Feile Na Bealtaine

The Feile Na Bealtaine translated into English as the May Festival. Many towns across Ireland have May festival and Dingle is  no different. Founded 10 years ago in Dingle 2017 was to be the biggest yet.

As a celebration of all things cultural there were concerts, parades, book launches and talk, games, poetry and walks.

Visit http://feilenabealtaine.ie/home/ for more details but if you are looking for something to do next May bank holiday we'd absolutely recommend choosing Dingle for the 2018 Feile Na Bealtaine.

Our favourites were Jess Kidd chatting about her debut novel Himself, Sebastian Barry talking about his Costa award winning novel Days Without End. We saw music from Marie Breatnach, Spats Colombo, Katie Kim, Abigail Joffe and Peter went to Mozart's Requiem.

And the weather was amazing.
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And eight came to dinner

We owed a number of people dinner. On our previous trips to Dingle we been welcomed into several people's houses for dinner, sometimes on more than one occasion. We definitely needed to repay the generosity and choose Saturday evening as the ideal time. Eight were us two, AM, R&S and T&M. And Jess Kidd, author of Himself a brilliant novel who was appearing at the festival and stayed over an extra night with us.

Because we were spending the day out and about we had to prepare the meal like a military operation and in fact the day before.

Beginning with smoked haddock and asparagus soup  - which was delicious if I say so myself. The asparagus came all the way from the other side of Ballyferriter.

Main course was a Mary Berry's Chicken & Dijon with a vegetarian dish from The Happy Pear.

Finished off with the classic rice pudding, which sadly whilst being scummy had stayed in the oven for a little too long.

A lovely evening was had by all, we think anyway.

A day for a skip

Note to self, if ever (and this is highly unlikely) I am buying another place to live always check the garage has been emptied before you sign the dal.

The excitement back in early September was dulled ever so slightly when we opened the garage door and found a lot of items that we did not ask for.

So we hemmed and hawed over taking it ourselves to the dump in the back of the rental car or hiring a van locally and doing it in one run. Or finding a man who'd take a 50euro note to deal with it all.

There was sun-chairs, washing machine, three front doors no less, acres of wood and a raft of other smaller items. After much deliberation and meetings the chair and company secretary decided a skip was in order.

The wonderful people at South West Kerry skips promised and delivered a skip on time and in

exchange of 350Euros.

And the team got going and clearing out the garage making sure we maximised the space and kept under the very clear notice "do not fill above the top"

And so two hours later we had an empty garage, well nearly empty and a full skip.

It didn't stay that full for long. The plumber the following day asked if he could take several items out of it for the local football club. Same the world over eh. There is always someone who will take what you don't want.

Off to Valentia Island for the weekend

In the name of research for upcoming visitors we embarked on a holiday within a holiday when we went for the weekend around to the Iveragh Peninsula and in particular Valentia Island. http://www.valentiaisland.ie/
It's worth noting here that when the spell checker could not find the word Iveragh in the dictionary it offered Rivera instead, appropriate I'd say.

It is possible to scoot around this headland in a day, long drive but doable. However we wanted a leisurely drive, take in the scenery and make sure we spotted all the great places to tell you about.

And its a lovely place to visit, people were really nice, on the island itself it was very quiet and

tranquil with few cars on the road.
We stayed in Knightstown which is most famous for being one end of the first cable to connect Europe and North America.
Our accommodation for the night was at the Royal Valentia Hotel, named after one of the Royal family who stayed there: http://royalvalentia.ie/ Nice bunch of folk.

The island is accessible by either a bridge or a tiny ferry - I'd recommend the ferry.
One highlight was going to the top of the highest mountain on the island, accessed initially by car and then a walk. Amazing views over to the Skelligs, down along the coast and back across the headlands.
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The next morning we headed back along the bottom of the island stopping off at the viewing point called the Kerry Cliffs. Basically, whilst being a formal tourist attraction on the Wild Atlantic Way, it is essentially the enterprise of one farmer who ploughed his field and laid a path, to allow people to walk across it. Once over the fields you are at the edge of cliffs that are about 1,000ft high and brilliant. There are fences but not of the standard/quality/height you might see in a country that's hyper about safety.
It's hard for a camera on a Samsung phone to do it justice, so you'll just have to visit in person.
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Back home stopping off in Killarney. To be avoided unless you want to buy any of the following: t-shirt with a leprechaun on it, a hat with a leprechaun on it, a bag with a leprechaun on it or a top with a phrase "my Mum went to Ireland & all she brought me back was a leprechaun". You get the drift.

We did however pop into the golf club as yer man wanted new golf socks. In the pro shop we overheard a conversation...
Man of an age over 60 says "did you hear that Jimmy in the butchers has got married"
Woman of an age over 60 says "What!, Jimmy, our Jimmy?"
Man replies "Yes our Jimmy".
Woman replies, "God I didn't think he had it in him"
Man replies "Married a Filipino"
Woman who stares, take a deep breath and say "What, Jimmy? Jimmy's married a Filipino"?

Hard to know what else to say to that.
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Star Wars in Ballyferriter

Anyone for tea - only in Ireland

Green Street in Dingle

View from sun lounge of Mount Brandon

Just in case you need to talk to God 

Only in Ireland

Ten Days of Easter

A four hour trip from Dublin had herself pulling onto the driveway of Carrigeen on the Tuesday before Easter. A full 72 hours before himself flew in from Stansted. I was taking a short break from unloading the car when a knock on the kitchen door from Eamon who would turn out to be my new best friend. Hi says Eamon, I used to cut the grass her for Mrs Gould and generally keep the garden tidy. Now I don't know if you are a gardener yourself says Eamon (clearly not knowing me) but if you did need any help I might be the man for you". Well says I, you are the man for me, how can we agree to make this happen. I know friends say I am a fast worker and I suppose this proves the point, but by 4pm he was cutting the grass and clearing the borders.

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It's hard to describe how brilliant the weather has been, 10 straight days and no rain = unheard of in Kerry. But we can testify that it does happen. On the left is a view of the next village along called Ballydavid.
In Irish the meaning of the name is town of foreigners which is interesting because it's mainly locals who live there.  There are two bars/pubs both with excellent reputations and one with views over the harbour and bay although Tigh TP's is probably the best known: https://www.facebook.com/Tigh-TP-Baile-na-nGall-354669563727/
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Good Friday in Ireland is one of two "odd" days in the year in Ireland in that unless you are a private members club, or serving food you cannot sell alcohol.
In supermarkets the easiest way to stop the sale of drink is to cordon off the section. Now most "ordinary" supermarkets would put string across or barriers but oh not no in the wonderful Supervalu in Dingle. They build a wall of toilet rolls and kitchen rolls to prevent access & of course offer for sale these items if one is in need of either.

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All was well with the world by Easter Saturday and a lovely birthday was had for TS in the Blue Zone pizza restaurant in Dingle. Sunday saw the arrival of our first formal guests, ie they are staying longer than one night. MC & JC arrived from Dublin and after a quick tour of the house and a bite to eat we headed for one of the four pubs in Ballyferriter.
Our aim was to arrive in time to hear Mike and his ensemble play a few tunes whilst having a few drinks but it turned out we  missed them by about 1/2 hour.
So we headed to check out the next pub which was full so onto the third pub, Sayers where we found seats and settled in. We had only taken one sip from our drinks when up popped some young musicians. When I say young I mean young, the eldest being 15 and the youngest of the four was we later found out 12. For the next two hours we were treated to the most wonderful Irish music by the four lads. Their rewards each hour was 2L of 7Up + 4 packets of Tayto crisps.
We did laugh thinking this just would never happen in England, someone would be worried about the child protection squad etc.
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The following day we took our visitors on a tour of the peninsula and showing them the sights. It was a long day and by 9pm only half the group were keen on the pub. Thankfully that was the more dominate half because 10 minutes later we are settled again in Sears. And preceded to contribute to the week's spend in the bar just on that one night or at least that's what it felt like the following morning. We are now on first name terms with the barman and it's a super place to spend a few hours. http://www.searspub.com/

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Easter Saturday - Dingle

A brilliant, sunny start to the day - although the rest of the day promises to be cloudy and dull - and it feel like Spring is truly established.

