The First Bit

I haven't written much because there isn't really a lot to report. I'm settling in to the country house and quite enjoying the peace and quiet.

As mentioned, I'm about 4km from town (8km round-trip). For my first load of groceries, I walked to town and then took a taxi home (€5).

I'm lucky to have amazing neighbours on both sides and one set (Ronnie and Mary) offered to take me to another town (Gort) to get groceries with them. Gort's main store has a bigger selection and lower prices. Not to say that prices are low. In general, most things are much more expensive than Canada. However, I'm still learning who has the best deal on what.

I've been out on the bike a couple of times as well. Yesterday (7/29) I rode into Kinvara to drop off some bottles at the recycling depot and to pick up a few groceries. I ran into my local taxi-man and said I felt like I was cheating on him!

The weather has been cool -- I don't think we've hit 20 yet. I don't mind too much, but there are often showers throughout the day -- which makes going for a cycle a bit of a gamble. So far, so good.

Cycle Boy in Kinvara

I'm slowly building up the KMs on the bike. I find I need to take a one-day break due to knee and shoulder pain. Not to mention me arse. I'm not 30 anymore, so I don't want to push things too fast. But I can see riding 25km a day (weather permitting) by September. I can currently do 15km without much difficulty. I think riding into the near-constant winds and the undulating roads will just take a bit of time to get used to.

A sweet destination!

I still haven't gone to the pub in Kinvara. Mostly it's an issue of timing. The places I want to go open at 5, and the weather has been crap to walk in around that time. My plan is to walk in and per-arrange a taxi pick-up a couple of hours later. Perhaps tomorrow.

The internet is good enough to get work done, but I need to add another client. I've been cut back a little and I'll need to keep the income coming. Luckily my expenses are low.

Irish cat (1 of 2) says hi!

Anyway, that's it for now. Things will get more interesting over the coming weeks, I'm sure of it.

And so it goes...