Cork

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Cork Traveler
Day 100 - Back at the 40 Foot
June 20, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌧 14 °C
I finally got a chance to go swimming at the 40 Foot, and the sun was shining - what more could you want?!
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Day 98 - Driving home at last!
June 18, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 13 °C
I finally got to drive to Dublin to see everyone again, and it was the best feeling! The restrictions on travel within Ireland are not due to lift until the 29th June, but I have waited so long, it has been hard, and the situation in Ireland has improved significantly. As they often say on the news about people's behaviour: "people anticipate the rule changes before they are introduced, and also before they are relaxed." The photo below is a selfie that I took at the Applegreen Service Station in Knocknaheeny, just before I left Cork. I had just shed a tear as a result of the emotion I was feeling!Read more
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Day 96 - Hammock and yoga
June 16, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌧 16 °C
Today started with an 8am run with Fiona. It was great to be up and out early, especially for such a tough session.

Then, I spent much of the rest of the day chilling out in the hammock, reading, and I did an online yoga class (provided by Fiona’s work).

In the evening, I joined in on a quick chat with Peter’s family, before joining our Sheehan Zoom quiz, where John was the quizmaster. I came second last this evening, just ahead of Fiona. It was nice to see Suzanne again. Australia really seems to be opening up now, and she’s hopeful that parkruns might restart soon, especially since they’ll be restarting in New Zealand next month (the first country in the world to restart parkrun). In the meantime, we’ve all agreed to upload our 5km times to the official virtual parkrun events that are starting up this week. We can our submit our times to Suzanne’s parkrun in Kamay, and she can submit hers to ours at Poolbeg! The rules for these virtual parkrun are simple, and you’re encouraged to do your run anywhere except at your parkrun venue at its usual start time on a Saturday!Read more
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Day 95 - Shopping centres reopen
June 15, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
This morning I headed out to get antihistamines, forgetting that today was the day that shopping centres could reopen. I ended up at the Wilton Shopping Centre and the place seemed to have just opened. Shop assistants were standing at the entrances to their shops, looking out with nervousness. I think, in some cases, that you’re still not allowed into the shop. If you want something, you have to place your order at the door in many cases. Although this is entirely up to the shop in question to decide. There weren’t many people in the shopping centre, and there was an excited and nervous feel about the place. “Our first day back in three months” was what I heard one shop assistant say to another.

The shopping centre has a one way system in place, where the centre is now one big loop. If you pass a shop and want to go back to it, you have to walk the entire loop again! There were lots of people wearing high vis enforcing this too.

I managed to pick up the antihistamines and a present for Peter’s mum, whose birthday is tomorrow. You have to get very creative when it comes to lockdown birthday presents and not being able to get to too many shops. I got her a body lotion in the chemist.

In the afternoon, I walked to the post office to post her present. The woman working there said that they only accept cash for envelopes bought there. I told her that I haven’t carried any cash in months, so she worked out a way of processing my payment by card. I wonder if this pandemic is going to be the end of cash. I certainly don’t want to handle coins that someone else has touched!

In the evening, we put the finishing touches on a rock and roll happy birthday video for Margo for tomorrow. We’ve done a few birthday videos in lockdown now but this one is by far the best. We’ve loads of messages from her extended family included at the end too. It’s quite emotional actually, especially seeing family in Canada talking about how they’d love to come this Summer but won’t make it because of the pandemic. I think Margo’s going to love seeing the video tomorrow! It was all Peters idea. He got his band to record it and then we all jumped around madly miming to it.

In other news, my sunflowers are looking amazing also. They’re as tall as me now. I can’t wait until they flower!Read more
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Day 94 - Monsoon rain
June 14, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
I got absolutely drenched on my morning long run with Fiona! It’s one of those funny days where it was lovely and sunny when I started out on my run, but about halfway in, the heavens opened and it poured! It was that really heavy rain that you’d get when abroad somewhere warm, with big droplets. At least it felt warm though, so it was kind of fun to run in! I was soaked to the bone when I finished though, especially after a second ran shower about two minutes from the end!

I spent most of the rest of the day chilling out in my hammock and watching Damo build his new BBQ. In some good news, it has now been two days since Cork had any new covid-19 cases. Sligo is at over three weeks with no new cases! This makes me feel a bit more relaxed when I’m out and about, but I really shouldn’t be. The threat hasn’t really changed, even if my feelings have. I’m definitely not as scared anymore, but I do need to remind myself not to get lax with social distancing and hand hygiene etc.

