The Black Cat

We were about half an hour out of Dublin and a black cat diced with death and ran in front of the car as we zipped down a nifty little lane... I made a joke about Friday the 13th, then I realised that it WAS Friday 13th...so I slowed down.... Which wasn't such a silly reaction when you know that before the cat...A guy had already driven into the back of my rental, Jayllee's luggage was still no where to be seen and we had no accommodation booked.... So, to deal with these little life issues, we did what any self respecting tourist would do, we opened up a map and choose a spot then discovered, when we got there, that we were visiting the "Braveheart' castle! Oh yeah... go Mel...!!! Yeah big surprised to us too, try not to reason out why the Scottish freedom fighters were filming in Ireland... but there you go, our gain.

I learnt numerous facts about castles today; cold, drafty, old, roofless, norman-built, stone stairwell castles. Main thing was, yep, much to my daughter's delight, I am still terrified of heights! Especially ones, four stories high, with walkways along non-existent castle rooves, with nothing bar a measily 2mm steel fence me between me and certain death. I don't care how many years and battles these roof tops have survived, or how many bad guys Hugh de Lacy decapitated or swept away with his sword as he came down his right-hand designed stumbling stone stair case! My legs were still jelly two hours later and should I have lived 900 hundred years ago, and been coming down that staircase as some marauder was trying to come up, there would have been no contest, anyone in my way would have been obliterated in a flash. Luckily, I managed not to kiss the ground when we got back down to it or the wooden rack thing which Mel was killed on in the movie!

Then we hit up our next 'building we have got to see' and trundled off to Belvedere!
All I can say is......MEN.... get over yourselves! What a history. Total historical romance plot!! (which is a good thing, when you are writing it, not such fun if you are living it)

This lovely bit of history has  the typical alpha male, marries, leaves wife to be bored and good at the country house  while he is having fun in the town (and we are talking years, not just a night or two!)  Then gets shirty cos apparently she has begun visiting then, sleeping with his brother (gee I wonder why)...so that gets her in all sorts of trouble, divorces then bannishes her completely- eleven years before she can escape back her to her father's house, who won't even open the door to her.....so after risking all, what happens, she's back to square one: bannished only now, no one talks to her..if she goes for a walk a crappy maid rings a bell so anyone around can leave...17 years later - when she is nearly mad, the tosser alpha dies and she can leave..... and all the time he has been living in luxury down the road.....wow scary stuff....


And the best news of the day was... we drove back to Dublin and didn't get lost once, not once. I love Ireland. Ireland is mellow. They have shops we recognise, movie theatres, roads you can actually drive down without risking the paint on your car! friendly locals and a tiny winy bit of sunshine.