Born on the 4th of July

Watching the Tom Cruise movie "Born on the 4th of July" the other day made me glad to be born in Ireland.  

Based on the life of the now anti-war activist Ron Kovic, it's a film that makes me very sad.  The 20 something year old Kovic is played by the then 26 year old actor Tom Cruise.

This film was made in 1989 and looking at it now makes me reflect how young Tom Cruise was when the film was made and furthermore how very young all those who were sent to fight in Vietnam were. It brought tears to my eyes.

Coming from a neutral country and as a pacifist, I look at this film with thoughts of what a wasteful thing to do with the resource of all of the country's young people.

I have huge respect for all who fight for their country and for their country men and know that they are braver than I will ever be.  I also know that if we were not a neutral country and we went to war, that as a 20 year old my husband would have rushed to sign up. 

But ultimately when you see the product of war, that is young people getting killed or maimed, I feel sad sad sad.

After watching this film, I was moved to search on YouTube for the Donovan song of peace "Universal Soldier"

Have you seen this film?  What did you think of it?

Date night in Dillingers

Through an Irish Times reader offer (a bit like Living Social/Groupon deals) I got a voucher for Dillinger's in Ranelagh.

The voucher consisted of €120 worth of food for €68.  

We booked a place at the bar and when we arrived we were presented with a special menu because we were using the voucher.

Here is the menu which I thought there was plenty to choose from

We chose to drink red wine - a Cotes du Rhone (Gonnet La Julia) which was very drinkable!

For starter I had the quail while Ciaran had the alphabet soup (how fun!).  The soup was great but the quail (as always) was hard to get meat from.  I saw a lady pick it up and eat it with her hands (eeek) but I ate with my knife and fork.

For main, I chose duck while Ciaran has the steak cooked rare.  Both were very good - my dish was a very tasty and sweet concoction.

There were 4 choices of dessert including cheesecake and bread and butter pudding. We chose chocolate mousse.

Breaking dawn

Yesterday Amy and I started the day with a bang by going to 6.30am Bikram.  There is something special about doing back stretches while watching dawn break in Dublin.

After class we went to the restaurant in M&S for a "Full Irish".

What is the full Irish, you might ask.  It's the traditional Breakfast fry up of Rashers (bacon), sausage, egg, black pudding, etc.

The Marks and Spencer fry had tomatoes and mushrooms also included and came with toast.

Until the 29th of November the Full Irish is half price between 8am and 12pm in the Grafton Street store.

That's my kind of breakfast!!

Pirate Scavenger Hunt

I hosted a Pirate themed Scavenger Hunt in the library yesterday.

I created a Pirate Treasure Map which I gave to each child as they signed in.  The children dressed as pirates which added to the fun.

The children solved each clue in order to unlock a password.  When they had the password they went to the desk and received a bag of gold coins from the pirates treasure chest!

What fun!

Blanchardstown Shopping Centre

A new Superdry store has opened in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre.  It's in the unit where HMV used to be.

Leonidas chocolates has also opened in the centre.

Over beside TK Maxx, Walton's music is now opened.  Walton's is one of Dublins oldest music shops - it's the place to go if you are looking for sheer music.

The final opening is a seasonal offering - a pop up shop selling calendars and personalized Christmas ornaments.

Black out

We had a rare power outage yesterday evening about 7pm.  It was quite windy, wet and stormy so perhaps this was the reason.

Luckily I had just popped some popcorn in the microwave as the power went.  I found candles in a kitchen drawer using Ciaran's torch on his iPhone which had 3% battery power left.

In our last house we had a gas stove which meant we were always able to boil a pot of water and make pasta when the electricity went off.  We now have an electric induction hob so we no longer can do this.

We just sat and chatted and ate our popcorn until the power came back.  It was nice and relaxing really!

What do you do when there is a power cut?

Kildare Village Designer Outlet

After Newbridge we went on to Kildare Village.  It is a really quaint outlet shopping centre and looked very Christmassy with the buildings lit up.

There are lots stores including Reiss, Karen Millen, French Connection and Samsonite.

We had a quick browse in Coach but didn't buy anything.

We didn't buy anything in Le Creuset either.

I bought a dress in Tommy Hilfiger on clearance for €35 marked down from €170 - bargain!

Here's an image of the dress (worn by a model)

I also got this new shampoo and conditioner which I have just used!

Made by Hask of the USA the shampoo has Argan oil from Morocco in it.  The conditioner is made with keratin protein.

You would not believe how good my hair feels and smells after using them!!  I highly recommend them.  The conditioner is thick and luxuriant and nearly like a hair mask and the shampoo smells divine. I bought these products in Penneys so if you want to try them make sure you pick up a bottle!  My hair is incredibly soft and tangle free - result!!