Brrr it's cold

The weather turned over the weekend.  At the moment it is 4 degrees celcius (about 40 degrees Fahrenheit).  It is forecast to get up to 18 today but somehow I just don't believe it.

The good news that the weather is expected to improve for next weekend.  I really hope so as Flight Fest is on in Dublin City and good weather is badly needed for that.  

Flight Fest is a 3 hour spectacle where the largest and most unique planes in the world will be doing low flybys along the river Liffey.  I am really looking forward to it!  Here is some information about the event.

Dillingers with my sis!

It's been awhile since I've been in Dillingers (prob 8 weeks or so) and in the time since I've last been they have slightly rejigged their menu.

Sadly the mini corn dogs are off the menu - my sister and I thought they were such a fun item.  They also have no corn bread which we miss.

Last night we split a portion of mac & cheese (now served in a smaller bowl), crab cakes (disapointing and over priced at €9 for 3 crab "balls") and a portion of chilli fries.

Personally I love Dillingers for a casual Tuesday night but I would not recommend it for a special Saturday night meal out.

My twin sister and I like to sit at the bar, enjoy the atmosphere and have a good natter while we eat out food.  A nice chilled out meet up spot in the locality.

New retainer time

I was badly overdue a new set of retainers so on the advice of my dentist I made an appointment with Dr. Paul Dowling in the Beechwood Dental Clinic on Friday.

After sitting in to Dr. Dowling's chair I had a look around his modern office.  It was a lovely day and he had a sliding door open to a lovely little bamboo walled in city garden - adorable.  I joked that it would be a great place for a lunch time cocktail :-)  His nurse quipped that the drinks area was around the corner!

After showing Dr. Dowling my old retainers he talked me through options for new ones.  He then went on to take impressions for my new retainers.  That pink stuff they use to take impressions is repulsive and I gagged a little as I waited the short while for it to set (maybe a minute, or so).

I'm embarrassed to show a picture of my old retainers but for posterity here they are:

My new retainers will be ready for collection in a few weeks - I can't wait to get them and to get the rid of the old ones.  Hopefully I get a good few years out of the new ones!

BTW, as an aside, when I got my braces off about 12 years ago I was told I would have to wear retainers regularly for about 5 years.  However after 5 yrs I left them off for 1 night.  The next evening when I put them on they were difficult to get on and were very tight - my teeth had moved!!! Since that time I religiously wear my retainer every night and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.  Your teeth constantly want to revert back to their original position - I don't want that to happen!!!

Sunday Independent Shoot

We had the Sunday Independent out photographing the house for an article in a few weeks.  Rug Art gave us a lend of two different Jan Kath rugs for the shoot.

Tony Gavin is the Sunday Independent photographer.  He has won numerous press awards for his work.  Here he is photographing the glass stairs.

I'm intrigued to see how this shot of the open door in the studio will look.

I staged the area around the hot tub.  Cocktail anyone?!

Here's my Paddington Bear collection being photographed - along with a painting of Picasso that was painted by Ciaran's Dad.

Tapas time

So after a great night in Fade Street Social a few weeks ago, we returned last night.  Having ate in the main restaurant on our last visit we ate in the Tapas bar this time.

I love Tapas.  I enjoy the ease and familiarity of ordering a pile of food and having it arrive at the table at different times.  It makes for sociable eating as everyone digs in and shares the food.

Here's a few pics of some of the food we ordered:

Potatoes cooked in beef dripping

Mini burger which tastes awesome but is grossly overpriced, there should be 3 of these on the plate to make them better value

Large portion of beef cooked medium rare: divine!

Mini lobster roll - cute, adorable, tasty and not seen on many Irish menus

A mini chicken covered in caramelized onions and some type of cured meat

Dessert of chocolate mousse with hazelnut ice cream - this was very good!

Individual banoffee (my favourite dessert)

Overall I love the food and atmosphere in Fade Street Social it is such a buzzy place.  However, I do think the tapas menu is overpriced and there is just not enough food on the plate for certain dishes to justify the price (I'm looking at you lobster roll & mini burger).  

In comparison, have a look at our dinner in Santiago's Bodega - we generally spend about 100 dollars here (including wine & tip) and leave absolutely stuffed having eaten about 8 dishes between us.   In Fade Street we dropped 105 euro, had about 6 dishes between the two of us and were not full at all.  I think Fade Street could knock about 30% off the tapas prices which would allow for guests to order a few more dishes.  They could also double or triple the portion size of some of the more teeny weeny dishes.

BTW, I should mention we ordered a bottle of malbec which was delicious at dinner but today has given me the typical malbec headache - tannins!!!

Ranelagh Speakeay

Before meeting friends in Fade Street Social we went for a cocktail in the Speakeasy in Kinara Kitchen in Ranelagh.

Getting to the bar is complicated with you being led through a maze of areas before hitting the stairs to the speakeasy.

I wondered why was Ward 8 printed on the stairs!!  I never heard of this cocktail before in my life......

But I recognised an "Old Fashioned"......

Ciaran chose a rye based cocktail - a Whiskey Highball

I chose a Falling Water again.  Surprisingly it tasted different to the last time I had it.  It had been made with plain vodka the last time (in error, I think) while this time it was made with Feijoa flavour Level 42.  It was quite a unique flavour and I think I had finally got used to it by the end of the drink!

Dulux Sting

So last night I'm watching Design Doctors on RTE which is sponsored by Dulux Paint Company.  

As the programme goes to Ad Break, who do I see in the Dulux "Sting", only Declan my husband's business partner in ODKM Architects.

You can have a look at the "Sting" here on on Youtube.  

BTW, as far as I can make out, a sting in marketing terms seems to be an ad by the company that is sponsoring a TV programme.  It was shown in two parts last night - half at the first ad break and then the second half at the end of the programme.  It kind of tells a little story by the time the sting is finished.  Would you believe that this 30 second film took 8 hrs to record!!!

Here in Ireland we don't have as many TV ad breaks as in the USA.  In a half hour programme there would be one ad break at the 15 min point.

Here is a photo of Declan I took from the TV.