Door to nowhere

A good day. Today's music session was one of our quarterly concert programmes, for which two members of the group are totally responsible for everything we hear or see. Bernard and David did us proud, with a fascinating selection of interconnected music with a generally American theme. The first half was devoted to Victor Herbert, born in Dublin 150 years ago on 1st February, and included Hero and Leander, a work new to most of us and well worth remembering and hearing again. Dvorak and Amy Beach provided the music for the second half, the Bohemian Dvorak's American Suite and American Amy finishing things off with her 'Gaelic' Symohony. All great stuff. A shame more people didn't turn up.

We went to nearby Clontarf Castle afterwards, just three of me, with me driving. I missed a couple of parking spaces on a first tour of the car park, hoping for something closer to the door, so the other two got out, and I did the rounds again, parked, and took advantage of the separation to grab a quick blip. I've mentioned before how well the old has been married with the new in this place, and this old door in its equally old wall is just one instance of how successfully and sympathetically this has been done. Blip safely in the can, I joined the others for a couple of drinks and some good chat.

Over in Carl's place we were in three minds about whether to cook up a storm there, order in, or eat out. We finally decided to go to the Martello restaurant in Dún Laoghaire, and boy were we glad we did! It was 7.15 when I honed to ask if they offered an early bird menu on Saturdays and if it was still available if they did. I was very impressed when I was told that the early bird officially ends at 7.00, but that they had tables free and would accommodate us. I said we'd be there within half an hour (we had a drink to finish first), and still they were happy. So, good marks even before we got there.

Things got better when it came to the food. My main course was especially wonderful. I had sea trout, served with a beautiful potato rosti and a delicious salsa verde. As I told the waitress, all in all it was one of the best plates of food I've had in a long time. The bread and butter pudding which followed was equally wonderful. Carl had the Martello signature starter of kidneys with pepper sauce, with pork belly and parsnip and pear purée on the side. Yummy!

The night ended with Carl's Kino showing In Bruges. Brilliant.