Well once again I’am writing this in a slightly damp Blarney on our final tour of 2009, as usual I have mixed feelings – its hard to switch off after 6 months of continuous work but I think it will truly dawn on me in the morning when I might just have a lie in! I think I have said this before but this has truly been one hell of a season for all the wrong reasons, so I think I will mention the low points followed by the highlights (if I can think of any!)
Lowlights:
Well first of all has to be Chris’ mother unfortunate illness (she is much better now) which meant we had to cancel our holiday to Thailand and spend about 3 months apart – that really was tough.
Coach problems – yesterday was the anniversary of when Celtic Pride broke down on our last tour of 2008 and it has honestly taken until last month to get all its’ problems finally cured – its going great now though! After that we have had various niggles and even the trusty Celtic Princess has had one major problem this year but well again now! One night particularly sticks in our mind I think, it was in July when we were having our garden landscaped, we both got in from tour, me with Celtic Star, Chris with princess and we discovered that the gardeners had managed not only to cut through our water supply but also the mains electricity for good measure! While chris was sorting that lot out I had a look under my coach as it had developed a distinct clunk on its rear suspension only to find a major component broken – off the road then! We then had to pick Chris’ coach up from our mechanic only to find that it developed another fault – off the road then! So there we were sitting on the bench outside the house at ten o’clock still with no power to do e.mails and no water and two broken down coaches with a big group booked for our Cliffs tour the following day – for once we were both lost for words! Needless to say we got all sorted and hired a coach for the following day – the show must go on but I cannot remember feeling as low in a long time!
Next bit of misery happened early in August when we were burgled at home , not only was a fair bit of damage done our visitors got off with some cash and personal items – to be honest we are not really over that now!
Now the weather, we have had three miserable seasons now but this year the summer never really happened and we had to endure endless days of rain, indeed at the moment we are facing the worst flooding Ireland has ever seen, thankfully we are ok as we are on high ground.
Business has been poor both because of the weather, the decline in tourism ad the decline of Shannon Airport which is looking to become critical if Ryanair follow their threat of taking away a further 18 flights, it is beyond me how our government can allow this to happen – flights mean business and personally we have never been busier in Limerick than when Ryanair were at the peak of their operations – this is a fact and whatever it takes to keep this business should be done, we can repent at our leisure over this one! Also we are facing ever more competition, some of it fair but much of it very unfair, but we well used to fighting now.
Highlights:
First must be the recovery of Chris’ mother and seeing her return to full strength.
Also a happy memory is the outrageous night out that we enjoyed in London in memory of Michael – Chris’ late brother, in particular a very drunken Malaysian meal which I feel he would of thoroughly approved of!
Taking delivery of my new Coach – Celtic Star and bringing it from England – despite a very difficult journey!
The visits of family over the year – my sister and Russ and my lovely parents later – these provide a welcome tonic and break from the routine!
Collecting our new car Mercedes (new to us!) from Sheffield and driving it across, just love looking at that 3 pointed star on the bonnet as you glide along!
Last one is the anticipation of my parents Golden Wedding celebration next weekend, it will be great to have all the family together on such a happy and momentous occasion.
So, I suppose it hasen’t been as bad as all that but it sure has felt bad at times! The only way now is up and we have some great plans for 2010 but in the meantime you can now book all our tours for next year at 2009 prices, so go on support Irelands’ smallest and most resilient tour company!
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