A great Saturday night in Dublin

Our best friend Alice arranged a super night out in this weekend. She had organised tickets for Bjorn Again who were playing in the Bord Gais Theatre and also booked a pre-theatre meal in "HQ".

Going to Bjorn Again brought back memories. The first concert we went to was Bjorn Again when we were about 14 years old with a chaperone who happened to be Alice's older sister.  Good times!

Dinner in HQ was fantastic. Here's a few pics.   I had Tuna Tartare to start and Featherblade beef for my main. Accompanied by a glass of Malbec it was a lovely start to the evening.

I do love the Bord Gais Theatre - I don't think there is a bad seat in the house.

By the way can you see who came straight from work and is in their librarian cardigan??!!!

The performance was #Abbatastic and we danced and sang our little hearts out.

And at the end of the night I hopped on my bike which I had left locked outside the restaurant and cycled the short ride home along the canal. It was a lovely mild Summer night and was still quite bright at 10.30pm. 
A brilliant night in Dublin with the best of friends!

My new Dutch Bike!

I picked up my new bike today!!

I'm in love with it!

It's a Dutch Heavy Duty Gazelle Bike with a carrier on the back and front of the bike.  On the front is a crate to cart around my dog or to carry shopping etc. 

You may also note that there are 3 locks on my bike - I don't think this is overkill - I'd hate for it to get stolen.  One of the locks comes fitted on the bike (the Dutch style back wheel clamp) and I spent a good percentage of the bike cost on the other two locks.

I decided to go for a black bike as I think it suits Dublin best. As you saw from the bike I had in Key West for my holiday I do like brightly coloured beautiful bikes but somehow I think they wouldn't look as nice if they were being ridden in dull Dublin.

My bike was fairly expensive (but is excellent quality so should last for years) but actually won't cost me the full price because I bought it under the Government "Bike to Work Scheme" where you are given tax relief on the cost of the bike.  It's a great scheme - you can read more about it here.

Tomorrow I will be cycling to the train station, getting on the train with the bike (allowable outside of peak hours), getting off and then cycling the rest of the short way to work. Hopefully it won't be raining as I haven't bought rain gear yet!!!

I purchased my bike in the Dutch Bike Shop and I highly recommend them.  They really know their stuff and have a fantastic selection of bikes.  Their after sales service is also very impressive - my bike is to go back to them for a tune up in 5 weeks and they then give a full guarantee for a year and I was advised that I should bring back the bike if there are any issues though they anticipate there will be none. These Dutch Bikes are seriously good quality.

Watch this space to see how I get on with my biking adventures!

Dublin Pride

A few years ago my twin sister and I cycled with a Dublin Cycling Group in Pride Parade and enjoyed it immensely. So I jumped at the opportunity to take part in it again this year with the Boomtown Roller Derby Team.

Here we all are at the end of the parade - thankfully no cuts, bruises or broken bones!!

Cousin Kasey came in to watch the parade -my sister took  this picture and said I looked like some kind of police officer on skates!

My skates are like a pair of runners with wheels attached - I bought them just before the parade on Done Deal for the bargain price of €30. 

Amy wears a One Human Family sticker from Key West on her helmet which looks great!

Do our smiles hide our petrification?! Skating in the parade was a lot of fun but I can't deny that I felt real fear as we free wheeled down from Parnell Square to O'Connell Street. Let's just say I'm not the best at stopping sharp so I "took a knee" - which is an actual way of coming to a stop but may or may not have looked like I was falling to the audience watching!

It was a great day, the rain held off and after the parade the three of us went in to Pride Village and chilled out and then went for wine and Mexican food in Xico's on Baggot Street.
What fun!

You can read Amy's account of the day here.

Guilty pleasure -The OC

I love watching box sets with one of my favourites being Entourage.

We were thinking the other day of what box set we should watch next and got thinking of The OC.

We watched The OC years ago and it was always a bit of an in joke between the pair of us as it was obviously not really aimed at our demographic. For fun we used to pronounce it The Ock!

We decided that we watch it again from beginning so I put it hold in the library and received a few days later.

