inulro | Back from Ireland

Just got back from 4 days in the middle of nowhere in County Down, where Jason's parents have moved. The only really notable thing was that we got taken to Naendrum, which is the ruin of an early Celtic monastery. I've read a lot about Celtic monasticism but never actually been to a site. Archaeologically speaking, it looks a lot like a well-preserved iron age hill fort, and I suspect that if a proper excavation was done, the site would turn out to have been occupied since the mesolithic. There's a cute little visitor centre which houses some absolutely lovely artists' interpretations of the life of the monastery.

Also included in the tour were two Cistercian abbeys, which are always nice, but I've seen rather a lot of Cistercian monasteries in my time, and was somewhat spoiled by living near Fountains Abbey for several years. The village by Grey Abbey has some nifty antique shops. I've always wanted one of those massive leather-bound bibles with metal hinges, but not enough to spend £95 on one.

The cheap Go flights were quite acceptable, and I was somewhat relieved to find that they have half decent-sized planes on the Belfast route (I hate small planes). Airport parking + animal boarding fees cost us nearly as much as the flights. Animals all seem to have survived boarding relatively happily. Bev had us leave the rabbits at her place so she could let them run around outside, but Bristol ended up having even worse weather than Ireland over the weekend.

It was not a particularly relaxing weekend but I think I feel marginally better than I did when we set out (not necessarily saying much). I want to go to the Interpol gig on Thursday, but it might be sold out. I need to find out tomorrow, because if it is, then I'll go see Death in Vegas on Wednesday. I was *not* impressed - gigs two days in a row, which I can even afford to see, but can't possibly keep up with work, and I have a conference I can't skip on Friday.