We have secured a month long sit in a great looking apartment in central Vienna (beginning in early February) - but - before that - we decided to take an actual 'holiday'. We started with Istanbul, Turkey for a week (it's been 13 years since we were there) and a couple of new countries - to Skopje, Macedonia and onwards to Tirana, Albania. This will be followed by three nights in a Viennese hotel for a bit of luxury… At that point, we'll be back on the critter-sitting trail again with a little white fluffy dog and a very zen like kitty cat, just 25 minutes walk to the centre of Vienna.