A late birthday celebration and some family time

After a long and ardous journey from Auckland to Enniskillen via Los Angeles, Munich and Dublin, with a few travel hiccups thrown in for good measure I was finally back home with Joan and the girls. Because of the travel disruptions due to the war in Iran and Lebanon I was back in Ireland sooner than I originally planned to be but I was able to work for a few days remotely, which was great. Being back in Fermanagh meant that I was able to get to see the girls end of year Girls Brigade production, which was super cute - the girls both did brilliantly, especially Frankie in her starring role as a sheep - ha ha.

The main reason that I was back in Ireland and that we were heading up to Portrush was for a late birthday celebration for Joan, whose actual birthday I had missed because of my NZ trip. There are not many guys I know whose wife would be so understanding about missing a birthday to go on a golf trip, but Joan is one of a kind and I am eternally grateful for that. I also know that Joan reads these posts and a little bit of grovelling and sucking up from me wont go amiss - ha ha.

Portrush in March meant that it would be less about the sunshine and more about the rain and wind on the north coast, but this stretch of North Antrim is right up there with my favourite coastal parts of the world that I have ever been, and the weather just adds to the aura of the place in my opinion. We spent an amazing week with Granny Linda, Uncle Shiner, Aunty Louise, Baby Ernie and our hostess with the mostess cousin Amy. We couldn't keep the girls off the beach and out of the water, even though it was bloody freezing. We went on walks, played in playgrounds, ate Morelli's ice cream pretty much every day and just had a blast together.

No holiday of mine seems to be complete with out some golf at the moment, so Amy very kindly arranged a game for me at Castlerock Golf Club, a course I absolutely love a few miles further round the coast from Portrush. I played with a friend of a friend of Amy's called Gareth who was an absolute legend and runs a golf tour company out of Limavady (Petrie Executive Travel) and his son, in what was by far the windiest day I have ever played golf in. Managed to scrape it round the course in a semi respectable 90 in that wind before a lovely pint, a bowl of hot soup and a drive back to see everyone in Portrush. The golf didn't end there though as Scarlett and Frankie were mad keen to try mini golf so one of the days we were in the town we went and gave it a try. Scarlett's competitiveness was there for all to see that day and she took to it really well, Frankie was less keen on the mini golf and more keen on just climbing all over the course and causing chaos - no surprises there, ha ha .

A highlight of any trip to Portrush is spending time at the amusements and this trip was no different. We spend a few fun filled hours at what used to be called Barrys going on bumper cars, the carousel, the tea cups, some crazy fast rides that Scarlett and Amy loved and of course the caterpillar roller coaster. But to my surprise we spent most of our time playing the 2p machines trying to get as many coins back as we could from the machines - seemingly endless cheap fun. Such a great reminder that things dont have to costa fortune to keep kids, and adults for that matter, entertained.

We managed to celebrate Joan's birthday with a lovely, if not really expensive meal at Ramore Wine Bar, a bit of a tourist trap down by the harbour in Portrush and Joan and I also got to use a birthday present that Mum had got me for my last birthday - a mystery sightseeing picnic. The adventure started off at a cafe in Portstewart called Born & Bread where we had a great sausage roll, coffee and caesar salad, before we went off to a coastal walking track for some exploring, we then headed to Babushka, an awesome little coffee shop perched on the docks in the harbour area - where we had another great coffee and a delicious dark chocolate and sea salt cookie. The idea of this mystery tour is to go around all these locations collecting items for a picnic at your final destination, but the weather was against us this day so we were quite happy just cafe hopping and eating in along the way. From Portrush we headed out to Dunluce castle for some sightseeing and then on to the amazing Maegden in Bushmills for our final food stop. Maegden is an awesome little shop selling speciality cheeses and one of the best selections of little sweet and savoury treaty things from all over Europe. We ate a lovely cheese board as we sat in and eyed up their famous cheese toasties, but we will have to get one of them next time. After solving the final riddle we were off to Salmon Rock beach, the final stop on our mystery tour - the weather was pretty bad by this stage so we had a quick stroll around before jumping back in the car and heading back to Portrush. An absolutely awesome few hours out and about eating great food, and drinking lovely coffee with Joan - hard to beat, and highly recommended to anyone as a great activity. Thanks again Mum.

Just like always this precious time with Joan and the girls goes way to fast, but at least after being in NZ and then in Ireland for longer than usual, the thought of getting on a another flight and completing my circumnavigation of the globe was slightly more palatable as my cup was well and truly full.Læs mere