I rose late today -- just in time for some cleaning up prior to an outing for lunch.

We went to a place nearby called Glanart Castle which is a huge crumbling place with enormous grounds and loads of statues and assorted garden ornaments scattered about the place. It's owned by an Asian family so I wondered if all the urns and such were some sort of feng shui type of thing.

We had our lunch, which was an average Chinese/Thai meal. We were the only folk in the (cold) dining room and Paddy was tired and cranky which didn't make for a relaxed eating experience (for his parents anyway). Sally succeeded in getting him to sleep for a half hour or so and so we managed to eat uninterrupted in the end.

Afterwards, while we were having coffee, he woke again and I took him outside to entertain him -- despite the drizzle -- and we had a look around the grounds. There were large terraces leading up the hill to stables and a burnt out clock tower and all around were more ornaments, some still in packing cases, with statues in circles around water features to be and various other incongruous things. It looked like a level from Tomb Raider. Sadly Angelina did not make an appearance.

That evening we lazed around and Sally and her cousin got into a deep discussion about their ancestors. Sally's great grandparents were rubber barons in Bolivia and her cousin spends a lot of time researching where all the money and land went to. There were large trust funds set up in the 1920s for the current generation and they seem to have been pissed away by some gambler great uncle. There are interesting stories in there but the way every conversation seems to lead back to this topic gets a little wearing after a while. I distracted myself with low level host type chores (filling drinks getting nibbles) and the occasional sneaky bit of TV.

I did get into a side conversation with his wife about her English Literature degree and a reading and writing discussion which was interesting if only to hear the list of stuff she managed to (or was forced to) read last year. I hope to up my consumption of books this year by forsaking the TV more. I find myself too eager to vegetate in front of it every night. Mind you, buying a DVD player is not the right way to encourage less TV.