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Cork
  • Lisa Shine
Nov 2019 – Sep 2025

Cork

A little blog about my adventures in Cork! Read more
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  • Trip start
    November 1, 2019
    Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Eyeries 5 mile

    November 9, 2019 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Today I travelled out to Eyeries in West Cork for my first race with my adopted club, St. Finbarrs. It’s such a gorgeous part of the country and I was delighted to stop off in Castletownbere on route for a quick view of Bere Island again!
    The race itself was very hilly, but I was able to push myself more than I have in a long time. After a sprint finish with a new F35 rival from East Cork, I ended up finishing 7th female. I also won a prize for 2nd F35, missing out on 1st by only two seconds! The prize is a voucher for glamping in Eyeries glamping pods, so I’ll be back to Eyeries again soon!
    It was lovely to join about thirty runners from the ‘Barrs at this race, and it was motivating trying to catch people that I know are about my standard in training. At one point I was even able to tag on to the coach and his daughter for a little while as they jogged past during the race. They were chatting a bit but I could only manage single word answers!
    After tea and sandwiches in the community hall after the race, takeaway at home and a few episodes of the Handmaids Tale was the perfect way to spend the evening!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Long run at the Marina

    November 10, 2019 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    The best (and pretty much only!) place in Cork city to do a long run is at the Marina. It’s nice at any time of year, but I really enjoyed the sunshine and the Autumn colours today. I was tired after yesterday’s race, so I put my earphones in and didn’t think about pace at all for 90 minutes. I did the usual loop in the opposite direction for a change too, heading out along the old railway line as back by the coast.

    After the run, me and Peter decided what to do with the rest of our Sunday. We were both tired, so the main activity for the day was shopping in Wilton Tesco, followed by several episodes of The Handmaids Tale. And, to be honest, this was just fine by me!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Science Week in Cork

    November 11, 2019 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    It’s science week and there’s lots on in Cork! We decided to go to an event on climate change this evening in UCC. The lecture hall was packed out and the event operated as a panel discussion, where people could submit their questions online and they would appear on the big screen.

    It was really interesting, and gave me lots to think about. What struck me most though was the type of questions being asked. Several people had questions about how agriculture and farming will be affected by global warming, or about how people in rural communities might reduce their reliance on cars if there’s no public transport available to them. I find myself generally hearing more discussion about farming and rural life since moving to Cork, and I like it, as it gets me thinking about things outside my regular bubble! A lot of people here work in the city but live rurally, so you can’t help hearing about things that affect people living in the countryside. Sure we’re nearly in the countryside ourselves - a ten minute jog and I’m surrounded by fields as far as the eye can see!

    Speaking of where we live, it’s just as well that we’re on one of the highest hills in the city. There was much discussion this evening about flooding in Cork as a result of sea level rises, and how difficult that will be to deal with, given that the city was built in a marshy valley. At one stage someone suggested that the only solution might be for everyone in Cork to move to Dublin!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Glen River Parkrun

    November 16, 2019 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C

    It was cold and frosty out this morning, but it ended up being perfect running conditions down at Glen River parkrun. I met Mairead just before the start and the two of us ran together and had a nice catch up. She’s heading back to Dublin tonight before running in the first Meet & Train race of the season tomorrow, while I’m staying put for the weekend.

    She told me that she’s mad jealous of all the parkrun tourism that me and Mum have been doing, so I said I’d keep her in the loop for future travels, and we’ve also agreed to do a few more Cork races together hopefully.

    I headed straight home after the run as Peters parents are staying with us for the weekend. Not sure what our plans are yet!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Margo and John come to visit

    November 16, 2019 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Peters parents came to visit us this weekend and, while his Dad has been here before, it was his Mum’s first trip down in the three years that Peter has been living here! It was also only her second visit to Cork ever.

    The days are short at the moment, as it gets dark early. As a result we put off our original plans to visit Gougane Barra or Spike Island, and instead we went on a few nice walks.

    On Saturday we all headed down Strawberry Hill for a walk along the river Lee, and we walked as far as we could go, right to the end of the corn field. Then it was home to get takeaway and watch Leinster in the rugby.

    On Sunday, we parked at Blackrock Castle to do the greenway loop out there. Peter and his parents walked the full loop, and I did an 80 minute run while they did this. After this, we had food in the Turners Cross Tavern before dropping Margo and John to the train station. A nice, relaxing weekend!

    There are some lovely Autumn photo opportunities out there at the moment too!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Mad training in the rain!