In the evening, I went for a swim in Myrtleville with my friend Marie. The sun and blue skies had, thankfully, come back at that stage and I got to try the wetsuit that I bought in Lidl last Thursday. Wearing the wetsuit meant that I could stay in the water for at least ten minutes. It was just gorgeous! We’re planning to meet up for a walk and a swim again sometime during the week. Myrtleville is a real escape from the world and we’re both really loving our outings to it. I keep thinking of how long I waited to finally be able to go for sea swims again!Read more
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Day 93 - Gougane Barra
June 13, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
This is the first weekend of phase two of easing the restrictions. This means that we can travel anywhere within county Cork. We’re really feeling the advantages of living in the biggest county in Ireland now!

We decided to head to Gougane Barra, which is just over an hour west of us. When we arrived, there were hundreds of cars, and Peter was quite nervous of getting out. But, actually, we didn’t encounter too many people on our walk. It was annoying on the paths near the car park, as you had to stay alert to move out of people’s way and to always stay 2m from people. However, we did the longest hiking trail and, once we were on that, we encountered almost nobody.

The weather was amazingly sunny until we got to about ten minutes from the car at the end. Then the heavens opened. We sheltered in the trees for about fifteen minutes, before eventually making a dash for the car.

It was so nice to be out in the open countryside. Even the drive felt so liberating! I love the new gratitude that lockdown has given me for simple things. We’re both very tired this evening though - we did a lot of walking!

Oh, and in the morning, I had a question read out at the parkrun quiz on YouTube. I was delighted - it felt like being a celebrity to hear the man who reads the questions every week saying my name! Haha! It was a very warm and humid day today, and I think that my red post-run face shows that very well! It was another Crusaders virtual race today, and the distance was 3km. I did it in 13:50, despite predicting 13:32. I’m actually quite happy with that. We’ve done a lot of virtual racing in recent weeks so my body and mind are a bit tired!

What a great day overall though. It’s good to be getting a few nice things back, after over three months of lockdown!Read more
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Day 92 - Walk to the coffee shop
June 12, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
I headed out for my run first thing this morning. I drove down to the gaol and parked there because I don’t think it’s good to be finishing all my runs these days with a big hike back up from the river to the house! After my run, I’d to go to the dry cleaners and the pharmacy. It’s such a pity to see so much traffic around again!
At 12pm I had what will probably be our last work meeting of the year. Most of my students seem to have gotten the university courses that they want for next year, with a few exceptions that we expected. I’m so happy for them, especially given the circumstances of the past few months.
After our meeting, I decided to walk into town to get a coffee. I’d never normally walk for (or drink!) a coffee, but after our first lockdown visit to a cafe last weekend, I’ve decided that it’s a nice way to pass an hour or two. Again, it’s one of the previously mundane things that has now become an amazing novelty! Town was quite busy. The coffee shop had a one way system inside, and a good few people were sitting at tables outside. The park was also fairly full of people. The weather was quite cloudy, but I think that people still feel that meeting friends outside is safer than inviting people inside your house. There were loads of kids in the playground too. I’m not sure I’d feel happy touching things in the playground just yet!
In the evening, I ordered a lovely takeaway dinner from Spit Jack’s restaurant in town. I even got a dessert too because I haven’t had one in ages. I don’t normally make dessert at home and we haven’t been in restaurants in months, so I decided that I’m owed one!
I’ve also started a new paint by numbers picture, so after dinner I did some work on that, while watching Money Heist on Netflix. I’m really getting used to these quiet nights in!Read more
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Day 87 - Peter's Birthday
June 7, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 10 °C
It was Peter's birthday today and my family had sent him some presents, including a gift of Donald Trump toilet paper from Fiona and Paul! I had to be a bit imaginative with my present buying, as it is still only really possible to go shopping in supermarkets. I did manage to buy him a few treats though, including a beard and face wash!Read more
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Day 86 - Another mile time trial
June 6, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
As is usual on a Saturday, I started my morning with the online parkrun quiz. These quizzes are going to run until parkrun is back on again. Today was Quiz 12, and I’d say we still have a good few to go yet!

After the quiz, I headed off to do my mile run for the Crusaders virtual relay. This week I’m on a team with Olwyn and a guy from the club called Gary. They’re each doing the 3km and 5km legs, which left the mile for me (thankfully). My legs were very tired this morning, and I almost gave up halfway through, but I was happy to finish with 6:48, just ten seconds slower than my last attempt a few weeks ago.

