In search of a good doughnut!

Here in Ireland we have neither Krispy Kreme nor Dunkin Donuts.  This means that I am constantly on the search for a good doughnut.  

In my local Spar a Tim Horton coffee shop (which i believe is Canadian) has just opened. There are doughnuts to be had here but I have yet to taste them.

Last night on the way home from work I called in to Marks & Spencer's where I found a new selection of boxed doughnuts.  I bought 6 but didn't expect to be wowed by them.  

Well after tasting the chocolate one I was very impressed.  Great consistency, just greasy enough and great chocolate flavour.  It was a good doughnut.

They looked great too and a box of 6 would make a nice gift if you were calling to a friend for tea.

Ciaran brought the rest of the box in to his office for the lads to enjoy today.

Btw, please note the different spelling of doughnut here in Ireland.  I think in the USA it is spelled "donut"!

Working weekend

Ciaran is heading off to Prague for the European Masters Squash Championships on Wednesday.  As he will be missing a few days in work for this event he needed to work over this weekend.  I said I would go along with him to the office and keep him company and help with paperwork.  He said he would buy me lunch because I was giving up my weekend.  A fair compromise, I think!

While he was working, I snapped a few pictures.

Here's ODKM's recently hung award plaque - a special mention in the Irish Architecture Awards for best Emerging Practise.

On Sunday, after completing an important piece of work Ciaran had a bit of fun sketching on the front window of the office.  He really enjoyed this and it was great to see him relax before we went home.

If you want to follow ODKM Architects on Facebook and see all of their great projects and work that they do, click here.  They'd love to have you as a follower!!

By the way for lunch, on Saturday, we went to the Lovely Food Co. in Terenure where we were looked after by Margaret and her team.  Delicious food in a wonderful setting.  Terenure has lots of great places to eat (including great Fixx Coffee from Nolan's) but the Lovely Food is quite possibly the best!

Smart Espresso

Bo Concept were having a large sale over the weekend so we went for a little browse.  Discounts were good on some of the end of line items, with 50-70%  off showroom display items.  I was glad to see that the side table that we bought 4 weeks ago was not discounted!

Bo Concept have aligned themselves with Smart and designed a range of homewares and furniture.  I had been admiring the Smart Expresso Cup set on my last visit and was happy to see that they were on sale with 15 euro off.  We don't drink much espresso so I considered whether they were a good thing to buy but then I decided that I could serve chocolate mousse in them for dessert so I did go ahead and buy them.  

Check out how cute they are!

And here is a pic of our Smart Car parked beside a big monster truck in Dublin City 

Cone head

I was back in the vets this morning with Bones - the nurse was a Star Trek fan and she immediately commented on his name.  Bones is called after the Star Trek character Dr. Bones McCoy.

He has been licking his paws and made them quite irritated. We had put booties on his feet to stop him doing this but the vet recommended he wear a cone for the next 2 weeks.

We left the surgery with cream and antibiotics and a diagnosis of dermatitis.  If it doesn't clear up after treatment we may be in to a biopsy situation.

Bones was not a happy chappy in the cone.  After falling in to the car he proceeded to give me the stink eye.  

Hopefully by bathing his feet daily and medication his paws will be better soon.

European Squash Masters

Ciaran is traveling to the European Squash Masters in Prague next week.  

The draw has just been put up online.  He has found out that in the over 40's section he is seeded 5-8.  Quite incredible.  It looks like he is the highest seeded Irish player in the event.  Wow!  

Fingers crossed he does well.

The art of Jonathan Barry

Book illustrator Jonathan Barry was exhibiting in Powerscourt Shopping Centre today.

I attended an exhibition and talk given by him a few years ago in Blanchardstown Library.  I do admire his work and think it works very well as book covers.

The Table Restaurant

For the month of August The Table Restaurant in Portobello (a block away from Lock's Restaurant on the Canal) had a special offer of 30% off (excluding wine).  We had picked up a 30% off voucher in Coffee Society on Monday and immediately booked in for Saturday night.

We were celebrating our 12 yr wedding anniversary and as we were seated overlooking the canal I remarked how lovely the setting was for our special meal.

We settled in to our seats and ordered a bottle of Cote du Rhone.  For starter we decided to split a beef carpaccio but found out that the last one had just been sold as we ordered.  We ordered duck pâté with fig chutney to share to start instead of the beef.

The above is the bread service which had a selection of breads served with pesto, butter and olive oil & balsamic vinegar.

The duck liver pâté in the above pic was melt in the mouth deliciousness!

For main I chose the Rib Eye with pepper sauce while Ciaran had the pork.  Both were delicious.  My steak was huge so I gave half to Ciaran and he also had my chips.

For dessert we shared a chocolate pudding which was melt in the mouth - delicious!!

On the way home we saw some Dublin wildlife with two water rats (eeek!) running in to the canal as we walked along and a big fox blatantly strolling up our road as we turned in to the cul de sac.  

I enjoyed seeing the fox.  The rats, not so much!!