valeriesbookofme

I really enjoyed a British TV series called Doc Martin, a comedy about an uptight, obsessive-compulsive British surgeon who develops a paranoia about blood. He vomits at the sight of it so, his surgery career at an end, he finds a locum job in a quirky village in Cornwall. The scenery in the series was beautiful, the villagers odd and of course there was the on-off romance (there always has to be romance) between the doc and the school directress. Dunmore East is a bit like the fictional Cornish village. Its location is very beautiful, nestled in a harbour at the mouth of the channel to Waterford. Many thatched cottages, some old pubs, fish & chip shop, small groceries, a chemist shop and a tiny library that has been my lifeline in the chilly, watery winter. We have our share of characters too; none as totally weird as the denizens of Portwenn but they have their share of funny stories, twinkly eyes and gift of gab. I am sure if I were to frequent the pubs at night ...

We decided to turn the bad news about having to go back to Dublin to submit my "new" Canadian passport application (don't ask) into good news by combining it with a trip up north to Cavan, where my grandmother Mary Cate O'Reilly Torrance came from. I have been there a few times before but Richard hasn't. I found an awesome deal at a gorgeous country hotel called Slieve Russell. A two-day "Senior's Getaway" that included two breakfasts and two dinners. Combine that with free train and bus travel, why not? So I called Precious Pets and got Mitzi settled in at the bed & biscuit hotel, and off we went very early this past Monday morning. Arranged to park the car at the train station. Golly I love these online parking apps where you key your license in, the dates you're parking, your payment method and then all you have to do is arrive, find a parking spot and that's it. Taking the Waterford train was delightful. Modern, clean and very quiet...

Cork City is Ireland's second biggest city (a whopping 125,000-odd souls) and only about 2.5 hours from where we live. I had been meaning to go there for months--can one leave Ireland and not see Ireland's second biggest city?--and we finally made it on April 28th. We decided to go by bus, because it is free for Richard and companion as seniors, an adventure in and of itself. Our first attempt was actually on April 27th. Buses run every hour and a half from Dunmore East and I thought that I had read that a bus would leave in sufficient time for us to catch the bus to Cork. Unfortunately, I read the wrong timetable--I read FROM Waterford TO Dunmore East instead of FROM Dunmore East TO Waterford. I have a lot of trouble reading timetables.  So I watched our bus to Waterford go by as I was walking the dog. Sigh. As the bus journey is so long each way, that put paid to our trip on April 27th. The next day we were better prepared. The bus timetable said that the bus left at 7:50...