No Blue Monday

Howth from Dublin side

We woke up to yet another cloudy day, but Google weather was predicting no rain. After lolling about at home, setting up Kirstin's blog, skyping my baby sis and visiting all my favourite blogs we ventured out and headed for the Dart station in Monkstown for a day (well afternoon - had wasted the morning on the computer)in Howth. There is a great cliff walk that I have been dying to try and it was a perfect day - not too hot and no rain!!!
We had to drag the kids along - they find the couch and TV more appealing than a day with the folks (sharp intake of breath due to disbelief here please) so we offered them a meal out as a reward for playing mountain goats with us. The walk was absolutely what the doctor ordered, a great bit of exercise with breathtaking scenery and horrible smelling plants, but they were so pretty that we soon got used to the smell.

View from Howth looking towards Bray

I had visions of a fish and chip dinner on the grass next to the harbour but sadly our children had much more formal plans so I had to ignore my salivating every time I saw a white box of Beschoff fish and chips, made worse by the smell of vinegar which made me want it even more! Worst of all the restaurants were all filled to capacity so we had to endure an extra hour on the train before we could get food into our grumbling bellies...the scrambled egg on toast at 11h00 was very well digested by the time we had finished our walk!
The kids had selected REAL Gourmet Burger in Dun Loughrie for their gastronomic pleasure but the wait time was an hour and so I found myself very happily ordering from the Cafe Mao menu - my usual, roasted pumpkin spring rolls and Asian Greens in a soy and oyster sauce. Malcolm ordered his favourite too, Nasi Gooring and after much deliberation the kids settled on Chicken Satay (Kirstin) and Yellow curry (Jess). They rounded it off with the most divine smelling chocolate puddings which I later discovered tasted even better than the smells that had been attacking my nasal passages...but I did not succumb as I was ready to explode having already sampled every one's food and eaten my own! I have not forgotten about my fish and chips on the grass dream though, so perhaps we will take George and Murray there while they are staying with us...weather permitting of course!