In fact, it was such a nice, sunny morning, that I detoured into the field beside the Lee for my cooldown and decided to run in a way that spelled out the word “hello!” I’m not sure what came over me but I guess I’m just at that stage of lockdown where literally anything is entertaining! Fiona did similar in Kilboggat Park, but she spelled out the word “burger!”

On my drive home from my run, I spotted two guys carrying the pipes from a church organ up the road. Previously I would have found this to be very strange, but I’ve seen so many weird things recently, that it didn’t seem too out of place. It got me thinking, though, about the number of things I’ve seen recently that I’ve never seen before in my life. Almost nothing surprises me now. Or at least I’m open to the idea of a lot more things being possible!

I got a photo beside my sunflowers this evening, as they’re almost as tall as me. Little did I know that later that night, after this photo was taken, the top of this sunflower, my best one, would snap off in the wind! I was very sad when it happened, but immediately put it into perspective. I still have six lovely ones still growing, and there’s a lot worse happening in the world right now! It’s just a pity that it withstood the windstorms of the past few days, only to break on a night that appeared to be more calm. I might try taping the top back on to see if I can rescue it!Read more
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Day 85 - Lockdown band song release
June 5, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
This morning, I was delighted to finally be able to launch the video of our lockdown band, and the response I got was overwhelming, in just the loveliest way! A few people, including Fiona and my friend Lisa, said that they cried when they watched it, and that they were subsequently trying to hold it together while on work video calls! Lisa told me that she was going to pretend that she had hay fever! I think it’s reminded people how long it’s been since we’ve all seen our friends and family. The lockdown band project has really been a labour of love over the past few weeks. Me and Peter have put so much into it and I’m so proud of everyone’s contributions and of how it turned out. Looking back, this lockdown period has been quite a creative few months for me in a number of ways. I’ve done lots of things that I wouldn’t have done otherwise.

We were due to have another announcement from the government at some stage today, as we approach phase 2 of easing lockdown restrictions on Monday. As such, I was watching Twitter like a hawk all day because, for some reason, they never give more than a few minutes notice of their briefings.

At 2.30pm, the briefing started and, as usual, me and Peter gathered around the television to watch. A few days ago, Peter said that it would be better for my emotional state if I didn’t watch the briefing, and if he summarised it for me instead. This was based on my reaction to previous briefings! However, a few positive pieces of news he been leaked ahead of today’s briefing, so I felt good enough to watch.

From Monday, travel restrictions will be eased, so that we will be able to travel anywhere in our county. This makes me feel so happy! It was originally meant to be a 20km travel limit, but they’ve extended it. Living in the largest country in Ireland might work out well for us in these circumstances. We’ll be able to drive for two or three hours out into West Cork - although no hotels will be open when we get there, so it’ll all have to be day trips for the moment. I wonder if we’ll take advantage of this new freedom. It all feels like such an unbelievable novelty. It’s strange to think that we used to get in the car and travel to places like the beach and other towns, without hardly thinking before! Right now, thinking about places like Gougane Barra, and the miles of hiking trails and open space there feels amazing! I think the first thing that I’m going to do on Monday will be to go to the beach for a swim.

All shops will also open on Monday. We’ll be able to meet a group of six people in our house for a short time, and a group of fifteen people will be able to meet outdoors. For the first time, it really feels like the country is starting to open up again, and that there’s a sudden new sense of optimism. We can now start thinking about the future again and making plans!Read more
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Day 84 - Fiona’s birthday
June 4, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
It’s Fiona’s birthday today. She seems to be very snowed under with month end in work though, so she’s postponing her party until the weekend. I obviously won’t be able to go, but the others are going to have a small gathering for her in Mum’s house. It’s been nice seeing all the digital happy birthday wishes that people have been sending her during the day. It’s funny too though, because a “lockdown birthday” was such a novelty at the start, but now it’s lost a bit of its novelty factor. We’ve seen so many lockdown birthdays at this stage, over three months into lockdown!

You have to be much more organised for people’s birthdays at the moment too. I sent a birthday card to Mum, to keep for Fiona, a few days ago, and I ordered her present online about three weeks ago. With all of the delays in deliveries etc, you need to plan ahead! It’s nice having birthdays at this time. It’s a nice little distraction from everything, and a reason to be happy and celebrate!

I spent half the day today on my exam corrections, and the other half finishing our lockdown band piece. Peter’s really helped me to pull the whole thing together, despite our artistic differences at times! The final editing took me right up to about midnight tonight. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster, but I’m really pleased with the finished product and I’m finally ready to launch it tomorrow. I can’t wait!Read more
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Day 83 - Online chemistry exam
June 3, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
I was up early today as my online chemistry exam began at 9am, and I had to meet the students on Zoom at 8.45am to go through the procedure beforehand. The guy who came to my drop-in session yesterday, but left before I could talk to him, said that he had just wanted to come along to say hi!

