After a lovely few days over Christmas, I'm enjoying a strong coffee after a somewhat early night and an 8 hr sleep. I'm fresh and rejuvenated and have lovely memories of the loveliest Christmas.
It's been a busy few days with an early start to buy the Christmas day food before work on Wednesday. Then it was a dash from work on Thursday to get my booster covid shot (hallelujah) and then on to the hairdresser. The next day was Christmas Eve where we had a Christmas lunch with friends which we started with a pre-lunch cocktail in our house before heading over to the club across the road.
Christmas Day started with a glass of champagne in hand while we opened presents with a cheesy Christmas movie playing in the background. We followed this by watching Casablanca for the first time - wow what a great movie.
Dinner on Christmas was a wonderful affair. Ciaran had selected a boned and rolled Turkey and Ham from James Whelan Butcher. The meat was stuffed but I made additional stuffing too (you can never have enough stuffing in my opinion!) and we had lots of sides including roast potatoes, cabbage, brussels sprouts, cheesy cauliflower along with a carrot & parsnip mash mix. Along with a bottle or red wine we had a very tranquil and quiet dinner. Music was played on Ciaran's new wireless speaker (Santa was good to him) and all in all it was just perfect.
And what's next on my agenda you ask.......well it is to enjoy some homemade pate (thanks Gerry!) on crackers with a glass of prosecco......well it is still Christmas after all!
Blog written 21st Dec - posted 25th Dec
Omicron has taken hold in Ireland. It's expected that there will be 4th wave with a peak in January. For the moment there is a drive to get everyone boosted while new restrictions have been introduced with restaurants and pubs closing at 8pm every evening until January and a vaccination cert needed to enter certain places such as gyms.
For me the restriction won't have much impact. On Christmas Eve, after visiting both sets of parents in the morning, we are doing a lunch in Ciaran's squash club and then we will have a quiet Christmas Day just the two of us at home.
But in more important news - we are getting boosted this Thursday with an appointment at 4pm! I feel lucky to be able to get my booster jab, Ireland has high vaccination take up and a systematic well run government led vaccination programme. It will hopefully get us through all of this.
Tomorrow evening, we are hosting a small Christmas cocktail meetup for two friends. I'm looking forward to it and it will be casual, relaxed and safe. We have been very careful about socialising for the past while and we will continue to be careful over Christmas.
The latest government campaign is RSVP. This stands for Risk - Symptoms - Venue - People> and it is meant makes people think about what they are doing and where they are going and make an assessment
Stay safe everyone and have a great Christmas!
One of my favourite things this time of year is to enjoy all of the different Christmas ads which are generally really sweet, sentimental and inspiring. In past years, I've favored the John Lewis ads (remember the fox on the trampoline!) but this year my fave is the Supervalu "Share the Magic" ad featuring Aoife and a bunch of children who believe Santa's reindeer can fly.
The ad is charming and has an authentic feel of an Irish Christmas. Here for your enjoyment is the longer version of the Supervalu ad - let me know what you think!
I've a few days off work this week which has been great. Unfortunately I was due to visit my sister in The Netherlands but I decided to cancel my plans with changes to travel rules by the Irish government recently. From early December, nightclubs are now closed in Ireland and no large group bookings are allowed in restaurants. Another change is that a negative PCR test is required when arriving in to Ireland. As I was going on Wednesday afternoon and returning on Friday afternoon, I decided to cancel my trip for two reasons (1) the hassle of getting tested upon my return seemed too much given that I would be there for less than 3 days in total (and I was also concerned that I might test positive and have to stay on for 10 days) and (2)presumably the Irish Government introduced the test in order to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant by only allowing those with negative tests return to the country with no further restrictions imposed on them and also to stop those travelling for non-essential reasons. I probably fall in to the second category. And while I would love to see my sister (it's been 2 years since I last saw her) it probably is best to hold off at this time. Travel is really just not on the cards at the moment.
Anyway I had a lovely time being off work for 3 days this week and got lots done!