We went out at 4.00pm yesterday and managed nine holes of golf and took the first step to getting official handicaps at what is (now) our local golf club. It was what is known as a "soft day" that is to say no rain but a fine mist in the air, that feels quite a lot like rain to me. The plan is to play again today but the course is very busy (holiday makers) and we might struggle.

Yesterday, Peter's first task was to put up the bathroom cabinets that were first got from Ikea for Park Road , moved to The Knoll and used until about 10 years ago when the bathroom was refurbished. We stored them in the garage and moved them to Dublin, thinking we'd use them in the flat. But then we decided to refurbish the bathroom there and didn't use them.

So on to Ballyferriter and one in the shower room and one in the bathroom. Now that is what I call recycling! Hope they don't fall off the  walls.

When putting marginal plants in water on a 2nd floor balcony do not buy pots with holes.

And thus begins our lesson for Sunday. Our balcony is small, bland and a little boring. One end of the balcony is long and narrow and so near the next apartment it would be possible to being a physical relationship with the owner. Whereas the other end is nice and wide and a good space. So how to take away the bland feel was the challenge of the weekend.

It had begun on a previous trip, a strip of artificial grass covered up the long, narrow strip and rustic floor boards covered up the wider bit, creating a space that Monty Don would be proud of.

A trip down to Johnstown Garden Centre with the aim of buying four or five pots into which we’d put marginals. Marginals for those of you unfamiliar with pond plants are plants that side at the edge of ponds. Now whilst we were not creating a pond what we thought we’d do is put the plants in pots of water on the balcony and thus remove the need for watering. Which is just as well since we are not here to water them. 

Within ½ hour we were heading home with pots and plants and making great progress. Only to discover upon filling the first pot with water that it was not designed to be water tight. So back into the car and a quick trip to the local Homebase to buy pots to fit inside the pots that were water tight.

Tomorrow I head to Ballyferriter. 

A weekend in Dublin

Sunday evening and I am back at the flat having just dropped himself off at Dublin airport. It has been a lovely weekend, albeit less than 48 hours for yer man, but the start of 30 days in Ireland for me. The trip is tinged with sadness in that we can have this extended break in Dublin because there’s no one waiting at home in Beckenham for us now that Mum has gone.

When we started the blog it was to keep both Mary T and Mum up to date and share experience with them Now with both gone I am keeping writing knowing that they will be reading it somewhere looking down on us.

I know that Mum would certainly have had a laugh when I told her about going to Smyths Toy Superstore in Tallaght to buy Evelyn’s 4^th birthday present. Tallaght for those that are not familiar with was a new town built in the 1970’s by a blind & deaf town planner who did not realise that people might actually live in the houses, need shops, schools and public transport links. Now nearly 50 years later they have some form of all but the dreadful town planning left its mark and even the dogs walk in pairs for safety. I had just got out of the car when I am accosted by a woman with a very strong Dublin accent asking me “are you Irish love”, yes I say “well she says you’d want to see the state of the ones that just got on that bus”. Off to a stag weekend in Kilkenny and dressed like lamps to the slaughter.

Anyway moving quickly on as I established that even though it was only 2pm she’d definitely been in the pub. I am looking for a Lego set from which you would build a Vet practise. Not sure when you last bought a Lego set but it has changed beyond recognition with two large isles of choice but no vet practice kit. It was incredibly hard to find a kit that did not involve a woman/girl in pink, a boy in blue and normally the male doing the lead role. However I felt I struck lucky when I found a kit which featured a girl driving a speed boat and her mate running the bar on the beach!  I thought how ingenious of Lego to build a kit based on Mary C and myself!

