Tenacious

Despite checking timetables in advance and being at the DART station with plenty of time to spare, I still managed to be late for my lunch appointment with Carl in Dún Laoghaire. For some reason, the train was delayed at several spots along the route and was running a good ten minutes behind schedule by the time I got to Seapoint. We'd intended having a bite to eat in the Giddy Goose near the bottom of York Road, but ended up in the Purty Kitchen instead.

It wasn't good. The place really does seem to have suffered badly from the change of ownership since it went into receivership. There was hardly anyone there, but still the service was desperately slow and our barman-cum-waiter somehow managed to make three trips out of what could have been accomplished in one. Then we were subjected to over-loud background "music" (as if the already over-loud TV wasn't causing enough aggravation to begin with). Then the waiter got our order mixed up, brought my second course before my soup and forgot all about Carl's. In fairness, he did come back over with a peace-branch offering of a complimentary bowl of chowder while Carl's fish pie was got ready. To top it all, my soup had slopped all over the side of the bowl and the bread which accompanied it was very poor quality. I have to admit that my sizzling chicken was very nice, but the overall experience was far from satisfactory.

I'd planned a bit of a pier walk and some blippage but changed my mind because of the dull skies and general chilliness of the day. I did get a few shots around the refurbed esplanade thing near the Pavilion Centre, but nothing was up to snuff for posting here. This is no great shakes either, as I well know, but it's all I had by the time I got home, just a tenacious plant which I noticed clinging to a wall in the laneway back from the bus.