We had an early breakfast at 9am at Clandeboye Lodge. We were on the road by 10am and heading through the city on the main highway to Dublin A1/M1. At Loughbrickland we turned off the highway and headed east to Rathfriland and Denis's old place. We went down these country lanes which were getting narrower and narrower. I wasn't sure what we were going to do if we met a car coming the other way, luckily we didn't meet anyone. Denis's place was surrounded by lush grass and plants, a proverbial jungle. The new owner had built another house as he found Denis's place a bit dark.
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| David amongst the foliage round Denis's house |
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| The new house built by new owner |
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| The front of Denis's house |
There was a car there but no one home. We went next door to a garden centre owned by the farmer (James ) who owned the property next door to Denis. He had destroyed David's dam but David didn't take issue with him just to keep the peace. We met James's mother, Elisabeth who knew David from his last visit. David likes collecting all these long lost relatives. The garden centre had come to the end of its season and James was ordering plants for next year. It was a well presented establishment. We left after a chat and headed to Newry to get back on the highway M1 to Dublin. We managed to get to David's place around 3pm so I loaded his washing /drying machine with all my dirty washing. I had been wearing my shorts and short-sleeved shirt for three days by now. The weather was quite hot at 26C. David James had booked a table at Layla's Rooftop restaurant in the Devlin Hotel. I persuaded David to go one stop on the Luas light rail and walk the rest. We walked past the restaurant as we had forgotten that it was on top of the Devlin Hotel. David and I were the first there followed closely by Kate. Then David James arrived with Conor and Evan in tow.
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| David James, Evan, David, Alan, Kate, Conor |
It was a great evening and the food was excellent. Conor has to do a resit in August and Evan was heading off on a tour of Europe with a few of his mates. David James was heading to Sitges in the morning for a few days. Kate was in great form and walking miles every day. She gave me a gift for Jacki. David and I walked back to my hotel, The Uppercross. We had a chat in the lounge before David took a taxi home.
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