All went well with the exam. I stayed on Zoom for an hour after the start time, in case anyone had any questions, but they didn’t really. I also kept a vague eye on my emails throughout the day, as the students had twenty four hours to submit. A good few messages came in during the day, and I was surprised at how thrown some of the students (especially some of the better ones) had been thrown by the online exam. I guess the new format was a bit disconcerting, even though I had basically told them what was coming up last week (or at least, I went as close as I could to telling them)!

In the evening, I did an hour’s run (at a fairly snappy pace!) with Marie in Tramore Valley Park. Then I stopped in Iceland on my way home, to pick up some frozen dinners. They have “Wham” flavoured ice cream. I might buy it another time!

In the evening, Anna was the quiz master at the Sheehan family quiz. I really enjoyed it. It’s great getting to see so much of our aunts and uncles these days. We’ve a great laugh every week!

Exam corrections start tomorrow, and I’ll have one week to get them done. I’ve already had two emails from students: one lamenting how easy the online exam was, and one complaining about how ridiculously hard it was. In a Zoom meeting win my colleagues, they guessed exactly who the emails were from. I was very impressed!Read more
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Day 82 - Last drop-in class before exam
June 2, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Today was another lovely, sunny day and I went for my run in the morning out along the Sundays Well Road and onto the Lee Road, as usual! We also had our Pete weights class in the evening. I’m doing all of these classes outside now and I’m improving my set up each time. I’m almost not missing the in-person classes at this stage! Our pergola makes the perfect place to tie my elastic band for various exercises.

In the afternoon I held a voluntary drop-in session on Zoom for any students that had any last minute questions before their chemistry exam on Wednesday. Two students signed in with small queries and a third appeared in the Zoom “waiting room” but disappeared after a while, before I could let them in. I’m feeling a sense of sadness at the fact that this is my last week with these students. It is the nature of teaching, as a job, that you have to say goodbye to students every year. However, it’s heightened this year by the fact that we don’t get to say goodbye in person. Almost all of my students would love to get back to Ireland in September, but it’s looking likely that university courses will be online until after Christmas. It’s funny that they all can’t wait to get away from their family again, while I’m counting down the days to see my family!Read more
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Day 81 - Visiting Nuala
June 1, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
We had two social appointments today! Life has been running at a much slower pace in recent months that I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be trying to fit multiple activities into one day.

Before all of this though, I got my long run in, wearing my new red runners. They were very comfortable. My running sunglasses broke when I dropped them on the floor before going out though. I bought them in Lidl ages ago and I haven’t found a more comfortable pair since. I must keep an eye out for a new pair!

Our first meet-up was with Brendan and Megan in Tramore Valley Park. The sun was beaming down and it was almost too hot at times. However, we found a nice little slope of grass in the park and had a great chat. Megan had baked us two muffins each, which we wolfed down before the butter icing melted. Their daughter Maura also seems to have started walking since we saw them last week! They said that they enjoy bringing her to meet us, as it’s probably good for her to see other people that aren’t just her parents. She mightn’t cope well with meeting new people if the only people that she sees for months are Brendan and Megan.

After about two hours or so, we left the park and went to visit my great aunt Nuala, for the first time during lockdown. She seems to have a setup that has gotten a lot of use over the past number of weeks. She has a little table and chairs set up outside her window and lots of photographs stuck to the inside of the window, that we could look at. We chatted to her for about an hour and she gave me a jar of cucumber pickle when we were leaving. It was strange new having to turn down her offers of tea or a glass of water, but you’re not meant to use cutlery at another person’s house.

We stopped for ice cream in Centra on our way home, and I felt very satisfied when I got back to our house. That was a lovely day out! I found the envelope from the card that Fiona sent me recently, when she posted my bottle of squashies shower gel. Getting presents from family, at this time, is almost like having a little bit of them in your home!Read more
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Day 80 - Mini marathon day
May 31, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
Today would have been the day of the Mini-marathon, and it would also have been the day of the Cork City Marathon, which me, Mum, Fiona and Anna were going to do as a relay. So, in lieu of this, our friend Olwyn organised a socially distanced 10km, with staggered starts, around Dun Laoghaire, for a small group of friends. Obviously I wasn’t able to join them, so the plan was for me to do my long run here at the Marina, while chatting on the phone to Fiona. Fiona ended up running the 10km with Olwyn, but she kept her phone on so that I could listen in to their conversation while I ran! The time passed quite quickly while I was listening to the two of them chat!