    November 18, 2019 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    I think all sense has left me! Last Friday, at Finbarrs, Marie suggested that I try out Monday evening training, and I agreed. High vis gear is compulsory on Monday nights, so I donned my oversize high vis and my flashing shoe light, that I got from the VHI, and I joined about 25 other people in high vis at the end of Mardyke Lane. During the announcements at the start, new people got a clap. I also got a clap, not for being a new person, but for being new to Monday night training! Haha!
    We then headed off for four miles around Cork city, at a decent enough pace. All the high vis must have been quite the sight, because we were beeped by lots of cars! Our run ended at the bottom of a long hill near the track, and we finished the evening with four hill reps, about 100m long each. Dan, the coach, kept telling us to move out of the way of cars “because it’s all consultants that live up here and they’ll kick us off their private road if we annoy them!”
    I walked home, in the dark, up Strawberry Hill. By the time I made it in the door, I think I was a bit in shock from the 80 minutes of mad running we’d just done, especially after my 80 minute long run yesterday!
    And, as if that wasn’t enough, I followed it all up with training again on Wednesday night (having done absolutely nothing on Tuesday)! The rain on Wednesday was torrential, and I had to jog to training in ankle deep flood water! Because of the monsoon-like conditions, the session had been changed from 800m reps to a 20 minute tempo with Indian file sprints. Again, the pace was a bit mad, but me and Marie clung on to the back because having to run in your own in that weather would have been terrible. At least, with the Indian file drill, you get to the front every so often and can slow the pace briefly! Haha!
    I’m not sure I’ve ever done so much running before. I’m loving it, and it’s great motivation that me and Marie have an ongoing agreement to show up every week, so that we each have someone to run with! However, it’s probably also just as well that I’m heading away for the week now and having an enforced break from training!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Cafe Mexicana

    December 11, 2019 in Ireland ⋅ ☀️ 6 °C

    Today started off with me invigilating the chemistry exam at college. I must have been asked about fifty questions during the exam, almost all of which were aiming to get me to give away the correct answer! After that, we had a staff meeting and I had my one-to-one feedback session with my manager, following my lesson observation in November. She didn’t have much to say, except to ask if I would deliver a CPD session in January to share some of my resources and activities with the other teachers! I’m the only staff member with a formal teaching qualification, so my manager is keen that I share some ideas on structuring lessons etc with the others. It’ll be extra work for me, but it’s good to get this positive feedback too!
    That evening, me and Peter decided to go for dinner. We wandered down to the Paul Street area of the city, which has loads of restaurants of every different type. We ended up in Cafe Mexicana, which is a very cute, small Mexican restaurant. The food was lovely!
    Afterwards, we joined some people from the UCC chemistry department for a drink in Electric. Here I met a woman from the department for the first time, and she seems to be the definition of a Cork person with a chip on their shoulder! Her first sentence to me was “how are you finding Cork, given that all you Dublin people don’t like us at all and are of the opinion that we think we’re full of ourselves?” This was followed up with something along the lines of “so, have you found it hard settling in, when Cork people all think they’re better than Dublin people?” My general response was that I hadn’t really come across that at all and that we’ve been getting on great. What else could you say?! This woman, who is older than me, later announced to us all that she’d never lived anywhere outside of Cork city in her life. Not the most surprising revelation ever! 😆    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Exam corrections!

    December 12, 2019 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    I started today with a forty minute run along the road out towards Blarney, then up to Hollyhill and then two laps of St Mary’s Health Complex grounds to finish. Usually there’s a few walkers out in the trail in St Mary’s, but I had the place to myself today. I like finishing my run there because it’s only 1 minute to my door from there, and it’s the only way to avoid several minutes of uphill at the end of my run!

    After that, my plan for the day was to get my chemistry exam corrections done. Except for one trip out to a mad busy Wilton Tesco, I spent the entire day correcting and writing reports, and I was finally done by about 6pm! Hurray! One person got 7%, one person got 99% and everyone else was somewhere in between. That’s quite some spread!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Christmas shopping

    December 13, 2019 in Ireland ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C

    There is a shop on Bridge Street where you can buy all the necessary bits and pieces to make your own hat! 😍 I have it in my head now to somehow get invited to an occasion that needs a hat and then have a hat making party beforehand - whether than actually happens or not, we’ll see!

    I also found another amazing shop called Mother Jones Flea market - a real Aladdins Cave of all sorts of random stuff! If you were making a film, it would be the perfect place to find costumes!

