July 5th, the day of Sylvia's anticipated arrival, opened with me embarking on a leisurely soak in the bath before getting down to the business of preparing the house and preparing a meal for Sylvia and her companion/s. I had no idea if there would be 1, 2 or 3 as well as Sylvia as she had not replied to any of my recent emails. I had decided to cook a roast chicken as that would be enough for 6, the maximum I thought there would be. I had just settled into the bath when, at shortly after 9am, Jim shouted in the door that a Northern car had pulled into the yard and he suspected that it was Sylvia who had arrived. At 9am!! Jim dressed hurriedly and I, very reluctantly, had a quick wash, washed my hair and emerged from the bath muttering about the inconsideration of anyone calling at such an ungodly hour. Having dressed and wrapped a towel around my wet hair I descended to my guests who were enjoying a coffee courtesy of a gracious host, Jim. Sylvia was accompanied by Gerry, her brother. Her partner, Alan, was still in the Middle East due to some work complications. In the course of the conversation I made it clear that I was not available to entertain as I still had household chores to complete before leaving the house to them. There were no words of apology for arriving so early and no words of apology for the lack of advance warning or for the neglect of replying to my emails. As they left to tour a little in the local area I, casually - and fortunately as it turned out - mentioned that I was going to roast a chicken for dinner. Sylvia informed me that Gerry did not eat chicken. I was horrified as I had already bought the chicken and the wherewithal for stuffing and the rashers! "Right" I said, through gritted teeth as I had asked several times in my emails about dietary requirements, "I'll sort something"! They left and I ranted and raved and finally calmed down enough to change the menu to stuffed roast pork fillets wrapped in rashers.
Next morning I couldn't get away quickly enough. We set off for Northern Ireland where we were spending the night in the Carrickdale Hotel and Spa in Ravensdale. Our first stop was Carlingford where we had a nice lunch in Schooners. Brian and Mairead had recommended Carlingford as they go there regularly to visit Mairead's sister who is married there. It is indeed a lovely place. Then we went on to Carrickdale and checked in. It is a very busy hotel with a beautiful garden across the road accessed by a subway from the hotel across to the building that houses the spa and leisure centre.
These are pictures of the beautiful garden which is ideal for weddings and big parties. Children of all ages are catered for by a crazy golf that snakes around the garden. It was very relaxing after the stresses of the day before.
The Carrickdale is in a great location with beautiful views. It is very close to Slieve Gullion so we went there and did the Ring of Gullion where the scenery is really beautiful. It is clear that this is a great place for people into hiking and a lot younger than us! Because Jim was driving we don't have any photos.
We dined that evening in Fusion in Warrenpoint where there was a great deal - tapas (8) and a glass of house wine for 2 was £20. And it was good!
The following morning we checked out and went back to Carlingford where we had a lovely breakfast in Ruby Ellen's Tea Rooms - a really cute little place which Mairead had recommended. While we were there Brian texted me to say that there had been a suspicious death in William Street, Raphoe and the place was swarming with Gardai, cordoned off and a photo in one of the papers of our house! I wondered If Gerry had murdered Sylvia but no, it was a woman from across the road from us. It turns out that she had fallen down the stairs while inebriated.
We boarded the ferry at around 1.45pm and arrived in Holyhead as scheduled at 5.45pm and got to Sarah's in Llanfairfechan where Sarah had dinner ready for us - beetroot and goat's cheese salad followed by turbot on a bed of new potatoes, fennel and cherry tomatoes. Lovely! we had a very enjoyable evening catching up since our trip together to Cuba.
Sunset as seen from Sarah and Eunan's livingroom window.
No comments:
Post a Comment