As previously posted, we were all set to head of the 350 miles or so to
Kinsale on 23rd December. All was packed including the fixings for Christmas
dinner and various nice foodstuffs that we like. At 6am on the morning we
were due to head off himself woke up with excruciating pain in his back and
groin and upon returning from the bathroom collapsed in a heap in front of
me. I managed to help him into jeans and a t-shirt and got him to the car
and promptly to the hospital where he collapsed again at the triage station.
They gave him some intravenous pain relief and took x-rays and observed him
for 8 hours before letting us go home indicating he had to drink 3 litres of
water a day as it was probably a kidney stone and to come back immediately
if it flared up again. We told them we were going on holiday that day and
they advised us to cancel it. This was a bit awkward as my eldest had
invited a girlfriend to my house for the holidays and we had paid (and not
bothered with insurance) a substiantial amount of money to rent the place in
Kinsale.

Anyway we decided to sleep on it and as he felt as right as rain on
Christmas eve we headed off to Kinsale at 7.30am arriving at 1.30pm. The
house we had rented overlooked the harbour and was excellent. We pottered
about Kinsale (which some Polish guys told us was called "English Town" and
it seemed it was as we heard loads of plummy tones and Paul felt quite at
home) After a couple of pints of the devil's buttermilk in the Armada we
had dinner in the White House he had a big tureen of mussells in garlic and
lemongrass with wheaten bread and I had fish and chips - the fish was done
in a very light batter which was really nice much better than the vegetable
soup I had which was absolutely tasteless to the extend that I nearly poured
the contents of the pepper pot into it. I can't remember what else he had
probably something like prawns.

Christmas day was interesting - we spent most of it in Cork University
Hospital as himself had again awakened in excruciating pain. We got there
about 8.00am and immediately noticed a distinct difference to our local
hospital A&E - as there is a 60 euro charge to be seen there weren't as many
"saturday night specials" (guys with head wounds and face injuries from
alcohol induced rough and tumble) He was seen very quickly by the triage
nurse and then very quickly again by a really nice down to earth SHO
immediately given pain relief, blood and urine tests done and a saline IV
set up and xrays taken. We were there about 6 hours this time and they were
really great despite being mega busy with various emergencies such as "an 85
year old gentleman who had collapsed at Mass" and "a 60 year old woman in
cardiac arrest" (I know this because Paul's cubicle was beside reception and
the ambulances coming in radioed ahead) There was also a lady in the cubicle
opposite who needed pain relief for her cancer - her daughter was in an
awful state but calmed down when her mum was made comfortable and drifted
off to sleep.

The drip and the happy pills seemed to do the trick and he was let go home
on the understanding that on 27th he would come back for a CT scan. When we
got back I made some tapas type stuff and prepared Christmas Supper which
turned out to be really good. I roasted the parsnips in olive oil orange
juice and a dollop of Glavya (sp) and I also roasted kerr's pink spuds which
were excellent and duck for him and turkey for me and made glayva flavoured
gravy and also did carrots glazed with you got it glayva - despite all the
stress of the day it was a really nice dinner and we had some stollen
afterwards.

On St Stephen's day we went out to Mizen Head - beautiful beaches with sand
like the golden skirt of a vera wang wedding gown and the jadest of green
sea. Lunch was an unmemorable steak sandwich in the Black Sheep Inn in
Clonakilty - but the location and the warmth of the people made up for it.
It was a lovely day out and the views were breathtaking. We just stuffed
ourselves later on with chocolates and oranges and more stollen.

Wednesday was the day of the CT scan so we headed off to Cork again and he
got it done - the Urologist was a really nice guy who went out of his way to
explain stuff and gave him the results and xrays and a letter for his GP
which in essence spelled out (to our relief as well) that he had a 7mm x 4mm
stone in the tube leading from his kidney but no other damage. Our
experience of the Irish health service was very positive.

We went in to Cork city and had a wander around stopping at a place called
Scotts for something to eat. I say something to eat as it was a bit like the
school dinner queue where despite you saying you dont want cabbage or
sprouts the old witch behind the counter dollops twice the normal amount on
your plate. It was probably very nice but we left without eating any of it
probably the stress factor too. (I left out the bit about our blazing row
on the way back) but suffice to say wednesday was a write-off. Thursday we
bought gorgeous crusty bread and got some really nice bacon and had
sandwiches out on the balcony - it was 13 c and balmy. We spent the rest of
the day pottering about Kinsale he got two new pairs of shoes in the sales
and a got a lovely red hat which I apparently suit. We had tea in the Blue
Haven Hotel Paul again opting for mussells which he said were excellent I
had pate which was some of the best I have tasted it was done in a little
pot with a quarter of an inch of clarified butter on top and a big plate of
noodles with cashew nuts and honey and chilli the rest is a bit of a blur as
we had rather a lot of alcohol during that evening. I do remember the walk
back to the house as the rain was beating off the road and beating off us
into the bargain when we got in it was a case of stripping off and getting
into the shower. I forgot to mention Kinsale is quite hilly and it was
uphill all the way to the house and despite the tail wind my pace was slow
and the cars that passed us showed no mercy in their drowning of us. There
was a really bad storm that night.

Next day we headed out to Killarney and the scenery was beautiful quite like
driving through snowdonia we got a Pizza on the way back which was greasy
and tasteless. Still it helped to put a lining for the beer we quaffed later
having sort of fallen into a removal gathering (the day before a funeral
when the deceased's remains are removed from their home or the funeral home
to the chapel via a short service prior to the following day's funeral) The
rest of this evening is a bit of a blur too and we forgot to eat anything.

We decided to treat ourselves to another 2 days but had to move out of the
house (new guests were arriving) into a guest house in the Centre of
Kinsale - The Old Bank - The breakfasts were excellent real loose tea too
what tickled us most was the "pillow menu" you could have the pillows of
your choice from a range - a nice touch but at 200 euros a night I feel it
was a bit much even if the bed was the size of a football pitch and we could
choose our own pillows but getting a place to stay at short notice isnt easy
there.

We spent Saturday morning at garretstown beach watching the fishermen line
fishing for see bass (big notice up restricting them to 2 fish per angler
and they must be more than 18 inches in length) [the fish not the angler]
The waves were enormous and so were the couple of fish we seen landed. We
went to the Old Head of Kinsale from which the views were breathtaking
albeit getting to the edge was a daunting trip - very slippery with lots of
potholes - I sniggered when a big strapping lad went arse over tit into a
big muddy bit - at that stage I wasn't to know my later fate. We went back
into Kinsale and with Paul salivating at the prospect of a big plate of
langoustines with melted butter we made our way to Fishy Fishy the local
fish cafe only I didn't quite make it the incline to the cafe from the road
is well odd and it had been raining and I lost my footing and went down on
the flat of my back knocking the wind out of my sails (and my lungs) and
injuring my already injured ribs not to say my pride. This landed me in bed
for most of the afternoon but I recovered enough with the help of the opiate
based painkillers prescribed for Paul to got out for dinner - we had a
wonderful Thai Meal the best food of the week everything was cooked freshly
and while I dont like shellfish I could appreciate that Paul was in his
element with his crab and prawn dishes and the coconut rice was amazing I
had a vegetarian dish and it was excellent a bit like tempura vegetables in
a peanut sauce but better. A totally unhurried and great meal.

The weather today on the way back was awful torrential rain and high winds
but apart from that and all the dramas we had a really good restful time.

Soozle