On a gloriously sunny day in March, just before the lockdown in Ireland kicked in for real, the Shan clan stole a little visit to Ballybunion beach, about an hour's drive from home. We normally go there a lot over the late spring and summer months, but I suspect this year is going to be an exception...

Anyway, at least we'll have the memories of this trip to keep us going during what may be the hard months ahead. The first photo captures all of us in our dashing best -- as you can tell by the hats, it may have been sunny, but it was quite chilly too!

I love my daughter Gaia's expression in the second photo. She just wouldn't listen when I tried to tell her that sand wasn't tasty. Did she listen? Did she heck! Will she admit that Daddy was right? Will she heck as heck!!!!

The third photo is evidence that even at this stage of the game we were social distancing. Normally, on a day like that, Ballybunion would be teeming with visitors and you'd struggle to find a space on the beach, but on this occasion anyone who did turn up made sure they kept well clear of everyone else. :-(