The current crisis is not all death and suffering, doom and gloom.

There are upsides.

My Good Self has gotten around to sampling quite a few new wines, for one.

I have also been pushed into finding some new walking routes.

Thus far my travels have taken me initially in an easterly direction along the Liffey.

Time then to head west.

And so it was off down to the Civic Offices on Wood Quay, site of the famous protest marches of 1978 and 1979 that sought to prevent the construction of the ‘bunkers’, as they became known, on a historic Viking site.

A sharp left onto Winetavern Street and a chance conversation with The Street Cleaning Dude. We chewed the fat for a while before bidding each other a fond adieu.

Up past Christchurch and St. Patrick’s Cathedral and onto Clanbrassil Street.

There followed a gentle left at Harolds Cross Bridge onto the canal before proceeding on down to Portobello.

The canal path was relatively busy as I ambled past The Barge pub, a pleasant spot for a few outdoor pints of a summer’s evening.

I decided to see how Mr. Kavanagh was doing and I am very happy toreport that he has embraced the current crisis by donning a face mask, as evidenced in the photo below.

Close to home, as I wandered along Merchants Arch, there was a little commotion outside Hanleys Cornish Pasties.

It is a well established fact that a cheese, broccoli and sweetcorn pastie is your only man in the middle of a pandemic and so, before I had time to say ‘there’s nothing quite like stuffing your face early of a Sunday afternoon’, I was doing exactly that .

And so all was well.