I didn't expect it to live up to way we remembered it but honestly it surpasses it. It's incredible. The story is amazing. It's sad in parts, uplifting in others.  And the scenery is fantastic.  While not quite what I would call a "must see" it is certainly keeping us entertained!

Elin Hilderbrand - my new favourite author!

I discovered a new author and I am hooked.

When browsing the library in the house we were staying, in on my recent Key West holiday, I saw "The Castaways" by Elin Hilderbrand. I was aware of this author but had never read any of her books before. When I read the back of the book I saw it was set on the island of Nantucket. I thought it was apt to read a book by an American author while I was visiting the USA and staying on an island too!!

I had been reading a book by Maeve Binchy which I thought was atrocious (what a pity as I loved all her older stuff that I read years ago) and had stopped half way to then start "The Castaways".  To say I was pleasantly surprised was an understatement!! It was unputdownable (is that a word?!). A really nice story and so well written.....an absolute pleasure to read while on vacation.

When I got to Ireland I put a hold on every Elin Hilderbrand novel the library had and I am making my way through her whole catalogue. What bliss!!

I also recommended "The Castaways" to my twin sister Amy when she arrived in Key West and she really enjoyed it too. She is currently reading another of Ms. Hilderbrand's books and is loving that one too!

How great is it when you happen upon a great author and you can dive in and discover their back catalogue?!

June Bank Holiday in Dublin

Before calling to my parent's house for dinner on Sunday, we called in to Ciaran's parents. We hadn't seen them since before we had been in Key West and we had some small gifts to give them.

Bones ran straight out in to their back garden so I followed to see what he was up to.  When I got out I saw the prettiest scene.....

Look at all the planting that Ciaran's dad has done. They looked so beautiful in the sun!

 

Then it was on to my parent's house. I had made an Irish version of American Coconut Cake which I just loved in Key West.  It was quite the tower of cake!

Transporting the cake from my house was not fun I can tell you.  I froze it before we set off but being such a hot day it started to soften straight away. I held it on my lap but the dog hopped from the back to the front of that car at one point and I nearly dropped the cake!!!  That wouldn't have been good.....

The weather has been spectacular for the past week....but seems like normal weather is returning now :-( 

Look how pretty my mother laid the table! 

It was a lovely afternoon out and when we got home we watched a movie - a really nice ending to a great Sunday in Dublin.

Trivia Nights in Key West

In the last few years on our trips to Key West, we have started going to "Trivia Nights".  Trivia nights are somewhat similar to the table quiz concept here in Ireland. There are a few differences to the table quiz which I think are definite improvements. In Ireland, a team is made up of maximum 4 people while in USA the team can have any number of people on it. There are pros and cons to this. The larger number on the team gives added brain power but the downside is there is lots of input and discussion and sometimes the correct answer can get lost in all of the talk and the wrong answer is marked down after much debate. The other difference is that prizes are given for the top score in each round.  I like this element as even if you are doing badly overall you can still maybe win a round, if for example, the music round if you have a lot of music buffs on your team!

A few years ago we did the Trivia Night in McConnells Irish Pub on Duval Street. The trivia quiz was organised well with the questions on a screen but really the pub is quite dark and dingy (typically Irish) and not really a pleasant environment to be in. 

Now the Trivia Night event seems to have moved across the road to the Viva Saloon and is on Thursday rather than Wednesday. This is a big improvement - the event is held outside in their lovely garden area. The screen that the questions are projected on to is massive and there is plenty of space for lots of competitors. It's fantastic.

Our team generally consisted of my family (depending on who was in Key West at the time - my husband was there for the first two weeks, my twin sister was there for the second two weeks along with my mother and father and I) and some Key West locals who are friends of ours (I won't name names as they may not want to be mentioned on my blog). It's a varied bunch and there are definite areas of expertise within the group - as one of the team said in reference to my mother "If she says the answer is Eisenhower, write it down"!!!

We had a lot of fun at these nights with good company and relaxed drinks in a nice setting. We never won overall (think we came 3rd on our second week) but we won a few round prizes every now and again. It's the participating that is the most important thing....but winning would have been nice ;-)