Road Trip!

On Saturday we set off with the dog in tow to Galway to attend the 30th Annual Film Festival to see Mike Andrew's short film "Pigsy".

We were booked in to the Ardilaun Hotel and to say it is dog friendly is an understatement. They were so welcoming to Bones - and he even made friends in the lobby with a handsome pair of Old English Sheepdogs.

Bones was in his element hanging out with his while we had a drink. It is so great to be able to take him away with us.

We got to see 2 films in the Film Fleadh - the excellent "Katie", a biography about boxer Katie Taylor, which was to go on to win the best documentary award. Well done to director Ross Whitaker.

 However, for us the special event was the screening of "Pigsy" as part of the Irish Shorts on Sunday afternoon. It was very exciting to see Ciaran on the big screen and the cinematography and direction was stunning. I was happy that my twin sister and younger sister came to see the film along with a good friend of ours who drove down from Dublin on the morning of the film. 

For further reading on our visit to the Film Fleadh, you can head over to my twin sister's blog.

In to the West!

The Galway Film Fleadh is on this week and we will be making the trip to the West to see Mike Andrew's film "Pigsy" which features my husband, Ciaran, aka Pigsy.

We have booked a Pet Friendly hotel (the 4 star Ardilaun) and will bring our dog with us to enjoy a little bit of time away before we attend the screening of the film. Bones is well used to hotel stays having visited the Hilton in Belfast and The Twelve in Bearna on past holidays - in my next life, I want to come back as a dog!

The screening is on at midday in the Town Hall Theatre and will be shown as part of 8 Irish shorts.

You can see the trailer below and check out the full programme here.

Weekend Wrap up!

To say the weekend was busy is an understatement!

Friday after finishing work I headed in to town to meet my sister and a friend in O'Donoghue's. A few drinks later I was back on the bike to meet Ciaran for dinner in Dillingers.

Then it was an early start on Saturday morning to start a beginners sailing course in Dun Laoghaire Harbour with the Irish National Sailing & Powerboat School.

After a great day sailing on a 1720 keel boat it was off to the afters of a wedding which very aptly was on a boat!

It was lovely having a drink at the wedding looking out on to the river Liffey.

And Sunday it was another day on the water and we got to sail out to Dalkey.

Next weekend I do it all over again - I've signed up for Level2 sailing!

The Magic Pill Trailer Official Trailer - Healthy Eating Documentary 2017

After watching The Magic Pill (available on Netflix) I am back on Keto.

I even made my own homemade mayonnaise!!!

Oh such a perfect day!

Last weekend (well actually for the whole week) the weather has been A-Mazing here in Ireland.

On Sunday, Amy, Alice and I made plans for a picnic in one of the Dublin City Centre Parks.

Merrion Square Park was the chosen spot and boy was it a good one.

We set up our picnic at about 11.30am and after eating, drinking and chatting it was suddenly 4.30pm!!

One can only describe it as a perfect day with the best of friends.

Home to Vote in the 8th amendment referendum!

As I mentioned I took a recent trip to Key West at very short notice. I planned to go for  8 or 9 days but given that the most important (in my lifetime) referendum was taking place on 25th of May, I cut my holiday short and left on Thursday 24th and flew home through the night to land in Dublin at 7am on the day of the vote.

There were two reasons I wanted to come home to vote.
1. I was nervous about the result. If the No side won, I wanted to know that I had done everything in my power to ensure Yes won. I had canvassed for weeks and the final step was to walk in to the polling booth and mark x in the Yes box.
2. If the Yes won, I wanted to celebrate knowing that I was on the right side of history and by god I wanted the memory of casting my Yes vote.

Here I am setting off from Key West. Yes, I wore flip flops and denim cut offs on the plane to Charlotte - along with my repeal jumper of course!

 

When I landed in Dublin I went to sleep for a few hours (even though I had slept over 6 hours on the plane) and then got up to go vote. It was a lovely sunny day and I put on a skirt, top and sandals to go vote. It was an outfit I wouldn't regularly wear but I felt like dressing like a woman as I voted for women's health rights.
After I voted I pinned my Yes buttons on and we went to Smyth's beer garden for a cold drink. I gave one of my Yes buttons to a friendly lady sitting beside us who admired them when we came in.

At 5pm, my twin sister left work and stopped off at one of the main train stations to make a final push at convincing people to get down to their polling place and vote Yes! As she distributed leaflets she began to get the feeling we were going to win. She got lots of thumbs up or people saying that they had voted yes already.

And then just after 10pm when the polls closed, the results of the exit poll came through. It was a landslide Yes!

What a relief.

Once the 8th is removed from the constitution (which should happen in the Autumn) legislation will be enacted that will allow women to gain bodily autonomy and when they visit their doctor they will close the door and make medical decisions for themselves without outside involvement.

My Yes vote was for Miss P and her family. On a canvas in Dublin City, I stood on a doorstep and told a lady about this case, and as I explained how it was the 8th amendment that meant this lady was treated in this way, I began to see a change in her stance.  It was cases like these that Irish people couldn't stand by and do nothing about, they no longer wanted to see things like this happen. From 2018 the Irish people have compassionately voted that this will never happen again.

The next day Amy, Cousin Kasey and I all watched the count. With lots of Dublin constituencies voting over 70% and the final result coming out with a 64% Yes it was exciting to watch but in someways anticlimactic after all it was just the right way to vote.

Baked Key Lime Pie

Last time I made Key Lime Pie I made the no bake variety. It was deliciously creamy but I think I rather a more set pie.

This time I made Key Lime Pie I went with a bake recipe where the yellow of 5 eggs are added to the mix and it gets cooked for 20 mins. 

It is super easy to make but I think I went overboard with the lime. I added more lime juice than the recipe called for. Next time I'll stick with what it says it in the recipe.

The other thing I will do when I am next in Key West is buy a large bottle of Key Lime juice!!

So after eating two big slices, I put the rest in the freezer. Amy, Alice and I are having a Key West reunion and I will bring a slice for Alice and I. We love Key Lime Pie, Amy not so much.