In PIGSY news there are now 9 PIGSY artworks being showcased in an art gallery in Florida.In other PIGSY news, we tidied up a few loose ends together in the studio yesterday and got a packaged artwork mailed to its new home in County Galway. There's always something to do in regards to his art so it sure was nice to have the time to do it.
We cycled in to town yesterday and had a wander around Drury Street area and Grafton Street. I'm sorry to say that I thought it was very quiet. Too quiet for 9th of December. In fairness being so quiet, it made for a pleasant afternoon for us, but you have to feel for the retailers who probably need to make bumper sales in order to get them through the whole Covid situation we have been experiencing for coming up on two years.
While in town, we decided to get late lunch and made our way to Pitt Bros for some barbeque. It's been awhile since we were both there (I ate here about 2 months ago with one of my sisters) and it was super tasty along with good music playing and friendly staff assisting us with our order. We enjoyed it immensely and split a 3 meat combo meal between the two of us.
And after our trip in to Dublin City, I settled in for the evening to watch the reboot of "Sex and the City". There were two back to back episodes of "And just like that....." on Sky Comedy and boy was I glad of that after the big shock ending of the first episode! At first while watching it I wasn't feeling it and I thought there was a bit too many mentions of ageing and also a very poor writing out of Samantha. However, once that was done it was right back to business and it was as good as Sex and the City ever was. Personally I liked it but was always a fan of the original series (don't mention the movies!) and it will be a regular thing for me to watch it for the next few Thursday evenings.
My Christmas package to my sister arrived in the States this week and it was quickly unpacked in order for her cat to pop herself in to it. What can I say, Cats will do as Cats do!
Thanks to An Post for the prompt delivery.......but I wonder where the envelope that I sent about 10 days previously is?!
It's in a new position this year. I took the cushion off the conversation pit and positioned it in the front window. I love it!
I also started setting out my Christmas crockery and tableware. It all adds up to a very merry festive feeling in the house. Just lovely!
It's hard to say which is my favourite Christmas decoration on my tree. I love my tropical ornaments that I picked up on holidays all over the world - I have a shiny green turtles that reminds me of the time that I swam with turtles in Tobago Cay on my sailing trip in the Caribbean. And then I have tons from Key West which always bring back great memories as I hang them on the tree. There's a little reindeer wearing a blue raincoat that always gives me a kick as I hang it (it was a gift from my twin sister) and I I always love hanging a decoration with a year on it as I think back to all of the exciting things that happened that year. It sure does make me happy to set up my Christmas tree because of the happy feelings each decoration brings as it goes up on the tree. Even my tree skirt makes me happy - it's 20 years old, I bought it while on honeymoon in Key Largo!
As I cycled home from work about 6pm on Friday, I realised how much I love cycling all over Dublin. It was a particularly mild evening and I got off the train at Pearce Street and cycled to Wishbone on Hatch Street to pick up some wings for dinner (if you are looking for wings in Dublin - these are the best ones!).
From there I cycled up Harcourt Street and then towards Ranelagh turning off on to Northbrook and then on to Leeson Park. It was on Northbrook Road that my cycle became even more enjoyable. On this street there are huge big old Georgian houses with the most beautiful trees and Christmas lights. It was a delight to cycle by them! It reminded me of the time that my twin sister and I went on a cycle to Ailsbury Road, a few years ago, to look at the Christmas lights on this street. So nice!
But I digress, the main thing that I love about my bike is that it gets me all over the place in no time at all. Dun Laoghaire to Ranelagh on a bike/train combo takes me just over 35 mins.
Then on Sunday, Ciaran and I both cycled to his art studio to pack a painting that will be heading off in the mail to it's new home in County Galway. Again, it was such a lovely cycle. We both really enjoyed it so much as it was a fresh bright December day - just perfect for a short cycle (about 15 mins or so) to his studio. After we left the Studio we stopped in Butlers in Rathmines for a coffee. We sat in the bright (but cold sun) on a bench outside the cafe. Then we stopped in to a stationery store to buy a roll of brown paper and then continued on our way to the supermarket where we stopped for food for dinner. I also found an Argentinean Malbec with 35% off so I bought 3 bottles......I also popped two mini bottles of prosecco in to my basket!
