Friday, September 19, 2025

Day 19 - It's a sad day!

 This is going to be short and sweet today, because most of the day was devoted to watching the footy and sadly we lost 😪

I got up early and had my laptop all connected to the TV, ready to rock and roll

I'm not very good at selfies!

My family sent through a pic of them at the G - along with nearly 100 000 other supporters.

Hawks family and friends at the MCG

We started well, but sadly couldn't keep it up and lost by 5 goals. So disappointing, but then again I'm proud of what we have achieved this year.

When it was all over, I decided to just go down to the ocean and let the wind blow through my hair... very soothing and healing...

Love this ocean


One of my favourite views

I was a bit peckish by this stage, as it was after 2 pm. I was going to get some potato and leek soup in the Cornerstone, but they didn't have any today .... today is just one of those days.

So, when in doubt, go to where it's familiar...

And where might that be ?? The Atlantic Hotel of course!!! I had some lovely Cream of Vegetable soup and soda bread...

Then I went for another walk along the beach. It's quite mild today and no rain ... it was lovely just being beside the Ocean and feeling the breeze on your face. 

The other thing I needed to do while I was down the street was to buy a bottle of  wine for tonight - to help me drown my sorrows!!!! I have been drinking Oyster Bay Sav Blanc while I'm here, and Pat and Marie like the same label but a Merlot. Lahinch is not really well endowed with bottle shops. There's one called The Offy, but it doesn't open until 5pm. 

But one good thing about Ireland is you can buy alcohol in every supermarket or general store. Lahinch doesn't really have a supermarket, but it has a chain of stores called Spar, which are really general stores. The wine in this shop was marginally dearer than SuperValu in Ennistymon, but I couldn't be bothered trying to cope with the traffic and that awful corner there, and I figured it was worth a couple of extra Euros to buy locally.

Spar shop

Just out of interest, a bottle of Oyster Bay wine is usually €13.50 which is roughly $27 AUD. You can buy it for around $20 in Australia, or $15 on special. I guess you pay for the import costs.

The Australian wine on offer in Ireland is mostly our worst labels, such as Yellow Tail and Jacob's Creek. I brought over a good bottle of Margaret River Red to give to Marie and Pat, just to expose them to some decent Australian wine.

The other thing I did was to buy a ticket for Pat and Marie in the Euro Millions Lotto, which is drawn tonight. I bought 2 lines and it cost €7. That sounds pretty miserly to me.... you get way more lines in a slick pick in the WA lotto or Tattslotto for that amount of money. I'm not even sure what the prizes are, or how you win anything...?? I guess we just cross our fingers and hope!!! I'll let you know if we win!!!! 😂

So that was my sad day. Actually I'm just about over it now. At least I don't have the stress of us playing in the Grand Final next week. I  can now relax and I don't care who wins from now on!

I have just over one week left in Ireland, so now I can just concentrate on enjoying my holiday! ☘

I really am so lucky to be here.