The Park in the Past treated us well overnight and only a 4.00am cockerel conspired to disturb us. Of all the animals man has domesticated, this one has to be up there in the cause-of-wars rankings.
This morning's parkrun at the cockerel's venue was quite a challenging affair. It was run over very uneven terrain and conditions underfoot were a mixture of rough stones, deep sand and hard-packed but uneven grasslands. There was also a visiting running club in attendance, so the number and quality of participants was reportedly a notch above the usual caper.
Anyway, on spite of the terrain we both stayed upright, didn't ingest too much of the dust clouds that were thrown up, and generally performed OK.
Post parkrun we once again had a chat with the venue's owner / creative driving force and left with more than a little respect for his vision and endeavour.
Thereafter we picked up on the journey we'd originally intended to make yesterday afternoon / evening and bumbled to Holyhead to catch the boat to Dublin. It was incongruously windy in the port and the boat was not only running late but had to be held alongside with a tug. As an aside, I have a genuine admiration for tug pilots and it's one of the potential career direction I never dibbled with, but sort of regret not pursuing.
Surprisingly, the ferry was way busier than expected and literally every seat in every public space / cafe / bar / eatery was taken. Throw in at least a million badly behaved screaming children and it's fair to say it wasn't the experience we normally encounter and have come to expect. As a result of the melee I asked at reception if it might be possible to pay to upgrade to what is effectively the proletariat-avoiding first class lounge area aboard. I was politely informed it wasn't a possibility as the lounge was up to capacity, but the bloke in charge did obviously recognise our trauma and handed us a ticket with the code for the Professional Drivers' lounge; so in very little time thereafter we'd managed to find a modicum of relative peace and tranquility.
The boat's late running and therefore late arrival in Dublin was compounded by a way more stringent than usual passage through customs and immigration. Not sure what that was all about but wonder if the recent violent protests rooted in the issue of uncontrolled / uncontrollable immigration might have had a hand.
So, the various delays made for a much later than usual finish, which meant we didn't arrive at our current but previously-used overnighting spot until after we'd normally have gone to bed. Hopefully, from tomorrow morning onwards we can settle into an appropriate level of semi-organised chaos ...
Post composed at 22:30 on Saturday 18th July from our intended overnighting spot N 53.04575°, W 06.27154° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:53.04575%2C-06.27154
