Cathedral of St. Finn Barr

On 09 July 2013, so six years ago, I was here --
https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/3250103 

Almost missed the early train this morning as I went to bed unexpectedly late last night ... working!  Yes!  Unbelievable!  I thought I'd read my mail, just in case I missed something important, and there were a few re-sit marks that had to be made, entered, and finalized.  There were also some issues with my students, who wanted to know who was going to check their re-sat work now that I am on holiday.  I didn't reply to those but mailed the colleagues directly.  On hindsight, I am glad I took the trouble to sort things out.  It makes everything easier for the colleagues.  On the other hand, management should facilitate these things, and while I'm not in the mood to blame at the moment, I still cannot ignore the consequences of their simply throwing the responsibility onto us with an insouciant 'your subject, you fix it'.

AW woke me up with a jarring 'Shouldn't you be out of the house by now?'  Got up abruptly and then decided to take the next train, which was supposed to depart half an hour later.  That gave me time to clear the dishwasher, get dressed, pack in the last bits, all the time talking to myself and enumerating out loud all the items I should not forget.  This helped calm me down, and by the time I was ready, so was AW, up and dressed, to drive me to the station himself.  I had already purchased the tickets 2 days before, so all I had to do was 'check in'.  I was in plenty of time to get to the right platform.

Once at Schiphol Airport, simply printed out my boarding pass, and then straight to the gate, as I had no check-in luggage, except for a brief detour to buy some Dutch cheese for my hostess, in thanks for the free lodgings.  The plane left on time, too, and I managed to nap a bit.

Landed to very fair but windy weather in Cork.  The mini-bus to the west of the county wasn't scheduled to leave till 18.00, so after a leisurely lunch I parked my handcarry at a facility, then spent the day roaming and shooting.  Finally, 18.00 came around, and we left on time.  There were two other passengers with the same destination as I had, but I spent the ride again in a deep nap.  Around 20.10, after a bit more than 2 hours, we arrived, finally.

Extra #1 = a choir practicing in St. Finn Barr for the evening concert.

And so I'm here now, in the west of the county Cork, quite close to the Atlantic, at a writer's retreat called Anam Cara - https://www.anamcararetreat.com/ 

Extra #2 -- my room

The sunset happens exactly outside my window, which is why my room is called 'Sunset View'.  I got to know the other lodgers, who'll be staying here longer than I will.  We're all teachers.  Two come from the US, one comes from Dublin, one of those, in fact, who judged my winning ku a couple of months ago.  There'll be some interesting discussions in the course of the coming week and I look forward to them.

In the meantime, AW and I have been in touch and it appears that he is feeling a whole lot better, can now eat normally and properly without anxiety.  We agreed that he'll continue to rest whenever he needs to, and that he won't push things.  Where I am right now, I certainly will relax and do some creative stuff.