Back in the United Kingdom and two nights in a B&B in Newport. I have nothing to report for these two days. Absolutely nothing of interest happened in a place that proved to hold no interest for me.
I dreamt of Seasalter instead! 😉
Some church in Dubbers!
I came,
I ran,
I drank,
I ate,
I slept.
I could live here. 🙂
Dublin
Fabulous run to Bull Island
I’m a bit behind on my posts as I’ve had some wifi issues. And now I’m going to write about them! 🙂
After all the activity of Ruth’s wedding, I had a lovely two days planned at a quiet country B&B with free wifi so that I could seriously work on my assignment, the draft of which is due next Monday. For my last assignment, the most I could manage for the draft was an introduction and a couple of section headings so this time I wanted to get the full assignment written so I could take advantage of the feedback and really make sure I don’t overshoot effort wise with another B. This time, I want that C!
Unfortunately the B&B only just has wifi. Basically, you get half a bar if you stand on one leg at the back of the stairs on the first floor. I’ve also been told that right next to the tv where the grumpy farmer is watching his team lose at gaelic football in the lounge is a good spot for another half a bar. A full bar is absolutely out of the question. I spent twenty minutes trying to send one email and gave up. I decided instead to head into town to see how Kinvara rates compared to Whitstable as a place to study your masters.
As you know, I found Whitstable and Seasalter very conducive to studying. Kinvara was not so well accommodating. It was Sunday morning which may have had something to do with it, but most of the cafés were closed and the one pub I could find that was operating didn’t have wifi. I asked if they could recommend a place with wifi and the only suggestion they had was a nearby café called ‘The Junction’. I drove around for a while trying to find this place without any luck. I went back and asked again and this time the girl took me outside and pointed out where to go to ‘The Junction’ and I realised there had been some language confusion. She was pointing to a café called ‘The Gentian’!
This café was packed to the hilt with tourists who had flocked there to use the internet. And it was very noisy but I persisted anyway. The cakes were delicious!
A wifi oasis!
I ran this morning in the rain and then hightailed it back to ‘The Gentian’ for a chat with a masters buddy. Again, it was packed and noisy so our conversation was difficult at times to understand despite my headphones. I’m now wondering how much more tea I can possibly fit in before I am forced to leave and free up a table for the hordes of locals and tourists who are desperate to use the only free and fast wifi in town. I’m also too scared to go to the toilet in case they give my table away. This is causing me to be quite uncomfortable and is adding to the not ideal conditions to be attempting to work under.
Five hours later…
I just went to pay for my two pots of tea, scone, muffin and soup that I’ve used to justify my possession of a table in the café for so long and the landlady from my B&B appeared and insisted on paying my bill for me! How lovely is that! Oh Ireland – you are too nice!
The Bishop of Mulberry – a dead ringer for the priest!
What a wedding! What a night!
Finally I had an opportunity to get my jeans and hoodie washed as I needed to wear my dress for the wedding. The sun came out in patches which lit the church during the service and meant that I wasn’t too cold in my summer dress.
The priest gave an excellent sermon. He reminded me in looks of Bishop Mulberry from the Vicar of Dibley and he was very funny too. He opened by giving everyone the usual reminders to switch off phones etc, so when someone’s phone rang loudly in the middle of the sermon, we were all looking around to see which member of the congregation had messed up. It got a huge whoop of laughter when after several seconds of ringing, the priest finally confessed to it being his own phone that was sitting on the podium!
Ruth looked stunning and she and Séanín are perfect for each other and obviously very happy. The reception was lots of fun with great food and an excellent band. I really pushed the boat out and the sprinkler, lawn mower and shopping trolley all made an appearance. I didn’t leave the party until…
…the early hours of the morning. It was about 2am when a strange piece of music that I didn’t recognise and certainly couldn’t dance to started playing. Everyone was quiet and still so I asked Kieren what it was. He said it was the national anthem. It finished and the crowd started chanting “one more tune, on more tune”. This didn’t last long though because the lights came up and we suddenly noticed that the band had scarpered long ago! The music had been taken over by a computer well before the final song and the playlist had been exhausted!
It was at this point I knew it was time to walk back to my B&B, recover and then return that evening for the bbq. The final wedding event was an indoor affair due to appalling weather. I got to watch my first gaelic football match which I very much enjoyed whilst drinking pints of diet coke at the bar. All in all, a great wedding weekend!