    Later that evening, we had our work Christmas party. Eight of us had dinner in The Cornmarket and this was followed by a drink in each of The Roundy, Dwyers, Edison and Barbarossa. It wasn’t meant to be a pub crawl, but for some reason we kept moving on every so often! The only problem with that is that people went home in between each pub. By 1am, it was just me, Claire and May drinking cocktails with the CEO from the Dublin office in Edison cocktail bar! I don’t think a cocktail bar would have been his exact bar of choice! Claire was getting a flight to Sardinia the next morning, so at the end of the night I walked her to the 3am aircoach and I got a taxi home. I don’t know how she did that trip!! I’ve definitely taken it for granted how close I’ve always lived to Dublin airport.

    I’m finished work for three weeks now, so the festivities can begin properly, and my students finally get their long-awaited trips home to feel some warm weather again! Hopefully that might stop them complaining about the cold for at least a few days in January! Presumably they’ll still be wrestling the dimplex heater off each other though.    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Sonia at Glen River parkrun

    December 14, 2019 in Ireland ⋅ 🌬 5 °C

    This morning I volunteered to do barcode scanning at Glen River parkrun. They are, as expected, a very friendly bunch. John, who seems to run the whole show, is particularly smiley and friendly. He told me that he puts his camera out on a tripod on the course every week and that it takes photos every two seconds. He then goes through thousands of photos to pick out the good ones. Now that’s dedication! My fellow barcode scanner, Donal, also seems quite dedicated. When I arrived, he asked me if I was related to the Fiona Shine from Crusaders that sometimes does the run!
    The real highlight of the morning, however, was an unexpected visit from Sonia O’Sullivan. It created such excitement and, as usual, she was more than happy to pose for photos with anyone who asked. News of her appearance even made it onto a local news website!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Christmas shopping is mad here too!

    December 19, 2019 in Ireland ⋅ 🌧 6 °C

    Today was my last day in Cork before driving up to Dublin for the Christmas holidays, and I had an idea that I’d spend it in a lovely relaxed way, wandering around some imaginary Christmas markets in the Winter sun! Instead, it was lashing rain, so I ditched my plan to walk into town and ended up sitting in mad traffic for half the day as I headed off to Wilton shopping centre!
    A nice break from it all was my run out in Mahon that morning, even if I did get completely soaked! And the evening was nice - I went to yoga in Ballincollig, followed by Netflix and wrapping presents at home while Peter was out at his Christmas party. Look at the photos of this huge Christmas nativity scene that someone out in Ballincollig has outside their house!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    General election!

    January 24, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Canvassing for the upcoming general election is well underway! We must have had about forty leaflets put through our door at this stage, and about ten people have called to the house. It’s interesting, almost all of the callers have been before 5pm - I’m not sure who they’re trying to catch.

    It’s interesting how many of the leaflets mention something along the lines of “Ireland exists outside the M50.” It’s definitely a different type of massage to what I’m used to getting. I was told to vote for the guy on the leaflet below because he lives just down the road in Blarney, and that was pretty much the only reason given!

    A canvasser for Mick Barry has been the most recent person to call. I told him that my vote was in Dublin but he said that he wanted to talk to me anyway. In the course of our chat, he mentioned that he didn’t fully understand the teachers’ pay issue. Fifteen minutes later, I think he understood, which is just as well because he also told me that he’s heading out on the picket line to join the teachers tomorrow!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Mallow Town Parkrun

    February 1, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    Headed to Mallow for their 1st birthday parkrun! The ting I liked most about this run was that the run directors briefing must have been the shortest I’ve come across yet! She said everything that other run directors say, but it only took about three minutes - brilliant.

    This is a lovely run beside the river Blackwater. It starts on paths, then goes onto a more cross country course, before returning to the paths again. It ran it in 31:57, which was as much as I was able for today while trying to keep my heart rate in the “easy” zone. Recovery from my chest infection last week is slow!

    At the end, the barcode scanner scanned my athlete barcode but not my finishing token, so I emailed them my details just to be sure. I appeared in the results but I’m not sure if that was because of my email. He was using the volunteer app on his phone - maybe that works differently?!

    After the run, it was straight home to get ready to head to Killaloe for Peter’s aunt Margies 90th birthday!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    First day it feels like Spring!

    February 5, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    It was freezing this morning, and my car was iced over when I left for work at about 8.20am. It turned out to be a lovely, Spring day though when I emerged from exam supervision after lunch, so I decided to go for a walk around Blackrock.

    I feel like I’m finally emerging from part 2 of my chest infection, but I don’t want to run just yet, so I went for an hour’s walk instead.

    When I got home, I washed my car and then, spontaneously, went mad cutting loads of stuff back in the garden and generally giving the outdoor areas around the house a tidy.

