Bad weather in Ireland

The weather has been fairly bad in Ireland for the past few days - there even has been a bit of snow outside of Dublin!  Yesterday was bitterly cold and tonight we are expecting "Storm Rachel" to hit.  Gusts of 150km an hour are forecast for the night.

This morning on the way to work the road was blocked for a short while as a car was pulled out of the ditch.  It seems that the car had got stuck in the mud and couldn't reverse out.  Not good!

Birdman & Theory of Everything

Last night we went to see The Theory of Everything in the Rathmines Omniplex.  On Tuesdays, they have a €5 ticket special. I booked tickets at about 5pm for the 8.30 show.  It was just about booked out!!  We got two tickets right in the front row (we had to strain our necks back to see the screen - literally a pain!)

The Theory of Everything is excellent.  I really think that Eddie Redmayne deserves the Oscar for his portrayal of Hawking.  Ciaran disagrees and thinks it should go to Michael Keaton for Birdman.  I don't think so but I do think Birdman should get best film......we will have to wait and see!

My Shi Tzu enjoying his jellies!

Here's Bones having a little snack in this short video

Christmas Life Hack

I packed away the Christmas Tree yesterday.  It's tradition to leave it up til the 6th of Jan in Ireland but honestly if I didn't get it down on Sunday it could have been up until next weekend and that is bordering on ridiculous!!

Sadly the place where the tree was now looks all bare - it's the same every year!

So I have a life hack that I think is so useful when packing away the Christmas Stuff.

For storage convenience and ease of use next year, wrap your lights around a tube from wrapping paper.

The lights stay tangle free - you will be so happy you did this when you take them out next Christmas.

Whitefriar Place

Today we went to Pitt Bros on Georges Street.  We parked on Whitefriar place which has a few interesting old shops.

The furrier (est. 1892)  and Maison des Chapeaux (house of hats?) are now part of the hostel which takes up the whole corner of the street.  I think it is nice the way they left the shop fronts.

The Silver Swan is a hair stylist (what a naff pink colour!) but looks to be closed up now.

Art Framing and who knows what else?!!

The view from Avalon House back down the street.

And here is the large hostel Avalon House that seems to own half the buildings on the street behind it.

Flight Films

Here's what I watched on the flight home from Abu Dhabi

1.  "Tracks" - based on the true story of Robyn Davidson who walked for months through the Australian desert with 3 camels in the 1970's

2.  "If I stay" based on the book by Gayle Forman

3. "Love punch"  which was a silly slapstick comedy starring Pierce Brosnan. 

Looking on IMDB I found out that Pierce Brosnan adopted his first wife's children.  His wife was Cassandra Harris and she died of Ovarian Cancer in the 1990's.  Her daughter who was adopted by Brosnan was Charlotte and sadly she died in 2013 of the same disease that had killed her mother.  I knew Pierce Brosnan's wife had died but I missed hearing about his adopted daughter.  Very sad.

Dead Mall Dublin

My sister and I are obsessed with Dead Malls  - we particularly get a kick out of the long closed Latham Circle Mall's Facebook page.

Wikipedia says that a Dead Mall is a shopping mall with a high vacancy rate of a low consumer traffic level, or that is dated or deteriorating in some manner. 

I noticed that SWALK has closed down in the Swan Centre.  If you have a Dead Mall in your locality, make sure you continue to support it or else you may find it coming to it's end like poor Latham Circle Mall!