13th September:
Shruti and I had gone to Carrickfergus on the motorbike - it was late morning on an overcast day. We parked some distance from the castle and walked the rest of the way, along the shore road. We passed a local fishmonger. As we were about to enter the shop, we saw Simon and Akshay about to enter too. We said hi and entered together. They said they were going to fry fish for lunch after visiting the castle and asked if we wanted to join them. We agreed, and I tried to decide which fish I wanted. The fishmonger named all the fish available and I picked one - it was a small, mackerel sized fish, but the skin was much darker. The fishmonger wrapped it in butter paper and I left the shop with it. As we got further along the shore road towards Carrickfergus, the wind picked up and it got almost stormy. The sea looked really rough, with massive waves. The side of the road didn't have a wall, but instead had mooring posts. The sea had reached close to the kevel of the wall, and the tops of the crashing waves surpassed it - the road wasn't waterlogged though. We had been walking on the opposite side of the road to stay away from the rough sea.
Suddenly, there were shouts calling us to help and I saw a fishing boat being pushed by the sea towards the road. There were a couple of men on board, ready with ropes to tie the boat. They said they'd need help to prevent the boat from being pushed away from the shore and dragged away to danger. As soon as the boat got close, they leapt off and we helped them in this tug-of-war with the sea while they secured the boat.
Thoroughly exhausted and a little damp, we decided to skip the castle and head indoors to warm up and fry some fish. The house didn't look like it was set in Carrickfergus though - the insides were more like Tushar's dad's apartment, although the kitchen was its mirror image. I popped a beer from the fridge (a Carlsberg) and said I'd wait for the others to fry their fish before I got to mine.
And that's when I woke up.
Simon and Akshay had messaged while I was asleep saying they couldn't come to Carrickfergus as they were not in town. We ended up going to the Downpatrick railway museum instead, as we had already been to Carrickfergus Castle a few years ago. It was a great day out... and no storms!