Spanish invasion

Carl very kindly loaned me his car to get over to St Luke's for treatment no. 20. It's Carl's car now, but this was mine before - a wonderful FIAT Panda which is a real joy to drive. I made good time over to Rathgar and arrived more than fifteen minutes before my scheduled treatment time. I was in and out really promptly, and back over to Carl's by 11:45. A quick coffee, and then it was down to the local DART station to head back home. I was full of plans to walk along Dún Laoghaire seafront and use the Dún Laoghaire stop instead, but a sudden shower changed my mind and the walk (and blip wander) were cancelled.

This gang on the opposite platform were very obviously Spanish students, over here ostensibly to 'learn' English. I really don't think they return home any more proficient than they were when they got here, since they always seem to congregate together and natter away (quite loudly) in Spanish all the time. I have to say I was just as glad that they weren't getting on my northbound train.

A quick email check when I got home and it was time to commune with my pillow for a couple of hours before heading up to the Clarion hotel at the airport to pick up my cousin Finola and take her in to town, firstly for a quick stop at an art exhibition opening (Eamon Colman in the Hillsborough Fine Art gallery on Parnell Square) and then on to La Maison restaurant for a meal together. Neither of us was particularly hungry, apparently, since Finola only had a main course and tea and I had just starter and main course and coffee. I'm sorry to have to report that La Maison let me down this time, failing to live up to the reputation I've been mentioning to everybody. It was all very noisy, making it really difficult to cary on our (rather one-sided) conversation - Finola is a really, really good talker!

Still, we had an okay time and before we knew it the time had moved on to 9:15 (we'd got there at 7:00) and it was time to return to the hotel. Finola flies back to the US tomorrow morning and organised a morning call for 6:00 am as soon as we got there. I went up with her to inspect her room (not too bad, but she'd had to request a change from the one she was given first). We said our farewells at 10:30 or so.