Posted By Daisy
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| Dingle Harbour |
THIS
SUMMER, I spent almost three weeks in Ireland. With fabulous weather (it rained
twice) and lots of my friends and family around, there's nowhere I would rather
have been.
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| A guy in the nightclub told me I didn't look a day over 37...arghhhh. I blame the over-zealous bouncy blowdry. |
In Cork, I met people for coffee and burritos, and spent lazy afternoons drinking beer in the sun. We did laps of the spa pool and snuggled into robes for chats and snoozes on the heated beds before folding chocolate brownies into our mouths during afternoon tea.
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| Dee's husband does an amazing BBQ- but gets FURIOUS if you open two boxes of tea at the same time. 'You know that Barry's Tea isn't actually grown in Cork,' he says. |
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| Treasures at the lovely Little Museum of Dublin Reminders of the good times during the Boom: Gold-Plated Monster Munch by Caroline McCarthy (2011), and the non-ironic 'Nouveau' magazine which folded after one issue. Cover tag lines included 'Dirty Filthy Lucre: And how to Make More' and 'Champagne Powder: Skiing with the Rich'. |
We sat on the faded couch of our house in Dingle, eating crisps, reading magazines and drinking beers. We drank rose in plastic glasses while throwing down confident fivers at the races. We listened to incongruous techno in a secret beer garden, and shot the breeze with lots of chatty drunken strangers, one of whom insisted on walking us home.
I did a dance of terror one morning, as I reached into the box of teabags to find a spider hiding inside and begged M to get rid of it.
I read my book and drank coffee while looking at the amazing scenery at Tig Slea Head, and later we sat in the car smiling at the screams of laughter from a trio of women struggling to get dressed on the beach as a flashstorm blew around them for ten minutes before the sun returned.
I saw Fungi the dolphin from an old fishing boat, and watched G's children making pottery at Dun Chaoin.
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| 'A Rainy Day in Dingle' by Tom Roche |
I drank crab bisque and walked the deserted beach at Smerwick Harbour with my
mother, and ate porridge with cream and fresh fruit compote, and smoked mackerel
and blue cheese for breakfast in Benners hotel. I also had a big argument with
her over dinner one night (too much wine) and almost walked out of the restaurant. Although, I can’t even remember what it was about now.
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| Mini Dingle Tourist Guide: Best Cream Slice: Courtney's Bakery (have it with a coffee in the little courtyard) Best Restaurant (and I've tried most of them over the years): The Global Village Best Beach Walk: Smerwick Best View of the Blasket Islands from a Café: Tig Slea Head Best View of the Sleeping Giant: Clogher strand Best Pub: Foxy Johns Best Hidden Beer Garden: Adams Bar Best Lunch on a Sunny Day: Fish at the Marina Best fresh scampi and chips: Harringtons chipper Best Tourist Destination fairly near to town: Pedlar's Lake, Conor Pass |
I watched 'Mortified Nation' on Netflix (hilarious) and spent a nostalgic afternoon reading through old diaries in a big box in my mum's house.
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| This is where it all started, aged 15. Big mistake. Huge. 'Guess what. I did it. I smoked my very first cigarette!!.....Actually it was rather gross but we're going to do it again tomorrow.' |
Before I knew it, I was on the flight back to London, having a vodka and coke and a cheeseboard and feeling a bit sad while scrolling through my holiday phone pictures.
Elevator Pitch: One day, Dr Yvonne Carmichael does something risky. And discovers she likes it.
When something terrible happens to her one evening, she is forced to reveal her recent activities, and ends up exposing uncomfortable truths that may destroy her hitherto ordinary life.
It's a cold, uncomfortable thriller, but somehow, even though I read it ages ago, I still remember it very well.
(I'm being deliberately very vague but don't want to ruin such a compelling story for anyone who has yet to read it.)
