Weekend fun in Dublin

With Storm Atiyah approaching on Sunday, it was good to get out and about on Saturday. After taking Bones for a walk, I got on my bike and cycled to the RDS to visit Gifted Craft Fair. 

                          

I had got two free tickets from a colleague in work and outside the venue I heard a lady with a child ask someone do you have to buy a ticket to go inside. As I was passing by, I offered her my spare one which she happily accepted.

Inside at the fair there was loads to see and I spent a good length of time browsing all of the stands.

I tasted lots of samples of cheese, chutneys and different food items including the Dream Cake by Nostimo Heavenly Food which are based in Mullingar. It was so good and could be described as mousse like but also chocolate fondant like.

                                      

Afterwards I went to Tesco to get some Cranberry sauces - I need to have 75 of them to donate to Basket Brigade next week ('m nearly there - I have 60 jars of sauce).

And later on I took Bones for another walk in the evening and looked at all of the Christmas trees, lights and wreaths on doors in my neighbourhood. What a fun thing to do!

Sunday morning was stormy so I chilled in bed with coffee and a book and a little hairy companion.

Happy December y'all!

It's been a lovely weekend. I was working on Saturday so I didn't want to go out that night. Instead we ordered Indian food from Rasoi in Ranelagh and enjoyed with a nice bottle of wine!

Hey look, I broke out the Christmas napkins and we even took a cheesy wine pic in front of the Christmas tree!

 

It's the 1st of December and it's definitely beginning to feel a lot like Christmas....it's cold and I've presents to wrap and cards to write - this job is waiting for me later today

This little face greeted me when I woke up but I didn't rush out of bed like I normally do on the weekend.

I started my Sunday off with Irish Cream flavour coffee while reading "She Said" (what a book - I'm only about 50 pages in and I am so mad and sad reading it)

Later in the day I got down to the business of writing my Christmas cards. I wrote them while watching my favourite Christmas film "The Holiday" (see here) starring Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet. I've got half my cards written and I don't know how many time's I've made a promise to myself that this is the last year I am writing Christmas cards!!

Flying visit to The Hague

My sister lives in The Hague and I got to visit her for the past few days. It was great to see her and she is a brilliant host - I packed in loads while I was there.

On Thursday I arrived at about 12.30pm and Lydia met me at the airport. We dropped my bags at her apartment and later that day we visited the Maritshuis Museum and got to see Vermeer's "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" - how cool!

I had booked tickets online which was probably unnecessary but very convenient. 

The Girl with the Pearl Earring painting is not that big but I really appreciated it more seeing it in the flesh. For example, I never realised that it is a drop pearl earring in the picture and also that it is massively oversized.

The next day Lydia and I went off on the tram and visited Delft. I really enjoyed this place, it's very quaint and very traditional. We wandered around the streets, climbed to the top of the tower of the church (my legs are still sore 2 days later!!) and we also sampled cheese in the Kaas Winkel. We tasted so many different cheeses and I have to admit I had a little stroop waffel taste too.  All so good.

Lydia had been interested in doing a tour of the Peace Palace for awhile so when she told me there was a tour on the Saturday morning I immediately booked it for her and myself and also our mother once Lydia confirmed that Mam wanted to go on the tour too.

The Peace Palace was conceived in the very late 1800's and Andrew Carnegie funded it on the condition that it had a public library.  The building is stunning and the inside is even more incredible than the outside. The Library has outgrown the building and has the largest collection of legal documents and books in the world - there is now a new library building on the grounds.

It was a flying visit - I left to go to the airport at 3pm for the train to Amsterdam Airport for a 5pm flight to Dublin.

I look forward to getting back to Den Haag someday soon!

Put my tree up!

I returned from The Hague yesterday after a really nice visit to see Lydia (blog to follow) and had made a decision that I was going to put my tree up today if I was not too busy.

I know it's fairly early to put up a tree (it's not even December yet) but sure what the heck, I like having a tree up and I want to enjoy it for a while before I take it down.  I also generally don't like to keep it up longer than after 1st of Jan so I might as well get it up early!

So here it is.......only took me about 3 hours and I threw out a few bags of old decorations that I was sick of.  In total I've got 7 sets of lights on the tree and it is rather bright - I love it!!

 Here's a pic of the tree with the lights off

 And this one is the lights on

 Barbie sits atop!

I love this decoration - it's a pic of my twin sister and I when we were very young at Christmas in front of the tree in our Nana's house

Here's the bags of old decorations ready to go to the local charity shop

As you can see I like an eclectic mix of decorations on my tree and I have built up a collection over years.

However, if I was ever to go in a different direction, my dream tree would be the Modern Christmas Tree by Matt Bliss. It's a stunning design - it looks amazing and I think it would probably store away way more easily than my current big green artificial tree. The story of how it was created is brilliant (check it out on the modern tree website) and it is a true piece of art!

Check my past Christmas tree blogs to see the different places that I positioned my tree and how it looked:

2014

2015

2016

2017

In 2018 I didn't put up a tree(!!!) but you can read about Christmas Day here.