I started my run at 8.45am and it was already very warm. It’s probably just as well that we weren’t racing today! The atmosphere around the Marina was nice also, and I could sense that lots of people were running their marathon on their own today anyway. I could spot the marathon runners as they had gels, water bottles and one was even wearing their Cork Marathon pacer T-shirt! It felt like a bit of an event was happening.

I finished my run before 10.30am and I had an hour and a half to wait until I could collect my first brunch of the lockdown from Douglas (as you had to book your collection time in advance). I attempted to go to Woodies while I was waiting for brunch, but when I got there the queue had about fifty people in it, so I decided against it! I went and sat in my car and chilled in the sun in Douglas instead!

At the cafe, their outdoor seating area had been transformed into an outdoor queuing system, and it had a window that you could collect your order from. I was sitting, waiting for my order with a few others. A man arrived, looked at the arrows on the ground and asked loudly “is there a queue or what’s happening? It’s impossible to tell how anything works these days!” We all laughed, and I think that was because we all agreed with him!

When I got home, I sat outside in the sun and ate my brunch. Then I spent most of the rest of the day sitting outside in the sun, reading (trying to finish the Normal People book, in advance of the last television episode this week!) and chatting with Peter. The nice weather is meant to end on Wednesday, so we feel like we have to make the most of it!Read more
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Day 79 - New runners
May 30, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
I arrived home from my run today to find a package on my doorstep. It was the new pair of runners that Mum had promised me from my birthday in January. What a brilliant surprise!

The runners are red, and match our running club’s colours, so I especially can’t wait to try them out in a race with my club singlet!

My family have been so good at posting bits and pieces over the past few weeks and months. Fiona sent me a bottle of “Squashies” shower gel a few days ago, when she was posting my hayfever medication. It’s all these little things that make this time in lockdown so much nicer! Plus, you can’t beat bathing in the elixir that is liquid Squashies! Haha!

My sunflowers are coming along nicely. I’m also really enjoying having them as a little project at this time!Read more
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Day 77 - Puncture
May 28, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
One of my car tyres appeared to have a slow puncture, so I had an appointment in the city centre to get two of the tyres replaced today. I hadn’t been in the city centre since March, so I was actually looking forward to having a stroll around while I was waiting for the car to be ready. Unfortunately, due to social distancing and a majorly reduced staff in the car mechanics, it took three hours for the car to be ready! I wandered around the streets in the sun, got a takeaway burrito and then sat for a good while on one of the bridges over the river.

At once point I got a bit emotional at how much the city centre has changed, and a few tears welled up. So many shops are shut, and the ones that are open have queues to get in. It felt kind of sad how quiet everything felt. At one point I went into Boots, the first non-essential shop visit that I’ve done in months. I felt guilty, though, browsing nail varnishes and face moisturisers, so I left after not too long. I’m not sure why I felt bad. Maybe catching covid-19 while shopping for essential groceries would be easier to take than catching it while browsing night creams!

In the evening, we had a lovely BBQ, our first this year. We had vegetarian sausages and burgers, and they were actually delicious. You’d barely tell that there was no meat in them.

Fiona also sent me a little package this morning, which was a brilliant surprise. It contained Avamys spray for my hayfever (which is pretty bad at the moment), a birthday present for Peter, and a big bottle of “Squashies” scented shower gel - my favourite sweets! It’s nice feeling connected to home through these little gestures.Read more
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Day 76 - Unbelievable weather!
May 27, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
Right, so I’ve a big pile of corrections that I need to get done before next week, but the weather is amazing, so I’ve decided that they can wait! You just never know what the rest of the Summer’s going to be like, so you may as well make the most of it while you can!

I spent much of the day outside, reading, listening to podcasts and tending to the garden. At 6pm, I met Marie again for a session in Tramore Valley Park. It was a gorgeous evening and she was happy to follow whatever plan I had, so we did a hill session. She told me that she’s planning on heading to Cavan to see her family this weekend. We’re currently not supposed to travel further than 5km from home, but Marie said that she’s still having very disrupted sleep and misses home, so she’s just going to go for it. And, to be honest, I couldn’t argue with that. It’ll be interesting to hear how her journey goes and whether she encounters many Garda checkpoints.

After our session, I stopped in Wilton Tesco to pick up some BBQ stuff for tomorrow. It still gets me every time, how completely and utterly everything about our lives has changed so quickly in recent months. We now take it as normal that there’s all these signs, like the one below in the shops, instructing us to use one way systems and not to come closer than 2m from each other.

