I took the day off yesterday as it was my 66th birthday--but I am definitely not feeling old yet. It was a nice day although there was no meal out at a fancy restaurant as we have done for so many years I can't (and don't want to) count them. In a couple of weeks Don is taking me to Glasgow for some Celtic Connections concerts and dinner out. By then, I'll be on phase II of the diet and can be more relaxed about eating out.
Saturday evening we went to the Burns Supper given by the Strathearn Burns Club (established 1889) to celebrate the life and works of Robbie Burns. I told you all about Burns Suppers last year so will only say that this one was jolly good. The speakers and reciters were excellent and the music was good. The food wasn't terribly good--and such small portions too! (That made it much easier for me to stick to my diet, and I did.) But, och, the company was grand and that was what mattered after all. We had a good time.
I'm pleased to tell you that although Don is still using his cane, as he still gets bad twinges in his knee now and then, it hasn't kept him off the golf course. He played with Gordon yesterday morning and went out on his own (ended up joining two other fellows) this afternoon. I am also pleased to tell you that no sleet or snow has materialised--at least not yet.
I promised I'd tell you about our penultimate day in Ireland. We had breakfast, packed our things, and took off for Shannon under rainy skies. We had hoped to do a bit of sight-seeing on the way but it just wasn't that sort of day.
We stopped for lunch in the town of Listowel (lis-TWO-ul) because I wanted to say I'd been in a pub there. (It's a long story but relates to the lyrics of one of my favorite Irish songs, "The Tinkerman's Daughter.") It being a Sunday, only one pub was open that we could tell and we didn't fancy it, so we went into the big hotel on the main square and had a very nice lunch in their pub. The photo above was taken in Listowel and features on the outside wall of a pub in town (one that wasn't open).
Our next stop was in the town of Adare not far from Limerick. Don wanted to take photos of the golf course which has a huge castle ruins on its grounds. Most impressive! We also took photos of the charming thatched-roof cottages in the town which looked so pretty. We parked at the golf course and just sort of wandered around for a few minutes before getting back on the road for Shannon.
We got to our hotel near the airport at about 3:30 which gave us a nice long settling-in period to nap, shower, watch tv, or read. Kay and Boris came to our room at 5:30 for our last cocktail hour together and then we went down to the Chinese restaurant in the lobby for dinner. The less said about that, the better. The crispy duck starter was delicious.
Tomorrow I'll tell you about our last day in Ireland because we spent a lot of it in the Bunratty Castle Folk Park which was quite interesting.
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