As we unlocked our bikes outside the shop after clicking our bags on to their carriers, I couldn't help saying to Ciaran, "Hey, how great are bikes?!"
First thing I did was pack a few little Christmas gifts that are heading off to people who live in different countries to Ireland. On the way to the post office I stopped off in Butlers for a coffee. At that point in the day the sun was shining and it was fairly mild - but as usual for Ireland, 3 seasons later by the afternoon it was cold and wet like Winter!
Pigsy has a lend of a van for a week so we took the opportunity to bring all our bottle recycling to the bring centre on the way to the art studio. In only a few minutes we had all of our bottles recycled by stopping off at Leonard's Corner to pop them in to the glass bottle bins.
And then it was off to the studio where we packed a lot of PIGSY art to be sent to USA. It was a whole afternoon of packing but it was a job well done and they will be collected by the courier on Monday and start making their way to the USA.
Watch this!
After years of not wearing a watch, I decided to change it up and start wearing one. The reason that I wanted to start using a watch was that I felt it would stop me looking at my phone so regularly.
Well guess what?! It helps! Since getting my watch a few days ago I've stopped looking at my phone for the time (which tended to lead on to me going on the phone and browsing) and just look at my watch instead.
And the watch that I got is a funky retro looking Casio watch......and it's PINK!
After spending the afternoon in the city doing a little bit of clothes shopping, I decided that I would make Keto Chicken Nuggets for dinner. So after finishing up my shopping I got the Luas home and stopped off in Supervalu to buy a few ingredients I needed. Unfortunately when I got home I realised that I had no eggs at home so I had to return to the shops to get some - for this trip I cycled on my bike which only takes a few minutes.
Speaking of shops and shopping you are probably wondering what clothes shopping I did. Well, the reason I went to town was that I saw a nice black jumpsuit online in Mango that I thought would be perfect for the next PIGSY event. However, when I saw it in actuality and tried it on, it wasn't exactly right. So I headed on to TK Maxx and I bought a Fat Face dress there and also a silver jumpsuit. Then I went on to Zara where I bought a pair of black trousers along with a pair of navy work trousers in Dunnes Stores.
Anyway enough about clothes shopping, here's the pic of the Keto Chicken Nuggets that I made from this Keto Connect Recipe. I added a little cream cheese to the recipe which I felt would make them more moist.
I used to be a regular cinema-goer, in fact I think Ciaran and I were probably two of the last people to go to the cinema in Ireland before Covid. We went to the cinema back in March 2020 on a Tuesday evening. We were among a "crowd" of 5 people at this screening and by Thursday all cinemas were closed as Ireland went in to the first months long lock down.
Since this time I have not visited the cinema and I really am not inclined to at this time. The thoughts of sitting in a movie theatre, sharing a space for about two hours with strangers. No, not for me, at this time.
The reason I am writing this particular blog, is that this evening at my Spanish class my Spanish teacher was asking us lots of different questions in order to get us conversing and practising the language. One of the questions she asked me was do I prefer to go to the cinema or watch films as home. It was an interesting question and it sure got me thinking. And so in my pigeon Spanish, I basically answered something like "Before Covid I really enjoyed going to the cinema but now I prefer to watch films at home, but maybe I will go to the cinema again when the pandemic is over".
However I just saw a trailer for a movie that actually made me feel a little urge to make a plan to go see it in the cinema!
Check this out. It's the new Lady Gaga movie "House of Gucci".......I can't wait!
Hopefully it will be shown in The Stella Ranelagh which is a small boutique 40 seater movie theatre in The Devlin Hotel which is around the corner from where we live. They have prosecco on tap in this cinema so we will make a night of it!
Fingers crossed it come to this cinema.
On Sunday mornings, we go for a coffee in Ranelagh and on our way to the coffee shop we pick litter (Dublin City Council will supply you with litter pickers and bags, if you drop them a line on their customer service email).
