April 4, 2009: Get your work done!

Saturday, April 4, 2009 started off a real soaker. It was just as well really, the kids still have some work to catch up on (what sort of a parent takes his kids on vacation and makes them do their homework?)

I had a few small repairs to take care of around the house, and needed supplies, so my mother in law and I set off for the town.

We stopped into a dimly let shop with heavy grilles on the window and a hodge-podge assortment of tools from goodness only knows when scattered in the window. The place was literally like something out of Harry Potter's Diagon Alley in the inside! Every available wall space was stuffed with a random assortment of envelopes, boxes, and odd shaped packages. Tools, belts, and straps of all colors, shapes and varieties were suspended from the ceiling just overhead. There was an old fashioned clock ticking in the corner, visible only of you juked your head around a pile of precariously stacked pruck. Much of the stuff there was so old and dusty, with faded packaging that I would not have been surprised to see it priced in Lsd (Pounds, shillings and pence).

The only thing conspicuously absent from the picture was a proprieter.

I was only looking for an o-ring for a drain and a couple of cotter pins. As I looked around the floor to ceiling and wall to wall inventory, seemingly devoid of any cataloging mechanism, I felt less confident of finding these items, and more confident of finding eye of newt and toe of frog. That's when it occurred to me, the proprieter didn't have to be there, becuase if you wanted to steal anything,

you wouldn't know where to begin, and there was an imminent threat of collapse if you happened to remove the wrong item. We called a few times, but when no-one answered, we decided to leave.

Mother in law and I parted ways at this point. I told her I'd locate a plumbers suppliers, and she suggested that we meet at Vincent's. This arrangement I'm sure would have been perfectly acceptible were it not for the minor detail that i had no clue who Vincent was, never mind which shop was his!

Still, that was something I could figure out later.

I found the plumbers supplier, and he didn't have an o-ring, but did have replacement bathplugs. Score. I then asked him if he had any cottoer pins, and explained what I was trying to fix. Not only did he

come up with a different solution (a couple of galvanized nails) he cut the heads off them for me, and chatted a while about his shop and the repairs I was carrying out. The Ballycastle folk are very chatty, and of the one's we've met so far, form a very friendly community.

Back out into the rain, and it's lashing by this point. I had to head back to the square to find some epoxy resin for holding the nails/pins in place, and find the mysterious Vincent's. turns out Vincent's was the greengrocers, and of course, NOT labeled Vincent's. Yvonne (Mum in law) stuck her head out of the shop as I walked past.

We walked back to the car, via the grocery store, picking up a few things, and here's where I got another culture shock. We paid for our groceries, accompanied by more chat, and afterwards, there were a couple of things we weren't going to buy. The checkout clerk asked Yvonne if she would be so kind as put them back on the shelf on her way out. We walked back through the store with our shopping bags, stopping off to put the goods back on the shelf. I can't think of anywhere in the US that shows that level of trust, but maybe thats just our location.

Saturday afternoon, my chores done, the kids were plowing through their homework, and Elaine and Yvonne were out getting some garden plants. The sun came out, and a wet dreary morning gave way to a bright afternoon.

That evening, we piled into the Craig-bus for a 30 mile drive to Limavady. I've only been in Limavady once before, during a cycling trip that I made in my younger days that took us around the Province, so I don't really have any memories of the place.

Another beautiful sight lay before us as we rounded a hill on our way into Limavady. The sun was setting over the Donegall hills, and the whole of the Lough Foyle was brightly lit and shining. our vantage point gave us a stunning veiw of the entire Lough, and once again I was struck with the beauty of the landscape.

We were going to visit a girl that I went to school with, Liz Bailie, now Liz Allen, and her husband and kids. Had a great night's craic, it was wonderful to catch up with her, it is one of the few opportunities that I have had to reminisce about my time at Regent House.

We bid the Allen's farewell at oh-my-gosh-is-that-the-time in the morning, and made our way home to bed.

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz.