Day 7

This is our last day, we will be leaving early in the morning so will have no chance to do any last minute visits or shopping. My mum had mentioned silent valley on several occasions during this holiday and on our last visit to Ireland so I thought this would be a good place to visit. David was being particularily anti this morning and insisted on playing the most irritating music he has at its highest volume, ignoring all my pleas for clean air space. It is very misty this morning and I stop the car on the way to the valley to try and capture this hovering a few feet above the car. I make friends with nice chestnut horse; it doesnt help when I am trying to take his picture and he keeps walking towards me.

Even when David turns his music off the silent valley is not. But it has a number of relaxing country walks and a quite spectacular overflow drain on the dam. The water level is very low, I think they need more rain.

We go for our last shopping excoursion to Newcastles only shop an manage to get most of the required number of gifts. It rains whilst we have coffee and we get a little damp on the way back to the car.

We make our last visit of the holiday to take flowers to aunt Eunice. I explain to them that I have been writing this blog and that Uncle Fred says hi. Yvonne shows us her scetches, she has been taking a class recently. We retun to the cottage for our last, early, night and my mum chats to the owner for a while.

Day 6

This is not a good day for me, the day itself seems no different from any other day its just not good. I feel quite bad for David and my mum having to spend this one with me, I don't even want to spend this day with me.

We leave David in bed and go for a coffee to let him get up slowly, just outside the cottage the mist is very heavy and almost tangible. Down at Maud's we are bathed in morning sunshine and can see the clouds lifting from the Mourne Mountains. We arrive back at the cottage just before 11 and it takes an hour to motivate David to move. Our plans are to do visiting and distribute various sets of flowers, we drive to Rathfrieland where my mum and David go to the florists to order the flowers (I wander aimlessly outside eating an ice cream that my mum bought me, I think she is trying to cheer me up). As it will take an hour we go for coffee in the local hotel, my mum and Joseph had staid here when they came to deposit my Nan's ashes a few years ago. David has a toasted sandwich for lunch; the food looks like the hotel, in need of a little care and attention (I am being kind, this is not what I said when we where there but it is now today and I am in a better mood).

We go and visit an old friend of my mums they chat and drink tea until its time to collect the flowers. I think David looks very smart today with white shirt and tie, I'm sure Nana would be proud of him as he helps to clear her grave stone and place the flowers (I miss her).

From here we go to Dundrum and have drinks in a lovely cafe (my mum has toasted sandwich) afterwards we let David loose on the castle ruins, it has an amazing vantage point overlooking the bay. There is no cost for entrance here which is surprising, my mum remarks that it has not changed since she was a child. When we finish here my mum goes to visit and deliver flowers to Mary, an old friend of auntie Ruth who has just arrived home. I want fish and chips so David and I go to the chippie whilst my mum visits.

As we travel to Castlewellan my day hits its lowest point as my mum and I argue about directions and where to park, my thoughts are elsewhere. My mum lays flowers on her grand parents grave and tries, unsuccessfully, to locate another relatives grave. From here we take David back to his favourite shop, bon bon, in Newcastle so he can buy some gifts then return to cottage to end the day. I hope tomorrow is going to be better.

Day 5

We don't get started as early as we intended but it's the earliest we have gone out all week. Its almost a 2 1/2 hr drive to the Giants Causeway, I didn't have the postcode so try out the speech recognition on my phone navigation app I was very surprised it worked first time. We stopped at a very colourful roadside cafe for a coffee/breakfast/toilet break David stayed in the car as he still wasn't awake yet. An hour later and we had reached our destination. It is warm and very windy and we have a pleasant, short walk down to the shoreline. When we reach the stones David has reached 100% activation and is away bounding from stone to stone, think mountain goat in leather jacket, stopping every so often for me to catch up and take a photie. My mum follows the path not wanting to fall on the slippery rocks. David gets a shower as he tries to get to the furthest point in the sea without falling in. A little later he is perched on high outcrop. David does a lot of running about here and we loose sight of him on several occasions.

When we leave the causeway we take a short trip to Dunluce castle, a little further along the coast. I have a little walk around the outside then decide I need a rest before the drive back. As I shut my eyes in the car David and my Mum go for a walk inside the very exposed castle and it starts to poor down with rain, I pray they don't get wet then try to have a nap. With children shouting, car doors slamming and rain pounding on the window its not really possible to sleep. Some time later they return a little damp my mum remarks that the high walls shelter them from most of the rain.

We finish the day with a cooked breakfast, no confused people here!

Day 4

We go to beach today David said he wanted to go and swim in the sea. On the way we stop off in Kilkeel for a coffee and chat to a local shop-keep who directs us to a sandy beach but warns us that there have been lots of jellyfish. We also visited the quite busy harbour here and watched fishermen make repairs to their boats and warehouse men shift palates around; It is amazing how it can be so calm and industrious at the same time, no one seemed hurried (my perception may be skewed ah I am in no rush to do anything. The beach is not so busy and has no amenities (we think there should be a cafe) but does have a lifeguard station. David seems to enjoy his swim but it makes him feel very cold and he insists we go back to the cottage so he can have a warm bath. I take a slow road back, trying to head towards the mountains without a map knowing our destination was the other side of them. There are very few cars on these roads; at one point, just after the highest point, I have to stop the car to get out and take some photographs as it looks amazing (I am sure I will not be able to capture this).

