It’s Disneyland in Kerry and Wild Wonder in West Clare!

Double Vision with Charlie Adley

As I sped down the M18 I wondered for a moment about the bizarre nature of friendship. It’d take me over four hours to drive to Angel’s mobile home, perched on a clifftop in distant Co. Kerry. On the way I’d pass thousands of people in hundreds of homes. How many of them might I share a brilliant evening with, were I to walk into their homes and convince them I wasn’t a dangerous psycho?

Instead I aimed for a unique individual in The Kingdom, where I spent 12 wonderful hours, drinking endless cups of tea whilst talking bollocks with my excellent friend.

Outside Angel’s window the sky turned purple over the Atlantic Ocean. Storm Jake was coming in, and it felt good to be warm and cosy inside, briquettes glowing in the stove, as the maelstrom built.

Around 1am we called it a night. He drew the curtains and pulled out his zed-bed for me. I put in earplugs, but although the noise of the wind and rain disappeared, I felt the sheer power of the storm as it pummelled the mobile, my bed rattling and shaking, as if I was on a ride at Disneyland.

Sleep came eventually, but as I lay awake I made sure to enjoy the might of nature, as well as the thrill of being on yet another Blue Bag adventure.

The next morning I had to face that most profound of questions: to Tarbert or not to Tarbert?

Normally I’d jump at the opportunity to take the ferry across the Shannon to Co. Clare, but even though I needed to be in Lahinch that afternoon, I decided to drive the long way round.

Just wasn’t the weather for boats of any kind.

Stopping off at a garage in Dingle for supplies, I approached a young lad in an official-looking T-shirt.

“Do you work here?”

“Well I wouldn’t say I work here, but I am employed here.”

I chuckled, admiring his brazen wit.

“Okay, fair enough. Is there a loo somewhere I could use?”

To read Charlie’s column in full, please see this week’s Galway City Tribune.