This morning was a lovely mild day and we walked up Chelmsford on opposite sides of the road as we picked. Ciaran had the dog on his side.
Lots of people say "Thank you" as they pass by but this morning I had the loveliest encounter with a man who asked were we part of a group who does the litter picking. I explained how we do it on our way for coffee on a Sunday morning. He said thanks but then told me to hold on a minute that he was a bee-keeper and he was going to give me two jars of honey!!
Well I was so happy! What a lovely thing to do. He went in to his house not far from where we were talking and then came back with this gorgeous Dublin Mountain Honey.
Here's pics of the honey which is available in The Village Butcher in Ranelagh.
Certainly a sweet ending to our Sunday litter pick!
I joined with the Friends of the Grand Canal this morning to pick up litter. There is a meetup once a month on the first Saturday of the month from 10am to 12pm. All you need to do to join is to turn up at the bench near Leeson Street Bridge on the Canal.
I collected my litter picker and two bags and then set off in the direction of Leeson Street to pick litter. There was a large amount of people volunteering today and most stayed along the canal. I prefer to leave the canal area and pick litter on the streets close by - I figure that if it doesn't get picked it will blow in to the canal so better to get to it before it gets in to the water.
In total, I filled two bags in a little over an hour. Definitely a job worth doing on a Saturday morning!
Great to see Blanchardstown Library has reopened after being refurbished. I worked here when it first opened about 20 years ago and it was a fantastic place to work and I enjoyed every minute of it.
It was always a busy branch that was constantly evolving and innovating and offering new services and resources to borrowers.
Check out all that it offers these days in this informative video featuring current library staff (I recognize some of my former colleagues!)
Flu Season is upon us again. After not getting the flu jab last year as I was living in Spain, I got the vaccine this year through work. It was quick, painless and convenient (I got it just before I started work at midday on my late shift) and I feel great knowing that I am protected from getting flu this year.
Ciaran sorted himself out with his flu vaccine by calling in to a chemist in Ranelagh. He asked them did they have the vaccine available and the pharmacist came out to say that he could give it to him straightaway. He jumped at the opportunity and after filling out a short form he got jabbed in his left arm and was out of the pharmacy in minutes.
Great piece of mind for both of us - particularly as I am hearing that this year the flu may be a particularly bad strain.
Are you vaccinated against Flu? Do you get it from the doctor or the pharmacist? Let me know in the comments below.
We had a fun morning, taking part in the Dublin Cycle Campaign's "Spooky Cycle" along Sandymount Strand. It was a glorious sunny October day and everyone was in great spirits as we cycled slowly along the road. Led by Gardai from Irishtown and Donnybrook Garda station there was a mix of people with families and children of all ages. There was a mix of cargo bikes and regular bikes and we spotted another couple on Brompton's with theirs being red and cream while my Brompton is black with Ciaran's being raw lacquer.
Here's a few pics before the cycle got underway.
We always planned to continue learning Spanish on our return from Malaga. Since we are back in Ireland, we have been doing Duolingo on a daily basis. But further to this we also planned on starting lessons.
Well guess what!
We started back at it this evening. Our new Spanish teacher came to our house and we thought she was great. The lesson was a lot more structured than our previous lesson in Malaga (which was really more of a meet up for conversation with a teacher) - we even got homework too!
It was really great to speak Spanish again and I am looking forward to continuing with it here in Ireland.
I made some chocolate dipped strawberries and gave them as gifts to neighbours (one neighbour bakes us the most amazing apple pies and the other neighbour gave us a parking pass when we were caught out without one recently).
The chocolate dipped strawberries are easy to make and fun too. I used a mixture of milk, dark and white chocolate and I also put some coloured sprinkles on a few of them. I never used sprinkles before but I enjoyed using them.
My neighbours enjoyed their strawberries and I enjoyed eating some too - have you ever eaten them, aren't they just divine?!