After David's bath and some lunch we head off to Newcastle fo a walk trough the town, my mum wants tatyy-bread for tea. After being force-fed some banoffe pie in the cafe I loose all my appetite. In Newcastle we watch a helecopter land at the hotel and see a wedding party make a comical walk to get their photographs taken on the sea shore (im sure they will be great photographs or hope so after they have endured this spectacle with so many onlookers). We plan to make our trip to the Giants Causeway tomorrow.

Day 3

Today we go shopping, more looking than anything. As well as all the familiar high street names there seems to be a good number of independent and small chains of shops, we do notice that quite a few shops are closed up and assume that the global financial problems have also caused this. We had coffee in Banbridge, David found the games shop and I found the christian book shop. My mum used to change busses here, she recounts stories of her and my dad hitch hiking with one occasion they traveled by ice cream van back to Rathfrieland (they didnt get free ice cream though). From here we go to Newry, there is a traditional countryside saddelry and tackle shop that peak's Davids interest as it also sells guns we tell him he can look around this. David does not seem to do mornings very well, again we notice the patern of him animating as the day progresses. Lunch was taken in costa, it was good to see David trying each of our choises as well as the plain egg sandwich he had picked.

We drive back through Rathfrieland and I stop outside the funeral parlour that is next door to nana's old house, David does not seem interested in hearing how I as a child used to holiday here and was reluctant to follow me as I dragged us down memory lane. I wanted to find the playground where I was bitten by a very deceitful dog that had pretended to be my friend. On our way to the swings we pass the house of a long term family friend, Alma, as her and her daughter, Karen, where just off to put flowers in the graveyard. It doed not take much coercion, from Alma, before we are usherd in for cups of tea and catch up on births, deaths and mariages. It has been several years since I have seen Karen, she looks well (I think she has something over one of the fairy folk as she looks younger than me). Karen shows me an old photo of her brother Darryl, it takes a few moments but I do remember him, even without a reminder I remember some of the fights we had as children (he and Antony where much closer friends).

We go back to Newcastle, David makes a purchase and I get some ribeye for our tea. Afterwards we go to the pub in Maghera, this is where my mum lived as a child and she recounts several stories and tries to fit pieces of memory together, I really enjoy this. My mum tells me about Flush lane where gypsies used to stop in a field (I rename this Gypsie Lane as I keep forgetting it), nana used to press-gang the gypsie children into eating a meal then have a bath and give them my mums clothes (nana said they probably sold the clothes as next time they came back they would be in rags again). To dispell they myth that gypsies steal children my mum tells me of one lady who wanted a daughter but couldnt have any more children, she adopted a gypsie baby (the mother said she had lots of them and that she could take her, the lady insisted that it was done legally). The baby had tapeworms, my mum thinks it may not have survived without the care this lady gave her. I wonder what happened to this baby and if she ever had contact with her birth mother.

It was supposed to rain today (the misty mountain picture is from this morning), quite selfishly I have prayed that it doesn't and so far God has withheld the rain (he withheld the rain for Melissa's concert in the grounds of Hinchingbrooke house earlier in the year). I will let you know how the rest of the weeks weather goes, the forecast is Irelands usuall rain from tuesday afternoon until saturday.