At 8pm, Fiona was quizmaster at the Sheehan quiz, which was brilliant. I particularly liked her round where you had to guess what TV show the music came from. She kind of used it as a way of making television show recommendations to us all! As usual, me, Mum, Anna, Fiona and Mia stayed on a little bit after everyone else to chat, and Suzanne popped in briefly from Australia where it was 7am. She had a lie on this morning so didn’t make it to the quiz an hour earlier like she usually does!Read more
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Day 75 - Last chemistry class
May 26, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
Today I had my last Zoom class with my chemistry students. It’s really surreal to think that we’ve somehow gotten to the end of the year already. The past few months, in one way, have seemed long, but in another way it feels like they somehow got sucked into a vacuum! I used the class to talk them through how to download, complete, and upload their chemistry exam. Then, I showed them a photo on screen of all of us standing outside the chemistry labs in UCC in January. Back then, little did we know that the year would end in such a strange way, with none of us getting to say goodbye in person! The students sent me lots of nice messages through the chat box in Zoom, then I said I’d see them for their exam next week, and I signed out. I’d better get started on the coursework corrections, given that the exam corrections will be coming my way next Wednesday!

As is usual on a Tuesday, we had our Pete strength class at 6pm, which I did outside. I also cooked us some lovely lentil and goats cheese stuffed peppers, which Peter, kind of surprisingly, really liked! In the evening, Emer was the quiz master for the Crusaders quiz. I think hers is the quiz that I’ve had the biggest laugh at so far. At one point you had to state which isotope was released from Chernobyl, and you even had to get the mass number exactly right, to get the point!

The weather is meant to be really warm and sunny for the rest of the week. That’ll be nice as it really helps to keep the spirits up!Read more
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Day 74 - Crying at a parkrun documentary
May 25, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
Wow, this whole thing is quite the emotional rollercoaster! Today started out with a nice walk, as it’s a rest day on our running plan. The paths are getting a bit tricky to walk along in places, though, as the weeds have grown loads and I don’t think the council are working to clear them at the moment!

I also power washed our patio today, and it’s really brightened up. Peter climbed into our recycling bin to squash it as it’s getting very full. I did not approve of this method - it looks a bit high risk!

In the evening, we sat down to watch some television, and a parkrun documentary (that I’ve actually seen before) came on. I was delighted to see it! The strangest thing happened though. About ten minutes into watching the programme, tears started coming out of my eyes. It took me so much by surprise that I had to ask myself “what is this?! Am I sad?” I think it was the fact that I was watching images of a life that we can’t have at the moment. I was crying because I missed it so much. Parkrun is one of my favourite things to do, and we don’t know when it’ll be happening again, but it was only this evening that I realised just how much I deeply missed it and all of the lovely socials aspects that it brings! I turned to Peter, with tears in my eyes, and said “I’m finding this quite sad!” Before I could finish the sentence, though, I was laughing. And, next thing, we were both laughing out loud at how I was crying while watching a parkrun documentary! I was laughing so hard and so loudly, that I didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. It was just a massive outpouring of random emotions!

In the evening, the switch on our cooker’s extractor fan broke and it got stuck in the “on” position. We managed to switch it off at the switchboard, but it means that we’re going to have to contact our landlord again, just two weeks after she had to come out to replace our washing machine. Very annoying!Read more
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Day 73 - Virtual escape room
May 24, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌙 10 °C
I started my Sunday morning, as usual, with a long run while chatting to Fiona on the phone. I headed out along the Lee Road, into the beautiful countryside and then came back along the other side of the river. I’ve started driving down to the start of my run because my calves are starting to complain about all of the uphill walking that I do after every run!

In the afternoon, me and Peter headed out to meet Brendan, Megan and baby Maura in Tramore Valley Park. It was a lovely sunny day, so it was nice sitting on the grass chatting. It’s difficult to make a baby do social distancing though! Maura kept crawling towards us and the others kept having to pull her back! We chatted for about two hours, and it was strange saying goodbye at the end. None of us were really sure how to leave, because normally you’d hug or something! It was hard not to go close to baby Maura too because normally your instinct with babies is to play with them.

