lets go look at pretty things.

Another Sunday off so Stephen and I went on the obligatory day trip. Weekend days off feel precious so I try not to waste them. This Sundays day trip was to Lismore. Which is almost as far as you can go while still staying in Waterford county ( as far as I can tell Ardmore is the  furthest place from where I live that's in the county and as it happens that was my first choice for Sundays trip) I had said I didn't want to go too far because I'm broke and I didn't want to put too much petrol in the car (if you don't get it then you're not as broke as me) and somehow Lismore won despite being almost an hour away. 

Not to suggest an element of predictability but as always the trip to scenic location is followed one or several photos of me against picturesque backgrounds, allegedly there to give the shot some perspective. What do I know, I just stand where I'm told and try not to look too troll like in the the photo. Not always a success and unfortunately the many photo apps Stephen has on his iphone do not include one to make my tummy look less fat. So I'm left to work on my posture (and diet) alone.

We stopped at Lismore castle first. The plan was to have a picnic in the castle grounds. We walked past a charming farmers market in the lane that leads to the castle, stopping only to sample some cheesecake. Well I pretended I wanted to sample some and then duly gave himself my sample because I'm sound like that. 

Then we discovered there was €8 fee to get into the gardens and that plan was quickly scrapped so we headed to the nearby woods and Ballysaggart towers. By this stage I was starving and devoured the picnic of spelt sandwiches, salt and vinegar crisps, strawberries, nectarines and other nommy fruit. and we followed it up by a short walk to the towers and through the surrounding woods. Stopping occasionally for himself to take photos. I was momentarily glad he was not equipped with a proper camera or we would probably have been there all day. It made for a nice if somewhat mucky walk but by the time we reached the car my stomach was already staging protest at the fact I had eaten so many foods I shouldn't. 

We took a brief but accidental tour of the town while I looked for somewhere to park the car and then we had to take a walk in the tiny town park because it had all these lovely water features that were begging to be photographed. Unfortunately this chubby kid kept accidentally photo bombing all our photos (mostly by being totally unaware that we were trying to take a nice photo without him running through the background) but we got through it. By this stage I was starting to wilt. I'd had a broken nights sleep and all the bold food wasn't helping. By the time we were on the road back to Waterford, it was nap o'clock for Laura. This is not good when I'm the only one present who can drive my car. I had to put the window right down and really focus to get home and judging by how relaxed Stephen was, he was not aware how hard I was finding it to stay awake. I made it home in one piece, all the while wishing we had picked some where closer to home for our day out. And got my much needed nap back at my apartment, all under the pretence of lying down with my book. So it was all good in the land of Laura. 

Next weekend I'm off once again. It's not so much that lady luck is shining down upon me. I have actually booked this one off. My sisters gym is throwing an awesome competition -'The Irish Throwdown' and I'm very excited about being a spectator. So it will be a different kind of road trip. If you can call driving to Cashel ( the competition is being staged at Rockwell college) a roadtrip. Stephen has agreed to join for at least one day of it ( and maybe the second if he isn't bored out of his mind), he doesn't crossfit so he's not quite sharing my enthusiasm for the event, however I am very excited about it.