Pets in your bed

Do you allow your pets to sleep in your bed?

 

Bones sleeps with us.  Normally he sleeps at the end of the bed but on colder nights he cuddles up between the two of us.  I woke about 6am this morning and felt a big lump beside me who was hoarding all my covers.  Wow he was some weight to move him and drag out the covers.  He was out for the count and he did not like being woken up. 

 

In fairness, dogs need to sleep about 18 hours a day and given that Bones goes to work with Ciaran he probably badly needs his sleep at night time day!

Here's two things I saw on the way to work this morning.

 

The first was this great advertising for McCafe.  It was a real eye catcher.  Is it a mug of milk??

 

The next thing of interest I saw was a Christmas Tree - first one I have seen this year!

Traffic this morning was brutal.  There are major road works around St.Stephen's Green and it caused terrible tailbacks to Donnybrook.  I had set off early because I wanted to meet my mother in Starbucks for coffee before work. 

I never made it to Starbucks though - what normally takes me a half hour to drive took me an hour and 15 mins.  I will have to drive a different way tomorrow.

New laptop

 

Ciaran got his new laptop today.  It's huge!!

 

I'm just getting used to it.  Straightaway I find it to be very fast.  Hopefully I will blog more regularly - it is way easier to blog on my tablet so already I am loving it!

Good morning!

This morning I'm having Honey Nut Cornflakes and milk from Adare Farm.

Do you need instructions how to open cardboard cereal boxes?!  

I'm currently reading Malcolm Gladwell's new book "David & Goliath: underdogs, misfits and the art of battling giants".  I really enjoyed The Tipping Point so I hope I enjoy this book as much.  Gladwell has a great way of explaining everyday occurrences and his theories have such practical uses.

Parkland

Today we went to an 11am(!) showing of the new JFK film "Parkland".  Wow what a movie! Incredibly moving.  The movie tells what happens after President John F Kennedy was shot and brought to the Parkland Hospital.  Starring Zac Ephron and Paul Giamatti along with Billy Bob Thornton, this is a must see film.

It was a good weekend to see this film as yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the death of JFK (the film was obviously timed to be released for this event).  Kennedy is an extremely popular character in Ireland.  There is a JFK museum in his family's birthplace of New Ross in Wexford.

Afterwards we watched the Ireland v. New Zealand game.  Rugby is a cruel sport.  Ireland came within a hairs breath of beating the All Blacks and denying them their perfect season.  It would have been a historical win - it has been over 100 years since Ireland has beaten the All Blacks.  Truly heartbreaking.

Kodaline

On Friday night I saw Irish band Kodaline on the Late Late Show.

Then after Bikram on Saturday morning Amy and I saw a huge crowd outside Golden Discs on Grafton Street.  We could hear singing but could not see who it was as there was so many people.  We asked a lady who it was and she said it was Kodaline.  

We squeezed in further.  The band were singing with no amplification so it was hard to hear.  Here's a few photos I took.

I guess the band were in signing copies of their new album.  Album signings used to always take place in the large HMV store across the street but it closed down awhile ago.  The old HMV shop is currently being redeveloped with a new store going in to it - a men's clothes shop, I believe.

Have you heard of Kodaline?  Maybe you will in the future if they become big stars!

First Christmas Fair

Amy and I went to a Christmas Fair of Irish Crafts yesterday. It was on in the Ranelagh Multidenominational School.

Lots of lovely things for sale including felt covered soaps by Sheena.  These soaps are covered in pure wool and as you use the soap the wool softly exfoliates the skin.  I bought a grapefruit flavour.

My bar of soap was €4 and I can't wait to use it!

The last bar of grapefruit soap I had was bought in the Wine Cottage on Eaton Street in Key West.  It was a great soap - I hope this one is just as good!

Pen Pals

Do you have a pen pal? Do you still communicate by letter?

When I was in school I had a pen pal for a few years.  Crystal, from Kentucky, and I regularly wrote letters to each other for a few years.  

I would imagine Crystal was quite disappointed when she read my letter when she got to hear of the mundanities I was getting up to in Ireland, in comparison to her own life which seemed very exciting to the 15 yr old me.

She sent me a photo of herself in one of her letters.  Posing at a party with a red party cup in hand with a crowd of boys in the background.  Tanned and relaxed looking, I was impressed by her, what I thought, was sophistication!

 I also was impressed by her disposable red cup.  Partyware in Ireland was a lot more basic and duller in comparison at that time.   Party cups came in one colour (white) and were about a third the size of a red cup!

So anyway with the advent of texting, email, Skype and what's app, etc I put the question to you do you still write letters to pen pals?