And here's a few pics of my favourite decorations this year - I always buy a few new ones each year which is why my collection is now MASSIVE and in all honestly can be a bit overwhelming as I am adding every decoration to the tree.......after about an hour I always have to recruit Ciarán to help in order to not lose the will to stop!

I love the rainbow heart in the top left - the colours complement my eclectic mix of decorations.  However, it is the message that I love the most "Love is Love".  This decoration makes me so happy that I live in Ireland, a place that offers equality to all and respects everyone in their choice of who they love. The decoration also brings me back to the time that I got out and canvassed for the marriage referendum back in 2015 (read about it here). It was my first experience of canvassing and it made me so happy to be part of a huge change in Ireland. It then led me on to canvassing for the later referendum to appeal the 8th amendment. Read here about my feelings when it passed.  
Thank you Lydia for this special decoration.

You can see a turtle in the top right hand corner of the pic. This is also a new decoration for this year and once again I love it because of the memories it sparks. This little ornament brings me right back to my sailing trip in the Caribbean where we experienced swimming with turtles in the wild. We had moored in Tobago Cay and got in to the dinghy to head over to explore the sand bar.  The others went back on the dinghy to the boat but Ciaran and I said we would swim over as it was not far and we had flippers and snorkel gear on. Well the next things is that I saw a star fish on the bottom of the sea floor as I swam along,....and then another one, and then another one.  Then Ciarán, called out "Turtle" and what do you know a turtle swam by!!  So so incredible!

The final decorations - the parrots, flamingos and Margaritaville all remind me of time spent in Key West and where I will be very soon again!!

Tell me about your favourite decoration and what feelings it sparks for you - I read all comments left below :-) 

Friday Funday!

Friday was a fun day and it also followed a fun Thursday night where I met up with my bestie Alice where we toasted our missing gang member Amy of Dublinia blog fame.

After wings in Elephant & Castle we then went on to the Omniplex in Rathmines and watched, as part of the "Bring it Back" series, my favourite film.....yes you guessed it....."A Star is Born" (which I may or may not have seen in the cinema a total of 4 times!).

Alice had never seen the film, and safe to say, she LOVED it!! But I do hope she was able to drive home safely and was not too teary eyed ;-)  

Friday was my day off so my mother called over and helped me clear out my wardrobe. 3 big black bags (these will go to St Vincents shop in Rathmines) later we were ready for brunch!!

I had made a booking at Layla's in The Devlin Hotel which is a short stroll away.

It was my mam's first time in The Devlin and she really liked it. I've been a few times and generally order a steak but on this occasion I ordered mussels - which were amazing!!

And then it was nearly 3pm......wow time flies when you are having fun!  And it was time for me to pick up Bones from the groomer where he had spent the day.

An awesome day in all, and made up for having to work today!

Back on the Bikram Mat

About a week ago, I saw on Facebook that the studio I used to practice at was celebrating being open 16 years.  They were offering a special deal to mark this occasion which was 16 days for 16 euro. 

What a special offer - it got me back on the mat!

So I went back last Monday and since then I've done 6 classes in total. 

Oh boy, it feels amazing to be back!!

The weather has begun to change and it is getting slightly colder - this makes it the perfect time to be heading to the Bikram studio to get some heat in to me.

I've got a week left on this offer and then I intend to continue on with my practice. 

But for the moment the focus is purely on my next practice day which is tomorrow! 

How the "Pigsy" show went.....

Back in early October I blogged about looking forward to Pigsy's show in Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club.  I then meant to follow up with a blog all about the event which I intended to write fairly soon.  However the event was such a success that I had a fair come down from it and this meant that I needed to wait awhile, let the dust settle and write about it then.  This is that write up!

The event consisted of 3 parts: 

• Film Screening of the short film "Pigsy" directed by Mike Andrews
• A live interview with Pigsy by Kevin Moore of Legacy Communications (which also included a Q&A with questions asked by the audience) 
• An art exhibition of Pigsy's latest work

Kevin and Pigsy had the audience's attention with their chilled banter and there were lots of great questions asked when the floor was opened up to the audience.

Prior to the film screening the audience got to mingle in the bar and enjoy canapes along with the signature Pigsy cocktail created for the event which was called a "Pigtail"!

The above pic is the screening of the film which was shown on the Squash Court No. 1 which seats about 100 people in the bleachers and then there were further seats added on to the court.

It was a very social evening with everyone enjoying it immensely and it was great to see a new audience embrace Pigsy's work. 

I had a wonderful time at the Pigsy event but unfortunately didn't manage to get in to any of the official photographs - but luckily I had taken an obligatory selfie, so here it is!

You can watch the PIGSY film here on youtube

Meet Joe Black

It's been over 20 years since "Meet Joe Black" starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins was released. 

