Movie Days!

We went to an afternoon showing of the latest Star Wars movie in Rathmines Omniplex. We really enjoyed it - I thought it was kind of retro with lots of the original character that everyone is sure to recognize.

Then this morning, Amy and I went to see "Joy" in Cineworld. We both had been looking at the trailers and thinking it looked great so we made a plan to go see it in the New Year. It's a great film and Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper have brilliant onscreen chemistry and it also has a fantastic soundtrack. Amy and I really enjoyed it but I don't know if I would say it is a must see film......but an interesting true story all the same! 

The street where I live: 1965 compared to 2016

As I mentioned yesterday, my house was used as a filming location for the movie "Young Cassidy" that was filmed in Dublin in 1965.

Here are a few pics of scenes from the film beside pics of Leeson Park Avenue currently.

The photo to the right is from a scene in the film - but I think it was filmed from about my neighbour's door canopy that you can see in the photo on the left.

2016                             1965

My front door. 
I will be changing the old hardware on the left shortly when I get a new door. The photo to the right is the door in the film - the crew put new knockers and letterbox on the door.

2016                                 1965

Here is the front door. The canopy can be seen in both the film and also it is still in situ currently.

2016                               1965

The street hasn't really changed!

2016                           1965

Here's me replicating Maggie Smith looking out the window of my bedroom.

2016                          1965     

Fun to put the photos side by side and make a comparison!

Thanks to the anonymous comment below that drew my attention to this video that shows the filming on my street ....it's worth a watch!

Making a Murderer on Netflix - Steven Avery Trial

I've just binge watched "Making a Murderer" on Netflix.  OMG! What an unreal story.

It's a story that is over 10 years in the making. It follows the trial of Steven Avery who served 18 years for a rape he did not commit. After being exonerated for this crime he was then arrested for the murder of Theresa Halbach.

I watched all 10 episodes over two days and at times I was shouting at the TV - it's that type of must watch material!!

If you have Netflix and are looking for something to watch I can't recommend this enough. Do let me know what you think if you have seen it!

This story has been ongoing for a long long time. I don't think it made the news or media here in Ireland but presumably it was big news in USA and particularly in Wisconsin where it took place. I'd be interested to hear if anyone heard about it in the media before Netflix.

TG4 on New Year's Day - Young Cassidy

My sister texted me to tell me that Young Cassidy starring Rod Taylor was on TG4 today.  I was so happy to be able to watch it.

It is filmed in Dublin and I recognized some of the filming locations (Gravediggers/Kavanaghs Pub in Glasnevin) and also of course my house!! You can read my original blog about this here.

Here are a few photos of my house in the film. In the film it was the house where Nora (played by Maggie Smith lived).

Ciaran's mother said that the film crew planted roses in the garden and put new lace curtains in the windows. I think they changed the door knocker also as we have a different one on our front door (which I think is original to the house) and they also put a different number on the front door.

We are replacing our door shortly. I may put a knocker similar to this one on the door.

This houses are to the left of my house as you enter. I must take a picture of how it looks today and put it up for comparison.

Here's Maggie Smith looking out our bedroom window.

The house attached to ours (to the left of this pic in the background) was knocked down in the nineties and rebuilt.

This is across the road to us.  It looks somewhat the same nowadays. I will again take a picture and put them up side by side in the next few days when they weather gets better.

Christmas Movie Viewing

I love to watch my favourite films over Christmas. Along with "The Holiday", I also watched "The Family Stone" which are two great feelgood films.

A new film that I watched was "St Vincent" starring Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy. I had seen the trailer in the cinema and thought it looked funny.

It certainly was funny but it was also sweet and heartwarming and sad......really sad.  It made me cry so bad because it was sad and uplifting at the same time. Such a disarming film - if you have seen it you will know the scene I am talking about.

I highly recommend it!

Christmas is over....and my tree is coming down

Here in Ireland it is tradition to leave your Christmas Tree up until January the 6th (Little Christmas or Women's Christmas/Nollaig na mBan).

However, I am back in work tomorrow for three days which brings us up to the 31st of January. I am beginning to think ahead to the New Year and make plans to clean the house etc. Therefore, I decided to start taking down the tree yesterday evening. I have all the decorations packed away and will take down the tree today and get it all in the attic. I can then clean my house from top to bottom on New Years Day and start 2016 with a spotless organised house.....that's the plan anyway!

 Here's the tree all bare and plain looking.

I got these ornament boxes for half price in Dunnes a few years ago. If I saw any for sale today I would probably buy two more.

I only had one wrapping paper tube so I twisted one set of lights on to it. I bunged another set of light in to the Roses tin - I hope they won't be too tangled when I unpack next year.

I'm not too sad to see everything being packed away.....I just hope I don't bring bad luck upon myself by taking the tree down before Little Christmas!!!

Pets on Christmas Cards!

Every year I print a Christmas Card  with my dog Bones on it. This year I created something that has a Victorian feel to it, I think.

Recently my sister has also started featuring her cat Harry on her Christmas Card. I like her 2015 card. It's modern and fun.

Next year I will try put Bones in a funnier pose with a more humorous greeting (suggestions on a postcard)!

As I mentioned, I received a Kobo eReader for Christmas. I decided to load it up with free eBooks from the library so set to work yesterday. It seemed so easy from the instructions on both the Kobo and the library page. However I ran in to problems when I was transferring the files to the Kobo. I kept on getting an error message in relation to the Digital Rights which didn't make sense to me as the DRM issues are overcome by the licencing through the library. I passed it to Ciaran and he spent a bit of time on it. We tried a few different things - we deleted software and reinstalled it. Nothing fixed it and to say we were getting frustrated was an understatement. Late last night though I had a thought. I had been using Google Chrome and I wondered was this causing the issue (why I don't know). So I switched to Internet Explorer, reinstalled Adobe Digital Editions and BINGO, it worked! 

So I now have 10 books from Overdrive on my Kobo and 3 books from OneClick Digital. I read one Overdrive Book straightaway ("The Vow" - which a film of this story with the same name starring Channing Tatum was made) and returned it to the library and borrowed another. Technology is so brilliant when it works - I love having access to my library even when it is closed!!

If you are looking to make a life changing resolution for 2016, I'd say you can't go wrong with joining your public library....let me know if you do!