    Moment of the day, however, has to have been when I said “there’s nothing like a nice, real fire” to our neighbour whose house burnt down a few weeks ago. She was coming out to get coal and had been saying to me that she has to light a fire because her central heating is still not working since the fire damage. When I realised what I had said, I almost hastily added “....in a fireplace” but decided just to cut my losses instead!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Dundalk parkrun

    February 8, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌬 8 °C

    Me and Mum have now done all parkruns within about an hour’s radius of Dublin (except Poppintree for me), so one of the next closest options was Dundalk parkrun.
    It’s three laps of a reasonably flat course, set in the same place as the cross country events that have taken place in Dundalk IT recently. Still in recovery from my chest infection, and trying to be patient, I kept my heart rate below 150 and finished the run in 30:34. Mum went ahead after the first lap and finished in under 30 minutes. Because the sun was shining, we walked a lap and a half of the course before hopping in the car back to Dublin.
    That afternoon, it was off to the Ireland Wales rugby match for me, with Fiona, Paul and John Sheehan. Then we had a spontaneous catch up with Orlaith in Blackrock, before she drove me up to vote at about 9.30pm, just before the polls closed! I was very, very glad of the lift as storm Ciara was just getting underway!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Midterm shopping

    February 19, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    I found a lovely little shop on Princes Street today that sells games, interesting books, art supplies, science sets and all sorts of other gifts. I actually bought Mia’s birthday present here, and it was a good feeling to have spent my money in such a nice, local shop!

    Afterwards, I went to see this years Oscar-winning film ‘Parasite.’ It’s a Korean film. Very entertaining and suspenseful, but I must do some googling to read about the meaning behind some parts of it!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Exam board

    February 24, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌙 4 °C

    Not feeling too sore today after the Kinsale 10 mile yesterday, which is surprising. Although I did try a 30 minute run,and the heart rate was higher than usual, so I cut it short to 3km instead. It ended up being about twenty five minutes in total, out to the Blarney junction and back again.

    In the afternoon we had our exam board meeting for the end of semester one exams. We discussed results, predicted grades and the chances of each student getting their desired course for next year. I’m happy with how my chemistry classes got on, but disappointed at how many students are most likely going to miss out on great opportunities for next year. UCC have given us guaranteed places for things like nursing and medicine, but the students involved aren’t achieving the required minimum grades. I think that, somehow, some of the students don’t appreciate what’s at stake here, in terms of their career and life in general. Otherwise, they’d be putting in the necessary work.

    This evening, I had Irish class and we chatted about hobbies and free time. “Is liom dul ag rith!” Seachtain na Gaeilge is coming up so I must check out some activities for that.

    Right now though it’s off to bed to read a bit more of this great book which, coincidentally, is written by a guy that James Cottle went to college with. He informed me of this fact while I was reading the book on my sun lounger in La Santa!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Pancake Tuesday

    February 25, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌧 2 °C

    It’s Pancake Tuesday! I made healthy pancakes again this year - porridge oats, eggs and yoghurt. Yum!

    I also did lots of sorting out of stuff around the house and went to my strength and conditioning class for the second time since my chest infection. It’s good to be on the fitness comeback trail!

    Unfortunately, word is coming through this evening that the Ireland vs Italy rugby match, in two weeks time, might be cancelled as a result of the coronavirus. I hope this doesn’t happen, as we have tickets!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Crawford Art Gallery

    February 26, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    I’d the afternoon off so decided to walk into town to the Crawford Art Gallery. I’d heard it described as a “haven in the middle of the city” before, but I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did.

    They are currently exhibiting work from the finalists in the Portrait Artist and Young Portrait Artist of the Year competition. It was so interesting, especially the descriptions below each painting which described why the artist chose the subject that they did. There are some seriously talented children out there too!

    This place really is a lovely, quiet spot. Once you’re inside the building, you could be anywhere in the world. I must keep an eye out for future exhibitions!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Long run at the Marina with Mum

    March 1, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    The weather was nice this morning, so we decided to do what I often do on a Sunday, which was to head to the Marina. I did a seventy minute run, and just about got to seventy minutes as I’ve lost a lot of fitness since being sick! Mum walked the same Marina loop as me and we met up at the market in Blackrock afterwards.
    I’ve never stopped at the market after my run before, but it’s something I will routinely do in future after today. We each got a fruit juice and a scone - delicious and good for refuelling!
    At home for the afternoon, we read newspapers and generally chilled out. It was nice not really having anything specific to do!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Rumours of college closure

    March 11, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    Today I met Megan and baby Maura for the first time since November. I honestly don’t know where the time goes to?! We went to a lovely cafe called The Workshop. It is out in the middle of nowhere near the airport and the soup and sandwiches were delicious....as were the caramel squares that we got to take away!