My memory of first watching this film was that I saw it in the Savoy Cinema on O'Connell street, with my twin sister. It was so long that they had an interval, even though films weren't generally shown with an interval as had been done in the past. Come to think of it, intervals really were a great thing. They were sociable, you could chat about the film and see how your companion was enjoying it, or you could visit the bathroom for a comfort break (always a good thing) or you could stock up on some more goodies if you had eaten all your ice cream or popcorn - presumably this was good for business so I wonder why cinema's stopped having intervals.

Anyway, I digress, back to Meet Joe Black which is now on Netflix and we started watching it on Thursday evening but it was so long that we took an interval and started back watching it last night.

It's a funny thing watching a film again with 20 years of life on you!

There were so many details I noticed in this film that I don't think I appreciated when I watched it on the big screen the first time.  Namely, the art, the interior design, the food, the music.....but mainly the art.

So many scenes featured (as well as the talented actors) the most incredible art works ranging from Rothko to Kandinsky to Cezanne and many many more. 

The use of the artwork was very clever, one reason it featured was to indicate what type of man the main protagonist was - i.e. Bill Parrish was a worldly classy man who appreciated the finer things in life but additionally the art work added so much to particular scenes.  For example when Bill is addressing his board there is the most amazing brightly coloured art work behind him while behind the board members there is a drab bland wood panelled wall. Due to the background of art, Bill presents as a dynamic progressive man with vision while his board appear to be dour charmless "suits". It's amazing what art can do!

I really rate "Meet Joe Black", it's an incredible love story and it really has stood the test of time - I hope you get to see it and if you do, look out for the art!!!

The Oratory, Dun Laoghaire

On Saturday I finally got to visit The Oratory in Dun Laoghaire. I had heard lots about it and was spurred on to visit by the launch of a new publication about the Oratory.  "Divine Illuminations" is edited by Marian Therese Keyes, Nigel Curtin and David Gunning of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Libraries. 

Click here to see a video from the 1970's when the Oratory was under threat of being taken down.

Luckily it has been preserved and is available for all to enjoy. It's a very special place and I hope you get to visit. I plan on visiting it again soon as it is the type of place that you will notice different things on every visit.

I have seen it described as entering a 3D Book of Kells and I think that is very apt. The Oratory is covered in celtic art that is very unique.

Here is some of the pictures I took when I visited and they include some of the stained glass windows that were made in the studio of Harry Clarke.

This place is remarkable. It is tiny but packs a punch with the amazing artwork by Sister Concepta Lynch who painted the whole Oratory throughout the 1920's and 1930's.

Click here to read reviews of the Oratory on Tripadvisor 

I found the Oratory to be very unique and something very unexpected in the middle of houses in Dun Laoghaire behind the cinema.  Go seek it out - it's worth seeing!

Sr. Concepta herself seems like an amazing lady. Prior to being a nun she ran the family business which she sold at age 22 and then funded a marble altar with the money - this altar is seemingly now in the Cabra Domincan Convent - which happens to be my alma mater!  I need to investigate this further and see if I can get pictures of the altar which I am thinking might be the altar in our school chapel.

The artwork is hard to describe and really has to be seen - it's whimsical but elegant and the use of colour is breath taking.

All I can say is go visit!!!

Pigsy Show!

I'm looking forward to seeing the next Pigsy event which is on tomorrow!

It's very exciting with all of the tickets for the show getting snapped up in practically a few days. 

The event consists of a screening of the Mike Andrews documentary "Pigsy" followed by a Q&A with Pigsy and Kevin Moore of Legacy Communications.

And of course there will be an exhibition of lots of Pigsy paintings - 19 to be exact!

Here's a little sneak peek at some of the work....

Follow @pigsyinspace on instagram to see all the activity from the evening.

And you can also watch the documentary online here.

Parrotheads in Dublin - Jimmy Buffett in the Olympia

Saturday night in Dublin certainly gave me Key West feels, even though it was bucketing down rain!

My mother had managed to snag a Jimmy Buffett ticket and she went on the hunt for me.  He was playing in the Olympia Theatre which is a really small venue so I really didn't feel hopeful.  During the day I was receiving texts from my mother about tickets she was seeing for sale for €200, €300 and upwards that she was considering buying.  Both of us rang the box office to see if there was any returns but no luck there either.

So at about 6.30pm, I got on my bike in the rain and cycled in to the city to the Olympia with the intention of getting a ticket outside.

So there I landed in my pink Margaritavile shirt and found loads of Parrotheads hanging out having fun in the rain with lots of tropical clothes and accessories on view!

So while waiting for my mother to arrive, I scoped out the ticket situation. There were certainly a few available going for €150 upwards. So while having a think what my options were, I decided to call in to the box office to see if there was any returns.

Well guess what!  There was a returned ticket that I promptly snapped up at cost price of just under €70!!!  Let's just say I was a little bit happy!

And so after a few drinks in Brogans we went in to the venue, Mam to the circle and me to the standing area. 

Well I can't begin to tell you what a great show it was with such a fun atmosphere. I felt truly blessed to hear all my Jimmy Buffett songs live.  He is a superb performer and his band the Coral Reefers aren't too bad either!!

Here's a few pics of the evening: