Thursday – Ringaskiddy, Cork, Ireland

Today, we arrived at out final destination; Ringaskiddy, which is on the opposite side of the River Lee to Cobh, and a thirty-minute shuttle-bus ride to the city of Cork.

As we weren’t arriving until 11am, I busied myself throughout the morning with a few little jobs I’ve been meaning to do.

One of those jobs was to sew a button onto a pair of trousers. Actually; the button hadn’t come off, but it has been hanging on by only a couple of threads for a while now, and I didn’t want it pinging off at an inopportune moment, so it needed re-sewing to secure it.

When you first board the ship, there are a few little freebies in the cabin; nothing spectacular – shampoo and shower cap, for instance… also a small sewing kit, which I retrieved to do the long-overdue job. I’d taken it out of its box some while ago, and now that I came to look at it, I was slightly miffed to notice that it didn’t have a needle in with it. It had threads and a safety pin, but no needle, and I wondered if I’d inadvertently thrown it out out when I’d discarded the box.

I collared my cabin steward and asked him about it; he confirmed that the kit should have a needle, and proceeded to get me a replacement kit – two, in fact.

So, I sat down to do my needlework, but… could I get the thread through the needle?….

Try as I might, I struggled away, but to no avail. I inspected the needle closer, and came to the conclusion that there was a problem with it. When I took out the needle from the other replacement pack, I discovered the same thing. The hole – if there indeed was one – was tiny, and no amount of coaxing and shoving was going to going to make it any bigger. By now, I was getting pretty grumpy. I hate needlework jobs at the best of times, and a defective needle was all I needed. I went in search for the cabin steward again, but couldn’t find him… my neighbours, from two cabins down, however, were just leaving, and I pounced on them, asking if they had a decent needle and thread. The lady was very helpful, and was in the process of sorting me out something from her own sewing kit, when the cabin steward reappeared. I explained to him that I was having trouble threading the needles, and told him that both of those he’d given me were defective. At which point, he insisted on looking at it… and in an instant, he’d threaded the needle…

My eyesight isn’t quite what it used to be, but I’d swear there wasn’t a hole; I was mightily impressed with his performance… I’d have been even more impressed if he’d sewed the button on for me, but he wasn’t having any of that.

I wasn’t on tour today, so after lunch, I decided to take the complementary shuttle bus into Cork City Centre.

Unfortunately, the weather was on and off all afternoon, showers and brief sunshine being the order of the day. And when it rained… boy, did it rain!

After being dropped in the city centre, I took a walk around. The centre of Cork is built on an island between two forks of the River Lee. It’s nice enough, but I was restless, and wasn’t really in the mood for shopping, which, as far as I could see, was the only thing on offer. I’m sure there are lots of things to see and do in the city, but the rain wasn’t helping, and eventually, I fulfilled my primary objective… When in Ireland, find a pub and drink a pint of Guiness… it’s the law!

I spent a happy hour in Canty’s Bar, savouring my Guiness and troughing my way through a packet of salted peanuts, while checking emails and doing updates on my tablet and phone on the free bar wi-fi, before heading back towards City Hall. Just before I got there, the heavens opened yet again, and by the time I climbed onto the bus, with only seconds to spare, I was absolutely drenched.

This afternoon, we were treated to what can only be described as an impromptu, bonus performance from a classical singer called Amanda Neary. I’m not sure where she came from, or how it all came about, but the performance was announced at 4:45pm, telling us that it would take place in the Show lounge at 5:15pm. She sang us a few operatic ditties and songs from the shows like Les Miserables and My Fair Lady, concluding with ‘Dannny Boy’ and ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’, to an appreciative, if sparse, audience of 70 or 80 people, who happened to respond to the announcement.

We’ve now left Ireland and are on the final leg of our voyage, heading towards Tilbury, in London, where we are due to arrive om Saturday morning. Tomorrow will be our last sea day, and in the afternoon, we will be holding our Grand Exhibition. Bring it on…