The Great Ballymaloe Bake Off

I had my last weekend here in Southern Ireland. My luck for getting rides out of Ballymaloe finally ran out. They were predicting heavy rains from Tropical Storm Erin so the hike planned by Richard one of the instructors was cancelled. My buddy Doug who has a vehicle was meeting a friend who was coming over from the UK. For 34 pounds his friend could get a Ryanair flight over from Scotland.

I decided to take the bus into Middleton. I thought it would be fun to get a haircut, chill out in a coffee shop and do some window shopping. For a small town Middleton has a lot of shops. Everything here in Ireland is expensive though.

Public transport takers throughout the world are sufferers and the situation here in Ireland is no different. The bus stop to take the bus to Middleton was located somewhere in the vicinity of the Shangerry petrol station but there was no actual bus stop. It also seemed that the bus could take various different routes circling around to hit the various communities. It wasn't clear even in which direction the bus would come. The attendant at the gas station told me just to stand out and wave down any bus that went by. There were two buses out in the morning and one back from Middleton at the end of the day. One didn't want to miss the bus. I was at the petrol station in good time for the 9:57 bus. A bus went by heading to Ballycotton. I flagged him down and the driver appeared quite angry. I asked if I could just ride on the bus as it would have to loop back from Ballycotton past the bus stop. He told me the bus was broken and he may not make it back and I would just have to wait in the rain. I waited in the rain not knowing if the bus would return. A woman filling up with gas realized my plight and offered me a ride into Middleton. It was a fun ride. She had lived in Ballycotton all of her life and filled in on life in Ballycotton. Loss of their retail stores and an influx of vacation owner . Shortly after getting into the car she started crossing herself. Normally people only cross themselves in North America if they are in mortal danger so I asked her why she was crossing herself. It is a habit amongst the older Irish to cross yourself when passing a shrine, church or graveyard.

Arriving in Middleton I found a barbershop and got a haircut. There were lots of barbers in Middleton. The barbershop I went to looked like they specialized in children's haircuts. They didn't require a reservation and there was only one man waiting for a female barber. I described how I wanted my hair cut but that I also wanted to look like an Irishman. Did I ever get a great cut for a great price. It is the only thing cheaper here in Ireland. Interestingly, the barber's sister lived in Edmonton. Small world.

I wandered around Middleton. It was a quintessential town. Butcher, fish shop, small sports stores, men's and women's clothing shops. Just the way small towns use to be before Walmart and Amazon. Interestingly I have only seen one Amazon truck in this part of Ireland and that was in Youghal.

After a decaf coffee and a visit to the grocery store I walked to the south part of town to catch the bus back to Ballymaloe. I met these 2 gentlemen from Indonesia at the bus stop. They happened to be working at a fish factory which was about 1 km from the cooking school. They had come into town with the fish delivery truck earlier in the day at 5 am when the fish had been delivered. Like me they were provisioning for the week. I had also noticed them wandering around town.They told me that they and 2 other men filleted on average 500 fish per day. They were very friendly but had a loneliness about them. Their families were still in Indonesia. After the most circuitous route known to mankind the bus finally made it back to the gas station where I had started the day.

Sunday I was also left to my own devices. There were 4 pedal assist bikes at the school that one could rent. Sorry Ray, I have gone over to the dark side. I hadn't rented one yet as I am kind of against ebikes and the biking around Ballymaloe is rather sketchy. Fast drivers and narrow roads. Other students with bikes I noticed hadn't used them that much. I found out that there was a rail trail about 10 km north of us that I could access and bike to Youghal. Round trip 70 km but with the ebike, I anticipated that it would be an easy go. The ebike was a piece of sh**. There were no gears just different levels of pedal assist with speed topping out at 25 km/hour. There was also a warning about limited battery life if one used more than the level 1 assist. The poor bike, rain showers, sticking to country lanes and inability to access the rail trail from only limited spots made for a long trip. I love bicycling so it was all fun although a little tiring. I chatted with a bike packer from England while we sheltered under a bridge during a rain shower. I had lunch in Yougal and another decaf cafe latte. Coming back there was a strong wind so even with the peddle assist it was fairly hard work. I think that I would have fared better on my commuter bike.

That evening we had a class potluck. I decided to make the Mac and Cheese recipe that they had taught us to make. I had bought the ingredients on Saturday and had made the Bechemal sauce on Saturday. Sunday I only had to cook the macaroni, mix in the sauce, sprinkle cheese on top and put it on the oven for 15 minutes. It turned out wonderfully. Susan one of my house mates had decided to make enough tacos to feed an army so she had monopolized the kitchen for the entire day so it was smart to cook the sauce on the previous day. The potluck was really good with lots of various food and salads. About half of my Mac and cheese got eaten. There was a tremendous amount of leftover food.

Despite my worries about not having enough to do over the weekend, I kept very busy.Read more