Arriving in Ireland

Here's a question for you: 'How wide-awake might you be at 9.00am if you hadn't slept a wink the previous night?' A little below par, perhaps?

Stena Ferries, bless 'em, run a highly efficient ferry service from Fishguard (West Wales) to Rosslaire (Southern Ireland). There's only one small snag... they depart not long before midnight... 

 

 

... and deposit you on Irish soil at 4-o'clock in the morning. I suppose that we only have ourselves to blame for the fact that they would also deposit us some 160 miles from our chosen bed.

Actually, there was other small snag. According to Google Maps, those 160 miles would take just 3½ hours to drive, which would get us there for 10.30am… but the holiday cottage wouldn't be ready for us until 2.30pm. Undeterred, I hatched a brilliant plan. Eschewing the direct route, we would thread our way slowly along the southern Irish coast, taking in the sights of Waterford, Dungarvan and Youghal, and hopefully finding a quiet spot on the way for a nap. With any luck we'd then arrive at Blarney Castle around opening time to while away a few hours before setting out once more for the aforementioned holiday cottage and a comfy bed.

Taking turns at driving, we headed west as the dawn gradually broke around us. This is Dungarvan, where a leisurely stroll along the quayside did much to aid my wakefulness.

 

And here is the sun rising over Dungarvan Bay.

 

Believe me, it was a sight that compelled us to stop and simply gaze in wonder. Sadly, my photo does little to convey the beauty; taking photos into the sun inevitably results in them being over-exposed and in need of 'photoshopping'. One day I'll learn how to fiddle with those little 'f' numbers on my very cleaver smartphone. According to my elder son, one will never be an accomplished photographer until one masters the art of 'f' number fiddling.

The world was beginning to wake up as we skirted the fair city of Cork, arriving at Blarney Castle on cue, just as it opened. What happened there can be the subject of my next post. 

 

All set for Ireland

It's a holiday that we've been looking forward to since January 2020.  It was to have been part of our Golden Wedding Anniversary celebrations, but Covid intervened and we went to North Devon instead.  Fortunately, Sykes Cottages and Stena Line Ferries have been super-helpful, allowing us reschedule our holiday for 2021.

There have been many times this year when a further postponement looked likely, but with a day to go I really do believe that we're going to make it this time. We have our NHS Covid Vaccination Passes at the ready on our phones, together with our completed Passenger Locator Forms – both legal requirements for entry to the Irish Republic. 

By the time I blog here again, I hope to have given my eloquence a much-needed boost by kissing the Blarney Stone – if, that is, I recover in time from being deposited on the shores of Ireland at 4 in the morning.  Then it's on to the delights of County Kerry.

My new Fitbit is great for telling the time

For the last 19 months I've been wearing a Fitbit Alta HR fitness tracker that was a gift from one of my lovely friends. Replacing an earlier Delvefire tracker, it's been an enormous success and has renewed my determination to exercise regularly and get plenty of quality sleep at night.

The one disadvantage of the Alta HR was its display, which was difficult to read in sunshine. Consequently, during sun-blessed countryside walks I would have to seek a shady spot to read the time or find out how many steps I'd taken.

Digital time displays are okay, but I prefer the good old analogue ones. The Alta HR had an analogue option but it wasn't easy to interpret, due to the narrow screen width – a consequence of its lovely small size.

It was time to upgrade. A new one must have a clear analogue display that was readable in bright sunshine and must also not be too large.  I dislike large watches and still have a lingering affection for my old battery-powered tick-tock one, which (as you can see from the state of the glass and metalwork) had endured many years of faithful service.

There are many fitness trackers and smart watches that have similar features to the Fitbit range, but I've grown to trust the Fitbit's data and appreciate the way it's displayed on the phone app.  The smallest Fitbit that's wide enough to feature a clear analogue display is the Charge4. It's noticeably larger than the Alta HR, but would it be too large? I ordered one from Amazon, hopeful that, if I didn't like the look of it, I could return it. Six weeks later, I still have it and am pleased with my purchase.

So what's the Charge4 like? Well, it is a fitness tracker, rather than a smartwatch, so doesn't have all the features of a smartwatch. It does, though, have the features that I want... plus several that I'm not really interested in. 

Most importantly, it counts my steps.  The recommended target is 10,000 steps daily, which I generally find impossible to achieve for more than a couple of days in succession.  However, I do give myself a hearty pat on the back when I manage 70,000 steps in a week, which must surely be almost as beneficial to my fitness.

Last week was a good one – 71,187 steps.  The week before (62,057) wasn't quite so good. Fitbit has given me the incentive to walk more, though I don't beat myself up if I fail to hit 70,000. I do, however, try to take one long walk every week (weather permitting), plus a couple of shorter ones.

Here's something else that's improved since I was given the Alta HR – my sleep. The data above is typical – deep sleep until about 4am, then increasing amounts of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) when I dream before waking. 

This is the latest complete week of sleep data. It's a vast improvement on the pre-Fitbit days and achieved mainly by going to bed on the day I got up, rather than getting up on the day I went to bed!

The last piece of data that interests me is my resting heart rate – the lower it is, the healthier I presumably must be. 

From this data, Fitbit calculates a Cardio Fitness Score. If it's to be believed then I'm very fit indeed for someone of my age, which is most reassuring. During the first Covid lockdown, when I was taking long walks every other day (what else was there to do?), my Cardio Fitness Score rose to 47-51. 

As for the other data that my Charge4 produces – stress level, breathing rate during sleep, heart rate variability and skin temperature during sleep – all I can say is that it's interesting to look at occasionally, but I've no idea how important it is, or what to do to improve it.

All I want to do is to keep an eye on my overall health....  oh, and tell the time.