Harbours

The blow catches him from the right, sharp and surprising and painful, like a bolt of electricity, lifting him up off the bicycle.

I decided to walk to Greystones and instead I walked to Bray, a lot closer yet I walked further than I intended. Why? Because it was such a beautiful day that I decided to change my walk when I looked over the sea from the top of Dalkey Quarry. I realised the tide was going out and I could cross the beaches more easily at low tide, so I needed to delay an hour or so. Which gave me the idea to have a walk that included five harbours. I headed north to Dun Loaghaire Harbour and walked out to the lighthouse at the end of the east pier. And then back south to Bulloch Harbour and up through Dalkey where I stopped in Muggs for a 10 km break, a latte and a rocky road on the side. I sat outside in the sun, watching the occasional nice car drive by. Then after some Vaseline for the chaffing, I was off again to Coliemore Harbour.

Hitchcock?

The weather was spectacularly hazy yet opulently shimmering in the effulgence of Spring, twinkling brights added by the budding rhododendron candles and blackthorn confettis. All the time, the sea was like glass, rippled by the sea birds, the shrill crys of the terns of counterpointed with the muted sounds of the oscillating waters lapping on the beach.

I had done 24 km by the time I reached Bray Harbour and decided to take the train home. The railway station had four huge billboards but only one carried an ad.

It was David Park's book The Truth Commissioner that opened saying he'd never been where he'd never been in the first post on this blog.