I’d a few hours of sunshine in the evening to read my Normal People book and I also spent half an hour cutting out the necessary material for our Virtual Room Escape in the evening. Then me, Fiona, Mia, mum and Anna met on Zoom to do the virtual room escape. It was brilliant! There were all sorts of clever puzzles to put together and, as usual, Mia was the one who solved the final, pivotal clue for us. Of course there was also the usual situation where the Cualanor gang ended up frantically shouting things like “tell me which one is for the lips!” or “what do you mean Blacksheep Enterprises?!” Room escapes would not be the same without them. Haha! I laughed so much, shouting things frantically back at them too!Read more
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Day 72 - Cru Together Apart
May 23, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
This morning was time to do another virtual relay with Crusaders. Today, I was on a team with Fin and Ian. They were each running 3km, and I was running one mile. I jogged a mile along the Lee Road, as a warm up, and this meant that I knew exactly where my run was going to end. It was hard doing it the last time, not knowing where or when I could stop running. I improved my time today by twenty four seconds (since the last mil time trial about a month ago), to get 6:36 for the mile. I’m delighted that all of the training I’ve been doing seems to be paying off!

After my time trial, I headed down to the retail park in Mahon to collect a power washer that I had ordered yesterday. Quite the new vista greeted me as I drove into the retail park. About half the shops were open, and each had their own long queue waiting outside. Thankfully, there were only about ten people ahead of me in the queue for Halfords, but B&Q must have had about fifty people waiting outside! Shops are limiting how many people can enter at any one time, which is causing these queues to build up. Halfords weren’t actually even letting anyone into the shop - they had a desk at the door, and most people were just collecting items that they had ordered online. I must have been waiting about half an hour though!

This evening was meant to be our annual Crusaders club dinner, so I came up with the idea earlier in the week, of making a picture with all of us wearing our club colours during lockdown. A steady stream of photos came in to my phone throughout the morning, then after lunch I compiled the collage. It looks even better than I expected. It’ll be a lovely souvenir for us all to have and everyone seems to have loved it!

I managed to squeeze a little bit of power washing of the patio in this evening, then me and Peter ordered takeaway and watched the film Birdbox, which was very entertaining! Our favourite takeaway, Yama, has reopened this week, so it was nice to be able to order from them again!Read more
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Day 71 - Windy!
May 22, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌬 11 °C
Today was very windy, but I managed to get out for a run just before 8am, and then I was back in time to do the 8.30am “stretch flow” class hosted by Home Festival. Home Festival is a Facebook page that hosts about six or eight free online activities per day, including dance classes, yoga, cooking classes and makeup tutorials etc. It’s been one of the best things about lockdown for me, and I usually do something from their page at least once a week.

At 10.30am, I had to meet my boss to hand over some student assignments. She lives out past Blarney, so we met outside a church that is about halfway between our houses. It was nice to see her in person again, after over two months. We didn’t get to chat much though, because we could barely hear each other in the wind. She opened her boot, stood back, and I put the papers in. It’s a bit awkward trying to navigate these new social interactions! I’ve now met two friends since lockdown began, and I’ve felt quite clumsy/awkward in both encounters! We’ll learn to adapt to the new normal, I guess.

I spent most of the rest of the day preparing my screencasts and lecture material for Tuesday’s classes. I think this is the first time that I haven’t left it until the day before! I’ll be glad on Monday, when all I have to do is hit the upload button.

As usual on a Friday, we chatted to Peter’s family on Zoom in the evening. Zoom makes me tired sometimes, so I joined in about halfway through. Then we watched a funny Seth Rogan film called Long Shot, although I passed out asleep before the end. I’ve my Crusaders virtual relay mile tomorrow morning, and I’m feeling a sense of anticipation like I would before an actual, real life race!Read more
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Day 70 - Storm coming!
May 21, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌧 12 °C
Since lockdown started, we have had the most lovely weather. We’ve been able to sit out in the garden, in the sun, almost every day, and it’s been such a help at these times. There’s a storm on the way this evening though, that’s due to last for the next forty eight hours or so. In the early evening, I was chatting on Zoom, and Damo came in to say that he’d had to move our coloured chairs because they were blowing around the patio. By the time I’d gotten off the Zoom call, Peter had moved all my plants to under the pergola for shelter. He seemed to be particularly concerned about the sunflowers, which are quite tall at this stage, and I just about convinced him not to bring them indoors!

As usual, Thursdays are my busy days, in terms of Zoom classes. Today was my second last day of classes though before the exams start. The chemistry exam paper has been redesigned so that it can be taken online, and I think it looks really hard. So I spent today showing students questions that are almost identical to what will be on the exam. I’m glad I did, because they were all exclaiming how unfamiliar the format of these questions was to them! I probably laid it on a bit thick, but sure, as I keep telling myself, we are in extraordinary circumstances. I pretty much as good as told them what’s coming up on the exam. I don’t know how many, if any, of them will have picked up on that, but I guess we’ll find out!

