Hot stuff for lunch

With the Dingle Peninsula behind us, we drove towards the Ring of Kerry.A sign outside a village directed us to a French Patisserie and we filled up on goodies we hadn’t seen for a few weeks. We dropped into a supermarket to buy a few things for lunch. Sharon bought some hot chicken, and thinking the man standing next to her was me, and not the Garda officer who had taken my place, grabbed him on the arm and said, “I’ve just got something hot for lunch.This should do both of us fine.” After she apologised, he said, “I tort it twas me lucky day!”

Did you hear the one about the Aussies, the American, the Frenchman and Irishman in a bar

We arrived in Dingle, one the prettiest places we have seen so far in the south west of Kerry. Afeter a stroll, we found a bar, called Dick Mack’s, an old haberdashery and shoe shop like it was when the barman’s grandfather left it when he closed the doors. Being only the size of our kitchen, it was a bit of a squeeze for 30 people, three musicians and lots of Guinness. We met and spoke for a couple of hours to an American college counselor and her daughter, a French woodcutter from Toulouse, an Irish Interior designer from Waterford and the Dingle local musician who told us that Julia Roberts, to get away from it all, sat in the corner of Dick Macks for a week. He sang a few bars of Waltzing Matilda when he heard me speak. This place might have half convinced me to do up the room under the house as I originally planned. This holiday is creating too much work for me!

We have had sun for 2 days which makes the Dingle Peninsula even more stunning than it is supposed to be. The coast road hugs the cliff tops and there was so much to see that we drove the 50 km in 6 hours. Ancient stone churches, cliff forts, famine cottages, cliff top vista, beaches, it was too much for Sharon. She’s having a nap.

“Where Did You Get Such a Beautiful Woman?”

We were sitting at low stools around a low table in Keogh’s Bar celebrating when an old Irishman, quite low to the ground as well, dressed in a suit and waist coat, cap on top, stopped and said to me, “Where did you get such a beautiful woman from? She must have cost you a fortune and how do you keep her?”

I had to agree with him on all counts.