Sunny leather morning

Still the weather remains the main topic of conversation. Things began promisingly, and I liked the way the sunlight hit the cosy leather armchair, but it wasn't all that long before the sky clouded over, the rain and the wind came back and the umbrellas went up.

Fortunately, we decided to go out for a bite of lunch and opted for the Martello restaurant on the Dún Laoghaire seafront. It had actually been on our list last night, and I'd stopped a couple coming out and asked them if they'd enjoyed their meal. The response was luke-warm, and that's why we went on elsewhere instead. Perhaps we would have been better off going in, because today's lunch turned out to be delicious. The atmosphere in the place is really good, the staff are excellent, it's nice and bright and airy ... but the star of the show was the food. I had liver to start, followed by sea trout and bread and butter pudding. Everything was perfect.

The rest of the day was wonderfully pleasant too, including a bit of shopping and a few relaxing drinks. Next weekend it's the turn of the Festival of World Cultures in Dún Laoghaire. Today was a nice warmup for that, but the Festival will be hard put to do better.