I wrote my last post on a Saturday morning when laziness overcame motivation. The weather forecast was for a band of very heavy rain and thunderstorms overnight Friday, bad enough to issue an Orange weather warning from 1-7am.

I figured there would be lots of surface water and crap on the roads Saturday morning so opted out of the Club cycle and enjoyed a lie-in instead.

Of course Saturday morning wasn’t as bad as expected but having made the decision I was unable to get motivated to get out solo.

Saturday wasn’t a waste though as we became a 4 car household once again!

With the exam and college application marathon finally over Conor now needs to focus on getting his driving license. He had lessons last year and was insured on Catriona’s car, but it was far too big and cumbersome for him as a learner and with the focus on his Leaving Certificate, driving took a back seat 🙊 The Polo is a perfect learner car and once he has his license will give him a level of independence that will hopefully compensate for living at home while at college.

I was back in the hills on Sunday, this time with the Hiking Club. The destination was Silver Hill in The Bluestack Mountains. At 600m it’s just about qualifies as a Vandeleur-Lynam summit and, by default, is also an Arderin. It is the joint smallest V-L sharing the honour with Castle Hill in Kerry.

I was up here in December last year on Cooper’s first venture into the hills. Despite being less than a year ago I couldn’t remember any of the walk after the reservoir. Also despite having a distinctive summit cairn and great views I couldn’t remember the top either! I guess I was more stressed having Cooper with me that day than I realised. Of course, having a leader that knows and sets the route makes for a very relaxing day.

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I was surprised at the low turnout. It was a great day but only 5 plus the leader made it.

Close to the parking area I got a low pressure warning on my rear passenger tyre. Once parked up it was clear I had a flat! I decided to forget about it until after the walk. Worst case if I couldn’t get it sorted then Catriona could come pick me up and I could organise an emergency service to sort it on Monday.

Arriving back at the car after the walk I used the electronic pump and jar of sealant to get the tyre inflated (no spare wheel in this car!). Coming into Donegal Town it felt soft again and another inflation got me to a couple of km outside of Ballybofey. On the third inflation I heard a hiss of escaping air and it was clear that the tyre had failed. The wheel was safe so long as I avoided any potholes and figuring the tyre was going to be replaced anyway, I pushed on into Ballybofey and left it in the yard of the tyre centre to be sorted on Monday.

I’d booked Monday as a day off a few weeks ago. I had some annual leave to use up and it was also Owen’s 21st birthday 🥳 Catriona was at work so we held all the presents, cake, etc until Monday evening but the two boys and myself went to Jacksons Hotel for lunch once the car was sorted and retrieved. It’s rare for just the three of us to be together like this and we had a lovely afternoon before celebrating properly in the evening with Catriona.

I was back at work on Tuesday and that’s Club Spin evening. However, I’ve decided I’m not mentally ready for night riding yet so my plan is to cycle solo earlier on a Tuesday and/or Thursday and cycle with the Club at the weekend. If I can get home and out the door by around 5:30pm then I should be able to get a decent 30-40km in before dark for a few more weeks.

My plan didn’t work out great for the first week! I ended up having a longer day than expected on Tuesday and in a pattern that was to last all week, didn’t get home until well after 6pm. I did however, have enough momentum to still get out Tuesday evening for a short spin. Unfortunately, Thursday was very windy and I was knackered after a long day so ended up not doing anything!

I had vague plans to cycle on Saturday but the chance to grab a bit of a lie-in won me over. We also had a celebration get together for Owen’s 21st on Saturday evening so I figured I’d be best to be around the house to help clean and tidy rather than leaving everything to Catriona. I also had plans to go hillwalking on Sunday morning so wanted to keep fresh legs.

With a later than planned finish to the night it turned out that my hillwalking plans were a bit optimistic! Sleepy heads kept us in bed until well after 9am but I didn’t regret it as the chance to get up reasonably refreshed was worth it and will hopefully give me a better run at the week ahead.

It’s a cracker day here today so in an effort not to waste the day completely I did get out for a solo spin on the bike. I decided to keep it reasonably sensible with a planned 33km ride that I pushed out to 37km. I didn’t expect or appreciate the very cool headwind on the way out but when I turned for home it was a very enjoyable tailwind with lovely warm sunshine. Hopefully not the last of this weather for the year.

The news last weekend was full of Trump’s visit to Ireland. The venue for the Irish Open Golf was his hotel at Doonbeg so there was no keeping him away. He did the usual official visits but also made an unexpected commentary on the possibility of a United Ireland. The memes were wild but this was my favourite (may not translate well out of Ireland).

The SDLP were the quickest off the mark with this theme:

Trump is also throwing his toys out of the pram over the invitation by the EU to Canada to become the first associate member. This article made me smile this morning: