You know you are definitely home when the cabbage, bacon and spuds come out. With mum being away for a few days Eilish treated us to one of Ireland’s favourite dishes.  She did slip up slightly by providing salty cabbage water, a heart attack in a mug.  Thank you Eilish the dinner was lovely.

We also had the opportunity to catch up with our niece Shauna who has grown up considerably since we saw her last.

I also managed to fit in a run today.  If you are familiar with the Roscommon area you will know Rathbrennan well where I managed a nine mile round trip.  Hopefully I’ll get in another tomorrow.

Really looking forward to meeting up with friends and our meal in Dublin tomorrow night.

Me scoffing my face, with dad at the same in the background.

My sister Eilish.

Our niece Shauna.

This weekend we are off to Ireland to visit family and friends – oh and to watch Ireland beat Scotland in the Six Nations Rugby, how could I forget!

We haven’t been to Ireland since Karen and Dean’s weeding back in August, so we are quite excited.  I am sitting in the airport lounge as I write this post.  We have a great few days lined up.  Home today (Thursday) to see Mum, Dad and Eilish, Friday we are off to Dublin with Noel and Mairead to meeting up with Ben and Emma and going out for a meal.  Saturday is the rugby, so that will be an all day affair with the lads while the girls go shopping. Sunday we’re back to Roscommon where we hope to catch up with some more friends who we haven’t seen for a while. Tuesday morning when we fly back.

I hope to write a few posts on the go this weekend to trial my mobile blogging, so check back and see how I get on.  If you don’t see anything, don’t be alarmed, I’ll  probably be too hungover to string a few sentences together :-)

Here’s to a great weekend.

On Saturday we headed off to what was one of our favourite restaurants The Mole and Chicken.  We had heard it had recently changed hands and wanted to give it a try.  Not very impressed.  The previous owners’ signature dish was a large shoulder of lamb – it used to be amazing.  This time it was mediocre to say the least.  Smaller portions and  not much choice made for a pretty bleak and damming report.  Alongside this, they changed the much loved character of the place…and slagged off the previous owners!

Despite this, we didn’t let it ruin our evening and we all really enjoyed ourselves – it was great to catch up with Sam’s family. Thanks for sending across the pictures Scott.

Sam with her mum Debbie and dad Keith.

Me with my neighbour Kim.

L to R: Our neighbour, Tim, Keith, me, Sam, Sam’s brother Ben, Debbie and Kim.  Sam’s brother Scott is missing, as he was taking the picture – sorry.

Following a visit to the consultant orthopaedic surgeon this week, it transpires that my injury is a shoulder impingement and not a glenoid labrum tear as previously diagnosed by my physiotherapist.

Many years of intensive swimming has caused my shoulder blade to grow a bumper bone or spur I think it’s called, now catching or impinging on some tendons when I rotate my arm. To rectify this, I will need a few weeks on intensive physiotherapy to build other muscles that will pull my joint away form the impingement.  If this doesn’t work, then its an operation to remove the spur.

As a result, I’ve had to give up swimming for now – I need to get this sorted before travelling.  To counterbalance the calorie intake and keep my level of fitness, I’ve started  running again – and I hate it!  4 miles three times a week – boring, boring, boring!  Only for my freakonomics audiobook I’d loose my head altogether. I have The God Delusion to look forward to next week.

Having had the first real day of sunshine this year, we though we’d seize the opportunity and head out for a long walk. One my favourite spots is the Grand Union Canal in Marsworth which links to the town of Aylesbury via the Aylesbury Arm.  During the summer months I enjoy a 14-20 mile cycle along the canal, so I known the area pretty well, but it was Sam’s first visit.  You can see by the pictures it’s stunning and a long walk is pleasurable, especially with such good weather.

While passing The White Horse Pub, there were kids feeding the canal, you’ll see on the last picture, there were huge Common and Mirror Carp in a frenzy, they were between between 13-20 lb.  Interestingly, this is one section of the canal that you are not allowed to fish – who said fish were stupid.  We spoke to several fishermen further up and they had caught diddly squat.

We finished off the walk with a pint each of Greenking IPA and a pack of Salty Dog crisps – nice.