Mucus and phlegm played starring roles in our family holiday last weekend in Sligo. Daughter, Roisin, and I spluttered throughout our stay at the foot of Ben Whisken, in tune with howling wind, rainbow studded sprays of rain and yellow bangs of sunshine (typical Sligo weather). However, Baby A (Aine) was the principal star of the weekend, blowing huge, lovely, green snot bubbles and smearing all our clothes as we picked her up for cuddles. Following her snot studded performances, Roisin and myself competed for longest, loudest, most incessant coughing or sneezing fits thereby forcing all dinner time conversation into minute bite sized sentences. Actually, at 3am on Friday night, as I sat up in bed to enable the phlegm to get better access up the windpipe, the coughing led to me being able to briefly admire a beautiful, nearly full, white moon hanging in the wind-lashed bare branches of a silver birch outside my bedroom window. But sadly, I was in no fit state for poetry, so it stayed a lone image. However, the weekend turned into a poem itself.

It started with snow on the Friday morning…seven inches of it in Cavan (Jerry measured it with a ruler). It looked and sounded beautifully silent, but I wasn’t sure about driving in it. However all was fine. The worst part was our own front yard…that was the only place I skidded. In the evening, we all arrived safely from our different starting points and settled into in our beautiful Airbnb.  We began by drinking champagne to celebrate the successful completions of PHDs, Masters, and Yoga Guru courses by the younger generation, then ate delicious fish pie cooked by yours truly and safely transported across the wilds of Ireland.

The kitchen/sitting room had a picture window overlooking the snow-capped mountains, and comfy window seats where you could stretch out and gaze into the landscape. It was the perfect place for peace and relaxation…until someone started coughing or someone else suggested doing something at the same time as another family member now thought it would be a good time to…you know what families are like.

However, we all succeeded in doing what we wanted or what we could, given the constraints of babies, weather, and sickness. Some of us slept, some walked the Benbulben Forest Walk, others chased the waves on Streedagh beach. We all drove around the Gleniff Horseshoe (in a Toyota convoy) had coffee at the Koffee Kart and we all went to the Cliffony Market and brought homemade marmalade, elderflower cordial and seaweed to cook and eat to get rid of our chest infections. We all had a lovely lunch in a local restaurant where Aine made a few tours of the tables, holding hands with whomever offered her one, to show off her brand new walking techniques.

In fact, we all had a lovely time though I was in bed at 7.30pm as soon as I got home on Sunday. It was very nice to be able to cough, splutter and sneeze as much as I wanted in peace and to have no one compete with me!