Christmas 2017

Christmas 2017 was BUSY!!

We had so many parties, dinners and events to fit in.We even threw our own cocktail party on the 16th which Amy and I enjoyed catering for.

BTW, how Christmassy is Amy's red dress?!

Amy's made Auntie Mary's Philadelphia Sweet Chilli and melba toast. My aunt lived for years in South Africa and this is a cocktail party staple there!

Amy also made the prawn and cocktail sauce shooters. Very cute in little sherry glasses!

It was fun to catch up with friends that we don't see often.

We set up a bar on the kitchen table. Our signature cocktail was "Jameson & Ginger" and along with beer and wine we also served Vodka Tonics and Gin & Elderflower Tonic.

Christmas Eve lunch was lovely. It was great to meet up with good friends and have a lovely relaxed meal. We were all finished up and home by 6pm which was super.

After being back in work on 27th, 28th and 29th Dec, I took the tree down on Friday night while watching The Family Stone.

Two sets of lights weren't working when I took them down so I threw them in the bin. So today on New Year's Eve I went shopping for new ones. Not only are they half price at this time of year, it will also save me having to think about buying new ones next Christmas.

I bought the above lights in Homebase and the ones below in Home Store & More. There was bigger reductions on the Home Store & More ones but they were nearly all sold out. I bought two sets of the Homebase ones.

I sure am happy to have my lights sorted for next year!

Enid & Amy's annual Christmas Lunch - Amuse, Dawson Street

For the past few years I have brought Amy on what we call our "boozy Christmas lunch" for her Christmas gift from me.

Last year was Luna while this year was Amuse on the 23rd of December.

Amuse is on Dawson Street and has a beautiful calm quiet dining room. 

We decided we were going to take it easy and only have one glass of wine with dinner as I was heading on to a cocktail party afterwards. However, after we looked at the menu and chose the tasting menu we decided to order a bottle of wine as we felt we needed more than a glass to go with the five courses.  We only drank a little over a glass each but we were glad we got the bottle!

Amy thought the a la carte looked more to her taste than the tasting menu but I persuaded to go for the tasting menu. She was glad she did!

Amuse serves Japanese-French fusion. The food looks amazing on the plate and is phenomenal tasting.

I think the pork was my favourite dish.

Dessert was what I considered to be the most average plate out of all of the dishes.

Amy chose cheese over the dessert. This attracted a €9 supplement which I thought was a little rich for forgoing the dessert for the cheese plate

Oh dear lord. Do you see the piece of cheese at the back - peeping out from the ramekin?  That was the stinkiest tasting cheese ever. I like stinky cheese but man this was foul tasting!

It looked so innocuous but packed a serious punch.

Cheers to a great boozy Christmas lunch!

Ah Kerrygold.....

An American friend of mine sent me a link to this Kerrygold ad that is currently on US TV.



It is certainly an ad that is made for a specific market but after watching it I started thinking of some of the great Kerrygold ads from my childhood here in Ireland.

One of the more famous ones was "Who's taking the horse to France?" If you ask this question to people of a certain age in Ireland they will all repeat it back with a country accent and then say, "Kerrygold". Lol.

And then there is good old Andre who is wondering if there is something "ee can do to 'elp". In typical Irish fashion he is told he can put a bit of butter on the spuds.

This one is a tear jerker. It is more recent - perhaps around the time of the Celtic Tiger crash. It is very real and in some ways is a record of what was going on in Ireland then as people had to leave to get work elsewhere.

Kerrygold sure did ham up the oirishness in past ads and appears to be staying true to this with it's new offering above. But sure if it gets people tasting this amazing butter, what do I care!

Ok, see ya, I'm off to Youtube to look at the ESB "Going Home" ad......

Basket Brigade 2017

Today once again a group of people came together in Dublin and with enthusiasm and hard work turned piles of boxes, wrapping paper, cellophane and food in to Christmas Hampers for people all over Dublin City.

Each hamper gets a ham and a chicken along with a batch of vegetables and then items such as a bottle of coca cola, tube of pringles, canned soup, tea bags, coffee and a box of biscuits. Additional items include pasta, sauce, breakfast cereal, jam and paper products including kitchen roll.

A lot of the food is donated by corporate companies (thanks Coca Cola and others!) and other items are collected through different avenues. I set a box up in my workplace and my colleagues generously donated a huge amount of goods.

Donations of money are also needed in order to buy some of the produce. This is where one particular Irish celebrity has stepped up for the past few years and given a huge amount of financial support which has helped the Basket Brigaders achieve their goal. What an amazing boy - he sure is in a "zone" of his own. Thanks KD.

 

Nearly 200 hampers were made and numbered and then delivered to different home settings.

Basket Brigade is an annual event that I do along with my twin sister and our best friend Alice. We enjoy working on this project and afterwards we always go for lunch in Pitt Bros which is a nice wrap up for the day.

 

All in all a great day. Brilliant to catch up with the girls and great to try and do some good and help people in need at this special time of year.

If you are interested in getting involved with Basket Brigade have a search for it on Facebook - volunteers are always needed - the more the merrier!

Christmas is coming and the tree is up!

Christmas is coming!

I made the trip up to my attic to get down my Christmas tree and all the decorations that go with it. This year, however, I went for a more pared down look and only decorated my tree along with a few small ornaments on the mantle piece.

I was glad to see all my decorations organised in to clear boxes. When packing away your decorations at the end of the season it is worth making the extra effort to do it neatly and in a systematic way. The effort always pays off the next year when you are unpacking them.

And here's my tree all set up with the usual Barbie at the top.

This year my favourite ornament is my Key West Little White House chair (a present from my twin sister Amy). Hanging this little charmer made me think of my recent trip to Key West.

