Because I so rarely have time to take photos during the week, I decided to take a few quick snaps with my trusty camera phone on one of my fairly regular tours around various locations in Ireland. See, I’m a field engineer by trade and I often get stuck out for a few days on the trot. All the more reason I’ve been meaning to get a very compact camera to take with me. I could take the 20D, but that’s just another bag to haul around. Nothing too emotionally stimulating here, just a few shots I thought I’d upload to flickr so it actually looks like I’m doing something…
It all started on Monday evening in Wexford. There’s nothing like only arriving on site at the time you’d normally be crashed out on the couch at home after a long days work. While waiting for a DAT drive to do it’s thing, I strolled around the yard and spotted this scene on the other side of a menacing fence. Finally got moving at 9pm.
Arrived in Kilkenny (following some bad directions of epic proportions) at around 11pm. Give or take. Missed Lost on TV, spent an hour or so praying that my sister taped it. I’ll find out tomorrow. Stayed in the above; Lyrath Estate Hotel on the Dublin road. Should have stayed in Wexford but was itching to find out what this place was like. Big & posh. They seem to have lost some of the friendliness somewhere along the road to building a big & posh hotel. Ah well. No room service when I arrived, gotten too used to 24 hour room service elsewhere. Starved for a few minutes before deciding to ration out the cookies on the tea tray. Possibly good for a mother of a naughty weekend. By my reckoning, you’d comfortably fit 5 people in the shower.
Day 2 of the Irish Rail train drivers strike. Or so you’d imagine. Possibly one of the only trains running in the entire country and I get stuck by it. Almost got caught by it again but I just escaped the wrath of the level crossing. How and ever, I did get caught by the same train again before reaching my destination.
Could I be correct in labelling my journey as one of the most bloody awkward in the land? Kilkenny to Ballina. Very few major roads. Essentially going the wrong way across the country for a few hours. Turns out it took around 4.5 hours to do the trip.
The view from my hotel room in the Ridgepool in Ballina. Well, I say room… It was actually a suite 
Don’t even ask how I swung that one. More good luck than dirty dealing. Unfortunately not too impressive, much like Ballina itself. No offence to anyone from there, well.. anyway…
A games room, apparently! I only stayed for one game…
The week was now starting to drag on and on and on and it was only Wednesday morning. I had to get to Letterkenny fairly sharpish to install a server. I had one of those “if I had only” moments on the way up there. Bought lunch and filled up the car at Statoil in Sligo and promised myself I’d stop around Donegal and eat it. Didn’t. Wish I had. Instead of only being a close spectator to a road accident, I almost had a starring role. A car, driven by an old man, pulled into a side road passed Ballybofey whereupon it was clipped on the back wheel by a woman overtaking. His car spun, made shit of the back of it. I was two cars behind. After thinking “fuck it I hope he’s alright” I thought “I wish I stopped in Donegal”. Ended up being late to Letterkenny as I had to wait for the Gardai (whom I rang) to arrive. Took them 25 minutes. Odd, seeing as we were only about a 5 minute drive from Letterkenny. The ambulance turned up about 10 minutes later, lucky nobody was seriously hurt.
Even though I wasn’t actually involved, I found it hard to concentrate during the remainder of the drive into Letterkenny. I even found it bewildering the next morning on the drive back to Sligo. Like I had to be extra careful. Weird. That’s why there isn’t a photo from Letterkenny. I was concentrating on getting back, as least as far as Sligo anyway.
Put in a quick appearance at my appointment in Sligo, got the job finished quick so I was back on the road to Cork by lunchtime. Hurrah!
The fact of the day from Tuam. Proudly displayed thanks to a recently opened bottle of Snapple. Thankfully, the majority of the drive home was uneventful. The odd battering of rain and black cloud, like the one below from the Ennis road, threatening to dump a few million gallons of acidic h20 onto my lovely new(ish) car.
Finally got home at the reasonable hour of 6pm, after battling traffic around Mayfield and the Jack Lynch tunnel for the bones of 40 minutes. Some bad vibes must have followed me from Letterkenny as on my way into Charleville in north Cork, it appeared a French truck driver had slid across the busy road and ploughed through the ditch. Despite the dramatic condition of the truck, I can only imagine the driver escaped serious injury. Odd, I thought, that I should see two accidents in the space of two days. I hardly ever see that kinda stuff. The worst news? It’s only Thursday and there’s a whole other day of work tomorrow! Another one of those “If I had only” moments. If I had only stayed in Galway tonight and came home tomorrow morning! Gah…
