Sights on my cycle

I have been cycling to and from work. Here's a few sights on my cycles taken over different days....

Aviva Stadium in the background as I get off the train at Landsdowne Station

Attractive looking fascade on Baggot Street Lower

Pembroke Lane - interesting house!  And below from the other side. The architecture and design stopped me in my tracks.

First Editions on Pembroke Lane. It's very quaint and reminds me of something you might see in Notting Hill London

And this is the view over the tracks at Lansdowne Train Station.

The cycle from my house to the station is short but there is always plenty to see which makes it a pleasant cycle.  

If you've been thinking of taking up cycling with the advent of Covid19 and in order to avoid public transport I would say go for it. Cycling is both good for the mind and body, saves you money on your commute and reduces traffic on streets which in turn is helpful for the environment. 

Dublin City have been actively working to make the city a safer place to cycle by protecting cycle lanes with bollards. There probably have never been a better time to start cycling than now. Happy cycles!

Netflix Watch: You've got mail

Do you ever feel like you've watched everything on Netflix or at least watched everythign you are interested in and the rest is just pure rubbish?

Last week I had that feeling.

In recent times I watched the series "Orthodox" which I thought was very good and actually managed to not binge watch it and spread it out over 4 nights. I also watched season 1 & 2 of Below Deck which I loved....and DID binge watch.

And so after that I went scrolling through Netflix but couldn't find anything I wanted to watch.

Until.....I landed on "You've got mail" starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan

It is probably categorised as a "Chick Flick" but we didn't let that put us off.  So after watching it, I can tell you some parts have dated fairly badly (the whole references to chat rooms, emails and computers in general) and will continue to do so but on the whole it's a good solid love story (what's not to love) and I give it a big thumbs up.

So if you find yourself in the position where you have watched all of Netflix, don't overlook "You've got mail"! 

Mom meetup

After months of not seeing family, while restrictions were in place in Ireland, my mam visited me today.

It was great to see her in person as we had only had phone conversations for the past while as she does use Zoom or other video call technology.  

I had been expecting rain but it was lovely and sunny so I set up a little mini brunch in the back garden.

Over lots of coffee we had a pleasant visit and caught up on all of our news. It was very nice and it felt somewhat normal in this strange world that we are living in.  

Two things that Mam remarked on straightaway were on Bones' tight haircut which when she saw him she said "What did they do to you?" and when she saw Ciaran she said "Look at you with a beard! And long hair".  She then went on to tell him that he looked good with the long hair and that he had lost weight. 

And so after her visit, I walked her to the bus stop and saw her on to the bus. She took the first bus that came, even thought it was not her regular one, but there was a risk that the bus after the first one would be full (due to restricted passenger numbers for social distancing) so was best to just get on whichever one she could and then change in the city for the bus home to her house - just one example of the new normal.

No point crying over spilt milk....or a broken milk jug

So this happened

I dropped my gorgeous little blue bird jug as I was putting it away in the press. It hit the granite worktop and unsurprisingly smashed in to pieces.

It was from the Carolyn Donnelly range in Dunnes Stores and it was definitely my favourite little jug.

But I've a few other little milk jugs so it's not a big deal. I just swept all the pieces in to the bin and forgot about it. In life there are much bigger things to be concerned about than a broken jug!

Ireland is opening up....

I won't say things are going back to normal here in Ireland but things are beginning to restart.  Shops opened last week with a Penneys/Primark opening welcomed a few days after some of the other shops. 

Local to my workplace, Insomnia coffee shop is open for takeaway coffees and allows 4 people in the store at a time. Next door Meadows & Byrne opened but hasn't seemed to have had queues outside the door and visitor numbers seem manageable in the shop itself. 

But of course with some shops opening, we are hearing of some shops that won't reopen. I would imagine many are re-imagining themselves as online stores rather than bricks & mortar shops.

And in the next stages restaurants will open followed by pubs and hairdressers.  Hairdressers seems to be one that people are looking forward to - personally I'm not too bothered as I barely get my hair cut through the year and I'm fine with my balyage blonde highlights growing out. 

So things are positive here in Ireland, numbers are good.  We are still seeing daily deaths but they tend to be in the single digits and new cases are also diminishing. Let's keep practising good hygiene (masks are advised at this time but are not mandatory) and keep social distancing going and let's keep crushing this virus. 
 

Happy World Bike Day 2020!

Wednesday was World Bicycle Day and I happened to be in the office that day so of course I rode my bike there and back (with a little help by getting the train some of the way).

My commute home was the fastest ever on the bike.  At 5.42pm, I looked at train times and saw there was one at 5.49pm so I quickly made my way to the exit and cycled about a minute to the station. From there I had about a 2 min wait for the train which then took me to Lansdowne Station where I cycled home from and got in the door just a little after 6.10pm.  Pretty much door to door it was 30 mins - not bad for Dun Laoghaire to Ranelagh!

 
Here's the tweet I sent on the way to work - I can't tell you how much I love that cup of coffee while waiting for the train, particularly on Wednesday as the weather had changed dramatically and it was very cold in comparison to the amazingly sunny day previous.

If you want to know more about the Brompton Bike that I am currently using to get to work, click the video below.