What I'm doing....

I'm listening to...Jimmy Buffett
In preparation for my upcoming trip to Key West. I have it playing in my car and my twin sister was delighted to hear it when I drove her to the train station after we were in Ikea yesterday. You can see what we bought in Ikea by reading Amy's blog post.

I'm reading...."Ireland Says Yes - the inside story of how the vote for marriage equality was won".
It's an excellent read and brought me right back to last May when the marriage referendum was passed in Ireland. Tears came to my eyes as I read the chapter about #hometovote.

This is a library copy but I may buy my own copy.

I'm hanging out with....Bono!

Amy and I visited the Little Museum of Dublin today. It's a little museum on Stephen's Green and is a worthwhile place to stop off at if you are visiting Dublin.

It's very cold here in Ireland so you can see that I am bundled up with a big scarf! And now I am at home chilling and staying in warm and dry out of the wind and rain that is raging outside. Bliss!

Spiralized Vegetable: A Low Carb Alternative to Pasta

I've been seeing recipes all over the net using spiralized courgettes as a low carb alternative to spaghetti. Along with the recipes I've seen websites selling gadgets that spiralize the courgette for you. 

It all looked a bit messy to me so I was happy to see ready prepared spiraled vegetables for sale in Dunnes Stories this evening. I'm sure this makes dinner prep far easier so I might try them some day.

There was a selection of spiralized vegetables including beetroot, courgette and sweet potato.  

Have you eaten vegetables like this? How were they - does the courgette make a good substitute for noodle?

Cinema Sunday: Spotlight

After getting up late we rushed to the cinema to see Spotlight. We arrived 20 minutes after the advertised start time so knew we had missed the trailers and possibly even the start of the film. Luckily, however, the last trailer was being shown as we entered the cinema and after one ad the film began. Perfect timing!

It's an incredible film. It's not overly sentimental or mawkish and focuses on the hard work of the journalists in the "Spotlight" Team in the Boston Globe.

There were two points when I was moved to tears. The first time when Mark Ruffalo had an outburst were he spoke passionately for about a minute -the mention of the victims made me tear up. Then at the end I was brought to tears when the places where abuse were listed at the end of the movie. The first name places were all in the USA but then the listing of worldwide locations started. I saw three places in Ireland listed but there may have been more that I missed. Horrific to see it on the big screen.

This is a must see film. Do let me know if you have seen in it or whether you will go.

I also felt it was ironic that we watched this film in a packed cinema at 11.30am on a Sunday morning. Twenty years ago, the audience would probably have been in Church and not in a cinema. I think this says a lot.

Rock of Ages Stage Costume

My younger sister is a member of a musical society that is performing "Rock of Ages" in March. 

She is an amazing singer and dancer and has been cast as a waitress in the show. For her costume she is wearing denim cutoff shorts and a vest top. I offered to make her a waitress's apron and set about doing it today.

I decided to hack a cloth bag to make the apron.

I cut the straps off the bag and resewed them on to use as the belt for the apron. I also sewed up the bag in half to make a short apron.

After lunch we went to Evans Art Supply shop to get some fabric paint and stencils. I also bought some jewel sequins.

Katie is performing as a waitress who works in the "Bourbon Room" so I stenciled the name of the bar on to the apron.

Finally I added the sequins. Large ones along the trim to look like metal studs. I then drew a bolt of lightning on the apron and filled it with tiny sequins and then outlined it in black fabric paint.

Here's the finished product (you can see my trusty glue gun in the bottom of the picture). Next time I post a pic of the apron will be when Katie is in full costume and ready to rock!!!

Wonderful Wednesday

I had a day off work yesterday which was wonderful. I went in to the city and sauntered around. I then decided to give blood after seeing my sister's blog. When I arrived at the Blood Donor Clinic was a lot of people waiting to donate as there had been a call out for blood donations due to a shortage after Christmas. I had to interview with the nurse as it had been over two years since my last donation (due to my iron being low). After the interview my iron level was tested to see if it was high enough for donation. Unfortunately, my iron level was again too low so not only I was unable to donate yesterday but my next donation was deferred for 6 months time. What a disappointment. 

After leaving the blood clinic I walked home and then went to the cinema to watch Creed. It was a good film but I wouldn't say it was a great film. Perfectly watchable and in fairness to Sylvester Stallone I thought he put in a good performance.

It was a lovely treat to have a day off midweek - I must do it again sometime!

What I've been reading and watching

Currently I'm in the middle of "Bittersweet" by Colleen McCullough (author of The Thorn Birds). I'm really enjoying it! Set in Australia in the 1920's it tells the story of 4 sisters (two sets of twins) who set off to train as nurses at age 19 and 20. It's very engaging and I'm really hooked to see how the story goes.

On Friday, I had planned to go see two movies in the cinema. However, I ended up meeting Amy for lunch so only got to see one film. The film I chose was "The Big Short". Billed as a comedy I didn't find it funny. It was way to serious a subject to laugh at (the subject being the 2007 subprime mortgage fiasco and the economy collapse in the USA).

I was glad I got to see Room this evening. It was quite incredible. I was nearly in tears at different points in the film (the cinema was packed full which probably stopped me from crying. Do go see it, it's unlike any film I've every seen before. The script is sensational and the directing is even better. I do hope it does well at the Oscars!

"Road House" with Patrick Swayzee

I remember trailers for "Road House" back in the late 1980's (it was after Swayze's success in Dirty Dancing) and always thought I would like to watch it. As far as I recall, it was an 18's certificate when it was in the cinema and also when it made it to video (I seem to remember it in the section of the video shop that we never borrowed from!)

You may not know this about me but I was brought up in a home without a TV as my parents didn't agree with them. In order to see popular programmes of the time such as "Blossom" my twin sister and I would always call to our best friends house after school on a Friday to catch it at 6pm.  

On Saturday nights, we had a regular babysitting job minding our young cousins. We were paid a nominal amount plus a video of our choice paid for by our aunt. We would walk to our aunt's house which was about 20 minutes away and on the way would stop off at the video shop which was in the local newsagent.....no fancy Extravision for us!  Good times!!

But anyway back to Road House. It was on MGM tonight and there wasn't anything else on so I decided to watch it. What a film! Absolutely terrible.......but very watchable.  Not only does it star one of my favourite actors Patrick Swayze but also Sam Elliot - minus the moustache unfortunately but still very hot!....the lack of moustache is made up for by the length of his hair.

It's very of its time - particularly when you see Swayze smoking for what seems like real in many of the scenes. The clothes are what seems to have dated the most while on the other hand the music hasn't really and is generally fairly good. Some of the special effects are pretty fake looking too (if you've seen the film you probably know what scene I'm talking about). But overall it's not a bad film if you are in the mood for this type of thing.

If you've watched this movie, do let me know!