    After lunch, it was straight home to be interviewed on Skype by a researcher from Trinity who is doing his thesis on the topic of the value that PhD qualified teachers can bring to schools. I spent an hour and a half being interviewed, but it was an interesting chat and it covered a subject that’s close to my heart, obviously!

    After this it was down to training at the Mardyke with St Finbarrs. The head coach said that the current advice from the AAI is to proceed with training and our session tonight was 5 x 1km reps. I managed three of the reps as I’m still on the comeback trail since being sick.

    Peter and I were meant to go to Tesco after my training but I was tired and he was working, so we didn’t. By the time I was going to bed though, I was already regretting our decision not to go, as an email had come through from my manager to say that the closure of our college is imminent! Feels like things are ramping up now!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    All schools and colleges closed!

    March 12, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌬 8 °C

    I went in to teach today, as normal, but by early morning there was an update online that Leo Varadkar would be making an important announcement at 11am. I kept a web browser open on my computer during my lesson and, sure enough, at 11am Leo Varadkar appeared outside his hotel in America (where he’s visiting Trump for St. Patrick’s Day) to say “I need to talk to you about coronavirus and covid19.”

    On hearing the news that all schools and colleges would close from tomorrow, I gave my class a break and headed down to my manager’s office. I was the first to break the news to her, but her boss in Dublin was already ringing the phone when I entered the room. We’ve prepared for online teaching, but there’s still a sense of nervousness about the building as the news filters out.

    I know the shops will be chaotic this evening, so Peter and I head to Tesco at 1pm to stock up for the next two weeks at least. The shop is very busy and things like toilet roll are flying off the shelf as soon as they’re put out! We got another packet, but I think we’ve enough at this stage!!

    In the afternoon, I was back in college for my last class of the day. After sending home an obviously sick student who had travelled here from South Korea’s two weeks ago, class proceeded as normal. By the end of class at 5.30pm though, the building was eerily quiet and the maintenance staff were trying to empty the place as quickly as they could.

    I went straight from my college to collect Peter from UCC. People were streaming out of buildings with computers and books, and there were cars everywhere loading up with stuff. We headed home with all our bits and pieces, ready to begin a new type of normal. I don’t know how this is going to work out, but we’re ready. I think we’ll start tomorrow morning by organising our space to make it comfortable for us both to work in. Interesting times ahead!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Day 1 of working from home

    March 13, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    All schools and colleges are closed from today, so me and Peter started our first day of working from home.

    At first I didn’t know where to start, and my mind felt a bit muddled, but after setting up our work area to give us both enough space, I think we both had a productive day!

    I started the day by making one more trip down to Tesco to pick up some Milton to sterilise our thermometer. Then I recorded a lecture, had an online meeting with my colleagues, tidied the house and uploaded learning material for my students.

    Peter is feeling a bit chesty and has a mild cough, but he doesn’t have a temperature, so hopefully it’s just a mild cold. It’s nervous times, wondering about every little cough or ache in your body. Here’s hoping that we can all stay well and make the most of these few weeks. As long as we’re not sick, I think we could have a nicer, more relaxed lifestyle for the next while.

    Below is the front page of the Irish Times - I bought it as yesterday felt like quite a historic day!    Read more

  • Lisa ShineCorkTraveler

    Day 2 in isolation

    March 14, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    It’s Saturday, so no work today. However, to facilitate an ordered mind for working from home on Monday, I’ve decided to deep clean the house.

    I hoovered and cleaned the floors in every room, wiped all surfaces with antibacterial spray, cleaned all bathrooms and rearranged some furniture. I’m feeling very happy and relaxed now that the place is in such good order, and our workspace is neat!

    I gave Peter a list of things to do, as he was keen to help out, but the list didn’t end up exactly as I remember writing it (see photo below)!

    At about 4pm, I managed to get out, between rain showers, for a thirty minute run. I jogged up to our local pharmacy, to buy a thermometer, and then jogged back again (we’ve been checking our body temperatures every day but I broke our previous thermometer by washing it in hot water)! The roads were very quiet, the paths were very quiet and there were very few people up around our local shops. People do seem to be staying at home.

    Peter has a bit of a cough, but no temperature, so we think and hope it’s probably just a regular cold. We’ll keep an eye on it with our new thermometer!

    This evening, I found newspapers that mum bought two weeks ago (28th Feb) when she came down to visit. Their headlines cover the first coronavirus case found on the island of Ireland. That seems like an absolute world away now. Tonight on the news, they described thirty nine new cases in Ireland and one new death.    Read more

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