The happy couple
The mother of the bride and the bride
The Ghana table with Ruthie
Chance for a quick chat!
Image credits
Wedding photos taken by MerilynW and shared on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
What do these people all have in common?
The fun table – Jenny, Mel, Merilyn, Al and Nigel
All of us volunteered for VSO in an impoverished and remote area of Ghana. We have gathered in Galway for the wedding of our friend Ruth, another fellow VSO, who is getting married tomorrow!
Good luck Ruthie, from the Ghana table!
One thing that has been troubling me since driving in Ireland is the speed limits. In Australia the speed limit is determined by the maximum speed you can do on that stretch of road safely. This depends on a number of factors such as the width of the road, it’s condition, the surface, the sharpness of the bends if any etc.
Today I was driving through the Killarney National Park on my way down to do the Ring of Kerry route. The speed limit was continually posted at 100 km/hr. I felt a pressure to try and do this speed as in Australia that is certainly the expectation but there was no way that I could. Through the park, I barely left third gear it was so bendy and narrow! So, why bother making the speed limit 100 km/hr when you can barely do 60 without endangering yourself and the numerous cyclists you’re sharing the tiny, slither of a road with!
The bendiness didn’t abate when I hit the Ring of Kerry. It was a good job I was driving because otherwise I would have been puking. The views made up for it though. Here are some of the best shots from today. Spectacular!
Killarney National Park
Ring of Kerry
Panorama of the Ring of Kerry
And tonight I am relaxing in a pub where I have a room for the night in Lisdoonvarna listening to live Irish music whilst drinking my sauvignon blanc!
.
Image credits
All photos taken by MerilynW and shared on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Ireland is really green. I thought England was green but it is not in the same class of greenness that Ireland is. The intensity of the green is different. It is just really, really green here.
Today I visited Brú na Bóinne and a Neolithic mound at Knowth. If you don’t believe me about the green, check out my photos from today.
Now that’s green!
Newgrange in the distance (the not so green thing).
Even my hoodie isn’t green enough!
More green bits.
I’m spending the night in Limerick. When I entered my room and noticed there was no TV, I was actually a bit relieved. TV in English is a huge time suck. I had all kinds of plans of getting my masters assignment written this week and next but so far I haven’t worked on it since Seasalter.
I didn’t calculate how much time I would be spending sightseeing here. By the time I get back to where I’m staying, I’m knackered, turn on the TV and start mindlessly channel surfing until after midnight! There is a lot of reality TV on in the UK and I’ve been watching Come Dine With Me, A Place in the Sun, Grand Designs and Location, Location, Location for a bit of Aussie. There is also great comedies like 8 Out of 10 Cats. Then there is the movies.
I can stream anything I want to watch at home in Japan but there is something about a remote and a thousand channels on simultaneously that is far more appealing than getting off the couch at the end of each episode of Modern Family to start the next one. But tonight I have nothing but my computer and (not Japanese speed) internet. After I’ve finished tonight’s blog post, dinner and some wine in the hotel bar, had a shower, organised my route for tomorrow and checked my FB, I’ll be able to really knuckle down on that paper!
First day in the Emerald Isle and I decided to drive to the Giant’s Causeway. The hour and a half journey became considerably longer though as I had to negotiate all the 12th of July marches that were occurring on the 13th of July.
If only the 12th of July marches were on the 12th of July!
I had planned to get lunch on the way but as it is a public holiday, everything was shut. I ended up buying the only vegetarian option on the menu at a chip van. You guessed it – chips!
I have come totally unprepared for the weather and I don’t have any rain gear. I could get away with that in London but I don’t think I’m going to get away with it here. So after traipsing all over the rocks in the rain, I got back to the visitors centre and decided to buy a ‘mac in a sac’ since the next sight I am going to visit tomorrow is also outdoors. In the end, I spent a couple of hours at the Giant’s Causeway and after considerable reflection, I wrote in the visitors book simply “wet but worth it”.
The wet rocks
Wet people on the wet rocks
Wet Merilyn on the wet rocks!
As I was writing this, I spilt my tea all over my only pair of jeans for the trip. The tea was the other thing today that was “wet but worth it” and now I am too!
My birthday eve and Kim and I cleaned up Smuggler’s Cove ready for an onslaught of guests the following day. Then we headed back to New Eltham and Zac’s school fete. I had a delicious Pimm’s and Lemonade and was put in charge of ‘queue control’ for Vicky’s face painting stall. Vicky painted about fifteen Frozen related faces (including a sweet boy who insisted on being Anna) and a fox that had to be downgraded to a Ninja Turtle.
Afterwards, we drove up for dinner with Kim’s family in a fancy house. We arrived just as dinner was being served so we timed it perfectly. Some of Kim’s Hungarian relatives were there and one of them was more comfortable in German than English so I tried to talk with him. I had a bit of language confusion and a couple of times used German, Japanese and English words all in the same sentence. The problem seemed to resolve itself though as the evening progressed and the Pàlinka (Hungarian firewater) hit the table. One shot and I was fluent. Can’t remember which language though!
View of the sea from the lounge at Smuggler’s Cove.
View of the countryside from the balcony off the kitchen at Smuggler’s Cove.
After cleaning up from the night before and having a cooked breakfast, everyone headed back down to Smuggler’s Cove for some relaxation. The holiday let that Kim and Vicky have is very comfortable with terrific views. It sleeps 7+ and there is a huge deck and two balconies. You can easily walk into Whitstable in about forty minutes or get lost running along the seawall, also in about forty minutes.
I got multiple cakes, lovely pressies, cream decorated with my name and a hiding at connect four by a seven year old. I also got to watch the Eagle’s thrash Adelaide with a real football fan and a confused Hungarian! All in all, it was a wonderful birthday!
Dinner at Smuggler’s Cove – thanks Kim and Vicky!
Go Eagles!
My name in blueberries – somehow!
Picked up my hire car at the airport, keyed into the sat nav my B&B and headed to the motorway. I’ve got ten days travelling around Ireland from Belfast to Dublin. A sign on the motorway told me it would take 80 minutes to reach Dublin. So am now wondering what I’m going to do for the other nine days and 22 hours.
Whilst in the beautiful surrounds of Seasalter, my plan is to do some serious work on my masters course. I have the draft of my next assignment due at the end of the month and I want to have a less stressful experience than what I had for the first assignment. For this assignment, all I managed by the draft due date was an introduction followed by section headings as an outline. When I finally found time to dedicate to writing the 5000 word essay, I decided to completely re-write what I had done up to that point so I ended up writing the thing basically from scratch the weekend before the Monday it was due. This was quite a painful ordeal and I had to sacrifice a brunch invitation at the Park Royal Hyatt in Shinjuku to boot! Although it all turned out ok in the end and I passed the module, I really, really, really want a smoother, less panicked lead up to this assignment due date. And I definitely don’t want to be forced to turn down any eating experiences!
So, to this end, I’m taking time every day to work on my masters. Sure, I’m also checking the FB way more than usual, blogging about my trip every day and enjoying time with my friends but I am on holiday after all! Whilst in Seasalter though, I have made a lovely routine. Every day I get up and work for a few hours at Kim and Vicky’s house. Then I pack up all my gear and walk in to Whitstable which is about 45 minutes away by foot. There I find a nice pub with wifi, have lunch and continue working for a while before heading back to Seasalter where I relax for the rest of the evening.
So I’ve decided to dedicate this post to the best pubs to study your masters in Whitstable!
This pub has a big reputation. Kim told me it is famed for its seafood menu and is very popular with locals and tourists alike. Situated on the beach, it is in a very nice location but how is it for masters studying? I’ve decided to rate the pubs on three criteria:
Just enough room for my wine on the table with all those electronics!
So here is how the Pearson’s Arms did:
On the way out of the Pearson’s Arms yesterday, I noticed another pub with a free wifi sign. So here is my review for studying your masters at the Prince Albert (no snickering please!)
Whoops – drank the wine before taking the photos!
I wandered into Whitstable today with no direct plan. I walked up the high street and ended up in the, hmm, looking around the pub and can’t find the name of it. Hang on, I’ll just pop outside… The Quayside Freehouse!
Too nice a day to be inside but the wine deal convinced me!
From the exterior and a brief look in through the windows, I could tell this was a bit of a rougher style pub. I took a deep breath and headed inside for today’s review.
So there you have it. If you are ever in Whitstable and need to do some study on your masters degree, hopefully this post will help you decide the best places to do it! I’m sure this is a niche worth covering! 🙂
Image Credits
All photos are by Merilyn Winslade and shared on Flickr.
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