We walked the Walk

How I managed to get D out of bed by 8 on Sunday, God only knows but we managed and we left the house by  9:10 a.m. to meet Lisa in Bray by 9:30, we started the walk slowly from outside the Porterhouse and managed to get to Greystones in just over 2 hours, with a lot of stops on the way - we had to watch the Dolphins frolicking in the bay, listen to Em complain.

It was a stunning walk and one I will do again, and I am so proud of Em as she was the only kid on the walk and managed it.

Walk the Walk is a video showcasing the fantastic Bray to Greystones Cli...

Black Ice NOT by ACDC

You would think, after all, that a country like Ireland would be geared for the weather, but no when it rains people don't know how to drive, when it snows the same goes, and when there is black ice well let me say no more.

I left an extra 15 minutes earlier this morning because I heard on the radio that there was black ice (Lisa's Black taxi driver quizzed her the other day about, why do they call it "Black" ice) anyway to get back to my story, I headed towards the M50 but the queue was already backed up close to our estate and I just knew from what they were saying on the Radio that it would be 2 hours before I got to work, if not longer.

So I turned around and headed toward Dundrum and Sandyford, going up the hill towards the back of Marley Park (the front was too backed up), there was still almost a foot of snow up the road - it has snowed again on Tuesday night in the Sandyford and Glencullin area (Johnny foxes) but nothing down by us. So it was pretty easy going up the road and when going past Marlay you basically drive alongside the M50, well everything had narrowed down to 1 lane there were, blue lights and a few bumper bashings.

The road sailed pretty smoothly for me and I was eventually on the M50 South without a problem, except I wasn't doing my normally 120km's an hour but sticking to 80km's because you could see the build up of black ice if you looked carefully and a few skid marks where cars had skidded. I got to my exit in about 20 minutes which was backed up and then of course it was another 20 minutes before I got to the office (only 2 km's form there). But I was pretty proud of myself for not joining the "commuter chaos". Needless to say I was the only one at work by 08:30 and remembered all the alarm codes this time, and most people only got into work by 10 o'clock by no fault of theirs. Val who comes from Naas and normally travels an hour to work, took 3 hours to get to the office, so I think I may take my route again tomorrow.

I forgot to mention that yesterday we went to the Glenview Hotel in Bray for lunch and the snow was also very thick there, this time I did not have my camera to take pictures. Today driving to Bray the "sugarloaf" mountain actually resembled the Matterhorn in Switzerland it looked so beautiful, however I couldn't stop and take photos. In some parts of the Wicklow mountains the snow is 7ft deep, so I am hoping to get some photos on the week-end if the snow is still there.

The Big Freeze

What is normally a 20 minute journey from home to work and vice versa, took me over 3 hours today. I tried to leave work at 2 to fetch Emily, but the exit out of the Industrial estate was blocked with cars, I eventually left at about 3, after taking me 45 minutes just to leave the estate, I then took a detour which may not have been such a wise move.

I eventually turned off my detour and went back to join the M50, which flowed with ease until the Dundrum / Sandyford off ramp, which then crawled all the way to my off ramp, the worst is there is no other off ramp between the two so I just had to sit. I eventually walked through the door at just past 6 PM, luckily D had gone to fetch Emily, and it took him a total of 4 hours to get home.

I was actually quite frightened at one stage, my car was spinning on the ice, my heater decided to start blasting out cold air, I needed the loo, some skangers started pelting my car with snow balls which sounded like the windows were going to break, oh and to top it all my battery on my mobile phone had died. I felt really venerable in the situation and became quite emotional that I was away from my loved ones.

So tomorrow I am not going to work, not quite sure how bad the roads will be but we will take each moment as it presents itself. But for now I am off to my nice warm bed.

One thing is for certain, people behave odd when the weather is not normal, they forget how to drive, they get stressed.