Out of the mist...

I have been back in Northern Ireland a week today. It really takes about that long to adapt. Not just physically but mentally, too. I actually think I’ve been a bit of a basket case until today. Threw myself into work and forgot that away from the keyboard there is a life waiting for me. Which I usually love to grab as though tomorrow may never come! I don’t think there’ll be much opportunity for extreme sport adventures here, unfortunately. I’ll just have to make my own adventures. (I usually do, anyway.)

So, what’s been happening at Dundrum? Apart from another few thousand words on the book, that is. I’ve been keeping up the cardio-boxing, which is difficult around a dog who thinks this is a great game and keeps getting kicked, bless him. He finally worked out that he needs to give me lots of leg room and now observes from a safe distance. It feels a bit odd throwing punches and jigging about without other people around me doing the same thing, or without the Wii program at home. I expect that I look like a complete and utter eejit, but I enjoy doing it, and that’s what matters.

I’ve also been walking every day around Murlough Nature Reserve and Dundrum Bay. There seems to be a perpetual mist over everything all the time, which softens and diminishes the horizon so I feel I’m in my own little private cocoon of a world. Occasionally another human will emerge from the wispy softness, often startling me. Yesterday the rain pelted down, and I quickly resembled the proverbial drowned rat. A man appeared out of the yonder, walking a little Yorkshire terrier. They both looked as bedraggled as I did.

People here say hello to each other when passing. Yes, even strangers! The protocol appears to be that you don’t look at each other until you’re a few feet apart, then you make eye contact and say a variation of “Hello.” Sometimes a grunt will suffice. And if either is feeling particularly friendly, then one may make a remark about the weather.

In this case the man added, “Funny how I never even wanted a dog in the first place, but I’m the one who ends up walking it!”

We both laughed and went on our way, vanishing back into the mist.