A Window In Waterville

Not a typical window, as Waterville is a thriving tourist-season village in Kerry, a favourite holiday spot for Charlie Chaplin and his family who used return regularly to stay there in the 60s. They stayed in The Butler Arms, which is still there, greatly extended now into a rather bulky nondescript hotel. I can imagine this might be a beautiful place to live, with head-cleansing sea views, although they've buggered up the simple crescent-shaped seafront village by inserting a row of ugly, blank little houses. There are also two life-sized statues, of Chaplin and, nearby, a local hero Mick O'Dwyer (Gaelic footballer and former Kerry senior football manager in the 1970s and 1980s). The one of Chaplin is not bad but O'Dwyer appears to be running with a snapped ankle.

We went for a longish drive into deep, lush countryside. Johnny pulled over at one point, near a beautiful little stone bridge, to clean out his car (even rubbing a handful of ferns in the footwell) and knock what he thought was dogshit off his shoes. He then decided it was actually my bad breath. Well, I sincerely hope it isn't that bad! I dunno. My sense of smell is pretty useless but nobody has complained so vociferously before.

Later, a lovely meal in the Butler's Arms, then an early night.