The present was well received and a good time was had by all.

On Saturday in Dublin I lost my Mc..

...and gained  some new friends.
We came over to Dublin to attend the launch the of the centenary celebrations of Templogue Tennis Club. I was a bit surprised to be greeted on arrival by the President of the club with "hello you must be Peter Kay, Sheila's husband" which was so welcoming that I thought it a little rude to correct her. On going to our designated table I saw that I was on the table plan as "Peter Kay"

Welcome to Templogue Tennis Club

As the evening progressed I was overwhelmed by countless friendly approaches and made to feel very welcome by Eddie, Tony, Johnny, Damien, Dorothy, Sherri, to name but a few. I started to wonder if they all thought the wonderful northern comedian Peter Kay had turned up, but since no one asked me to do a turn or tell a joke, I reckon it was just an expression of their welcoming approach.

The evening began with a very creditable performance by the Templogue Tennis Centenary Choir and proceed with a pretty decent meal and concluded with a couple of hours of dancing. The whole event was a great success and I can see the why the club attracted around 150 folk for the celebratory launch.

Sunday morning and a trip to Greystones

On the coast, south of Dublin city centre, and no more than a 25 minutes drive from Charleville Square is Greystones. This was my first visit and it is smashing and I can see it becoming a regular trip out. 

We pottered around enjoying the winter sunshine and views across the bay. Sheila tells me that it has a population of 17k. Hard to believe as you wander about the place but probably explains how a good number of trendy shops, cafes, coffee shops and the wonderful Happy Pear, all prosper. 

We scooped up some food for lunch from The Happy Pear and returned to CS via Bray. In stark contrast to Greystones, Bray looks rather down at heel and struggling. 

Flight back to Gatwick later this afternoon so that is all for now.

We have been in Ireland for two years...

...that is to say the last fours days of 2016 and the first eight days of 2017.

As Sheila reports...
And so, like all good things, it’s the end of our New Year break here in Ireland and as if it knows we are leaving, the sunny weather has gone. We are shrouded in extremely low cloud with little or no visibility and it feels like weather is hiding the magnificent scenery from us so we are not sad leaving.

Today (Friday) is a tidy and clean-up day which includes a trip to the dump recycle centre – I will be adding that onto the must do section of the travel tips for Dingle. As well as the dump trip I’ll be doing washing and ironing and clearing up after last night’s dinner party… yes only a wet week in the place and we managed to find three people to join us for dinner.

Camilla and Mike, owners of The Dingle Bookshop, and wonderfully lovely people, who along with another friend, AM experienced Peter’s version of Chicken Parmentier. We’d seen it on the Rick Stein Long Weekend (in Bordeaux) programme and thought it looks great and sure enough it turned out to be a bit of a winner – well they all ate it. Lovely evening some great chat although one slightly worrying part was how we spent over an hour talking about the Catholic Church in the UK!

Our week’s trial of working from home went reasonably well. Of the four days we had three very productive days and then Friday; the low cloud proved too much of a challenge for the satellite broadband so that we had no internet.  Himself felt adrift without the access to the wide, wide world and his office files.

We’ve joined Ceann Sibeal Golf Club, as beginners which we are of course. No playing in just paying the fee and Steve, the office manager says to use “sure off you go, you’ll be fine”.

Roll on Easter.

Peter adds...
Back in Dublin for Saturday night before flying back to Gatwick and on home on Sunday afternoon.. We treated ourselves a meal at Enigma in Rathfarnham village - just 1km from the front door. It was a mild evening so we strolled there and back and well satisifed that such a decent restaurant is so handy.

Just one of the many benefits of being in the EU, I am sure!