On Sunday, I meal prepped for the week. I can't say it was fun but it kept me occupied for a few hours. And the result was dishes that included Keto Shepherds Pie, Cauliflower Cheese (Mock & Cheese, if you will!), Butter Chicken and a big batch of meat balls.
I've never been a fan of The Wanted but I happened upon the Tom Parker documentary yesterday evening after watching for a few minutes I was gripped. I vaguely recall hearing that a member of The Wanted had been diagnosed with a brain tumour.
That was the only thing I knew when I switched on the programme. Within, minutes I was in tears. What an amazing guy. Incredibly brave an absolute tower of strength with a beautiful personality.
I wish him the very best in his "Stand up 4 Cancer" and I hope he can beat this terrible disease.
We have just returned from a two night stay in Lagom in Kenmare, County Kerry and I highly recommend it if you are looking for place to stay in Kenmare. We were in Kenmare for the finissage of PIGSY's "Catharsis of Collapse" in the Kenmare Butter Market. We had been down three other times over the past few weeks for the show and had made a promise for our last visit we would treat ourselves to a stay in the newly opened Lagom. Owners Liz and chef Brendan have really created somewhere special and it was indeed a treat to stay here.
Lagom is a Swedish word that can be translated to "not too much, not too little, just right". With little special touches they have certainly made the place more than "just right".
On our arrival, we were met by bottled water in our room along with a welcome treat of a little home made lemon bun. I adore lemon sponge and this was the most lovely baked goods treat.
And then the breakfast! Well that can only be described as quite delicious with the best ingredients. PIGSY had the full Irish both days and I had Brisket Potato Hash for my first breakfast. Then the next day I had an omelette (a 3 egg omelette with a choice of fillings) - both really delicious.
Lagom is centrally located in Kenmare and is an excellent addition to the restaurant and accommodation scene in Kenmare. And as far as I am concerned it is definitely "just right" and quite possibly perfect in my eyes!
Our final Kerry adventure awaits as we return to Kenmare for the closing of the PIGSY Art Exhibition in Kenmare Butter Market. We will pick up a hired van at 10am and get on the road a little after that (we will return to the house to collect our bags and Bones).
The finissage of "Catharsis to Collapse" is on from 6-8pm this evening. We are looking forward to it and hopefully we will get to meet again with some of the new friends that we met in Kerry over the past month or so of the exhibition and the preparation for it.
Do you have a favourite neighbourhood restaurant?
I do, and after a hiatus of about 18 months, I returned to Dillingers for dinner yesterday evening.
With a change of menu but still the same staff, it was great to be back!! We got a lovely warm welcome and one of the guys even pointed out that they still have Bones picture up above the Cash Register. Lol!
Pictured is steak, veal and super fun mac & cheese truffle balls- all just delicious. Like I said, it's good to be back!
This post popped up on my blog feed and after reading it the other day it set me back on the Keto path.
Tonight we ate Keto Tuna Melts for dinner.
Here's my recipe:
2 slices of Keto Bread (see my Keto Bread recipe here)
Avocado
Tuna & Mayo mix
Cheddar cheese
All you have to do is top the bread with some avocado and then spoon some tuna mayo mix on top. Finish off with some cheese (you can grate it if you want). Then pop it in under the grill to melt the cheese.
Easy peasy and mega cheezy!
I was in Kerry recently (for the PIGSY exhibition) and tasted the delicious Killarney Roasters Coffee. On my return to Dublin, I vowed to start drinking more coffee at home while forgoing using coffee capsules. In order to do this I ordered some whole bean coffee from Killarney Roasters along with buying a coffee grinder.
When my coffee arrived (along with some delicious Salted Caramels that I also ordered - they are handmade with butter!) I set to grinding some beans and made coffee in my French Press.
It took a few days of experimenting with different grinds and I finally cracked it and made the most perfect pot of coffee this morning. I know the perfect grind now and am looking forward to lots of lovely coffee at home......but don't get me wrong I still enjoy my coffee in the local coffeeshop too!
To order coffee from this Kerry company, click here.
