South Harrow to Kilmeena

Sunday, 15th September, 2019.

Getting from Ilona’s place in London to Kathy’s on the west coast of Ireland was a complicated process.  I had elected to travel to Ireland on Ryanair with just cabin baggage, but the maximum dimensions for one cabin bag were only large enough for not much more than a toothbrush, so I made a last minute decision to upgrade to two small cabin bags.

Ilona drove me to Harrow-on-the-Hill station as there was track work around the local stations, but there was also a road diversion and we had to drive round and round a bit.  Anyway, I caught the Tube to Liverpool Street and then the Stansted Express (just) where I finalized all the online form-filling-in to upgrade my ticket to two small cabin bags.

Stansted Airport is the largest people-processing establishment I’ve ever been processed in.  Even more complicated than the dreaded LA Airport, as I think that from Stansted you can fly to every town in Europe that has more than ten people.  There are signs up telling you how long it will take to walk to the various gates (e.g. 20 minutes) as well as gates where you take a train.  

I got into trouble three times at Stansted:

11.      For not printing my upgraded boarding pass.  (Well, I was on the Stansted Express when I ordered it, with limited access to a printer.)

22.     For not packing my security inspection crate properly.

33.     For having some undeclared face cream in my bag.  In my upgrading rush, I missed putting this particular cream into the separate see-through plastic bag for the security inspection.  This involved having this bag placed in a separate line and then having it completely unpacked in front of me (and everyone else) until the offending cream was found.  Luckily, I had arrived the stipulated two hours early so still had time for the long walk to the gate.

When we left Stansted, you could look down, on this beautiful sunny day, to England’s ordered countryside.  I was looking forward to seeing the Irish Sea, and then Ireland coming into view, but suddenly it clouded over, and stayed cloudy all the way to Knock, where it was raining lightly – a real novelty for me, as I hadn’t seen rain for weeks, maybe months.

Kathy, Amy and Tommie. 

It was so good to see Kathy and Tommie again.  Kathy worked out that we have been friends for 47 years.  We’ve had a few adventures in that time.

Amy and Hamish.

Amy is currently working in Dublin, staying with her brother Matthew.  She comes home every second weekend, a four hour drive right across Ireland.  Hamish (Amy’s dog) stays in Mayo, much to Tommie’s delight I think.  I was very grateful that Amy waited to say hello to me before driving back to Dublin.

Kathy and Tommie outside Matt Molloy’s bar in Westport.

Matt Molloy was in the famous Irish band the Chieftains, who(m) I had seen in Australia, many years ago.

We went in by the back door, down an alley. 

Tommie said I should photograph it, because of the Guinness sign.  The bar was tiny and crowded, standing room only, as there was a session on.  Everyone was very friendly.

Someone kindly gave me a seat in the front, because I was a visitor (and short), so I could photograph the musicians, who were very good.

Great music, great atmosphere, great night.