Yellow spots mark the parking spaces while the Elysian looms overhead!

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This is my desktop background. I love it! After Inch Strand on the way to Dingle in County Kerry the road gets very narrow and winds through the hills before coming down to sea level again. The picture above should be a familiar scene to anyone who has travelled that road!

The day we drove down to Dingle was a stormy one but the sun suddenly broke through the clouds and I had to pull over and get half a dozen shots of the beautiful golden light, the countryside and the rainbow. Stunning, even if I do say so myself!

Since I had one request for print prices, I uploaded this to Red Bubble. Check out A pot of gold in the fields of Kerry over there. Lots of print options.

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Last Sunday a “fun day” was held in the square in Blarney. I had completely forgotten about it until we got down there and there was a huge crowd there with food stalls, a bouncy castle and this inflatable slide and various races for all the kids. Shame about the weather though.

Barry’s Balloons obviously had a hand in supplying some of the entertainment and looked like a lot of fun!

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Rain falls on a river in a town in County Clare while we were stuck in a traffic jam. I used to know what town this was taken in but now it’s a mystery. It did have a very distinctive walled off area right in the middle of the river though. Anyone recognise it?

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A young lady steps out of the rain on Tuckey Street, Cork last Saturday. What you don’t see in this shot is the large group of photographers behind me, sheltering under the awning outside Tribes. A torrential rain shower had just passed and thankfully was the last we saw.

PS. Cork photowalkers! Upload your images to this group on Flickr! Or you can upload them to Pix.ie too. Make sure to tag them “cork”, “corkphotowalk”, “skphoto” and “worldwidephotowalk” for maximum exposure!

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The Arann Islands, as seen from O’Briens Tower on the Cliffs of Moher.

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Dan Lowrey’s Tavern on Mc Curtain Street, scene of our brush with car trouble yesterday. It was a stroke of luck we found parking just outside this pub!

I’d write more, but my head is stuffy, my sinuses are blocked and I’m feeling under the weather. Hope my car is repaired tomorrow!

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I’m glad my wife Jacinta insisted we join AA Ireland. I’ve had over 15 years of almost trouble free driving (ok, the electrics in my Alfa 147 died once, but stopping and starting the engine fixed that, and it’s an Alfa Romeo, what do you expect?) but this morning as we drove into town and approached Mc Curtain Street in the lashing rain and howling wind the windscreen wipers stuttered.

The wipers slowed down, they stopped, then started again, and just as we got through the lights at Coburg Street and Bridge Street they stopped completely. Jacinta was driving and I have to applaud her for keeping her calm as rain water streamed down the window, obscuring her view. Luckily we spotted a parking space just outside Dan Lowrey’s Pub further down the road. She pulled in, tried the controls but there wasn’t a budge from the wipers.

It was a really lousy thing to happen. In the lashing rain, in the worst storm of the new year our car couldn’t be driven. If it had been bright and sunny we could have carried on our way. It’s only the wipers. For weeks we had cold dry weather with clear skies. The only upside, was that we parked directly outside that pub. Jacinta and Adam and all our gear went into the pub and I waited (with Oscar our dog) for the various service people to come and help. Anthony, the owner of Dan Lowrey’s Pub made us all very welcome, and I can’t recommend his establishment enough!

After ringing the AA, a mechanic soon called out, declared the wiper motor dead and arranged for our car to be towed back to Blarney. Our cover included a replacement car for 48 hours and eventually someone from Enterprise Rentals rang and my sister (thank you!!) took us out to the Kinsale Road to pick up a 08 Opel Astra.

OK, it’s only an Astra, but it’s been a few years since I drove a newish car. It has bluetooth which I connected to my N73 and couldn’t resist calling Jacinta later while she was out. Sound quality from the radio is good, and while the ride is a bit harder than the Renault Megane I drive now it was comfortable. I must admit the indicator and wiper controls are fiddly. They spring back to the central position again. Very odd.

The Renault Megane is with Barry at Blarney Auto Centre so hopefully he’ll have it fixed before I have to return the rental car.

Already thinking of what to buy to replace the Megane. Any time something goes wrong with it, I hear, “Oh yeah, that goes wrong with these cars a lot.” The Toyota Corollas I’ve owned kept driving and driving and driving, so I’m tempted to go for that model again. The Ford Focus gets a lot of good press too. I’ll be buying used. I think it’s going to be many years before I can afford to buy a new car, and anyway, they really aren’t worth it. Depreciation on ‘em is terrible!

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A wet bench in Maidenhead is no place for you or I but an Autumn leaf has made it home.

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Blarney Castle is that way. Go out the gate, turn right, turn left and park. Right in front of you.

I got back to Ireland yesterday afternoon. A mostly uneventful flight home, except for some problems with check in and I had to check in twice more. On the last attempt I got bumped to Economy Plus with more legroom and to an aisle seat thanks to the very nice lady at the gate.
The check in computer should be smart enough to offer an aisle seat in Economy Plus to me, even after I’ve declined that upgrade first. An aisle seat is worth the extra $109 because I was late checking in.

I hope Lenny and Eoin got home without much hassle. We had hoped to meet up in Heathrow but my text to Lenny only delivered moments before I boarded the Aer Lingus flight to Cork. Guess United is faster than BA? I saw a flight around the same time to Dublin was cancelled so they may have had a wait.

I love that I can run up the stairs now without getting winded. Wet? Damp? Oh yes! I don’t know how many bottles of water a day I consumed in Breckenridge because the air was so dry. Lovely people there, shame about the altitude!

I have at least 100 photos to post to Flickr from this blog. I should write a plugin that emails the image there with description and tags from the WordPress interface.

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