The weather was nice this morning, so I managed to get out for a walk and chat with Mum. It was good to get some fresh air between classes, instead of doing the usual housework that I often fit in at this time!

In the morning class, one of the nerdy Vietnamese students started trying to point out a mistake in the question that I was trying to teach (which he quite often does!). At the time, I kind of dismissed his query, as it wasn’t really relevant to what we were doing. However, by the time the afternoon came, I was looking for something to do, so decided to email him to ask him about the question, in the hope that I would “win” and that he would be wrong! Haha! Me and Peter spent a few hours trying to research an answer to his question, in the hope that we might be able to prove him wrong - this appears to be the stage in lockdown that we are at now! Thankfully, after Peter spent a bit of time searching the literature, it all worked out in our favour and I was able to email the student to point out his mistake (for which he actually seemed to be grateful!). Me and Peter had a great laugh through all of this, and by the time evening came, I was looking through my class lists saying, “right, which other students can I start emailing to take down a few notches?!” Haha!

Unfortunately, there were images on this evening’s news of crowds at Sutton beach and Dart station. The Gardaí even had to clear the beach at one point, because of the crowds. It’s difficult not to feel angry, when you’re doing your best, even though it’s hard, and you see other people not trying at all. Hopefully these type of scenes don’t see the relaxation phases being delayed this Summer!Read more
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Day 69 - Meeting outside my household
May 20, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
I had a few bits and pieces to do today. I had to plan my second last chemistry lesson for tomorrow, I had lots of washing to do, I walked to the post office with a letter for Peter’s parents (his Mum needs a particular electric lead to be able to play her violin remotely with her friends) and I planned my questions for tonight’s Sheehan family quiz. However all of this pales into insignificance compared to the main event of the day: meeting someone from outside my household!

My household currently consists of me, Peter and Damo. And, for sixty nine days now, Peter and Damo are the only people that I know, that I have seen. Wow, when I write that down, it sounds completely insane. But it’s true. I’ve seen shop assistants and pharmacists, but, in terms of friends, Peter and Damo are the only ones I’ve seen for over two months now. I guess I have just never thought of it that way because I’ve seen so much of my friends on Zoom these days. This is the first time that I’ve really stopped to think about it!

Anyway, last Monday, my friend Marie from St Finbarrs running club texted to ask if I’d have any interest in meeting for a socially distanced run this week. What an exciting text to get! I had been thinking of texting her but I wasn’t sure how up for it she’d be and I didn’t want to pressurise her. It turns out we were both thinking the exact same thing! I’m so glad she texted though. This is day three of us being allowed to meet in groups of up to four for exercise or socialising.

We met outside Tramore Valley Park at 6pm and did a forty five minute run around the park. When I met her first, it felt so surreal. It was the strangest thing ever. I’d almost forgotten how to interact with a friend. And, I guess it was made all the more weird by the fact that we couldn’t come closer than two metres, even though that’s what every urge in your body wants to do when you see someone you know! I’ve heard people with autism describe how difficult it often is for them to know what to do or how to act in social situations. I kind of felt a bit like how that has been described to me!

We’d a great catch up on our run. It turns out that we’ve both had a similar experience of lockdown. For example, she had a big meltdown the day that Leo Varadkar announced the details of the phases of the relaxation of restrictions, and it took her about a week to recover from that. She’s also really missing being able to go and see her family in Cavan, more than anything else, and is keeping the option of a sneaky trip home on the back burner for now! It’s nice to chat to someone in the same boat as me, and we are both counting down the days to July 20th, when we can see our families again! Interestingly, she said that her husband finds it hard to understand why she’s so upset, which is exactly how it’s been with Peter too. In fact, I’ve heard so much anecdotal evidence of women finding the lockdown tougher than men. When I stopped in Tesco on my way home, I saw several newspapers’ headlines which said that women are being hit hardest by the lockdown. This conclusion was arrived at after a CSO study, which I actually took part in. I wonder why so many women are finding it tough while men, like Peter, are happy out?

In the evening, I hosted the weekly Sheehan quiz. Everyone, especially John, was very complimentary of my questions, which was great! Peter won. He beat the Lisnashee team by three points. The Lisnashee team are quite the force to be reckoned with every week! My last question in the sports round was “in which county is Castlehaven parkrun?” Anna was outraged by such a question, but Mum loved it. I think it’s actually my favourite quiz question of all time!Read more
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