We had a good start to the day, David was up early and the skies where peppered with clouds with mist descending on the mountains and going as quickly as it came. David went back to bed, I hope this is not the start of a downturn. David takes my laptop to his lair each night so I had to retrieve it, as I will do each morning, to write the previous days events. The cottage is a no smoking one so I was a little concerned that David may ignore this rule but very glad he did not I couldn't even detect the the scent from scattered clothes. We don't have many plans, there are a few things we want to do but no schedule; today we will need to go shopping for food for the week and those essential items that didn't get packed.
We where out of the cottage before 11, a bit later than what I would like but a lot better than what it could be. We drive to Newcastle for coffee and a discussion on what we will be doing today. The coffee shop overlooks a weir on a river that flows into the sea; my mum tells David, in hushed tones so as not to disturb other patrons, that last time we where here we saw a rat scuttling around the banks. David is not very talkative, this is not unusual but he seems quite low in mood, and all he wants to do is go and sit in the car. With a little coaxing we take a walk along the beach whilst David explains how evil we really are trying to own pets (officially both cats are his, this is ok because David and the cats are equal and neither owns each other). By the end of the walk we are discussing various TV shows, he explained that Game of Thrones should not have ended the season where it did as it wasn't the end of the first book. We had reached David's switching point.
After our walk we went shopping, I had lots of Ideas of what we might eat during the week, only partially changed by the offers and reductions within the store. Lunch was a mixture of sandwiches, made to exacting specification (the cheese had to be sliced at .7 mm thickness)and yesterdays leftovers; David had a very good appetite which was good as this was all he would eat today.
After lunch we went visiting our family who live in Newcastle, my great uncle and aunt and their daughter, grand daughter and great grand children. The relations confuse me so I will be using gramps to help me work it out and hopefully capture some information before its lost by natural processes (I told Jimmy and Eunice that I needed to do it before they die as my mum can hardly remember any of the family names, even when she can talk in detail about childhood friends). Whilst there we could here PA systems and music coming from a festival within the town, uncle Jimmy said it was a mini woodstock but he couldn't see the stage with his binoculars as the angle was wrong (I did suggest he may see if he stood on the roof of his bungalow but as he has not been well lately, along with his one or two years beyond the three score and ten, he thought better of it; in any event he didn't know the groups that where playing). We left just after 6 and returned to the cottage to have tea (chilli beef pasta bake) and watch MIB2 on TV. When this had finished we went back to Newcastle to a pub at the harbour where we listened to some locals with guitars, whistles and various other instruments in a very traditional session. Mostly celtic/folk singing and instrumentals. My mum commented that Melissa would have loved it, it was the sort of gig where anyone who could hold a tune would have been invited to join in. I think David really enjoyed this especially as he knew one of the songs neither my mum nor I had heard before. This was the perfect end to our first full and relaxed day.

The day starts some time before 6am, anything before that was last night. Surprisingly I have less anxiety about setting off on this holiday than usual I'm not sure why. After saying goodbye to my dad, who was off to work, our departure preparations gathered momentum and with only a few last minute bounces from car to house for essential items we where off. The car drive to the ferry was uneventful and a very familiar journey, the roads where mostly quiet so the hour drive to Birkenhead was about 50 minutes. I guess they thought we where low risk as the pass through port control was a quick exchange of pleasantries and an offer of help to use the lift an my mum insisted on displaying her disabled parking permit. It was about 8:30 and we barely had time to get a coffee before being instructed to return to our vehicles and start engines. We where at the front of the convoy and had orders to follow the foot-passenger bus with our hazard warning lights on, looking at the speed the cargo/container vehicles where moving I could not understand how our snail train could be viewed as a hazard. I have now done a 3 point turn inside a ferry; I'm not sure why we loaded like this and was concerned that one of our convoy, complete with trailer, would not be able to make it but fortunately they where directed to another section of the vessel. Phase one of our journey was over.
I had not indented this blog entry to be so big so will try to speed things up. There where no free comfy seats in the lounge area so we sat at a table, 1.5 hours to wait now before departure so I did a quick run through part of my usual e-mail/favorite website scan then went and took some photies of the Liverpool waterfront. Shortly after we where able to secure some more comfortable seating and where set for our 8hr sailing. I had booked a 2 bedroom place for the 3 of us but really wanted 3 rooms so David could have his own space and had mentioned this on the booking. The owner of the cottages, also called David, replied that we had booked a 2 bedroom one but if one became available we could upgrade. Just before departure I had a phone call from David,the owner of the holiday cottages where we were going to be staying, with some great news that if we where arriving later on in the day he would have an alternative cottage for us to stay in. For me this removed most of the minimal anxiety I had remaining, not that David, my son, would be in his own room but that the cottage was expecting us and I had been given more detailed instruction on finding the correct cottage with a blue door. I'm not sure why I get anxious about these small details, is it lack of faith in my heavenly Father to take care of all the details (I cannot remember when he has not, you would think I would start to get it one of these days). Chris had lent me some books to read, I find holidays the best time to do this, so I read Israel's new disciples by Julia Fisher. I would say, apart from the main theme about Israel being a light to the world, the bits which stood out for me where that you can follow Jesus and maintain your cultural identity be it Arabic, Jewish, Russian or Klingon; and that it is essential (the book uses the term one of the keys) that the body of Christ be one: Arab and Jew, Jew and Gentile. There needs to be no divisions as we continue to knit together as one body with Christ as the head. With this book finished, all but a couple of pages, the second part of our journey was done and we started on the last.
I don't know about you but I don't like driving on unknown roads, even with sat nav, when you have four lanes and the one your in is farthest from the one you need to be in. Fortunately the roads where almost abandoned and I was in the correct lanes for most of the way from the docks, skirting Belfast, and onto the Newcastle road. It was a mostly uneventful drive and we arrived safely to the black/blue door of cottage no 7. My mum negotiated internet connectivity with David, the owner, and we where connected for the price of a donation to an animal charity of our choice (do they do any chicken ones, I will have to find out). My mum and David chatted for some time about the people who live(ed) in the area and it seems like they know all the same people and where able to recount several events from their collective journey down memory lane. Needing to wrap day one up before it takes all of day two to write it, we finished with a quick trip into Newcastle to check in with family (text and phone calls) and to get a fish n chips supper.