I just reread my last post and want to start with the outcome on the weekend long buzzing of the smoke detector.  It blasted continuously from Friday morning until 11 a.m. on Monday.  I called the management company first thing Monday morning and was told that the unit is let by the American Embassy but there is no one residing at the moment and neither the owner nor the management company felt that they could enter because of the embassy connection.  At 11 a.m. it went off and I went to our shared porch to await the person who turned it off.  It was "Frank," an embassy employee in charge of facilities.  He assured me that he didn't work on weekends and thus the problem, although he also assured me that it was the management company or the owner that was responsible "at the weekend," not him.  This response touches on the two most maddening aspects of Ireland:  first, "at the weekend" means nothing will get done, and second, if anyone can point to an unnamed entity, not associated with them, that's the culprit.  Any further discussion with the person with whom you are dealing about responsibility, or how to rectify the problem in the future is futile.  In short, "Frank" will deal with any problem like this if it happens during his work hours, otherwise it's not his problem.

But, on the much more pleasant things...

Mary and I met for a relatively short walk the following day and made plans for the much longer walk we took yesterday with 7 of our group of 14 that will be doing the Santiago de Compostella in September.  We met in Firhouse outside Dublin (at a pub of course).  To my dismay, since I took the once-an-hour bus to our meeting place, Firhouse consists only of this pub (Mortons) and it doesn't open until noon on Sunday.  I got there at 10:45 expecting a quaint little village and a leisurely breakfast while I awaited the rest of the group at noon.  It was a little chilly and gray so I intercepted a dog walker and found that there was a supermarket with a little cafe attached about a mile away.  I legged it there and had a coffee and breakfast, so I added another two miles to the 12 miles that were planned.

After the group assembled at noon we walked along the Dodder River for almost all of those 12 miles, reaching the Grand Canal near the city center at about 4:30, including an hour long stop for lunch at about mile 7.  Then I walked another mile home from there, for a total of about 15 miles.  It was a glorious walk.  Three of the group were new to me, including Marguerite, a good friend of Mary's and the organizer of this outing.  She did a wonderful job as leader and had previously walked parts of the route over successive outings with her husband, Brendan.  Brendan will be coming along on the Compostella walk but wasn't present yesterday.  It was all women.  We only had little spatterings of rain, otherwise a beautiful day for walking, not too hot, not too cold.  The river was so thriving with wildlife, it was hard to believe that we were on the fringes of the city the whole time.  The group was great and we all had about the same walking pace.  For a first run of about our daily duration in Spain it couldn't have been better.  I will be able to do three more walks with parts of the group before leaving for the states on July 29th for our first visit there since taking up residence in Dublin. 

In other good news, Alan has had a story published in Flash Fiction, which is available in paper through Amazon in the States but only electronically here in Ireland.  Here's a link to his story, it's a very sweet one about the passing of his grandmother. 

http://www.flash-fiction-world.com/the-end1.html

He's about to submit a book-length of short stories to a competition here in Ireland with about 12 really good stories and the great poem he wrote about my brother, which I copied in this blog previously.  He's really happy with his writer's group and I have to say I'm impressed with his productivity since joining it.  

I'm preparing for my next adventure when I will travel to County Clare for a week long set dance workshop in Miltown Malbay starting on July 7: http://www.willieclancyfestival.com/ .  I'm doing this one on my own but I have confidence that the Irish will come through once again in their friendly and welcoming style and after the first day, I will have made at least one new friend.  The people, that's by far, the best thing about Ireland, so the little irritations about which I started this post are insignificant compared to the joys of living among them.