Last Sunday morning before I put up my tree, Amy and I met early and went to Aldi to get Christmas jumpers. I got three matching ones for myself, Ciaran and Bones the dog. We will be truly kitted for Christmas when we are decked out in our jumpers!

The future is electric!

The future is electric......well for me anyway!

I had been considering getting an electric bike at different points over the last few years. As I wasn't doing so much cycling I didn't think it was worth it.

However, since I moved job and am now cycling over 20km a day to and from work I reckoned it was the right time to get one. 

I decided to purchase from Greenaer as they have been in the business of selling electric bikes for the past 10 years, carry out servicing of electric bikes and they also had a secondhand version of the bike I wanted in stock.

Here it is - the Kalkhoff Agattu.

What a bike!  It's light and so much fun to ride and it makes my cycle to work such a pleasurable experience in comparison to my cycle on my old bike where I arrived to work hot, sweaty and tired. Even though it is cold I am enjoying my commute by bike a lot!

Here's a close up of the battery.  It's about the size of a brick and I need to take it inside when I am not using the bike. During the winter in particular, the battery needs to be brought in to the house as they really don't like the cold weather.  See here for more tips on looking after your battery in the winter.

As you can see I have a set of panniers on my bike. I am not really a fan of panniers, I much prefer to use a basket, where I can just load my shopping in with no hassles and be on my way. However, I will admit that the crate that I had on the front of my dutch bike was heavy and certainly destabilised my bike. So panniers it is for me on this bike. I also got the panniers in Greenaer - they sell a range of accessories along with bikes. I also got two locks for my bike.

If you are thinking of buying a bike, I recommend a visit to Greenaer. They were easy to deal with and were very helpful when I was making my purchase.

And if you haven't been on a bike in a while it might be the time to get back on!

Teeling Whiskey Tasting

Tuesday evening brought me to Ely Chq for a Teeling Whiskey tasting where they were introducing the Revival IV.

The tasting was led by Teeling brand ambassador Kevin Hurley along with award winning sommelier Julie Dupouy of Down 2 Wine who introduced us to a Muscat wine as the Revival IV is made in Muscat barrels!

 

Along with the whiskey there was also some delicious charcuterie and cheese.

In order to taste each wine we poured a sample in to a nosing glass - here I am having a good sniff!

Having tasted four different Teeling Whiskey on this evening and following the recent Powers whiskey event I attended, I can honestly say that I am beginning to acquire a taste for quality whiskey - particularly when I add a drop of water to the whiskey which I find rounds out the flavour.

Teeling Whiskey Distillery is in the heart of Dublin and tours can be arranged in their distillery -I plan to visit very soon!

A big thanks to my twin sister Amy for arranging tickets for this super event :-) 

Stella Theatre in Rathmines

As I mentioned in my last post we made plans to visit the Stella Theatre this afternoon.

The Stella has been recently renovated and they have done a marvellous job.

We had considered going to Murder on the Orient Express which I imagine the setting of the Stella would add to the cinematic experience of this film. However, all seats were sold out so we went to see The Florida Project instead. The Stella offers table service with a selection of food such as tuna poke, tacos and sticky bbq ribs which we will probably get on our next visit.  There is also a cocktail menu and a full bar is available.

As we left the Stella we agreed that the theatre is fantastic - the amount of space each visitor has is great - the seats are huge leather loungers and they even have leather pouffes that you can store your coat in and then throw your legs up on to for more comfort!

Here's a few pics I took at the cinema today.

You can check out an old picture of the Stella on my blog here.

Pot Bellied Pig - Rathmines

We planned a visit to the Stella Theatre for an afternoon movie today and decided to have a bite to eat in Pot Bellied Pig beforehand.

Ciarán had told me that he had eaten the most amazing wings here when they opened so he was looking forward to having them again.

The brunch menu was great with lots of tasty options.......but no wings!

When we went to give our order to the server, Ciarán asked do they not do wings on the weekend. Well he nearly jumped out of his seat when he was told they were gone as he screeched "gone forever?!"

I thought his reaction was the funniest thing ever (a tad over the top but very funny).  He went on to tell the server that he was going to start a campaign to bring back the wings!!

Anyway we went on and ordered - I had the sweet potato and chorizo hash while Ciaran chose the rasher sandwich and added an egg on the suggestion of the waiter (good one!).

Well wait until you hear this!

What appeared on our table but some chicken wings!!

The waiter very nicely had a word with the chef and they were able to sort us out.  What a hero!

The wings were amazing as was all of the other food and the service was brilliant too.  This place is incredible - I can't wait to go back (wings or not!).

What I'm up too....

Here's my regular update of what's going on in my life.

Here's one of the books I read while hols. Anne Tyler's "The Amateur Marriage" - wow what a book, I really enjoyed it. I plan to read more of her books in the future.

I booked flights to London for a day trip to see the Basquiat exhibition in the Barbican. To say I am excited is an understatement. We will fly out at 7am and return at 11pm. All we need to do is book a meal in a nice restaurant and we will have serious day of fun!

Look out for my blog post about this day out in 2 weeks.

Back in 2014 I blogged about the Stella cinema (see here). It has now been remodelled and is back open and is amazingly glamorous.  I have booked tickets to see The Florida Project on Sunday afternoon. Again look out for my blog post after this cinematic experience!

Have a look at the Stella Website here for more info. 

Oh dear god!!!  Look at this picture!!

After my shower on Tuesday morning, I felt something on my arm as I dried myself. This is what was under my towel on my arm!!!

Aaagh!!!

Spiders do not generally come in big sizes like this in Ireland. To say I was shocked was an understatement. Still lived to tell the tale and also posted it to facebook straight away where most people agreed that they would have screamed out loud if they even saw this spider in their presence!

Busy day tomorrow watch out for my next blog post where I tell you what we get up to!